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Provence is a destination that has captivated travelers even before Peter Mayle's 1989 best seller "A Year in Provence" immortalized its charms. Now, the new book "Markets of Provence," by the travel writer Marjorie R. Williams, 57, along with Dixon Long (her co author on "Markets of Paris"), explores an often overlooked reason to visit: the abundance of markets. Although the region has close to 500 markets with vendors selling food, antiques and crafts, Ms. Williams's book is a guide to the 30 she found most appealing during the several months she spent in the area for her research. Below are edited excerpts from a conversation with her. Q. How do you think Provence's markets give an insight into Provencal culture? A. These markets are untouched by time. They're in the same location and serving the same purpose as they've been doing since the Middle Ages. And they're gathering spots for villagers who come not only to shop but also to see friends. And so, travelers who structure their itinerary around market days will see the towns spring to life, and by going, they are participating in an authentic tradition, enjoy beautiful scenery and get a sense of the local community.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
WHO GETS IN AND WHY A Year Inside College Admissions By Jeffrey Selingo UNACCEPTABLE Privilege, Deceit the Making of the College Admissions Scandal By Melissa Korn and Jennifer Levitz Money talks and privilege walks. In the case of college admissions, it saunters through wrought iron gates, past signs emblazoned with "Welcome Class of" and into seats at convocation. Timely and engaging, "Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions," by Jeffrey Selingo, and "Unacceptable: Privilege, Deceit the Making of the College Admissions Scandal," by Melissa Korn and Jennifer Levitz, detail how college admissions is rigged in favor of the privileged and how it came to be gamed even further. Announcing charges against celebrities and corporate executives, as part of the cheating investigation known as Operation Varsity Blues, the U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts said, "There can be no separate college admissions system for the wealthy." I laughed, mirthlessly, almost missing his equally dubious claim that "there will not be a separate criminal justice system either." His words jolted me back to when privileged classmates informed me that I was admitted to Amherst College because I was Black or poor; they couldn't decide which. They saw my biography as my hook. Yet they refused to see their pedigree as theirs. Instead, my peers offered evidence of hard work, their words buoyed by blind faith in meritocracy. In "Who Gets In and Why," Selingo challenges the facade of that meritocracy. Through revealing interviews with industry leaders and observations of admissions committee deliberations at three schools, Selingo unpacks the myriad ways that colleges' desperate attempts to climb up in the rankings further open doors to students from more affluent families. Universities want to raise their profile, knowing that selectivity is a key measure in rankings. They also want to lock in their full payers early, a desire that may only grow stronger as colleges grapple with budget deficits brought upon by Covid 19. They accomplish both objectives through early decision, the process where students apply to one college and commit to enroll if accepted. Many of the nation's top ranked colleges admit a third to half of their incoming classes that way. Selingo, a journalist and former editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education, witnessed how early decision applicants receive more attention and are admitted at two or three times the rate of their peers. Only 5 percent of applicants apply through the early admissions route. Everyone else vies for the remaining spots. This two round system drives the overall admit rate lower, overstating exclusivity. Why don't more students apply via early decision? The answer is mostly arithmetic: If you are like the majority of families who need to compare financial aid packages, you simply can't. There has always been a separate and unequal system of college admissions. Through "Unacceptable," Korn and Levitz grant us access to its seedy underbelly. From the social climbing antics of Rick Singer, the mastermind behind the cheating scheme, to the velvet gloved F.B.I. raids of celebrities' homes, they take us along the roller coaster ride of Operation Varsity Blues. Piercing the veneer of perfection worn by Hollywood A listers and corporate elites, Korn and Levitz show how wealthy families bribed their way into colleges like Stanford and the University of Southern California rather than bet on their children's potential. "Some people go through the back door," Singer told parents. "I go through the side door." Rich parents already know the back door: donations that prime colleges to say yes come admissions time. New names on benches and buildings on campus often have curious perhaps convenient timing. But philanthropic giving is not a sure thing. These parents sought guarantees. Korn and Levitz, both reporters for The Wall Street Journal, document how Singer carried out his plans and how parents were in on the fraud, even writing off 400,000 bribes as charitable donations. Wealthy families often hire expensive SAT tutors and college consultants to shepherd them through applications. In ways that dominated headlines for much of last year, Singer took the job many steps further. He instructed clients to sit for the SAT at specific locations even if it meant traveling from California to Texas so that an inside man could take the test for them. Parents pressed doctors for A.D.H.D. diagnoses to secure additional time on standardized tests. To seal the deal, Singer and parents doctored photos and fabricated dossiers that called clients nothing short of future all Americans. "Who Gets In and Why" and "Unacceptable" outline the role that legacy and athletic preferences play in admissions, and force us to grapple with whether their dominance is truly fair. Drawing on sociological research, Selingo notes how the former is a holdover from when elite colleges discriminated against Jews. Today, legacy admissions is a powerful fund raising strategy; part carrot, part stick, it is a key way that schools keep alumni involved. Children of alumni have a 25 percent higher chance of getting admitted than nonlegacy applicants with the same SAT scores.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Books
And from the moment he became president, Donald J. Trump has unleashed so many of consequence that the public has barely had time to parse their full implication. Words about the dishonest media, the end of Obamacare, the construction of that border wall with Mexico this is an abbreviated list, and he hasn't even completed his first week in office. Amid the verbal deluge, President Trump this week repeated an assertion he made shortly after his election: that millions of ballots cast illegally by undocumented immigrants cost him the popular vote. If true, this would suggest the wholesale corruption of American democracy. Not to worry: As far as anyone knows, the president's assertion is akin to saying that millions of unicorns also voted illegally. But such a baseless statement by a president challenged the news media to find the precise words to describe it. This will be a recurring challenge, given President Trump's habit of speaking in sales pitch hyperbole and his tendency to deride any less than flattering report as "fake news." The words needed to be exactly right. "And the language has a rich vocabulary for describing statements that fall short of the truth," said Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Information. "They're 'baseless,' they're 'bogus,' they're 'lies,' they're 'untruths.'" Rarely are these words, each with its own nuance, applied directly to something said by a president, though others have also dissembled (like Bill Clinton on whether he had sex with an intern). "This is the very unique situation that we find ourselves in as journalists and as a country," said Joshua Benton, the director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. "We have an administration that seems to be asserting a right to its own facts and doesn't seem to be able to produce evidence to back those claims." Still, carefully chosen words can capture that. "A whole vocabulary has come bubbling up that would not have been used five years ago," Mr. Nunberg said in an interview. "People are going to have to sit down and decide: Are we going to want to go over the moral consequences of telling an untruth? The mere fact of it being untrue? Or the fact that it's bogus, baseless or groundless?" Some news organizations used words like "falsely" or "wrongly" adverbs that tend to weaken the impact in framing what the president said. Some used "with no evidence," or "won't provide any proof," or "unverified claims," or "repeats debunked claim." The New York Times, though, ultimately chose more muscular terminology, opting to use the word "lie" in the headline. After initially using the word "falsely," it switched to "lie" online and then settled on "Meeting With Top Lawmakers, Trump Repeats an Election Lie" for Tuesday's print edition. People noticed, and debated its use. That is because, from the childhood schoolyard to the grave, this is a word neither used nor taken lightly. It stands apart from most other terms in the linguistic ballpark of untruths, including "falsehood," which Chuck Todd, the host of "Meet the Press," recently used to counter the Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway's Orwellian phrase, "alternative facts." To say that someone has "lied," an active verb, or has told a "lie," a more passive, distancing noun, is to say that the person intended to deceive. In addition, Mr. Nunberg said, "a certain moral opprobrium attaches to it, a reprehensibility of motive." Retail earnings and Black Friday: the week in business. Elizabeth Holmes will resume her testimony in her fraud trial. The question of intent has informed National Public Radio's approach to covering Mr. Trump's many disputable claims: that he saw thousands of people in Jersey City cheering as the World Trade Center collapsed on Sept. 11, for example, or that the news media had made up a feud between him and the country's intelligence agencies, despite his own tweets likening those agencies to Nazi Germany. On NPR's "Morning Edition" on Wednesday, Mary Louise Kelly explained that she had looked up the definition of "lie" in the Oxford English Dictionary. "A false statement made with intent to deceive," Ms. Kelly said. "Intent being the key word there. Without the ability to peer into Donald Trump's head, I can't tell you what his intent was. I can tell you what he said and how that squares, or doesn't, with facts." Michael Oreskes, NPR's senior president for news, supported the decision. In an article on the NPR website, Mr. Oreskes said that "the minute you start branding things with a word like 'lie,' you push people away from you." The inherent risk, he suggested, was that news organizations would be seen as taking sides. Editors at The Times also consulted dictionaries. And they had some prior experience with the matter, having approved the use of the L word once before in reference to Mr. Trump. In September, when he grandly announced the findings of a yearslong so called investigation into what nearly everyone else never doubted "President Obama was born in the United States, period" The Times published a Page 1 article with the headline "Trump Gives Up a Lie but Refuses to Repent." Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The Times, said that he learned of Mr. Trump's latest comments in a text message from an editor on Monday night. After consulting with other top editors, he decided that the use of "lie" was warranted. For Mr. Baquet, the question of intent was resolved, given that Mr. Trump had made the same assertion two months earlier through his preferred mode of communication, the tweet: "In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally." Mr. Baquet said he fully understood the gravity of using the word "lie," whether in reference to an average citizen or to the president of the United States. He emphasized that it should be used sparingly, partly because the term carries such negative connotations, and partly so that it does not lose potency. "On the other hand, we should be letting people know in no uncertain terms that it's untrue," Mr. Baquet said, referring to the president's assertion of a voter fraud epidemic. "He repeated it without a single grain of evidence, and it's a very powerful statement about the electoral system." Mr. Baquet said that emails from readers seemed split on the appropriateness of the word's use. Meanwhile, Mr. Benton, of the Nieman Journalism Lab, applauded its use as a noun in the Times headline ("Trump Repeats an Election Lie"); in this construction, he said, "the lie can exist as a reality distinct from the speaker's intention." Over all, the tension between the Trump administration and much of the mainstream media is what's the word?	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
KUANTAN, Malaysia The world's largest refinery for rare earth metals has risen out of the red mud of a coastal swamp here and could soon obtain permission to operate a step that would help break China's near monopoly on rare earths but also worsen an emerging glut of some of these strategic minerals. China's suspension of exports of rare earths to Japan during a territorial dispute in 2010 fed a bubble in the market that drove prices up 30 fold by last summer. But prices have slumped by up to three fifths since then for some of the 17 rare earth elements, which are vital to smartphones, wind turbines and other components of the modern economy. The approaching completion of the Malaysian refinery, with the capacity to meet a fifth of the world's demand, has contributed to the plunge. The progress toward opening the plant has occurred despite street demonstrations here over radiation worries, regulatory challenges and the withdrawal of a major equipment supplier worried about the safety of the refinery, which is being built by Lynas, an Australian company. Raja Dato Abdul Aziz bin Raja Adnan, the director general of the Malaysian Atomic Energy Licensing Board, said by telephone Monday evening that the board had discussed at a closed door meeting earlier in the day whether to grant an initial operating license of up to two years for the refinery, which is a series of more than a dozen sprawling buildings connected by a labyrinth of pipes. He declined to say what the board had decided, but added that an announcement would be made "sooner rather than later." Raja Adnan had said in a phone interview last week that his personal view was that it would be useful to issue the license and then carefully monitor radiation levels at the refinery and in its waste, because he did not trust pilot scale models designed to predict how the refinery would operate. "We still have the right to stop them and suspend and terminate" if the refinery is not running safely, he said. The board also has no obligation to notify the public of its decision, and may not even notify Lynas immediately either, he said. A delay before announcing the board's decision gives the country's political leaders time to consider whether to postpone or overrule the issuance of a license. But there has been little sign they will do so, as the project is a cornerstone of Malaysia's economic development plan. Fuziah Salleh, an opposition party lawmaker from Kuantan who has fought the refinery here, said that opponents of the project planned to file a lawsuit in the coming weeks in a last bid to stop it. Critics filed more than 1,000 objections to the project on Thursday, the last day for public comments, partly in the hope that the board would delay action to read them. Despite the drop in prices for rare earths in the second half of last year, they remain several times higher than the long term levels that prevailed until China began severely constricting exports in 2009. With China sharply reducing exports again last year as it closed refineries permanently or began refitting them with better environmental equipment, the underlying economics for the Malaysian refinery remain strong. Lynas has been trying for several years to find a site for the permanent disposal of the roughly 20,000 tons a year of low level radioactive waste that will be produced, and is still struggling to do so. The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna recommended last June that a long term disposal plan be approved by regulators before the refinery starts operations. Lynas now says that it has met this goal with a plan that calls for storing up to 20 years of the refinery's production waste in pits lined with plastic and clay at the refinery, plus a commitment to find a site for a permanent repository and build it. Raja Adnan said that the Malaysian board would require that Lynas meet all of the energy agency's recommendations, but he declined to say whether the company's waste disposal plan complied. After sending a team here last spring at the request of the Malaysian government, the agency also recommended that the project include greater public disclosure and communication. Malaysian regulators and Lynas put three printed copies of the revised project plan on public view for two weeks this month at four locations in Malaysia, where they could be viewed on request for only one hour at a time. Volunteers ended up taking turns over 56 hours to copy the entire document by hand, then retyped the information at home to recreate the full document, Mrs. Salleh said. Nicholas Curtis, the chairman of Lynas, said that the company was using proved Chinese technology, but had paid special attention to improving its safety and environmental performance. "We simply took Chinese processes, scaled them up and cleaned them up," Mr. Curtis said in a speech in Hong Kong in November. The authorities in China have also cracked down on the industry in recent months after numerous toxic leaks and some radioactive leaks contaminated thousands of acres over the last two decades. Lynas announced last Tuesday that a heavy monsoon and some engineering work had delayed completion of the refinery again, and that it would be ready in the second quarter of this year. It was originally scheduled to begin production last September. Lynas plans to mine ore from the Australian desert and concentrate it there, removing dirt but leaving the radioactive contaminants still chemically bound to the rare earth metals. The concentrated ore will then be shipped here, and the rare earth metals will be separated from the radioactive material by using powerful acids at high temperatures. One setback for the Lynas project is that a crucial contractor, AkzoNobel, pulled out this autumn, according to engineers here and internal company e mails. The Dutch chemicals multinational had a contract to supply important resins. The resins are supposed to glue together dozens of fiberglass liners for concrete walled tanks up to the size of double decker buses. Hundreds of tons of rare earths with low levels of radioactive contamination will be mixed in the lined tanks with extremely corrosive acids at more than 200 degrees Fahrenheit. The corrosiveness of acids increases steeply at high temperatures, which makes acids ideal for dissolving ore but difficult to handle. AkzoNobel has long specialized in making some of the most esoteric resins for the mining industry. It uses a secret chemical formula to help the resins hold together fiberglass even under challenging combinations of heat and corrosiveness. The company said last spring that it would supply chemicals for the Lynas project only if it were certain that it would be safe. Engineers involved in the project said, and internal e mails showed, that AkzoNobel withdrew from supplying the chemicals after it was told that the fiberglass liners would be installed in concrete walled tanks that have a problem with rising dampness in the floors and cracks in the walls. AkzoNobel had been in discussions about the problem of rising dampness, but only became aware of the cracks this autumn, according to the engineers and the memos. The engineers said they felt a professional duty to voice their safety concerns, but insisted on anonymity to avoid the risk of becoming industry outcasts. In an e mail, AkzoNobel said that it was no longer supplying the project, but gave only a brief explanation. "Due to changes in the project specification, AkzoNobel would only recommend the use of its linings on the project subject to the successful results of longer term testing," the company said. "That testing cannot be completed within the current project time scale." Mr. Curtis, the chairman of Lynas, confirmed that AkzoNobel had pulled out of the project but he insisted that it was not for safety reasons. He declined to elaborate but said that Lynas had found a new supplier for the resins, which he declined to identify. Engineers involved in the project said that Lynas was building costlier steel walled tanks for a second phase of the factory, which would avoid the need for concrete walled tanks with fiberglass liners. Mr. Curtis denied this, and said that all of the separation tanks and piping at the factory are safe and meet international and Malaysian standards. "They are appropriately engineered," he said in an interview.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Global Business
SAN FRANCISCO Yahoo said on Monday that it now expected the sale of its core businesses to Verizon Communications to close no sooner than April, a delay from its earlier intention to conclude the deal in the first quarter. The delay drags out what has been a long goodbye for Yahoo's chief executive, Marissa Mayer, who was appointed nearly five years ago and failed to turn around the company, a long fading web pioneer. Yahoo's business improved slightly in the fourth quarter despite the distractions of its pending sale to Verizon and a drumbeat of disclosures about two thefts of sensitive account data belonging to hundreds of millions of users. Yahoo said that it saw no drop in usage after disclosures about the hacking, offering a counternarrative to Verizon's public suggestions that the data breaches had materially reduced the value of Yahoo's internet businesses. Verizon had agreed in July to buy those businesses for 4.8 billion, before Yahoo disclosed the hacks, which occurred in 2013 and 2014.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
If you come across an old elk in southwestern Canada, chances are it is female. Though male elk, or bulls, rarely make it past 5 years old because they are targeted by hunters, female elk, or cows, can live as long as 20 years. Remarkably, cows over age 10 seem nearly invulnerable to hunters. A team of scientists wanted to know: What makes senior cows so survival savvy? Is it because these elk are more cautious by nature, which made them better at evading hunters all along? Or is it nurture, and cows can learn to dodge hunters over their lifetime, even if they start out more daring? It seems both factors are at play, the researchers at the University of Alberta reported in PLOS One on Wednesday. Tracking dozens of female elk over several years, the authors found that, over all, careful cows were better at surviving. But they also found that individual cows were able to adjust their behavior and adopt more stealth strategies as they aged. In particular, as females got older, they moved shorter distances and sought safer ground if they faced a higher risk of encountering hunters. During a postdoctoral stint in Alberta, Henrik Thurfjell, now a research specialist at the Swedish Species Information Center, led an effort to track 49 cows, monitoring each for two to five years with GPS collars that logged the animals' locations every two hours.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
ControlTek, which makes circuit boards in Vancouver, Wash., has begun shifting supply chains out of China and designing products that don't require Chinese parts. PORTLAND, Ore. When the Trump administration first imposed tariffs on 34 billion in Chinese imports in July, Andy LaFrazia figured it was just another curveball for his company. "Everyone was saying: 'Oh, it's a negotiating tactic. It won't last long,'" Mr. LaFrazia recalled. But nearly a year later, the trade war shows no sign of cooling off. So ControlTek, the electronics manufacturer that Mr. LaFrazia runs near Portland, is taking steps to protect itself, a strategic shift that has been repeated in boardrooms and executive suites around the world in recent weeks. ControlTek is rewriting contract language to make it easier to pass the cost of tariffs on to its customers. It is shifting supply chains out of China where possible, and redesigning products to avoid Chinese components where it isn't. And as a tiny player in an enormous global industry, it is discovering that there is only so much it can do. "We're very much at the end of the whip getting thrown around," Mr. LaFrazia said. Despite dire warnings from economists, President Trump's trade war has so far done little to derail the decade long recovery from the Great Recession. Economic growth has remained strong, and the unemployment rate last month hit a 50 year low. But evidence is mounting that the conflict has taken an economic toll. The Commerce Department said Thursday that trade both imports and exports slumped in April, and data released earlier this week showed a sharp slowdown in manufacturing, amplifying a recent trend. The bond market in recent days has been sending signals that the trade war could be a threat to growth in the United States and globally. The impact could deepen if Mr. Trump follows through on his promise, made Thursday, to impose new tariffs on imports from Mexico. And as the conflict drags on, there are signs it is beginning to reshape the global economy in more fundamental ways. "There's definitely lasting damage that has been done," said Mary Lovely, a Syracuse University economist and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. "It's not going to mean the end of the world tomorrow, but it's death by a thousand cuts. How competitive is America going to be in 10 or 15 years?" Tariffs have not yet compelled businesses to return large scale production to the United States, where labor and other costs tend to be much higher than in China and other overseas manufacturing hubs. But trade tensions are accelerating a corporate trend of shifting supply chains away from China. In a recent survey of more than 200 corporate executives by the consulting firm Bain, 42 percent said they expected to get materials from a different region in the next year, and 25 percent said they were redirecting investments out of China. More companies are likely to follow suit in coming weeks after the Trump administration moved to limit business with Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, which the White House sees as a security threat. Many companies were initially reluctant to abandon longstanding supplier relationships over a trade dispute that could be over in months, choosing instead to absorb the tariffs or find ways to share the costs with suppliers and customers. Now some are re evaluating those decisions. GoPro, the camera maker, said this month that it was shifting some production from China to Mexico. Universal Electronics, a manufacturer of remote controls, announced a similar move late last year. And Varex Imaging, a Utah based maker of X ray equipment, said this month that it was working to "redirect our supply chain away from China" in response to the tariffs. "Most companies took a wait and see attitude" at first, said Pete Guarraia, who leads Bain's supply chain practice. "That was absolutely the mind set. Now it's: 'I can't wait any longer. I have to take some action.'" Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. Electronics manufacturers could be among the first to feel the full brunt of the trade war. The industry is perhaps uniquely global: Chips made in Oregon or Texas are shipped to a plant in Mexico to be attached to circuit boards made in China alongside capacitors made in Vietnam. It is not unheard of for a product or its components to cross the Pacific three or even four times before showing up on retail shelves. American companies sold more than 200 billion in computers and electronic goods to foreign buyers last year, including 18 billion to China. And while that was a small part of the United States' 2.5 trillion in total exports last year, the broader tech sector has accounted for an outsize share of economic growth in recent years. Anything that disrupts the global supply chains the industry relies on could threaten American economic growth, said Torsten Slok, chief economist for Deutsche Bank. Semiconductor sales, he said, have proved to be a reliable indicator of the direction of the broader economy and sales have been falling this year. "We will find out soon if the economy was strong enough to withstand this," Mr. Slok said. If the electronics industry sneezes, few places will catch a cold as quickly as Portland. The industry employs close to 40,000 people in Oregon, including 20,000 at Intel, the state's largest private employer. Oregon exported 2.7 billion in electronics goods to China last year, more than any state other than California a total that doesn't include companies, like ControlTek, that are just across the Columbia River in Washington State. Founded in 1971, ControlTek has weathered the rise of Japan and then China. Today, the company and its 140 employees don't try to compete directly with the high volume factories in China. Instead, ControlTek, like American manufacturers in other industries, has survived by carving out a niche based on quality and service. Its plant in Vancouver, Wash., has state of the art machines that place components integrated circuits, capacitors, resistors and other devices, some barely big enough to see with the naked eye onto circuit boards destined for medical devices, aircraft and even pitching machines. But it also has employees hand soldering parts beneath high powered magnifying glasses, the kind of personalized attention that can look like an anachronism on today's highly automated factory floors. When the first round of tariffs went into effect last year, ControlTek executives had no idea how they would be affected, or even how to find out. The software for tracking inventory showed the company's suppliers, but not where those suppliers got their material. Over time, ControlTek has learned to navigate the system. Suppliers are sourcing components from Vietnam, Malaysia and other countries where possible, and ControlTek has begun factoring the tariffs into its product designs. The longer the trade war goes on, the more companies will have to make such decisions. Thomas Isaac, president and chief executive of Allied Technologies International, an Oregon manufacturer of parts for the telecommunications and aviation industries, said he had all but given up on selling to China. Sales there have slowed "almost to negligible" since tariffs took effect, he said. But Mr. Isaac has seen more business from customers looking to keep their suppliers closer to home. Mr. Isaac spent more than a decade at General Electric before acquiring Allied Technologies five year ago, and he said he remembered the enthusiasm for globe spanning supply chains. Now that optimism is fading. "The global supply chain sounded good for the last 20 years, but you're already seeing companies pulling back and saying, 'Let's stay more local,'" he said. While companies may be rethinking their supply chains, Mr. Isaac said he did not expect to see production shift back to the United States in meaningful volumes, the stated goal of Mr. Trump's policies. So far, the data backs him up. Imports from China have fallen precipitously since the trade war began, both in electronics goods and over all. But that decline has been offset by increased imports from other countries. The nation's trade deficit has been largely unchanged. At ControlTek, tariffs have eaten into profit margins, although business as a whole hasn't suffered. On one level, the trade war is no different from health care costs, labor issues or any of the other challenges that businesses encounter. But Stacey Smith, ControlTek's vice president for human resources and marketing, said that for an American manufacturer, the tariffs were particularly hard to stomach. "The tariffs are different because it's your own government," she said. "I understand the negotiating tactics. But it really is quite painful to be one of the pawns."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Economy
If you are among the majority of Americans whose tax bill will decrease next year, there are some obvious ways to put the money to work. People who are sick, indebted, or in an unstable job or relationship will need to pay the bills or save for imminent hardship. Others who are more stable but not saving enough to meet even modest retirement or college savings goals should probably increase account contributions by the amount they're getting from the tax bill. The more comfortable among us, however, ought to consider a less obvious course of action: Give the money back. This is a bipartisan appeal. If you believe the Republican theory that these tax cuts will stoke more economic growth, you can help make it so by spending any extra money in a way that directly improves the American economy. Hire someone in your business. Pay a household employee more. Buy something that helps American workers. Find the tax cuts and the Republicans who voted for them objectionable? Then take the money and put it toward people who have been left behind economically and causes that can help them. This tax bill officially makes us all data in a grand experiment on how big changes in tax incentives influence behavior and alter the economy. If nothing else, we should be deliberate and specific in how we want to be counted. Whatever you decide, declare your intentions on Twitter over the weekend using the GiveItBack hashtag. I'll be following along. Meanwhile, here's more on how to do the giving. There is plenty of reason to believe that many large public companies won't give it back to workers. Their executives work for shareholders after all, so the default reflex may well be to use winnings from the new, lower corporate tax rates to buy back shares or do other things that will lift stock prices directly and immediately. If you own or run a business, you, too, can hand out raises or make new hires. Or perhaps you employ a babysitter or housekeeper. If so, consider offering those workers raises that outpace inflation. Not paying them on the books? Now might be a good time to start. Once you do, your employees may collect larger Social Security checks in retirement, improving their own ability to contribute to the economy over the long haul. If you don't employ anyone at the moment, hiring occasional part time help to buy back your own time may contribute to greater personal happiness, as a recent study showed, in addition to putting more money in someone else's pocket. If you're among the top earners, your tax winnings may be enough to tip the scales toward buying or replacing a car sooner than you might have otherwise. Buying an automobile is a relatively rare opportunity to make an outsize economic impact, given how much cars cost. Do you believe that the quality of American cars has finally caught up to those made by foreign companies? Buying one in 2018 that was made in America will let you play your part in moving the economic needle a bit. Don't want an American car? Perhaps you can support an American worker by purchasing a car that was still made here, like a Honda Accord or a Toyota Highlander. Any extra money, no matter your income, also presents an opportunity to spend more and more selectively on services. That new local restaurant that buys local food and employs local workers and pays rent to a local landlord? Perhaps you could treat yourself to dinner there a few times with your tax winnings, instead of buying imported food from a grocery store owned by an international conglomerate. Before you consider which charities you might want to give your newfound tax winnings, you'll probably think about a tax change that could affect philanthropy directly: the increase in the standard deduction. Now that it's going up, people who will no longer itemize deductions, including charitable contributions, may feel less incentive to give as much as they used to. Or at least that's what philanthropy researchers fear, with one estimate suggesting that our collective giving could fall by a few percentage points. This makes some intuitive sense; nonprofits would not be flooding you with messages right now if people weren't already racing the calendar each December to make tax deductible donations. Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, lost his cool on Twitter in recent days over suggestions that the new tax law might fundamentally alter Americans' giving. I offered him the opportunity to take a pledge to give back his tax winnings but received no reply. Crickets also chirped when I asked for pledges from Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, Senator Susan Collins of Maine and President Trump, all of whom also supported the tax bill, via their representatives. I do hope Senator Cornyn is right about one thing: that we don't give merely or even primarily for the tax break. If you agree and are lucky enough not to need your tax winnings for yourself, perhaps you can find a way to support a cause that helps people who have been left behind by the improving American economy for whatever reason. Please note, however, that if you want to use the money to try to run your least favorite politician out of office, your campaign contributions are not tax deductible even if you are still able to itemize your charitable donations. The giving guide that Carl Richards recently wrote for The New York Times can help you be more strategic. Tara Siegel Bernard and I also recently answered reader questions on giving, and that article has links to other resources that may be helpful.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Your Money
LONDON The Guardian, three years removed from a Pulitzer Prize that helped spur the British newspaper's international expansion, is fully embracing a new moneymaking strategy in the face of industrywide revenue problems: philanthropy. The company has established a nonprofit venture in the United States, theguardian.org, to focus on tapping philanthropic organizations or even corporate foundations and think tanks for financial help to report on issues including human rights and climate change. Rachel White, the president of theguardian.org, said the nonprofit's charitable status would make it easier for more organizations and private individuals, who might otherwise feel conflicted about contributing to a for profit newsroom, to donate. The unit, which received its tax exempt status in Oct. 2016, has been setting up partnerships since December. Since then, theguardian.org has secured more than 1 million in funding from the Skoll Foundation, which was set up by Jeff Skoll, the first president of eBay; Humanity United, part of the Omidyar Group founded by the eBay founder Pierre Omidyar; and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the organization set up by the hotel entrepreneur.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
Our guide to plays and musicals coming to New York stages and a few last chance picks of shows that are about to close. Our reviews of open shows are at nytimes.com/reviews/theater. 'IN THE GREEN' at the Claire Tow Theater (in previews; opens on June 27). The life of Hildegarde von Bingen, medieval saint, scholar, composer and playwright, is too capacious for most musicals. So in this LCT3 show, the actress and songwriter Grace McLean and the director Lee Sunday Evans sensibly concentrate on just one episode: her relationship with Jutta, the visionary to whom she professed. 212 239 6200, lct3.org 'MOSCOW MOSCOW MOSCOW MOSCOW MOSCOW MOSCOW' at the Susan Ronald Frankel Theater at the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space (previews start on June 26; opens on July 18). Olga, Masha and Irina are not living their best lives. But at the dawn of 1900s Russia, what did you expect? Halley Feiffer, already a specialist in unhappiness and delusion, especially as experienced by women, offers her version of Chekhov's "Three Sisters." Her longtime collaborator, Trip Cullman, directs a cast that includes Tavi Gevinson, Rebecca Henderson and Chris Perfetti. 212 727 7722, mcctheater.org 'WE'RE ONLY ALIVE FOR A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME' at the Public Theater (in previews; opens on June 27). In many of David Cale's plays, characters change their lives or their lives are changed for them. In this new piece, a solo autobiographical play with music (Cale wrote the songs with Matthew Dean Marsh), he charts his own adolescence and the catastrophe that shaped him. Robert Falls directs. 212 967 7555, publictheater.org Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead. 'WORKING: A MUSICAL' at New York City Center (performances start on June 26). Workers of the city, unite and consider spending your leisure time at this Encores! Off Center revival of the Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso adaptation of the Studs Terkel book about the United States and its laborers. Anne Kauffman directs a cast that includes Helen Hunt, Christopher Jackson, Javier Munoz and Tracie Thoms. Lin Manuel Miranda supplies two new songs. 212 581 1212, nycitycenter.org 'ALL MY SONS' at the American Airlines Theater (closes on June 30). Nominated for three Tony Awards, this wrenching revival of Arthur Miller's tragedy of a corrupted American family ends its run. Jesse Green praised Annette Bening's Kate, "the show's emotional center and endless mystery," though he felt that Jack O'Brien's production "does not make a resonant case for the drama today." 212 719 1300, roundabouttheatre.org 'HILLARY AND CLINTON' at the Golden Theater (closes on June 23). This Lucas Hnath play, a meditation on the 2008 primaries, starring Laurie Metcalf as a variation on Hillary Clinton, ends its Broadway term. Ben Brantley wrote that Hnath's play, directed by Joe Mantello, "invites us to look" at its protagonist "with the easy familiarity with which we might regard someone living next door, or in our own family." hillaryandclintonbroadway.com 'KISS ME, KATE' at Studio 54 (closes on June 30). Cole Porter's too darn hot musical, revived by Scott Ellis for the Roundabout Theater Company, cools down. While some had worried that the musical, Cole Porter's riff on "The Taming of the Shrew," and its sexual politics might be outdated, Jesse Green found the show, which stars Kelli O'Hara, "still speaking to us or better yet, singing from the not so buried past." 212 719 1300, roundabouttheatre.org THE SEAN O'CASEY SEASON at the Irish Repertory Theater (closes on June 22). The Irish Repertory's production of O'Casey's Dublin trilogy "The Shadow of a Gunman," "Juno and the Paycock" and "The Plough and the Stars" leaves the tenement. Reviewing "The Plough," Elisabeth Vincentelli wrote that it "illustrates the company's approach at its most successful: It's hard not to be swept away by such a good yarn." 866 811 4111, irishrep.org 'OCTET' at the Pershing Square Signature Center (closes on June 30). Dave Malloy's a cappella opera about people in the throes of internet addiction, which is pretty much all of us, logs off. Ben Brantley called this musical, directed by Annie Tippe, "the most original and topical" of the year, writing that "you'll feel reassured, alarmed, enlightened and truly thrilled by what you hear." 212 244 7529, signaturetheatre.org	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Theater
SHENZHEN, China In a grand hotel ballroom on Tuesday, Huawei executives laid out a soaring vision for the future. The Chinese electronics giant, already the world's biggest supplier of the equipment that powers the wireless age, now wants to provide the digital backbone for artificial intelligence, the internet of things and other transformative technologies. But that future is increasingly looking as if it will not include the United States. Last week, the company laid off five American employees, including William B. Plummer, the executive who was the face of its Sisyphean efforts to win over Washington, according to people familiar with the matter. Huawei has also been dialing back its political outreach in the United States, these people said which could end a decade of mostly fruitless efforts to dispel Washington's accusations that the company has ties to the Chinese government. Huawei's tactics are changing as its business prospects in the United States have darkened considerably. On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission voted to proceed with a new rule that could effectively kill off what little business the company has in the United States. Although the proposed rule does not mention Huawei by name, it would block federally subsidized telecommunications carriers from using suppliers deemed to pose a risk to American national security. Like other major tech companies, whether American or Chinese, Huawei (pronounced "HWA way") has been caught in the crossfire as the Trump administration ratchets up efforts to stop China's high tech ambitions. The two countries are waging a new kind of cold war, and with each increasingly suspicious of the other's technology, winners are chosen based on national allegiances. Huawei's latest moves suggest that it has accepted that its political battles in the United States are not ones it is likely to win. One recent example of reduced communication with Washington came after the discovery in January of security flaws in the microprocessors inside nearly all of the world's computers. A Senate committee wrote to Huawei's founder to ask what the company knew about the vulnerabilities, and how it had been affected by them. Huawei decided not to respond. "Some things cannot change their course according to our wishes," Eric Xu, Huawei's deputy chairman, said at the company's annual meeting with analysts on Tuesday. "With some things, when you let them go, you actually feel more at ease." Huawei's main Chinese rival, ZTE, also hit a roadblock in Washington this week. The Commerce Department said it would ban the much smaller company from buying American components after it made false statements to the government as part of an investigation into possible violations of American sanctions. At Tuesday's meeting with analysts, executives at the company, which says it is owned by its employees and not by the Chinese state, emphasized growth opportunities in Europe and Asia. They also described ambitions to further diversify Huawei's business into helping organizations of all kinds not merely wireless carriers, but factories, governments and the police transform themselves through cloud computing and artificial intelligence. "For Huawei, the major challenge is not how we can serve operators better," said David Wang, a company president. Instead, he said, "we have to work harder to cope with wider challenges in all industries." Huawei's troubles in the United States have been mounting since 2012, when a congressional report warned that its gear could be used to spy on Americans or to destabilize American telecom networks. The company spent 1.2 million on lobbying that year. Last year, it spent 60,000 on such efforts. Major American carriers such as Verizon and AT T have since shunned Huawei. The Commerce and Treasury Departments have subpoenaed it over possible violations of American sanctions on Iran and North Korea. The company's ambitions to become a major smartphone brand it is already the world's third largest, after Samsung and Apple were curtailed when AT T abandoned a deal this year to sell its handsets. And a bill is before Congress to stop government agencies and contractors from buying Huawei products. The company has said repeatedly that its products pose no security risk and that it complies with the law everywhere it operates. Still, the layoffs last week appear to be an acknowledgment by Huawei that it has failed to clear the political cloud around it. Mr. Plummer, Huawei's vice president of external affairs, had been with the company for almost eight years. He was the most senior member of Huawei's American policy team who was not a Chinese citizen. "Any changes to staffing size or structure are simply a reflection of standard business organization," he said. Founded three decades ago, Huawei made 93 billion in revenue last year not much less than Google's parent company, Alphabet, and more than its two main rivals in telecom gear, Nokia of Finland and Ericsson of Sweden, combined. When it comes to the next generation of mobile internet, or 5G, Huawei has invested heavily in technology development. Chinese carriers are likely to deploy such networks more quickly than their American counterparts are, at least in the beginning. But as 5G comes up in the United States, Japan, South Korea and Europe, Nokia and Ericsson will catch up, said Pierre Ferragu, an analyst in New York with New Street Research.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
Credit...Rose Marie Cromwell for The New York Times Earth's last surviving Bee Gee was calling from his home studio in South Florida, just steps from the waters of Biscayne Bay. "I used to have a great boat," Barry Gibb said. "A speedboat." He called it Spirits Having Flown, after a 1979 Bee Gees album that has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide. "I would tear around the bay and get ideas." Sometimes he didn't even need the boat. One day the Bee Gees' manager Robert Stigwood called. He was producing the film version of the musical "Grease" and needed a new title song. Barry had not seen the film; this was a creative challenge. "How in heaven's name," he asked himself, "do you write a song called 'Grease'? I remember walking around on the dock, and it suddenly occurred to me that it's a word, and you've just got to write about the word." "It's just a big old house. I would never classify it as a mansion," said Gibb, who in the time he's lived here has counted Matt Damon, Dwyane Wade and Pablo Escobar among his neighbors. He is 74, and his legendary lion's mane hair was gray and wispy under an Australian style leather bush hat. His words slipped past his still magnificent teeth in a rich, almost Conneryesque brogue that his origins (born on the Isle of Man, raised in Manchester, England, and then Australia) don't fully explain. Gibb's latest album, "Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1," recorded in Nashville with the producer Dave Cobb, goes on shale in January; it's preceded this month by the director Frank Marshall's HBO documentary "The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart." Early in the film, we see Gibb and his brothers Maurice and Robin the way most people remember them in open necked shirts of shimmering silver, medallions blinging brightly against their mammalian chests. Then a spotlight homes in on him, cropping out the rest of the band. This is foreshadowing by literal shadow. Since 1979, Gibb has lost three brothers. Andy the youngest, who soared as a solo artist under Barry's tutelage but struggled with drug addiction died first, in 1988, at 30, of myocarditis. Maurice passed away in 2003, of complications caused by a twisted intestine; Robin died in 2012, of complications of cancer and intestinal surgery. "The mission," he said, "is to keep the music alive. Regardless of us, regardless of me. One day, like my brothers, I will no longer be around, and I want the music to last. So I'm going to play it no matter what." Gibb has only a passing acquaintance with modern pop music, which he understands to be a world ruled by children who go by nicknames and numbers. He hopes that someone is giving them good advice. Here are more fascinating tales you can't help but read all the way to the end. None Getting Personal With Iman. The supermodel talks about life after David Bowie, their Catskills refuge and the perfume inspired by their love. A Resilient Team for a Broken Nation. With the Taliban in control, what, and whom, is Afghanistan's national soccer team playing for? The Fight of This Old Boxer's Life Was With His Own Family. A battle among Marvin Stein's family over his fortune broke out, and he suddenly found himself powerless to fight for himself. "He doesn't listen to a lot of new music," said his son Stephen Gibb. "He listens to the music of his youth." Barry Gibb's earliest memories of music are of harmony the Everly Brothers and the Ohioan jazz vocal quartet the Mills Brothers, playing from a single speaker in his parents' house. He can draw a direct line from that to everything else; it's why he and Robin and Maurice started singing together. But after that, what got into Gibb's head was country music, particularly once the Gibbs moved from England to Australia in 1958, just before Barry's 12th birthday. "Bluegrass music," Gibb said. "I fell in love with that. I became obsessed with that when I was a kid, because you didn't hear much else but bluegrass music in 1958 in Australia." Gibb says there's always been country in the Bee Gees' sound, whether or not his brothers particularly wanted it there. But the idea of doing a full length country album had been a bucket list item for decades, until last year, when the Bee Gees signed a new deal with Capitol Records. There were discussions about Gibb revisiting the catalog in some way; Gibb realized his country moment had arrived. "I had been turning my dad on to Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton and Brandi Carlile and Sturgill Simpson," Stephen Gibb said. "He's like, 'Jesus, these records are great. These are brilliant.' The common thread on a lot of those records turned out to be Dave Cobb." Cobb, 46, has won Grammys for his work with Carlile, Stapleton and Isbell; he also turned out to be a massive Bee Gees fan. By October 2019, Gibb was at RCA's Studio A in Nashville, recording new versions of Bee Gees classics and obscurities with a range of country associated duet partners: modern hitmakers like Keith Urban, traditionalists like Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, icons like Dolly Parton. Parton and Gibb cut their rendition of the Bee Gees' plaintive 1968 single "Words" on the first day of recording; Cobb described it as "probably the most intimidating session I've ever had in my life." He remembered walking out to the microphone to play guitar, "and my legs started trembling a little bit." Isbell was equally intimidated about singing with Gibb on "Words of a Fool," a deep cut Gibb wrote for the soundtrack of the long forgotten 1988 film "Hawks." "At one point I was trying to sing a harmony part over Barry," Isbell said, "and Dave said something, and I said, 'Dave, one of us is not Barry Gibb, man you have to back off a little bit and give me a few more tries at this.'" Gibb's voice on "Words of a Fool" is strong but also spectral, its shuddering vibrato bringing to mind the jazz singer Jimmy Scott. Nearly six decades after he first sang on a record, it remains one of the most otherworldly instruments in popular music. "I asked him how the hell he still sounds like that," Isbell said. "I'm always afraid to ask people that question, because I don't want to offend them by acknowledging their age, but I said, 'Barry, how can you still sing so beautifully and powerfully?' And he said, 'I never really liked cocaine. You had to do it every 15 minutes for it to work. So it just didn't appeal to me.' That's the perfect answer to that question." It's not surprising that Gibb found his way to country music. Listen to "To Love Somebody," on which he builds from a gruff, tight delivery before releasing exquisite high notes, as if a dam is finally breaking inside him. It's a voice made for country singing, because it's a voice made for sad songs. Gibb has written a lot of those. In 1964 alone, his copyrights as a songwriter included songs called "Scared of Losing You," "Claustrophobia," "I Just Don't Like to be Alone," "House Without Windows," "Now Comes the Pain," "Since I Lost You," and "This Is the End." In Australia, despite being underage, they played in bars, Gibb said, that were "'Crocodile Dundee' all the way." He said the Australian audiences were amazing, "but it's a drinking audience. We witnessed a lot of fights, while we were singing. I saw two guys punch each other out without standing up." The minute they had a hit, with a song called "Spicks and Specks" "Robin used to say that was our first No. 1, but it was really only No. 1 in Perth" they set sail back to England, signed with Stigwood, then an associate of the Beatles impresario Brian Epstein, and encountered '60s London in full swing. "We'd suddenly tumbled into flower power," Gibb said. "The whole idea was to find out what character you'd dress yourself up as." He described a vivid memory of getting in an elevator with Eric Clapton. "He's dressed as a cowboy and I'm dressed as a priest." Barry was 20 then; his brothers were not yet 18. "We were still kids," he said, "and we were still very naive. I don't think the naivete went away for a long time." They did soon discover booze, pot and pills, Gibb said. But early British albums like "Bee Gees' 1st" from 1967 with its trippy Klaus Voormann cover, oddball orchestration, and titles like "Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You" made them seem like more active participants in the '60s lifestyle than they were. Barry and Robin Gibb were once given a mescaline tablet; they decided to flush it down the toilet. As steeped as they are in the vibes of the moment, the late 60s Bee Gees albums are also shot through with a twee, quavering sadness that feels unique to the Gibbs. They sound like the work of infirm boy princes who've mastered the pop landscape by staring down longingly at it from the window of a tall tower. Drugs alone could not yield music this unaccountably odd. "You have no idea how humans got in a room and made those records," said Cobb, who found his way to the band's '60s material via an obsession with the Beatles and the Zombies' "Odessey and Oracle." "They just are. They feel like they're coming from an alternate universe." In Marshall's film, the Chicago house music producer Vince Lawrence who was working as a Comiskey Park usher that night recalls seeing people showing up that day carrying records by Black artists who had nothing to do with disco, and describes the event as a "racist, homophobic book burning." Disco, as a cultural phenomenon, was Black, brown and gay; the fact that the Bee Gees were none of these things didn't stop them from being caught in the crossfire. They were the genre's pop avatars, and the "Disco Sucks" movement would turn them into instant pariahs. Marshall's film cuts back and forth between the countdown to the explosion and shots of the band onstage, smiling in silver, looking utterly unaware of the destiny bearing down on them like a train. "The dynamic of their situation changed overnight," Marshall said. "Everything that they had ever dreamed of was happening. They were at the pinnacle. And suddenly it became a nightmare, and they had to have escorts and there were bomb threats. And they'd go 'Wait, we're just a band' but it was much bigger than them. It was history, and they were caught in the middle. Their biggest moment became their biggest nightmare. I really loved that irony." Gibb said he never let the Comiskey event bother him: "I knew that whatever it is you do has to come to an end, no matter what it is." Gibb doesn't expect to conquer the pop charts again; making more records like this duets one would be enough. "I'm a country singer," he said. "I'll always be a country singer. I've managed to shed all of these other things. I don't even have a white suit anymore." But he's lived long enough to see the conversation change around his music. There are dozens of videos online in which YouTubers mostly Black, mostly too young to even remember Wyclef Jean sampling "Stayin' Alive" in the late '90s react to the Bee Gees' video for the "Spirits Having Flown" ballad "Too Much Heaven." The video is a quintessential document of its era, like a loose quaalude fished from the couch cushions of time. The Bee Gees are singing in a fern filled recording studio, backed by a string section. They're wearing open necked silk shirts. Barry's jeans are a lewd joke about avocados. So at first, the YouTubers are skeptical. Then, pretty much without exception, they're struck speechless when the vocals come in and Gibb and his brothers begin building a cathedral with nothing but the breath in their lungs. Barry Gibb has not seen these videos. But he's watched a few clips of young people covering Bee Gees songs like "How Deep Is Your Love" online, and some of them aren't half bad. "This one boy couldn't have been more than 11 or 12 years old. Whoever he is, he will be one of the greats if he keeps his head. That's always the question. Right? Always the question."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Music
