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STRATFORD UPON AVON, England Picture this: It's the first act of "The Tempest," and the shipwrecked conjurer Prospero is reminding the spirit Ariel of his miserable past 12 years imprisoned by a witch inside a "cloven pine." Theatergoers see two costumed actors, as always, but also, rising high above them, a towering, gnarled tree, within which writhes a 17 foot avatar of Ariel, moaning in recollected agony. An hour or so later, Ariel, carrying out a mission at Prospero's behest, morphs into a harpy a ravenous monster with a woman's face and breasts and a vulture's talons and wings soaring intangibly but menacingly above the stage in a pixelated projection that traces the movements and facial expressions of an actor at stage left. Here, in the birthplace of Shakespeare, theater artists and technologists are trying to reimagine stagecraft for the digital age. Experimenting with one of Shakespeare's greatest and final plays, the Royal Shakespeare Company, working with Intel and a London based production company called the Imaginarium, has mounted a "Tempest" in which Ariel's physical transformations are made visible with what the collaborators say is the most elaborate use of motion capture ever attempted in live theater. The motion capture process, in which Mr. Quartley's movements are used to animate a digital creature, has been employed for years in film, most famously to inform the lifelike physical movements of Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" movies and for the title character in the 2005 remake of "King Kong." But adapting the process for theater has proved difficult, because live performance, by definition, happens in real time, meaning there is no opportunity for the postproduction editing that is generally used to perfect cinematic animation. "We've always wanted to marry performance capture with the stage," said Andy Serkis, the actor who worked as the body behind Gollum and Kong. Mr. Serkis became so enamored of motion capture that he helped found Imaginarium, and he is serving as a creative consultant on this "Tempest" production. "But there are so many risks involved. There's no room for error." The show is running in Stratford upon Avon until Jan. 21 and will be presented onstage again at the Barbican Theater in London starting June 30. It will also be broadcast to cinemas beginning Jan. 11 in Britain and March 1 in the United States. The spectacle is a sort of high tech puppetry. As in "The Lion King" or "War Horse," and long before those shows, in Japanese bunraku performances, the Ariel actor and the Ariel avatar are simultaneously visible to the audience a form of theatrical transparency that Julie Taymor, the director of "The Lion King," has called "the double event." Mr. Quartley speaks all the character's lines and determines all of its motions, which, as a result, can vary from performance to performance. The avatar is deployed only when Ariel's mind turns to magic: When he is having an emotionally fraught conversation with Prospero, that is played actor to actor, but when the talk turns to enchantment, the avatar appears. "When my agent told me they were doing a new production of 'The Tempest' with an avatar, my immediate concern was that I'd be sitting in a back room somewhere moving, and I wasn't sure how fulfilling that would be as an actor," Mr. Quartley said. Reassured that he would be onstage that's one way the Royal Shakespeare Company signals to the audience that it is not watching prerecorded video he took the role, and now he relishes both the physical and technological challenge of making it work. At each performance, Mr. Quartley wears a skintight Lycra suit, with 16 motion sensors zipped into the costume and one embedded in his wig. They wirelessly transmit the coordinates of his body parts to computers that transform the data into the avatar projected onto screens moving over the stage. The costume must be recalibrated five or six times during each show, because if a sensor is out of place, as happens from time to time, the avatar can look contorted. At its best, the motion capture is eye popping. For the harpy scene, Mr. Quartley wears headgear allowing the digital creature to mimic the movement of his face, and he has learned to accentuate lines for dramatic effect. And there is other technological innovation seeded throughout the production 26 tracking cameras around the theater follow the movement of actors so that, for example, a pack of hounds can be projected onto hand held drums held by dancers. In a masque scene, one goddess wears a fiber optic fabric dress illuminated by LEDs, and another has a dress with electroluminescent cable wire; a banquet table has a projected feast, and the stage floor is a polycarbonate that is hand painted to look veiny and is lit from below. "It allows a High Church type of extravagance it's just breathtakingly beautiful," said Simon Russell Beale, the great British actor, who played Ariel at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1993 and who is Prospero in this production. Mr. Russell Beale's Ariel is remembered for a low tech spectacle his was a cold and angry spirit, who spat on Prospero upon being set free at play's end. Mr. Russell Beale said that given the magic coursing through this play, the use of technology makes sense. "As an intellectual argument, it's pretty watertight," he said. "I still believe the most important bit is the human interaction, but if that can be enhanced by technological means, then great." The timing is intriguing. Just as the Royal Shakespeare Company is experimenting with the most newfangled technology, Shakespeare's Globe, about two hours south in London, is moving in the opposite direction, abruptly parting with its new artistic director, Emma Rice, citing such factors as her embrace of modern lighting. Critics have generally embraced the Royal Shakespeare Company effort. The visuals, Dominic Cavendish wrote in The Telegraph, "are, true to the hype, of a breathtaking order." But not all were persuaded. "While the show offers a bonanza night for ardent techies, I see its use of advanced technology as a one off experiment rather than a signpost to the future," Michael Billington wrote in The Guardian. "If you know the play very well, you will feel, maybe, that the technology doesn't give you a great deal," said Stephen Brimson Lewis, the director of design for the Royal Shakespeare Company. "But if you don't know the play, it's fascinating how much the back story seems to work, and, particularly with younger audiences, that seems to have paid dividends." The project was born with a plea. Gregory Doran, the artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, was looking for a final play to close out 2016, which was the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, and settled upon "The Tempest," which tells the story of a deposed duke (Prospero), stranded on an island with his daughter, who uses his "rough magic" to bring about a life changing reckoning with the men who had wronged him. Mr. Doran, noting that there is a masque within "The Tempest " and that the most up to date special effects were often deployed in Jacobean masques, asked his staff to think about what effects Shakespeare might have employed if he were alive today. Sarah Ellis, the company's director of digital development, sent him a video of an augmented reality leviathan, appearing to swim over an audience, that Intel demonstrated at International CES, the giant consumer electronics trade show, in 2014. And then there was a bit of crazy luck. Ms. Ellis didn't know anyone at Intel, so she just wrote to a generic address she found on the contact page on the company's website the kind of address one assumes will go nowhere. The email was forwarded to Intel's research director, Tawny Schlieski, who, improbably, had been a college theater minor. Intel, best known as a maker of computer chips, has been trying to change perceptions of its brand by taking on high visibility projects in entertainment, music, gaming and sports. The company had worked on the Super Bowl (360 degree replay), the Grammys (digital skin projections for Lady Gaga), New York Fashion Week (an interactive dress with mechanical arms) and the X Games. The prestige of the Royal Shakespeare Company was appealing. Intel will not say what it has spent on the theater production, but it is clearly a significant investment. The technology took two years to debate and develop; the company has installed racks of video servers in the stage right wing two sets, in case one crashes as well as 27 high definition tracking projectors. Ariel's avatar is often projected onto a giant cylinder that designers call "the cloud" a tube that surrounds a smoke machine and is wrapped in midge mesh; other projections are on mesh curtains, called a vortex, that move over the stage. A technician is required to operate the video system during each show, plus one to oversee the motion capture, and one in the control room at a souped up theatrical lighting board. "We've streamlined this in a way that I'm certain other theater companies can pick it up and try to outdo us," Ms. Schlieski said. "The more familiar you are with a tool, the more interesting things you can do with it." Skeptics have wondered about the collaboration. "It's a form of research