The last time I wrote seriously about a war with Iran was in 2012. It had been an especially fraught year, with Iran's Revolutionary Guards running naval exercises in the Persian Gulf, Israel and the United States conducting joint drills, and the safety of oil shipping lanes looking entirely unassured. Oil prices rattled skittishly, everyone suddenly monitored ships, and headlines speculated that Israel might attack Iran's nuclear sites. My assignment was to consider "the day after" to imagine how Iranians would react if their country was bombed by Israel. My piece featured scenes of distraught young people gathering on crowded intersections singing the national anthem suddenly everyone was a terrified Iranian citizen rather than an aspiring guitarist or a day laborer or whatever they were the day before and a screaming mother buying formula to stockpile from a supermarket. I don't even remember writing it. How many times can you write, predict and analyze your country's destruction before your mind begins to dissolve the traces? That rehearsal feels like it was all in preparation for today. Last week an American drone strike incinerated Iran's top general and national war hero Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, along with a senior Iraqi militia commander, in what can only be understood as an act of war. Being here again makes me feel that I an American citizen of Iranian origin have been here so often before. The cycles of imminent war and upheaval Iranians seem destined to face every few years, cycles often driven by the whims of the United States and the increasing boldness of Iran, now feel like a civilizational inheritance, a legacy that my mother bore before me, her mother before her, and that I will pass down to my children. Every Iranian family's history is touched with this past, in its own way. The American backed 1953 coup destroyed both my grandfather and great uncle's careers, until then in service of the government, and sent the latter into exile. America's support for, and then eventual abandonment of, the Shah helped shape the 1979 revolution, disrupted all of our lives, with the new authorities expropriating our assets, and landing an uncle in prison for belonging to that educated, pro Western class that built modern Iran and saw the revolution as its demise. The years that followed only deepened the American Iranian chasm. There was the 1979 81 hostage crisis at the American Embassy in Tehran, which killed nobody in the end but poisoned relations to this day. The United States scarcely concealed its support for Iraq in the devastating years of the Iran Iraq War. And in 1988, as the war dragged to a close, continued skirmishing resulted in the U.S. Navy shooting down an Iranian passenger plane flying over Iran's territorial waters, killing 290 people. Deeply regrettable, lamented President Ronald Reagan, but honors and medals for the naval officers. For decades now, the United States has often seemed driven to hurt Iran, at times through interventionist policies that were careless and transactional, and then after 1979, with a fierce determination out of proportion to whatever challenge the new system posed. At a certain point, Iran started retaliating: In the 1980s, it cultivated regional groups and militias hostile to Washington, and encouraged them to take Westerners hostages and staged attacks through these networks. In later years, Iran challenged American roles in wars in the region and interventions in bordering countries the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 by backing nonstate allies that rose to become formidable powers in their own right. This lifted Tehran's game of asymmetrical leverage into a regional influence it had probably never conceived of achieving. General Suleimani was behind much of this strategy. Many consider him responsible for the deaths of thousands, for his intervention in salvaging Bashar al Assad's rule in Syria. But to many Iranians, Iraqis, Kurds and others, he was a pivotal figure in vanquishing the Islamic State, helping repel its rapid march across Iraq in 2014. In Syria, for the many Syrians who endured the industrial scale brutality of the Assad regime, the general led what could only be understood as an offensive force. But Iran's leaders always reminded their people that Syria, the lone Arab country that sided with Iran during the eight year Iran Iraq War, could not be abandoned, that without it, Iran would be vastly more vulnerable in the region. It is for these maneuvers, in part to provide Iran some deterrence against relentless American hostility, that General Suleimani is remembered. He had become a patriarch for an ambivalent country adrift, forgiven, at least by the hundreds of thousands who turned out for his funeral, for the hard excesses of the force he commanded because he secured the land in a time of the Islamic State's butchery, seen as a man of honor and merit among political contemporaries who were usually neither. (Of course, he certainly did not impress all Iranians in this way; he had detractors who did not support his regional stratagems.) Iran's leaders have rallied around his legacy; Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed "severe revenge" and assured that his killing would "double" resistance against the United States and Israel. Even the reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi, an octogenarian who is confined under permanent house arrest, issued condolences. Beyond this official show of unity, newspapers across the political spectrum darkened their front pages, and ran full cover photos of General Suleimani in all his guises, from brassy military uniform to slick dark suit jacket, with even the most liberal minded running lachrymose headlines like "the sorrow is inconceivable." "What to do with a thorn lodged in the heart? Is this the fate of all the distinguished descendants of this land, regardless of thought and affiliation?" wrote Iran's most prominent and oft censored contemporary novelist, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, of the man he said "built a powerful dam against the bloodthirsty onslaught of ISIS and secured our borders from their calamity." Iranians have turned out to mourn him on an extraordinary scale, in scenes unmatched since the funeral of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini himself in 1989. A sea of people fills Isfahan's 17th Century central square, the seat of Persian history, and pours across the bridges and streets of Ahvaz, men and women from all backgrounds of Iranian society. The mourning for the general, it could be said, is Iran's first act of retaliation: what amounts to an extraordinary four day state funeral in not one but two countries. The cavalcade has twinned two nations in shared public grief and indignation, as the procession moved deliberately across a crescent of Shiite historical memory. First came the cities of the Iraqi south that Saddam Hussein kept cowed and squalid, the holy shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala, through to the Iranian province of Khuzestan, which saw the bloodiest fighting of the Iran Iraq war, an indigenously Arab region where mourning congregations chant in Arabic, and whose inclusion in this spectacle of transnational identity and power has clear unifying purpose. Nearly 40 years ago, General Suleimani began his career in the trenches of the Iran Iraq War, the formative drama of the Islamic Republic, where heroism was applauded by most Iranians who felt their country was the victim of external attack and isolation. Today's Iranians, who will most suffer whatever fallout there is from his death, remain economically blockaded, in a suspended state of siege in all but name. Their country remains, by the design of American policy, sanctioned and cash strapped, their horizons and potential extinguished by visa bans, medicine shortages and inflation. Pinned between a system that increasingly feels it has little to lose, and the all out vengeance of a zero plan United States, Iran has endured what feels like a war economy for decades. I remember as a child, during the years of war with Iraq, my mother telling me about relatives in Iran who gave away their jewelry to aid the war effort. This time, in the face of President Trump's tweets threatening to attack Iran and destroy its sites of cultural heritage, I needn't conjure the unity that comes the day after. The country has gathered to mourn. It is already here. Azadeh Moaveni ( AzadehMoaveni) is a senior gender analyst with the International Crisis Group and the author, most recently, of "Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Opinion
SAN FRANCISCO Apple removed an app late Wednesday that enabled protesters in Hong Kong to track the police, a day after facing intense criticism from Chinese state media for it, plunging the technology giant deeper into the complicated politics of a country that is fundamental to its business. Apple said it was withdrawing the app, HKmap.live, from its App Store just days after approving it because the authorities in Hong Kong said protesters were using it to attack the police in the semiautonomous city. A day earlier, People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, published an editorial accusing Apple of aiding "rioters" in Hong Kong. "Letting poisonous software have its way is a betrayal of the Chinese people's feelings," said the article, which was written under a pseudonym that translates into "Calming the Waves." Timothy D. Cook, Apple's chief executive, said in an email to employees on Thursday that the company had removed the app after receiving "credible information" from the authorities and people in Hong Kong "that the app was being used maliciously to target individual officers for violence and to victimize individuals and property where no police are present." As a result, he said, the app violated Apple rules and local laws. "National and international debates will outlive us all, and, while important, they do not govern the facts," he said in the letter, which was viewed by The New York Times. "In this case, we thoroughly reviewed them, and we believe this decision best protects our users." With its reversal, Apple joined a growing list of corporations that are trying to navigate the fraught political situation between China and Hong Kong, where antigovernment protests have unfolded for months. That minefield was evident this week when an executive of the N.B.A.'s Houston Rockets tweeted his support of the Hong Kong protests. The tweet prompted a backlash from the Chinese authorities, leading to apologies by the Rockets and ultimately the cancellation of broadcasts of N.B.A. exhibition games in China, one of the N.B.A.'s largest markets. Companies ranging from Marriott to United Airlines to Versace have also backtracked on perceived slights to the Chinese government in the past, such as customer surveys that suggested Taiwan was an independent nation. All the firms are balancing the enormous economic opportunity in China, with its 1.4 billion consumers, with the negative public image of capitulating to an authoritarian government. Here's how Hong Kong's protests have evolved into a broader pushback against Beijing. No multinational company arguably has as much at stake in China as Apple, which assembles nearly all its products there and counts the country as its No. 3 market after the United States and Europe. It tallied nearly 44 billion in sales in the greater China region, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong, in the year that ended June 30. Apple's stock price often rises or falls depending on how it is performing in China. Mr. Cook has become a deft diplomat in China. He has traveled there frequently and attended numerous Chinese government events. In recent months, he has argued for moderation in the trade war between the United States and China. While Mr. Cook regularly speaks out on political issues in the United States like gun control and immigration, he has largely remained silent on Chinese politics, including the clashes in Hong Kong. In late 2017, Mr. Cook said at a conference that while he disagreed with some Chinese policies, Apple must comply with local laws. "Each country in the world decides their laws and their regulations, and so your choice is: Do you participate? Or do you stand on the sideline and yell at how things should be?" he said. "You get in the arena, because nothing ever changes from the sideline." "That is ridiculous," said the person running the account, who declined to provide a name. The person shared a message that Apple sent explaining the removal. In the notice, the company cited App Store policies that apps must comply with local laws and must not "solicit, promote or encourage criminal activity or clearly reckless behavior." The note was signed: "App Store Review." Supporters of the app have argued that it helps Hong Kong residents avoid clashes between the police and protesters. The app "is used by passer by, protesters, journalist, tourist and even pro government supporters," the HKmap.live Twitter account later tweeted, calling the removal "clearly a political decision to suppress freedom and human right." The Twitter account said Google had not removed the app from the marketplace for Android devices. The account said the iPhone app had been downloaded more than 100,000 times and the Android app more than 50,000 times. The app shows a map of Hong Kong with updates from users on the location of the police, their water cannons and safe zones, among other things. Apple initially rejected the app for enabling people to evade the police, the app's Twitter account said last week. Several days later, the account tweeted that Apple had reversed course. It soon became the top free app in Hong Kong, according to the app data firm Sensor Tower, and criticism from mainland China began. After the People's Daily editorial, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that "anyone with a conscience and a sense of justice" should boycott the app. Charles Mok, a pro democracy lawmaker in Hong Kong, said on Thursday that he had sent a letter to Mr. Cook saying HKmap.live helped people avoid the protests. "We Hong Kongers will definitely look closely at whether Apple chooses to uphold its commitment to free expression and other basic human rights, or become an accomplice for Chinese censorship and oppression," he wrote. In the United States, Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, tweeted that Apple had told him that its initial rejection of the app was a mistake. "Looks like the Chinese censors have had a word with them since," he said. "Who is really running Apple? Tim Cook or Beijing?" Apple has made other moves that appeared to appease the Chinese government. It recently removed the Taiwanese flag emoji from iPhone keyboards in certain areas, including Hong Kong. On Sept. 30, Apple pulled the app of the news organization Quartz from the App Store in China, Quartz said. The news organization, which has covered the Hong Kong protests, said Apple had sent it a vague notice about removing its app "because it includes content that is illegal in China." Zach Seward, Quartz's chief executive, said in a statement, "We abhor this kind of government censorship of the internet, and have great coverage of how to get around such bans around the world," and included a link to its articles about software designed to dodge censorship. Apple declined to comment on the Quartz app on Wednesday and did not respond to a request regarding the Taiwanese flag emoji. Apple has removed other apps in China that it allows elsewhere, including The New York Times app and some services that enabled Chinese users to circumvent the government's internet restrictions. Apple has long prided itself on how every app in its App Store is approved by one of its employees, unlike Google's largely automated approach for Android apps. Apps that pose tricky policy questions are deliberated during weekly meetings of senior executives, led by Phil Schiller, an executive who heads the App Store. That group decided to remove the HKmap.live app, said a person familiar with the decision who declined to be named because the process was confidential. Separately, Google this week removed a mobile game, The Revolution of Our Times I, which allowed users to play as Hong Kong protesters. Google said it had pulled the app from the Android app store worldwide because it violated its policy that bars "developers from capitalizing on sensitive events." The developer, who declined to be named, said in an email that he or she donated 80 percent of the app's revenues to a group supporting the Hong Kong protests. A Google spokesman said the company had decided to remove it during regular reviews of Android apps. He said Google hadn't heard from the Chinese government or the Hong Kong police about it.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
An article in The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday described the largest trial to date to test whether the threat of a financial penalty could help people quit smoking. WASHINGTON What would make a smoker more likely to quit, a big reward for succeeding or a little penalty for failing? That is what researchers wanted to know when they assigned a large group of CVS employees, their relatives and friends to different smoking cessation programs. The answer offered a surprising insight into human behavior. Many more people agreed to sign up for the reward program, but once they were in it, only a small share actually quit smoking. A far smaller number agreed to risk the penalty, but those who did were twice as likely to quit. The trial, which was described in The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, was the largest yet to test whether offering people financial incentives could lead to better health. It used theories about human decision making that have been developed in psychology and economics departments over several decades and put them into practice with more than 2,500 people who either worked at CVS Caremark, the country's largest drugstore chain by sales, or were friends or relatives of those employees. Researchers found that offering incentives was far more effective in getting people to stop smoking than the traditional approach of giving free smoking cessation help, such as counseling or nicotine replacement therapy like gum, medication or patches. But they also found that requiring a 150 deposit that would be lost if the person failed to stay off cigarettes for six months nearly doubled the chances of success. "Adding a bit of a stick was much better than a pure carrot," said Dr. Scott Halpern, deputy director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, who led the study. The finding is likely to get the attention of large companies as they sort out what types of benefits to offer employees in an era of rising health care costs. Most large employers, which bear much of those costs, now offer incentives for health promoting behavior in the form of employee wellness programs, but until now, they have had little evidence of what types of programs actually work to guide them. CVS, which helped conduct the study, is using the findings to design a smoking cessation incentive next month for its more than 200,000 employees. "These large employers are spending an average of 800 to 900 per employee per year, but in ways that are often blind to normal human psychology," Dr. Halpern said, adding that the spending on wellness had nearly doubled in five years. The trial was intended to change that. Researchers randomly assigned the participants to a number of program options and let them decide whether they wanted to participate. About 14 percent of people assigned to the penalty program accepted it, compared with about 90 percent of people assigned to the reward program. The penalty program required participants to deposit 150; six months later, those who had quit smoking would get the deposit back, along with a 650 reward. In the reward only program, participants were simply offered an 800 payment if they stayed off cigarettes for six months. The success rate for those who joined the pure rewards group was low, about 17 percent, compared with more than 50 percent for the penalty program, though the figures had to be adjusted to account for the possibility that those who opted for the penalty might have been more motivated to quit to begin with. Even after that adjustment, those who signed up for the penalty were nearly twice as likely to quit as those who opted for pure rewards, and five times as likely to quit as those who just got free counseling or nicotine replacement therapy. Even so, the largest overall effect was among the group that was assigned to pure rewards, simply because so many more people took part. "This is an original set of findings," said Cass R. Sunstein, a Harvard law professor who helped develop some influential ideas in the field of behavioral economics, notably that if the social environment can be changed for example, by posting simple warnings people can be nudged into better behavior. "They could be applied to many health issues, like alcoholism, or whenever people face serious self control problems." Professor Sunstein, who oversaw regulatory policy for the Obama administration from 2009 to 2012 and now directs the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard, wrote an opinion article on the study, but was not involved in it. Over all, success eluded most of the study participants. More than 80 percent of smokers in the most popular pure rewards group were still smoking at the end of the study. Even so, researchers say, their success rate was far greater than for those who got the traditional treatment, signaling that there could be substantial public health benefits in offering financial incentives. And even a small decline could have a big health effect. Smoking is the largest cause of preventable death in the United States. Diseases linked to it kill more than 480,000 Americans a year.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Health
WASHINGTON A beard on his face, a new catcher in front of him and Robinson Cano at his back: Plenty had changed in Jacob deGrom's world between the time he won the National League Cy Young Award last fall and when he took the mound for the Mets' season opener on Thursday. He needed time to reorient himself at first. His schedule had also been upended in recent days. Coming out of spring training, he had to leave the team to attend a marathon negotiating session in Sarasota, Fla., and had to rearrange his travel schedule so he could undergo a physical examination in New York before he was reunited with his teammates in Washington. Though the diversions all resulted in a five year contract extension worth 137.5 million, deGrom said the process had been taxing. He also had unfamiliar jitters. "I was really nervous," he said. "There was some pressure on me today." DeGrom, who had only a 10 9 record despite a 1.70 earned run average last season, welcomed support from all corners, including from the newcomers, as he worked through an adrenaline rush and early struggles with off speed pitches for a 2 0 win over the Nationals.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
SARAH KUPFERBERG'S youthful rebellion was slightly unconventional she wanted to invest in green companies, not the big industrials her parents had preferred. But like most novice investors, she stumbled along the way, once putting money into a company that was trying to use buoys to turn ocean waves into electricity. "When I started investing in companies on my own, I made a lot of bad choices," Ms. Kupferberg, an ecologist who works on issues related to energy and power. "These were companies at the leading edge of technology. They weren't great investments." Today, Ms. Kupferberg, 50, said she has taken a more pragmatic approach to investing. She is no longer looking for companies at the vanguard of the green movement. Instead, she's interested in those that are making a profit while also acting in a way that takes into account sound environmental, social and governance practices. A focus on these factors known by the shorthand E.S.G. is a distance from the pure green investments that had less to do with returns. She has invested in Starbucks (even though she prefers to drink Peet's Coffee) because of its policies toward its employees, like health benefits for part time workers. Applying an E.S.G. screen in this instance is a way to look at how companies in similar sectors compare, said Matthew W. Patsky, chief executive of Trillium Asset Management. He drew a contrast between Starbucks and McDonald's, which does not offer health care benefits for part time workers. Ms. Kupferberg's view of looking for the best behaved companies in a sector is consistent with others who are using their investment dollars to try to push companies toward more socially responsible policies. Rebekah Helzel, a retired proprietary trader for an investment bank, for example, said her focus was on eliminating "carbon based business models" from her investment portfolio. Yet she has invested in United Parcel Service, which, of course, moves packages around the world in planes and trucks. "They have a lot of carbon in their business model but they have done remarkable things to reduce it," Ms. Helzel said. She mentioned their use of new technologies to reduce their carbon footprint but also the company's oft cited mapping technology to allow drivers to make as many right hand turns as possible on their routes. And many of those who embrace green have distanced themselves from the view that to be environmentally conscious is to lack investment rigor. "This doing good while doing well thing is getting to be a bit out of date," said Garvin Jabusch, co founder and chief investment officer at Shelton Green Alpha Fund. "We're looking past mere tree huggery." He said E.S.G. investors needed to focus on ways to generate electricity and recycle existing products that could save resources, make a profit and be widely used. While most E.S.G. investors are not ready to give up on tree hugging altogether, they are taking an approach that has come a long way from simply screening out certain companies like oil and gas, military and tobacco. They are moving toward companies that are just as focused on being profitable businesses as operating in a way that is generally better all around. But this approach lends itself to questions at least it did for me. First, let's talk returns. Are they as good as a portfolio without an E.S.G. screen? The short answer is yes. But that does not mean the returns are always spectacular. Joseph F. Keefe, president and chief executive of Pax World Management, a mutual fund company focused on E.S.G. investments, said there was no evidence that managers focused on companies committed to improving environmental, social and governance factors were at a disadvantage. He said that the company's Global Environmental Markets Fund has outperformed the MSCI World Index since the fund was started in March 2008. A newer fund that invests in exchange traded funds with the same screen has also outperformed a broader index. "Do we have funds that are underperforming?" Mr. Keefe asked. "We sure do. We're in the stock picking business." Advisers who have been taking E.S.G. factors into consideration for years bristle at the suggestion that their process is somehow less rigorous or still based on excluding certain sectors. "I found I could identify with sustainability factors when I was doing traditional types of investment," said Steven Soranno, senior equity analyst at Calvert Investments, who spent most of his career at Credit Suisse. "E.S.G. is one of the undiscovered opportunities in the market today. It's not very hard to find. It just takes time." Nor do all of these advisers exclude whole sectors like oil and gas. Mr. Patsky of Trillium, which was founded in 1982 by Joan Bavaria, a pioneer of socially responsible investing, said many of the company's client portfolios were fossil fuel free but not all of them. It owned stock in Hess, he said, because the company "will sit down and talk to us and not be dismissive of what we're trying to do." More important, he said, was being able to match investments with a person's values. "If your mission is poverty alleviation, you don't want to own companies who are abusive in their labor practices overseas," Mr. Patsky said. "But we always remind people that they're not perfect, and if you're trying to build a portfolio with perfect companies you'll have no companies in your portfolio." The notion of an environmentally sensitive oil company would have been oxymoronic decades ago (and certainly is to people who exclude all extraction and mineral companies from their portfolios). But advisers noted that as E.S.G. screening becomes more mainstream, investors have become less doctrinaire and more focused on the balance between doing business in a better way and making the profit needed to continue the business. "It's a dance," said Steve Schueth, president of First Affirmative Financial Network, which organizes an annual conference on sustainable investing. "There are judgment calls that are made here." Even do gooders have learned to hedge their bets. Mr. Patsky said he bought shares of Tesla Motors, the electric carmaker, for clients at 19 and sold them at 60 because his analysis showed they were fully valued. Today they are trading around 170 a share. "We are not great risk takers," he said. "We look to create portfolios that are going to do well in a down market." Ms. Helzel said she was a convert to sustainable investing after years as a currency trader. In addition to traditional securities investment, she makes private investments in small businesses looking to do something better and start ups that aim to make big changes. This longer term view is one that wealthier people are starting to take with E.S.G. investments. Ward S. McNally, managing partner at McNally Capital, was a co founder of the Cleantech Syndicate, which has pooled money from 12 wealthy families and one sovereign wealth fund to make investments in clean technology and alternative energy companies. They all knew they had to be patient. "The families realized that what was required to maximize value or allow the company to maximize its potential was going to take 20 years, not seven years like a typical private equity investment," he said. Given that the average investment per deal is 3 million to 7 million, this is a long time to wait. Mr. McNally said that was one reason the consortium looked to recruit families that had a scientific background or experience in alternative energy. "In order to maximize your opportunity set, you have to approach it slightly differently," he said. "You can't throw out your basic skills of evaluating the opportunities of any deal. But it's as much about how you manage those assets as how you deploy the capital." Patience is crucial for anyone who wants to make sustainable investments. Ms. Kupferberg said she had been pushing E.S.G. investments with her family for 20 or 25 years, but it was not until 2008, when she got control of an inheritance, that she could invest her money as she wanted. Her father, who started an electronics company that made power supplies, had favored undervalued and growth stocks, which had done very well. But the portfolio included stocks like Exxon Mobil. "My knee jerk reaction would have been to sell those shares," she said. But she said her adviser at Trillium suggested instead that she use her stock concentrations to file proxies advocating for different practices at the companies. (Getting environmental change through proxy is a hard slog, Mr. Schueth said. He considers it a victory if one of his proxy filings gets 25 to 30 percent acceptance.)	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Your Money
'ARTS OF CHINA' and 'ARTS OF JAPAN' at the Brooklyn Museum (ongoing). Redesigning an American museum's Asian wing is no mean feat. But these exhibitions, reopened after a six year renovation, successfully integrate stunning pieces by contemporary Chinese and Japanese artists into the institution's century old collection of antiquities, drawing 5,000 years of art into a single thrilling conversation. Look out for the 14th century wine jar decorated with whimsical paintings of a whitefish, a mackerel, a freshwater perch and a carp four fish whose Chinese names are homophones for a phrase meaning "honest and incorruptible." (Will Heinrich) 718 638 5000, brooklynmuseum.com 'AUSCHWITZ. NOT LONG AGO. NOT FAR AWAY' at the Museum of Jewish Heritage (through Aug. 30). Killing as a communal business, made widely lucrative by the Third Reich, permeates this traveling exhibition about the largest German death camp, Auschwitz, whose yawning gatehouse, with its converging rail tracks, has become emblematic of the Holocaust. Well timed, during a worldwide surge of anti Semitism, the harrowing installation strives, successfully, for fresh relevance. The exhibition illuminates the topography of evil, the deliberate designing of a hell on earth by fanatical racists and compliant architects and provisioners, while also highlighting the strenuous struggle for survival in a place where, as Primo Levi learned, "there is no why." (Ralph Blumenthal) 646 437 4202, mjhnyc.org 'AGNES DENES: ABSOLUTES AND INTERMEDIATES' at the Shed (through March 22). We'll be lucky this art season if we get another exhibition as tautly beautiful as this long overdue Denes retrospective. Now 88, the artist is best known for her 1982 "Wheatfield: A Confrontation," for which she sowed and harvested two acres of wheat on Hudson River landfill within sight of the World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty. Her later ecology minded work has included creating a hilltop forest of 11,000 trees planted by 11,000 volunteers in Finland (each tree is deeded to the planter), though many of her projects exist only in the form of the exquisite drawings that make up much of this show. (Holland Cotter) 646 455 3494, theshed.org 'THE GREAT HALL COMMISSION: KENT MONKMAN, MISTIKOSIWAK (WOODEN BOAT PEOPLE)' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through April 9). The second in a series of contemporary works sponsored by the Met consists of two monumental new paintings by the Canadian artist Kent Monkman, installed inside the museum's main entrance. Each measuring almost 11 by 22 feet, the pictures are narratives inspired by a Euro American tradition of history painting but entirely present tense and polemical in theme. Monkman, 54, a Canadian artist of mixed Cree and Irish heritage, makes the colonial violence done to North America's first peoples his central subject but, crucially, flips the cliche of Native American victimhood on its head. In these paintings, Indigenous peoples are immigrant welcoming rescuers, led by the heroic figure of Monkman's alter ego, the gender fluid tribal leader Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, avatar of the global future that will see humankind moving beyond the wars of identity racial, sexual, political in which it is now fatefully immersed. (Cotter) 212 535 7710, metmuseum.org 'IN PURSUIT OF FASHION: THE SANDY SCHREIER COLLECTION' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through May 17). Featuring 80 pieces of clothing and accessories, this exhibition is, more than anything else, the reflection of one woman's love affair with fashion. Schreier's collection, and the part of it on view at the Met, contains all the major names, but what defines it more than anything else is her own appreciation for pretty things. Hidden away between the Balenciagas and the Chanels, the Diors and the Adrians, are treasures by little known or even unknown designers that are a delight to discover. Three origin unknown flapper dresses from the 1920s, beaded to within an inch of their glittering seams, matched only in their lavish surprise by three elaborately printed velvets of the same era two capes and a column by Maria Monaci Gallenga, so plush you can practically stroke the weft with your eyes. It is these less famous names whose impact lingers, in part because they are so unexpected. (Vanessa Friedman) 212 535 7710, metmuseum.org Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead. 'MAKING MARVELS: SCIENCE SPLENDOR AT THE COURTS OF EUROPE' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through March 1). This exhibition brings together nearly 170 elaborately crafted objects, many never seen in the United States: the mesmerizing 41 carat "Dresden Green," an ornate silver table decorated with sea nymphs, a clock with Copernicus depicted in gilded brass. Some, like a chariot carrying the wine god Bacchus, are spectacularly inventive Bacchus can raise a toast, roll his eyes and even stick out his tongue. Some, like a charming rhinoceros, a collage created from tortoiseshell, pearls and shells, are merely lovely. The show could have been simply a display of ornamental wealth for the one percent of long ago, an abundance of gold and silver that was meant to be shown off in any way possible. But "Making Marvels" is about more than that. (James Barron) 212 535 7710, metmuseum.org 'CHARLES RAY AND THE HILL COLLECTION' at the Hill Art Foundation (through Feb. 15). This Los Angeles based sculptor is one of the most painstaking artists working today; he's certainly among the slowest, taking years to finish a single statue of silver or aluminum, and that makes every exhibition of his an event. This knife sharp show, which Ray has installed himself with his habitual exactitude, contrasts five bronzes of the 15th and 16th centuries (of a lion, of Bacchus, of Christ on the cross) with his own sculptures of a sleeping mime reclining on a daybed, or a mountain lion tearing into a stray dog in the Hollywood Hills. Where his Renaissance and Baroque predecessors used molds and wax to cast their sculptures, Ray relies on 3 D scanning and CNC machining: highly precise technologies that translate objects into data that can be output to a robotic mill. But his concerns are the same as artists 500 years gone how bodies can be transubstantiated into precious metal, and take on new meaning and value. (Farago) 212 337 4455, hillartfoundation.org 'T. REX: THE ULTIMATE PREDATOR' at the American Museum of Natural History (through Aug. 9). Everyone's favorite 18,000 pound prehistoric killer gets the star treatment in this eye opening exhibition, which presents the latest scientific research on T. rex and also introduces many other tyrannosaurs, some discovered only in this century in China and Mongolia. T. rex evolved mainly during the Cretaceous period to have keen eyes, spindly arms and massive conical teeth, which packed a punch that has never been matched by any other creature; the dinosaur could even swallow whole bones, as affirmed here by a kid friendly display of fossilized excrement. The show mixes 66 million year old teeth with the latest 3 D prints of dino bones, and also presents new models of T. rex as a baby, a juvenile and a full grown annihilator. Turns out this most savage beast was covered with believe it! a soft coat of beige or white feathers. (Farago) 212 769 5100, amnh.org 'FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OF WOMEN'S WORK: THE LISA UNGER BASKIN COLLECTION' at the Grolier Club (through Feb. 8). Documenting the long and sometimes hidden history of women making an independent living, this exhibition features nearly 200 items from Baskin's collection, including books, letters, photographs and printed matter of all kinds, along with surprises like a pink early 20th century birth control sponge (or a "sanitary health sponge," as its tin puts it). Among the oldest pieces is one of the first books printed by women, a 1478 history of Rome's emperors and popes. (It's shown open to a passage about Pope Joan, a mythical female pontiff.) The most recent are letters by the anarchist Emma Goldman, displayed, in a slyly pointed nod to the present, next to Goldman's 1919 pamphlet against deportation. Other objects include a sample of framed embroidery by Charlotte Bronte, displayed with a Bronte letter describing her efforts to find work as a governess, and a copy of the first autobiography by a black woman in Britain: the rollicking 1857 account by Mary Seacole, a Jamaican born nurse who, among many other things, served in the Crimean War. (Jennifer Schuessler) 212 838 6690, grolierclub.org 'EDITH HALPERT AND THE RISE OF AMERICAN ART' at the Jewish Museum (through Feb. 9). This rare show covers the life of an influential art gallery, founded in 1926 by Halpert. Skilled at both business and publicity, she represented stellar prewar American artists like Stuart Davis, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Charles Sheeler and Jacob Lawrence, promoted folk art and selected some wonderful pieces for her own collection, which have a room of their own here. (Roberta Smith) 212 423 3200, thejewishmuseum.org 'THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ALVIN BALTROP' at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (through Feb. 9). New York City is a gateway for new talent. It's also an archive of art careers past. Some come to light only after artists have departed, as is the case with Baltrop, an American photographer who was unknown to the mainstream art world when he died in 2004 at 55, and who now has a bright monument of a retrospective at this Bronx museum. That he was black, gay and working class accounts in part for his invisibility, but so does the subject matter he chose: a string of derelict Hudson River shipping piers that, in the 1970s and '80s, became a preserve for gay sex and communion. In assiduously recording both the architecture of the piers and the amorous action they housed, Baltrop created a monument to the city itself at the time when it was both falling apart and radiating liberationist energy. (Cotter) 718 681 6000, bronxmuseum.org MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK at various locations (Jan. 25 Feb. 1). Painting and sculpture often overshadow drawing, or what Roberta Smith, the co chief art critic of The New York Times, has called "the most intimate of art mediums." But this annual showcase on the Upper East Side, which takes place at more than 20 locations clustered around Madison Avenue (as well as at Sotheby's and Christie's), spotlights works of paper and ink, charcoal or graphite. Among the highlights are Moeller Fine Art's "The Enchanted World of Lyonel Feininger," a collection of drawings and painted wooden pieces by that German American artist, and the reunion of Guercino's recently rediscovered "Aurora" with its preparatory drawing at Christopher Bishop Fine Art. (Peter Libbey) masterdrawingsnewyork.com	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
Over the next week, the president repeated the phrase, clarifying that the label applied only to purveyors of "fake news," not to all media outlets. "A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are they are the enemy of the people," Mr. Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 24. "Because they have no sources. They just make them up when there are none." "They're very dishonest people," he added. "In fact, in covering my comments, the dishonest media did not explain that I called the fake news the enemy of the people the fake news. They dropped off the word 'fake.' And all of a sudden the story became the media is the enemy. They take the word 'fake' out. And now I'm saying, 'Oh, no, this is no good.' But that's the way they are." More than a year later, with stories of migrant families separated at the border starting to dominate the news, the president used the phrase again after the release of an F.B.I. report detailing anti Trump texts from an F.B.I. agent and castigating James B. Comey, the former director of the bureau, for insubordination.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
Christo has long been interested in mastabas, trapezoidal structures that originated in Mesopotamia. He designed a Texas mastaba in 1975, for example, and is devising plans to build a permanent one in Abu Dhabi, which he says will be the largest art structure in the world. But before then, he will build one this summer in Hyde Park in London that will be made up of 7,506 oil barrels and float on the Serpentine lake, behind Kensington Palace. The temporary structure will be unveiled around June 20, in conjunction with an exhibit at the nearby Serpentine Galleries on Christo and his wife and artistic partner, Jeanne Claude, who died in 2009. Standing about 65 feet tall and weighing 500 tons, the mastaba will be anchored to one spot but will still bob up and down. The Westminster Council approved the proposal last week. "The exciting part of the project is that it's detached from the urban landscape," Christo said in an interview on Sunday. "You have this incredible vegetation and open area." The mastaba will use 50 times fewer barrels than the planned Abu Dhabi version; while that one will primarily be orange, the British mastaba will take on the colors of its country's flag blue, red and white as well as purple. "The mauve is very royal," Christo said.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
Despite the recent attention on digital privacy, venture capital investors have mostly stayed away from companies that offer virtual private networks, which allow users to hide their online tracks. Now there is one big exception. AnchorFree, the maker of Hotspot Shield, one of the oldest VPN apps, said Wednesday that it had raised 295 million. The round brings AnchorFree's total funding to 358 million, far outpacing any of its competitors. The company, based in Redwood City, Calif., is the latest tech start up to secure a giant investment. Fund raising rounds of over 100 million have become more commonplace than ever this year. The investment in AnchorFree suggests that the VPN category is becoming more mainstream. Investors previously avoided it in part because relatively few users have adopted the technology. In addition, some of the networks are not as secure as their companies claim. But after events like the Equifax hack, the repeal of net neutrality rules and Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal, downloads of Hotspot Shield spiked. It's a little perplexing, since a VPN would not have protected people affected by any of those events. David Gorodyansky, the founder and chief executive of AnchorFree, said they had pushed typical consumers to take privacy and security more seriously. Hotspot Shield has been downloaded 650 million times. Lately, it has averaged 250,000 downloads a day. For most of the summer, it has been the top grossing app in its category in the Apple App Store, and in the top 50 over all, according to the app ranking site App Annie. AnchorFree's other apps, Betternet and HexaTech, ranked high on the App Store charts this week, as well as competing VPN apps owned by Norton, McAfee and a variety of obscure companies. "Two years ago, there were no privacy or security apps in the top 100," Mr. Gorodyansky said. "There's been a massive shift." Some free services log users' browsing data and sell it or turn it over to governments when asked. Others say they are based in the United States or the Cayman Islands but actually operate out of countries with censorious governments. Let Us Help You Protect Your Digital Life None With Apple's latest mobile software update, we can decide whether apps monitor and share our activities with others. Here's what to know. A little maintenance on your devices and accounts can go a long way in maintaining your security against outside parties' unwanted attempts to access your data. Here's a guide to the few simple changes you can make to protect yourself and your information online. Ever considered a password manager? You should. There are also many ways to brush away the tracks you leave on the internet. Still others obscure what a VPN can actually protect people from. "They are marketing themselves as 'sprinkle our security or privacy dust on your device and suddenly it will become private and secure,'" said Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit focused on digital rights. AnchorFree made for an attractive venture investment because the technology it has built on top of the open sourced VPN software makes it faster than other VPN services, said Sujay Jaswa, a partner at WndrCo, the investment firm that led the latest round of financing. Many of AnchorFree's competitors license its technology, including Bitdefender, Dashlane, Kaspersky and McAfee. AnchorFree's tech is also prevalent in smartphones and the products of telecommunications companies. Samsung Galaxy phones come loaded with AnchorFree's VPN software; Verizon and Telefonica license it as well. The companies split revenue earned from anyone who becomes a paying customer. The company said it has been profitable since 2010. It has just 110 employees; 80 are engineers, and it has no salespeople. Hotspot Shield is free, but a small percentage of users pay a monthly fee for extra features, including faster internet speeds, the ability choose their internet server, and added protection from phishing, malware and spam. The company recently added a product specifically for businesses. In 2017, the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit that promotes digital rights, asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate AnchorFree and Hotspot Shield, accusing the company of deceptively redirecting users to certain websites and sharing data.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
Chennedy Carter averaged 19.4 points and 4.3 assists in her first seven games before going down with a sprained ankle minutes into her eighth. She's called "Hollywood" for a reason. No one shines brighter than Atlanta Dream guard Chennedy Carter when the lights are on. With the glitzy nickname she picked up in high school because of her popularity on and off the court, Carter has embraced the tenets of stardom. She turns it on when the pressure is at its highest and, after a captivating run at Texas A M, appears on her way to becoming one of the W.N.B.A.'s biggest names. But unlike the famous 45 foot tall white letters that spell out her moniker, which can be seen for almost 30 miles south of Los Angeles, the rookie is still waiting for the world to truly see her. "They have always slept on me," Carter said, referring to coaches and others who she felt overlooked her ability. She added, "Listen, I can be young, I can be a rookie, but I also can accomplish anything." "I came in here with a chip on my shoulder," Carter said, "even with being picked fourth, and I feel like that chip has been there my entire life." Drafted early by an Atlanta team that finished last season 8 26, Carter came in with high expectations, in a season where the team has not met them. Through Sunday, Atlanta was 3 11, with a 10 game losing streak that ended on a narrow win over the Minnesota Lynx. But Carter had been stellar even amid that gloom. In a loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Aug. 4, she dropped 26 points; two days later, she tallied a 35 point and 7 assist performance that broke the franchise's record for most points scored by a rookie and the W.N.B.A. record for the youngest player to score more than 30 points, at age 22. She averaged 19.4 points and 4.3 assists in her first seven games before going down with a sprained ankle minutes into her eighth on Aug. 10, which has kept her out since. She was expected to be back in the lineup on Friday against the Minnesota Lynx. That chip on her shoulder was expected to be back, too. "You have to respect it," Courtney Williams, her Dream teammate, said. "I feel like it would be one thing if she wasn't producing, but she's producing so at that point, keep doing what you're doing because you're backing it up." Call it cockiness. Call it arrogance. Or, just call it swag. Whatever "it" is, it's too good to go unnoticed and Carter knows it. That attitude has been a part of Carter's identity going back to her time at Texas A M. She'd dreamed of playing for the Aggies since she was a 13 year old hooper growing up in Arlington, Tex., inspired by the 2011 championship team that featured the current Chicago Sky guard Sydney Colson. Carter made her mark in Aggieland and ensured it would remain long after her departure. Not only was she the highest drafted player in the program's history, but she finished in the top 10 of multiple statistical categories and ended her collegiate career with 1,983 points, six shy of the program's all time scoring leader, Courtney Walker. The team went 22 8 and was ranked No. 18 when the season was cut short because of the coronavirus pandemic. It's fair to say that had there been an N.C.A.A. tournament this March, Carter would have eaten that scoring record for lunch. She might also have had a chance to swing the spotlight with a postseason run. Despite being an early draft pick, Carter still felt overlooked and underappreciated given how much of the media attention this year has been on Sabrina Ionescu, the Oregon star who was drafted No. 1 over all by the Liberty. "I think Chennedy is misunderstood," Dream Coach Nicki Collen said. "I think she wants to win and she wants to be the best, but I also think she felt a little bit overshadowed by Sabrina in the draft, and it's very hard in that scenario. "Don't get me wrong that kid earned everything she received, and Oregon had the better record, but I think this is a stage that Chennedy can shine on and I think she can be a Hall of Fame player." It all goes back to the first time Carter picked up a basketball, at the age of six, to compete against her three brothers. "I remember once they even lowered the rim to try and dunk on me," Carter said. And while her brothers cut her no slack, she credits her father, Broderick, for pushing her beyond her limits to become such an exceptional player. "Me and my dad, we'd work out no matter what. Whether it was raining, snowing, pouring outside, it didn't matter," Carter said. "He is my biggest supporter." Carter recounted the countless hours her father would practice with her, run drills with her, making her dribble with a tennis ball on the dirt and other unorthodox methods to train her to become one with the basketball. "I even used to play without shoes on the concrete, just to get my feet and my handles right, and get my legs up under me," she said. She's often said her success is also her father's success. The two share a special connection, one of the reasons it was difficult to learn of her paternal grandfather's death the earlier this month. "It was tough being in the bubble," she said, of receiving the news by phone while in Bradenton, Fla. "It was tough on my dad. He wanted to be there right with me in the moment telling me. So I just went to my room, really just to be with myself. I had a lot of tears and a lot of pain. But I really appreciated my teammates coming to me and having conversations with me and just being there for me." It's almost become a pattern for Carter: She doesn't shy away when the going gets tough. Even after being sidelined by the ankle injury for more than two weeks, she is still determined to finish out the season as strong as she started it. "We can be really special and go really far. So I'm working every day and just pushing myself to make it happen," she said. "Chennedy is going to be a work in progress," Collen said. "There aren't a lot of players that can get 35 every night, and I think the pressure of that can be very real."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
THE DAY THAT WENT MISSING By Richard Beard 280 pp. Little, Brown Company. 27 In his memoir, "The Day That Went Missing," the novelist Richard Beard launches what he calls an inquest into his own past, hoping to remember the day when he was 11 and his younger brother, Nicky, 9, drowned beside him in the waves during a holiday at the Cornish coast. Beard is grown now, with children of his own, but he finds himself increasingly numb to emotion, he writes, and his marriage is on the rocks. He believes that repressed grief is to blame, and he goes in search of his lost history to recover himself. He wants all the facts: dates, places, times. He searches his mum's attic for photographs, school records, diaries, letters and socks. He holds up old pictures to the cliffs at the beach and attempts to reconstruct history in such meticulous detail that the book is as much about the search as it is about the day itself. The thing about childhood is that you don't understand how strange it is until you look back as an adult. While you're inside it, it's all you know. But Beard notices that Nicky is eerily absent from the family story; he doesn't even know the date of his brother's death. Nicky is not kept on a pedestal, as we might imagine, but remembered as less remarkable, less talented and less promising than he was, even by his mother. The reader is carried along on the twists and turns of the inquest, from the basics (the date, the beach, the rental house) to Beard's ineffectual research (he loses his map, interrupts during interviews) to the profound (the discovery of a lost story), so that the book is not only a memoir but a chronicle of how lost memories can be recovered. It is a memoir that reveals the mechanism of the form itself.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Books
People in the travel industry shared a number of tips to help travelers minimize concerns about water safety, crime and staying healthy aboard cruise ships, which often carry hundreds, if not thousands, of passengers. Swim At Your Own Risk: Because most cruise lines don't provide lifeguards, children should never be allowed to swim without supervision, said Julie Danziger, a cruise specialist at the New York City travel consultancy Ovation Vacations. "Either you need to be watching them or make sure that if they're going to the pool as part of an activity with the cruise ship's kids club, that there will be an attendant with the group at all times," Ms. Danziger said. She also said that adults should bear in mind their own water safety. Recent drownings have not been confined to children. In August 2014, a 29 year old woman drowned aboard Princess Cruise's Sapphire Princess, and a British marine accident investigation found that the absence of properly trained employees in the pool area contributed to the woman's death. Ms. Danziger advises adults who are not strong swimmers to avoid swimming alone at off peak hours such as early morning or late at night. Watch Your Belongings: Many travelers have a false sense of security when they're on a cruise, experts said. "You feel like you're in a cocoon away from the rest of the world and nothing can happen to you, but, in reality, if you're on a bigger boat, you're surrounded by hundreds and even thousands of strangers," said Ruth Turpin, the owner of Cruises, Etc., a cruise focused travel agency in Fort Worth, Tex. "I've had clients who feel so carefree on cruises that they leave their rooms unlocked and all their belongings out." That's not a good idea. Ms. Turpin recommends always locking your room, putting away valuables like cash and passports in the room safe and not leaving your belongings unattended in public areas. "It's common to save lounge chairs on a cruise by putting your handbag or iPad on the chairs," she said, "but, if you do so, you're putting yourself at risk for theft." Wash Your Hands Frequently. The most common cause of gastrointestinal illnesses on cruise ships is norovirus, an infection characterized by vomiting and diarrhea, according to Dr. Henry Murray, an infectious disease expert at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork Presbyterian Hospital in New York. With norovirus, you run the risk of being sick for several days and ruining your vacation. However, your chance of contracting the virus can be reduced by washing your hands often, especially before you eat and after using the bathroom, Dr. Murray said. "The virus can live on any surface you touch, so hand washing is a good way to protect yourself," he said. But, he emphasized that cruise passengers should not be overly concerned about getting the stomach bug because most cruises are safe from food and waterborne illnesses. Don't Book a Cruise on a Ship Without an Infirmary Any cruise ship you're considering should have an infirmary, preferably one that's open 24 hours, said Ms. Danziger of Ovation Vacations. This infirmary would typically be staffed by a nurse, and possibly a doctor, capable of treating a range of medical issues from a sore throat to a broken bone, she said. She added that on a reputable cruise line, travelers are more likely to receive high quality care at the infirmary. If the cruise you're considering doesn't have an infirmary, Ms. Danziger doesn't recommend booking it. "If something does happen, you need the assurance you have somewhere to go for help, especially if you're in the middle of the ocean," she said. Be Cautious on Port Visits Even if your cruise ship is luxurious and safe, that's not necessarily the case when it comes to the port cities it docks in, said Ms. Turpin of Cruises, Etc. If your boat stops in Rio de Janeiro, a city where crime is known to be a problem in certain areas, for example, the cruise line will probably warn passengers not to navigate through the city alone. And you should heed that warning. Instead, you might take one of the cruise line's group excursions or book a private guide. Also, it's best to leave your cash and flashy jewelry behind.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
LOS ANGELES In a surprise twist in the continuing saga of the Weinstein Company, an investor group said on Thursday that it had reached an agreement to buy most of the assets of the near bankrupt studio, just days after a deal had been declared all but dead. "This next step represents the best possible pathway to support victims and protect employees," Maria Contreras Sweet, who leads the investor group, said in a statement. In keeping with the whipsawing sale process, however, it did not become clear that a deal had in fact been completed until the Weinstein Company's board released a statement several hours later. "We consider this to be a positive outcome under what have been incredibly difficult circumstances," the statement said. The board also thanked Eric T. Schneiderman, New York's attorney general, who hosted a meeting between the two sides at his offices on Thursday. Ms. Contreras Sweet, who declined an interview request, is best known for running the Small Business Administration under President Barack Obama. According to a person briefed on the deal, an agreement will call for her group to pay off the Weinstein Company's debt, which totals roughly 225 million. In return, the group will receive the majority of the studio's assets, which include "Project Runway" and a 277 film library. Those assets will be used to start a new entertainment firm, which the Weinstein Company's 150 employees, or at least most of them, will be invited to join. The new company will be "led by a board of directors made up of a majority of independent women," Ms. Contreras Sweet said in her statement. The group will invest an additional 275 million in the new studio to fund operations. The Weinstein Company has been struggling to remain afloat since October, when The New York Times and The New Yorker magazine disclosed decades of sexual harassment allegations against the company's co owner Harvey Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein has denied ever engaging in "non consensual sex." The deal includes a victims' fund worth up to 90 million, and Mr. Weinstein and his brother, Bob, who jointly own about 42 percent of the Weinstein Company, will receive no cash from the sale. Other equity holders will also be wiped out. In a statement, Mr. Schneiderman said, "As part of these negotiations, we are pleased to have received express commitments from the parties that the new company will create a real, well funded victims' compensation fund, implement H.R. policies that will protect all employees and will not unjustly reward bad actors." He added, "We will work with the parties in the weeks ahead to ensure that the parties honor and memorialize these commitments." Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. The Weinstein Company had said on Sunday that it would file for bankruptcy after the collapse of talks with Ms. Contreras Sweet's group, which includes the billionaire investor Ron Burkle. The Weinstein Company's board said at the time that promised interim funding from the group had not materialized, leaving bankruptcy as the only option. But on Thursday, Mr. Schneiderman got the sale back on track by holding a meeting in his offices with Mr. Burkle and Ms. Contreras Sweet and members of the Weinstein Company's board, including Bob Weinstein and Lance Maerov, an executive at the advertising giant WPP Group. Mr. Burkle, who has a long history with the Weinstein Company, stepping in to help Harvey Weinstein finance films like "Our Idiot Brother" in 2011, asked for the meeting. Mr. Schneiderman sued the company and the Weinstein brothers on Feb. 11, alleging that they violated state and city laws barring gender discrimination, sexual harassment and coercion. A deal for the company had been expected to be formalized on Feb. 12, but the lawsuit brought sale talks to a halt. Amy Spitalnick, the press secretary for Mr. Schneiderman, said on Feb. 11 that his office had recently reached out to representatives of Ms. Contreras Sweet to emphasize the importance of adequately compensating victims, protecting employees and not rewarding those who enabled or perpetuated Mr. Weinstein's misconduct. "We were surprised to learn they were not serious about discussing any of those issues or even sharing the most basic information about how they planned to address them," Ms. Spitalnick said. Mr. Schneiderman said again in a Feb. 12 news conference "there was no victim compensation fund." Ms. Contreras Sweet was stunned by Mr. Schneiderman's public remarks, according to one person briefed on the matter, believing that he was overlooking money for victims that had been built into her proposal. By the end of that week, Mr. Schneiderman had started to get what he wanted. The Weinstein Company, for instance, fired its president, David Glasser, on Feb. 16. Mr. Glasser had been expected to run the new studio; Mr. Schneiderman had pointed to him as being one of the managers who perpetuated Mr. Weinstein's behavior. Ms. Contreras Sweet also met with Mr. Schneiderman and laid out her plans for a victims' compensation fund. In the end, the settlement fund was increased; up to 90 million will be made available, including an estimated 30 million in insurance money. Mr. Schneiderman's lawsuit remains active, however. Ms. Contreras Sweet outlined her plans for the company in a letter to its board in November, when she first made her offer. "I will be chairwoman of a majority female board of directors," she wrote in the letter. "Women will be significant investors in the new company and control its voting stock." After failing to find other buyers who would keep the studio intact Lionsgate, Shamrock Capital Advisors, Killer Content and the Qatari company beIN Media Group were among those considering various pieces the board entered into exclusive negotiations with Ms. Contreras Sweet's group in late January. Ms. Contreras Sweet has no experience in Hollywood, but she is known in Los Angeles business and political circles. Much of her business career was spent at a California 7Up bottler, where she became vice president of public affairs and a part owner, according to her website. She then ran the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, managing a 14 million budget. After that, she co founded a private equity firm and in late 2006 founded ProAmerica Bank, which focused on Latino small business owners. The bank struggled and was sold in 2015. "We are grateful to the New York State attorney general's office for their efforts in helping us reach an agreement, and we are grateful to our investors who have believed in this process and in the compelling value of a female led company," her statement on Thursday said. "We also want to thank all the parties who returned to the negotiating table to help us reach this development."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
How's this for a state of emergency: An entire region of the country takes up armed resistance against the federal government, brazenly murdering and raping its African American citizens in a decades long campaign of terror that subverts and then rewrites the law. More dire, certainly, than an invasion of criminal migrants at the border. And it actually happened. The shockingly violent, depressingly predictable backlash in the American South to the end of slavery, and to the attempt to make freed slaves equal members of society, is the central concern of "Reconstruction: America After the Civil War," a four hour PBS series written and narrated by Henry Louis Gates Jr. (It shows in two hour installments, on Tuesday and on April 16.) Among the many lacunae in Americans' knowledge of their own history, our hazy notions of Reconstruction and its overthrow essential to an understanding of so much in our own times, from the civil rights movement to today's mirror like rise of white nationalism may be the most damaging. Many people, if they have any sense of the era at all, came by it through "Gone With the Wind" or, even more grievously, "The Birth of a Nation." So Gates's series is a great service, especially in its first two hours, which cover the years from the end of the Civil War, with the initial enthusiasm and promise of Reconstruction, to the contested election of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, which essentially ended the federal government's efforts to enforce Reconstruction in the South.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Television
Once more, the pronouncements arrived in a torrent, though this time they were about rebirth rather than cancellation. The N.B.A. was planning to start up again in late July. The N.H.L. announced a playoff tournament would take place through the summer. Major League Baseball was continuing negotiations with its players for a shortened season. The N.F.L. was moving toward opening training facilities. Soccer leagues for both men and women in North America were working toward finalizing plans for summer tournaments. Top tier soccer leagues in England, Italy and Spain announced they would resume play in June. After months filled with pessimism, hesitation, quiet planning and uncertainty about whether major sports would happen again in 2020, nearly every sport was preparing to come back, provided that work agreements with players could be negotiated and that public health authorities raised no objections. Player representatives, league officials, lawyers and business consultants who work closely with them say the sudden shift resulted from a mix of dramatic changes few could foresee a month ago. There has been an increase in the availability of testing, which has allowed some of the leagues, like many other businesses, to secure all the kits they believe they need. There were also far more mundane developments. Lisa Baird, commissioner of the National Women's Soccer League, said a final linchpin for her league's plan was gaining approval from its insurance company. "Science has advanced," Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, wrote Wednesday in an email. "We know more than what we did before, and just speaking personally, my expectation is that science will continue to progress forward with therapies, testing and vaccines. I'm actually more optimistic about a vaccine coming early than what others expect." Not everyone is as bullish as Cuban about the prospects for a vaccine, with most experts saying one won't be widely available until at least early next year. And while the coronavirus curve has flattened and testing has increased both nationally and in the hardest hit areas, it remains below a level that some epidemiologists say is needed to help mitigate future outbreaks. But with reopening plans underway in all 50 states and with elected officials and the public anxious for business activity to resume, league officials had a growing sense that there would be minimal opposition if they moved ahead with plans. Also, people who work closely with the leagues and team owners said, the financial consequences of not returning, potentially billions of dollars in losses across the leagues, made trying to come back vital. None Week 11 Predictions: Here are our picks against the spread. N.F.L. Tightens Covid Protocols: As cases rise and Thanksgiving approaches, the league is requiring masks inside team facilities and increasing testing. The Packers' Defense Is Their M.V.P.: Green Bay's oft overlooked defense has kept the team from falling out of the Super Bowl chase. The Long Path to the Super Bowl: With 18 weeks in the regular season and fewer teams earning byes in the playoffs, the Super Bowl is still a long way off. Playoff Simulator: Explore every team's path to the postseason, updated live. "The economics of missing an entire season are just really, really bad," said Irwin Raij, co chairman of the sports law practice at O'Melveny Myers, who is in constant contact with numerous team officials and owners. Finally, while certain players have expressed concerns about their safety, especially those with compromised immune systems, most are like any other furloughed worker who wants to return to work and get paid, even if that means doing so without the usual comforts of the job. "We are all going to have to be a little less judgmental," said Alison Riske, a tennis player who participated in a four player event last weekend on a private court in the backyard of an estate in Florida, without her usual support team. "We have to roll with the punches." J.C. Tretter, the Cleveland Browns center who is president of the N.F.L. Players Association, said the desire to get back was strong, so long as it could happen safely. "We all love playing football," Tretter said Friday from Cleveland. "We also love our teammates and our families." For two months, league officials could not talk seriously about acquiring the necessary tests without giving the impression that their needs were more important than the general public's. During the last two weeks, as testing became more widely available, even in the cities the virus has hit the hardest, such as New York, that concern has diminished. One top sports industry executive, who speaks regularly with the leaders of all the major sports, said the N.B.A. had already secured enough tests to screen all of the players as often as they want. An N.B.A. official, who asked not to be identified because the league's comeback process is still evolving, confirmed that the testing hurdle had been largely cleared. Baird said she had finally felt comfortable moving forward when medical experts signed off on an N.W.S.L. plan to test players before they arrive for the tournament in Utah, again when they show up, and then at least weekly during the monthlong competition. Brian McCarthy, a spokesman for the N.F.L., said the league was still working on its testing process and securing the necessary kits. As the major leagues waited for the right moment, they watched NASCAR hold races, golf stage two charity events, European soccer return and tennis pull off a backyard round robin. With the United States largely reopening in recent days, the governors of California and New York, the largest states to impose extensive stay at home orders, said they would consider sports events without fans, giving hope to league officials. Even without the expense of having to stage games and pay players, teams need some revenue to cover fixed costs. Some owners have borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire their teams or to build stadiums. The Mets, for instance, pay roughly 50 million annually toward construction debt on Citi Field. Stan Kroenke, who owns the Los Angeles Rams, as well as the N.B.A. and N.H.L. teams in Denver, earlier this month borrowed an additional 500 million from the N.F.L.'s stadium fund, in part to finance the continuing construction of a football stadium in Inglewood, Calif., that is scheduled to open this year.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
On the page and as read aloud by the likes of Tammy Grimes and Meryl Streep the characters are appealing, just as Sendak was, to the extent they are engaged in doing something else. Usually what Rosie is doing is trying to get the others to play roles in the film of her own life, a film in which she is inevitably a glamorous star. The others sometimes consent to be her extras, but even so maintain their own imaginative autonomy. Taken together, the stories create a parable of community, as children discover how to be a part of something larger without losing themselves. Though attenuated, that element is still evident in the half hour animated musical version that Sendak (book and lyrics) and Ms. King (music) wrote for CBS television in 1975. The children in it, being cartoons, remain uninterested in the audience, and though their dialogue is voiced by individual (adult) actors, their seven songs are all sung by Ms. King on the soundtrack. In this way the performative aspect of musical theater is diverted from the characters into the narration, finessing the problem of musical theater kids. The expansion that gave rise to the Off Broadway production that Encores! Off Center is now reviving unfinesses the problem. It's a live "family" musical with an all kid cast selling the material for all it's worth, usually straight out to the audience. Some 45 minutes of new songs and dialogue exacerbate the problem by trying to give everybody big moments; the result is more like a juvenile talent show than a story. It would be uncouth to criticize a juvenile talent show. In any case, all of the leading performers are delightful at something, whether because (like Taylor Caldwell, as Rosie) they have astonishing voices or because (like Kenneth Cabral, as Alligator, and Eduardo Hernandez, as Pierre) they move beautifully. I'm not sure how surprising that is, even for teens and tweens, given that many have been in Broadway shows like "School of Rock" and "Fun Home" or are alumni of Rosie O'Donnell's Theater Kids program. Naturally, they're skillful.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Theater
Ronald G. Witt, a historian who redrew the map of the Renaissance through influential studies that identified the first stirrings of Italian humanism in a period well before the birth of its traditional father, Petrarch, died on March 15 at his home in Durham, N.C. He was 84. His wife, Mary Ann Frese Witt, said the cause was heart failure. Professor Witt was a disciple of the eminent German historians Hans Baron, who coined the term "civic humanism" to describe the political culture of 15th century Florence, and Paul Oskar Kristeller, who emphasized the work of medieval rhetoricians in preparing the ground for Renaissance humanism. In his studies of the humanist Coluccio Salutati, chancellor of Florence in the late 14th century, and in two sweeping works, "'In the Footsteps of the Ancients': The Origins of Humanism From Lovato to Bruni" (2000) and "The Two Latin Cultures and the Foundation of Renaissance Humanism in Medieval Italy" (2012), Professor Witt persuasively revised previous ideas about the evolution of Italian humanism. "His books have been major influences on the way the Renaissance is now taught in America and around the world," James Hankins, a Harvard historian who studied under Professor Witt, wrote in an email. Immersing himself in medieval manuals of Latin rhetoric and grammar, and closely examining letters and speeches, Professor Witt examined two powerful currents in the development of modern ideas about language and history. The "traditional book culture," as he put it in "The Two Latin Cultures," one nourished in cathedrals and monasteries, began to rely on classical models in teaching grammar. At the same time, the lay practitioners of public speech the lawyers and notaries who composed speeches and public letters for political officials continued to consult medieval manuals of rhetoric. The two cultures did not proceed in succession, with literary humanism superseding the medieval, scholastic world of the law, he argued. Rather, he said, they coexisted and eventually intertwined. Turning his attention to historical and literary developments in the city state of Padua in the 13th century, Professor Witt, in "'In the Footsteps of the Ancients,'" pushed the birth of humanism back more than 50 years from its traditional date in the mid 14th century. Going back even further in time, he argued that the humanist project of the Paduan poets Lovato dei Lovati and Albertino Mussato could not be understood without reference to literary changes of a century or more before them. By this reckoning, Petrarch, far from being the founding father of humanism, belonged to its third generation. Professor Witt's "'In the Footsteps of the Ancients': The Origins of Humanism From Lovato to Bruni" was awarded a prize by the Renaissance Society of America. "'In the Footsteps of the Ancients'" was awarded the Renaissance Society of America's Gordan Prize and shared the Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History, given by the American Philosophical Society. Ronald Gene Witt was born on Dec. 23, 1932, in Wayne, Mich., and grew up in Plymouth. His father, Elmer, a German immigrant, was an engineer with Detroit Edison. His mother, the former Iris Palmer, was a homemaker. With the thought of entering the foreign service, he studied political science at the University of Michigan, earning a bachelor's degree in 1954. But it was the history courses he took that grabbed hold of his imagination. After studying history and teaching for two years in France on a Fulbright scholarship, he enrolled in Harvard, where he was awarded a master's degree in history in 1958 and a doctorate in 1965. He began teaching at Harvard as an instructor in 1964. In 1971 he joined the history department at Duke University, where he was distinguished professor of medieval and Renaissance history on his retirement in 2004. Professor Witt's dissertation evolved into the book "Coluccio Salutati and His Public Letters" (1976), a study of the provincial notary turned civil servant, based largely on the letters he wrote as chancellor of Florence from 1375 until his death in 1406. Professor Witt returned to Salutati in "Hercules at the Crossroads: The Life, Works and Thought of Coluccio Salutati" (1983), the first full length biography of his subject. "Before Salutati, humanism was a movement consisting of scattered geniuses without a center," Professor Witt told the reference work Contemporary Authors. "Through his vast literary correspondence and his patronage of Greek studies, his own scholarly achievements and concern to train disciples in the city, Salutati was responsible for making Florence the capital of Italian humanism in the first half of the 15th century."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Books
"Yeah, first Tom Steyer dropped out, then Pete Buttigieg ended his historic run as the first openly robot candidate and we all know once a gay guy sets a trend, white women aren't going to be far behind. So Klobuchar dropped out, too." TREVOR NOAH "Pete Buttigieg ended his historic campaign as the first openly gay candidate and then endorsed Joe Biden. Yeah. Pete said the hardest thing I've ever had to do was come out as a Biden supporter. The biggest challenge? Telling his parents." CONAN O'BRIEN "Buttigieg said he was ending his campaign to, quote, 'Help bring the party and our country together.' Yeah, with that kind of attitude, it's clear he wasn't presidential material." JIMMY FALLON "'Come back in four years,' said a bouncer who carded him at a bar." SETH MEYERS "So I guess we learned to pronounce 'Buttigieg' for nothing." JIMMY KIMMEL "And one of the two billionaires in the race, Tom Steyer the poor one Tom Steyer dropped out to spend more time explaining who he is to his family." JIMMY KIMMEL "For every vote he got before dropping out, former presidential candidate Tom Steyer spent 3,300 per vote. Yeah. Yeah, Bernie Sanders said that's obscene. Mike Bloomberg said that's a pretty good deal reasonable." CONAN O'BRIEN "Steyer may have sensed the end was near because the night before, he really cut loose at a rally, where he joined rapper Juvenile onstage for his hit, 'Back That Azz Up.' A white billionaire dancing with Juvenile to a song about butts the 2020 campaign is officially a Mad Lib." STEPHEN COLBERT	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Television
For decades, the tax code has been filled with rewards for homeownership. Tax breaks encourage people to get into first homes and to trade up as they get older, building a national mind set that you're never quite middle class until you've qualified for a mortgage. It amounts to a vast social engineering project that assumes society is better off with owners instead of renters. But the tax bill making its way toward final passage is upending that premise. The bill will increase many homeowners' monthly housing costs by scaling back deductions that allow them to reduce mortgage interest and property taxes. And by roughly doubling the standard deduction, it reduces the incentive to buy homes by making far fewer homeowners eligible for preferential tax treatment. Today, a little under half of American homes are worth enough to justify itemizing mortgage interest and property taxes. Under the tax legislation, that figure would fall to close to 14 percent, according to an analysis of the plan by the online real estate marketplace Zillow. The Republican plan, in short, is tinkering with subsidies so entrenched in the social fabric that they have become entitlements in all but name. "It suggests a limit in the federal government's willingness to subsidize ownership," said Edward Glaeser, an economist at Harvard. "It's also a reflection of just how expensive housing has become, and how it feels problematic to be using the tax code to support people buying houses that are this expensive or, even worse, to be encouraging housing prices to rise further." Both parties have long championed homeownership as a way to help people build wealth and keep neighborhoods more stable. But economists like Mr. Glaeser have been critical of the resulting subsidies. In their view, the government has made homeownership and its financing artificially cheap through the tax code and mortgage backers like Fannie Mae. As a result, people are encouraged to take on more debt than they might otherwise to buy bigger homes and second homes, and to plow the equity they accrue into renovations and personal spending. This distorts the economy in a number of ways. For starters, it's unfair: Since the benefits of these deductions get bigger with larger and more expensive homes, the bulk of the benefits accrue to wealthier homeowners in pricier markets. This alters the landscape by encouraging more single family homes and suburban sprawl. That, in turn, prompts the government to spend more on roads and infrastructure and makes housing a bigger portion of the economy than it would be in the absence of federal help. Construction, though, is one of the least productive industries. By funneling more of the national debt and savings into construction, the government is hindering sectors, like education and manufacturing, that have a bigger economic payoff. All this has made homeowner subsidies, in particular the mortgage interest deduction, one of the rare tax breaks with critics across the political spectrum. Matthew Desmond, a Princeton sociologist who studies how eviction wreaks havoc on the lives on the poor, has documented how the deduction became the "engine of American inequality" because it favors higher income homeowners. Edward J. Pinto, co director of the conservative American Enterprise Institute's Center for Housing Markets and Finance, has described the interest deduction and other homeowner subsidies as a wasteful giveaway that inflates home prices and encourages people to borrow excessively. "My basic view is if you subsidize something you'll get more of it, and as a country we've been subsidizing debt," he said. Jeff Neubauer is already thinking more conservatively. Mr. Neubauer, 34, who helps manage his family's electrical contracting business and lives in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., is looking to trade up from his two bedroom condominium to a larger home in the 800,000 to 900,000 range. Now, he is worried that the cost of ownership will be much higher and will rather play it safe until the effects of the bill are clearer. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. "It makes me want to not spend as much money," he said. Though it's considered sacrosanct today, the mortgage interest deduction was created almost by accident in 1913. When Congress passed the first income tax, it made interest deductible, a provision intended to help farmers and other businesses deduct their financing expenses. Over the next century, as the government began guaranteeing mortgages and as the construction of single family homes became a global industry, the mortgage interest deduction ballooned into one of the largest tax subsidies, accounting for more than 70 billion a year. The size of the deduction made it a tempting target for Republicans. To stay within legislative boundaries, the Republicans need to limit the budget consequences of tax cuts largely benefiting corporations and the wealthy. Reducing housing deductions benefits that disproportionately flow to homeowners in wealthier Democratic cities helps recover some revenues while concentrating the impact on relatively few people, most of whom are unlikely to vote for Republicans. The bill does retain significant subsidies, allowing home buyers to deduct interest on mortgages as high as 750,000 accounting for the vast majority and up to 10,000 total in property taxes and state and local income taxes. But real estate agents have portrayed the changes as a full blown attack on their industry. "The final tax reform bill released punishes homeowners and weakens homeownership," the California Association of Realtors said in a statement issued on Friday, "and in fact, it looks at homeowners and the housing market as nothing more than a piggy bank." Earlier versions of the bill prompted real estate agents in Bakersfield, Calif., to protest and chant "Save Homeownership" in front of the local office of Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader. And the provisions affecting homeownership were among the few main sticking points among House Republicans, particularly those from Mr. McCarthy's state. According to some estimates, the modification of the mortgage interest deduction, combined with the steep drop in the deduction for state and local property taxes, could lead to home price declines of as much as 10 percent in counties with the highest property and income taxes. It is, of course, hard to gauge the long term ramifications of a tax bill that is flying through Congress in hopes of allowing Republicans and the Trump administration to claim a major legislative victory. That uncertainty is leading to major confusion for home shoppers like Morgan Molnar. Ms. Molnar, a 29 year old who works in product marketing, lives in the Silicon Valley city of Sunnyvale and is looking for a home costing 1 million to 1.2 million. She and her husband have been approved for a mortgage and were ready to make offers, but are now feeling hesitant. Better to push forward because the Bay Area's already low inventory is going to shrink? Or will reduced tax deductions lower prices by reducing the number of people who can afford homes? "You're leaning forward but afraid to make that leap because of the situation," she said. One thing that seems certain is that the lack of inventory already plaguing the housing market will get worse. By allowing homeowners already benefiting from the existing mortgage interest deduction cap to keep it, the bill is likely to encourage people to stay in place a bit longer. The plan could also affect consumer spending. Over the past two decades, homeowners have become accustomed to using steadily rising home prices to periodically refinance their mortgages so that they can take money out of their homes and spend it on everything from renovations to college tuition and vacations. These "cash out refinancings" were widely abused before the housing crisis the proverbial "people using their homes as A.T.M.s." It has been less of a problem since the crisis. Today, some 42 million homeowners have about 5.35 trillion in home equity that they could hypothetically tap into, according to Black Knight, a software and data provider to the mortgage industry. This assumes they don't borrow more than 80 percent of the value of their home. Whatever happens, it has led to a chaotic end of the year for real estate agents. Kalena Masching, a Silicon Valley agent for Redfin, a real estate brokerage based in Seattle, has one group of clients trying to push sales through before any tax changes take effect. Another group is holding off to see how the loss of homeowner deductions ends up changing the math of buying a home. "There's an overwhelming sense of people being upset and a lot of uncertainty, and mostly feeling like it's not a good thing," she said.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Economy
These Patients Had Sickle Cell Disease. Experimental Therapies Might Have Cured Them. Scientists have long known what causes sickle cell disease and its devastating effects: a single mutation in one errant gene. But for decades, there has been only modest progress against an inherited condition that mainly afflicts people of African descent. With advances in gene therapy, that is quickly changing so much so that scientists have begun to talk of a cure. In a half dozen clinical trials planned or underway, researchers are testing strategies for correcting the problem at the genetic level. Already a handful of the enrolled patients, who have endured an illness that causes excruciating bouts of pain, strokes and early death, no longer show signs of the disease. Among them is Brandon Williams, 21, who lives with his mother in Chicago. Because of his sickle cell disease, he had suffered four strokes by age 18. The damage makes it hard for him to speak. His older sister died of the disease. Following an experimental gene therapy, his symptoms have vanished. Life has taken a sharp turn for the better: no more transfusions, no more pain, no more fear. "He said, 'Mom, I think I want to get me a job,'" said his mother, Leuteresa Roberts. It is still early in the course of these experimental treatments, and it is likely to be at least three years before one is approved. Although researchers hope the effects will last, they cannot be certain. "We are in uncharted territory," said Dr. David A. Williams, chief scientific officer at Boston Children's Hospital. At the moment, the only remedy for sickle cell disease is a dangerous and expensive bone marrow transplant, an option rarely used. An effective gene therapy would not be simple or inexpensive, but it could change the lives of tens of thousands of people. "This would be the first genetic cure of a common genetic disease," said Dr. Edward Benz, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. It also would mark a turning point for a large community of underserved patients. Most of them have African ancestry, but Hispanics and those with southern European, Middle Eastern or Asian backgrounds are also affected. Experts have long maintained that advances in treatment have been limited partly because sickle cell disease is concentrated in less affluent minority communities. "Having tried for a number of years to raise philanthropic money, I can tell you it's really hard," said Dr. Williams. An estimated 100,000 people in the United States have sickle cell disease. Worldwide, about 300,000 infants are born with the condition each year, a figure projected to grow to more than 400,000 by 2050. The disorder is most common in sub Saharan Africa, where an estimated 70 percent of children with it die before adulthood. In sickle cell disease, blood cells stuffed with hemoglobin are distorted into sickle shapes. The misshapen cells get stuck in blood vessels, causing strokes, organ damage and episodes of agonizing pain called crises as muscles are starved of oxygen. Children usually return to normal between crises, but teenagers and adults may suffer chronic pain. The misshapen cells don't survive long in the blood 10 to 20 days, compared to the usual 120 days. Patients may be severely anemic and prone to infections. Employment can be difficult because the disease is debilitating. Yet many who apply for Social Security disability are denied, Dr. Tisdale said. They end up at emergency rooms when they are in crisis. And treating the disease, with its complications, is expensive: annual costs per patient are estimated at 10,000 a year for children and 30,000 for adults. Those with the disorder go in and out of hospitals. Mrs. Roberts knows this cycle all too well. Her daughter, Britney Williams, had sickle cell disease. At 22, she went into the hospital during a crisis and died, leaving behind a baby daughter. Mrs. Roberts' son, Mr. Williams, was devastated and terrified. He told her he had suffered too much, and his big sister's death brought home to him the fact that his life, too, could end at any moment. He wanted to stop the monthly blood transfusions that were easing his symptoms. He wanted to go ahead and die. Then Dr. Alexis Thompson, head of hematology at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, told Mr. Williams that he could join a new study of gene therapy that might help. There were no guarantees, and there was a chance Mr. Williams could die from the treatment. But it was not so easy. Among the many problems that plagued gene therapy research, there were ones specific to sickle cell disease. Hemoglobin genes are only active in the precursors of red blood cells, which are derived from bone marrow stem cells, and the genes are only active for about four or five days until mature red blood cells form, Dr. Benz said. Yet when they are active, the genes direct the cells to make enormous amounts of hemoglobin, so much that the red blood cell is like a bag holding gelatin. That left researchers with a problem. "How do you manipulate a gene, or put a gene in, so it is expressed only in those cells and at high levels?" Dr. Benz asked. In the new trials, subjects must have immature blood cells stem cells removed from their bone marrow. The stem cells are genetically modified, and then infused back into the patient's bloodstream. The goal is for the modified cells to take up residence in the bone marrow and form healthy red blood cells. Scientists are testing three methods for modifying stem cells. In the first, a form of gene therapy, a virus is used to insert a viable copy of the hemoglobin gene into the stem cells. Until recently, the viruses had a limited capacity to carry genes, and the hemoglobin gene simply would not fit. Only recently have scientists found viruses that can do the job. The second approach starts with the fact that the human genome can make two kinds of hemoglobin: fetal hemoglobin, active in the fetus but shut off after birth, and adult hemoglobin. Some researchers are trying to block the gene that turns off fetal hemoglobin and turns on adult hemoglobin, allowing patients with sickle cell disease to produce fetal hemoglobin instead. "We've known for decades that hemoglobin is different in a fetus it doesn't sickle, and it works as well as adult hemoglobin," said Dr. Stuart Orkin, a researcher at Harvard University who found the hemoglobin switch. A third strategy depends on gene editing with Crispr, a tool that lets scientists snip out parts of genes and paste in new sections. Several groups are doing early studies with Crispr. With recent advances, all three approaches now seem feasible. Farthest along is a new iteration of gene therapy, currently in trials conducted by Bluebird Bio, a biotech company in Cambridge, Mass. The company reported results for four patients of nine in the study who had been treated at least six months earlier. All four produced enough normal hemoglobin that they no longer had symptoms of sickle cell disease. Bluebird is now planning a larger study, in consultation with the Food and Drug Administration, that will enroll 41 patients, all of whom will get gene therapy. The company hopes to finish the study and get approval in 2022. Manny Johnson, 21, was the first patient in a trial at Boston Children's Hospital in which researchers are attempting to restart production of fetal hemoglobin. It worked: Doctors say he no longer has the disease. And Mr. Williams? He wound up in the gene therapy trial run by Bluebird. His mother will never forget the call she got from Dr. Thompson, saying her son was producing enough normal blood cells. For him, too, sickle cell disease has disappeared. "I was like, yes, yes, thank you Lord," Mrs. Roberts said.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Health
A routine trip to send new crew members to the space station became one of the most dramatic moments in the recent history of Russia's space program. Two astronauts, Aleksey N. Ovchinin, a Russian, and Nick Hague, an American, were blasting off from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They were traveling in a variant of Soyuz, Russia's workhorse capsule that has been lofting humans to space since 1967. After the space shuttle retired in 2011, and until SpaceX launched its crewed spacecraft this year, the Soyuz had become astronauts' only ride to the I.S.S. Suddenly, one of the capsule's old school, analog lights lit up red, indicating the rocket had failed. Video from inside the capsule showed the moment when the spacecraft jolted in distress.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
Meet the Australian Who Guards Duke's Best Every Day. He Has Seen Things. COLUMBIA, S.C. Jack White arrived at Duke in the summer of 2016, a hard working, eager kid from Traralgon, Australia, thinking he was ready for big time college basketball. He had no idea exactly what he was about to face. In a summer pickup game, White found himself guarding another incoming freshman, Jayson Tatum, a recruit from St. Louis who wound up as the No. 3 pick in the N.B.A. draft less than a year later. Tatum took White into the low post, but White fought for his defensive position and cut off Tatum's access to the rim. So Tatum jumped away from the basket, spun in midair and swished a turnaround jumper over White's outstretched arm. "You would never see that shot taken in Australia," White said. In his three seasons at Duke, White has seen quite a few things he never would have in Australia. Forget guarding some of the top players in the Atlantic Coast Conference in his first two years, White went chest to chest with no fewer than four N.B.A. lottery picks in Duke practices alone. This season, Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett and Cam Reddish joined that group; those three are expected to be selected high in the first round of this summer's N.B.A. draft, making it seven lottery picks who have put White through his paces and the ringer at one point or another. White has averaged 4.4 points and 5.0 rebounds in 21.5 minutes a game this season, nearly all of it off the bench. He strained his hamstring in the A.C.C. tournament and did not play in Duke's narrow second round win over Central Florida a game in which his defense was missed and Central Florida came within a buzzer beating tip in of ending top ranked Duke's season. White has had a cortisone shot, and expects to play when Duke (31 5) faces fourth seeded Virginia Tech (26 8) on Friday. At 6 foot 7 and 220 pounds, White likes to use his physical strength to impose his will. He has tangled with the massive Williamson in practices throughout the year and said the experience toughened him. Williamson seems to share that opinion; asked to identify the one teammate he would want to have his back in a skirmish, he immediately replied, "Jack." Most experts predict Williamson will be the No. 1 pick in the N.B.A. draft, but Barrett could go second or third, and Reddish plays like a first round pick, as well. "Going back and forth between Zion, R.J. and Cam, three just supertalented offensive players, you've got to be locked in so you don't get embarrassed every day," White said, adding, "You've got to learn how to use what you have to best combat what they do." White said that like his most renowned teammates, he hopes to play in the N.B.A., but he knows he has work to do on his offensive game to make it happen. (He endured an 0 for 28 streak on 3 pointers this season.) He also hopes to play for Australia in the 2020 Olympics. His Duke career came as something of a surprise. In his final year of high school in Victoria state, in southeastern Australia, he was weighing whether to play at Boise State or professionally in Australia when Duke came calling. Eager for a challenge, he accepted the offer, even though he knew playing time would be hard to come by on a team stacked with blue chip recruits. He impressed Scheyer and the rest of the Duke coaching staff in his first scrimmage when he took on some of the best Duke had to offer, including Tatum, and never backed down. The coaches loved his competitive drive and even his trash talking. "We were like, 'Oh, we've got something here,'" Scheyer said. White did not play much in his first two years, with Tatum and Gary Trent Jr. taking up most of the time at his position. But his role expanded this season. Teams across the A.C.C. were acutely aware of when he was on the floor despite his more heralded teammates.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
PARIS Like many complex and forceful people Karl Lagerfeld the German born and Paris based designer who, until his death in February, had been creative director of Chanel since 1983 and Fendi since 1965 was one person to the wide world and another to his friends. Concealed behind the armor Mr. Lagerfeld wore in public dark glasses, tight black jeans, ponytail whitened with imported Japanese powder, fingers barnacled with Chrome Hearts rings was a man who in reality spent many of his adult years living with his mother and later (and more publicly, until his death at 85) with his Birman cat, the feline Instagram star Choupette. "Karl liked the recognition," Amanda Harlech, a British aristocrat who was the designer's creative helpmate for decades, said on Thursday before a memorial sponsored by Chanel, Fendi and Karl Lagerfeld, the brand. More than 2,500 invited guests assembled on a gusty summer evening inside the monumental cast iron and glass cathedral that is the Grand Palais, natural light still filtering in well into the night on the cusp of the solstice. "Karl would say, 'The whole world recognizes me, but they don't know me at all'," Ms. Harlech said. A layered personality who claimed to have "a Google brain" and to ignore the past was evoked during a tapestried tribute featuring video testimonials and clips from throughout his long life and readings from favorite authors like Stephane Mallarme, Colette and Edith Sitwell performed by Tilda Swinton, Fanny Ardant and Helen Mirren. There also were performances by Lil Buck, the star of a Memphis dance style called jookin; Pharrell Williams; the concert pianist Lang Lang, who played Chopin; the violinist Charlie Siem; and a troupe of 17 tango dancers from Argentina. "Karl loved music and he loved to dance," Ms. Harlech said. Among his favorite entertainments, she added, was driving late at night along the corniche in St. Tropez with the top down on his convertible Rolls Royce. "He'd stand on the seat with 'Bohemian Rhapsody' playing full blast," she said. A polyglot designer, photographer, director, publisher and proprietor of a Left Bank bookshop that fueled his bibliophile addiction, Mr. Lagerfeld hurtled through life collecting furniture, houses, experiences and people and operating according to one simple precept: Never look back. "He saw sensitivity as weakness," Victoire de Castellane, creative director of Dior Jewelry, said. Mr. Lagerfeld himself once expressed similar sentiments, although more flatly. "When people show me their behinds, it doesn't bother me," he said, using a saltier term. "When they show me their feelings, I don't like it at all." Like Andy Warhol, Mr. Lagerfeld was endowed with formidable gifts, possessed of seemingly boundless energy and a steely ego. He also, like Warhol, had a distaste for his own physical form. "Karl physically hid himself behind his work, behind his desk, behind his fan, behind his mountains of books," said Francesca Amfitheatrof, a longtime Lagerfeld collaborator and now artistic director of the jewelry division at Louis Vuitton. For many years, Ms. Amfitheatrof noted, Mr. Lagerfeld struggled with his weight before rigorous dieting delivered his slender body ideal. "He even hid his hands with rings," Ms. Amfitheatrof said, adding that Mr. Lagerfeld's mother, an accomplished violinist, famously discouraged him from following in her musical footsteps, in part because she claimed he had ugly hands. Known as Kaiser Karl to outsiders, Mr. Lagerfeld was extravagant with those in his circle, sentimental and supportive, demanding loyalty but also returning it, friends said. "He had a family, and everybody in it had their place and their part," said Michel Gaubert, a sound designer who for three decades created the soundtracks for Mr. Lagerfeld's opulent Chanel shows, for which the designer plundered the corporate coffers to transform the Grand Palais into a supermarket, a cruise ship or a beach. Once, on a whim, Mr. Lagerfeld had an iceberg trucked in from Sweden to use as a backdrop for a ready to wear collection. "It was a little like a court," Mr. Gaubert added. "The king is hungry, the king wants to party, the king wants to dance." For some in a gathering that included Anna Wintour, the editor of American Vogue and artistic director of Conde Nast; the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami; platoons of Chanel clad members of the French elite; and Bernard Arnault, billionaire owner of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Mr. Lagerfeld was remembered less for his contributions to fashion across a half century at the top of the industry than for his omnivorous appetite for each new turning in the culture, a compulsion to learn about the next big literary, photographic, artistic or intellectual thing. Speaking in rapid fire pronouncements in the three languages in which he was fluent (German, French and English), Mr. Lagerfeld charged through life without stopping except, perhaps, to compose the personal notes for which he was famous among friends or to express a playfulness and sentimentality that the public seldom saw. "Karl is faithful, very faithful" to friends, said Carine Roitfeld, the former editor of French Vogue, who was appointed style adviser to the Karl Lagerfeld label soon after his death. "I still talk about him in the present," Ms. Roitfeld added, "because for me he's still here."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
As the summer tourist season approaches and Western Europe's Covid 19 crisis continues to subside, leaders across the continent are deciding whether and how to lift the border restrictions that they imposed amid a flurry of emergency measures in March. The European Commission has urged its members to coordinate their reopening, but a patchwork of strategies has emerged. Some countries Italy and Germany among them are reopening earlier and more widely. Others like Switzerland, Denmark and the Baltic States are proceeding more slowly, opting for "travel bubbles" or bespoke lists of countries whose citizens will be allowed entry. Both approaches have drawn criticism. Bubbles or corridors risk creating confusion and could be seen as discriminatory, say some European observers. But opening up borders among countries where the epidemiological situations are vastly different risks triggering an increase in cases, a scenario that officials are determined to avoid. Indeed, all of the announced plans for reopening have come with an important caveat: If Covid 19 cases start to tick back up, then borders could again be forced to close. "We need to be sure that a summer tourist season won't come at the high price of a second wave of infections," Heiko Maas, Germany's foreign minister, said in May. "So there will be no 'normal' summer holiday this year. Whether the Baltic or the Mediterranean the social distancing and hygiene rules will apply everywhere," he said. Italy which has Europe's second highest Covid 19 death toll, after Britain has jumped ahead of its neighbors in welcoming back tourists, lifting border restrictions on visitors arriving from European countries as of June 3. The next major date in the continent's reopening calendar will be June 15, when Germany and Belgium will allow entry to all E.U. nationals, as well as Britons and citizens of nations like Iceland, Norway and Switzerland that are within Europe but outside the E.U. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe of France has indicated that France will do the same, allowing quarantine free travel for European visitors as of June 15. (However, starting on June 8, France will ask British visitors to complete a voluntary 14 day self quarantine.) The June 15 border openings will be like a "D Day" for tourism in Europe, Italy's foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, told the Italian broadcaster RAI. He added that Germans account for a significant share of Italy's visitors, especially for high end travel. The tourism sector accounts for 13 percent of Italy's gross domestic product. "We must salvage what we can salvage from the summer to help our hoteliers and entrepreneurs," Mr. Di Maio said. While Italy, Germany and France are planning to open up widely, other European nations are proceeding more cautiously, drawing up selective lists of countries from which travel will be allowed, or establishing "travel bubbles" along the lines of the one being considered by Australia and New Zealand. Spain, one of the hardest hit countries in Europe, is waiting until July to lift most of its travel restrictions. At that point, the country plans to open up to visitors arriving from a list of nations where the epidemic is under control, according to Manuel Muniz, the Spanish government's State Secretary for Global Spain. That list hasn't been finalized, Mr. Muniz said in an interview, but it will probably include most European nations, and could be expanded to a select group of countries from outside the region. (The country's land borders with neighboring France and Portugal are due to reopen on June 22.) He added that Spain has asked the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for specific guidance on how the country should draw up its list. "When you talk to epidemiologists, what they tell you is that if you have these two containers with equivalent amount of Covid risk, it's almost irrelevant if there are transfers of movement of people from one place to the other," said Mr. Muniz. He added that tourist destinations need to be able to do four things in order to welcome visitors safely: Track the virus's spread; test anyone with symptoms; trace the contacts of those who test positive; and treat those who fall ill. "When countries open needs to be fundamentally linked to how the disease is performing there, and whether those capabilities are in place," Mr. Muniz said. Spain's plan is just one example of a more tailored approach to reopening. On May 15, three Baltic States Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania began allowing free movement across their mutual borders, effectively establishing the first travel bubble in Europe. (Lithuania has since opened up to quarantine free travel from 24 European nations, including France and Italy, but not Spain or Sweden.) Hungary and Slovenia created their own bubble later in May, while Croatia has begun allowing entry to nationals of 10 European nations, including Germany and Austria, but not hard hit France, Italy or Spain. On June 15, Switzerland plans to open its borders with Austria, Germany and France, but not Italy, its neighbor to the south. On the same date, Denmark will reopen to visitors from Germany, Norway and Iceland, but only for stays of six nights or more, none of which can be in Copenhagen. "I think that creating corridors, bubbles, bilateral agreements between countries only creates more confusion and frustration for the end consumer," Mr. Santander said. He added that his organization has been lobbying for a harmonized return of travel and tourism across Europe. "The information that is out there is so fragmented; it's also so confusing," he said, adding that freedom of movement is a pillar of European identity. "It's not about cutting a deal with your neighboring country," he added. "We cannot create these kind of competitive advantages and disadvantages." The European Commission, which has published a package of guidelines and recommendations on the resumption of travel and tourism in Europe, is building a website that will serve as a "one stop shop" for anyone looking for the latest information on border restrictions within the bloc. A spokeswoman for the commission said that the site should be up and running by mid June. In the meantime, she recommended that potential travelers check the government website of their desired destination to find the latest rules. In France, the mountain resort of Chamonix is preparing for a quieter summer than usual. Major events like mountain races, climbing competitions and music festivals have been canceled, but the area's trails will be open for hiking and mountain biking, and cable cars will be operating with new hygiene measures in place. Claire Burnet, a spokeswoman for the Chamonix tourist office, predicted that tourists would come to the mountains to avoid the crowds one might find at the beach or in a city. "We are pretty optimistic, especially for the French market," Burnet said. "For the European market, we're waiting to see." Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
Conservative and a Vegan in New York. Wait! You Are, Too? Long before Josh Loigman and Ann Porter became lawyers, they got used to defending themselves in the court of public opinion. "People always tell me I've found the only other person in the world who's a conservative vegan," said Ms. Porter, a trusts and estates lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright in Manhattan. "It does sort of feel that way." Though Mr. Loigman noticed Ms. Porter when they first started classes in fall 2012, Ms. Porter doesn't remember seeing him until January 2013, when both went to hear Bruce Friedrich, an animal welfare proponent, speak to the law school's Student Animal Legal Defense Fund. Ms. Porter introduced herself, not knowing he had a girlfriend. "After the speaker everyone was sitting around talking," said Caroline Gignoux, one of Ms. Porter's law school friends and her companion that night. "We saw Josh, and I don't know how, but I knew he was vegan. Annie commented to me how buff this guy was. We thought all vegans were really skinny. So we decided that would be our icebreaker. We went over to his table and said, 'How are you so buff?'" Mr. Loigman, who worked in a gym and did lobbying work for the Humane Society just before enrolling in law school, extolled the benefits of protein powder and weight lifting (and he still does). Then, Ms. Porter said, "he abruptly got up and said his girlfriend was there to take him to the basketball game." He left with a secret crush on Ms. Porter. Days later, he was messaging her and Ms. Gignoux on Facebook. "It became clear as soon as we sat down that they had this intellectual spark," Ms. Gignoux said. "They were talking about animal rights and how they were intertwined with politics. I couldn't contribute anything to the conversation. But Annie is brilliant, and he was totally on her level." That included politically. "I thought, he's for sure going to be turned off because I'm conservative," said Ms. Porter, who is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She is also a descendant of Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, and a distant relative of Daniel Boone, the frontiersman and explorer. In liberal leaning Manhattan, Ms. Porter said, her fiscal and social conservatism is challenged regularly. At that first lunch with Mr. Loigman, "I thought we'd have a debate about it. But he said, 'No, I'm conservative, too,'" she said. Ms. Porter grew up in Summit, N.J., with her parents, Prudence and Michael Porter, who indulged, reluctantly, her hobby of rescuing animals. By the time she was a teenager she had adopted dogs, cats, snails, frogs, birds and a freshwater clam named Clammy. She announced her vegetarianism around age 7. Mr. Loigman became a vegan after reading the book "Diet for a New America" as a 14 year old in Ocean, N.J. His mother, Tracy Loigman, was accommodating. His father, Larry, didn't discuss it much, he said. Ms. Porter discussed her passion for animals all the time. Mr. Loigman suspected he could convince her to convert from a vegetarian to vegan, a matter of offloading dairy and eggs from her diet and non vegan clothes from her wardrobe. "He sent me this article by Matthew Scully," a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, Ms. Porter said. "The article was about the parallels between being pro life and veganism." Ms. Porter, who is against abortion rights, was moved. "I couldn't believe how inconsistent my belief systems were. I opened the refrigerator and saw milk in there, and I was disgusted," she said. Her conversion happened right then. Her status as Mr. Loigman's girlfriend, though, was taking its time to develop. It was not until the beginning of their second year of law school that Mr. Loigman sent what they now affectionately call "the Scully article," originally printed in National Review. ("We are a couple with a William F. Buckley Jr., obsession," Mr. Loigman said of the late conservative pundit who founded that magazine.) And though their friendship was well established by then and both were single, Mr. Loigman's initial romantic overture was inviting Ms. Porter to a sports bar to watch a football game. Dinner, at halftime, was veggie Subway sandwiches. He intended to present the ring on Sept. 8, but Ms. Porter woke up a little before midnight on Sept. 7 while Mr. Loigman was setting the scene, complete with a custom made board game about their relationship, to propose. He regrouped, recited the Aristotle quote, "Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies," and asked Ms. Porter to be his wife. Ms. Porter, through what she called "hysterical tears," said yes. On July 7, before 100 guests at Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, N.Y., Mr. Loigman, in a black Kenneth Cole tuxedo, and Ms. Porter, in a Galia Lahav mermaid dress with dramatic train and vintage Tiffany earrings borrowed from her mother, met in a grassy garden under brilliant sunshine and an arch woven with ranunculus and roses. The Rev. Anthony Mizzi Gili Jr., a Roman Catholic priest, performed the ceremony, as a 10 person wedding party, most showing their solidarity with the vegan couple by wearing no silk, leather or wool, looked on. At a reception in an outdoor pavilion, the usual choice of chicken or fish was replaced with vegan options: rice noodles with coconut green curry, tomato basil risotto and tofu with Japanese sweet potato. Though many of the relatives who had criticized them in their youth for forgoing meat were in attendance, no one complained. In fact, Cheryl Rajewski, a Porter family friend who is lifelong meat eater and chef, was fantasizing about the curry during cocktail hour. "I know it's going to be delicious," she said. "I can't wait."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
For the last several years I have been disputing overblown claims that political correctness is running amok on college campuses. Given my job as the president of Wesleyan University, well known to be (happily) a bastion of left leaning protest, this probably isn't very surprising. But at the same time, I've been actively urging colleges and universities to create greater intellectual diversity by ensuring that conservative voices and viewpoints can flourish along with progressive ones. These might seem like opposing missions, but they are not. You can do both. In fact, if colleges are to maintain their status as places of real learning and growth, they must do both. Lately, one hears a lot about threats to freedom of expression posed by the intolerant left. And not all of these complaints are coming from the right. Intellectuals who think of themselves as moderate liberals are using their platforms to complain about threats posed by "wokeness" or "cancel culture." Those critics do have a point. On college campuses, students sometimes denounce those with whom they strongly disagree as unworthy of being heard at all. That "canceling" can be (but is not always) a problem. It's one thing to see speakers who advocate hateful violence canceled; not everything is permitted. It's another thing to cancel speakers just because their ideas are unpopular. In July, the more than 150 signatories of the much discussed Harpers letter on freedom of expression noted: " R esistance must not be allowed to harden into its own brand of dogma or coercion which right wing demagogues are already exploiting." The "intolerant climate that has set in on all sides," they write, undermines democracy. In some quarters the letter was greeted with derision, since these were writers with large megaphones grumbling about being silenced, and the idea that there are "intolerant people on all sides" recalled one of President Trump's most egregious statements. Similar complaints are also coming now from academics who say that they are afraid of being canceled because they aren't fully in accord with the leftist cultural climates of their campuses. The linguist John McWhorter wrote in a recent article in The Atlantic that he's received hundreds of messages expressing a "very rational culture of fear among those who dissent, even slightly, with the tenets of the woke left." Professor McWhorter describes this as a "new Maoism" because of the tendency to demand public confessions and to adhere to an ideological dogma. He knows, of course, that Maoism killed tens of millions of people in the name of its dogma, so why resort to this overheated rhetoric? People living under the Maoist regime had a "very rational culture of fear" of being deported, tortured or killed. It seems that the academics who write to Professor McWhorter are afraid of being mocked, vilified or perhaps of having their careers disrupted. These professors don't see themselves as snowflakes, but they do crave some protection from students and colleagues demanding ideological conformity. On campus or social media vilification is emotionally damaging, even if it doesn't involve being shipped to a re education camp. Prof. McWhorter himself isn't afraid, it seems, and he has found the courage and intellectual resources (along with the protections of tenure) to stand against vilification. Perhaps he will inspire others, and the institutions that employ them, to do the same. It is no secret that the faculty at most schools leans left, and it's not unreasonable for students and educators to ask how this tilt affects teaching particularly how students are introduced to a broad range of ideas on enduring questions in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. At Wesleyan in 2017, I called for (and then put into practice) an affirmative action program for thinkers and courses rooted in traditionally conservative ideas. Not a few students, alumni and faculty objected to my approach (as well as my use of the term "affirmative action"), and we have had intense arguments about it. Such arguments themselves, I'd like to think, further intellectual diversity. These days when I make a plea for greater intellectual diversity, I'm asked not about teaching Aristotle, but whether I want to invite fascists and racists to campus. My answer, of course, is no: As I have argued before, universities should be "safe enough" places for all students. But when hearing the call for teaching a broad range of ideas, many students and professors immediately worry about providing a platform for notions parroted by Trumpians meant only to protect the privileges of white supremacy and wealth. Is it any wonder? The administration in Washington has appropriated the conservative moniker even as it means to break down the remaining norms of civil society and political culture. But there is little that is conservative about the current kakistocracy. When I talk about the tradition of conservative thinkers, I have in mind those who were skeptical of the powers of a central government, those who felt that a well ordered society depended on a notion of transcendence, and those who were concerned that even well intentioned policies to improve peoples' lives could have unintended consequences that are ruinous. I have in mind traditions of natural law and of religious belief. I have in mind thinkers who point out that theories of how people should organize society often depend on frightening powers of organized violence. These streams of thought offer powerful, alternative perspectives on enduring questions. Given the current makeup of the academy, we can't just hope for them to get a hearing. We have to proactively bring them into the mix, when they are not already there. Classic liberals and some conservatives often claim that only a commitment to a totally open platform for speech will enable the kinds of debate that will eventually lead to better ideas, even to truth. These folks don't believe that speech causes harm, or they believe the harm it might cause is less dangerous than the harm caused by regulating the presentation of ideas. It should go without saying that educators must resist calls for ideological conformity: Learning requires that students (and faculty) be exposed to ideas they might find offensive but from which they can learn, and that students (and faculty) be protected from the expression of ideas that aim at intimidation or harassment. Sometimes the lines of protection won't be clear, and there will be contentious discussions. The pragmatist approach I recommend works against indoctrination and against prejudice, but it doesn't appeal to a foundational or procedural answer to the questions of how much intellectual diversity or how much free speech one should cultivate in an educational institution. There isn't a single answer that always works. These questions require open ended conversation in which people can practice intellectual humility as they realize the fragility of their own preconceived notions and knee jerk responses.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Opinion
Mr. Rhodes spent 12 years at Fox News, where he led the network's news coverage but not its higher rated opinion programming through the 2008 election. His brother, Ben Rhodes, was an adviser to Barack Obama during the presidential campaign and, later, in the White House. David Rhodes left Fox News to lead Bloomberg Television and became the president of CBS News in 2011. During his eight years in that job, he pushed "CBS This Morning" to be newsier. It was a bumpy tenure: In 2017, the network fired the "CBS This Morning" co anchor Charlie Rose after several women had accused him of sexual misconduct. In 2018, the CBS Corporation chief executive Leslie Moonves was ousted after numerous accusations of sexual misconduct. Mr. Rhodes stepped down from the network at the start of 2019, turning the reins over to Susan Zirinsky, who became the first female president of CBS News. More recently, he has worked as an adviser at Boston Consulting Group and has consulted for Spotify and The Los Angeles Times. Fox News lost a powerful leader with the forced departure in 2016 of its co founder, Roger Ailes, who has been accused of sexual harassment. Suzanne Scott, who had worked at the network since its founding in 1996, became its first female chief executive in 2018. In that role, she oversees the Fox News Channel and its sibling, the Fox Business Network. Mr. Rhodes did not respond to an inquiry about his role and plans.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