and development by a commercial interest, which is different from theatrical experimentation," said Christie Carson, a professor of Shakespeare and performance at Royal Holloway and an editor of the book "Shakespeare and the Digital World." "It's industrializing the creative process." Ms. Carson said she had been more impressed by other uses of technology in Shakespeare productions a "Henry V" at the National Theater in which the monarch's speeches were delivered on television screens and a "Julius Caesar" at the Royal Shakespeare Company with filmed mob scenes. She is a fan, too, of other experiments from the company, including "Such Tweet Sorrow," a six actor, five week retelling of "Romeo and Juliet" over Twitter, and "Midsummer Night's Dreaming," a three day, real time, online production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." But Mr. Doran has no misgivings. "They have their own agenda of how they want to extend and explore and advertise their technology," he said of Intel. "But it's serving our ends perfectly we've used the technology to enhance the play, and we feel very proud of that." He is already thinking about how the technology can be applied to other plays. "Theater has always embraced new technology we go with any new idea, and we try to find out what it can do and what it can't do," Mr. Doran said. "It's the words that excite you. The rest is just a way of letting people in."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Theater
Dr. Peter J. Jannetta, a neurosurgeon who as a medical resident half a century ago developed an innovative procedure to relieve an especially devastating type of facial pain, died on Monday in Pittsburgh. He was 84. The cause was complications from a brain injury suffered in a recent fall, said Susan Jannetta, his daughter. Dr. Jannetta, a retired faculty member of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, was considered one of the foremost neurosurgeons in the world. A specialist in cranial nerve disorders, he was renowned in particular for having identified the minute culprit responsible for trigeminal neuralgia a condition causing agonizing facial pain and for developing a way to vanquish that culprit through microsurgery on the brain. "This was a condition that had been documented for a thousand years: There are references in the ancient literature to what was originally called 'tic douloureux,' " Mark L. Shelton, the author of "Working in a Very Small Place: The Making of a Neurosurgeon," a 1989 book about Dr. Jannetta, said in a telephone interview on Thursday. "People knew of this unexplained, very intense, episodic facial pain but didn't know the cause of it." Trigeminal neuralgia is so excruciating and early remedies were so inadequate that in the past, some patients committed suicide. "It's the worst pain in the world," Dr. Jannetta told The Times Union of Albany in 1999. "The nerve endings in the face are the most concentrated in the body, even more than the fingertips." By the time Dr. Jannetta began his residency in the 1960s, it was known that such pain stemmed from damage to the trigeminal nerve, a large nerve that carries sensation from the face to the brain. But the source of the damage was far less understood, severely limiting opportunities for treatment. "The treatments up until that time tended to be things that damaged the nerve," Mr. Shelton said. "You would cut the nerve so it would stop sending these responses. They would pickle it with alcohol. They would use electrical impulses to damage it, and so on. The result would be, at best, numbness. That would eliminate the pain, but also eliminate the nerve's function." In the mid 1960s, Dr. Jannetta made a striking discovery while he was a neurosurgical resident at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dissecting a set of cranial nerves for a class presentation, he noticed something amiss: a tiny blood vessel pressing on the trigeminal nerve. "It came to him as something of a flash of insight," Mr. Shelton said. "He saw this blood vessel literally impinging on the nerve so that there was actually a groove in the nerve where the vessel pressed." What if, Dr. Jannetta wondered, this were the source of the nerve damage? Though his insight is universally accepted today, it was novel to the point of subversion in the 1960s. "The idea that a very small blood vessel, the diameter of a mechanical pencil lead, could cause such outsize pain didn't resonate with people at the time," Mr. Shelton said. But if the offending vessel was indeed the cause, Dr. Jannetta reasoned, then the pain could be alleviated by removing it with the aid of a surgical microscope. Over time, he developed a delicate procedure to do just that. Formally known as microvascular decompression, it is familiarly known among surgeons as the Jannetta procedure. "If you reach behind your ear, you'll find a bony lump," Mr. Shelton said. "And if you move one finger width over toward your spine, that's the place where they would drill a hole about the size of a quarter." The lens of the microscope was placed against the hole, letting the surgeon peer closely at the trigeminal nerve. Under magnification, the impinging vessel could then be removed. If the vessel was a vein, it could simply be cauterized and excised. If it was an artery, however a more essential structure it would, Dr. Jannetta realized, have to be gently nudged out of the way. He created a means of doing so that involved slipping a tiny pad of soft Teflon, about the size of a pencil eraser, between the artery and the nerve. Dr. Jannetta performed the first microvascular decompression operation in 1966. The patient, a 41 year old man, was relieved of his pain. It took about a decade for the procedure to win acceptance from the neurosurgical establishment, owing partly to Dr. Jannetta's youth and partly to the novelty of his idea. "He convinced many, many skeptics and there were a lot of skeptics in the early years because it seemed so counterintuitive as to what caused neurological disease," Mr. Shelton said. Today, microvascular decompression is a standard treatment for trigeminal neuralgia, resulting in complete relief in some 90 percent of cases. Dr. Jannetta trained more than 150 surgeons around the world in the technique. It has been extended to treat a range of conditions including tinnitus, facial spasms and vertigo that stem from impingement on various cranial nerves. Peter Joseph Jannetta was born in Philadelphia on April 5, 1932. He earned a bachelor's degree in zoology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1953, followed by an M.D. there in 1957. He did a residency in general surgery at Penn before moving to U.C.L.A. for his neurosurgery residency. Dr. Jannetta was on the faculty of Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans, where he was chief of neurosurgery, before joining the University of Pittsburgh in 1971. Under his stewardship, the university hospital became a mecca for patients suffering from cranial nerve disorders. From 1995 to 1996, Dr. Jannetta served as the Pennsylvania secretary of health. After retiring from his university post in 2000, he joined the staff of Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. At his death, he had homes in Pittsburgh and Ligonier, Pa. Dr. Jannetta's first marriage, to Ann Bowman, ended in divorce. Besides their daughter Susan, his survivors include five other children from that marriage, Joanne Lenert, Carol Jannetta Alpers, Elizabeth Jannetta (known as Binney), Peter T. and Michael; two brothers, Anthony and Samuel; a sister, Ida Marie Higgins; his second wife, the former Diana Rose; a stepson, Robert Davant III; a stepdaughter, Hilary Rose; eight grandchildren; and two step grandchildren. Another stepdaughter, Jessica Davant, died in 2006. His many laurels include the medal of honor from the World Federation of Neurological Societies; the Olivecrona Award, presented by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden; and the Horatio Alger Award, which honors perseverance in the face of adversity or opposition.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