So Your House Wants to Be a Star For years, fliers from movie and television location scouts turned up in Alan Bennett's mailbox. And for years, Mr. Bennett and his wife, Melanie Oser, reflexively tossed them. The couple had no interest in serving up their Dutch Colonial as a setting for a TV series or feature film. But at some point it occurred to them that perhaps they were being a mite dismissive. Really, at the very least, they should consider the possibilities. "Houses cost a lot of money to maintain, and I thought maybe we could get some of that money back," said Mr. Bennett, 65, a musician. "So we let a location scout take some pictures." The couple's home, where they have lived since 1985, wasn't quite right for the project then in the works, but the photographs were tucked into a file at a production office for future consideration. "It can get expensive," said Keith Adams, the location manager for the third season of the HBO period drama "The Deuce." The high volume of production makes these flush times for New York City residents whose homes have what it takes. Often, that means generously sized rooms, high ceilings, big windows, good light and few if no stairs to climb. Because of all the equipment involved, walk ups tend to be non starters. "Location fees have gone through the roof in the last decade," Mr. Adams said. "It's crazy what amounts people ask for and what amounts they get. On a tight schedule, you're over a barrel at a certain point, and the negotiating power switches to the property owner." Compensation can start at 1,500 and run as high as 50,000 per episode, depending on a production company's budget and how long it intends to stay on a client's property. But the level of disruption can be similarly stratospheric if not equal to that of the owners of the Albuquerque house that played Walter White's home on "Breaking Bad;" they've had to contend with fans throwing pizzas on their roof to commemorate an event from the show's second season.) Consider this: As many as 100 crew members crowd the premises. Furniture, artwork and other personal possessions are frequently moved out for the duration of the shoot (though Mr. Bennett and Ms. Oser can point to a "Sneaky Pete" scene that included some of their very own mugs). Walls are sometime painted, as are exteriors (such was the case when Patrice Stambovsky and her husband, Jeffrey, allowed parts of their Victorian house in Nyack, N.Y., to be used as the residence of Susan Sarandon's character in the 1998 tear jerker "Stepmom.") Trucks filled the driveway for the "Sneaky Pete" filming at Mr. Bennett and Ms. Oser's house in Brooklyn; a compressor took up residence out front. Because the director had allergies, the family cat had to be boarded at Amazon's expense every time the show made itself at home, typically for three days and nights. When the schedule called for an all night shoot, Mr. Bennett and Ms. Oser decided they wanted to be boarded elsewhere too, a courtesy frequently extended to location hosts. They were put up at the Gramercy Park Hotel, "and they paid for us to go out to eat, too," Mr. Bennett said. The terraced Union Square penthouse that served as the home of hedge fund executive Taylor Mason, played by Asia Kate Dillon, during seasons two and four of the Showtime series "Billions" was just perfect except that the elevator opened directly into the apartment. Why was this a problem? It got in the way of the drama for a scene involving John Malkovich's Russian billionaire character, Grigor Andolov. "They wanted John to knock on the door, so they built a doorway and made a fake wood door," said Robert N. Fisch, the owner of the apartment and an entrepreneur. "My wife and I were having a little bit of a heart attack about this." Mr. Fisch was perhaps soothed by the sum he was paid for two episodes in the neighborhood of 100,000, he said. A location team does a certain amount of "cold scouting," like ringing doorbells and pushing fliers through mail slots. They also exchange tips and photos with colleagues from other production units, count on the power of word of mouth and rely on their memories. "It's like casting," said Mark Lake, the location manager for "Law Order: Special Victims Unit." "You might go with a certain actor, but you remember another actor from the audition and you bring him in for something else. If an apartment we see isn't right for a particular scene, we make a note on the file that it would be good for X situation." In some instances, location scouts turn to agencies like Location Department, which represents more than 2,000 properties in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. "We are looking for a dramatic, old townhouse with gravitas to film as part of our finale episode," a location manager wrote in a brief to Location Department's director, Kate Collings Post. "In the show, the home belongs to a Russian oligarch, who intends to renovate the house once he's purchased the neighboring buildings so as to aggregate them into a palace." Among the 230 townhouse possibilities on the company's website is a "modern contemporary" Gramercy Park property with floor to ceiling windows and a terrace, and a recently renovated, 25 foot wide Greek Revival townhouse in Cobble Hill with an open floor plan that "gives it the feel of a loft." The third floor "boasts a dark and moody family room with a library wall and skylight." Just as certain parents overstate the intellectual, athletic or artistic capabilities of their children, certain homeowners may be a bit misguided about the desirability of their homes for a location shoot. "They tell me how beautiful their backyard is," said Debbie Regan, the owner of Debbie Regan Locations, which books properties for movies, television shows and special events. "They think that their koi pond is what a location scout is coming for." But it is true, Ms. Regan said, "that TV shows and movies aren't necessarily looking for a wood paneled library or the most beautiful kitchen. Sometimes they want a vintage kitchen where the appliances haven't been changed since 1970." The big motivator for homeowners is the payout. "More often than not people like the money because rarely am I making the check out to a charity," said Ms. Regan. But there are other lures: vanity, bragging rights and a great story to tell at cocktail parties. Some simply want to be part of a show they love. Mark Lake, of "Law Order: SVU," tells of being in the residence of a "very high net worth individual. He told me that he and his family were big fans of the show and he thought his kids would get a big kick out of having us shoot there." For Ian Reisner, a real estate developer whose Central Park South penthouse has been seen on "Law Order: SVU," " Billions," "Elementary" and "Blue Bloods," the attraction, at least in part, is seeing the many ways his apartment can be transformed. "They've brought in new furniture. They've painted the white walls brown," said Mr. Reisner whose side career started when a friend introduced him to an associate producer on "30 Rock." "It makes your home more dynamic." Still, despite the pleasing addition to a bank account and the brush with the big time, an at home location shoot is definitely not for everyone. "If you get stressed when someone comes to fix something under the sink, you are not cut out for this," Ms. Regan said. "It's at least a 12 hour day," she continued. "If you think it's going to be done by the time the kids come home from school, forget it. I had one client say, 'I don't understand why it took them 12 hours. I could have done it in three.' " Homeowners who sign on with Location Department are sent a packet of information about the process including dos and don'ts. There is also a conversation during which Ms. Collings Post offers some version of "you're not unwelcome during the shoot, but you need to stay out of the way." The bathrooms were off limits to cast and crew. "They ended up building a bathroom for Julia Roberts in the basement. She doesn't use a porta potty," said Ms. Stambovsky who, in 2011, sold the house, which had also been used as a location for the 2010 feature "The Bounty Hunter," starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler. The property recently went on the market again, and promotional material touts its glittery past. Location managers are sympathetic to jittery homeowners up to a point. "We try to treat people with respect and try to make it as good an experience as possible," said Mr. Adams of "The Deuce." "But you made this decision, you rented out your property, you have to allow us to do our work. It's a business arrangement and I'm not going to be walked over." That goes double for Emile L'Eplattenier. A year ago, the Netflix series "Iron Fist" was preparing to use his block in Bushwick for a night shoot. To add atmospherics, the creative team wanted the residents of some of the street facing lofts to keep the lights on from 9 p.m. until the 3 a.m. wrap. One of those apartments belonged to Mr. L'Eplattenier, the managing editor of TheClose.com, a real estate strategy website. He and a production assistant agreed on a fee of 500 to be handed over on the day of the shoot, preferably before the cameras started rolling. An annoyed Mr. L'Eplattenier was still waiting for the payment as shooting got underway. His ire increased when he went to get dinner and returned home, the journey slowed by lights, cameras, cables and the man who stood directly and belligerently in front of the door to Mr. L'Eplattenier's building. Shouting ensued and the set quieted. Just then, the production assistant and a colleague, all smiles, hurried over to the man in front of Mr. L'Eplattenier's building as it happened, a stunt man urged him to move, and ushered Mr. L'Eplattenier through his door.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate
Talk about customization: Brian Lewis and his daughter Pearl pay a call on the aquarium in the walk in closet of the master bedroom in their Upper West Side apartment. Closets, Please, and the Bigger the Better When Apartment J in a Prospect Heights co op went on the market last summer, 120 people streamed through to see it. At packed open houses, potential buyers marveled at the beautifully renovated kitchen, the privacy friendly split bedroom layout, and the proximity to Prospect Park. "We had about 30 people at the first open house," said Kris Sylvester of Halstead Property, the broker. "It was standing room only." But Apartment J drew only one offer for 450,000. That was the asking price, but it was also 25,000 less than Mr. Sylvester had gotten for the apartment next door, and 32,000 less than the one downstairs had gone for a few months earlier. The owners of Apartment J had removed the apartment's permanent closets, Mr. Sylvester said, replacing them with large, attractive Ikea wardrobes that were more practical, and actually accommodated more belongings. The wardrobes, the sellers promised, would stay. But in buyers' eyes, the apartment was closetless. And, as Mr. Sylvester discovered, "that was a deal breaker." If the desire for square footage is insatiable in New York, so is the quest for an uber organized life, and closets are increasingly being recognized as a factor in the mysterious real estate equation. Sure, it's about having a place to put your stuff. But closets can also represent something deeper. Closets, said Jennifer Baumgartner, a clinical psychologist and the author of "You Are What You Wear: What Your Clothes Reveal About You," can be repositories for memories and aspirations. "Hobbies you've wanted to pursue and the outfits that go along with them," she said. "Kind of like a timeline of a life." Clothing, Dr. Baumgartner added, is "the internal bubbling to the surface we choose how we want to look to the world, we choose how we package ourselves. The closet is a container for that." In general, regular closets are 3 by 5 feet, while walk in closets are 5 by 8 feet, said Jonathan J. Miller, the president of Miller Samuel, a real estate appraisal company. But the closet sweet spot the point at which an apartment's closets are big and plentiful enough to grab buyers by the lapels, but just small enough that they don't seem to encroach on living space can be elusive. "In space starved New York City, closets always come up as being an issue," said Andrew Gerringer, the managing director of new business development for the Marketing Directors. "It's really, 'At what cost are they to an overall apartment?' " Developers take different tacks on closets when plotting new condos. In luxury buildings, they are carving out space for closets that will make buyers swoon. Some are outfitting closets in model apartments with come hither shelves and multiple hanging bars; others are lavishing attention on every closet in the building. The day when a lone pole and a shelf sufficed is long gone. "To me, the hallmark of luxury in New York City is wasted space," said Michael Gross, who is writing a book about 15 Central Park West, to be called "House of Outrageous Fortune." "A walk in closet big enough for not only Madame, but her dresser, the person who came to blow out her hair, her three Shih Tzus, and perhaps the husband allowed in to comment on the outfit for tonight, would count as wasted space." When the Glenwood Management Corporation was developing Emerald Green, a Midtown West rental building completed in 2010, an early blueprint was scrapped to eliminate one apartment per floor so that the rest could have more and bigger closets, said Gary Jacob, an executive vice president of Glenwood. "It takes a lot of thought to try to get enough closet space to satisfy people," Mr. Jacob said. In a newer Glenwood building, Crystal Green on West 39th Street, most apartments have five closets, and many have a walk in closet. Even studios, which start at 2,950 a month. With that much storage, it may be possible for real people to keep their homes as stylishly minimalist as they were when staged for viewing. "Some people in a studio have more hobbies than people in a three bedroom," she said. "If you're in a three bedroom, it's your kids' hobbies you have to worry about." At 150 East 72nd, a century old building that Macklowe Properties is converting into luxury condos, all of the closets will be custom built by Poliform, a luxury Italian brand. The model apartments are equipped with Poliform shelves, cubbies and shoe racks, although buyers will be able to work with Poliform to design the closets they want. "You decide to put in a kids' playroom, a fitness center, a screening room," said Dorothy Sexton, Macklowe's vice president for sales, drawing a comparison with closets. "Think of it as an amenity, but a personal amenity." At 18 Gramercy Park, a beyond high end renovation project featuring 4,000 square foot floor through units, closets in the model apartments were staged by a company called Clos ette. "We have a superluxury product here," said Jill Mangone, the building's sales director. "Our buyer is accustomed to being in a well appointed environment." Although Clos ette hasn't been hired to design all the building's closets, some buyers, apparently inspired by the model apartments, have themselves hired Clos ette, said Melanie Charlton, its chief executive. "People have started realizing, 'If I'm going to put my pots and pans in a 250,000 room, why don't I put my clothes and jewelry, which cost a lot more than my All Clad or Le Creuset pots and pans, in an equally special place?' " she said. "I think people have really started giving it the homage it deserves." When Lynn Filipski and her husband bought an apartment in a newly renovated building overlooking Madison Square Park, one of her first moves was to pay "in the high five figures" to have Ms. Charlton's company customize the closets. "You kind of gag and think, 'Wow, this is twice as much as what I thought it would come in at,' " she said. "When you go to sell it, you realize it's definitely worth it. Last year Tristan Andrews, an agent with Douglas Elliman, received an unusual request from a Hong Kong couple he had just worked with on buying a 3,900 square foot pied a terre on Fifth Avenue. No, they weren't looking to flip the place. They were looking for a second apartment, not necessarily in the same building, to use as a closet for the wife's sizable wardrobe. They were in the market for a pied a closet. Co ops were out of the question, and even filling out rental applications proved to be tricky. "It's very difficult to say, 'Occupants: 1,000 pairs of Jimmy Choo shoes,' " Mr. Andrews said. For 7,950 a month, the couple are now renting a two bedroom condo a few blocks away on Madison Avenue from an owner who was not offended that his renters were using his home as a closet. "He thought it was funny," Mr. Andrews said. After Chelsey Ward and her husband bought a three bedroom co op in TriBeCa, they used one room as a bedroom and one as an office, and hired California Closets to convert the third into a closet for Ms. Ward. "Being able to turn a bedroom into a closet in New York City is a little bit like using your whole paycheck to buy a Chanel handbag," Ms. Ward observed. "It's a little slice of what it would be like if you had an entire house, or a car and a driveway and a backyard." Then there are those who use closets as bedrooms or, as brokers have increasingly noticed, home offices. Instead, Mr. Sylvester of Halstead found her an apartment in Park Slope with more closet space and a kitchen with a breakfast nook. Mrs. Kearney turned it into an extra closet. Over more than a decade, Carolyn Musher, the New York City sales manager of California Closets, has counseled thousands of New Yorkers through closet crises. Among her clients: frantic condo buyers suffering from closet induced buyer's remorse. "When you first walk into an empty apartment, you're not taking into consideration, 'Where's my stuff going to go that I want behind closed doors?' " Ms. Musher said. "You're enamored with the space. Then you move in and reality hits." When Ms. Musher and her husband decided to buy, after years of renting, she set her sights on a Brooklyn Heights building she had admired from afar. The apartments were all sold. "Now, I'm doing closets there, and I'm like, 'Thank God,' " she said. Ms. Musher moved instead to a condo in Park Slope with generous closets. Even so, she plans to divest a half bathroom of its toilet: Voila, another closet. "It's a 1,500 square foot apartment," Ms. Musher said. "My guests can use my kids' bathroom."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate
Last year, ABC secured broadcast rights for the show until 2028 at a cost of roughly 75 million a year and through the contract negotiations, the network was given a bit more creative input into the show. To wit, ABC got the host it long wanted: its late night star, Jimmy Kimmel. But the show was a long one, even by Oscars standards. At nearly four hours, it clocked in as the longest in a decade. For the last two years, awards shows have experienced sustained losses in viewership, but this year has brought an early turnaround: The Golden Globes and the Grammys each had ratings increases. Still, like the Super Bowl in early February which featured its own heart stopping conclusion the Oscars had its viewership fall. There will most likely be a number of theories as to why viewership has dropped. Last year, the controversy surrounding OscarsSoWhite, a movement on social media aimed at the lack of diversity among the nominees, led to speculation that viewers could be turned off by the prospect of an hourslong civics lecture. This year brought the prospect of political speeches aimed at the Trump administration from an entertainment industry that largely opposes the president. Ratings are also often driven by the popularity of the movies in contention. "Moonlight," which won the best picture award, was a favorite in big cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco but was ignored by much of the heartland.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
A Traveler's Guide to the Best Bets in Las Vegas I have spent a lot of money in Las Vegas, and I don't gamble much. I've paid 250 for a Cirque du Soleil ticket, taken a gondola down the faux canals of Venice for 60 and, on occasion, vastly exceeded my wine budget. Las Vegas thrives on convincing visitors to splurge, which I considered when Lady Gaga opened her concert residency at the Park Theater. Recently, tickets for the back row center balcony were selling for 466 (fans in the front row were paying 2,500). Value, of course, is subjective. But price creep on the Strip, as the casino lined stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard is known, is objective, as resort fees at several high end casinos rose 6 to 45 a night this year. Rooms, food, drinks and entertainment are increasingly important money makers for casinos, where gaming revenue has fallen from nearly 62 percent in 1984 to a little under 43 percent in 2018, according to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. There is one certain money saver in Las Vegas: the bus. The city of endless traffic lights and taxi fleets is a tangle to transit. Even ride shares are expensive; I took an Uber less than one mile one evening and it cost 8. But the bus system is affordable and reasonably efficient, especially if you stick to the Strip. A double decker bus called the Deuce runs 24 hours between downtown and Mandalay Bay resort. A two hour pass costs 6; an all day pass costs 8. Everything about taking the bus, of course, takes a little longer. I waited for 10 minutes at the airport terminal, rather than just hopping in a cab. After a few stops, I connected to a Strip bound bus at the South Strip Transfer Terminal, a mass transit hub, which was easy to navigate. The payoff to this relatively slow form of travel was a scenic ride past the Welcome to Las Vegas sign and other landmarks. Other than the Deuce, which can be dominated by tourists, most of the buses I rode were used by local workers and students, with a rare sprinkling of visitors. On the suggestion of a friend, I bussed from the airport directly to Tacos El Gordo a 60 minute trip (I missed the 108 bus, which gets there in about half the time). With roots in Tijuana, Mexico, the cheerfully crowded taco stand in a nondescript strip mall between downtown and the Strip features a row of meat carvers behind the counter, ready to shave spit marinating pork into pliant corn tortillas ( 2.60). Two tacos topped with chopped onions and cilantro made a bargain meal. I was lucky to get a table. It's not that you can't eat cheaply on the Strip. Donald Contursi, the owner of Lip Smacking Foodie Tours, introduced me to several specials, including the 29 three course lunch, which includes creamy Greek spreads such as tzatziki and grilled fish at Estiatorio Milos, and 5 happy hour appetizers at Mr. Chow. At Eataly, a bustling new food hall that anchors the Park MGM hotel in a space that could double as a train station, focaccia slices sold from 2.90. But by wandering farther afield, I found intriguing and affordable food. Downtown, I wandered from the dimly lit Downtown Cocktail Room, lively with locals during "halfy hour," when my 12 Paloma was 6 (Monday through Saturday 4 to 7 p.m.), to the new robata bar Hatsumi at Fergusons Downtown, a former motel now housing restaurants, shops and co working spaces. Decorated in cartoon monsters, Hatsumi served skewered meats ( 2 to 6 each) to the mostly under 40 urbanites who are repopulating downtown Las Vegas. A friend who lives in another gentrifying neighborhood, the Arts District, guided me to Able Baker Brewing Company, an industrial spot with the brew kettles in the back named for the first two atomic bombs, Able and Baker, detonated at the Nevada Test Site north of town in 1951. Here we had juicy I.P.A.s (most pints, 5 to 8) and generous pork banh mi sandwiches ( 9). On the cusp of the Arts District, I paid 6.50 for a chicken stuffed arepa, or corn cake folded taco style, at the Venezuelan Viva Las Arepas, a low key quick service spot where I watched Latin American telenovelas with the office lunch crowd. Through Eater, which has a thorough guide on cheap eating in town, I discovered Takopa, a tiny and friendly Japanese spot where I sat at the bar and watched the cooks prepare their specialty fried octopus fritters (four for 4.95) in Chinatown, a neighborhood filled with pan Asian dining deals that required two buses to reach, but worth every bite. Cheap hotels aren't hard to come by in Las Vegas, though rates vary with business and event traffic. My spacious 40 room at the El Cortez Hotel Casino downtown was 100 the previous week when several conventions were in town. Wherever you stay in Las Vegas, you're bound to have sticker shock because enticing offers 19 a night! don't include resort fees, which run about 25 to 45 a night. The 25 fee at El Cortez brought my nightly rate to 65, still a good deal for an updated room with lime green walls and Art Deco style, black and white decor in room coffee and a ground floor gym. For a real retro stay, downtown's 1906 vintage Golden Gate Hotel Casino has 10 original rooms small but updated for those who just need a bed that often sell for 25, plus a 25 resort fee. When it comes to cultural attractions in Las Vegas, expect to pay. The Mob Museum charges 29.95 admission, but if you're interested in history, you'll get your money's worth learning about the role of Prohibition in establishing organized crime at the former post office and courtroom where hearings were held on the subject in 1950. Also uniquely Las Vegas, the Neon Museum preserves the city's castoff signage. I paid 24 for the 25 minute night show "Brilliant," which syncs light and sound to reanimate the otherwise dark signs. The separate tour of the regular collection, called the Boneyard, costs 30. During my stay, the lowest ticket available for "Run," the new Cirque du Soleil show, was 79, or 105 with fees. Instead, I spent 37 ( 52 with fees) to take in "The Mac King Comedy Magic Show" at Harrah's Las Vegas, a daytime only delight starring the Kentucky born star who manages to entertain all ages with surprising tricks, sly humor and hilarious interactions with audience volunteers. "Being the affordable show has been good for me," said Mr. King, who started out in 2000 with tickets at 10. "Now it's like buying an airplane ticket with all the fees." Among free tours, I attended an "open house" at "Ka," the high tech Cirque du Soleil show at the MGM Grand. It essentially functions as a 30 minute sales pitch for the show, but offers a fascinating look at the 80,000 pound rotating stage and other wizardry. Another morning, I signed up with the concierge at the Park MGM for a free art tour of the garden themed resort and was introduced to contemporary works by Guy Yanai and David Hockney. Similarly, the nearby Aria resort offers tours and a self guided map to sculptures by Maya Lin and Henry Moore. Downtown's free attraction, the Viva Vision light show at the Fremont Street Experience, projected on a 1,500 foot long overhead video screen, attracted more buskers. But the real payoff was at Gold Spike, a former casino billed as an "adult playground" (free admission). Instead of gambling, there's a bar, co working spaces and indoor games like cornhole, and a vast outdoor yard where I caught a soulful set from Cimirriar Deniece, a local singer. On my return to the airport, I stopped at the nearby Pinball Hall of Fame (free admission) and spent 5, one quarter at a time, playing games that went back as far as 1964, the kind of slot machines that pay off in joy. Bottom line: The cost of my trip was about 350 for a three day stay in Las Vegas.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
As I walked past the booth staffed by robots selling robots, the plants that water themselves and the prototype Mercedes with no driver at the International CES trade show last week, it occurred to me that the future of human existence might not require many humans. At CES, the huge technology event in Las Vegas, reality is reconfigured and purportedly improved by the presence of software and machines and the absence of actual people. I watched one guy put on a pair of virtual reality glasses, then get strapped into a big, complicated contraption that mapped his movements as he trotted along hunting with a futuristic gun. I wanted to tell him: Find some friends, go outside, play paintball, run in three actual dimensions. Huge crowds gathered around a robot from Toshiba named ChihiraAico, who smiled and gestured as she spoke to the crowd. Her performance, including preprogrammed winks, was equal parts cheesy and charming. As I watched her, I was reminded that the future never seems to quite arrive, and it ages quickly if it does. The spooky presence of the communications android brought to mind Disneyland animatronics from half a century ago and served as a reminder that people still cannot wait to have a robot for a friend. Not to say that the spectacle wasn't enjoyable. You can't spend the day looking at butterfly cages full of tiny drones bathed in blue high definition lights (from the vast television sets that are everywhere) and not be taken by the gee whiz of it all. Sure, a lot of the stuff will never find traction any place besides the convention hall, but the concentration of ingenuity, design and wonder is remarkable to behold. Then again, some, if not a good portion of the almost 200,000 people at the trade show never made it to the 2.2 million square feet of exhibit space. What used to be a gathering of geeks hugging themselves over new technology has become, along with the Cannes Lions festival in June, a kind of Woodstock for marketers, brands, agencies and media companies. Google, Facebook and Twitter were there, but so were Procter Gamble, Toyota and Wells Fargo. All day and every day last week, the people who run huge companies were having top to top meetings in various hotel suites to set up deals for the next year, while their underlings prowled the floor looking for the next big thing. In the evening, those hordes took over the mega clubs of Vegas to toast common interests and good fortune. It's a parallel universe that has little to do with the technology being showcased. CES now has a gravitational pull beyond gadgets everyone goes because, well, everyone goes. On Tuesday night, MediaLink, a media consulting company, hosted what it called a dinner but was really a full on poolside bacchanal for the kings and queens of Silicon Valley and all the streets Madison, Vine, Wall frolicking together in the Foxtail nightclub at the chic, new SLS hotel. It was a target rich environment for anyone who wanted to gain access to capital, technology, know how or power. Michael Kassan founded MediaLink, and many people blame him for blowing the whistle that turned CES from a nerd curio into a bonanza for marketers, agencies and media organizations. "Originally, it was about bringing together the people who wear the pocket squares with the people who wear the pocket protectors," he said by phone on Friday, the day CES ended. "There's been a mash up between chief technology officers and chief marketing officers as what they do becomes more interrelated. Now it has taken off, and it's the place where Google talks with Unilever and Facebook gets together with Kraft." The ancient trope of the convention goer in bad ties making bad decisions far from home has been replaced by something much sexier. Instead of golf and cigars, it was bottle service and exclusive seating at a Snoop Dogg concert. Top executives from technology and consumer brands met at a kind of convention over the convention, far from the floor and whatever gewgaw happened to be wowing the attendees. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. At Cannes Lion, which takes place in the south of France, a similar explosion in marketing and advertising has emerged. The event was conceived as a site for creative talent in the advertising world to share ideas, but then big brands wanted insights into the creative process, and the account executives and media sellers soon followed. CES gives people who market products a look at the context those products will soon fall into. People complain, trash talking Vegas or the unwashed nerds who make it all possible, but they show up in bigger and bigger numbers every year. "At CES, we end up seeing people that we also see in New York, and it can be sort of silly," said Matt Seiler, global chief executive of IPG Mediabrands. "But we travel in packs, and because everyone is in the same place at the same time, good things tend to happen." Technology has come to so dominate culture that it can run over many things in its path. Car companies aren't waiting for the auto shows to unveil products, because cars are now rolling data centers. Mark Fields, the chief executive of Ford Motor, gave a keynote address at CES this year, and Mercedes Benz unveiled a prototype of a self driving car called the F015 that looked more like a pod for consuming media than a road vehicle. In the same way, Dish Network didn't wait for the television critic's convention to announce Sling, its low cost, over the web package of cable channels that just happens to include ESPN it did so at CES last Monday. (In case people didn't grasp how big a deal it was, Dish's president and chief executive, Joseph Clayton, came in banging a huge drum as he led a marching band accompanied by a bunch of people in kangaroo costumes.) Watching it all, I had a feeling that consumers will be traveling around in big bubbles of data that will, if all goes as planned, make the things around them smarter and their own lives better, with much of the technology driving it barely visible. Rather than emphasizing an individual product, this year reflected the growth of cheaper and smarter sensors, signal gatherers that can be hacked together to create an interconnected life. Imagine your smart car pulling up to your smart house where your smartwatch will download your health data to a smart kitchen so it knows what you should have for dinner, while your smart television tunes in to programs it knows you want to see. If you are in the business of marketing products that are going to be in that refrigerator or on those screens, you'd want to be in Las Vegas to see what is coming next. And while you are at it, you'd be more than happy to cut a deal with the abundant digital and traditional publishers who were there vying for attention and money. Think about it: What better place to explore the world of virtual reality than Vegas, a place where both Venice and New York are rendered as casinos? The crush of all those people looking for a peek over the hill makes getting around a bit of a challenge. I was staying at the Mandalay Bay, at the opposite end of the strip from the convention center. The cab line was hopeless and I was relieved when a shuttle to the show pulled up. And just in case I'd forgotten where I was, the van was equipped with mood lighting and a stripper pole right in the middle. For all I know, the pole was embedded with a number of sensors, and at CES sometime soon, there will be a hologram dancing around it.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
DETROIT Cobo Center has 723,000 square feet of exhibition space, enough to spotlight hundreds of new cars. Mysteriously, as journalists gathered here last week for press previews of the North American International Auto Show, it seemed as if there was room for only one vehicle: the 2014 Corvette. Chevrolet's 2014 Corvette Stingray revived a storied sports car name, ruling the show the way it hopes to rule the street. And General Motors hopes the 450 horsepower Stingray powerfully reloaded for a post recession comeback can help to revive the company in both symbolic and sales terms. The 'Vette, that most aspirational dream car for heartland buyers, may be a bellwether for America's recovering car industry and economy: when middle class strivers feel flush enough to splurge on Corvettes again, the good times may be about to roll. G.M. grabbed more attention as its Cadillac ATS won the North American Car of the Year award, chosen by a jury of auto journalists. Cadillac also unveiled the swoopy ELR, a plug in hybrid coupe based on the Chevy Volt. Of course, buyers have mostly shunned today's crop of electrified cars. After years of E.V. frenzy, Detroit's show saw a dearth of electric models. Instead, automakers poured out creamy luxury models, especially in entry and midprice territory that's prized for sales volumes and attendant profits. Seemingly unprecedented in blue collar Detroit, if not at any American auto show: only two nonluxury, truly all new showroom models were introduced. They were Nissan's Versa Note hatchback and the Kia Cadenza, itself aspiring to luxury with a price well over 30,000. Emboldened Lexus IS and Infiniti Q50 luxury sport sedans represented the latest attempts to go mano a mano with the BMW 3 Series. BMW kept pace with its alluring 4 Series coupe. Mercedes Benz will look to conquer 30,000 territory with the curvy, compact CLA sedan, which it introduced to the press on the eve of the show's opening but chose not to display during the public show. It also delighted showgoers with a handsomely refreshed E Class lineup, years before those cars were due for full redesigns. The space age Nissan Resonance crossover was one bravura concept that had journalists buzzing. And the subtly contoured Volkswagen CrossBlue Concept imagine a minimalist German take on a Jeep Grand Cherokee seemed a prime candidate to continue VW's remarkable turnaround in the United States. Highlighting the industry's tussle between power and fuel economy, Detroit's luxury gave way to, well, Lutzery. Robert A. Lutz, the retired G.M. vice chairman who championed the Chevy Volt, was up to his old green tweaking tricks. His new company, VL Automotive, showed the Destino, a doppelganger of the Fisker Karma plug in hybrid sedan with the hybrid system rudely replaced by 638 horses worth of CO2 spewing Corvette V 8. If Fisker whose production has been on hold for months can't survive, and Mr. Lutz delivers a handful of six figure Destinos, Detroit's 2013 show may have produced a future collectible on the order of a Tucker. As an auctioneer might intone in 2043: "This primitive plug in hybrid has a Corvette V 8 under the hood and is actually the last Fisker bodied car ever made. And as you older folks might remember, Fisker and G.M. both owed their existence to government aid." Enough fantasy; here are some high points from the 2013 Detroit show: ACURA The exterior of the MDX design study is a near clone for the production version that goes on sale in summer. The big news for Acura's midsize crossover is likely to be a front drive version, with all models powered by a 3.5 liter V 6 of roughly 310 horsepower. Sharing the spotlight in Acura's display was the breathtaking NSX concept, now moving closer to reality with an actual interior. The NSX is some three years away from showrooms; it will be built in Ohio and powered by a midmounted V 6 assisted by electric motors. AUDI Seemingly answering Mercedes Benz's power mad AMG unit, Audi cranked up the RS7 and SQ5. The former is a 560 horsepower version of the sparkling A7 hatch, with a twin turbo 4 liter V 8. Starting from the Q5 crossover, the SQ5 adds a 354 horse supercharged 3 liter V 6. Both models go on sale by September. BENTLEY Perhaps counterintuitively, Bentley sales are booming again. The handcrafted 238,000 Continental GTC Speed convertible follows suit with a 616 horsepower twin turbo W 12 engine that booms to 60 m.p.h. in 4.1 seconds, to 100 in 9.7 seconds and continues on to 202 m.p.h. BMW Longer, lower and wider than the 3 Series sedan that it's based on, the new 4 Series is an opulent coupe that BMW will hoist up the price ladder to meet the likes of the Audi S5. Engine choices are likely to include BMW's 2 liter turbo 4 and 3 liter in line 6 when the car reaches showrooms later this year. With the 4 Series moving up to a richer neighborhood, the 320i sedan takes the brand in the opposite direction. On sale in April for 33,445 to start ( 35,445 with all wheel drive) the most affordable 3 Series gets a 180 horsepower version of the 2 liter turbo 4 that drives the more expensive 328i. CHEVROLET The seventh generation 'Vette rolls into showrooms this summer with an expected starting price around 56,000. It's faster and newly refined to measure up with more costly rivals like the Porsche 911. Highlights include a lightweight aluminum chassis, carbon fiber and carbon composite body panels and a 7 speed manual transmission. A 450 horsepower 6.2 liter V 8 spurs the Stingray from 0 to 60 m.p.h. in less than four seconds, Chevy says, and it will exceed 1 g in lateral acceleration. FORD Chrysler's big cowpoke, the Ram 1500, may have been named North American Truck of the Year, but Ford's Atlas design study looked strong enough to hoist the world onto its pickup bed. The Tonka like Atlas previews the crucial 2015 F Series. Show observers couldn't avoid noticing how the Ford and Dodge tag team made Chevy's conservative new Silverado look about as gutsy as a Toyota Camry. HONDA Honda's riposte to the Nissan Juke will be a cautious effort, judging from the styling of the Urban SUV Concept shown here. Set to go on sale next year, this subcompact crossover, nine inches shorter than a Honda CR V, is based on the Fit. HYUNDAI Styled in Hyundai's Irvine, Calif., studio, the HCD 14 Genesis Concept suggests the direction of premium Hyundai sedans to come. An optical system recognizes the driver to start the car, and 3 D hand gestures operate controls. INFINITI The Q50, a replacement for the G37 sedan, goes on sale this summer with the world's first steer by wire system; electronic controls replace the mechanical link between the steering wheel and turning wheels. The shapely Infiniti will offer rear or all wheel drive, and the choice of a 328 horsepower 3.7 liter V 6 or a 354 horse hybrid V 6 powertrain. JEEP The midlife upgrade of the Grand Cherokee gets Chrysler's new 3 liter diesel, with 240 horsepower and 420 pound feet of torque. Chrysler's seamless 8 speed automatic transmission will help it achieve fuel economy as high as 30 m.p.g. in highway driving, Jeep says. KIA Appropriately, Kia used the luxury heavy Detroit show to introduce the richest sedan in its history, the Cadenza. A sister to the front drive Hyundai Azera, the Cadenza adopts Hyundai's 293 horsepower V 6 and should hew closely to its 33,000 base price when it goes on sale this summer. LEXUS With a glowering front end that's one part Predator and one part Kabuki mask, the Lexus IS elicits love it or hate it reactions. But no one will overlook Lexus' sport sedan again. Consumer reaction will be tested in June, when the IS 250 and 350 models go on sale with a choice of two V 6 engines and rear or all wheel drive. LINCOLN Based on the Ford Escape compact crossover, Lincoln's close to production preview of its upcoming MKC looked sharp. But to compete against Audi, BMW and Land Rover, the newly renamed Lincoln Motor Company will also need sharp performance. MASERATI This Italian greyhound has been the underdog of big luxury sedans. The new version grows 10 inches longer, while the price shrinks to around 100,000 or less for a version with a 410 horsepower, 3 liter twin turbo V 6. A 3.8 liter twin turbo V 8 model will have 530 Italian ponies, more than any standard V 8 competitor. MERCEDES BENZ Mercedes plans an onslaught of more affordable models in America, led late this year by the roughly 30,000 CLA250 sedan. Looking like a baby CLS, the CLA gets a 208 horsepower turbo 4 with a choice of front or all wheel drive. The hyperaggressive E63 Benz sedan and wagon amass 550 horsepower (or 577 in S Model guise) from a twin turbo 5.5 liter V 8. On sale in summer, the Benzes, complete with Lamborghini scale air inlets and jetlike exhaust outlets, explode from 0 60 m.p.h. in 3.6 seconds. MINI The John Cooper Works Paceman concept is a British bulldog, a two door version of the chunky Countryman crossover. It goes on sale in March with a 208 horsepower 1.6 liter 4 cylinder. NISSAN On sale in June for 13,990, Nissan's subcompact Versa Note hatchback trades power for economy, scaling back to a 1.6 liter, 109 horsepower 4 that delivers up to 40 highway m.p.g. The Resonance, an imaginative vision for a future Murano crossover designed by Nissan's California design studio, is an out there concept that actually works. It features a futuristic V.I.P. lounge interior and dazzling details, including carbon fiber wheel trim that recalls a Dale Chihuly sculpture. TOYOTA The Corolla may be a bland econobox, but that hasn't kept Toyota from selling nine million of them in the United States since 1968. Still, Toyota wants more emotion in a coming 2014 model, and the Furia design study teasingly suggests the hottest Corolla ever. But many show car elements, including carbon fiber trim and full width LED front lighting that recalls RoboCop's visor, seem bound for the cutting room floor. VOLKSWAGEN The CrossBlue concept's powerful plug in diesel hybrid unit is said to deliver 89 m.p.g.e. and a 661 mile driving range. But VW isn't ready to introduce such costly technology in a production version. More significantly, the CrossBlue smartly melds S.U.V. tradition with VW's new, space efficient modular construction. The six passenger midsize model would also fill a big hole in VW's ambitious, expanding lineup. Expect this handsome S.U.V. to reach showrooms in about two years, but with conventional gas, diesel or hybrid powertrains. The North American International Auto show runs through Sunday, Jan. 27, at Cobo Center in downtown Detroit. Tickets are 12 for adults, 6 for seniors and children. More information can be found at naias.com.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Automobiles
HEADLINE SX Limited SUMMARY ARTICLE Remember when Kia was all about cheap generic economy cars? Today, its design team is lead by former Audi and Cadillac rock stars (Peter Schreyer and Tom Kearns respectively) and among its most popular vehicles are the family sized Optima and Sorento. Kia has tested its upward mobility with Cadenza and K900, perhaps reaching too rich. The third generation Sorento squarely hits its target market. Front drive versions can be had for as little as 25,795. Budget buyers shouldn't test drive the SX Limited model. Dialing back to lesser models once the luxury touches are experienced will be tough. An all wheel drive edition with Technology Package is a significant bump at 45,095. If that seems steep, the math works out when comparing Ford Edge, Nissan Murano, and Toyota Venza. An SXL with Technology Package includes a huge panoramic roof, vented seats up front, radar assisted cruise control, and an around view camera system that simulates a small helicopter hovering over your car (without the fuss and paranoia of a real one). Kia's iPad like user interface can teach a thing or two to the luxury marks. Pay twice as much and you won't get better design. Neighbors shouted from across the street "whoa, fancy car!" Shooting photos one morning in a neighborhood littered with Lexus and Mercedes, a robe clad woman burst out of her house determined to find out what the "beautiful car was". Hard to know who was more surprised, me facing a fuzzy pink car shopper, or her, finding her hearts desire was a Kia. If she test drives Sorento, she'll find a very comfortable and quiet vehicle with good room for five passengers (a third row is available on V6 models). The cabin is richly trimmed and cargo space is generous, but the back pillar creates a blind spot the size of LeBron James. Spirited maneuvers summon some body roll but it's a crossover, not a Porsche Cayman. Kia has added steering feel, something the outgoing model desperately needed. Sorento's size slots in nicely between a CR V and Highlander, perfect for parents that want room but not a bus. Sorento's three engines are all bolted to a refined six speed automatic. The naturally aspirated four cylinder with 185 horsepower seems anemic on paper. The V6 with 290 horsepower is the tow champ, tugging up to 5,000 pounds. I'm driving the 2.0 liter turbocharged four cylinder that pumps out 240 horsepower and 260 lb. ft. of torque. 0 60 sprints in 8 seconds is punchy enough for most drivers. Uncle Sam rates AWD models at 19 city, 25 highway. That's smack dab in the middle of the other two engines though I'm seeing 19 m.p.g. in mixed driving. Equipped with all wheel drive, Sorento will venture into places that, quite frankly, most owners will never go. For daily commutes involving boulders, deep water, and locusts, buy a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Crossovers passed sedans last year as the most popular segment in America so Kia is well positioned to gain ground with the appealing Sorento. No longer about bargain basement pricing, Sorento's value and design sure looks good. VIDEO SCRIPT Kia was once all about cheap generic economy cars. Today, its design team is lead by Audi and Cadillac alumni and its most popular vehicles are family sized. The third generation Sorento is built on the Sedona minivan platform so (SOUND UP) the whole clan can escape to out of the way places. Don't try this in a Rio. (ON CAMERA) Crossovers are very important to automakers these days. Last year for the first time ever, this segment outsold sedans in the United States. It's a shame all those SUVs running around don't get Sorento's handsome lines. Strong but elegant, neighbors will think it's a luxury brand, until they get close enough to see this. Front drive Sorento's start at 25,795. This all wheel drive SX Limited model with all option packages is 45,100. A significant price jump, it buys luxury gear such as a heated wheel, radar assisted cruise control, and vented front chairs with hide that's baby bottom smooth. (ON CAMERA) There are three engines, a naturally aspirated four cylinder, a V6, and the one that I'm driving. It's a 2.0 liter turbocharged four cylinder. There's 240 horsepower (SOUND UP) and 260 lb. ft. of torque. (SOUND UP) The gearbox has six cogs, it always seems to be in the right one. This mid level engine (SOUND UP) feels punchy enough off the line, 0 60 spools up in about 8 seconds. Significantly more refined than the outgoing model, Kia took much of the numbness out of the steering and the weight is adjustable. It's luxury car quiet. (ON CAMERA) Sorento's ride quality is very comfortable, a little bit of body roll, not too bad. The size feels just right. I sound like Goldilocks. It slots in between a CR V and Highlander so there's room for the family but you'll never feel like a bus driver. The back pillar cuts into visibility. Drinking standard grade gasoline, this drivetrain is government rated at 19 city, 25 highway, smack dab in the middle of the other two engines. I'm seeing 19 m.p.g. in mixed driving. Equipped with all wheel drive, Sorento will venture into places that, quite frankly, most owners will never go. For daily commutes involving boulders and deep water, buy a Jeep Grand Cherokee. This is what owners stare at most often, good to see Kia gave it the same spendy appearance as the exterior. If this looks German to you, you're not alone. An around view camera system can be had. The V6 model can cross 47 grand, which might seem out of line for a Kia. But add up all the luxury touches, including an excellent iPad like interface and the price begins to make sense. (ON CAMERA) Considering all of Sorento's features, I'm a little surprised that the fairly roomy back seat does not slide fore and aft to max out either legroom or cargo room. The floor is flat and there's generous foot room. If you can't charge your phone here it means you forgot a cord. There's everything needed in this Limited model to keep three adults from complaining including heated seats for the outboard positions. (ON CAMERA) With the proximity key in pocket or purse, all you have to do is stand next to the tailgate for three or four seconds and it opens automatically. What parent wouldn't want that? Sorento is available with a third row, this one does not have it. In its place, there's enough storage to keep the kids sports gear out of site. And the cargo space is pretty generous, if TP is your thing, know that Sorento can haul 14 bundles of it. Vehicles are so well done these days, it's rare to find one that stands out in its segment. Sorento does it with style, comfort, and features (though those add to the price). Kia is no longer about bargain basement pricing. Sorento may not be inexpensive, but its value sure looks good.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Automobiles
The organization behind the Grammy Awards, which has been under scrutiny over the representation of women, has a new boss. The Recording Academy said on Wednesday that its new president and chief executive would be Deborah Dugan, the former chief of Red, the nonprofit group co founded by Bono of U2 that works to combat AIDS and other diseases in Africa. Ms. Dugan, the first woman to hold the top job at the 62 year old academy, will take command of an organization that offers artists prestige and valuable TV time, yet has been embattled on many fronts. Last year, Neil Portnow, Ms. Dugan's predecessor, was widely condemned for saying women in music should "step up" to advance their careers. In response, some female executives demanded that Mr. Portnow resign, and the academy appointed a task force to examine the organization's "various barriers and unconscious biases." The most recent Grammys ceremony, in February, was hosted by Alicia Keys, and female performers dominated the stage. The singer Dua Lipa alluded to Mr. Portnow's comments when she accepted the award for best new artist, saying she was honored to be recognized among so many other women. "I guess this year we really stepped up," Ms. Lipa said. The Grammys have also faced strained relationships with many artists, particularly hip hop and R B stars, like Drake and Frank Ocean, who have said the awards are out of touch. This year, the singer Ariana Grande dropped out of a planned performance and openly feuded with Grammy producers on social media. On a conference call with reporters, Ms. Dugan expressed her excitement about the job by invoking a line from Nietzsche: "Without music, life would be a mistake." She added that she was committed to promoting diversity, but offered few details. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. "I intend to do everything I can to make the Recording Academy, the entertainment industry and our society more inclusive and more equitable," she said. In a statement circulated by the academy, Bono praised Ms. Dugan and her work with Red. "She'll always be part of the Red band," he said, "and I look forward to seeing what she'll do in her new role, cracking the ceiling and helping the Recording Academy crack open a new future in the process." Ms. Dugan may also be under pressure to expand the viewership for the Grammys' annual telecast. The audience for this year's show, on CBS, its longtime network, was 19.9 million, slightly up from last year. But the numbers have been down from the first half of the decade, when the show routinely attracted more than 25 million viewers. The Recording Academy had been widely expected to name a woman to its top role, and many were expecting an industry insider. Ms. Dugan, who is scheduled to take over in August from Mr. Portnow, the academy's leader since 2002, has valuable experience as a media executive and nonprofit chief who deals with celebrities and major brands both essential to the Grammys. She started her career as a Wall Street lawyer, was a record executive at EMI and is a former president of Disney Publishing Worldwide. She is also a co chairwoman of The Moth, a series of storytelling events and radio programs. Since 2011, she has been the chief executive of Red, which, according to the organization, has generated more than 600 million to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria through the sale of branded products from companies like Apple, Gap and Starbucks. Ms. Dugan highlighted that experience in a promise to uphold the academy's mission to "support, encourage and advocate" for the music world. "What I do is try to amplify many voices in a world that often crushes them," she said. "I am just looking at this new opportunity as a service, how to be relevant and reflective of the artist community in a time of rapid change."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
Credit...Stephanie Diani for The New York Times "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," Michael Wolff's account of President Trump's early tenure, sold more than four million copies, spawned a TV deal, prompted the president to threaten legal action and led to the ouster of Stephen K. Bannon from the White House and Breitbart News. On Tuesday, Mr. Wolff returns with a sequel, "Siege: Trump Under Fire." Author and subject seem well matched: A pair of acid tongued gossipmongers fixated on the foibles of New York's elite, Mr. Wolff and Mr. Trump are gifted storytellers who are unafraid to punch back. But the similarities extend in less flattering ways. "Fire and Fury," which portrayed a president with a strained relationship to the truth, raised questions about Mr. Wolff's own adherence to the facts. Minor errors cropped up; anecdotes were denied. On "Saturday Night Live," Fred Armisen, in Mr. Wolff's thick glasses and bald pate, dismissed questions about the book's accuracy. "Look, you read it, right?" Armisen as Wolff said. "You liked it? You had fun? Well, what's the problem?" The new book's claims range from the intriguing Mr. Wolff writes that Alan Dershowitz asked for a million dollar retainer to defend Mr. Trump, a claim Mr. Dershowitz said on Wednesday was "completely, categorically false" to the lurid, including a description based on a secondhand source of a supposed encounter between Mr. Trump and an unnamed woman aboard his private jet before his presidency. In an interview at his Manhattan townhouse on Tuesday his first public comments about "Siege" Mr. Wolff, 65, praised his reporting, defended his reliance on Mr. Bannon as a source and explained why he had little use for the usual fact checking procedures valued by reporters at mainstream news outlets. He was trending on Twitter at the time of the interview. A spokesman for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, had issued a rare statement denying a central claim of "Siege," which had just leaked out: that Mr. Mueller's team had drafted an indictment of Mr. Trump on obstruction charges that was never used. Edited and condensed excerpts from the conversation with Mr. Wolff follow. I'm surprised you're not fielding calls from your lawyer. The special counsel denied that the documents you describe in "Siege" exist. Do you want to respond? I would only say my source is impeccable, and I have no doubt about the authenticity and the significance of the documents. How did you find all these sources? After "Fire and Fury," weren't you persona non grata in the West Wing? Everybody continued to talk to me. When "Fire and Fury" came out, I thought Steve Bannon would certainly never speak to me again, and the truth is, he never stopped speaking. But the other element of this is I think a key one is I'm a New York guy. Donald Trump is a New York guy. In the end, we know a lot of the same people. There is this conversation among these people about Donald Trump. And I am fortunate to be in that loop. You wrote "Fire and Fury" with physical access to the White House. Did you have that this time? I have not been in the White House for this book, no. But a very large percentage of the people who spoke to me for the first book have continued to speak to me for the second book. Partly because they can't stop talking about Donald Trump, and I'm a good listener. But also because I think the portrait in the first book worked for them. Did you seek an interview with the president? He tried to stop the publication last time. I think that would be a fool's errand, to invite the president of the United States to come down on you. Arguably, Trump's anger was an accelerant for the sales of the book. As it turned out. But at that moment, it didn't feel like that was what it was going to be. Yeah! If the president of the United States comes after you, you feel concerned. In your author's note, you write that "Siege" captures "an emotional state rather than a political state" of the presidency. I've said many times: I'm not a Washington reporter. And Washington reporters, they do a great job. They do their job. I approached this as, that the more significant factor here, beyond policy, was buffoonery, psychopathology, random and ad hominem cruelties. In a way, my thesis is that this administration, this character, needed a different kind of writer. Is there an argument you wanted to make in "Siege"? The argument is, this was a wholly different kind of president, a wholly different kind of administration. And even beyond that, you have this figure that is strangely isolated. It's really just Donald Trump. There really isn't a government functioning here. I think the historical understanding is that the presidency changes the person who holds the office. I think the reverse is true here he's changed the White House into the Trump Organization. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. Steve Bannon no longer works in the White House and has been cast out from Trump's inner circle. How much should we trust in what Bannon has to say? I've been sorting this now for actually close to three years, so I think I have a fairly good sense of the reality quotient at any given point. But then I think you have to look to Bannon's insights. When he says something, in my experience, he can often get right to the kernel, into the hub of the situation, where you say, 'Damn, of course that's it.' Among the hundreds of people I have spoken to, he is the most insightful person about Donald Trump, about what makes him tick. How many sources did you talk to for "Siege"? Critics of "Fire Fury" said you were fast and loose with facts. I think every successive account has only confirmed what was in "Fire and Fury." And often months, or years, later. What did you make of Fred Armisen's impression of you? When you get portrayed on "Saturday Night Live," you take it any way you can get it. In some ways, that caricature captured the central skepticism around your book. I would push back against that. Literally every book, every account since has either repeated "Fire and Fury" in many of its specifics, or confirmed virtually everything that I wrote about in that book. And that did not include reaching out to I actually don't believe, if you know the answer, it is necessary to go through the motions of getting an answer that you are absolutely certain of. Just to be clear, by "answer," you mean the response you would hear from the subject? I guess I'd press you again on fact checking. It's a distinction between journalists who are institutionally wedded and those who are not. I'm not. You make those pro forma calls to protect yourself, to protect the institution. It's what the institution demands. I'm talking about those calls where you absolutely know what the response is going to be. They put you in the position in which you're potentially having to negotiate what you know. In some curious way, that's what much journalism is about. It's about a negotiated truth. For someone else, a book writer, I don't have to do that. When I know something is true, I don't have to go back and establish some kind of middle ground with whoever I'm writing about, which will allow me at some point to go back to them. As a journalist, is there a responsibility to seek out the subject's side of the story? To gather as much information as you can? As a journalist or as a writer my obligation is to come as close to the truth as I possibly can. And that's not as close to someone else's truth, but the truth as I see it. Remember, it's a difference between a book and something else you don't have to read my book, you don't have to agree with my book. But at the end of the day, what you are going to know is that it is my book. It is my vision. It is my report on my experience. It's not put together by a committee. What you do is a committee project at some point. What I do is not. And I'm not saying one is better than the other, they're just different functions.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