When the two started dating in 2013, they both had apartments in Ditmas Park, a Brooklyn neighborhood that met their bucolic requirements. But while they conducted their courtship at Mimi's Hummus on Cortelyou Road and loved the area's spacious Victorians, they found the neighborhood too un urban in one respect: the dearth of train lines. When repair work shut down the Q, it made the neighborhood feel like a small town in the middle of nowhere and not in a good way. Googling around for other options, Ms. Ellis found an old New York Times article about Kew Gardens, Queens. "This feels right for us," she told Mr. Toth. A visit confirmed as much: They loved the Tudor houses, the retail strip that felt like a quaint main street and the presence of not only several subway lines, but a Long Island Rail Road station. Even more appealing was the rental they found there: a house dating to the 1920s. A doctor's office takes up part of the first floor, but the couple have the rest of the house, which includes two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a working fireplace, a driveway, the front yard, the attic and the basement. They moved in two and a half years ago and currently pay 2,700 a month. And whereas most New York musicians struggle to find space for their instruments, Mr. Toth and Ms. Ellis are able to keep two keyboards and two pianos, one of which Ms. Ellis brought with her from Ditmas Park. She frequently hosted "piano bars" at her apartment there, and friends would come to drink wine and sing show tunes late into the night. She and Mr. Toth started dating after she invited him to one; they sang a duet of "Move On" from "Sunday in the Park With George." "Before, I had the keyboard, but there was no sense of home until I had a piano," Mr. Toth said. Ms. Ellis agreed: "It really feels like a home when you have a piano." Since they moved in, he has been so loath to leave home that he decided to stop working as a touring music director. With the encouragement of their real estate agent, he got his license and now works as an agent for Voro, in addition to composing, and he has funneled some of his commissions into producing. The first project for which he will be credited as a producer is a musical version of "Emma," written by Ms. Ellis, with book and lyrics by the playwright Meghan Brown, being workshopped in London this spring. One of the few downsides of their living situation is having to pay a gardener several hundred dollars a month to take care of the lawn and shrubberies. Also, there aren't many good public transit options between Kew Gardens and Ditmas Park, which makes it hard to get together with friends in their old neighborhood. Their regular dinners at Mimi's Hummus were another casualty of the move, but when they were married in the house in February, they were able to persuade Mimi Kitani, the restaurant's founder, to come to them. She cooked for the newlyweds and their two guests in the home's kitchen. They love the house so much, they said, that in their most recent lease, Mr. Toth negotiated an additional clause: a right of first refusal should the owners ever want to sell.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate
'OLD BOYFRIENDS' at the Metrograph (Aug. 2 8). Showing in a new 35 millimeter print, "Old Boyfriends" is a strange mix of sensibilities: It's the only theatrical feature directed by Joan Tewkesbury, the screenwriter of "Nashville," from a script by Paul Schrader ("Taxi Driver") and his brother, Leonard. It stars Talia Shire in a role utterly unlike any she had ever been associated with. Her character embarks on a possibly mad road trip odyssey around the country to confront her old boyfriends (played by Richard Jordan and John Belushi), to settle scores and to get a sense of what might have been. Tewkesbury will be present for the 7 p.m. screening on Friday. 212 660 0312, metrograph.com Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead. A REAL YOUNG GIRL: COMING OF AGE at Anthology Film Archives (Aug. 2 18). For all these portraits of adolescence, going back to the 1930s, women sat in the director's chair. The pre Code comedy "Finishing School" (on Saturday and Aug. 8) stars Frances Dee as a newcomer to a boarding school and Ginger Rogers as her troublemaking friend. The mischief continues in "The Trouble With Angels" (on Saturday, Wednesday and Aug. 9), the last theatrical feature from Ida Lupino, in which Hayley Mills and June Harding continually break the rules set by their Catholic school (headed by Rosalind Russell). Religion and coming of age are further intertwined into the Argentine director Lucrecia Martel's oblique and experimental "The Holy Girl" (on Monday and Aug. 9 and 11), in which a teenage girl mistakes being violated by a doctor as a divine signal. 212 505 5181, anthologyfilmarchives.org SEE IT BIG! 70MM at the Museum of the Moving Image (Aug. 1 Sept. 8). One of the most gratifying revival house trends in recent years kicked off by the release of "The Master" in 2012 has been the renewed interest in 70 millimeter film projection. The increased image area of the format relative to 35 millimeter yields a picture of startling richness and detail. The museum's annual fat celluloid series begins with the "unrestored" version of "2001: A Space Odyssey" (from Thursday to Sunday and on Aug. 10 and 11). Later in the summer, the theater will present all 20 reels of Kenneth Branagh's four hour "Hamlet" (on Aug. 18, 24 and 25), as well as Douglas Trumbull's "Brainstorm" (on Aug. 25 and Sept. 6), which uses the large format to contrast the sequences that unfold inside characters' minds with their everyday lives. 718 784 0077, movingimage.us	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Movies
Fifteen years ago, bemoaning the high cost of higher education, the governors of 19 Western states decided to start a nonprofit online institution to help meet their need for a trained work force. The result, Western Governors University, offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in education, business, the health professions and information technology. Everything is online except for student teaching and some nursing requirements. Most of its 25,000 students are over 25, and have previously earned some college credits. Instead of being required to spend a certain number of hours to earn a certain sequence of credits, students at Western Governors must show "competency" through assignments and proctored exams. Marie Hermetz, who paid Western Governors about 9,000 to earn her master's degree in health care management, said she heard about the program on the news and switched from one that would have cost up to 40,000. "Doing it one class at a time, I would have graduated maybe never," said Ms. Hermetz, 43, who had a bachelor's degree in math. "This way, it took just under 18 months. And whenever I ran into trouble, my professors would make arrangements, whether it was through a webinar or a phone call or an e mail, to help me."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Education
Chase F. Robinson has been named director of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian Institution's museums of Asian art in Washington. He is currently the president of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and a professor of Middle Eastern history and culture. The Smithsonian announced the appointment on Tuesday. Mr. Robinson succeeds Julian Raby, who retired in 2017. "Chase is an outstanding scholar with impeccable credentials and a notable educational leader who recognizes the importance of public institutions in advancing understanding as a widespread civic good," David Skorton, the Smithsonian secretary, said in a statement. When asked about his move from academia to the museum world, Mr. Robinson acknowledged that there may be a learning curve, but, he said, "The walls that separate colleges and universities from museums and libraries and other cultural institutions, I think they're perforating or even dissolving, particularly as new technologies emerge."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
WASHINGTON New York is my favorite American city. I used to live and work there and have been a frequent visitor since I became China's ambassador to the United States. As Covid 19 continues to sweep across the world, it is sad to see the bustling, sleepless metropolis put on hold. What we are experiencing is a challenge of such magnitude that nationality and ethnicity should be irrelevant. China was hit hard by the pandemic not long ago, so its people can empathize with Americans' suffering now. We made huge sacrifices to push back the virus; we know how tough the battle is, and will continue to be, here and across the world. We will always remember that in our most difficult days, our friends in so many places many of them Americans, many of them New Yorkers offered us a helping hand. We stand ready now to repay their kindness and help them make it through too. Let's acknowledge there has been unpleasant talk between our nations about this disease. But this is not the time for finger pointing. That is why over 100 Chinese public health experts have traveled abroad to save lives. That is why we are sending test kits, protective masks and medical equipment to overrun hospitals in the United States and many other countries. That is why we are sharing expertise and hard learned lessons with countries seeking information and answers. In his recent phone call with President Trump, President Xi Jinping of China stressed the importance of solidarity between our two countries, and promised to provide assistance to the best of our capability.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Opinion
CHICAGO It looked like a typo. For many years, until as recently as 2001, Lyric Opera of Chicago reported selling more than 100 percent of its capacity. The company was not squeezing opera buffs into the aisles of its Art Deco opera house, which sits at the base of a 45 story limestone skyscraper on the Chicago River. No, back then Lyric largely sold out to subscribers, who would donate tickets they couldn't use back to the company which could (and often would) sell them a second time. See what our critics chose as the best classical events of 2018. And listen to our favorite recordings of the year. But those days are gone. Now Lyric, like other major American opera companies, as well as symphony orchestras, theater troupes and many sports teams, is grappling with a long term decline in season subscribers. Current audiences are seen as less likely to buy large packages of tickets or commit to attending events months in advance. The decline in subscribers is upending the already fragile economics of opera, changing how companies operate and what they program. Lyric now gives a quarter fewer main stage opera performances than it did two decades ago it gave 60 last season and has started presenting a musical each spring. Its pared back opera season led the company's orchestra to briefly strike in October, when management sought (and eventually won) cuts to the number of weeks the musicians work, as well as to the number of full time members of the orchestra. One problem is that decline in subscriptions has not been offset by recent increases in single ticket sales, so attendance is down overall. Attracting individual ticket buyers also costs more than selling subscription packages. And since subscribers have been a dependable pipeline of new donors, their falloff comes at a particularly painful moment when ticket sales, even at high prices, cover a smaller and smaller fraction of the cost of putting on opera. Lyric retains one of the strongest subscriber bases in opera; it still sells twice as many tickets to subscribers as to single ticket buyers. But the number of tickets it sells to subscribers has fallen to less than half what it sold two decades ago. For the San Francisco Opera, which a few decades ago sold three quarters of its tickets to subscribers, that number is now approaching half. The change has been even more dramatic at the Metropolitan Opera, which now sells fewer than a fifth of its tickets to subscribers. Although the Met sold 78,000 tickets to newcomers last season, and sells far more single tickets than ever before, it is hard to make up for the loss of patrons who once attended many times a year. The company took in only 67 percent of potential box office revenue last season, but with discounts factored in, paid attendance averaged 75 percent. (The Met, the biggest opera company in the nation, gave 224 performances last season near four times as many as Lyric.) Next season, the company plans to add more convenient Sunday matinees and begin going dark on Mondays, once the night of choice for New York's high society subscribers. The change is also hitting symphony orchestras, many of which were founded on the subscription model. According to the League of American Orchestras, 2013 was the first year that revenue from single ticket buyers and group sales surpassed subscription income. The shift has begun to change how and what operas program. San Francisco Opera's former general director, David Gockley, once explained the impact of relying on single ticket sales in a frank program note that said "each title has to survive on its ability to attract an audience, whereas previously it could be slipped into a bigger package." And Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Met, said in an interview that since each production now has to bring in its own audience, the company seeks stronger casts for all of its operas than it sometimes had in the past. Marc A. Scorca, the president and chief executive of Opera America, a service organization, said that there have been concerns in the industry that weakening subscription sales could lead to safer programming choices. "In the old days, when things nearly sold out fully on subscription, opera number three and opera number seven could be rare works, new works," he said. "Now that more of the house is sold on a single ticket basis, one has to be thoughtful of what the titles are." At Lyric, Mr. Freud said that popular works such as "La Boheme" still do well at the box office, but that donors are increasingly interested in supporting new or rare works, such as Jimmy Lopez's "Bel Canto," which had its premiere at Lyric in 2015. "A diet of war horses is never going to work for us partly because we will dilute their box office strength if we schedule them too often, and partly because we won't be taking full advantage of contributed revenue potential," he said. The company has been working to increase revenue and cut expenses. Its spring musicals sell tens of thousands of tickets, and bring new audiences into the opera house; Lyric finds that it is able to persuade about a fifth of those newcomers to return for an opera. Lyric also owns its theater and has been working to increase income from rentals. The Pet Shop Boys have performed there, and the company recently struck a deal to make the opera house the Chicago home of the Joffrey Ballet, beginning in 2020. The company has also increased outreach to Chicago schools and communities new to opera with Lyric Unlimited, an ambitious education program. But there have been setbacks as well: After losing philanthropic support, the company discontinued its longstanding radio broadcasts of its opening nights. Mounting the new "Ring" cycle has been a major and expensive undertaking. Lyric's "Siegfried" boasted world class singers, led by the dramatic soprano Christine Goerke and the bass baritone Eric Owens. Opening night was sold out, and before the performance the crowd gathered in the lobby and snapped selfies, picked up rolls from the "Sushi at Lyric" window and sampled a Wagnerian theme cocktail called the Fafner, named after the opera's sleeping dragon. "I would say that I worry about opera in the United States," said Howard Smith, 88, who was at the performance. "We all started coming in our 30s or late 20s, and you don't see as much of that. There are so many other venues for entertainment." He took in "Siegfried" from the orchestra seat he has occupied on subscription since 1961.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Music
Anthony, left, and Joe Russo say that taken together, the Marvel films should be considered an experiment in long form narrative. After making four Marvel movies, including the record setting "Avengers: Endgame," the directors Joe and Anthony Russo couldn't be better served by the current model of the movie industry. Still, when I talked to them for my project on the future of movies, I was struck by how much they are bracing for imminent change. "Studios are in a cocoon right now, and they're going to come out as butterflies on the other side" as streaming platforms, Joe Russo told me. "And those may be as valuable or more valuable than their theatrical entities." Here are excerpts from our conversation. Some people in this industry think we're heading for a future where the only films that get theatrical distribution are huge budget films and low cost genre films. But the next movie you're making with Tom Holland, "Cherry," isn't either one of those things. It's a star driven drama without a big blockbuster budget. JOE RUSSO Look, there's no question that we are heading toward a future where event films are only going to become more event sized. You've got so many options in your home for viewing content that there has to be a need for you to leave your home, and what is going to drive you to do that? When you talk about making character movies like "Cherry," even we are finding that is becoming increasingly difficult as the months pass not as the years pass, as the months pass. It is a tough market, even for us coming off of "Endgame," to make a darker, character driven movie like "Cherry." It's not what the market was even two years ago. If studios become more narrow in the sorts of films they're distributing theatrically, doesn't that make a streaming service even more attractive, since they'll likely make movies that can fill that void? JOE RUSSO This is something my brother and I have talked about a lot. I think there's an evolution of narrative happening, and part of what is attractive about getting content in your home is that you get more of it. A season of "Killing Eve" is eight hours of narrative with characters I love to watch, and compared to a two hour movie, I'm getting real value for my money there. Also, I think this new generation craves long form storytelling because they like that emotional investment they get from spending time with these characters, which is also what the Marvel Universe is, right? It's a 10 year investment of your time that hopefully pays off. There are people who can binge watch an entire season of a TV show but have a harder time committing to a two hour film. Do you think it's because the latter doesn't scratch that itch for long form storytelling? JOE RUSSO We're speaking as guys who make two hour movies, but you have to understand those movies we made were part of a collective over the last decade that had narrative momentum and emotional commitment behind them they were not isolated movies. Marvel is part of that experiment of long form storytelling that leads to greater investment and greater payoff, and if you see videos of people reacting to "Endgame" in theaters, they're having a very emotional response to the material that you can't get from a traditional two hour film. So with this audience, when they binge watch a season of "Stranger Things," that is training them to expect a greater payoff from their commitment than they might get from something that's two hours. That's what we mean when we say that we're not sure the two hour, closed ended film is going to be the dominant narrative moving forward for this next generation. They are craving a different kind of thing. What else do you find different about younger moviegoers? JOE RUSSO