Helen Obando awaiting surgery at the Dana Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center last month.Credit...Hilary Swift for The New York Times BOSTON Helen Obando, a shy slip of a girl, lay curled in a hospital bed in June waiting for a bag of stem cells from her bone marrow, modified by gene therapy, to start dripping into her chest. The hope was that the treatment would cure her of sickle cell disease, an inherited blood disorder that can cause excruciating pain, organ damage and early death. Sedated with Benadryl to prevent an allergic reaction to the garlicky smelling preservative in the drip, Helen, who at 16 was the youngest person ever to undergo the therapy, was sound asleep for the big moment. "Wake up," her younger brother, Ryan, said, shaking her leg so she could push the button to start the drip. But she could not be roused, so he pushed it himself. The disease also affects people with southern European, Middle Eastern or Asian backgrounds, or those who are Hispanic, like Helen. This is the story of two quests for a sickle cell cure one by the Obando family, and one by a determined scientist at Boston Children's Hospital, Dr. Stuart Orkin, 73, who has labored against the disease since he was a medical resident in the 1970s. Like many others affected by sickle cell, the Obando family faced a double whammy: not one but two children with the disease, Helen and her older sister, Haylee. They lived with one hope for a cure, a dangerous and sometimes fatal bone marrow transplant usually reserved for those with a healthy sibling as a match. But then they heard about a potential breakthrough: a complex procedure to flip a genetic switch so the body produces healthy blood. Scientists have been experimenting with gene therapy for two decades, with mixed success. And it will be years before they know if this new procedure is effective in the long term. But if it is, sickle cell disease could be the first common genetic disorder to be cured by manipulating human DNA. "It's an exhilarating success story for those of us who have waited and hoped for this day," said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health. Curing someone as young as Helen would be especially significant. Sickle cell is progressive, and every year, it wreaks more devastating damage to her body. Two other gene therapy trials for sickle cell, using different methods, are also underway in the United States. One also aims to flip the genetic switch, while the other adds a new gene. If approved, such cures would almost certainly cost 1 million or more, experts say, raising questions about affordability. For now, Helen's therapy is covered by federal research grants. But the hospital has licensed patents it develops to the biotech firm Bluebird Bio, giving the company the option to sell the treatment and pay royalties to the hospital. Bluebird Bio declined to comment on the agreement or speculate on the price of the therapy. Four weeks after the infusion of stem cells, Helen was strong enough to be discharged. Her bald head wrapped in a pink scarf and held high, she walked out with a mask over her nose and mouth to protect her from germs. She turned the corner in the hallway and was greeted by 30 doctors and nurses blowing bubbles as "Girl on Fire" by Alicia Keys played. At home, in Lawrence, Mass., on a sofa with her mother by her side, she put a hand over her eyes and started to sob. Ryan enveloped her in a hug. She and her family wondered: Would it work? Was her suffering really over? Like many other scientists, Dr. Orkin knew there was a solution to the puzzle of sickle cell, at least in theory: Fetuses make hemoglobin the oxygen carrying molecules in blood cells with a different gene. Blood cells filled with fetal hemoglobin do not sickle. But the fetal gene is turned off after a baby is born and an adult hemoglobin gene takes over. If the adult gene is mutated, red cells sickle. Researchers had to figure out how to switch hemoglobin production to the fetal form. No one knew how to do that. "We didn't know what we were looking for," Dr. Orkin said. "We didn't know whether we were looking for something that turned off the fetal or something that was really working to turn on the adult. We didn't know if we were looking for one thing or 10 things." "We had a period of time in the early 2000s, where we had no clues, he said. Dr. Orkin said he didn't believe more money for research would have helped. He needed ideas. Supported by the National Institutes of Health and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, he kept looking. The breakthrough came in 2008. The cost of gene sequencing was plummeting, and scientists were finding millions of genetic signposts on human DNA, allowing them to home in on small genetic differences among individuals. Researchers started doing large scale DNA scans of populations, looking for tiny but significant changes in genes. They asked: Was there a molecular switch that flipped cells from making fetal to adult hemoglobin? And if there was, could the switch be flipped back? "We would never in a million years have guessed it," Dr. Orkin said. In a lab experiment, researchers blocked this gene and discovered that the blood cells in petri dishes started making fetal instead of adult hemoglobin. All Helen wanted was to be normal. She confided in very few friends that she had sickle cell disease and never told her teachers. "I really don't like to talk about it," she said. Only the school nurses knew because she went to them when the pain got so bad she had to go home. She never thought she would be cured. "I would go through it all my life," she said. "I wouldn't be able to go outside in the winter. I would just have to keep it all a secret." When her mother told her about the gene therapy trial, Helen was frightened. "I wanted to see other people go through it first," she said. But the more she thought about it, the more she was ready to take the risk. She dreaded losing her hair from chemotherapy. She was nervous about having an ovary removed. But she decided she would tolerate almost anything if the sickle cell disease would just go away. In the months after the gene therapy infusion at Boston Children's, her symptoms disappeared. But doctors had given her blood transfusions while she regrew her own red blood cells, so it was not clear if the absence of symptoms was because of the gene therapy or the transfusions. As she recovered, Helen returned to her passion: dancing. One day, she came back from her school dance group and told her mother, "My legs hurt. It feels funny." Ms. Cintron smiled. "That's soreness," she explained. Helen laughed. She had only known pain from sickle cell. Helen was scheduled for her six month checkup on Dec. 16. By then, all the transfused cells were gone, leaving only blood made by stem cells in her own marrow. The doctors would finally tell her whether the therapy was working. The day before, she and her parents visited the New England Aquarium in Boston. She was able to stay outside on a cold, blustery day, watching one seal bully the others, barking and fighting. When Helen mentioned that her hands were cold, Ms. Cintron's stomach clenched in fear. But it was just a normal thing to feel on a winter day. The next morning, Dr. Esrick delivered the news. Helen's total hemoglobin level was so high it was nearly normal a level she had never before achieved even with blood transfusions. She had no signs of sickle cell disease. "Now you are like me," her father told her. "I jump in the pool, I run. Now you can do it, too!" Her family, accustomed to constant vigilance, is only now getting used to normal life. On Dec. 23, Helen and her mother flew to the family's new home in Arizona. Helen recently described her transformed outlook on Facebook.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Health
Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers, Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman and Eddie Murphy as the blaxploitation hero Rudy Ray Moore. Stars playing real life figures are a staple of the fall film season, and on Tuesday the Toronto International Film Festival unveiled a lineup of galas and special presentations filled with those biopics and more. "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" is based on a 1998 Esquire article about Mister Rogers. "Harriet" is reportedly the first big screen telling of the life of the 19th century abolitionist. And "Dolemite Is My Name" explains how the 1970s action movies with Moore as the title character came to be. Other based on real story movies set for Toronto include the closing night film, "Radioactive," starring Rosamund Pike as Marie Curie; "Ford v Ferrari," about the American company's efforts to build a racecar that could compete at Le Mans; and "Just Mercy," with Michael B. Jordan as Bryan Stevenson, the lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative on behalf of poor clients. The festival will be showing other much anticipated titles, including "Joker," starring Joaquin Phoenix as the DC villain; "Hustlers," with Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, Cardi B and Lizzo as strippers who steal from their clients; and "The Goldfinch," with Nicole Kidman and Ansel Elgort in an adaptation of Donna Tartt's novel. "Motherless Brooklyn," Edward Norton's take on the Jonathan Lethem novel, and "Parasite," the top winner at Cannes, are also of note.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Movies
Loss Tapers at Tesla as Its Sales Still Climb Nearly 20 months after delivering the first all electric Model S sedan to customers, Tesla Motors is narrowing its losses as sales of its cars continue to climb. Tesla said on Wednesday that it lost 16.3 million, or 13 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, on revenue of 615.2 million. That compares with a loss of 89.9 million on 306.3 million in sales for the same quarter last year. For the year, Tesla reported losses of 74 million on total revenue of 2 billion, compared with a 396.2 million loss on 413.3 million in sales in 2012, when Tesla began delivering its vehicles to customers. But the automaker gave a rosy outlook on production and deliveries of its cars this year, especially overseas, which cheered investors. "We expect to deliver over 35,000 Model S vehicles in 2014, representing a 55 percent increase over 2013," Elon Musk, Tesla's chairman and chief executive, and Deepak Ahuja, the chief financial officer, wrote in a letter to shareholders. Last year, in its first full year of production, Tesla sold 22,477 of its Model S sedans. It plans to produce 1,000 cars a week by the end of the year, up from its current rate of 600 a week. The supply of battery cells, though, will "continue to constrain our production in the first half of the year, but will improve significantly in the second half of 2014," Mr. Musk and Mr. Ahuja wrote. Shares of the stock, which closed at 193.64 at the end of trading on Wednesday, rose more than 10 percent in after hours trading. Tesla cautioned that it faced significantly higher capital expenses as it grows. International expansion into Asia and Europe will be driving much of that growth, with combined sales in those regions to be almost twice that of North America by the end of the year, the company said. Tesla said it planned to deliver its first vehicles to China this spring and "make substantial investments in China this year as we add new stores, service centers and a Supercharger network." "Based on current trends, it seems unlikely we will be able to satisfy demand in China this year," Mr. Musk said in a conference call with analysts on Wednesday. Also this spring, Tesla plans to begin entering right hand drive markets including Australia, Britain, Hong Kong and Japan. Tesla said it expected to have prototypes of its second model, the Model X electric crossover utility vehicle, on the road by the end of the year and start delivery to customers in the spring of 2015. "Model X demand is very high," Mr. Musk said, "even though there's zero marketing." The Model X could double Tesla's total sales if the automaker introduces it in the next 12 months, said Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book. "But the real potential for volume sales lies in the sub 40,000 Model E compact sedan that's rumored," Mr. Brauer said. Tesla executives declined to specify when the cheaper sedan might be developed but said the company would "very shortly" be ready to give details on the Tesla Giga factory, which will help the company cut the costs of its battery packs and accelerate its pace of innovation. "With this facility, we feel highly confident of being able to create a compelling and affordable electric car in approximately three years," Mr. Musk and Mr. Ahuja wrote.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Automobiles
MELBOURNE, Australia To show a fuller picture of the sport, women's tennis is shining the spotlight on the coaches who travel the tour with its players. For 10 years, the WTA has allowed on court coaching at regular tour events. At this year's Australian Open, coaches have given news conferences of their own, following their players to the podium after matches. Last season, for the first time, the WTA awarded a Coach of the Year Award, which went to Naomi Osaka's coach, Sascha Bajin. But nothing drew more attention to tennis coaches than one getting in trouble. Coaching during a match is not allowed at Grand Slam tournaments, and Serena Williams was assessed a code violation in the women's final at the United States Open in September when the chair umpire, Carlos Ramos, spotted her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, gesturing toward her from his seat. His hand movements were replayed as much as any shot from the tournament. Williams's ire over the penalty, which she felt was akin to calling her a cheater, set off a series of penalties that overshadowed the match, which was won by Osaka. Afterward, Mouratoglou admitted to making the signals, but added, "Everyone is doing it, 100 percent of the time." Four months later, at the Australian Open, he continued to insist that the rules should change because coaching from the stands is already "completely tolerated except for one or two people who think they're different." Ramos is officiating matches at this tournament, but he was not assigned to one featuring Williams, who lost in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. At least one prominent player the men's semifinalist Stefanos Tsitsipas has been cited for illegal coaching in Melbourne. "I think it should become legal because we stop hypocrisy, first of all," Mouratoglou said. "Second, because it's great for the show, and we want to have viewers who are not 50 years old. We want to attract the young generation, and we're not. Tennis is not attracting the young people. And third, I think it's good for the players." Despite the WTA's calling for coaching to be allowed across the sport after the incident at the U.S. Open, neither the men's tour nor the Grand Slam tournaments have moved in that direction. Steve Simon, the WTA chief executive, said that coaches "contribute an integral element to the on court and off court WTA story." Simon's predecessors have seen coaches as resources for enriching its product before. Allowing on court coaching 10 years ago was motivated more by entertainment considerations than any desire for improving tactics. Larry Scott, then the tour's chief executive, said the rule change came from a desire for "being as fan friendly as possible and being as responsive to television as possible without altering the fundamentals of the sport." Holding news conferences with coaches is part of an initiative spearheaded by the tour's communications manager, Chase Altieri, who came to the WTA in 2017 after working in the N.F.L., where coaches' briefings have long been a feature of news media coverage. WTA coaches have embraced the program, both for the chance to articulate their views and to ease the burden on their players. Bajin has made television appearances in lieu of Osaka to lighten her schedule of obligations during tournaments. In recent years, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open have begun with allowing coaching during the qualifying rounds, with players able to walk to the side of the court where their coach is sitting during changeovers if they desire a consultation. Mouratoglou is one of the strongest advocates for on court coaching, even though his player never uses it. He said Williams's sense of self reliance was a weapon he would not dare muzzle. "I think that her No. 1 quality is to be the best competitor ever, and I don't want her to think that suddenly she needs someone to be a better competitor; that would make her weaker," he said. "So, for me, it doesn't make sense for someone like her." Mouratoglou, who has worked with Williams since 2012, owns a tennis academy that bears his name in France and has been a television analyst for ESPN and Eurosport. He said tennis had many untapped areas that could be mined for entertainment purposes. "Coaching is part of the game," he said. "If you show it, it's an incredible adventure for the people to see." Before the Australian Open began, Mouratoglou even released a mobile game, Tennis Manager, which offers users the chance to simulate recruiting, training and strategizing with tennis players. Its slogan: "Shape a Champion; Become a Legend." Bajin, who worked alongside Mouratoglou for years when he was Williams's hitting partner, comes down on the opposite side of the coaching debate, saying the rule should not be changed "to make it more interesting" to watch tennis. "I think it takes away the purity that tennis was," Bajin said. "My father put me out there on the court in order to become more independent, to learn how to handle problems, to learn how to be by myself, so that nobody can help me and I think that still parents do that for their kids. That's why they want them to start this sport, because it's something special, and I wish we would keep it that way." But Bajin admitted that he, too, had occasionally tried to send illicit advice from the stands. "Sometimes you try to sneak something by," he said. "I'm guilty of that."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
ALBUQUERQUE Last month, when the first two confirmed cases of the coronavirus were announced in the Navajo Nation, I packed a bag and returned to the safest place I knew: home. I joined my parents to visit Yellow Rock Point on the Utah side of the reservation. I grew up hearing stories about a place where lambs nibbled at my mother's ears while she sat in the middle of her family's sheep corral, a place where she ate her first rabbit hunted by her grandfather as they sat under the stars in their male hogan a traditional octagonal Navajo home, made of wood and covered in mud. As we inched closer to the San Juan River, my mother saw Yellow Rock Point, a rock shaped like a melting ice cream cone that maintained its pointed tip. We drove to the very edge of a cliff and hiked to the bottom, where the family homestead still stood. Mom rushed to the hogan, where the brick foundation remained in the shape of a stop sign. She stood where she once slept and showed us where her great grandfather made his bed and plucked his chin hair. Every part of the land had a story, a memory that my mother shared. "Back then you didn't have to worry," she said, referring to the coronavirus pandemic. "There was nothing out here and no one. We were far away from all of it." The coronavirus virus outbreak in the Navajo Nation is showing that nowhere is as remote as it might have once seemed. And the reservation is not prepared. My nation is held together by a culture of togetherness but that tradition of gathering also makes the spread of the virus worse. On March 20, the Navajo Nation issued a stay at home order after 14 cases of the coronavirus were confirmed. An 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew has been set. There are 1,197 confirmed cases as of April 18 and 44 deaths. Most are being treated in border town hospitals. The sweeping effects of the coronavirus on the Navajo Nation expose underlying vulnerabilities that already face my people. The lack of running water, electricity, grocery stores, infrastructure and low numbers of emergency and medical personnel are ongoing issues. According to research conducted by students and faculty at the University of Arizona, 35 percent of the 357,000 residents of the nation do not have running water in their homes. According to the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, which provides electricity, water, gas and communication services to the Navajo Nation, about 15,000 residents do not have electricity. In 2018, there were a total of 18 grocery stores in the Navajo Nation, which extends across three states New Mexico, Utah and Arizona and is the size of West Virginia. Families often travel hours one way to shop for groceries and other essentials. Though the Navajo Nation is a dry reservation, an increasing number of deaths are alcohol related. Most families on the reservation, including mine, have lost a loved one to alcohol or substance abuse. I lost my closest uncle to alcohol related violence when I was just 11 years old. In the event of a health emergency, the Navajo people have to drive hours to the nearest health facility. Our roads do not have signs or addresses. Emergency services have a hard time reaching us. In addition to limited resources, Navajo people are some of the most vulnerable in the country to the coronavirus, with high rates of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. In Albuquerque, people who are not Navajo ask me why the virus has spread so rapidly through the nation. My answer is always the same: Because we take care of one another. Any given home on the reservation is not just made up of a mother, father and one or two children. A home belongs to grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and extended family members. We leave our doors open because that is the Navajo way of life. But now, that custom comes with a cost. As the pandemic unmasks underlying social issues, my people and leaders are left to address them. In order to make sure that every home on the reservation is prepared for the next pandemic, we need to ensure that everyone is doing their part to provide the basic needs for all Navajo people: a roof over their heads, access to clean running water and expanded infrastructure so that the people don't have to rely on businesses off the reservation.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Opinion
Clockwise from top left, Joshua Lott/Agence France Presse Getty Images, Erin Baiano for The New York Times; Dolly Faibyshev for The New York Times; Erin Baiano for The New York Times	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
CHRYSLER minivans with air conditioning problems and Corvette convertible tops that tear at high speed are the subjects of some of the latest technical service bulletins. The bulletins are compiled by alldatapro.com and offer automakers' insights into some recurring problems with various models. The bulletins, known as T.S.B.'s, are not recalls; they are information provided by manufacturers to dealers' service departments and mechanics. Unless otherwise noted, the manufacturers do not offer payment assistance for these repairs beyond normal warranty coverage. Alldata.com sells a more comprehensive version of the bulletins to consumers. Here are some recent examples: AUDI Flickering lights may be causing problems for some Audi owners. In T.S.B. 941019 issued on June 7, Audi said that Philips manufactured xenon bulbs might develop an internal leak. The problem affects 2008 9 A5s and 2009 A4s and Q5s. Replacing the bulbs should brighten the view. CHRYSLER Some minivans may have a problem with their climate control systems. In T.S.B. K04 issued on May 28, Chrysler said that a faulty air conditioning discharge hose in 2008 10 Dodge Caravan and Chrysler Town Country vans could cause a loss of refrigerant and failure of the system. Dealers will inspect and, if necessary, replace the discharge hoses. GENERAL MOTORS Owners of 2008 9 Chevrolet Corvette convertibles may have trouble keeping a roof over their heads. In T.S.B. 08312A issued on July 1, G.M. said that the top fabric might begin to separate from its retainer bracket near the windshield. At speeds over 100 m.p.h., the roof material could tear from the front all the way to the rear window. A new retainer bracket should keep things together. This repair program runs through May 31, 2011. JAGUAR AND LAND ROVER Some 2010 Jaguar XF and XK sedans, and 2010 Land Rover LR4, Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models, may seep oil from the rear of the engine. In. T.S.B. JTB00198 issued on May 28, Jaguar said that the leak was caused by porosity of the material at the rear of the engine block. (T.S.B. LTB00283 applies to Land Rovers). A layer of aluminum filled epoxy putty applied to the affected area of the block should stop the drip. JEEP Some Wranglers may have an overheating problem with their automatic transmissions. In T.S.B. J31 issued on June 11, Jeep's parent, Chrysler, said that the transmission fluid might overheat on 77,000 of the 2009 and 2010 models. The company will install an alert chime to notify drivers of elevated fluid temperature. The company is sending letters to inform owners of this campaign. KIA Some 2010 Souls may be in need of saving. In T.S.B. KT2010062502 issued on June 25, Kia said that some vehicles might have a problem with an engine thermostat that sets off the engine malfunction light. Replacing the thermostat should fix the problem. MITSUBISHI Some Endeavors qualify for an extended warranty on their fuel filler pipes. In T.S.B. 10 13 004 issued on June 29, the company said that warranty coverage on the pipe for all 2004 Endeavors had been extended from 7 years/100,000 miles to 10 years/150,000 miles. Mitsubishi will send letters to vehicle owners, who may have noticed a fuel odor from the vehicle, regarding the extension. NISSAN Some 2009 Altimas may have wiper arms that need more clearance. In T.S.B. NTB10 041a issued on June 8, Nissan said that the driver's side windshield wiper arm might be too close to the windshield, causing it to scratch the glass. Nissan will inspect 2009 models it believes may be prone to the problem and add spacers under the wiper motor mount if needed. SUBARU Some 2010 Legacy and Outback models may have a crack in the cover of the control unit for the antilock braking system. In T.S.B. WVP 26 issued on June 4, Subaru said that the crack could let water enter and set off the brake warning light. The company will seal cracked covers temporarily if necessary. Replacement covers are expected to be available in August. TOYOTA Some Tacoma pickups may have a steering rattle on rough roads. In T.S.B.0119010 issued on May 3, Toyota said that the steering intermediate shaft on 2005 10 Tacomas was the likely culprit. A redesigned shaft should smooth things out.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Automobiles
I guess we can get back to impeachment. Donald Trump announced the Iran crisis was over Wednesday, adding that Americans "should be extremely grateful and happy." It's not entirely clear who he wants us to be grateful to. God? Fate? The ayatollah? Let's take a wild guess that the answer is living in the White House. It was a very short talk less than 10 minutes but the president still managed to give himself multiple pats on the back. ("Over the last three years, under my leadership, our economy is stronger than ever before. ...") And, naturally, blame everything bad on Barack Obama. Trump threw in one whopping inaccuracy this would be our friendly, peace loving version of "big fat lie." He is going to spend the rest of his life claiming the Obama administration paid Iran billions of dollars to get the nuclear peace accord. Utterly false, but you will never talk Trump out of it, any more than you'll convince him that windmills don't cause cancer or that he didn't really win the popular vote. Dark, suspicious minds wondered if the president had started the whole Iran crisis to get Americans to stop thinking about the impeachment story. Certainly possible. This is a guy who knows how to distract. He golfs, he tweets, he creates crises. If Trump thought there was any chance of actually getting kicked out of office, God knows what he'd do. Invade another country? Arrest Nancy Pelosi? Pretend to adopt a pet? Fortunately for him if not for us Mitch McConnell is running everything. The House impeachment vote is, of course, a done deal. The bill is going to reach the Senate sometime soon, and the majority leader has been dropping tiny hints that he's leaning toward giving Trump a pass. ("I'm going to take my cues from the president's lawyers.") During their deliberations, the senators apparently won't be hearing from John Bolton, who's now jumping up and down and waving his hand in an effort to volunteer to serve as a witness. Bolton would be the ideal person to ask about Trump's plan to trade military aid to Ukraine for political dirt on Joe Biden. Granted, he's a little late out of the gate. Probably been busy searching his conscience. Can't possibly have anything to do with having a book coming out. Doesn't matter. McConnell has expressed zero enthusiasm for the idea of letting Bolton come unless Donald Trump decides that the Senate's top priority should be an unconstrained search for the truth. Hehehehe. It would take four Republican defections just to get Bolton in the door. Even the most theoretically independent of them even the ones who are at no political risk whatsoever seem too terrified to stand up to their leader. (O.K., Mitt Romney, one last chance.) Some of the Republicans might think wistfully that Mike Pence even Mike Pence would be a big improvement over the guy we've got now. For the country, maybe, but not for Mitch McConnell. Trump is the perfect president for Mitch. For the past three years, the senator from Kentucky has basically been running the government. Somebody has to do it, and the administration's people are barely capable of opening their office doors. Trump's two big victories as president have been the tax cut organized and pushed through to law by Mitch McConnell and a raft of new conservative federal judges. Listen to the president and you'd think he had the opportunity to name them all because Barack Obama just forgot or was too lazy to fill any openings. ("He gave me 142!") In the real world Obama was nominating judges like crazy. McConnell refused to even give them a hearing. Thanks to his pal and protector Mitch, Trump has it both ways on issues like gun control and prescription drug prices. He can say he's in favor of change without taking any risk that anything will be presented for his signature into law. Mitch has it all covered with a lid. The House passed more than 400 bills last year, and about 80 percent of them are sitting around moldering on the Senate runway. This is incredible power for a politician who's never been elected to national office and isn't even popular in his home state one recent poll put him at the very bottom of the Senate, with a 37 percent positive voter rating in Kentucky. Nevertheless, the country's been Mitchified. It's really the McConnell era, and we ought to be discussing that every day, particularly whenever Donald Trump is within earshot.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Opinion
"Six Degrees of Separation" John Guare's play about a wealthy Manhattan couple whose lives are upended by a con artist claiming to be Sidney Poitier's son was the toast of the town when it had its premiere in 1990. A mere six months later, Frank Rich wrote in The New York Times that "its title has passed into the language." The playwright John Guare, backstage at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in 2010. Mr. Guare did not invent the idea that everyone in the world is separated by only six other people, which emerged out of nearly a century of mathematical and psychological research. But it was the stickiness of his title and the 1993 film version, starring Will Smith as the impostor that blasted it "into the pop culture stratosphere," as the sociologist Duncan J. Watts put it in his book "Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age" (2003). While the idea that we're all connected may seem old hat in the age of the internet, fascination with it has yielded its own rich web of associations over the years. On the eve of the play's first Broadway revival, which opens on Tuesday, April 25, here's an unscientific look at a concept that links, among other things, the first issue of Psychology Today, the star of "Footloose" and a shirtless J. J. Abrams. The idea of a totally connected world goes back at least to the early 20th century. As part of his broader inspiration, Mr. Guare has often cited the 1909 Nobel Prize lecture by the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi, a pioneer of wireless telegraphy, who envisioned a network of towers that could send messages to any part of the globe. Mr. Guare, in a recent interview, said he first encountered the six degrees concept in 1967, in the inaugural issue of Psychology Today, which featured a cover story about the psychologist Stanley Milgram's "small world" experiment. The experiment involved giving a letter to random people in Omaha and Wichita, Kan., with instructions to give it to someone who could give it to someone who would help it reach a designated individual in Boston. Evidently, Ouisa Kittredge, one half of the couple in Mr. Guare's play, saw the same article. "I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people," she says during the increasingly desperate search to find "Paul" Poitier (who was based on a real con artist) after he disappears. "The president of the United States. A gondolier in Venice," she says. "It's not just the big names," she continues. "It's anyone." The phrase is often seen as an inspiring, even mystical symbol. But the speech, Mr. Guare notes, was meant ironically, as a comment on racial exclusion and social stratification in America. "The nightmare of the play becomes finding the right six people," he said. "You can find everyone in the world, but you can't find one black man whose name you don't know." Kevin Bacon created an online charity, SixDegrees.org, in the wake of the popular game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Mr. Guare said he was "tickled" when he started seeing the phrase "six degrees of separation" in different contexts: an ad for Air France, a newspaper article about the 1992 presidential election. And then came Kevin Bacon. The now famous Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game was invented in 1994 by Craig Fass, Brian Turtle and Mike Ginelli, three students at Albright College in Reading, Pa., who were sitting around watching "Footloose." They started naming other movies Mr. Bacon had appeared in, and came up with the idea that he was the unacknowledged center of the Hollywood universe, who connected everyone. The three friends performed their parlor trick on "The Jon Stewart Show" on MTV a few months later. Next came a book (with an introduction by Mr. Bacon) and a board game. Mr. Bacon (who declined to be interviewed for this article) would go on to found SixDegrees.org, which matches celebrities with charities, and star in a Visa commercial that parodied the six degrees concept. But at a 20th anniversary panel with Mr. Turtle and others at SXSW in Austin, Tex., in 2014, he recalled his initial mystification. "People would come up to me and touch me and say, 'I'm one degree!'" he said. "I didn't really know what was going on." The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon board game, which appeared in 1997, featured 20 sided dice. But the true great leap forward came a year earlier, when Brett Tjaden, a graduate student in computer science at the University of Virginia who sometimes played the parlor game, created The Oracle of Bacon, a website that generated authoritative "Bacon numbers" based on data from the Internet Movie Database. "I did it mainly for myself and my friends," Mr. Tjaden, now a professor at James Madison University, said in a phone interview. "They sent the link to their friends, who sent it to a couple of their friends, and before too long it was famous." Time Magazine named it one of its top 10 websites of 1996. Today, it has the same Web 1.0 look, though its Center of the Hollywood Universe list is updated regularly. (Mr. Bacon is No. 457, while the current center is ... Eric Roberts?) The website drew the attention of Duncan Watts and Steven Strogatz, two leading researchers in the emerging field of network theory, who drew on it for a seminal paper. It also inspired other riffs, like the Oracle of Baseball; Degrees of Wikipedia, which calculates links between Wikipedia pages; and Erdos Bacon numbers, which combine a person's proximity to both the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdos, which has long been a benchmark for mathematicians, and Mr. Bacon. (Natalie Portman's Erdos Bacon number, in case you are wondering, has been calculated as seven.) The Oracle of Bacon still has about 10,000 visitors on an average day, according to Patrick Reynolds, a software engineer in Florida who runs it. "To me, it says that a meme never really goes away," he said. "Everything lives forever until you pull the plug." The concept got another boost in 1999, when The New Yorker published an article by Malcolm Gladwell called "Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg," which used Ms. Weisberg at the time the cultural affairs commissioner of Chicago (and the mother of one of Mr. Gladwell's friends) as a case study in the surprising science of social connection. The article, which was later adapted for Mr. Gladwell's monster best seller "The Tipping Point," dug into research by Milgram, Mark Granovetter (who developed the concept of strong versus weak social ties) and others. But the big ideas, Mr. Gladwell said in a phone interview, came second. "She was kind of a hilarious person, and I wanted an excuse to hang out with her," he said. "The article was really a delivery vehicle for Lois Weisberg." The article popularized the idea of "connectors": people who know unusually large numbers of people and are unusually given to making introductions, the rough equivalent of hubs in a computer network. "Not all degrees are created equal," Mr. Gladwell wrote. The article's teaser summary put it even more dramatically: "She's a grandmother, she lives in a big house in Chicago, and you've never heard of her. Does she run the world?" Ms. Weisberg, who died last year at 90, may have run the world, but she didn't necessarily appreciate Mr. Gladwell's telling everyone about it. Virginia Heffernan, reviewing "Six Degrees" in The New York Times, said it reflected "the shared citywide creed" that "might be called Manhattan paganism: a private, almost secretive belief in coincidence, chance, accident and serendipity." But here's a real coincidence for you: Back in 1993, Mr. Abrams was an aspiring actor whose film credits included ... a small part in the film adaptation of "Six Degrees of Separation." He played Doug, a college student whose father has also been taken in by Paul. "You're an idiot! You're an idiot!" a (shirtless) Mr. Abrams screams into the phone at the climax of his minute long scene. By the way, Mr. Abrams was in that movie with Donald Sutherland, who was in "Animal House" (1978) with Kevin Bacon, giving him a Bacon number of 2.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Theater
Back to the Office: Tough Call for Workers, and for the Boss Jay Foreman, chief executive of the toymaker Basic Fun in Boca Raton, Fla., has a simple message for his employees: It's time to come back to the office. "Fear is not an appropriate reason for not being at work," he said. "We have to get over our fears. We can't operate remotely, and this is a collaborative work environment. I pay a hell of a lot of rent to have an office, and that's a big investment." It may seem that Mr. Foreman is swimming against the tide. Corporate giants like Microsoft, Target and Ford Motor have extended remote working arrangements until next summer. But a recent survey by LinkedIn and Censuswide found that more than two thirds of offices had reopened or never closed. Mr. Foreman is among the employers who don't believe the coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally reordered the way millions of Americans should work. They are recalling their employees even as the coronavirus surges in parts of the country, arguing that a balance can be struck between safety and the need to reunite under one roof. At Basic Fun, masks are mandatory, desks are spread out and there are stations with hand sanitizer throughout the 20,000 square foot office in the four story building that is headquarters. Last week, the last of the Basic Fun workers who had been at home returned to the office full time. Some employees have come back eagerly after the distractions of working from home. Others have done so reluctantly after asking for a bit more time. And at least one has found another job rather than face returning to the office. The divergent feelings echo larger patterns in the American workplace, even as a resurgence of the coronavirus engulfs the country. At some companies, a new dynamic is unfolding between those who are staying home and those who are venturing in every day. A June survey by the accounting and consulting firm PwC found that 72 percent of workers would like to be able to work from home at least two days a week. And a majority expected to be able to work from home one day a week even after the pandemic. But at Basic Fun, there is no longer any choice. Mr. Foreman is not a mask doubter or a coronavirus skeptic. Nor is he a fan of President Trump, who has questioned the efficacy of masks and criticized the lockdowns that have forced many employees to work from home, whether they like it or not. He backed Senator Kamala Harris in the Democratic presidential primary, and supported former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the general election. But he believes the necessary steps have been taken to ensure his workers' safety. "People can't enter our office unless they are wearing a mask, they can't walk around the office without a mask, they don't gather in small groups without a mask and work spaces are more than six feet apart," Mr. Foreman said. "I think it's as safe as your own home." What's more, he believes there are benefits to working together and meeting face to face that can't be replicated through conference calls or online get togethers. That applies to the 65 employees at headquarters in Boca Raton, as well as a dozen or so in an office in Quakertown, Pa., and 60 in Hong Kong. "In early October, we sent a note saying this is it and that if you're not in a position to come back to work, you're going to need to remain on furlough or we will terminate your position," Mr. Foreman said. "I had to put my foot down." "It was brutal I had so many sleepless nights," he said. "Was I doing the right thing or the wrong thing? It was a big internal battle." Ultimately, he decided to begin urging workers to come back in June, while allowing people with extenuating circumstances like health problems or an ill relative stay home. "We didn't have to use undue pressure, but I didn't want to be in a position to have people working from home for a year and a half," Mr. Foreman said. "That wouldn't be fair to the people working in the office. And I can't manage the company through each employee's individual fears and apprehensions." Steve Cantrell, director of creative services at Basic Fun, wasn't ready to return. His daughter has Type 1 diabetes, and Mr. Cantrell and his wife were concerned he might catch the coronavirus from a colleague and expose his daughter to it. Mr. Cantrell was able to put off going back for five weeks. "They bent for me, and I bent for them and eventually came back," Mr. Cantrell said. "It was worse sitting home and thinking about it. If we're wearing masks and not coming within five feet of each other, we're safe. I didn't want to come back, but it's nice to get back to the routine and normalcy." A few employees were eager to come back and felt reassured by the steps the company took to protect them, like the barriers for cubicles and the rules mandating masks. The Landscape of the Post Pandemic Return to Office None Delta variant delays. A wave of the contagious Delta variant is causing companies to reconsider when they will require employees to return, and what health requirements should be in place when they do. A generation gap. While workers of all ages have become accustomed to dialing in and skipping the wearying commute, younger ones have grown especially attached to the new way of doing business. This is causing some difficult conversations between managers and newer hires. How to keep offices safe. Handwashing is a simple way to reduce the spread of disease, but employers should be thinking about improved ventilation systems, creative scheduling and making sure their building is ready after months of low use. Return to work anxiety. Remote work brought many challenges, particularly for women of color. But going back will also mean a return to microaggressions, pressure to conform to white standards of professionalism, and high rates of stress and burnout. "If they hadn't made it safe, I definitely would not have come back to the office," said Karen Sullivan, sales coordinator at Basic Fun. "But I live in a small two bedroom place, and it just wasn't comfortable working from home. I was working off a card table." Like many workers, she missed face to face contact with colleagues, despite the risks. "I needed more of the office interaction," Ms. Sullivan said. "Not everybody felt that way." The company gave her more time, but when she received calls in August and September asking when she was going to come back, Ms. Cobham knew she had a decision to make. The deadline of Nov. 2 to return only solidified her decision to look for another job where she could remain at home. "It was a roller coaster for me," she said. "I enjoyed my job, and I enjoyed the industry. But I had to put my family first. And when I found a company with a work from home policy that paid more money, it was a no brainer." "I would have stayed if they'd let me continue to work from home," she added. "But their policy is their policy, and I just had to accept they don't believe in working from home." Despite the reluctance of employees like Ms. Cobham to return and the rise in coronavirus cases Mr. Foreman is confident he made the right decision. "Other than being alone in their car, I guarantee my employees there is no safer place than our office," he said. In the meantime, Mr. Foreman has allowed employees to work from home on Fridays, which he believes reduces stress. But there is no substitute for meeting in person the rest of the time, he said. "When you think about making a toy, somebody has to present an idea, then somebody has to design the toy, another person creates the package and someone has to sell it then ship it," he said. "That's collaborative and how it's always been done. Working from home is an experiment, and I'm not ready to risk my business on an experiment." "We're back together working as a team," he said. Mr. Foreman expects the effects of the coronavirus pandemic to continue for another year, at least, "but there is no way business will be able to be as efficient working from home as when employees are working together."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Economy
NEWNAN, Ga. A few blocks from downtown, inside a building with a brick and stucco facade, two men were immersed in an e sports event, one of the safer competitions remaining in a sporting world upended by the coronavirus pandemic. The men Tyler Mercer, 24, and Chris Caldwell, 23 call themselves Killer Instinct for online video gaming purposes, and they were at Newnan Esports on March 21 playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Six teams were competing, though the other teams were playing from homes nearby. Hayden Marlowe, the owner of Newnan Esports, opened his business so Mercer and Caldwell, the reigning champions, would have access to the fast internet speeds that gaming demands. The two live in rural Pike County, Ga., where their bandwidth isn't as snappy as it is in Newnan, a town of nearly 40,000 about 40 miles southwest of Atlanta. Though not mandated to, Marlowe closed his store on March 16 after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines to limit gatherings to 10 or fewer people. Atlanta's stay at home order went into effect on March 24, and other cities in Georgia have followed suit. "We don't want to be the reason why people get sick," Marlowe said. "We want everyone to be healthy and heed government warnings when they're warranted." He added: "We also have the capability to not have to be here. E sports has the ability to be played online, and you can organize through many apps that are available on the internet." Though e sports can be played from nearly anywhere in the world, Marlowe markets his company and tournaments to those living within a 50 mile radius of his store. Three of the 10 gaming stations inside his establishment were being used on March 21, two by Caldwell and Mercer and one by Marlowe, 29, who was reporting the action as it streamed on Facebook. A few friends had also stopped by to watch. Once the tournament started, at 6 p.m., the only sounds inside Newnan Esports, a former dance studio, were Marlowe's commentary and Killer Instinct's instructions to each other as they spotted enemies while navigating different Call of Duty maps. "He's right above me," Caldwell said to Mercer before a quick fist bump as one skilled shot resulted in a kill. Marlowe opened Newnan Esports in February. This was the third tournament he hosted, though it was the first one that took place online. The others were played in house, with about 30 players and fans packed into the building. While gamers are sometimes stereotyped as being antisocial, the social aspect of video gaming is actually alluring, he said. "But since we're not supposed to be social right now, it kind of takes away from that a little bit," he said. "But luckily the infrastructure is there to still maintain a sense of normalcy, you know, in still playing with local players." The pandemic was on the minds of Mercer and Caldwell, but their lives have largely been uninterrupted, they said. They still have their jobs at construction equipment companies. "We're taking it seriously, but not panicking at the same time," Mercer said. "Just try to stay out of people's way as much as possible and not go out and do as much as we were, but also not be at home not doing anything." The pair won the tournament again, defeating Dementor Gaming, 3 2, in a tense final contest that lasted about 20 minutes.When the tournament was all over, after nearly three hours, Killer Instinct walked away with 80 to share. Marlowe said his take might be 20. "It's not like I'm doing well with it," Marlowe said. "It hurts that we're new, so we're trying to get our name out there. Every week we're doing something. It's a chance to reach someone new."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
Twitch Users Watch Billions of Hours of Video, but the Site Wants to Go Beyond Fortnite Without video games, Twitch would not be what it is now: a live streaming platform with millions of devoted viewers and broadcasters, some of them with tattoos of the company's logo. But the company, which Amazon bought five years ago for more than 1 billion, has ambitions beyond serving fans of Fortnite and World of Warcraft. On Friday, at the annual TwitchCon event in San Diego, the company will show off a refreshed design while unveiling an advertising campaign meant to emphasize that Twitch is an all purpose live streaming platform, rather than just a medium for showing video gaming sessions that can go on for hours. The campaign arrives after Twitch lost one of its biggest stars, Tyler Blevins, known as Ninja. Mr. Blevins, a gamer with 14 million followers, kept viewers entertained with his running commentary as he worked his way through marathon sessions of Fortnite. In August, he jumped to a rival streaming service, Mixer, which is owned by Microsoft. Twitch faces intensifying competition from live streaming services such as Mixer and Caffeine, a social broadcasting platform that received 100 million from 21st Century Fox last year and was part of the Walt Disney Company's start up accelerator program. Sara Clemens, the chief operating officer of Twitch, characterized Twitch's revamp not as "a migration away from gaming" but rather as an expansion to serve "the new talent developing and the new types of content that they want to broadcast." "Game streaming was not a career before Twitch," she said. "We're seeing now that some of these streamers who have been doing this for a decade are thinking about new ways to express themselves." Although Twitch made its name as a platform for gamers, it was designed for live streaming anything at all. The new marketing campaign, with the slogan "You're already one of us," will include billboards around the country and online commercials that play up the platform's versatility. In a 90 second video to be shown at TwitchCon, video gaming is barely represented in the cascade of quick cut images. A recent flip through Twitch's channels revealed apart from the live streamers showing themselves playing League of Legends and other games a number of lo fi talk shows. Most were hosted by young people who donned headsets and stared into the camera, discussing whatever came to mind and responding to comments posted in real time by Twitch subscribers. The platform has also been used for more consequential content. In February, the French government, as part of a series of talks it called the Great National Debate, streamed an 11 hour discussion on Twitch in an effort to reach young people. "We want Twitch to be the safest and most welcoming place for all communities," she added. "We see the safety of the service being the priority for us." The platform has long tried to evolve beyond its reputation as a niche for gamers. In 2015, it introduced a new category, Twitch Creative, with a marathon showing of tutorials by Bob Ross, who hosted the PBS show "The Joy of Painting" and has developed a cult following since his death in 1995. Last year, the platform replaced Twitch Creative and a category for everyday streaming, I.R.L., with 10 specific sections that included "crafting," "outdoors" and "ASMR." A live science fiction series on Twitch, "Artificial," won the platform its first Emmy last month, in the category of outstanding innovation in interactive media. Twitch Sings, an interactive karaoke style game, started in the spring with a competition called Stream Star, which this season promises the winner 20,000 and a record deal. Twitch also has agreements with sports leagues, including the National Basketball Association and the National Football League, to stream games, sometimes with commentary from Twitch users. This year, the platform announced similar deals for wrestling and women's hockey. Live streamed sports commentary on Twitch, which allows viewers to interact with the commentator, represents a shift away from traditional game broadcasts, said Anthony Danzi, the company's senior vice president of sales, during a presentation at the Advertising Week conference in New York on Monday. "It's a tell about the future of TV," he said. As Twitch broadens its scope, companies like Wendy's and Hershey's have inserted ads into streams and sponsored channels. Last year, the company stopped offering an advertising free version to all Amazon Prime subscribers.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
Nicolas Dumit Estevez's "The Flag," 2003 6, a mixed media installation at El Museo del Barrio in Manhattan that blends artistry, artisanship and activism. His handmade flag represents Dominican New York an act of unity. The exhibition "Culture and the People: El Museo del Barrio, 1969 2019" is a golden anniversary survey of wonderful art from the collection of a New York museum that is in the process of being torn apart. El Museo was founded half a century ago, in a politically agitated time, in Puerto Rican East Harlem, the Barrio. It identified itself as a community art space. Its first shows were in a public school classroom on East 123rd Street and it stayed within the immediate neighborhood until 1977, when it moved to its present address, a city owned building on Fifth Avenue at 104th Street. That move to what is now called Museum Mile the moniker was invented by one of El Museo's early directors, Jack Agueros carried the germ of battles to come. An institution that had initially been a showcase for Puerto Rican art, which was unwelcome by other city museums, started to open its doors to a wider range of Latinx (the gender neutral term for Latino/Latina) and Latin American art. Its board of trustees, once recruited from the working class barrio, began to diversify ethnically, economically and socially. So did its administrators and curatorial staff. For those who believed that New York needed a major platform for work from South America, which had gained an elitist cachet, the expansion seemed positive. But for those who foresaw that art by Latinx artists particularly artists of Caribbean descent working in the United States and already marginalized along lines of class and race would only be further pushed out of the spotlight, the shift in direction, which amounted to a change in institutional mission, felt like a betrayal. For years, the tension continued, sometimes in quiet stretches, lately in a series of detonations. Directors have quickly come and gone. The board has experienced shake ups. Community based protest has escalated, inflamed by managerial gaffs. In January, for example, the chronically financially strapped museum invited a wealthy German aristocrat to be honored at its 50th anniversary gala. When her extreme right wing affiliations came to light the invitation was withdrawn. Soon afterward, a planned career survey of the Chilean born filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky was scrapped after the museum learned that he had once boasted of raping one of his actresses. Then last spring, the museum's director, Patrick Charpenel, who came to the job from Mexico in 2017, announced the hiring of a chief curator from Brazil, Rodrigo Moura. Ever since, Latinx scholars, artists and activists have been up in arms. Earlier this month some of them gathered in the galleries where "Culture and the People: El Museo del Barrio, 1969 2019" is installed to read a manifesto. It demanded that the museum "re dedicate itself to its unique mission of exhibiting and collecting the art and culture of Puerto Ricans and all Latin Americans in the United States" in other words, that it focus on the "the Nuyorican, the Dominiyorker, the first, second, and third generations of Mexicans, Colombians, Ecuadoreans, and Hondurans that make up a barrio in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and New Jersey, and the dreamers and the migrants who identify with a U.S. lived experience. This is distinct from Latin America." In the early days, photographs and prints, inexpensive to make, easy to distribute, and adaptable to a fast changing topical content, were popular media. The photographer Hiram Maristany, East Harlem born and raised, took the neighborhood as his subject and documented the activities of the New York chapter of the Young Lords, social justice activists who modeled themselves on the Black Panthers. (For a public art project, "Mapping Resistance," concurrent with the museum show, the artist Miguel Luciano has enlarged several Maristany pictures to mural size and installed them outdoors throughout the barrio.) The Young Lords are also recalled in an unsigned poster in which their four communal concerns health, food, housing, education are emblazoned on the barrels of AK 47s. When this print appeared in 1970, polemical printmaking already had a long history in Puerto Rico itself. Examples seen here from the 1950s, by masters like Rafael Tufino and Lorenzo Homar, form the bedrock of El Museo's collection. El Museo's exhibition tackles that history too, beginning with a dozen stone sculptures, carved from 1200 to 1500 A.D. by Taino people, indigenous inhabitants of the Caribbean. Taino imagery recurs in paintings by several contemporary artists Diogenes Ballester, Juan Sanchez and Mr. Dimas and in sketches for a vibrant ceramic mural by Nitza Tufino that enlivens the walls of a main barrio subway stop at Lexington Avenue and 103rd Street. Abstraction gets a section of its own with fine paintings by Tony Bechara and the wonderful, under known Myrna Baez (1931 2018). Ivelisse Jimenez, who lost more than two decades of work when her San Juan studio was leveled by Hurricane Maria, has a new paper and plastic wall hanging here. And there's a 1959 painting, plain as a blank page, red as a valentine, by Carmen Herrera, who is now, at 104, an art market star but was barely acknowledged by the mainstream art world in 1998 when El Museo, under the direction of Susana Torruella Leval, gave her a solo show. Looking around the galleries you can tick off the same contemporary styles and trends abstract painting, Minimalism, Conceptualism and so on that you'll find at MoMA, or the Guggenheim, or Art Basel. In that sense, El Museo's collection is savvy and up to speed. What distinguishes it overall, and makes it invaluable, is the content of much of the work, with its references to specific everyday lives. I do think there's room for both and that coexistence is the way forward. I also know that this is easy to say. El Museo's 50th anniversary show does not right wrongs of exclusion, past or future. Latinx art, as opposed to Latin American art, remains an underprivileged field, marked with class and economic associations that keep it out of elitist collections and museums. (Tellingly, Ms. Herrera, who was born in Cuba but has lived in the United States since 1954, is rarely marketed as Latinx; nor is Jean Michel Basquiat, whose mother was of Puerto Rican descent.) El Museo has championed Latinx art and culture from the start. It is the major institution to do so, and must continue to prioritize that. But it is also the only major museum in a position to explore and demonstrate a Latinx Latin America connection, which is real, rich and complex. Ultimately, El Museo's most valuable job which should also be its joy will be to reveal that link. But it will only be able to do so, and mend its currently tattered, siloed and self destructive state, if all sides agree to lay down their arms and work, with passion, together. Through Sept. 29 at El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan; 212 831 7272, elmuseo.org. Mapping Resistance: The Young Lords in the Barrio Through Sept. 30 in the neighborhood around El Museo del Barrio; elmuseo.org. Through Aug. 3 at Taller Boricua Gallery at Julia de Burgos Performance and Arts Center, 1680 Lexington Avenue, Manhattan; 212 831 4333, tallerboricua.org.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