They have a much more complex absorption rate, where they can handle a lot more volume. I've got four kids, and I watch the way they consume content: They can be watching a movie and holding a conversation on an app while doing their homework, and processing all of it. I think they get it much quicker at a younger age than we did when it comes to narrative sophistication. So how do you get them to show up to a theater? Obviously, everyone showed up for "Avengers: Endgame," but you guys also produced "Assassination Nation," which was aimed at a young audience that didn't come. JOE RUSSO It's tricky, in this market, to get attention for something they feel they could consume when it shows up on Apple TV in two months. There has to be a feeling that they gain through that communal theatrical experience that they cannot get at the home. That's why, when Marvel is going for a payoff of 10 years of storytelling, you want to be there in the theater to have that experience with everyone else who's clapping and cheering. I also think FOMO is a huge part of it. It's no accident that "spoiler culture" is becoming a thing. We're trying to drive the audience to the theater that opening weekend so they can have that experience before it's ruined for them. How will the international market drive the movie industry over the next decade? ANTHONY RUSSO The growth in the film industry is all going to come from the international marketplace. There's still places in Asia and the Middle East where the theatrical markets are underdeveloped and will continue to grow over the next decade. We've seen what kinds of movies are getting made and shown in theaters are being driven by what is accessible to various cultures on a large scale. In the past, those foreign markets have been dominated by big Hollywood films, and then there are local films that spoke very specifically to their own culture in a way that the Hollywood films didn't. I think what's going to become the norm in the United States is what's basically been the norm everywhere else for decades: You'll have big films that dominate internationally, and the only other films that break through will be those that speak to the local experience in a unique and powerful way. Do you think 10 years from now, the theatrical window, the length of time a movie stays in theaters, will exist in the same way? JOE RUSSO No, not at all. People are going to want the option of viewing a movie day and date in home that is, the same time it's in theaters . That's coming, and I don't think there's anything we can do to stop it. If the viewer wants to pay a higher premium to do that, then they can do that. How will the idea of a movie star change over the next decade? JOE RUSSO I think there's less room for people to be anointed stars, and the public attention span is much shorter. If you haven't done something within a three or four year window, they don't perceive you to be of the same stature as someone who's done something very recently. I don't think that was true 10 years ago, where once you were a movie star, you were a movie star. Now, I think if you're not in front of this audience in some way either visibly on social media with a high follower count, or in something that's culturally important to them then you can't qualify as a star in this environment. ANTHONY RUSSO What we saw very close up, especially over the last couple Marvel movies, is that there's a very high level of attachment with those actors who are playing those characters. There's still a very high level of passion there. But is that passion for the star, or for the character? We know the audience loves Tom Holland as Spider Man, but the current movie climate offers him fewer chances to make films like "Cherry" that would demonstrate his stardom outside a signature role.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Movies
Representatives of local businesses talk about signing up employees for Oregon's state sponsored retirement savings program, OregonSaves, at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Portland, Ore. In Oregon, You Can Now Save for Retirement. Unless You Object. The lack of retirement savings among Americans is almost universally bemoaned but nudging, prodding and lecturing have done little to build up nest eggs for old age. So some states say they are going to make it easier to save with a simple plan: an automatic payroll deduction for retirement savings. Oregon is the first state to roll out a plan that covers private sector workers who do not otherwise have access to a savings plan in their workplace. The deduction is an automatic 5 percent of gross pay, unless the worker opts out. Participants can reduce the percentage, if they choose. The state directs the money gathered under the OregonSaves plan to privately run low cost investment funds. With its heavy concentration of small businesses, Oregon calculates that it has more than one million workers whose employers do not offer a retirement savings vehicle. Many small employers say they cannot afford the expense or time to set up such plans. Luke Huffstutter, who co owns a hair salon in Portland, was among them. "I had looked into setting up an employee savings plan. We met with four different companies but the plans were either too expensive or the fees were too high," said Mr. Huffstutter, who, with his wife, Natasha, owns Annastasia Salon. When he heard about OregonSaves, the state's pass through savings plan, Mr. Huffstutter signed up right away. The program's first phase began July 1, with 11 businesses participating, including the hair salon, a liquor store, a day care center and a chocolate maker. All employers who pay unemployment insurance for their workers are required to sign up by 2020 about 60,000 workplaces and 600,000 workers. "It's genius because people are signed up and participate unless they actively decide they won't," Mr. Huffstutter said. Most of the salon's three dozen stylists and other employees enrolled. They included Maria Rose Isaac, 26, the salon manager. "I don't have a retirement plan, but it was always on my mind," said Ms. Isaac, who has worked at the salon for seven years. "This is the easiest, simplest way to have some savings." To address any wariness about state run pensions, Oregon structures its program so the state is only a conduit for funds. Savers can choose among investment options. OregonSaves offers three preserving capital, growth and savings for a target date. Participants pay 1 percent of their total assets in annual fees and can withdraw their money without penalties. Eight states have similar but not identical programs in the works, including New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont and Washington, according to AARP, which has lobbied in support of the state sponsored plans. California and Illinois are expected to start their versions in 2018. Maryland and Connecticut plan to follow soon after. Oregon was an early adopter; its legislature approved the retirement savings plan in 2015. The Obama administration tried to bolster state efforts to promote retirement savings by relaxing the strict rules and reporting requirements that employer based retirement plans and pensions must follow. Last May, Congress repealed those rules, leaving states on their own. Locast, a nonprofit streaming service for local TV, is shutting down Capital One's chief executive was fined after being called a 'repeat offender.' "The basic idea was to do this federally, but states had to step into the breach," said J. Mark Iwry, a former Treasury Department official a co author of President Barack Obama's automatic I.R.A. enrollment legislation which has never been enacted federally but which states are putting into effect. "Many states are waiting to see how Oregon does with its plan." States like California, whose planned program could cover as many as seven million people, would most likely operate with some variation of paycheck savings unless there is a real glitch in the Oregon program. "What spurred states to take action was actually federal inaction," said Sarah Mysiewicz Gill, senior legislative representative for AARP. Despite bipartisan support, there has been no concerted response on the federal level, so "states looked at this and realized they could do for retirement what they did with 529 college savings plans." Nearly half of Americans of all ages have little or no money set aside for their later years, according to several experts. Overall, the shortfall is estimated at nearly 7 trillion, the National Institute on Retirement Security found. As a result, there could be a tremendous drain on municipal coffers by older people who require more health, housing and other services. Even a modest amount of savings could make a difference, AARP has found. If lower income retirees were able to increase their retirement incomes by as little as 1,000 a year, Oregon could save 98.9 million on public assistance programs between 2018 and 2032, according to the organization's analysis. "People are 15 times more likely to save, and save more, with payroll deductions," said Tobias Read, Oregon's state treasurer and chairman of the Oregon Retirement Savings Board. The plan, Mr. Read said, was built on the ideas of Richard M. Thaler, the winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize for economics, who advocates payroll savings plans as essentially "the only way that middle class Americans reliably save for retirement. Your grandmother probably knew that the best way to save money is to put money aside before you have a chance to spend it. That approach has always worked and is a core idea embedded in these plans," Mr. Thaler wrote in a 2013 New York Times column. OregonSaves is facing its first legal challenge, however. The Erisa Industry Committee, a trade group of the country's 100 largest employers, filed a federal lawsuit in October saying that Oregon created confusing and unnecessary paperwork for companies already complying with federal pension law. That's likely not to be the only challenge. Some small business owners strongly object to being required to handle more paperwork, and the financial sector complains that government should not be involved in private savings. Oregon's plan caps the amount a worker can save at 5,500 a year, and 6,500 for those 50 and older, which means that even rigorous savers will need to set aside more than the state plan allows. "This is nothing magical," Mr. Read said. "We're trying to promote a culture of savings. But we're doing it deliberately and cautiously." Since July, about 75 percent of workers automatically enrolled in OregonSaves have stayed in the program, according to the Oregon State Treasurer's Office. To date, upward of 2,400 employees working for more than 50 employers have saved just under 200,000. Participants can automatically increase their savings by 1 percent annually, to a maximum of 10 percent. In Portland, Mr. Huffstutter said the payroll deduction plan took the salon minimal time to set up and maintain, and fills a gap in the beauty industry, where salons like his are often too small to offer retirement plans. "The stylists here have an average age of 28, and make about 48,000 annually, but retirement savings are not at all routine," he said. "The plan helps close the loop and gives them an automatic option to be able to save starting at an early age."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Your Money
This trapezoid shape made by the six performers' two parallel lines creates the framework to which the dancers often return. Geometry becomes one of the ballet's central themes (Sophie Fedorovich's meadow green backdrop has curving black lines). As the music starts, Ashton's women move to the piano, leaving the orchestral lines unanswered. (When the men do start to move, they do so to later orchestra phrases. But Ashton makes you wait.) At once, the three women create parallel physical geometries in unison, stretching arms diagonally across the body's centerline, tilting their torsos, rearranging the lines of their legs that catch the music's dissonances. The mood is chaste, formal, devout. At this stage, these women might be nuns. But "Symphonics" takes its dancers from winter, through spring, to summer. (The final tableau suggests a quick return to winter.) Spring's first sign is when the central man turns to address the front. The quartet that follows feels like one of religious consecration, but the energy level has lifted; and, as each woman's role becomes individualized, the ballet's overall symmetry starts to alter. In one gorgeous grouping, top, the man (its central column) holds one woman upside down in a descending diagonal, like a gushing stream; the lead woman kneels and opens her arms as if in welcome, while the third woman stands by like a guardian priestess, one arm raised vertically. It lasts a moment: watch the video at top (2:23 to 2:29) and you see it materialize and dissolve. The ballet develops a quality of Janus: the Roman god of transition, time and doorways, with two heads facing opposite directions. The dancers often turn their heads in alternation forward, then back. This is at its most poetic in the pas de deux, shown in a Royal Ballet rehearsal here:	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Dance
Sies Marjan arrived on the New York fashion scene in 2016 with a blast of color, industry fanfare and an exclusive two year retail deal with Barneys New York. The creative director was the Dutch designer Sander Lak, a charming onetime member of Dries Van Noten's design team who named the label after his parents. Joey Laurenti, an Opening Ceremony alumnus, was the chief executive. And bankrolling the endeavor were the billionaires Nancy and Howard Marks, who used the New York showroom and atelier of a previous fashion acquisition, Ralph Rucci, as the headquarters for the new label. The first show was in the penthouse, still under construction, atop a luxury condominium building in Lower Manhattan. Anna Wintour took pride of place in the front row. How times have changed. On June 16, Sies Marjan announced that it would close its doors at the end of the working day.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
LOS ANGELES Amy Pascal, an old style studio chief who was undercut by new Hollywood economics and bruised by the airing of private emails in a devastating cyberattack, said on Thursday that she would resign her post as the top film executive at Sony Pictures Entertainment. Ms. Pascal had been in contract renewal talks for months, well before hackers in December made available private correspondence in which she made denigrating remarks about President Obama's presumed preference for black themed movies. She profusely apologized, and top studio executives stood behind her in the aftermath. But the pressures of the hacking crisis, coupled with structural changes at the studio, made alternatives to renewing her contract more attractive. She will leave her positions as co chairwoman of Sony Pictures Entertainment and chairwoman of Sony's motion picture group in May, the studio said, and accept a four year production deal that will involve her making some of Sony's biggest planned films. For the moment, her resignation consolidates power over Sony's film operation under Michael Lynton, chief executive of Sony Entertainment. He is expected to decide in the next few months whether any successor will precisely match Ms. Pascal's role, or will function differently at a studio that has been cutting costs and shifting focus toward both television and global crowd pleasers driven by special effects. She was neither pushed to leave nor begged to stay, and Ms. Pascal's decision to move on crystallized over the last two weeks, said people briefed on the matter, as Sony offered the producing deal as an option. She also came to a realization, perhaps long overdue, that her romantic notion of the movie industry built around stars and stories no longer fit with new realities. Ms. Pascal also went through a draining month of turmoil within Sony as studio leaders struggled to cope with a hacking that crippled the company's computers and exposed personal data about its employees. Known to be a fiery counterpart to the more reserved Mr. Lynton, Ms. Pascal was particularly distressed by the assault, exhibiting both anger and tearful regret before Sony employees. Often identified as the film industry's top female executive, Ms. Pascal is the only senior Sony manager to leave her position since the hacking attack. Though she received a lucrative and prestigious next job, her departure may invite further scrutiny of an industry often criticized for a dearth of women in leading positions. Ms. Pascal, 56, has been with Sony continuously since 1996, when she became president of its Columbia Pictures unit after serving as production president of Turner Pictures. Before joining Turner, she had worked at Sony since 1988. "I have spent almost my entire professional life at Sony Pictures, and I am energized to be starting this new chapter based at the company I call home," she said in a statement. Mr. Lynton and Ms. Pascal declined to elaborate on the announcement. Stephen G. Ujlaki, dean of the film school at Loyola Marymount University, noted that Ms. Pascal had proved herself a nimble survivor over the years. "She did a great pivot early on," he said, adding that Ms. Pascal had once focused on women's films but turned sharply toward popular hits like the "Spider Man" series as she chased bigger audiences. While some details are unclear, the broad terms of her new deal are breathtaking. Several people briefed on Ms. Pascal's exit said it involved a four year guarantee of 30 million to 40 million. Her package additionally includes a percentage of profits on movies she produces and millions of dollars for annual office costs and discretionary acquisition of scripts. In a drive to enhance profitability, Mr. Lynton has been cutting staff and shuffling executives, squeezing Ms. Pascal, who for years had governed Sony's film unit without serious challenge. He recently promoted Doug Belgrad to the presidency of Sony's film operation in effect giving Mr. Lynton a lieutenant with film expertise, should he choose to supervise filmmaking without Ms. Pascal. Elizabeth Holmes Hones Her Defense in Day 2 of Testimony Kevin Spacey was ordered to pay 31 million to the 'House of Cards' studio after sexual harassment allegations. Ms. Pascal joined Mr. Lynton in mentoring executives who may now stand in line for her duties, including the former DreamWorks executive Michael De Luca; Thomas E. Rothman, the former chief executive of Fox Filmed Entertainment who is now in charge of Sony's TriStar division; and the former