Each Saturday, Farhad Manjoo and Mike Isaac, technology reporters at The New York Times, review the week's news, offering analysis and maybe a joke or two about the most important developments in the tech industry. Mike: Bonjour, Farhad! I am particularly happy this morning because this weekend I am seeing "Alien: Covenant." It's a film that combines nearly all of my passions: The vast expanse of space, the terror of murderous xenomorphs and the boyish good looks of Michael Fassbender. Farhad: Fun fact about me: Never seen an "Alien" movie. Mike: Wow, crazy. Well, they do say in Silicon Valley, no one can hear you scream. O.K., let's talk tech news. Earlier this week in transportation drama, I wrote a piece on how Waymo and Lyft two of Uber's largest competitors are collaborating in some sort of future self driving car initiative. It will no doubt stoke all sorts of speculation that Waymo, the self driving car arm spun out of Google, may one day decide to buy Lyft. Who knows if they actually produce anything from the partnership which is still light on detail but at the very least it's a big ding to Uber at a time the company is vulnerable to attack. Farhad: I know it's hard to love Uber, and also it's quite possible that Uber stole Google's self driving tech (we'll find out as the big lawsuit proceeds). But to me, Google's actions here also deserve scrutiny. Look at all the sides Google and its parent company, Alphabet, are playing in self driving. Through Waymo, Alphabet is building its own self driving tech. But through its venture capital firm, Alphabet is also a huge investor in Uber. And it is also suing Uber. Also, through Waze, its mapping app, Google is running a car pooling service that could compete with Uber. And now Waymo is partnering with Uber's biggest competitor. Isn't this exactly the sort of thing people complain about when they say Google is getting too big and powerful? In every way imaginable, Google is trying to use its huge power to completely dominate the future of driving tech. Mike: It reminds me of how you act around the office. Anyway, in non Uber news, Wired dropped a huge story on Apple's new campus, Apple Park, which basically looks like something out of a Kubrick film. My favorite follow up story, however, came from The Outline, which had a source send them a pizza box from the company. Apple patented a circular pizza box that keeps pizza crispy and well ventilated as employees walk from Apple's cafeterias back to their desks. This is exactly why Apple is the most valuable public company in the world. Farhad: I don't care how much rounded glass Apple's HQ has, it won't beat working from home. Mike: Moving on, Instagram added face filters to its app, continuing its streak of innovatively finding new ways to rip off Snapchat for its product road map. Bravo. Facebook had a series of embarrassing errors this week. After admitting it made its 10th mistake in advertising measurement, they had to pay back a bunch of the marketers who advertise through the platform. Nothing worse for a business than paying the people back who, um, are the ones paying you. Shortly after that, Facebook also was ordered to pay a 122 million fine to the European Union for making misleading statements regarding user privacy back when the company bought WhatsApp, the messaging app, for an obscene amount of money. Ouch. Since our Federal Trade Commission seems relatively toothless in big tech acquisitions, methinks Facebook is going to face a lot of pain in the E.U. over the next few years. Keep an eye on that. Farhad: Not just Facebook, I imagine. As the world gets more and more worried about the size and power of Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft, foreign regulators might become the most powerful checks on the tech giants. It will be an interesting fight to watch. Mike: I should note Google's slew of announcements at I/O, the company's annual conference for software developers. They basically do a gigantic news dump where they announce the latest in software updates, the status of Android, and the evolution of some of their latest initiatives like Google Home and Google Assistant. But to be honest with you, the Google stuff reminds me of what I really wanted to talk about this week: I genuinely do not care about any of it. Nothing against Google, mind you. It's just difficult for me to concentrate on the slow dribble of tech news when the United States seems to be going through what amounts to the final season of "Lost" in front of our very eyes. I'm hoping that spoiler alert! we wake up at the end and realize it was all a hallucination directly preceding our untimely deaths. Or maybe something less grim. Farhad: Oh, yes. I went to Google's opening keynote and I thought there was actually a bunch of cool stuff there. But half the time I was glued to my phone for news of an impending constitutional crisis. It's hard to muster much interest in easier photo sharing when your entire photo deck is full of screenshots of crazy headlines. Mike: Just look at our front page on any given day. Or, heck, turn on literally any form of electronic communication around 6 p.m. each day and watch a shotgun blast of political news dumps drop. This week was the continuing saga with former F.B.I. director James Comey, the investigation into Russia's possible collusion with Donald J. Trump in the 2016 election, and the latest on Michael Flynn, the disgraced National Security Advisor. And that was just Monday! How do you stay passionate about tech news throughout this stuff? I find it difficult to do more than warm up microwave burritos every night for dinner and watch CNN for hours. Farhad: It's an interesting question and as someone who's usually hooked to both politics news and tech news, I've been feeling this tug. On the one hand really nothing in tech seems like it's that interesting at the moment. It's not just that national headlines are eating up all my brainspace; it's also that so much of what's interesting in tech, these days, is pretty speculative. Self driving cars are a good example. Everyone in tech seems pretty sure that self driving cars will change society in big ways, when they come. But when will that happen? Uber, Waymo, Tesla and others are locked in this existential battle for the future of transportation, but the battle is sure to be long, slow and unpredictable. We might have a sense of where self driving tech is going next year, and a better sense the year after that, and an even better sense in five or 10 years. But at any given moment, a particular development in the industry is going to seem like pretty small ball, especially compared to the car crash of politics news. One thing I've found is that chatting with folks in tech can be pretty therapeutic. A lof techies are relentlessly optimistic. Even when the world is falling apart, they can see some better version of the future, and they're working to build it. We journalists can get pretty cynical about the world, but being around techies does give me some sense, sometimes, that things could get better. Maybe. Mike: Maybe, but we still have to talk to each other every week. Farhad: Oh man, you're right. Maybe it doesn't get better after all.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
'HUMA BHABHA: WE COME IN PEACE' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through Oct. 28). This spare and unsettling sculptural installation for the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden Commission includes two figures: one that is somewhat humanoid but with a ferocious mask face and that visually dwarfs the jagged Manhattan skyline behind it, and another bowing in supplication or prayer, with long cartoonish human hands and a scraggly tail emerging from its shiny, black drapery. The title is a variant on the line an alien uttered to an anxious crowd in the 1951 science fiction movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still," but it ripples with other associations: colonization, invasion, imperialism or missionaries and other foreigners whose intentions were not always innocent. The installation also feels like an extension of the complex, cross cultural conversation going on downstairs, inside a museum packed with 5,000 years of art history. (Martha Schwendener) 212 535 7710, metmuseum.org 'THE FACE OF DYNASTY: ROYAL CRESTS FROM WESTERN CAMEROON' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through Sept. 3). In the African wing, a show of just four commanding wooden crowns constitutes a blockbuster in its own right. These massive wooden crests in the form of stylized human faces with vast vertical brows served as markers of royal power among the Bamileke peoples of the Cameroonian grasslands, and the Met's recent acquisition of an 18th century specimen is joined here by three later examples, each featuring sharply protruding cheeks, broadly smiling mouths and brows incised with involute geometric patterns. Ritual objects like these were decisive for the development of Western modernist painting, and a Cameroonian crest was even shown at MoMA in the 1930s, as a "sculpture" divorced from ethnography. But these crests had legal and diplomatic significance as well as aesthetic appeal, and their anonymous African creators had a political understanding of art not so far from our own. (Jason Farago) 212 535 7710, metmuseum.org 'GIACOMETTI' at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (through Sept. 12). This museum filling outing for the signal sculptor of Western modernism is rather cautious but revisionism can wait another day when the art looks as good as it does here. The Swiss artist's witty and erotic early sculpture, such as the still shocking "Disagreeable Object" (a phallic torture device with a spiked business end), enraptured the Surrealists in early 1930s Paris, but Giacometti was never content with an art of ideas, and in his filthy studio, he soon started making elongated, emaciated humanoids that have since become emblems of Europe's postwar trauma. If you know Giacometti best for the bronzes that now go for obscene sums at auction, it's a particular pleasure here to see his work in plaster, a medium he adored; the humility of the handwork testifies to his anxious mastery. (Farago) 212 423 3800, guggenheim.org 'HEAVENLY BODIES: FASHION AND THE CATHOLIC IMAGINATION' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cloisters (through Oct. 8). Let us pray. After last year's stark exhibition of Rei Kawakubo's irregular apparel, the Met Costume Institute is back in blockbuster mode with this three part blowout on the influence of Catholicism on haute couture of the last century. The trinity of fashion begins downstairs at the Met with the exceptional loans of vestments from the Vatican; upstairs are gowns fit for angels in heaven (by Lanvin, Thierry Mugler, Rodarte) or angels fallen to earth (such as slinky Versace sheaths garlanded with crosses). The scenography at the Met is willfully operatic spotlights, choir music which militates against serious thinking about fashion and religion, but up at the Cloisters, by far the strongest third of the show, you can commune more peacefully with an immaculate Balenciaga wedding gown or a divine Valentino gown embroidered with Cranach's Adam and Eve. (Farago) 212 535 7710, metmuseum.org 'THE JIM HENSON EXHIBITION' at the Museum of the Moving Image. The rainbow connection has been established in Astoria, Queens, where this museum has opened a new permanent wing devoted to the career of America's great puppeteer, who was born in Mississippi in 1936 and died, too young, in 1990. Henson began presenting the short TV program "Sam and Friends" before he was out of his teens; one of its characters, the soft faced Kermit, was fashioned from his mother's old coat and would not mature into a frog for more than a decade. The influence of early variety television, with its succession of skits and songs, runs through "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show," though Henson also spent the late 1960s crafting peace and love documentaries and prototyping a psychedelic nightclub. Young visitors will delight in seeing Big Bird, Elmo, Miss Piggy and the Swedish Chef; adults can dig deep into sketches and storyboards and rediscover some old friends. (Farago) 718 784 0077, movingimage.us 'HISTORY REFUSED TO DIE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SOULS GROWN DEEP FOUNDATION GIFT' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through Sept. 23). This inspired foundation is dispersing around 1,200 works by black self taught artists from the American South to museums across the country. The Met's exhibition of 29 of the 57 pieces it received proposes an exciting broadening of postwar art. It is dominated by the dialogue between the rough hewed relief paintings of Thornton Dial and the geometrically, chromatically brilliant quilts of the Gee's Bend collective. But much else chimes in, including works by Purvis Young, Joe Minter and Lonnie Holley. (Roberta Smith) 212 535 7710, metmuseum.org 'ALEJANDRO G. INARRITU: CARNE Y ARENA' at 1611 Benning Road NE, Washington (through Aug. 31, 9 a.m. 9 p.m.). Perhaps the most technically accomplished endeavor yet in virtual reality but closer in form to immersive live theater, created by a two time Oscar winner has arrived at a former church in Washington after outings in Cannes, Milan, Los Angeles and Mexico City. In "Carne y Arena" ("Flesh and Sand"), you explore the exhibition on your own with a motion sensitive headset that transports you to Mexico's border with the United States; brutal encounters with border guards interweave with surreal dream sequences, which you can perceive in three dimensions. The characters are computer renderings of the bodies of actual migrants; the landscapes are photographed by Mr. Inarritu's brilliant longtime cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki. It remains too early to say whether virtual reality will reshape art institutions, but this is a rare achievement, and not only for its political urgency. Tickets will be released only on the website at 8 a.m. Eastern Time on the 1st and 15th of each month of the exhibition's duration. (Farago) carneyarenadc.com 'THE INCOMPLETE ARAKI' at the Museum of Sex (through Aug. 31). It remains a bit of a tourist trap, but the for profit Museum of Sex is making its most serious bid yet for artistic credibility with a two floor exhibition of Japan's most prominent and controversial photographer. Nobuyoshi Araki has spent decades shooting Tokyo streetscapes, blossoming flowers and, notably, women trussed up in the baroque rope bondage technique known as kinbaku bi, or "the beauty of tight binding." Given the venue, it's natural that this show concentrates on the erotic side of his art, but less lustful visitors can discover an ambitious cross section of Mr. Araki's omnivorous photography, including his lastingly moving "Sentimental Journey," picturing his beloved wife, Yoko, from honeymoon to funeral. (Farago) 212 689 6337, museumofsex.com 'BODYS ISEK KINGELEZ: CITY DREAMS' at the Museum of Modern Art (through Jan. 1). The first comprehensive survey of the Congolese artist is a euphoric exhibition as utopian wonderland featuring his fantasy architectural models and cities works strong in color, eccentric in shape, loaded with enthralling details and futuristic aura. Mr. Kingelez (1948 2015) was convinced that the world had never seen a vision like his, and this beautifully designed show bears him out. (Smith) 212 708 9400, moma.org 'THE LONG RUN' at the Museum of Modern Art (through Nov. 4). The museum upends its cherished Modern narrative of ceaseless progress by mostly young (white) men. Instead we see works by artists 45 and older who have just kept on keeping on, regardless of attention or reward, sometimes saving the best for last. Art here is an older person's game, a pursuit of a deepening personal vision over innovation. Winding through 17 galleries, the installation is alternatively visually or thematically acute and altogether inspiring. (Smith) 212 708 9400, moma.org 'THE METROPOLIS IN LATIN AMERICA, 1830 1930' at Americas Society (through June 30). Fans of Latin American architecture are overly besotted with the modernist era: Luis Barragan's color saturated houses in Mexico City, Oscar Niemeyer's cutting edge presidential palace in Brasilia. But this eye opening exhibition turns the clock back 100 years and shows how six cities Buenos Aires; Havana; Lima, Peru; Mexico City; Rio de Janeiro; and Santiago, Chile used architecture and urban design to express new national ambitions. Vintage photographs disclose how in Mexico's sprawling capital its new republican government erected statues of Cuauhtemoc, the last Aztec emperor, while Argentina plowed out lordly avenues in imitation of Haussmann era Paris. All these cities had keen architectural ambitions, though if you have to pick the most sophisticated, it's Rio in a landslide. Stare at Marc Ferrez's jaw dropping 1895 panoramic photograph of the erstwhile Brazilian capital, with Sugarloaf Mountain looming over Botafogo and Flamengo, and book the next flight. (Farago) 212 249 8950, as coa.org 'GEORGIA O'KEEFFE: VISIONS OF HAWAI'I' at the New York Botanical Garden (through Oct. 28). Finding out Georgia O'Keeffe had a Hawaiian period is kind of like finding out Brian Wilson had a desert period. But here it is: 17 eye popping paradisal paintings, produced in a nine week visit in 1939. The paintings, and their almost psychedelic palette, are as fleshlike and physical as O'Keeffe's New Mexican work is stripped and metaphysical. The other star of the show, fittingly, is Hawaii, and the garden has mounted a living display of the subjects depicted in the artwork. As much as they might look like the products of an artist's imagination, the plants and flowers in the Enid Haupt Conservatory are boastfully real. On Aloha Nights every Saturday in June and every other Saturday in July and August, the garden is staging a cultural complement of activities, including lei making, hula lessons and ukulele performances. (William L. Hamilton) 718 817 8700, nybg.org 'RENOIR: FATHER AND SON/PAINTING AND CINEMA' at Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia (through Sept. 3). Jean Renoir transformed the history of cinema with humanistic, precisely edited films like "The Grand Illusion," and especially "The Rules of the Game" considered one of the greatest films ever made, though it was a box office flop on its release in 1939. Yet the critic he strove most to please was his father, the Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste Renoir. This terrific dad and lad exhibition, organized with Paris's Musee d'Orsay, interweaves painting and cinema into a heartfelt survey of Jean Renoir's career, and finds paternal influence in the pastoral romance of "A Day in the Country" or the bright landscapes of his 1959 color film "Picnic on the Grass." The irony? It is Jean Renoir who now seems the more inventive artist, even if he was convinced that "I have always imitated my father." (Farago) 215 278 7000, barnesfoundation.org 'SCENES FROM THE COLLECTION' at the Jewish Museum. After a surgical renovation to its grand pile on Fifth Avenue, the Jewish Museum has reopened its third floor galleries with a rethought, refreshed display of its permanent collection, which intermingles 4,000 years of Judaica with modern and contemporary art by Jews and gentiles alike Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner, Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman and the excellent young Nigerian draftswoman Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze. The works are shown in a nimble, nonchronological suite of galleries, and some of its century spanning juxtapositions are bracing; others feel reductive, even dilettantish. But always, the Jewish Museum conceives of art and religion as interlocking elements of a story of civilization, commendably open to new influences and new interpretations. (Farago) 212 423 3200, thejewishmuseum.org 'THE SENSES: DESIGN BEYOND VISION' at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (through Oct. 28). There's a serious, timely big idea at this exhibition: As social media, smartphones and virtual reality make us ever more "ocularcentric," we have taken leave of our nonvisual senses and need to get back in touch, literally. Thus "The Senses" features multisensory adventures such as a portable speaker size contraption that emits odors, with titles like "Surfside" and "Einstein," in timed combinations; hand painted scratch and sniff wallpaper (think Warhol's patterned cows but with cherries cherry scented, naturally); and a device that projects ultrasonic waves to simulate the touch and feel of virtual objects. The show also presents commissions, videos, products and prototypes from more than 65 designers and teams, some of which address sensory disabilities like blindness and deafness, including Vibeat, which can be worn as a bracelet, brooch or necklace and translates music into vibrations. And if you bring the kids, they will likely bliss out stroking a wavy, fur lined installation that makes music as you rub it. (Michael Kimmelman) 212 849 8400, cooperhewitt.org 'CHAIM SOUTINE: FLESH' at the Jewish Museum (through Sept. 16). The Russian Jewish artist Chaim Soutine (1893 1943), who spent most of his life in Paris, is best known for bloody, ecstatic paintings of beef carcasses. But it wasn't death that interested him it was the immaterial life force of the material world. Along with an instructive lineup of naked fowl, silver herring and popeyed sardines, this indispensable tribute to the transcendent but still undervalued painter centers on a stupendous 1925 "Carcass of Beef," glistening scarlet, streaked with orange fat and straddling a starry sky. (Will Heinrich) 212 423 3200, thejewishmuseum.org 'THROUGH A DIFFERENT LENS: STANLEY KUBRICK PHOTOGRAPHS' at the Museum of the City of New York (through Oct. 28). This exhibition of the great director's photography is essentially Kubrick before he became Kubrick. Starting in 1945, when he was 17 and living in the Bronx, he worked as a photographer for Look magazine, and the topics that he explored are chestnuts so old that they smell a little moldy: lovers embracing on a park bench as their neighbors gaze ostentatiously elsewhere, patients anxiously awaiting their doctors appointment, boxing hopefuls in the ring, celebrities at home, pampered dogs in the city. It probably helped that Kubrick was just a kid, so instead of inducing yawns, these magazine perennials struck him as novelties, and he in turn brought something fresh to them. Photographs that emphasize the mise en scene could be movie stills: a shouting circus executive who takes up the right side of the foreground while aerialists rehearse in the middle distance, a boy climbing to a roof with the city tenements surrounding him, a subway car filled with sleeping passengers. Looking at these pictures, you want to know what comes next. (Arthur Lubow) 212 534 1672, mcny.org 'MILLENNIUM: LOWER MANHATTAN IN THE 1990S' at the Skyscraper Museum (through June 24). This plucky Battery Park institution transports us back to the years of Rudy Giuliani, Lauryn Hill and 128 kilobit modems to reveal the enduring urban legacy of a decade bookended by recession and terror. In the wake of the 1987 stock market crash, landlords in the financial district rezoned their old skyscrapers for residential occupancy, and more than 20 towers were declared landmarks, including the ornate Standard Oil building at 26 Broadway and the home of Delmonico's at 56 Beaver Street. Battery Park City flowered; yuppies priced out of TriBeCa came down to Wall Street; a new Guggenheim, designed by a fresh from Bilbao Frank Gehry, nearly arose by South Street Seaport. From this distance, the 1990s can seem almost like a golden age, not least given that, more than 16 years after Sept. 11, construction at the underwhelming new World Trade Center is still not finished. (Farago) skyscraper.org 'ALBERTO SAVINIO' at the Center for Italian Modern Art (through June 23). The paintings of this Italian polymath have long been overshadowed by the brilliant work of his older brother, Giorgio de Chirico. This show of more than 20 canvases from the late 1920s to the mid 30s may not change that, but the mix of landscapes with bright patterns and several eerie portraits based on family photographs are surprisingly of the moment. (Smith) 646 370 3596, italianmodernart.org 'KAY WALKINGSTICK: AN AMERICAN ARTIST' at the Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, N.J. (through June 17). An artist's career retrospective, if shaped with care, is more than a look at a life of labor. It's also a record of contingent lives, cultural changes and a political passage in time. This is true of "Kay WalkingStick: An American Artist," an era spanning survey at the Montclair Art Museum. Yet what powers the show, first and last, is the personal: the sense it gives of one worker growing, changing, faltering, then growing and changing more, entering the New York art world as a young painter of bright Pop figures, going on to explore abstraction, then gradually introducing autobiographical elements, including Native American themes. A successful retrospective should feel like a marriage of journal, time capsule and moral tale. This one does. (Holland Cotter) 973 746 5555, montclairartmuseum.org	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
The year had barely begun when the commandment came from on high. "He sent me a whole email, like, 'You cannot wear big glasses anymore. It's all about tiny little glasses.'" Thus spake Kanye West to his wife, Kim Kardashian West, and, via the bully pulpit of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," to all of us. It was far from the only provocative pronouncement Mr. West made this year. He called the history of slavery into question, reaffirmed his support for Donald Trump (complete with a visit to the Oval Office), acknowledged an opiate dependency and discussed (and occasionally disavowed) diagnoses of his mental health. In a year of turmoil, he reigned as one of its stormiest prophets, roaming the wilderness (of Wyoming, where he flew a contingent of fans and friends for the release of his album "Ye") before making his way back to New York and "Saturday Night Live." The "It" accessory of the year is smaller than a pochette, holds next to nothing and requires regular recharging. It is the Juul, the sleek, finger size vape of infamous ubiquity. The first issue of the revived Interview magazine, in September, included a Juul fashion spread under the headline "Fall's Most Ubiquitous Accessory Is a Juul." Juul's dominance in the e cigarette market is undeniable. Bloomberg reported in June that it had captured 68 percent of the category, and it is such a phenomenon that, as The New Yorker put it in May, "Saying the word 'Juul' in front of a group of young people with spending money is like dropping an everything bagel into a flock of pigeons in a public park." Juul's luck has also been its burden. The Food and Drug Administration called out the company in its announcement that it would conduct an "undercover nationwide blitz" cracking down on sales to minors. Tale as old as 2018: An Orthodox Jewish former corporate lawyer, wistful for the safe, frilly charms of vintage Laura Ashley, seeks out a dressmaker to make her dream a reality, and is enthusiastically taken up, in all her ruffled unlikelihood, by New York's demimonde. It had to be seen to be believed but then it was seen. On important editors in the front rows of fashion shows, on the Instagram stories of downtown party girls, there they were: high collared, often curtain print dresses by Batsheva Hay, every cool girl and down to earth celeb reborn as a little hausfrau on the prairie . Vogue tipped its cap; The New Yorker shined a light. Did anti sex appeal have an appeal all its own in a moment struggling to reconcile the fraught and fractious relationship between the sexes? Or a confident assertion that to be so far outre was to swing back in? Whatever it was, Ms. Hay, who had been making mommy and me dresses since 2016, suddenly found herself at the fore. Her modest, modish dolly dresses were, wrote The Washington Post, "the most provocative thing in fashion right now." His was an entrance announced by choir. Kerby Jean Raymond, the founder of Pyer Moss, has been rising in the ranks of fashion for years, but his September fashion show, held in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn and scored by a robed gospel choir, had the feeling of a coronation. Mr. Jean Raymond jolted a weary fashion press out of its customary ennui and, what's more, proved himself to be the worth the trip. Before the year was out, Vogue and the Council of Fashion Designers of America had awarded him their Fashion Fund trophy, heralding him as an important new voice. He is refreshingly ready and willing to use it. Mr. Jean Raymond, who is Haitian American, has kept the black experience, historically underrepresented in the upper echelons of fashion, at the center of his work and has dived into politics in an industry that often skirts it for the sake of sales. A T shirt from his September collection, inscribed "Stop Calling 911 on the Culture," made dark reference to the unsettling frequency with which white Americans called the police on their black neighbors in 2018, a year that gave us "BBQ Becky" in Oakland and "Cornerstore Caroline" in Brooklyn, among several other incidents. The T shirt went on sale after the show in September and quickly sold out. Part of the profits went to the Innocence Project, which works to reverse wrongful convictions. If one fashion house made headlines this year, it was Versace. Its history was hard boiled in Ryan Murphy's awards magnet mini series, "The Assassination of Gianni Versace," about the murder of Mr. Versace and the psychology of his killer, Andrew Cunanan. The Versace family released a statement saying the show should be considered a work of fiction, but the series nevertheless arrived at a watershed moment for the label, now stewarded by Donatella Versace, Mr. Versace's famously extravagant sister. Ms. Versace, who sometimes stumbled in bearing her brother's mantle, has recently been celebrating his legacy and recreating pieces from his archive, reviving prints like the Tresor de la Mer shown here, from one of Mr. Versace's 1992 collections. A moment of reflection for Versace also turned out to be a moment of major change. In September, the Michael Kors company announced it would buy Versace for just over 2 billion as part of a bid to create an international luxury group, to be called Capri Holdings. Its Italianate name notwithstanding, hackles were raised at one of Italian fashion's great houses going, as it seemed, American. But John Idol, the Kors chief executive, said that Ms. Versace was there to stay, and she insisted that Versace was, and would remain, "made in Italy." In a possible post gender future one that seems to be galloping closer, to the delight of its adherents and the dismay of its critics such concepts as men's fashion and women's fashion will be seen as dusty relics of a backward time. On fashion's runways the rumble has already arrived. In the vanguard and on the fringes, hyped labels ( Telfar , Vaquera, Gypsy Sport) have been insisting on gender agnostic designs and presentations. Change generally begins at the margins. What was more surprising or, for the cynical, more predictable was the way it percolated up. Even the biggest companies are experimenting with a more elastic concept of what is for whom. Christian Dior brought back its saddle bag this year, with a major campaign that placed it in the hands of scores of influencers. It was a calculated play for "It" bag status, but it wasn't the only one. When Kim Jones arrived at Dior to take over its men's collections, he, too, showed the saddle bag, kitted out with a metal buckle and a cross body strap, but otherwise largely unchanged, the first time the company has introduced a men's version of a women's bag. Are all saddles created equal? More or less except, of course, in price. Those hungry for an end to sneaker mania will have to wait another year. Wandering Cassandras are foretelling the bubble's burst, but it doesn't look near. Some industry analysts said that designer sneakers were the No. 1 growth area for men's and women's footwear, and designers have not tired of making them. At greater scale, name brand sneakers still dominate. According to Josh Luber, the chief executive of StockX, a marketplace that connects sneaker buyers with sneaker resellers and tracks prices, the top sellers by volume and by market share on the platform were all Adidas Yeezys or Jordans. But rounding out the top 10 was a more artisanal surprise: an Air Max 1/97 (a hybrid of the two Air Max styles) designed by Sean Wotherspoon, a vintage dealer and Nike collector. "Typically, the top selling sneakers on our platform are associated with big name celebrities and athletes," Mr. Luber said. Mr. Wotherspoon's psychedelic pastel corduroy pair, which was solicited by Nike and was one of the winners of a fan vote to go into production, broke through thanks to "exceptional storytelling and design." The style was an immediate hit. After a limited initial release in November 2017 and a global one on Air Max Day in March of this year, it sold out. Until then, the average sale price for the original on StockX is 576 (they cost 160 when they were released). It was, in other words, a David win in a Goliath world, in a version of the story where David is bankrolled by Nike, a major corporation.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Style
In San Quentin State Prison, just north of San Francisco, the basketball team offers inmates both purpose and distraction, a chance to win in lives not characterized by victories. Those benefits, and many others, are the main focus of Michael Tolajian's capable documentary "Q Ball," which observes team members on and off the court, at worship services and in boisterous weekly matchups with visiting civilian teams. Supported by the Golden State Warriors N.B.A. franchise (whose representatives arrive annually for a highly anticipated game), the players' expertise is impressive. Interviews reveal personal struggles and criminal pasts, but most of the screen time is devoted to two personalities: the thoughtful head coach, Rafael Cuevas, whose nontraditional methods are not universally supported, and the team's star player, Harry Smith, a onetime N.B.A. prospect who still harbors hopes of a professional career.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Movies
The American fashion designer was found dead in her Manhattan apartment on June 5, 2018. Ms. Spade was known for her bold, colorful and classy aesthetic. She was 55. "Kate Spade's really accessible and it's, you know, sort of has a sense of humor about itself. It doesn't take itself too seriously." "She puts forth a sort of aspirational line, which I think, 'Oh, I want to be like that. I want to be chic, and pulled together, and a New York lady.' And then I can." "You know, it was time to get back into the business." Buying a Kate Spade handbag was a coming of age ritual for a generation of American women. The designer created an accessories empire that helped define the look of an era. The purses she made became a status symbol and a token of adulthood. Ms. Spade, who was found dead on Tuesday in what police characterized as a suicide by hanging, worked as an editor before making the leap to designing, constructing her first sketches from paper and Scotch tape. She would come to attach her name to a bounty of products, and ideas: home goods and china and towels and so much else, all of it poised atop the thin line between accessibility and luxury. One of the first of a wave of American women to emerge as contemporary designers in the 1990s, Ms. Spade built a brand on the appeal of clothes and accessories that made shoppers smile. She embodied her own aesthetic, with her proto 1960s bouffant, nerd glasses and playful grin. Beneath that image was a business mind that understood the opportunities in building a lifestyle brand, almost before the term officially existed. Her name became shorthand for the cute, clever bags that were an instant hit with cosmopolitan women in the early stages of their careers and, later, young girls status symbols of a more attainable, all American sort than a Fendi clutch or Chanel bag. Ms. Spade became the very visible face of her brand and paved the way for female lifestyle designers like Tory Burch or Jenna Lyons of J. Crew. "Kate Spade had an enviable gift for understanding exactly what women the world over wanted to carry," Anna Wintour, the editor in chief of Vogue and artistic director of Conde Nast, said in a statement. Ms. Spade, 55, was discovered dead at her Manhattan apartment, where she had hanged herself in her bedroom, the police said. The New York police chief of detectives, Dermot F. Shea, said the death was "a tragic case of apparent suicide." A police official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that a note found at the scene addressed to Ms. Spade's 13 year old daughter indicated that what had happened was not the child's fault. "We are all devastated by today's tragedy," the Spade family said in a statement. "We loved Kate dearly and will miss her terribly. We would ask that our privacy be respected as we grieve during this very difficult time." Katherine Noel Brosnahan was born in Kansas City, Mo., on Dec. 24, 1962. Her father worked in construction while her mother took care of her and her five siblings. She did not grow up obsessed with fashion though she enjoyed combing through her mother's jewelry drawer and early in life thought about being a television producer. While a student at Arizona State University, where she studied journalism, she worked in a motorcycle bar and a men's clothing store. There, she met her husband to be, the brother of the actor and comedian David Spade. She graduated in 1985. After graduation, Ms. Spade moved to New York, where she became an assistant fashion editor at Mademoiselle magazine. Within five years she was the accessories editor. While in that role, she became frustrated by the handbags of the era, which she found to be gaudy and over accessorized. What she wanted was "a functional bag that was sophisticated and had some style," she later told The New York Times. She founded Kate Spade with Mr. Spade and a friend, Elyce Arons, in 1993. Joe Zee, the former creative director of Elle and former fashion director of W, met Ms. Spade before she had started her company. "She told me she was thinking of starting a handbag line in that carefree, excited way she had," he said. He recalled her spirited manner, the way she always spoke colorfully, "with excitement and a smile." "And as a kid starting out in fashion, that was something you remember especially when everything was so serious and all about deadlines and the pressure of perfection," he added. Ms. Spade did not know what to call the company at first and decided to make it a combination of her and Andy's names. (The couple married in 1994.) After the first show, she realized that the bags needed a little something extra to catch people's eyes. She took the label, which had originally been on the inside of the bag, and sewed it to the outside. With that gesture she created a brand identity and sowed the seeds of her empire. Julie Gilhart, then the fashion director of Barneys New York, picked up the label for the department store in the early 1990s. It was a great success. "It was so fast growing," she said. The mid '90s were "the time of the handbag," Ms. Gilhart said, and Kate Spade was able to bring bags to young women whose budgets were not yet at designer levels. "Kate and Andy always had their thumb on the pulse," she said. "They put their passion into an opportunity." Within a few years they had opened a SoHo shop and were collecting industry awards: Given a rising talent award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1995, Ms. Spade was named its accessory designer of the year in 1997. She was named best accessories designer at the Accessories Council's ACE Awards in 1999, the same year the Spades sold their shares of the company to the Neiman Marcus Group. The year before, it had 28 million in sales. Approachability was her calling card, whether she was making bags, clothes (which her company later expanded into) or books. "She was a style icon," said Ira Silverberg, who asked the Spades to do a book while he was working at the literary agency Donadio Olson. "But I thought they were really accessible people, and when I got to know them, I realized they were." The series of books they worked on together little gift items issued in 2004 as guides to "Style," "Manners" and "Occasions" were a hit, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. She and Mr. Spade understood "how to reach an audience without alienating a consumer," Mr. Silverberg said. "Katie's from Kansas City a quintessential American look and values personified everything they did," he added. Ms. Wintour said in her statement that when Ms. Spade started her label, "everyone thought that the definition of a handbag was strictly European, all decades old serious status and wealth."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
A private investor has bought this six story elevator building built in 1939. The 57,552 square foot building has 60 apartments one studio, 47 one bedrooms and 12 two bedrooms. It sold for 17 times the current rent roll. 30 West 24th Street (between Avenue of the Americas and Fifth Avenue) CRTV, the Las Vegas based media company and parent of Conservative Review, has signed a four year lease for 5,625 square feet of office space on the entire third floor of this 12 story 1916 building in the Ladies' Mile Historic District.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate
SAN FRANCISCO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, plans to strike a conciliatory note when he speaks to members of the European Parliament on Tuesday, in the latest stop on his apology tour for the social network's mishandling of user information. Mr. Zuckerberg is expected to stick to what has become a well used script when he appears before European lawmakers in Brussels on Tuesday evening. The chief executive intends to say that Facebook did not do enough to prevent the social network from being used for harm, according to an excerpt from his prepared remarks viewed by The New York Times. "Whether it's fake news, foreign interference in elections or developers misusing people's information, we didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibilities," Mr. Zuckerberg plans to say, according to the prepared remarks. "That was a mistake, and I'm sorry." The language closely mirrors what Mr. Zuckerberg told members of Congress last month when he went to Washington for a two day grilling over how Facebook handled the data of tens of millions of its users. The Times and others had revealed in March that a British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, had improperly used the information of Facebook members to build psychographic profiles of American voters, setting off a data privacy storm. Since then, Mr. Zuckerberg has posted a public apology for the scandal, accepting personal responsibility for the data leak and vowing to "step up." The Silicon Valley company has also announced new privacy and security settings and begun an advertising campaign in which it has promised to clean up the social network. In his appearance in front of Congress last month, Mr. Zuckerberg said, "We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I'm sorry." Mr. Zuckerberg has been under pressure for weeks to appear in front of lawmakers in Europe, where officials have been more proactive than in the United States in regulating the tech giants. His appearance before the European Parliament on Tuesday comes just days before the region's introduction of new regulations for protecting data privacy, known as the General Data Protection Regulation. Under the rules, European regulators will have the power to fine companies up to 4 percent of their global revenue for violations a sum equivalent to 1.6 billion in Facebook's case. Read more about what the new European privacy rules mean for you. Mr. Zuckerberg's decision to meet with members of the European Parliament was disclosed last week, when Antonio Tajani, the president of the body, tweeted that the chief executive would visit this week. It quickly became clear that the conditions for Mr. Zuckerberg's appearance were favorable for him because the European Parliament does not directly regulate Facebook or other technology companies and because it had agreed to a closed door session with the chief executive. That created a backlash, with several European lawmakers quickly threatening to not attend the meeting if it was not made public. On Sunday, Mr. Tajani tweeted that it was "great news" that Mr. Zuckerberg had agreed to a live web broadcast of the session after all. Facebook accepted a livestream after fears that a boycott by European lawmakers would grab even more headlines and detract from the message of the meeting, according to an official within Facebook, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly. On Tuesday, Mr. Zuckerberg is also expected to assure European lawmakers that Facebook is "committed to Europe," according to a copy of his prepared remarks. He plans to cite Facebook's European headquarters in Ireland as an example, as well as the company's offices in London, where the social network has its largest engineering team outside of the United States. "By the end of 2018, Facebook will employ 10,000 people across 12 European cities up from 7,000 today. And we will continue to invest," Mr. Zuckerberg intends to say. "Europeans make up a large and incredibly important part of our global community." After Mr. Zuckerberg testifies to the European Parliament, he is scheduled to make other stops in Europe. On Wednesday, he is set to have lunch with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris to discuss a range of issues. Mr. Zuckerberg will also be interviewed onstage at the Viva Technology conference in Paris on Thursday in a conversation that will be livestreamed.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
One of the highest ranking female journalists at The Times, Ms. Rudoren anchored the paper's coverage of Israel from 2012 to 2015. Her other roles have included Chicago bureau chief, correspondent on the 2004 presidential campaign, and deputy editor on the Metro desk, where she created the Sunday Metropolitan section. "We're excited to bring in Jodi's depth of experience with digital invention and the caliber of her journalism," Ms. Feddersen said in an interview. "For our staff to have a leader like Jodi is inspirational." The Forward, which began as a Yiddish language daily newspaper at the turn of the 20th century, focuses its coverage on Jewish life, including politics, religion, culture and foreign affairs. It started publishing English language editions in the 1980s. (The publication produces articles in both languages online.) The Forward reaches about two million readers a month online, Ms. Feddersen said; a third of the audience is under 35. The publication is overseen by a nonprofit group, the Forward Association. In January, Ms. Feddersen said The Forward had lost money for decades, with the losses numbering "in the millions" in recent years. Ms. Rudoren, in an interview, said that she was a longtime reader of The Forward, dating to her days as a history major at Yale, where she researched microfiche editions from the 1920s. She praised the paper's "pillar of investigative journalism, of provocative op eds, and of really great cultural coverage."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
AFTER her husband's death in 2007, Mary Jane Renninger, a retired nurse, began having occasional dizzy spells and even passed out on one occasion as she was painting her patio. She was not found until 12 hours later. As much as she valued her independence, it became increasingly clear she could no longer live alone in the over 55 community in Jacksonville, Fla., where she and her husband had moved 15 years earlier to be closer to one of their daughters. But for elderly people like Ms. Renninger, now 83, deciding what to do next can be an almost overwhelming task. Is it time to move to a nursing home or some other type of assisted living? Or will home care with a variety of support services work? It is an issue millions of people especially baby boomers and their parents are grappling with now. The choices are so complex that more and more people are finding they cannot make the decisions alone. As a result, with the number of Americans age 85 and older growing faster than any other age group, as the Congressional Budget Office reports, so is the demand for elder care specialists. Ms. Renninger and her family sought the advice of Dr. Carolyn McClanahan, who helped narrow down the choices. Dr. McClanahan, who is both a family medicine and emergency physician as well as a certified financial planner, not only helps clients with financial decisions but can also advise on the broader issues of health and aging. She had been working with Ms. Renninger's family for years. With her help, Ms. Renninger and her daughter Reagan Alonzo found an apartment in a graduated care community in Jacksonville called Cypress Village. It seemed like a good fit, because residents can start in independent living arrangements and later, depending on their needs, receive assisted living care, memory care or skilled nursing. "I enjoy Cypress," Ms. Renninger said. "I made a lot of friends and joined clubs. I also feel comfortable about the money situation, so I don't have to worry." Choosing the right living situation is crucial. Of the 44 million people age 65 and older in 2013, only about 1.5 million (or 3.4 percent) were living in institutional settings such as nursing homes in 2013, according to the Administration on Aging. The rest either lived alone or with family members in a wide variety of housing arrangements. Too often, decisions about a next step take place when a health emergency occurs when an elderly parent has fallen, for example or when bills go unpaid, housekeeping falls behind or there is some other evidence of failing memory. But experts increasingly warn against waiting that long. Ruth Finkelstein, associate director of the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center at Columbia University, said such emergencies can lead families into a melange of uncoordinated private and public services that vary from region to region, state to state and even community to community. "We're stuck trying to navigate a nonsystem," Dr. Finkelstein said, "Long term care can't be covered by one strategy." So then, what is the best way to locate and manage the services that parents or relatives might need to make a successful transition? Many times this requires a team of people a financial planner, a lawyer and a family physician who understands aging issues. The Administration on Aging also provides lists of community organizations and services. If a team seems unwieldy and too expensive another option is to hire an expert in elder care. This is not without its own complications. An organization called the Aging Life Care Association provides guidelines for choosing someone with the proper skills to advise on elder care. Membership in ALCA is open only to qualified people with specialized degrees and experience in human services, including social work, psychology, gerontology or nursing. Those at the advanced level of membership hold one of four ALCA approved certifications. Only members of ALCA can call themselves Aging Life Care Professionals. Jeffrey S. Pine, president of the Aging Life Care Association, says these specialists are trained to evaluate health, financial status, disability and housing issues. Foremost on an aging life expert's radar screen are "safety issues," he said, "What would it be like to live independently and well?" That means evaluating whether a person can live alone with or without assistance. Although the elderly person is officially the counselor's client, the counselor often works closely with the entire family to make decisions. Counselors generally charge 100 to 200 an hour and 400 to 800 for an initial assessment, depending on the region, according to Mr. Pine's organization. The Northeast and Midwest are more expensive than the Deep South and West. "Geriatric care managers are great with helping to determine placement options," Dr. McClanahan said. "The best combination is to have fee only financial planners evaluate the financial end of the deal while the geriatric care manager manages the actual placement issues. It is important that the person helping with placement is not compensated based on where they place the elderly person." Other professionals can provide crucial aid as well. Lawyers can draft directives that give children or trusted advisers power of attorney in the event of mental or health disability, so that medical decisions can be made and bills can be paid. Financial planners can help a client decide what living arrangements are most affordable and recommend financing for long term care. Medicare will pay for some in home care, but only limited amounts for skilled institutional nursing. The program does not pay for long term custodial or unskilled care. Family doctors, particularly those specializing in gerontology, are also essential in reviewing mental and physical health. It is important to plan as a family, if possible, so that good decisions are made. "Starting the family discussion should take place as soon as possible and be a recurring event," Dr. McClanahan added. "Outline the ideal living situation, what factors will instigate a move, and the finances of the move." If higher levels of care are needed say, a visiting nurse working with a care manager or elder specialist is advised to see what other services are needed. "The most important step," Dr. McClanahan said, "is to align the elder's thoughts of the ideal living situation with their finances and the practicality of what they want." "For example, Mrs. Renninger's ideal situation was to stay in her previous home," Dr. McClanahan said. "From a financial standpoint, it would have been O.K. She could have hired people for the upkeep, but her independent personality and dislike of having people come in her home made that impossible. It was only by her daughters coming together to encourage the move and then finally the 'passing out incident' that made her make the transition." No matter how the transition is approached, it is important to keep in mind that there is no one size fits all solution. It will probably be necessary to consult a number of specialists before arriving at a customized approach, which may have to change over time as an elderly person or family members age.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Your Money
Past Winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science 2004 Finn E. Kydland and Edward C. Prescott "For their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles." 2002 Daniel Kahneman "For having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision making under uncertainty." Vernon L. Smith "For having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms." 2001 George A. Akerlof, A. Michael Spence and Joseph E. Stiglitz "For their analyses of markets with asymmetric information." 2000 James J. Heckman "For his development of theory and methods For analyzing selective samples." Daniel L. McFadden "For his development of theory and methods for analyzing discrete choice." 1975 Leonid V. Kantorovich and Tjalling C. Koopmans "For their contributions to the theory of optimum allocation of resources." 1974 Gunnar Myrdal and Friedrich August von Hayek "For their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena." 1973 Wassily Leontief "For the development of the input output method and for its application to important economic problems." 1972 John R. Hicks and Kenneth J. Arrow "For their pioneering contributions to general economic equilibrium theory and welfare theory." 1971 Simon Kuznets "For his empirically founded interpretation of economic growth, which has led to new and deepened insight into the economic and social structure and process of development." 1970 Paul A. Samuelson "For the scientific work through which he has developed static and dynamic economic theory and actively contributed to raising the level of analysis in economic science." 1969 Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen "For having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Economy
For telegraphing accomplishment, driving or being driven in a Mercedes Benz S550 tells the world you're not trying to eek out a living as a journalist. I'm Tom Voelk with Driven for The New York Times. Even without the obvious clue, the Mercedes flagship is a stately piece of transportation. Seldom do so few lines convey so much success. (ON CAMERA) As you might imagine there not giving these away in cereal boxes, as tested this one goes for just under 129,000. It is well optioned. OR And you might consider that a bargain. The price can climb considerably higher but let's see what 129 large buys. One thing you won't find are light bulbs. Instead, nearly 500 LEDs handle illumination, including the lustrous ambient lighting that flows through the entire cabin. The seats heat, cool, massage and actively move while driving to hold you securely during cornering. Oh, and the armrests? They're heated too. An interior perfume system keeps things fresh, I'll assume "sport mood" does not smell like a locker room. The 4.7 liter V8 sports two turbochargers (SOUND UP) there's a nice bit of theatre as 455 horsepower comes to life (SOUND UP) A classic Mercedes joystick controls the 7 speed gearbox. Rear drive is standard, all four wheels get motivation on this one. 0 60 (SOUND UP) glides up in just under 5 seconds. S Class is deceptively light, 50 percent of the body shell is aluminum (ON CAMERA) I could describe the ride quality as buttery smooth but I haven't had butter this silky. Throw it into a corner and it does not wallow. That's courtesy of an adaptive suspension. The S is boardroom quiet. I'd need a half hour to cover the safety technology so I'll just touch on the night vision. It automatically switches on when animals or pedestrians too busy to look up from their phones appear. At speeds under 31 miles an hour, S Class can automatically brake to keep from hitting humans and cars in it's path. The auto stop start feature (SOUND OFF) is so smooth and unobtrusive (SOUND UP) I didn't notice it at first. You would expect this sedan to be luxurious but there's something more here, much like a stay at a Four Seasons resort. It's easy to linger and fawn over the craftsmanship while soaking in the powerful Burmester audio system. Even though it's improved, I'm still lukewarm on the COMAND user interface. Part of its complexity has to do with the seemingly endless features packed into this car. (ON CAMERA) The middle position is raised but headroom is still fine. Space is really not an issue with the S Class Some packages allow the seats to recline nearly 45 degrees. Also available are folding tables for working executives and cupholders that maintain hot and cold beverage temperatures. Down headrests are the softest I've ever experienced (ON CAMERA) S Class is a large sedan, you would expect the trunk to be enormous. I think you know where this is going... The chauffeur could keep his lunch in this space I suppose. All those features in the back seat rob room back here. Most mid sized sedans hold up to seven packs, S Class tops out at an easy six. It's difficult to understand the depth of S550 without experiencing it. Doors that finish closing for you are a clue. Mercedes calls this car "The essence of luxury" for 129 grand it should be. Wealth is only one measure of success, The S is not the most expensive status symbol on wheels, but it can be considered a benchmark.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Automobiles
Cartoon owned by SEPS; licensed by Curtis Licensing; Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Gift of the artist. Cartoon owned by SEPS; licensed by Curtis Licensing; Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Gift of the artist. Credit... Cartoon owned by SEPS; licensed by Curtis Licensing; Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Gift of the artist. PHILADELPHIA Sometimes an exhibition, planned years in advance, arrives at a moment that makes it seem remarkably prescient. That is true of a show opening on March 17 at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia and later this year at the American Jewish Historical Society in New York. Organized by the two institutions, which are collaborating on an exhibition for the first time, "1917: How One Year Changed the World" focuses on three historic events and their major impact on Jews around the world: America's entry into World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the Balfour Declaration. The war and the revolution resulted in strict limits on immigration to the United States, reflecting a fear among Americans that unrest in Europe would spread to their country. The restrictions were not overtly aimed at Jews, but because the quotas from countries with high Jewish populations were tightened, fewer Jews were able to settle in the United States. The Balfour Declaration, meanwhile, expressed Britain's support for a Jewish home in Palestine. Among the items is an undated cartoon from the era that portrays a man standing in front of a wall that bears the words "Immigration Restriction." He is wearing a coat emblazoned with the word "Congress," while a banner behind him says "Alien Undesirables." It was in 1917 that Congress began taking steps to impose new immigration quotas, an effort that led to the restrictive 1924 Johnson Reed Act. Josh Perelman, chief curator and director of exhibitions and collections at the Philadelphia museum, described the chilling effect that World War I had on immigration. "The war was most significant because it created an environment in which a powerful group government, culture and academia were wary of the tribulations of Europe and scared that the immigrants would bring these people to our shores," Dr. Perelman said in an interview, surrounded by some of the objects in the show. "After the revolution, when the Bolsheviks came to power, and the xenophobia coalesced together and had the power to influence, that fear accelerated." The exhibition is also a strong reminder of the number of Jews who fought for the United States during World War I. An estimated 3.4 million were living in the country during the war years, and 250,000 joined the military, according to the American Jewish Committee's Office of Jewish War Records. One, Sgt. William Shemin, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama in 2015 97 years after his heroism during the war. He had repeatedly left the safety of his platoon's trench to recover wounded soldiers. Jewish organizations had long lobbied for the medal on his behalf, contending that his feats had been wrongly overlooked. Visitors will be able to see Sergeant Shemin's medal, as well as his helmet and other war gear. As the United States was entering the war, there were concerns among Jews over the persecution of those still in Russia and Eastern Europe. One piece of evidence on display is a letter from the philanthropist Julius Rosenwald to Louis Marshall, chairman of the American Jewish Relief Committee, offering to give 1 million if the committee could raise 10 million to help Jews in "belligerent lands." A telegram from President Woodrow Wilson said the gift "serves democracy." "It is to America that these starving millions look for aid," he wrote. "Out of our prosperity" and "free institutions should spring a vast and ennobling generosity," he added. Not all Jewish immigrants viewed the United States as a safe haven. A handful of documents highlight the little known story of Boris Reinstein, who came from Russia and made a career as a druggist in Buffalo. His 1917 application for a passport is on display, as is his 1923 renunciation of his United States citizenship. Mr. Reinstein was a true believer in the Bolshevik Revolution and the Soviet ideology and left his wife, Anna, to return to Russia, where he worked in the Library of the Marx, Lenin and Engels Institute. For Dr. Perelman and Rachel Lithgow, executive director of the American Jewish Historical Society, one gratifying coup was the loan of two draft versions of the Balfour Declaration from the financier Martin Franklin, who acquired them from Sotheby's in 2005 as part of the archive of Leon Simon. Mr. Simon, later Sir Simon, a British born Jew who become director of Britain's General Post Office, shared the views of Chaim Weizmann, who was part of the Zionist Commission that worked on the draft of the declaration. Mr. Simon's handwriting is on the original draft, which has never before been exhibited in the United States. It was written on the stationery of the Imperial Hotel in Russell Square in London. "This was the text that was forwarded to Lord Balfour and was used as the basis of the Balfour Declaration," Dr. Perelman said. Arthur James Balfour, for whom the declaration is named, was Britain's foreign secretary. The final declaration, in the form of a letter dated Nov. 2, 1917, was sent to one of Britain's most distinguished Jewish citizens, Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild. Ultimately, it said, in part: "His Majesty's government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object." The document also added that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non Jewish communities in Palestine." Explaining his purchase of the document, Mr. Franklin said: "I bought it for two reasons: one, it is probably the most important document in the creation of the state of Israel. And second, my great great uncle was the first high commissioner": Lord Herbert Samuel, who arrived in Palestine in 1920. "So I thought maybe we should keep it in the family."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
The 2014 Land Rover Range Rover Sport might be a better mountain climber than slalom runner, but don't roll your eyes at the "sport" badge on this S.U.V. Many see Range Rovers as dignified transportation for the upper crust. Picture Queen Elizabeth II peering over the steering wheel of this talisman of British gentry, perhaps returning to Balmoral Castle, the royal family's summer retreat in Scotland, from a grouse shoot. But the newest Range Rover Sport is much more than stately it's more a punk rock crawler. "The on road performance and handling, especially in the supercharged V8 is almost I don't want to say bordering on hooliganism but it is kind of fun," said Andrew Polsinelli, product planning manager for Land Rover North America. The Sport suffix signifies that this model is the frisky smaller sibling about 5.9 inches shorter over all, almost 2.2 inches lower and around 100 pounds lighter than the Queen Mother ship, the standard Range Rover. Priced to offer an alternative to some versions of the Audi Q7, BMW X5, Mercedes Benz GL and Porsche Cayenne, the Sport shares its main underpinnings with the current Range Rover, which was redesigned for 2013. "They are closer under the skin than they were before," Mr. Polsinelli said. The closeness includes sharing a pair of supercharged engines, either a 3 liter V6 rated at 340 horsepower or a 5 liter V8 that delivers 510 horsepower. Each is backed by an 8 speed automatic transmission. Land Rover intends for the big Range Rover to coddle its passengers, whether on or off paved roads; the focus of the 2014 Sport is on sharper handling for pavement duties, giving up some off road ability. Prices for the Sport begin at 63,495, including the destination charge, for the SE model with V6. That's not pocket change, but it is about 20,700 less than the least expensive Range Rover. (That line tops out at nearly 200,000.) I tested the V6 with about 13,325 in options, including 5,000 for the HSE package, which includes a panoramic sunroof, fancier 20 inch diameter wheels and some cosmetic goodies. The total price was 76,820. The most expensive Range Rover Sport is the egocentric Autobiography model at 93,295. From a distance, the Range Rover Sport has the classic Range Rover profile, a high riding, upright, stolid look. A closer inspection, however, reveals a new smoothness and angularity that confers sleekness, even a hint of aggression. The interior is richly trimmed, but it is not ostentatious. There is, instead, an understated elegance conveyed by handsome leather and other materials that are pleasingly arrayed. There are few storage areas, not even a decent tray for life's vital doodads. The Sport I drove did have a center bin, but it was an optional refrigerated compartment. Other features also seemed overdone. Some controls were needlessly complicated. Turning on the heated seats, for example, required stepping through several layers of selections on the touch screen. One can endure such burdens by focusing on the upsides, including a high seating position that could give an imaginative driver the impression of being on a throne. It's a self delusional conclusion, but oddly pleasing all the same. The second row of seats moves fore and aft 3.8 inches to allow a trade off of legroom for luggage capacity. Setting that row as far back as it will go gives passengers 37 inches of legroom, which is adequate for six footers. The cargo capacity behind the second seat is rated at 27.7 cubic feet. That's a substantial loss of 6.1 cubic feet compared with the previous Sport, a reduction resulting in part from the rakish slant of the rear window, Land Rover says. While the cargo space is adequate for a couple taking a trip, it could pose real challenges for a family excursion. The Sport has been assigned an odd, dichotomous role that presented a challenge for Land Rover engineers. The model line's original brief included exceptional off road capability, and that tradition would be impossible for the Sport to discard without surrendering the marque's heritage and distinction crucial selling points in a prestige market segment. Range Rover addressed the challenge on several fronts. First, it abandoned the old body on frame construction, which for years the company had defended as the design best suited to an off road mandate. Now the Sport has an aluminum unibody that saves 800 pounds compared with the old Sport, the company says. The V6 model weighs 4,727 pounds and the V8 is 5,093 pounds. The air suspension, also shared with the Range Rover, was tuned for better handling, dialed back a bit from the comfort focused calibration of the larger model. The package the combination of lighter weight and an improved suspension works remarkably well on mountain roads. Turning effort of the electric power assisted steering is consistent and predictable, providing the confidence needed for brisk driving, though road feel is lacking. For a relatively tall and hefty S.U.V., the Sport is gratifyingly quick to dig into a curve, and over several weeks the surprise and pleasure of that response never diminished. Body lean is nicely controlled, and on rough surfaces the ride remains reasonably comfortable, though far from cushy. The aluminum body is solid and quiver free Range Rover says it is 25 percent stiffer than the previous model's. Acceleration with the supercharged V6 is strong because of the availability of engine torque the 332 pound feet peaks at 3,500 r.p.m. and a beautifully programmed, quick responding transmission. Land Rover says the V6 will go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 6.9 seconds; if you spend the extra money for the V8, you can do it in 5. The Environmental Protection Agency estimate for the V6 is 17 miles per gallon in town and 23 m.p.g. on the highway. That is a huge increase (4 m.p.g. city and 5 m.p.g. highway) over the old model with the 375 horsepower V8. The new V8 is rated at 14 m.p.g. city and 19 highway. Premium fuel is recommended with either engine. The all wheel drive system is on duty full time, but during a modest snowstorm with temperatures just below freezing it was badly compromised by the 20 inch Michelin Latitude Sport tires. Forward traction was adequate, even when climbing a steep hill with a nasty, off camber turn in the middle. But when braking even from low speed in a straight line the tires would quickly lose grip. This is alarming for fussy drivers who think the importance of turning and stopping is as important as forward traction. Michelin describes the Latitude Sport as a summer tire. However, spokesmen for Land Rover and Michelin said the rubber compound and tread were reworked for the Range Rover Sport to provide all season capability. I beg to differ on including winter in those seasons. Range Rover says it is hard to know for certain how many owners venture off road, or even how they define off road. But the Sport has the capability, aided by a terrain response system that lets the driver alter how the powertrain responds to driving conditions by turning a knob. The ground clearance can also be raised to 10.9 inches in the off road mode, from 8.4 inches in the standard setting. For those who are more serious, there is an optional transfer gearbox that adds a low range, useful for creeping across rough terrain. When the 2014 model was introduced, a Land Rover executive declared in a news release: "The all new Range Rover Sport is a vehicle that has been designed and engineered without compromise." Oh, please. Of course there were compromises, the primary one being the balancing act between improving handling on pavement while still maintaining some off road performance. But the compromises were intelligently chosen and result in a vehicle that, while not perfect, manages to be quite alluring.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Automobiles
Q. I see posts in my Twitter feed that have "sensitive content" labels in place of the message. What counts as sensitive content, and how can I unblock it? A. Twitter's media policy generally does not allow images or videos depicting graphic violence, pornography or hate group imagery to be attached to posts. Twitter users can report material they find objectionable by selecting the menu icon on the message and using the Report option. However, the company makes exceptions when the posted material is deemed to be "artistic, medical, health or educational" content. To shield users who do not wish to see such things popping up in their feeds, Twitter blocks those posts from view with the "sensitive content" label.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
Skiing Seekarspitz mountain in the Obertauern region of the Austrian Alps. Credit...Andreas Meichsner for The New York Times One more run. We had to take one more run from the Zehnerkar peak down the steep, snowy trails, beyond the black strings of chairlifts and all the way into the Austrian valley below, where the high speed gondola would gather us up like parishioners crowding into church and whisk us back to the top. My legs were tired and trembling a little, but my friends Christoph and Thomas were too excited about the packed powder, sunshine and empty trails in this corner of the Obertauern ski area to stop now. After that next run we would have earned the Alpine refreshments, the spiked mountain goat milk and the yeast dumpling drizzled in vanilla sauce. There were traditions to uphold, the Wiener schnitzel, the pear schnapps, but most of all the camaraderie that came with our yearly weekend trip to Austria. I know that sounds extravagant "my annual trip to the Alps with my friends" but they're German, and I was living in Berlin when we started the tradition. Christoph and I would hop down on a short Air Berlin flight to Munich. Thomas would pick us up for the drive to neighboring Austria, where a lift ticket at Obertauern costs less than 50. Capturing that teenage feeling of friends joking and daring and not caring was basically the premise of the entire trip. We set aside one weekend a year without spouses or children or work responsibilities to risk middle aged limbs on black diamond slopes. The only other rule was a different resort every time, always a new adventure. We met an actual princess in a bar in Kitzbuhel, and her stepsister asked me what kind of Lamborghini I drove (hint: none). Somewhere a grainy BlackBerry video supposedly exists where I am dancing in ski boots on a table at the Krazy Kanguruh slopeside bar in St. Anton am Arlberg (doesn't quite sound like me). And in a pulsating nightclub in Ischgl full of German, Dutch and Austrian teenagers, we conceded our age and called it an early night (about time). We were rewarded for our judiciousness the next morning with an early start, first up the mountain and out onto the best untouched powder any of us had ever skied. My skiing roots are decidedly modest. Growing up in the Washington, D.C., area meant carving the nearby hillocks of Pennsylvania and Virginia with names like Liberty and Roundtop. We would rarely even stay overnight; Dad would wake up my sister and me as early as possible, and we would pile into the brown Volkswagen Dasher station wagon, fortifying ourselves at the drive through with McMuffins and hash browns. At that age I had no idea that the mountains were tiny or the waits for the lift interminable. My frame of reference was summer trips to the amusement park, where you stood in line for 20 minutes for the brief thrill of a roller coaster ride. Skiing beat any roller coaster for me. I felt like the Italian slalom legend Alberto Tomba, despite the poor imitation my snowplow turns were of his muscular moves around each gate. I begged to stay longer every time and kept the lift ticket dangling from the zipper of my ski jacket all winter to remind myself of the fun I'd had. When I got a little older, there were 10 hour bus rides to Vermont with friends, watching VHS tapes of Warren Miller movies like "Steep and Deep" and "White Winter Heat," filled with guitar solos and aerial tricks we would never pull off. The cramped journey earned you a spot on slopes of pure ice where subzero windchill gusts rearranged the tiny drifts, like a decorative dash of confectioners' sugar on a dessert. But the mountains were much taller than those in the mid Atlantic and the runs were longer. The rush of those solitary slides down the mountain alternated with good talks with friends on the chairlift up again. A ski accident my senior year of high school sent me to the hospital, and other than one trip with my dad, I took a decade long hiatus from my favorite sport. When I moved to Germany as a correspondent for this paper and realized how tantalizingly close the Alps were, I made a deal with myself: One day a year, no matter what. But my promise became a reality only because my friends got onboard. I was the instigator, who began peppering the others with emails starting in October, hounding them until a date was chosen and reservations could be made. Thomas was the driver, leaning on his BMW in his Ray Bans when we arrived, ready to beat the Friday rush hour traffic with an early start from Munich. Christoph was the navigator of the pistes; his skills as an illustrator came in handy as we puzzled over the stylized blue, red and black slashes on the map, where, to my eternal confusion, you could somehow ski down something pointing upward. Each had his role, the key to assembling a team that travels well together time and again. This year, on our way to Obertauern, we drove past the Chiemsee, one of the placid Bavarian lakes you pass before you begin the climb into the mountains. The sky was blue with a few cumulus clouds scraping the peaks in the distance. We even saw a mountaintop castle, in case in my jet lagged state I momentarily thought we were headed for the Rockies or the Sierras. As usual, we raced to get there in time for a few runs in the afternoon. Saturday was our only full day of skiing, so getting the feel for our skis on Friday was essential. We dropped our bags at the Alpenhotel Perner, changing as quickly as we could into ski pants and jackets. The nerve racking moment at the rental shop arrived. Could they find the ridiculous size 15 ski boots I needed? One year we had to go to three different stores before I could squeeze my feet into a pair and missed our Friday start. I watched anxiously as the staffers conferred, then checked the cobwebby back corners of their storage spaces before emerging, chuckling, with the single Sasquatch size pair of boots in the place. On the mountain, Thomas barreled full steam downhill, always skirting the edge of control. Christoph executed one meticulous turn after another, like an ice skater perfecting his figures, or the illustrator that he is, drawing curves on the mountainside with his skis. I alternated between following in his tracks and pointing my tips straight down and hurtling into Thomas's wake. "At the beginning, I think, 'Oh God, why am I doing this,' but by the third or fourth round, I remember," Christoph said on one of our lift rides. "This is redemption for being a bad skier as a kid," he said, then paused for a moment to consider. "I was not a bad skier," he corrected. "I was a terrible skier." The other reason you have to get in runs on Friday, as he pointed out, was that otherwise you felt like a fraud in cavernous apres ski bars like the Lurzer Alm, which looks like a peaceful mountain lodge from the outside but transforms into a Brothers Grimm go go club mixing traditional woodwork and disco balls, where everyone is wind burned and still wearing their gear from the mountain. I was mentally better prepared for the soaring mountains "White Winter Heat" was partly set in the Alps, after all than the party atmosphere. The World Cup Alpine ski racer Bode Miller nearly torpedoed his reputation in the United States with a comment on "60 Minutes" about skiing drunk. In Austria he had plenty of company. We once watched an entire police unit at the bottom of the mountain with Breathalyzers pulling people aside and writing ticket after ticket. After your last run, you plant your skis into the snow, leaving them in the neon forest of equipment outside the bar, and enter a mini Oktoberfest. The Latsch'n Schirm in Obertauern looked like a circus tent, with the red and yellow striped roof. Immediately someone called for a round of pear schnapps with a chunk of pear speared on a plastic sword. The music is a beguilingly weird blend of oompah, disco, hair metal and techno, with songs about polar bears and red horses. When a hundred people clomp their heavy plastic ski boots at once you feel as if the floor is about to drop out from under you. We watched a grown man tear a teddy bear apart until the cottony stuffing blew across the bar while the members of a bachelorette party in snow pants, blue sashes and bunny ears danced together on the bar. Which leads us back to that yeast dumpling, better known in these parts as a germknodel. It looks a bit like a round lump of uncooked bread dough but is fluffy and delicious and hides a plum jam in the middle. Covered with vanilla sauce and sprinkled with ground up poppy seeds, it is a miniature mountain in a bowl. "One more run after this?" Christoph asked. I demurred. My legs were so tired and I was feeling comfortable in the Gamsmilch Bar, a large mountaintop hut decorated with old wooden poles and skis. Out the window I could see gusts of snow swirling around the cross set high on the peak. "He's not up for it," Thomas said. I took another sip of fortified chamois milk, thinking how those intrepid mountain goats wouldn't turn in early. The day was receding and with it Christoph's flight to Berlin approaching. Each year you had to wonder whether next year would really happen, if the tradition could hold up under the pressure of careers, of children, and with my move back to the States it frankly didn't seem all that likely. Outside in the snow, we clicked our boots into the bindings and pushed toward the drop off, wondering if this would be our last time down the mountain together. I remembered those day trips to Roundtop, pleading with my father to stay a little longer. "Maybe even two," I said. And off we went.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
The hostilities between two prominent media companies are unlikely to cool off any time soon. On Wednesday, the CBS Corporation amended its lawsuit against its parent company, intensifying the battle for control of the network being waged between its chief executive officer, Leslie Moonves, and its controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone. The legal maneuver was the latest in a series of steps taken by CBS to prevent Ms. Redstone, the president of National Amusements, which acquired CBS in 2000, from merging the company with Viacom, its corporate sibling. CBS amended the lawsuit in the wake of a tense meeting during which its board voted to dilute Ms. Redstone's influence over the company. Immediately after the vote, National Amusements called it invalid. In the amended complaint, filed in Delaware Chancery Court, CBS asserted the independence of its board and asked the court to rule on which side's interpretation of the recent vote is lawful. The amended suit also accuses Ms. Redstone of trying to "compel" the merger of CBS and Viacom, which it described as "not in the best interests of CBS and its stockholders." While favoring a merger, Ms. Redstone has maintained that she has no intention of forcing one.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
The author Carol Brightman in 1999 at her home in Walpole, Maine, where she settled in the 1980s. "I really started serious book writing in Maine," she said. Carol Brightman, who wrote a book on the novelist and critic Mary McCarthy, a traveler in rarefied literary circles, then wrote another on what might be considered McCarthy's polar opposite , the Grateful Dead, died on Monday in Damariscotta, Maine . She was 80 . Her daughter, Sarabinh Levy Brightman , confirmed the death. She said Ms. Brightman had a number of health problems, including advanced dementia. Early in her varied career Ms. Brightman was known for her involvement in the issues of the 1960s; among other things, she founded Viet Report , an influential newsletter about the Vietnam War, in 1965. She traveled to both North Vietnam and Cuba during that period, one of the few Americans to do so. But she was perhaps best known for three books. In 1992 she published "Writing Dangerously: Mary McCarthy and Her World," a biography of the groundbreaking, sometimes controversial author of "The Group" (1963) and other novels. Susan Brownmiller, reviewing "Writing Dangerously" in The Chicago Tribune, called it "a thoughtful, utterly admirable venture, written with the kind of balance and fairness that McCarthy herself was not wont to display." Three years later Ms. Brightman edited "Between Friends: The Correspondence of Hannah Arendt and Mary McCarthy, 1949 1975." Her next book, published in 1998, traded that highbrow world for the one inhabited by Deadheads. Titled "Sweet Chaos: The Grateful Dead's American Adventure," the book brought a nonfan's perspective to the Grateful Dead phenomenon. Ms. Brightman wasn't a complete outsider her sister, Candace Brightman, was the band's lighting designer for many years but she attended her first Dead concert only in 1972, years after the group had begun to draw attention. In the book she contrasted her own 1960s activism with the Dead's apolitical, mellow worldview. "I didn't know it then," she wrote in the introduction, describing the 1972 concert she attended at the Academy of Music in New York, "but I was witnessing the genesis of a movement whose takeoff was related to the breakdown of my own. If the climate of the '60s made you feel things could be changed and were worth changing, the climate of the '70s, more like today's, counseled retreat from storms over which you had no control." She interviewed not only members of the group but also fans, and she came to appreciate their devotion and their omnipresence. Carol Deborah Morton Brightman was born on Oct. 5, 1939, in Baltimore. Her daughter said Ms. Brightman had been named after an aunt, Deborah Morton, who had in turn been named after an ancestor named Deborah Sampson, who had fought in the Revolutionary War disguised as a man a connection from which Ms. Brightman drew inspiration and identity . Her father, Carl Gordon Brightman Jr., worked in sales in the publishing business, and her mother, Lucille Caroline (Hancock) Brightman, was a homemaker. She grew up in Baltimore and in Wilmette and Winnetka, Ill. After graduating from New Trier High School in Winnetka in 1957, she earned a bachelor's degree in history at Vassar College in 1961 and a master's degree at the University of Chicago in 1963 . She was a 26 year old graduate assistant in English at New York University in 1965 when she founded Viet Report. "Carol was one of the first to make vivid that an antidote to mass media was needed to understand the truth about what was going on in Vietnam," the novelist Beverly Gologorsky, who was Viet Report's managing editor, said by email. The purpose of Viet Report, Ms. Brightman told The New York Times in 1965, was "to inform and not to persuade." The second issue republished the text of the 1954 Geneva agreements, which had ended French rule in Indochina and partitioned Vietnam; other issues reprinted accounts from European publications from inside the war zone, which often gave views different from what the American press was reporting. In 1967 Ms. Brightman traveled to North Vietnam as part of a contingent of the so called Russell Tribunal, created by the philosopher Bertrand Russell to examine the possibility that the United States had committed war crimes in Vietnam. The publication was sent to libraries and sold by groups like the American Friends Service Committee and Students for a Democratic Society. It ended publication in 1968. The next year, Ms. Brightman broadened her aim by helping to found Leviathan, an underground newspaper that, its self description said, "will serve the Movement as it builds a mass revolutionary force and a new social vision." It lasted a year and a half. Ms. Brightman was also a leader of the Venceremos Brigade, which arranged for young Americans to go to Cuba to experience the results of the Cuban revolution first hand, a trip she made herself. She and Sandra Levinson edited a book of writings by participants, "Venceremos Brigade: Young Americans Sharing the Life and Work of Revolutionary Cuba" (1971). Ms. Brightman taught for a time at Brooklyn College and was an associate editor at Geo magazine. She settled in Walpole, Maine, in the 1980s. "I really started serious book writing in Maine," she told The Bangor Daily News in 1999. "I don't know what the influence is. Up here, I've become a writer."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Books
The goal of Elon Musk, the founder and chief executive of SpaceX, is to send people to space. But how can he possibly pay for such an expensive venture? SpaceX, for all its successes, is still a fairly small company, and the profit margin on rocket launches is small. The solution may be to start an entirely different space business: satellites to provide high speed internet everywhere. The company's next launch, will put into space the first pieces for a constellation called Starlink. "This would provide connectivity to people who either don't have any connectivity today or where it's extremely expensive and unreliable," Mr. Musk said during a Wednesday news conference. Sign up to get reminders for space and astronomy events on your calendar. What is the rocket carrying? SpaceX which usually ferries cargo to orbit for NASA or private companies is its own customer this time. And the Falcon 9 rocket is not carrying just one satellite, but 60 identical ones. Mr. Musk posted pictures of the Starlink satellites on Twitter. The Starlink satellites will eventually form a constellation of satellites that are to offer internet to almost anywhere on Earth. Last year, SpaceX launched two prototype satellites, called Tintin A and Tintin B. The payload on this launch, at more than 30,000 pounds , is the heaviest ever launched by SpaceX, Mr. Musk said. He added that these satellites would be able to relay information by bouncing the data off a ground station. However, they lack a component planned for future versions: lasers that would allow the satellites to relay information to each other. Each of the flat panel satellites weighs about 500 pounds, powered by a single solar array. They are to be deployed about one hour after launch, steadily moving outward from a slowly spinning core. "It will almost seem like spreading a deck of cards on a table," Mr. Musk said. The satellites are to be switched on two to three hours after deployment. Mr. Musk sounded a note of caution to tamp down expectations. "There is a lot of new technology here," he said. "It's possible that some of these satellites may not work. In fact, it's possible, a small possibility, that all of the satellites may not work." Isn't there already internet service from space? A number of companies do satellite internet using geostationary communications satellites 22,200 miles above the surface. At that altitude, the time for the satellite to complete an orbit is exactly one day and thus it remains over the exact same spot on Earth as the planet rotates at the same rate. That makes it straightforward for one satellite to provide internet for a swath of the surface below, but current services have drawbacks. They are not available everywhere and they are usually fairly expensive. Because the data signals have to travel up 22,200 miles and then back down, the performance can be laggy. That does not matter if you are watching a movie on Netflix, but it becomes excruciating when playing an online game that relies on fast reflexes. The Starlink satellites will orbit much lower between 210 and 710 miles above the surface. That reduces the lagginess, or latency. SpaceX has said performance should be comparable to ground based cable and optical fiber networks that carry most internet traffic today. Starlink would provide high speed internet to parts of the world that currently are largely cut off from the modern digital world. Because the satellites are lower, they travel faster. Thus, Starlink must provide a constellation of satellites whizzing around the planet. When one satellite moves away from one of its customers, another one must come into view in order to provide a continuous internet connection. Mark Juncosa, vice president for vehicle engineering at SpaceX, said that with 12 additional launches, SpaceX could provide good coverage over the United States; 24 launches would put enough satellites to cover most populated areas; and 30 would cover the entire world. If Starlink is successful, more satellites would be added to send and receive greater volumes of data. Are other companies also looking to launch constellations of internet satellites? Why is SpaceX, a rocket company, going into the internet business? For Mr. Musk's dream of sending people to Mars, he is developing a giant spacecraft called Starship. He noted that SpaceX's rocket launching business might grow to about 3 billion a year. By contrast, internet revenue could bring in 30 billion a year for the company, Mr. Musk said. "We see this as a way for SpaceX to generate revenue that can be used to develop more and more advanced rockets and spaceships," Mr. Musk said. "We think this is a key steppingstone on the way to establishing a self sustaining city on Mars and a base on the moon." Currently, there are about 2,000 operational satellites around Earth. That number will multiply as constellations like Starlink are deployed. "A majority of the satellites in orbit will be SpaceX, if things goes according to plan," Mr. Musk said. "That is a big if, of course." The worry is what happens when satellites die. The proliferation of satellites will greatly increase the risks of collisions, and the many pieces of debris would in turn pose danger to other satellites. Mr. Musk said each Starlink satellite would possess data on orbits on all known pieces of space debris and automatically steer away from any that might cross its path. With so many satellites, there will also be much more debris falling from space in the coming years. SpaceX said that 95 percent of a Starlink satellite would burn up on re entry, but that would still mean that about 25 pounds of debris would reach the surface. Mr. Musk said that discarded spacecraft would be aimed to the mostly empty Pacific Ocean and that the debris would come down in small pieces. The chances of any one crashing satellite hurting or killing someone is small; the danger to you in particular is negligible. But adding up the risks of tens of thousands of satellites to the 7.5 billion people on Earth, the probability of someone being hurt somewhere becomes more significant.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
"Could you share your MeToo moment, Gloria?" the actress Christine Lahti asked. "Or should we save it for the play?" The play is "Gloria: A Life," and when it opens Off Broadway in October, Ms. Lahti will be in the starring role she lobbied to land: portraying her friend the feminist hero Gloria Steinem, who on this muggy August afternoon was seated beside her, in the cool tranquillity of Ms. Steinem's Upper East Side duplex. Elegant and unflappable at 84, Ms. Steinem acquiesced, mildly relating a memory from the 1960s, "pre women's movement," of waiting on a couch in an office with the novelist and screenwriter Terry Southern, whom she called "a perfectly nice guy." "While we were sitting there, he reached over and grabbed my wrist like this," Ms. Steinem said, clamping a hand firmly to demonstrate, "and tried to kiss me. And I bit him on the cheek." "Blood was running down his cheek," Ms. Lahti said. "Isn't that the best story?" "Ever after, I would see him, and he would say, 'See? I have a little scar,'" Ms. Steinem added, tapping her own cheek. "But he was very nice about it." "He assaulted you, but he was very nice about it," Ms. Lahti said. "It wasn't much of an assault," Ms. Steinem replied, and anyway, as she explained, the point of her story was about the instincts that girls are socialized to suppress. Physically defending herself was a reflex, not a conscious decision. But first comes "Gloria: A Life," starting previews on Oct. 2 at the Daryl Roth Theater and intended to inspire its audience with the admirable, fallible example of the woman at its center. The first act traces Ms. Steinem's life from her childhood with a mother incapacitated by anxiety and depression, and the second takes the form of a talking circle for the audience. Introduced years ago by the "Thelma and Louise" screenwriter Callie Khouri, Ms. Steinem and Ms. Lahti, who is 68, have a rapport based on feminism, of course, but also on their Midwestern roots, dysfunctional childhoods and a sense that as they told me in unison they were living "the unlived lives" of their mothers. The day after the cast's first read through, they got together to talk about it all. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. Tell me about that feeling about your mothers. CHRISTINE LAHTI I wrote a story about my mother after she died, and I realized that I had spent so much of my early adult life doing everything I could to not be her. As much as I loved her, I judged her, until I realized that she did the best she could with what was handed to her, which was second class citizenship. GLORIA STEINEM The same was true for me, maybe more dramatically, because my mother couldn't function, and by the time I came along, the period of her life in which she'd been a newspaper reporter and loved her work, I didn't even know that. So it took me longer to discover who she might have been. Do you think that this play and the movies are a form of writing about our mothers about what you and your generation gave birth to, culturally? LAHTI I had no idea about feminism until 1970. Because of people like Gloria, I had a whole awakening. I thought that being second class was biological. I remember marching against the war in Vietnam. We were marching with the men, but we were still making the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. STEINEM At some big anti Vietnam rally in Washington, there were vets who were against the war. There was a woman speaking onstage, and the vets were yelling, "Take her off and expletive her. Take her off and expletive her." LAHTI Sharp intake of breath. No. You didn't tell me that one. That's got to go in the play. That's so disgusting. To what degree, when you're with Gloria, are you taking mental notes? LAHTI I've already picked up a few mannerisms. STEINEM She's so much more animated than I am. I would have to be on LSD to be as animated. Laughs. LAHTI But you do use your hands in a beautiful way. I'm slowly watching and observing in ways I haven't before. I have so much inside that I feel understands Gloria on a very deep level. So now it's really the external things. STEINEM And also, she does this all the time. What was the play in which you spoke an entirely different language? LAHTI Oh, " A," the Suzan Lori Parks. The play is written mainly in English, but some of the dialogue is in a language Ms. Parks invented. You were so brilliant in that. STEINEM I rest my case. If she can do that, she can do anything. LAHTI I'm not intending to do a perfect impersonation. It's more the essence of Gloria. I'm not trying to copy her voice nothing like that. STEINEM Which is good because I'm very monotone. LAHTI She's so not. She's so warm and full of life and humor. But I'm thinking wigs and glasses will help a lot. LAHTI Yes, at least for the very beginning. Gloria, Mary Kathryn Nagle told me you became friends after you went to one of her plays. How much of a theater person are you? STEINEM I grew up being a movie person, because there wasn't theater available. LAHTI We go to musicals a lot together like, the ones that none of our other friends will go to. We went to "Beautiful" together, weeping. "Bridges of Madison County," weeping. Then we went to one that we disagreed on whether we liked it or not, which we don't need to say. STEINEM I had just come from spending two or three hours with Julie Taymor, who is the smartest, fastest person on earth. If I hadn't just come from being with Julie, I probably would have liked it better. You wrote in "My Life on the Road" that "people in the same room understand and empathize with each other in a way that isn't possible on the page or screen." Is that part of why you said yes to a play? STEINEM It is. When I started to speak in public, I would leave at least as much time for discussion because that was less terrifying. And, in that way, I discovered that audiences have a life of their own. I also learned from living in India that talking circles are the crucible of human contact and change. I mean, we haven't been sitting around campfires for hundreds of thousands of years for nothing. Was the talking circle in the play your idea? STEINEM Yeah. Somehow that made it O.K., if you know what I mean. Because, as you can understand if there were a play about you, it does feel a little odd. And you didn't have to explain the importance of stories about women. STEINEM Well, sometimes. I mean, as I guess will remain in the play we don't know it isn't just that we live in a patriarchy. The patriarchy lives in us. STEINEM Yeah. But the good news is, the diversity of female experience kind of helps you get out of that. LAHTI You said a wonderful thing yesterday, which I'm also going to try to get in the play. The thing about if everyone here goes home tonight and does one outrageous thing. STEINEM I always used to say, "If we all promise to do at least one outrageous thing in the next 24 hours and it doesn't matter how small it is, it can be saying, 'Pick it up yourself,' it can be saying, 'I'm running for Congress'" then I would always promise to do one outrageous thing, too. And if we all do that, the day after is going to be different. Do you do that, one outrageous thing every day? Is there anything about this play that scares you? STEINEM Well, yes. The scariest category of things is feeling profoundly misunderstood, because it makes you feel invisible. And every once in a while in public life, that happens: Something that you have done, meaning one thing, is taken to mean something completely different. And that is hard. But there's a level of trust here. I don't feel worried about that. It truly is meant to be a warts and all portrait? STEINEM Yes. Because you can't be helpful by pretending to be perfect.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Theater
Zoila Darton and Angela Carrasco felt sad about the state of women's rights in the United States, and they decided to channel some of their frustration into action. With the defunding of Planned Parenthood in the daily news, Ms. Darton and Ms. Carrasco wanted to do something on that group's behalf. Ms. Darton enlisted her husband, a graphic designer, and together they played around with the idea of a benefit T shirt design. They came up with a shirt with the word "woman" written in several languages, black type marching down a white background. Ms. Darton and Ms. Carrasco aren't fashion designers. They're partners in the Word Agency, a marketing and public relations firm. The shirt was a side project. "It was a creative outlet," Ms. Darton said. Ms. Carrasco said, "We wanted to do something to kind of protect ourselves and protect Planned Parenthood." They placed a small order for the shirts in early July, and publicized them on social media and through friends, planning to donate a portion of the proceeds to Planned Parenthood. "Of course, we hoped it would turn into something, and it has," Ms. Carrasco said. "Unfortunately the reason is not necessarily the brightest." Last week, they were meeting with a customer who wanted to exchange her shirt for a different size. "As we were leaving, she was like, 'Yeah, I'm so glad I bought this one because I saw the other one in Forever 21 and I love yours so much better!' We were like, 'What do you mean?'" Ms. Darton said. Searching the retailer's website, they spotted the shirt. Forever 21 was also selling a tee with "woman" spelled out in different languages, in black type in a vertical line down a white front. This felt as familiar as an old knockoff purse. Back in 2011, Jezebel documented 50 complaints against the clothing store. (Its Forever 21 story stash runs deep.) Earlier this month, Freckled Ace accused the brand of ripping off its tribal print tank top; last month, the gender bending boutique brand Wildfang complained when its slogan, "Wild Feminist," appeared on a T shirt sold by Forever 21. And in May, Valfre fired off a cease and desist letter when it believed its rainbow iPhone cases were being replicated. Less than 18 hours after Ms. Darton and Ms. Carrasco posted the comparison, Forever 21 removed its version of the shirt from its website. "I follow Valfre, and I've bought some of her stuff," Ms. Darton said. "I saw the Wildfang thing. I've known this is a thing, so when it happened I wasn't totally surprised. I was surprised by how quickly they did it." In a statement to The New York Times, Forever 21 said, "The shirt in question was bought from a third party source. As soon as Forever 21 was alerted to the issue, we respectfully removed it from our website. Because this product did not have trademark or IP protections, there were no red flags raised at the time of purchase." Ms. Darton said that the company's apology was not an apology but "an admission of guilt." She feels grateful that she and Ms. Carrasco aren't designers by trade; they didn't lose revenue here, only the opportunity to give to Planned Parenthood. "We live in a corporate society what can we do? What can these designers do?" In Europe, said Susan Scafidi, the founder of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham University, "there is protection for design, a lot more extensively than there is in the U.S." (Ms. Scafidi has been busy commenting to the press on Forever 21.) This is why European fast fashion companies including H M, Zara, Mango and Topshop don't find themselves in these situations as often. "Their model isn't to take runway pieces and knock them off, per se, but to interpret trends," Ms. Scafidi said. "There is nothing wrong with interpreting trends for the mass market. They learn to switch things up, design wise, to avoid liability." A designer's path of less resistance may be to send a cease and desist letter, or hope for a hefty settlement. ("They build those settlements into their business structure," Ms. Scafidi said.) One designer approached for this story could not speak to The Times because of the terms of her agreement with a fast fashion brand. And big brands that believe they have been copied, such as Gucci, Diane von Furstenberg and Puma, have the resources to pursue more extensive legal action. But for indies or just plain folks, the less expensive, and possibly less rewarding, practice is to shame the copiers on Instagram. "Indie designers now have this secondary strategy of appealing to the public via social media," Ms. Scafidi said. This recourse is even cheaper than the stamp it costs to send a cease and desist. Aubrie Pagano, a co founder of the cheeky brand Bow and Drape, posted to social media last year when Forever 21 released a shirt that was similar to one of her designs right down to the heart shaped pepperonis on a pizza in her original pattern. Her lawyers advised against anything more serious. "I felt pretty powerless," Ms. Pagano said. While her brand name got a boost from coverage in fashion outlets including Refinery29, the effect on her sales was "negligible."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
Several ski seasons ago Mark Bell, the hotel manager at Sunshine Mountain Lodge in the Canadian ski resort Sunshine Village, had an idea: Let's throw parties in the property's gigantic hot tub, which is big enough for 40 people. The lodge takes its role of entertaining guests seriously. It is set high in the Rockies in Banff National Park, and the only way to get there is by gondola. When that closes at 5:30 p.m. daily (except on Fridays, when it is open until 10), guests can't leave and seek fun elsewhere. So the receptionist came up with hot tub bingo. The resort purchased waterproof boards and game pieces, and then invited all guests (over 250 of them when the hotel is fully booked) to grab a drink from the bar, jump in the hot tub and try their luck. The first game was held three years ago. The resort now holds sessions every Saturday night when the hotel is at least 70 percent full. "It was a different experience in the outdoors, with the snow falling on us," said Jay Uthman Manoharan, managing partner for Energy Associates International in Calgary, who played the game in December with his three sons ages 12, 9 and 7. "No winners in the family, but it was a positive experience," he said in an email.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
When Yannick Nezet Seguin learned a few years ago that he would be the next music director of the Metropolitan Opera, he thought about works he was especially eager to conduct. Two came to mind: Debussy's "Pelleas et Melisande" and Poulenc's "Dialogues des Carmelites." Both, as it turned out, were featured in his first season in the position. "Pelleas" returned to the Met in January, and John Dexter's spare and poignant 1977 production of "Dialogues" will come back for three performances beginning Friday. "I'm almost a little sad that I did this back to back with 'Pelleas,'" Mr. Nezet Seguin said in an interview at the Met. "Now I'll have to wait a few years before I get a chance to revisit them." "The power of this piece is all that's nonreligious: how, within the context of a community, you have power struggles, fear, lack of trust," Mr. Nezet Seguin said. "And now, more than ever, we see how important it is for women to stand up for themselves in a society that wanted to leave them on the side." While Mr. Nezet Seguin has had a virtually lifelong love for "Dialogues," this revival will be his first time conducting it. Well, kind of: He worked on the opera in his mid 20s, when he was the chorus master of Opera de Montreal in Canada. "It just brought a very special emotion," Mr. Nezet Seguin recalled. "Maybe because I was raised Catholic and knew a lot of nuns when I was a child." He grew up in Quebec, attending Mass often and finding himself fascinated by nuns' dedication to God and prayer. This led to involvement with his church's choir which may be why, he said, he didn't experience the same crisis of faith many of his peers did as teenagers: "For me, going to Mass was about singing." It was actually almost impossible to decide on one. It's like choosing a favorite child. But this highlights what's so special about this opera, which is not only the highly religious context, but also how religion is used as an expressive vehicle. The Ave Maria starts with the nuns humming under Mere Marie the second in command at the convent . Most of the opera is about the conflict and competition between her and the new prioress. She says before this: Let's agree to obey our new leader, not only with our mouths, but also from our hearts. This is where Poulenc is such a genius, and a bit like Verdi: with minimal effects, which are so direct. The brass have this chord that indicates something solemn, but then the cellos intervene with this beautiful C sharp, which creates a dissonance. This leads to the prayer, which is divided in the chorus. And it's just so beautiful; every beat is more beautiful than the other. Poulenc is asking here for the music to be "tres lie" it has to be legato and intimate. People often assume that prayer is slightly distant, but it's the opposite here. Poulenc is far from the first composer to include prayer in opera. With composers you often see a kind of struggle with religion. Whenever they set prayer to music, it reveals something intimate. For Beethoven, it was anger at having to put some of the Credo text in his "Missa Solemnis," which comes out as something unsingable. In the case of Poulenc, his partner in life Lucien Roubert was struggling with disease and death. Poulenc became obsessed with writing "Dialogues," and that was his way of coming to terms with life after death. This is why, I believe, it touches the essential question of life after death and why this piece goes beyond your own humanity. You hear the religious aspect of it, but you know it's so much more. Can you also describe what this moment shows about how Poulenc sets text? In such a quintessentially French piece, the cadence is important, much like "Pelleas." It's called "Dialogues" so it's based on dialogues, it's very wordy. Most of it feels like recitative. It's rare that we can identify something that feels like an aria. In "Pelleas," you get this huge recitative, but Debussy being Debussy, it's much less vertical. It's all about horizontality. It should feel like swimming. "Dialogues" should feel like anything but swimming. It's so similar to "Pelleas" in the setting of the text, but it's a totally different experience. It's so much more structured. There's always something feeling the beat; the chords are like pillars of a church. What do you mean when you say "quintessentially French"? The piece is French, as a context, because of the Revolution. But musically it is, too, in being as refined and complex as "Pelleas" or anything by Ravel. It's also the successor of Faure, and some Saint Saens. There is a restraint. This opera presents you the text and the music in a really streamlined way. It affects the soul and the emotion of the listener, in a very direct way. And that I find really French.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Music
After 60 years in the movie business five of them, from 1978 to 1982, as the top box office star in America Burt Reynolds might appear to be an open book, his every feat, foible, affair and chest hair chronicled so vividly that almost nothing about him could surprise you the way that naked Cosmopolitan centerfold did in 1972. But "The Last Movie Star," Adam Rifkin's study on fading glory, lost love and regret, written especially for Mr. Reynolds, does just that. (The film, now on DirecTV, opens in theaters on Friday, March 30.) Mr. Reynolds lays his soul bare as Vic Edwards, an all but forgotten film icon given a lifetime achievement award by what he assumes to be a major Nashville festival that had previously honored the likes of Robert De Niro. Instead, he's saddled with shabby accommodations and a lippy, tattooed driver, Lil (Ariel Winter of "Modern Family"), for a grass roots gathering scraped together by some local fanboys. But on his way back to the airport, he has a yearning to visit his hometown, Knoxville. And soon he's walking very slowly, with Lil reluctantly by his side down memory lane. "I heard he wouldn't do it unless I did it, and that sort of swung me to the project," Mr. Reynolds said of receiving Mr. Rifkin's offer, which he agreed to almost immediately. "But I liked it. It was very different than anything I'd done. There weren't any cars or things jumping other cars or girls and stuff. It was a fun picture, and he was a nice man." Visiting New York from Valhalla, his estate in Jupiter, Fla., Mr. Reynolds, 82, arrived at The New York Times with an entourage before heading to a career retrospective at the Metrograph in downtown Manhattan. His body ravaged from stunt work, he made his way with help from a fancy cane. But he fired off a barrage of jokes, and that storied charisma was still there. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation. How much did Adam Rifkin get right about you in his script? Well, I don't know. I mean, I've been acting for 60 years now. I don't know who the hell I am. But I think he did a real good job. We wanted the guy to be an Everyman who thinks he's a movie star, but it's over. There are these ups and downs where he realizes he's not a movie star anymore. So he just sort of wanders into the ghettos and streets and makes friends with a lot of down and outers, which is what he is. He's a real sweet man, when you get to know him, I hope. Sweet but something of a rascal. I think you have to be a little bit of a rascal, because people would be disappointed if I didn't do that. Chuckles We're only here for a little while, and you've got to have some fun, right? I don't take myself seriously, and I think the ones that do, there's some sickness with people like that. That's why I live in Florida. Vic butts heads with Ariel Winter's Lil. What was she like to work with? She started out trying to be tough. Her language was atrocious. I didn't like it. So I took her around behind the wagon and said: "Ariel, I don't know if you heard Anne Bancroft talk like that or who, but I can tell you Sally Field doesn't. And you don't have to. It doesn't mean anything. But not only that, it throws me. I think I'm doing a scene with this girl, and you say the F word and we don't need it. And please try it a couple of days without it." Well, she didn't do it anymore, and I was so proud of her. What's the difference being a movie star now and at the height of your career? In the '70s, people in the industry protected you a little more. "Where are you going tonight?" "Well, I'm going to dinner with my lady." "Where?" "I don't want to tell you where." But I'd end up telling them where, and they'd end up being there, two tables away. Now you're not protected, but if you learn how to laugh and have fun with it ... If I was as tough as I'm made out to be in movies, I wouldn't have to worry. But I can't beat my way out of a paper bag now. I'm too beat up. I haven't had two hours of no pain for, gosh, I don't know, honey, 20 years. Because it was always this macho crap that you're full of, and I always thought, "Well hell, I could do that stunt ." And I could, except sometimes I didn't quite make it. Is there anyone now who reminds you of yourself back then? George Clooney. He's got a sparkle. And he just seems like a good guy, welcoming you to the set, which I always do. "We're going to make a movie, and I don't know if it's going to be any good, but let's have fun." I had the strangest thing happen. I said to an actress , "We'll have a good time." And she said: "Hold it. We're not going to have a good time. I'm not one of your girls." And I said: "What are you talking about? I've had an affair on the set with two women in 50 years. Sally Field and my ex wife Loni Anderson ." Should have married the first one and not the second one. You've said many times that Sally is the one who got away. Did you ever try getting her back? I'd be afraid to ask her out because I think she'd laugh and hang up. Joanne Woodward got me my first agent, and we're really close friends, and she said: "What in the hell's the matter with you? Why don't you go up to her house, get on your knees and ask her if you can't be friends?" And I said: "I can't do that. What if she closes the door on me?" And she said, "Well, I closed the door on Paul Newman, her husband twice, and he came back." But I couldn't. All you've got left at that point is your pride. And I didn't want to bash that in too much. The film inserts your character into scenes from your own movies, like "Deliverance" and "Smokey and the Bandit." It even nods to your days as a sex symbol with your Cosmo centerfold. What's it like looking at that bearskin rug now? You do stupid things. I wish I hadn't done it, but I did it. And I rose above it, I guess. Or I didn't, I don't know. But I'm still here. Sings a line from "I'm Still Here." Elaine Stritch, boy, could she sing that song. I went out with her one night. It was just for fun, but we had the best time, laughing and giggling. And I'm saying good night to her, and I said, "Elaine?" And she said, "Yes?" as she was walking away. And I said, "I'm still here." And she said, "So am I, hon." Now you teach a Friday night acting class in Florida. It's hysterical. The age range goes from 18 to 80, and the lady that's 80 was a Follies girl, and she must have been a knockout because she's still very sexy. I have more fun with her. I'm going to graduate next year from Florida State in education. I go to classes. At first it was a little shaky. But now it's fun. The students all wave. It's good for me, and it's good for the school, I think. You still act in a handful of films each year. Why not slow down? I don't know why I think this, but maybe I've got my best work ahead. Maybe I'll be putting my teeth in the glass, and maybe it will be a very different kind of role, but I want to do something where I'm not driving a car or a truck, where it's real. Something that people wouldn't expect me to do. Probably a man in search of himself. But we're always searching for ourselves anyway. And now you're the subject of retrospectives. Do you enjoy basking in the adoration? Sometimes it's fun. But sometimes people surprise me with their anger. It's almost like you want to say, "Well, if you think it's that easy, why don't you come do it, and I can sit where you're sitting and ask you questions dumb ones, but questions." You famously turned down blockbuster roles like James Bond and Han Solo to continue making action movies, some of which fizzled. Why? I was good at it, for one thing. I felt good when I did a stunt, and if it was really dangerous like if I got out on a horse or a bull that was rank, or jumped out of this building on a bag I felt great. Is there a role you regret not taking? Yeah, I turned down so many films that Jack Nicholson did, and he was brilliant and I couldn't have been as good. But the one I wish I'd done was "Terms of Endearment." I've read that James L. Brooks wrote the role of Garrett Breedlove with you in mind. Supposedly. I don't know if that's true or not. I would have done it had I known, but they didn't tell me that. Which movie are you proudest of? I'm proud of "Deliverance," because it was a very dangerous film to make, and they all said it couldn't be done, and we did it. And Jon Voight and I are now like brothers. And yet you've apparently never fully watched Paul Thomas Anderson's "Boogie Nights," which was supposed to be your big comeback and earned you an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win. I don't like it. It was hard because it was a subject matter the porn industry that I find so disgusting. I was only in maybe the first 15 minutes. And I thought, "If I can pull this off, I'll have done something that most people can't do, and the actors that I respect and love will be proud of me." And I think I did. The picture was a big hit, but my folks couldn't see it, and it was tough. I liked him, I guess, but I don't know, I, uh chuckles nah, I didn't really like him. Are you still waiting for that Oscar? God no, but something that the industry recognizes as good work. You know, I've had the strangest career. I'm an old man, and for crying out loud, I'm still thinking, it's just around the corner. There are certain actors, like Voight, who I love, and now deceased Brian Keith and Charlie Durning, God I loved him so much. It seems like I lose one a week now. So I want to do something, some work, that we can celebrate together. You've still not met your own standard? I just know that that's not the one. I'll know. And I'll call you. So you're determined to have your Hollywood ending. What does it look like? There's a wonderful shot that Norman Jewison did in "Best Friends" , a picture I did with Goldie Hawn, where we're coming out of a studio, and we look off and there is this magnificent sunset. And I put my arm around her, and she bites me on the ear. And then I said, "Look." And the whole set moves away, and it was a drawing. Pauses That's Hollywood. In a 2015 Vanity Fair profile, you spoke about having regrets. I did, but I don't have any regrets left.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Movies
Joseph Rascoff, an accountant who exhibited little passion for rock 'n' roll but became the powerful business manager and tour producer for a roster of music powerhouses, including the Rolling Stones, U2 and Paul Simon, died on April 6 in Los Angeles. He was 71. His son Spencer said the cause was prostate cancer. Mr. Rascoff was a partner at the Manhattan accounting firm Hurdman Cranstoun in 1974 when he had a serendipitous encounter at an office urinal with Prince Rupert zu Loewenstein, the financial adviser for the Rolling Stones. "The prince lamented that Hurdman Cranstoun wouldn't take on the Stones as an accounting client because they had a history of drug abuse and mismanagement," Spencer Rascoff said. "My dad then and there took a leave of absence and became the Stones' road accountant, and then became their tour producer." He never returned to the firm. But he also never stopped being an accountant. Although Mr. Rascoff preferred classical music, he immersed himself in the rock 'n' roll business, which "had never had real professionals attempt to get it under control," his longtime partner, Bill Zysblat, said in an interview. Mr. Rascoff was fascinated by the complexities of managing the business affairs of rock artists and the myriad elements of orchestrating long, multicity tours. His company pioneered tour management that oversaw nearly everything but the artistic side from lighting and hotel bookings to arena scheduling, trucking, sponsorship and merchandising thus taking the logistical details out of the artists' hands. "It used to be an artist would tour and take on all the responsibilities," said Mr. Zysblat, a onetime friendly competitor who merged his company with Mr. Rascoff's to form the Rascoff/Zysblat Organization in 1988. "We would contract out for all the services, and the artists just had to play. And they would end up better financially than they would have been while not having to run the tours." The merged company also represented David Bowie, Sting, the Allman Brothers Band and the Elvis Presley estate. Mr. Rascoff pitched the Presley estate with an analysis of record industry economics on a blackboard. "He said, 'I walked them through a lesson in royalties in records and music publishing, where the record companies had their edge, and how we went after them on audits,'" Mr. Zysblat said, recalling the conversations he had with Mr. Rascoff as he dealt with the estate. Two weeks later Mr. Rascoff got the job, beating out two major accounting firms. Joseph Fishel Rascoff was born in Brooklyn on Aug. 12, 1945, to Henry Rascoff, a pediatrician, and the former Minna Martz, a criminal lawyer, and grew up in the Far Rockaway section of Queens. He began working for Hurdman Cranstoun almost immediately after graduating from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, becoming an audit partner. Mr. Rascoff sometimes tried to convince his rock star clients that they did not need excessive perks. "He moaned like it was his money," Mr. Zysblat recalled. "So if an artist wanted a two bedroom suite, he'd say, 'But it's just you you only need one room.' Or: 'Really, do you need audience lights? Why don't you turn on the house lights?'" Mick Jagger and the Stones, with their penchant for producing electrifying and extravagant shows befitting their branding as the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band, were not exempt from Mr. Rascoff's determined attention to expenses. "What was most spectacular about Joe," Michael Cohl, the Stones' former tour director and promoter, said in an interview, "was that whatever insanity the band came up with in terms of how we can outdo the next tour and the next tour, it had to be within constraints. For Joe, it was art and business." Still, Mr. Rascoff could not help cringing at some of the lavish costs of their concerts. One day in Berlin in 1990, Spencer Rascoff said, he was watching a Stones concert with his father "where there were these massive inflatable dolls that Mick punched and danced with as fireworks went off during 'Honky Tonk Women.'" Joseph Rascoff shook his head in disapproval because the fireworks had cost the tour 3 million and the "inflatable dragon woman Mick was gyrating on cost 100,000." Mr. Rascoff learned he had cancer nearly 25 years ago during a Stones tour, Mr. Zysblat said, adding, "He had surgery, and he was out for maybe a week." In addition to his son Spencer, who is chief executive of the Zillow Group, the online real estate database and marketplace, Mr. Rascoff is survived by his wife, the former Jane Schaps; a daughter, Brooke; and another son, Jake. A third son, Justin, died in 1991. Mr. Rascoff is also survived by three grandchildren.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