Warner studio chief Jeff Robinov, who came to Sony as a producer with substantial outside funding. At the same time, she was pressed by strategic changes that came with the retirement of a strong supporter, Howard Stringer, as the chief executive of Sony Corporation. With Mr. Stringer's exit, the studio tightened costs and looked to focus even more heavily on the franchise and fantasy films that have sustained competitors like Warner and Disney. Then in November came the devastating hacking attack that over the course of several weeks made public huge amounts of data and information about Sony and its employees, including personal emails. Of those, Ms. Pascal's were the most embarrassing, including a disparaging back and forth with the producer Scott Rudin about Angelina Jolie and a Steve Jobs biopic, and another exchange with Mr. Rudin about Mr. Obama's supposed movie preferences. Both exchanges became fodder for gossip sites, trade publications and mainstream news organizations, and for a time made Ms. Pascal the public face of a company dealing with a humiliating crisis. Eventually, North Korea was identified by the United States government as having precipitated the attack, in an attempt to stop the release of Sony's provocative comedy "The Interview," which lampooned the North's leader, Kim Jong un. Through it all, Ms. Pascal pushed for the movie to be released. In fact, "The Interview," which featured one of her favorite stars, Seth Rogen, was of a piece with her penchant for ambitious and inventive movies that traded on relationships with stars and filmmakers like Will Smith, Adam McKay and Adam Sandler. When those stars and moviemakers were hot, so was Ms. Pascal. In 2006, Sony topped the domestic box office, with hits like Mr. Sandler's "Click." In 2012, Sony was on top again, with matching blockbusters from its two principal film franchises: "The Amazing Spider Man," and "Skyfall," from a James Bond series that it shared with Metro Goldwyn Mayer. But Sony faltered when Ms. Pascal's favorites slipped. In 2013, the studio ranked fourth at the domestic box office, and suffered a particular embarrassment as Mr. Smith, the most reliable star in its stable, took in just 60.5 million in domestic ticket sales with "After Earth," an expensive science fiction thriller. Last year was again wobbly, thanks to the relatively soft performance of "The Amazing Spider Man 2," which underperformed its predecessors.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
SAN FRANCISCO A match between an Israeli college debate champion and a loquacious IBM computer program demonstrated on Monday new gains in the quest for computers that can hold conversations with humans. It also led to an unlikely question for the tech industry's deep thinkers: Can a machine talk too much? At an IBM office in downtown San Francisco, Noa Ovadia, a college senior who won an Israeli championship in 2016, squared off with IBM's program, called the IBM Debater. She argued against government subsidies for space exploration. The machine argued in favor, delivering three brief speeches in a digitally created monotone and at least in small ways responding to Ms. Ovadia's human opinions. "Another point that I believe my opponent made is that there are more important things than space exploration to spend money on," the machine said during its lengthy rebuttal. "It is very easy to say there are more important things to spend money on, and I do not dispute this. No one is claiming that this is the only item on our expense list." Under development for six years, this artificial intelligence system is part of a broader effort to build technology that can interact with people the way we interact with one another. Last month, Google demonstrated a system, called Google Duplex, that can phone a restaurant and make dinner reservations. In China, you can phone Xiaoice, a "chatbot" built by Microsoft, and spend a few minutes shooting the breeze. Companies like Google, Amazon and Apple have for several years offered coffee table gadgets and smartphone apps that answer simple questions or perform simple tasks. ("Hey, Siri. Set my alarm for 7 a.m. tomorrow.") Projects like IBM Debater and Google Duplex show that this kind of system is starting to stretch beyond simple commands. But they also demonstrate the limitations of current technology. IBM's system was designed to debate about 100 topics, but these interactions are tightly constrained: a four minute opening statement followed by a rebuttal to its opponent's argument and then a statement summing up its own viewpoint. It was not exactly Lincoln v. Douglas. "It is more important than good roads or improved schools or better health care," it added. Noam Slonim, an IBM researcher who helped oversee the project, estimated that the technology could have a "meaningful" debate on those 100 topics 40 percent of the time. IBM chose the topic for the live debate before it began. In some cases, the machine's lengthy speeches hinted at how it was stitching together its arguments identifying relevant sentences and clauses and then combining them into a reasonably coherent, computerized thought. Google Duplex is also limited to narrow tasks. (It can "schedule hair salon appointments" or "get holiday hours" as well as book restaurant reservations.) And because Google has revealed the system only in brief demonstrations, it is unclear how well it really performs. Certainly, systems like Xiaoice are a long way from passing the Turing Test, the challenge laid down by the British computing pioneer Alan Turing in the 1950s that asks whether a machine can play "the imitation game" to mimic humans. No one would mistake these systems for a human at least not after a lengthy conversation. In 2011, IBM demonstrated a system that could beat the leading players at the trivia game show "Jeopardy!" The company used this system, called Watson, as a way of promoting a wide range of products and consulting services for hospitals and other businesses. After Watson won, Mr. Slonim, a researcher at an IBM lab in Haifa, Israel, pitched the Debater project as IBM's next "grand challenge." The long running project is in some ways an unorthodox addition to the rapidly accelerating field of artificial intelligence research. Among big tech companies and major A.I. labs, no one else is exploring technology that can carry on a debate, as two humans would, say, discuss politics. And Mr. Slonim acknowledged that IBM Debater was not a direct path to a new product or service. "Debating is not a business," he said. But the project reflects the recent acceleration of research related to "natural language understanding," the effort to build machines that can understand the natural way we humans talk and respond in kind. As this research progresses, it can provide new ways for computers to digest and process information or even lead to machines that can hold a completely convincing conversation. This sort of technology would have a wide range of uses. It could help businesses filter hot button issues on social media. Or it could provide governments with a more effective way of censoring information. Understanding natural language is such a complex and difficult task, systems like IBM Debater lean on a wide range of systems, each handling a different part of the problem. One system will identify information that helps fuel an argument on one side of the debate. Another will generate the text of the argument. And so on. Typically, each system is designed and built independently, before researchers meld them together. But recent research from the likes of OpenAI, an independent artificial intelligence lab in San Francisco, and Salesforce, the San Francisco tech giant, point toward the development of systems that can tackle language problems in a broader way: Teach a system to do one task, and it can help with other tasks, too. In recent years, researchers have significantly improved systems that recognize people and objects, identify spoken words and translate between languages. But understanding language is far more complex. That means systems that perform fairly simple language tasks like writing a Wikipedia article, let alone engaging in a serious debate on a random topic may still be years away. "It is now very obvious this change is happening," said Jeremy Howard, an independent researcher working in this area. "But these things take time."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