The 77,500,000 sale of the New York Jets owner Woody Johnson's Fifth Avenue duplex to the Ukrainian born billionaire Leonard Blavatnik topped the previous record for the highest price paid for a city co op and was the most expensive closed sale of the past week, according to city records. The sprawling five bedroom five and a half bath apartment, No. 1112A, is on the 11th and 12th floors of 834 Fifth Avenue, the majestic 16 story limestone clad structure on the corner of East 64th Street, directly across from the Central Park Zoo; the building was erected in 1931 and is considered one of the masterpieces of its designer, Rosario Candela. The monthly maintenance for the residence was 22,801, according to a joint listing with Sotheby's International Realty and Brown Harris Stevens. Neither broker would comment on the transaction. The sale tops the previous co op record set just last summer, when the hedge fund titan Israel Englander, nicknamed "Izzy," the founder and chief executive of Millennium Management, paid 71,277,500 for a corner duplex apartment at another Candela building, 740 Park Avenue. Daniel Levy, the chief executive of CityRealty, a real estate search website, attributed the recent co op activity to "extremely limited supply and very high demand. You're never going to create a building like 834 Fifth," he said.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate
"That's right: the president attacked security guards, Democrats, the media and dishwashers. Normally when someone rambles that long you have to take away their keys." SETH MEYERS "Trump also lashed out viciously at Representative Debbie Dingell from Michigan. Debbie Dingell is the widow of a World War II veteran, longtime congressman John Dingell, who's very popular. He died in February. Trump last night at the rally made a 'joke' suggesting that congressman Dingell went to hell because his wife voted for impeachment. Trump believes that since he graciously allowed the flags at federal buildings to be lowered to half mast to honor John Dingell, his widow should have shown her appreciation by voting not to impeach. In other words, another quid pro quo is what he was looking for." JIMMY KIMMEL "He really doesn't seem to know what he did. Maybe that's why he's so angry." JIMMY KIMMEL "Aw, poor Trump, man. He just became the third president in history to get impeached and you see what's happening: He's trying to convince everyone that it doesn't bother him. You know? He's just like, 'It doesn't even feel like we got impeached.' Like, yeah, no, not 'we' you got impeached. There's no 'we.'" TREVOR NOAH "Yeah, we're not you are. In terms of getting impeached, the rest of us did great yesterday." SETH MEYERS	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Television
To say Alvaro Luque, the president of Avocados From Mexico, was nervous during last year's Super Bowl would be an understatement. His company had decided to advertise during the game for the first time, and millions of dollars were at stake. "If I didn't have a heart attack last Super Bowl, that was a good sign," Mr. Luque said. "It was completely crazy for us." The gamble, he said, paid off. The Super Bowl spot, which ran in the second quarter of the game and was a humorous take on a football draft, generated significant excitement on social media. The short jingle at the end delighted viewers. Perhaps most important, Mr. Luque said, "We sold a lot of avocados." Avocados From Mexico, the nonprofit marketing arm of two avocado associations, is among a small group of companies that will head to the Super Bowl on Feb. 7 for a second go round. No longer buzzy newcomers whose flops are more easily excused, but not yet stalwarts like Budweiser or Pepsi, these second timers occupy an often overlooked tier of advertisers that perhaps have the most to lose. If they fall flat the second time around, they risk erasing the success of their debuts, with neither novelty nor experience to soften the blow. "A lot of the stress around 'Is the Super Bowl right for us?' That's gone," said Jay Russell, chief creative officer of GSD M, the ad agency behind both commercials for Avocados From Mexico. But, he added, "In a weird way, it's more stressful because you have to come back." The decision by Avocados From Mexico and by the other confirmed second time advertisers, Skittles and the website building service Wix.com to return to the Super Bowl underscores how important live television still is for advertisers. Tens of millions of viewers tune in to the Super Bowl, offering even small companies the opportunity to reach a huge national audience. Matt Montei, senior marketing director for Wrigley confections, which include Skittles candy, said the rewards of appearing during the Super Bowl outweighed the financial risks. The Skittles ad last year, and a companion online video that featured the famously taciturn Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, garnered immediate attention and elevated the brand, he said. None Week 11 Takeaways: Here is what we learned this week. N.F.L. Tightens Covid Protocols: As cases rise and Thanksgiving approaches, the league is requiring masks inside team facilities and increasing testing. The Jets Lose Again: Falling to the Miami Dolphins, the Jets receiver Elijah Moore offered consolation. What Will the Giants Do With Daniel Jones? The team must evaluate the quarterback ahead of a contract decision. Playoff Simulator: Explore every team's path to the postseason, updated live. "We had great performance in the marketplace," he said. "A lot of that is built on a fantastic Super Bowl we had last year." But while the rewards are high, the risks for many of these companies are perhaps higher. Thirty seconds of commercial time during this year's game costs about 5 million, roughly a third of the 18 million that Avocados From Mexico spent on ad buying in 2014, the most recent year for which data is available, according to the research firm Kantar Media. Generally speaking, many first timers choose not to advertise for a second year in a row. The cruise company Carnival Corporation and the adhesives maker Loctite, for instance, which were among the 15 new advertisers last year, are not planning to return this year. At its core, Avocados From Mexico's Super Bowl spot is aimed at increasing avocado consumption in the United States, Mr. Luque said. But airing Super Bowl ads is also part of a broader marketing strategy that aligns less with the produce industry and more with big consumer companies like Procter Gamble and Unilever. In particular, Avocados From Mexico wants to connect with women and Hispanic consumers, especially mothers, he said. (In addition to advertising during sports programming, the company runs TV spots during cooking and morning shows.) "We wanted to bring the best of C.P.G. to the produce world, and that's been the key to our marketing approach," Mr. Luque said, referring to consumer packaged goods companies. "We're doing things that the produce industry was never thinking about." For Mr. Luque, who joined Avocados From Mexico in 2014 after years of working for Mission Foods, that has meant humorous TV ads and promotional programs. Last year's Super Bowl ad was called "First Draft Ever," in which countries selected animals and plants. Australia selects the kangaroo; Brazil chooses the sloth; Mexico, of course, takes the avocado. Avocados From Mexico is not sharing details about this year's ad, but Mr. Russell of GSD M said it would involve plenty of humor. Scott Baio, the actor perhaps best known for his role as Chachi Arcola in the TV show "Happy Days," will be featured. "We're not taking ourselves seriously," Mr. Russell said. "It's joke after joke after joke after joke. There's not a wasted second." Avocados From Mexico's advertising strategy appears to be working, said Kathy Means, a vice president of the Produce Marketing Association, a trade organization. "They are pulling out all the marketing stops," she said. "Avocados and the Super Bowl are kind of synonymous. It makes a lot of sense for them to be in that venue on that day." Mr. Luque said one reason Avocados From Mexico was returning to the Super Bowl was the online response its ad received last year. Roughly 70 percent of the online chatter about the company's TV ads was related to the Super Bowl, according to the measurement firm iSpot.tv. Avocados From Mexico also saw a 35 percent rise in avocado consumption last year, Mr. Luque said. Over all, consumption of the Hass variety of avocados grew to 2.2 billion pounds in the United States, according to the California Avocado Commission. And a lot of avocados will be eaten during the Super Bowl: Americans are expected to eat more than 139 million pounds of avocados around Super Bowl Sunday this year, according to the Hass Avocado Board. That presence of avocados is precisely what makes advertising during the Super Bowl such an obvious choice, Mr. Luque said. "We know for a fact that there are three things in front of the TV that day," Mr. Luque said. "Chips, beer and soda, and guacamole."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
Simon and Carla Fowler are anchored in their catamaran about 650 feet off a deserted beach in the Bahamas, and they have a message for anyone locked down on land who wishes that they too could be self isolating on the water. "Being out here in a pandemic is actually a lot harder and more stressful than you might think," said Mr. Fowler, a 60 year old British events organizer who has spent the last two years living at sea with his Portuguese born wife on their 40 foot catamaran. "It is the most depressing time we have had in two years," he said. "It has been quite nasty." Locals fearing infection have become less welcoming to cruisers like the Fowlers over the last six weeks. Ports and borders have begun closing, supplies have become harder to find, and the couple have to abide by the same social distancing restrictions in place on land, meaning they can no longer socialize with other sailors. The seas may be the ultimate escape and self isolating destination, but people aboard everything from solo craft to superyachts say the tranquillity of the waves has come with logistical hurdles and ethical dilemmas. And then there is the bullhorn of social media: the blaring comments and tweets calling them entitled, clueless about the serious struggles of the day. Leisure sailing is still permitted in some areas of the United States, including parts of Florida, certain areas in New England and San Francisco. But in the Mediterranean almost all private boating has shut down, and cruising hot spots such as the Caribbean and South Pacific are imposing restrictions that often change day by day and leave sailors unsure of where they can go. Some superyacht owners have managed to get to sea, but brokers say that most charters have been canceled and thousands of boats are locked in marinas or anchored off foreign coastlines. Ms. Fowler, a 55 year old former personal assistant to a lawyer, said the only advantage she and her husband have over the homebound is their view of a nearby beach called Spoil Cay. "It's beautiful but we're not allowed on shore," she said. "And we can't just go for a jog or nick down to the shops like a lot of people." No One in Their Wake Except Online Bobby White, a sailing blogger from the United States who is now anchored in the U.S. Virgin Islands, agreed that there is a latent vein of social media hostility from "locked ins" but said the traffic for his "Sailing Doodles" YouTube videos has soared as frustrated armchair sailors follow his trip. "We were averaging about 3 to 3.5 million views a month, and just in the last two months that has gone over six million views a month," he said. "I think people are bored stuck at home and have nothing better to do than watch YouTube so that's great for me." "I understand that some people are going to be negative so I try not to post too much of: 'Hey look at me, I am having fun out on the water,'" he said, "because I think maybe people are sensitive to that right now." "Most people think, 'Man, that's really cool I get to live vicariously through you while I'm stuck in my apartment.' So I try not to listen to the bad stuff too much." Mr. White is sharing his 62 foot CT56 monohull yacht with his Canadian friends Edith Briel and Taylor Francis, and their itinerary has been upended by the coronavirus restrictions and quarantines imposed by various islands. "We had to leave Puerto Rico because they closed down all marina services and we had some problems with our boat," he said. "If a technician got caught coming out to your boat, they got fined 5,000." "I am supposed to have the boat hauled out of the water in Grenada for hurricane season, but I'm not going there now because who knows what's going to happen." Mr. White said the uncertainty is tough, "but I would rather be here than locked down on land. At least I can jump off my boat and go swimming. If I was in New York City stuck in an apartment watching Netflix all day I think I would go crazy." A major problem amid the access restrictions across the Caribbean is that insurers compel cruising vessels to leave the hurricane zone by certain dates June 1 for the Fowlers and July 1 for Mr. White and many skippers do not know where they will be accepted. Mr. White said the Caribbean is already eerily quiet "because a lot of boats have left and the crewed charter boats are just sitting out on moorings hanging out doing nothing." Yachts With Everything but Guests One of the few superyachts still in the British Virgin Islands is the 155 foot motor yacht Loon, which is anchored in North Sound bay. The crew of 10 has the usual array of water toys, plenty of fuel and several months' worth of expensive food and wine. The only thing missing? Guests, because the local lockdown means nobody can reach the vessel. "The next charter on our books that hasn't canceled is May 11 in the Bahamas, but right now I'm not sure that we are going to be able to get there," said Paul Clarke, the skipper. The last guests aboard were a three generation family of 10 from Chicago, who spent a week aboard until March 21. "They were supposed to fly down commercial, but for the safety of the crew I requested that they don't expose themselves to commercial travel so they ended up chartering a jet down to the vessel," Mr. Clarke said. "Being at anchor on a superyacht anywhere in the world right now is one of the safest places you can be, but you have to get here first." Mr. Clarke, who is 37 and from Australia, said the Chicago family concentrated on letting their grandchildren enjoy the water but the adults were glued to news reports of the coronavirus. The tension rose, he said, as the week went on. "We tried to make sure they had as much fun as possible, but they were obviously worried about what was going on back home, just like everyone in the crew," he said. "We are not concerned about our own safety because we have been so good with self isolating but we are all a little worried about friends and family." Dirk Uffenkamp, a 53 year old engineer from Bielefeld, Germany, was also focused on what was happening back home when he and six friends chartered a 48 foot Leopard catamaran in the Seychelles until early March. Jonathan Beckett, the chief executive of Burgess Yachts, said that apart from helping some luxury boat owners take their families to sea "to weather the storm" of the virus, his firm has also organized three or four "isolation charters" for customers looking to lock down by anchoring in a pleasant spot. "One was for four weeks but is likely to extend, I think," he said. "One was for eight weeks and I think will also extend if the crisis continues." One Burgess client, a family, is dealing with their son's schooling by having him get up at 4 a.m. for an online lesson with a teacher back in his home time zone, dressed in his school uniform to encourage routine. Another family, renting "quite a sizable yacht," is supplementing their home schooling with cooking lessons from the chef and time in the engine room with the engineer. Mr. Beckett said his firm has the Olivia, a 226 foot explorer yacht, available in Monaco for sale or charter with a 15,000 mile range and four or five months of supplies onboard. "Someone could step on there and go off for three or four months into the Indian Ocean or into the Pacific and just sort of chill out and isolate and wait until the pandemic passes," he said. "How do you ensure the safety of your crew unless you can physically ensure that the guests have been under full quarantine and had the right tests?" he said. "Even getting tests I think is slightly unethical because there is a huge demand for them for front line health workers." Not every broker thinks people should stay ashore. Bob Denison, the founder of Denison Yachting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., defended "locking down on water" as a safe way for people to maintain their morale. He also said that although San Diego and some other parts of the United States had curbed boating, many coastlines were still busy. "There are a great number of people who own yachts who are using them as a second place to responsibly do the social distancing thing," he said. His firm has sold several boats in recent days to people frustrated by the lockdown, he said, and had a strong response to two "virtual" boat shows aimed at locked down armchair sailors. Britta Fjelstrom, a high school physical education teacher who lives on her 38 foot Nantucket Island sailboat in a marina on San Francisco Bay, said her own answer to that frustration was to sail out recently and anchor in the bay for five nights as a way of "taking control" of the lockdown. "It was self isolation on steroids, but it felt like I had chosen it rather than being trapped," she said.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Style
So in order to understand that, I think you need to zoom out from the courtroom and look at a big change that has been happening in our health care system over the past decade or so. What I see in my reporting is patients consistently being asked to spend more and more of their own money on health care, even when they have insurance. A really perfect example of this is deductibles. That's the amount that a patient has to pay before their insurance will start kicking in and covering their doctor visits and their hospital trips. If you look back to, like, 2006 or so, only about half of people who had insurance even had a deductible. They weren't that common. You flash forward to this year, and 82% of people who get insurance at work now have a deductible. The size of the average deductible has about tripled between 2006 and 2018. It used to be about 600. Now it's about 1,700.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Health
If you're lucky enough to have a terrace or a sizable deck, what else do you really need? Maybe an outdoor sofa. As Peter Dunham, an interior and textile designer in Los Angeles, put it: "The ideal thing is to have somewhere for a nap outside." A sofa will also help anchor any outdoor seating area. "They're nice when used in conjunction with chairs, so that you have a big piece with little pieces talking to it," Mr. Dunham said, noting that while guests will often reposition chairs, a sofa holds its own. "You can't really move it." What style should it be? Start by taking cues from your home's architecture. "Don't use a really contemporary looking, sharp angled outdoor sofa at a Nantucket cottage," Mr. Dunham said. "That's just going to be jarring."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate
For Dr. Piero Anversa, the fall from scientific grace has been long, and the landing hard. Researchers worldwide once hailed his research as revolutionary, promising the seemingly impossible: a way to grow new heart cells to replace those lost in heart attacks and heart failure, leading killers in the United States. But Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, his former employers, this month accused Dr. Anversa and his laboratory of extensive scientific malpractice. More than 30 research studies produced over more than a decade contain falsified or fabricated data, officials concluded, and should be retracted. Last year the hospital paid a 10 million settlement to the federal government after the Department of Justice alleged that Dr. Anversa and two members of his team were responsible for fraudulently obtaining research funding from the National Institutes of Health. "The number of papers is extraordinary," said Dr. Jeffrey Flier, until 2016 the dean of Harvard Medical School. "I can't recall another case like this." Dr. Anversa's story has laid bare some of the hazards of modern medical research: the temptation to embrace a promising new theory, the reluctance to heed contrary evidence and the institutional barriers to promptly stopping malfeasance. Even after three independent researchers were unable to reproduce his findings in 2004, Harvard hired him in 2007 and his lab continued to churn out studies upholding his theory. "Science at this level is like a battleship, and it's really hard to turn it around," said Dr. Jonathan Moreno, a professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. "People get emotionally invested, financially invested, professionally invested." Dr. Anversa, 80, now lives in his son's elegant apartment on the Upper East Side. It has high ceilings, Oriental rugs and a marble fireplace, but little evidence of the life he once led at the forefront of science, save for a framed 2001 front page article in The New York Times about his work. He is slightly stooped and walks gingerly hip trouble, he said. The stress has made sleep difficult, but he adheres to a routine: in bed by 9 p.m., up before dawn. He spends most days writing grant proposals that he hopes to submit should he ever land another job. He insists that he did nothing wrong, that his stunning results are real, and that he was betrayed by a rogue colleague who altered data in paper after paper. On a recent afternoon, he sat on the sofa, pecking on his laptop with two fingers, calling up emails from people who had supported him. His is a particularly acrid cautionary tale of scientific hubris. "It's kind of been the longest running version of 'Mean Girls'," said Dr. Richard T. Lee, a professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard. "Except most of the characters were adult men." "It was like he grew the heart back" At a meeting of the American Heart Association in 2000, Dr. Anversa, then a professor at New York Medical College in Valhalla, strode to the podium and delivered a dramatic announcement: In mice, bone marrow contained stem cells that could be used to regenerate heart muscle. He was suggesting that a basic tenet of cardiology that the human heart cannot be regenerated was wrong. If he was correct, he had discovered hope for millions of heart patients. The presentation was replete with colorful slides of small and underdeveloped cells new heart muscle cells maturing, he said. "It was like he grew the heart back," recalled Dr. Charles Murry, director of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. The hypothesis, widely held at the time, was that the body had stem cells immature primitive cells that in the right environment could turn into any other cells in the body. Put a stem cell into the liver, scientists hoped, and it would turn into a liver cell. Put a stem cell into the heart, Dr. Anversa said, and it really could turn into a heart cell. He and his colleagues published the research in 2001 in Nature. "Unsurprisingly, companies started popping up and taking bone marrow cells and injecting them into peoples' hearts," Dr. Murry said. "The thing goes viral worldwide. It was freaking unbelievable." Dr. Anversa's group later reported something even more astounding. Bone marrow was known to have stem cells that can grow into blood cells. But no one ever thought the heart had stem cells. Yet he reported that it did and that those heart stem cells can be removed, grown in petri dishes, and injected back into the heart to regenerate the muscle after a heart attack. From the very beginning, there were scientists who doubted Dr. Anversa's claims. He had not been the first to wonder if stem cells from bone marrow could be transformed into heart cells. Dr. Murry and Loren Field, a professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine, had tried the experiment in the late 1990s. They saw no new heart cells and moved on, never publishing those data. They sat together in the audience when Dr. Anversa presented his findings in 2000. Dr. Murry turned to Dr. Field and asked, "How the hell did we miss this?" They returned to their labs to redo the experiment. But again, they could not make the process yield new heart cells. At one scientific meeting, Dr. Murry said he questioned Dr. Anversa's findings. On a screen, he put up a slide of heart cells from his lab and, next to it, a slide of heart cells from Dr. Anversa's laboratory. Then he put up a photoshopped image of his lab's cells. They looked just like the image of the cells from Dr. Anversa's lab. In the question and answer period, Dr. Anversa's colleague and collaborator, Dr. Bernardo Nadal Ginard, took the microphone to offer a withering riposte to Dr. Murry "I love Placido Domingo," Dr. Nadal Ginard recalled saying. "I wish I could sing like Placido Domingo. I try and try to sing like Placido Domingo, and I fail." It became known as the virtuoso defense. As Dr. Anversa's fame grew, along with grants, he earned perhaps the greatest of scientific plaudits in 2007: a professorship at Harvard Medical School and a position at its teaching hospital, Brigham and Women's, as director of its Center for Regenerative Medicine. Officials at the hospital and university declined to discuss his hiring. In a statement, the hospital said: "Breakthrough science can often initially be perceived as controversial. Controversy regarding one's research findings is not enough to rule out an otherwise qualified individual." A key member of Dr. Anversa's team, Dr. Jan Kajstura, was the first author on a paper in Circulation that seemed to offer final proof that the heart could regenerate. He worked with a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Bruce Buchholz, who measured carbon isotope levels in 36 hearts from people ranging in age from 2 to 78. Because of nuclear testing done in the 1950s, older people were exposed to more radioactive isotopes than younger people. If the body cannot produce new heart cells, the amounts of radioactive carbon should have been higher in the heart cells of older people. But in that paper, Dr. Kajstura and his colleagues reported, older hearts did not have more radioactive carbon. Heart cells are constantly being replaced, they concluded. When Dr. Buchholz read the paper, he was stunned. He had provided data on radioactivity levels to Dr. Kajstura, but the data published in the study had been altered to make the old hearts look the same as the young ones. Dr. Buchholz said in an interview that science depends on trust among collaborators, that he had implicitly trusted Dr. Anversa's group with his data. Now that trust was broken. A banner from the University of Miami Hospital advertising the use of stem cells to regenerate hearts. "I learned an unpleasant lesson," he said. He called Dr. Anversa and demanded that the paper be retracted. If data had been changed, Dr. Anversa recalled telling him, it had not been with his knowledge. "I said, 'Bruce, you are saying Jan is a fraud,'" Dr. Anversa said in an interview. Dr. Anversa said he confronted Dr. Kajstura, who did the analysis again. Dr. Anversa said he was reassured by the revised work and believed that the findings in the paper were still correct. But the hospital retracted the paper in 2014. Dr. Kajstura did not respond to repeated messages left for him over the past week at his wife's office and with his daughter and his daughter in law. He did not seem to be home in Rochester, N.Y., last week, and a note was left there requesting an interview. Even before the paper was officially retracted, Dr. Anversa's and Dr. Kajstura's careers began unraveling. On Jan. 10, 2013, investigators at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital raided Dr. Anversa's laboratory, Dr. Anversa said, seizing computers and scientific notes. He hired a team of lawyers. "These sudden visits with sequestration of computers and notebooks happened repeatedly over the years, making the working environment impossible," he wrote in an email. In 2015, Dr. Anversa was forced out at Harvard. He moved to research posts in Switzerland and Italy, but was fired from both, he said, as the controversy followed him overseas. Last year, the Department of Justice announced that Brigham and Women's Hospital and Partners Healthcare, a health care system founded by the Brigham and another Harvard affiliated hospital, would pay 10 million to settle allegations that Dr. Anversa, Dr. Leri and Dr. Kajstura knew, or should have known, that their work included "improper protocols, invalid and inaccurately characterized cardiac stem cells, reckless or deliberately misleading record keeping, and discrepancies and/or fabrications of data and images." Despite the setbacks, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, has been conducting a 7.9 million clinical trial of cardiac stem cells that began in 2015. Denis Buxton, associate director of the division of cardiovascular sciences at the institute, said Dr. Anversa's work was a "catalyst" for the study, although the institute does not believe that heart stem cells can turn into heart muscle. Still, some research indicates that heart stem cells and certain bone marrow cells may help form new blood vessels and heart cells, Dr. Buxton said. But the institute announced on Monday that it is pausing the trial to review its "scientific foundations." This month, Dr. Anversa got Harvard's conclusive findings on his life's work. In an Oct. 3 letter that Dr. Anversa provided to The Times, officials at Harvard and its teaching hospital told him that he had "committed research misconduct" in eight papers, some published and others submitted for publication, as well as in a grant application. Although he was the lead author on many of the other papers that Harvard said must be retracted, the university said the evidence did not support his being responsible for the malfeasance in those cases. Harvard did not name the culprit or culprits in its letter to Dr. Anversa. But the university said 31 scientific papers produced by Dr. Anversa's laboratories, going back to 2001, should be retracted. University and hospital officials notified each journal of their conclusions as well as the Office of Research Integrity at the Department of Health and Human Services, which can recommend that the federal government ban researchers from receiving federal funds. Anyone associated with Harvard or the hospital who gives Dr. Anversa a reference must also describe his misconduct. Dr. Anversa insists that he is being unfairly punished for what he says were Dr. Kajstura's deceptions. "How could I be so stupid as not to realize that he was cheating?" Dr. Anversa said. But other scientists say that as the head of the lab and a principal author on many papers, he must accept responsibility for the work even if he did not commit the fraud. It did not surprise some in academia that the bold promises of the research persisted despite the contested evidence. "There was an argument in the philosophy of science about whether there is such a thing as a 'crucial experiment,'" said Dr. Moreno, the ethics professor, referring to a study that answers a question once and for all. "It turns out there isn't. People can see what they want to see."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Health
SAN FRANCISCO SpaceX, the rocket maker founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has raised up to 350 million in new financing and is now valued at around 21 billion, making it one of the most valuable privately held companies in the world. SpaceX's new financing was disclosed in public filings that were obtained by Equidate, a marketplace for private company stock. SpaceX declined to comment. With the latest funding round, SpaceX joins an elite club of seven venture backed companies valued at 20 billion or more around the world, according to research firm CB Insights. Investors have poured money into the companies, many of which operate capital intensive businesses such as Uber and Airbnb, even as smaller start ups have gone public and have seen their valuations waver. Snap, the messaging and entertainment company, went public in March at a market capitalization of 24 billion, which has since fallen to about 16.5 billion. Meal delivery company Blue Apron went public last month at a market capitalization of 1.9 billion, which was less than its private market valuation; that has since dropped to around 1.3 billion.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
FRANKFURT As Europe turns from its latest short term fix for Greece to planning a longer term bailout for the debt plagued country, the ratings agency Standard Poor's indicated Monday how difficult it would be to offload some of the cost of rescuing Greece onto creditors without also provoking a default that could shock the global economy. Representatives of European governments and banks, continuing talks that have been under way for several weeks, expressed optimism that they could find ways that bond holders could voluntarily contribute to reducing Greece's debt. But S. P., responding to a French proposal to have banks give Athens more time to repay loans as they come due, seemed to leave little room for maneuver. The proposal would amount to a default, S. P. said, because creditors would have to wait longer to be repaid and the value of Greek bonds would effectively be reduced. "Ratings agencies are saying, 'We don't think it's voluntary; it's just a way to hide a default' which it is," said Daniel Gros, director of the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels. European leaders are trapped between domestic political demands for banks to share the cost of a Greek bailout, and the dire consequences of a default. These would include the collapse of Greek banks, probably followed by the collapse of the Greek economy and Greece's exit from the euro zone. A crisis in Greece could quickly spread to European banks, particularly in France and Germany, which own government bonds or have lent money to Greek individuals and businesses. Ratings of French banks have already suffered because of their vulnerability to the Greek economy. And once the precedent of a euro zone default had been set, investors would likely abandon the debts of other struggling members, including Portugal and Spain. More worryingly, a tower of credit default swaps a form of debt insurance typically sold by investment banks has been built on the debts of those countries, and the cost of paying up in a default would be huge. As a result, officials predicted, European governments may have little choice but to abandon or modify the voluntary plan and fill the gap with more money from taxpayer coffers. A senior figure in the Greek finance ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said on Monday that it was folly to think that the ratings agencies would view a debt exchange as purely voluntary and not representing a selective default. "Now the official sector will need to find another 30 billion," this person said, referring to the 30 billion euros ( 43.6 billion) that European political leaders hoped to get from the private sector. That sum was never realistic in the first place, he said. But he predicted that leaders would not turn their backs on Greece. "Europe has too much riding on this," the official said. "Greece has done 80 percent of what it is supposed to have done. If Europe were to let Greece go that would be the end of euro zone solidarity." Europe is seeking to avoid a default at all cost because it could also initiate payment of credit default swaps, with unpredictable results. There is little public information on which financial institutions have sold credit default swaps and might have to absorb losses if Greece defaulted, but it is likely that American banks and insurance companies have taken on the largest share. The shock to the global economy might compare to the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, the European Central Bank has warned. Mr. Gros said that calls for investors to roll over maturing Greek debt voluntarily could even backfire, by invoking memories of similar stopgap measures that preceded Argentina's disorderly default in 2001. Despite the discouraging assessment Monday from Standard Poor's, European governments continued work on a contingency plan that they predicted would satisfy the ratings agencies and prevent Greece's problems from provoking a wider crisis. There was somewhat less urgency to the talks after euro zone finance ministers agreed over the weekend to provide Athens with financing of 8.7 billion euros ( 12.7 billion) from the 110 billion euro bailout agreed to last year, to help the Greek government function through the summer. The new aid eliminates the prospect of a near term default. But the finance ministers put off the question of how to provide a second bailout, expected to total as much as 90 billion euros, to keep the country operating through 2014, when it is hoped that Greece will be able to return to the credit markets. Negotiators are trying to put together a plan that would offer private investors good enough terms to encourage them to take part voluntarily while, at the same time, convincing angry voters in nations like Germany and the Netherlands that financial institutions are sacrificing, too. Monday's decision by Standard Poor's reveals just how difficult that will be. Last month, S. P. said it was cutting its long term rating on Greece three notches to CCC, deep in junk territory. A serious problem is how to prevent a collapse of Greek banks if the country is declared to be in default. Greek banks, cut off from international money markets, use their holdings of domestic government debt as collateral for cheap loans from the European Central Bank. If Greece defaulted, the European Central Bank could probably no longer accept the debt as collateral. Recognizing those difficulties, European officials are working on a contingency plan under which their second bailout is judged a selective default, according to one official briefed on the negotiation, who would not agree to be quoted by name because of the delicacy of the issue. Under this situation the European governments, rather than the central bank, would provide funds directly to the Greek banking sector to prevent a run on financial institutions that could spread to other countries. "The E.C.B. would be able to accept them if the final structure was relatively healthy," Mr. Moec said. But he added, "One thing the E.C.B. doesn't want is any infringement of its right to decide on the collateral that it accepts." Under the French plan put forward last week by President Nicolas Sarkozy and rejected Monday by S. P., private investors would reinvest at least 70 percent of the proceeds of bonds maturing before the end of 2014 into new 30 year Greek debt. But France has also suggested a second option. Under that plan at least 90 percent of Greece's bonds maturing before 2014 would be invested in new five year bonds. These would carry a 5.5 percent interest rate and would be listed on a European market with restricted trading to protect them from speculative attack. Other targets include 1.5 billion euros to be raised from selling a 34 percent stake in the country's sports betting entity, and more unlikely given the sickly state of Greek banks 275 million euros from a sale of a stake in Hellenic Post bank. Despite the obstacles to private sector participation in a Greek solution, officials say they must continue looking for a plan because of the demands of Germany and the Netherlands. And after elections earlier this year during which a populist party made gains, Finland is demanding collateral from Greece in exchange for loans as part of any new bailout.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Global Business
Effective immediately, American Airlines will no longer charge passengers 150 to check sports equipment like bicycles or surfboards, or musical instruments like a cello. Such items, which were previously considered oversize baggage, will now be covered by the regular 30 fee for checked luggage, as long as the item weighs less than 50 pounds. And come winter, or if you're heading to the Southern Hemisphere, skiers will be able to include their skis and an equipment bag as a single item if the weight is below that limit. "American has made it easier for musicians and athletes to travel with their gear, by eliminating certain fees that were previously imposed on oversize equipment," Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for the airline, said in a statement. The changes were based on customer and employee feedback. American will continue to charge a 150 fee for certain specialty items, like scuba tanks and antlers, which have different handling requirements. American's announcement isn't going to affect a huge portion of its travelers, and it's unlikely to be a sign of a bigger shift, at least not yet. Airlines still rely heavily on fees as a way to collect revenue while keeping ticket prices lower.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
Credit...PrisonExp.org The urge to pull down statues extends well beyond the public squares of nations in turmoil. Lately it has been stirring the air in some corners of science, particularly psychology. In recent months, researchers and some journalists have strung cables around the necks of at least three monuments of the modern psychological canon: None The famous Stanford Prison Experiment, which found that people playacting as guards quickly exhibited uncharacteristic cruelty. None The landmark marshmallow test, which found that young children who could delay gratification showed greater educational achievement years later than those who could not. None And the lesser known but influential concept of ego depletion the idea that willpower is like a muscle that can be built up but also tires. The assaults on these studies aren't all new. Each is a story in its own right, involving debates over methodology and statistical bias that have surfaced before in some form. But since 2011, the psychology field has been giving itself an intensive background check, redoing more than 100 well known studies. Often the original results cannot be reproduced, and the entire contentious process has been colored, inevitably, by generational change and charges of patriarchy. "This is a phase of cleaning house and we're finding that many things aren't as robust as we thought," said Brian Nosek, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, who has led the replication drive. "This is a reformation moment to say let's self correct, and build on knowledge that we know is solid." Still, the study of human behavior will never be as clean as physics or cardiology how could it be? and psychology's elaborate simulations are just that. At the same time, its findings are far more accessible and personally relevant to the public than those in most other scientific fields. Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. Psychology has millions of amateur theorists who test the findings against their own experience. The public's judgments matter to the field, too. It is one thing to frisk the studies appearing almost daily in journals that form the current back and forth of behavior research. It is somewhat different to call out experiments that became classics and world famous outside of psychology because they dramatized something people recognized in themselves and in others. They live in the common culture as powerful metaphors, explanations for aspects of our behavior that we sense are true and that are captured somehow in a laboratory mini drama constructed by an inventive researcher, or research team. After six days, Dr. Zimbardo called the experiment off, reporting that the "guards" began to assume their roles too well. They became abusive, some of them shockingly so. Dr. Zimbardo published dispatches about the experiment in a couple of obscure journals. He provided a more complete report in an article he wrote in The New York Times, describing how cruel instincts could emerge spontaneously in ordinary people as a result of situational pressures and expectations. That article and "Quiet Rage," a documentary about the experiment, helped make Dr. Zimbardo a star in the field and media favorite, most recently in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in the early 2000s. Perhaps the central challenge to the study's claims is that its author coached the "guards" to be hard cases. Is this coaching "not an overt invitation to be abusive in all sorts of psychological ways?" wrote Peter Gray, a psychologist at Boston College who decided to exclude any mention of the simulation from his popular introductory textbook. "And, when the guards did behave in these ways and escalated that behavior, with Zimbardo watching and apparently (by his silence) approving, would that not have confirmed in the subjects' minds that they were behaving as they should?" Recent challenges have echoed Dr. Gray's, and earlier this month Dr. Zimbardo was moved to post a response online. "My instructions to the guards, as documented by recordings of guard orientation, were that they could not hit the prisoners but could create feelings of boredom, frustration, fear and a sense of powerlessness that is, 'we have total power of the situation and they have none,'" he wrote. "We did not give any formal or detailed instructions about how to be an effective guard." In an interview, Dr. Zimbardo said that the simulation was a "demonstration of what could happen" to some people influenced by powerful social roles and outside pressures, and that his critics had missed this point. Which argument is more persuasive depends to some extent on where you sit and what you may think of Dr. Zimbardo. Is it better to describe his experiment, questions and all or to ignore it entirely as not real psychology? One psychologist who doesn't have to choose is David Baker, executive director of the Center for the History of Psychology at the University of Akron, which hosts the National Museum of Psychology. "We put everything in that's an important part of our history, including the controversy," Dr. Baker said. "To me, the target question of an experiment should be considered," he added. "In this case, do social context and expectations significantly change behavior. And if so, when and how so?" The marshmallow test and ego depletion studies are fair game for further examination, and in those cases modifications may in fact clarify the picture. Some children do exhibit a streak of self restraint early that seems to become central to their developing personality. What is the best way to measure that ability, or trait? What are its rewards over time, and its costs? A more careful investigation of the "subjective cognitive fatigue" resulting from exercising self control might help answer the latter question. It may also save ego depletion from being discarded prematurely as a useful scientific concept. When Dr. Nosek published his first major replication paper in 2015, finding that about 60 percent of prominent studies did not pan out on a second try, it was a gift to skeptics eager to dismiss the entire field (and maybe all of social science) as a joke, a congregation of poorly anchored findings that shift in the wind, like nutrition advice. It's not. On the contrary. Housecleaning is a crucial corrective in science, and psychology has led by example. But in science, as in life, there's reason for care before dragging the big items to the curb.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Health
In the bedroom, the largest piece of furniture will almost necessarily be the bed. Once you've decided where you want it, you might put small tables on either side, as the Nashville based designer Eric Ross did here. Too Much Time on Your Hands? Try Rearranging the Furniture Spend enough time in your home and you may wonder why you decorated it the way you did. Perhaps now that your kitchen island doubles as a home office, you can't help but scrutinize the position of the dining room table or the height of the pendant lights. Even if your furniture arrangement has worked for years, it may no longer make sense for your present life, now that you're stuck inside all day. But here's the good news: Rethinking your space can offer a sense of control at a time when our lives are in upheaval. Rearranging the furniture doesn't cost any money, it doesn't require leaving the house and best of all it may even feel therapeutic. In spaces without such features, an accent wall or statement pieces like a striking mirror, artwork or a chandelier could serve as a focal point instead. In a bedroom, for example, the headboard may be what grabs your eye when you enter the room. But even if you have a dominant architectural feature, said the New York interior designer Miles Redd, you don't necessarily have to make that your focal point. "It is OK to ignore the fireplace," said Mr. Redd, who sometimes puts seating directly in front of it. To figure out the best use of your space, try moving things around. You may not know what works best until you see it for yourself. If you regularly watch television and play video games together as a family, a sectional sofa and coffee table across from an entertainment console may be more appropriate than symmetrical club chairs framing the fireplace even if you prefer a formal living room. If you have an open floor plan where one room flows into the next, make sure to coordinate colors and materials to keep it cohesive. And consider using furniture to delineate spaces. The back of a sofa, for example, makes a great room divider, and rugs can help define zones within a room. Start with the biggest piece of furniture most likely the sofa and decide where it looks best. Then bring in the smaller pieces. One common arrangement is to place the sofa facing the TV or fireplace, flanked by side tables, with armchairs on either side, at a right angle or rotated slightly toward the sofa. Another popular layout is to arrange two sofas (or a sofa and a pair of club chairs) facing each other, with the focal point at one end. How much seating do you need? "The rule of thumb is to have as many seats as you have at the dining table," said Leta Austin Foster, an interior designer in Palm Beach, Fla. In the bedroom, the largest piece will almost necessarily be the bed. Once you've decided where you want it, you might put small tables on either side or position a dresser or armoire directly across from it. If your bedroom is particularly small, consider substituting sconces for table lamps and using a floating shelf instead of a side table, or place a dresser on one side and a side table on the other. If you have the enviable challenge of filling a large room, add an upholstered chair with a table or a desk or a chaise longue or love seat with a coffee table. Just be sure you leave enough space to maneuver. "You don't want to overcrowd the bed area and make it appear as if you have to pole vault to get in it," said Eric Ross, an interior designer in Nashville. Another piece of advice from Mr. Ross: "A big and easily avoidable no no is placing two case goods like a dresser and an armoire on the same wall." If your dining room is small or in a pass through space that does double duty (like a large foyer), a square or round table is usually the way to go. In an open layout, where the dining area shares space with the living area or the kitchen (or both), a variety of table shapes will work. But you'll want to find a way to delineate the dining area by centering the table in front of a wall or a window, for example, or by hanging a light fixture above it. To help move your eye through a space and add interest to a room, here's a pro tip: Make sure your furnishings aren't all the same height. "Have something low and tall in every room," Mr. Redd advised. For example? Combine a low coffee table with a "painting that kisses the ceiling," he suggested. In the dining room, the table should be 36 to 46 inches from the walls and from furniture like sideboards or china cabinets, so that chairs have enough room to slide out. Chandeliers and pendant lamps should hang at least 34 inches above the table. In the bedroom, there should ideally be at least 24 inches between the bed and the walls, so there's enough space to comfortably make the bed (unless you have bunk beds, which are typically flush against a wall). But again, these are just guidelines. Stick too closely to the rules, and "people get too rigid," Mr. Redd noted. And that "can destroy a room." Ronda Kaysen and Michelle Higgins are the authors of "The New York Times: Right at Home," published by Black Dog Leventhal, an imprint of Running Press, a division of Hachette Book Group. For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: nytrealestate.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate
The last time the Olympics came to South Korea, in 1988, Korean pop music was awash in soft focus ballads, a gentle and demure version of the sounds that were taking hold elsewhere in the world. This year, the country is hosting the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, and is greeting it with a vastly evolved approach to pop music and culture. South Korea's prime export is K pop, the umbrella term used to describe the ecstatic, vibrant, outrageously polished and often hyperreal version of pop music that dominates the country's music industry, thanks to entertainment conglomerates that aggressively recruit and train young talent. The genre is known for pinpoint precision, flamboyant fashion and smoothed over borrowings from American R B and hip hop that, taken in total, have amounted to the creation of a style and sound that's unmistakable, and without global peer. Along with K drama and various other youth driven pop culture offsprings, it's become essential to South Korea's global image. K pop will reportedly have a limited presence at the Olympics opening ceremony on Friday, which will feature performances from Ha Hyun Woo of the indie rock band Guckkasten, Ahn Ji Young of the K pop duo Bolbbalgan4 and Jeon In Kwon of the long running Korean rock band Deulgukhwa. It will, however, be more prominently featured at the closing ceremony on Feb. 25, with performances by CL, who got her start in the essential girl group 2NE1, and the boy band EXO. Other K pop performances including a reunion of the boy band 2PM are scheduled for events throughout the Games. And last month, the North Korean singer Hyon Song wol led a delegation of North Korean officials to the South to prepare for the cultural performances that will be a part of the events.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Music
Page Starzinger, a poet, perches clutching a cup on her marble topped cabinets done in the blue black shade "Railings." There's a new trophy kitchen in town, and it looks like a very old one, with hand painted cabinets in rich colors and dull brass hardware with an antique patina. Maybe it's the "Downton Abbey" effect: the English scullery has been buffed up, ever so slightly, and shipped to America. Downstairs is now upstairs. The Aga range is optional . Nearly 30 years ago, Tony Niblock and Katie Fontana, English designers who were then a couple, built a traditional Suffolk long house with reclaimed materials and an especially fitting kitchen. Inspired by National Trust properties, they sketched out Georgian style cabinetry, which is distinguished by clean lines and minimal detailing, had it made by a local joiner, and painted it themselves in their favorite Farrow Ball color, Berrington Blue. Instead of a laminate stage set, they wanted a kitchen, Ms. Fontana has said, "that wasn't twiddly, that didn't shout, 'Look at me!'" and they guessed, rightly, that others might want the same thing. Using their own kitchen as a showroom and a nearby former tannery as a workshop, they assembled ironmongers to make the patinated brass hardware and hinges, and woodworkers to turn the dowels for the drawer supports, calling their company Plain English. By 1996, Mr. Niblock and Ms. Fontana had ended their romance, but they continued to run the business as partners, moving it as they expanded out of their home and the tannery and into a Georgian farmhouse with atmospheric outbuildings in Suffolk. They were diligent about the details, using slot head screws and brass hinges, pulls and latches, and hand painting the cabinetry instead of spraying it: dog whistles to those who notice such things. Before long, Plain English was selling 250 kitchens a year, they said. Design folks lost their minds over the look, and it became shorthand for an aesthetic and an ethos: English bohemia, but cleaner. Competitors emerged, and Americans and Europeans waved pages from World of Interiors magazine, where Plain English advertised, at their contractors and carpenters, who endeavored to produce copies of Mr. Niblock and Ms. Fontana's high end, homespun fantasy. "It's shorthand for 100 people, like a Margaret Howell white shirt," said Christine Muhlke, a food consultant and author, comparing the Plain English kitchens, which now start at 45,000, to the English clothing designer who makes understated schoolboy pieces, and musing on how the company became a brand for those who eschew brands. "Only a design freak would know it's a 300 shirt," Ms. Muhlke said. "Yes, there is an implicit snobbery in that kind of extreme tastefulness, but there is something about the plainness and the level of high quality construction that's missing from a certain level of architecture. It doesn't have that samey samey Pinterest look." David Prior, the Australian co founder of Prior, a member's only traveler's club, said his "most aspirational desire" is to have a Plain English kitchen in his West Village brownstone apartment. "I spend far too much time thinking about what a 'scullery in Egg Yolk' would mean in my life." Last year, Plain English opened a showroom on the parlor floor of a Greenwich Village townhouse, stoking the fire stateside. It is the sort of expensive good taste also expressed by the high end nursery food served at Rochelle Canteen in the Shoreditch neighborhood of London. Rita Konig, an English decorator and editor, oversaw the Plain English color line this year, adding 12 hues that include Nicotine (a deep yellow), Burnt Toast (brown) and Mouldy Plum (what it sounds like). In the half century since the modern American kitchen promised an egalitarian, if gendered, space that would free the middle class housewife from the drudgery of her chores with space age technologies and materials like Formica, that arena has become ever more complicated and aspirational. Last year, Americans spent 85.5 billion on their kitchens; this year, that figure is projected to rise to 90 billion, according to the National Kitchen Bath Association, the industry's trade group, which also reports that "transitional" styles, meaning a little bit of everything, are the most popular. "Those materials did not age well," she said. "We were supposed to be colonizing Mars, and now we're fetishizing marble and polished brass." In luxury developments and lofts around New York City, the grim kitchens flaunt exotic materials like fumed oak, charred cedar, Crystallo quartzite and Nero Marquina marble in monolithic shapes that somehow all manage to look the same, seeming to anticipate the arrival of the caterer or the coke dealer. In the financial district, in a building designed by Sir David Adjaye, the kitchen islands will be made from two rough slabs of stone, one cantilevered over the other the only things missing are hunks of meat and some Argentine gauchos. No wonder people are hankering for Mr. Niblock's and Ms. Fontana's export, or a facsimile. For real cooks, it's a place they can work in. For the culturally anxious, it's a bulwark against creeping suburbanism, said Julie Carlson, a founder of Remodelista, a sourcebook for stylish kitchens for over a decade. "Don't you think people buying Plain English or having their kitchens copied is just the age old American desire to co opt the English look, with all the legitimacy and provenance that it bestows? The kitchens are the domestic equivalent of an impeccably tailored Savile Row suit. "Also, they're really good at the pantry, which we all romanticize. Isn't a separate space for storage the ultimate kitchen luxury?" Ms. Archer recalled the famous back and forth over an American dishwasher between Nixon and Khrushchev in 1959, when the Soviet leader snapped that Russian women did not need to be liberated by such capitalist tools. "In the same way the kitchen was once a Cold War battleground, now it's a climate change battleground, where our consumption choices are brought to bear," she said. "It's not just meat or vegan. It's, 'Where are you getting those counters?'" For English cooks, our tortured relationship with our kitchens elicits a chuckle. After decades in this country, Serena Bass, the executive chef of Lido Harlem, is still confounded by showplaces with "the Botox enhanced fields of marble. All the really serious English cooks I know have kitchens which are 'working' spaces full of the charming chips and wrinkles of time. They are cook's kitchens rather than the kitchen where you invite guests to have a good look at the new millwork and self closing drawers." One morning last month, Robert Kime, the Prince of Wales's decorator, sat at the broad table in the window of the sun drenched Plain English showroom. He and his design partner, Lady Gisela Milne Watson, were in town for the expansion of his textile line to Chelsea Textiles on East 59th Street. They would be celebrating that evening and were overseeing the flowers for the event, fiery purple and orange dahlias arrayed in Plain English's parlor. What makes a kitchen English? Not millwork and brass taps, Mr. Kime suggested, and then described his friend Alastair Langland's kitchen, in an overstuffed bungalow in Hampshire, as an ideal of the form. "It's completely cluttered and hopeless," he said admiringly. "Americans are a bit puritan in their kitchens. They want everything neat and tidy. They care too much about the toast crumbs."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Style
The East Village has a "Nutcracker" of its own and, fittingly, it's on the gritty side. In "The Shell Shocked Nut" conceived and directed by Martha Tornay, the artistic director of the East Village Dance Project a war veteran with post traumatic stress disorder finds herself on a bench in a park. There's a blizzard; a child appears to comfort her, and they travel to classic spots in the East Village. The production, with performers between the ages of 4 and 60, was conceived after Hurricane Sandy. Even though there was no heat in her dance studio, Ms. Tornay held classes; one student requested that they learn choreography from "The Nutcracker." Afterward, she recalled in an interview, they were beaming. "I started thinking about that cathartic process of working through a stressful situation," Ms. Tornay said. That year, she made a 30 minute version for parents. Now, the work runs over an hour. (7 p.m. Jan. 2, 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Jan. 3, 3 p.m. Jan 4., La MaMa Ellen Stewart Theater, 66 East Fourth Street, East Village; 646 430 5374, eastvillagedanceproject.com.)	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Dance

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