During major inflection points in Donald J. Trump's campaign, the advisers, family members and friends who make up his kitchen cabinet burn up their email accounts and phone lines gaming out how to get his candidacy on track (and what counsel he might go along with). But one person in the mix brings more than just his political advice. He also happens to control an hour of prime time on the Fox News Channel. Mr. Hannity uses his show on the nation's most watched cable news network to blare Mr. Trump's message relentlessly giving Mr. Trump the kind of promotional television exposure even a billionaire can't afford for long. But Mr. Hannity is not only Mr. Trump's biggest media booster; he also veers into the role of adviser. Several people I've spoken with over the last couple of weeks said Mr. Hannity had for months peppered Mr. Trump, his family members and advisers with suggestions on strategy and messaging. So involved is Mr. Hannity that three separate denizens of the hall of mirrors that is Trump World told me they believed Mr. Hannity was behaving as if he wanted a role in a possible Trump administration something he denied to me as laughable and contractually prohibitive in an interview on Friday. But he did not dispute that he lends his thoughts to Mr. Trump and others in his close orbit whom Mr. Hannity has known for years. "Do I talk to my friend who I've known for years and speak my mind? I can't not speak my mind,'' he said. But, Mr. Hannity said, "I don't say anything privately that I don't say publicly.'' And, he acknowledged, it's unclear how far his advice goes with Mr. Trump, given that "nobody controls him." Mr. Hannity is unapologetic about his aim. "I'm not hiding the fact that I want Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States." After all, he says, "I never claimed to be a journalist." That makes Mr. Hannity the ultimate product of the Fox News Channel that Roger Ailes envisioned when he founded it with Rupert Murdoch 20 years ago, as a defiant answer to what they described as an overwhelmingly liberal mainstream news media that was biased against Republicans. Mr. Hannity was there from the beginning with Mr. Ailes, who was forced out over sexual harassment allegations last month. Mr. Hannity's show has all the trappings of traditional television news the anchor desk, the graphics and the patina of authority that comes with being part of a news organization that also employs serious minded journalists like Chris Wallace, Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly. But because Mr. Hannity is "not a journalist," he apparently feels free to work in the full service of his candidate without having to abide by journalism's general requirements for substantiation and prohibitions against, say, regularly sharing advice with political campaigns. So there was Mr. Hannity last week, devoting one of his shows to a town hall style meeting with Mr. Trump at which his (leading) questions often contained extensive Trumpian talking points including the debunked claim that Mr. Trump opposed the Iraq invasion. (As BuzzFeed News first reported, Mr. Trump voiced support for the campaign in a 2002 discussion with the radio host Howard Stern.) 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. On other days, he has lent his prime time platform to wild, unsubstantiated accusations that Hillary Clinton is hiding severe health problems. He showed a video of a supposed possible seizure that was in fact a comical gesture Mrs. Clinton was making to reporters, as one of them, The Associated Press's Lisa Lerer, reported. He also shared a report from the conservative site The Gateway Pundit that a member of Mrs. Clinton's security detail appeared to be carrying a diazepam syringe, "for patients who experience recurrent seizures." A simple call to the Secret Service spokeswoman Nicole Mainor, as I made on Friday, would have resulted in the answer that the "syringe" was actually a small flashlight. People in Mr. Hannity's audience of 2.5 million who are inclined to believe the health allegations, and who believe the mainstream media are covering for Mrs. Clinton, are unlikely to be impressed by the Secret Service's explanation. That's the ultimate result of the hyperpoliticized approach Mr. Hannity and so many others use in today's more stridently ideological media: A fact is dismissed as false when it doesn't fit the preferred political narrative. But while this informational nihilism appears to have hit a new high, the last two weeks have signaled the start of a possible reckoning within the conservative media. First there was The Wall Street Journal's deputy editorial page editor Bret Stephens, who, after trading insults with Mr. Hannity over Mr. Trump, said on the MSNBC show "Morning Joe" that "too much of the Republican Party became an echo chamber of itself." Those who spend an inordinate amount of time "listening to certain cable shows" and inhaling the conspiracy theories promoted on "certain fringes of the internet,'' he said, wind up in a debate that's "divorced from reality." Then there was the conservative radio host Charlie Sykes, who lamented in an interview with the Business Insider politics editor Oliver Darcy, "We have spent 20 years demonizing the liberal mainstream media." That criticism was often warranted, Mr. Sykes said. (Just take a look at the decision by the former Clinton White House aide and current ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos to give some 75,000 to the Clinton Foundation, for which he apologized last year.) But, as Mr. Sykes said, "At a certain point, you wake up and you realize you have destroyed the credibility of any credible outlet out there." Therefore any attempt to debunk a falsehood by Mr. Trump, he said, becomes hopeless. What really caught my eye, though, was the moment on Fox News on Wednesday when Dana Perino, a host of "The Five," refused to go along with a colleague's attempt to dispute the many polls showing Mrs. Clinton leading Mr. Trump. "That's a real disservice to his supporters, to lie to them that those polls don't matter," said Ms. Perino, a White House press secretary for George W. Bush. She went on to express regret for joining with other Fox News hosts who doubted the polls showing President Obama leading Mitt Romney in 2012. You can't help but see it as a sure sign that Mr. Ailes, who presided over all of that polling doubt four years ago, had left the building. Still, even Mr. Ailes occasionally reined in his more opinionated hosts when he worried they would tarnish the credibility of his news reporters. It's why, for instance, he abruptly canceled Mr. Hannity's plans to attend a major Tea Party rally in Ohio in 2010 after it came to light that the organizers were using his appearance to raise money. Mr. Ailes faced another Hannity related issue shortly before his ouster, when CNN reported that the host had provided Newt Gingrich with private jet travel to Indiana, for a possible vice presidential interview with Mr. Trump. (Mr. Hannity had been lobbying Mr. Trump to choose Mr. Gingrich.) Mr. Ailes opted against forcing Mr. Hannity to collect the fare from Mr. Gingrich. He had a possible reason: Mr. Hannity was among those supporting Mr. Ailes amid the sexual harassment scandal, eventually even discussing a walkout in the event of Mr. Ailes's ouster, as Breitbart reported a few days later. (After Fox News executives shared with Mr. Hannity and others the full details of the allegations, which Mr. Ailes denies, the talk of a walkout ended.) Mr. Hannity says Mr. Gingrich is a very close friend and it's his business what favors he does for him, though he left open the possibility that Mr. Gingrich might cut a check for the plane trip just the same. Since Mr. Ailes's departure, Fox executives have not pushed the issue. Nor, apparently, have they warned Mr. Hannity away from giving advice to Mr. Trump and his campaign at least not so far during a turbulent time at the network. Then again, at this point there are questions about how much advice Mr. Ailes himself was lending to Mr. Trump when he was running the place, given that, as The Times reported on Saturday, he has already emerged as an influential Trump adviser. Mr. Hannity told me his support for Mr. Trump makes him "more honest" than mainstream reporters who hide their biases. It turns out even "honesty" is a relative concept these days. For some people more than others.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
ANDY IRONS: KISSED BY GODS (2018) Stream on Amazon or Hulu. Among his friends, family and fellow surfers, the three time world champion Andy Irons, who died at 32 in 2010, was known for his wild nature and competitive streak. The athlete shot to all star fame at a young age and his fans in Hawaii, his home state, eventually called him the "people's champ." But behind that success, Irons had bipolar disorder and grappled with opioid addiction. This touching documentary pays tribute to the surfer's talent on the waves and delicately explores his internal struggles through in depth interviews with his former rivals, most notably Kelly Slater, and those closest to him. KNIGHTFALL Stream on Netflix. When the History channel debuted this historical drama series in 2017, some critics saw it as the network's weak attempt to recreate the success of its mini series "Vikings." Set in the aftermath of the Crusades, the first season followed the fictional Templar leader Landry (Tom Cullen) and his search for the Holy Grail. Season 2, now on Netflix, opens with Landry returning to the Templar Order as an initiate and pleading for a chance at redemption. If you enjoy watching soapy dramas mixed with endless bloodshed, this might be a good fit.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Television
Meleko Mokgosi steeps his work in history and theory. His series "Pan African Pulp" reinterprets the imagery of popular African graphic novels to highlight the violence of colonialism and the dream of Pan Africanism. If you've ever felt you lack the education to understand art representing histories, people and symbols from a culture outside your own, the artist Meleko Mokgosi isn't going to let you off easy. With six solo shows in four states this season, the Botswana born, Brooklyn based Mr. Mokgosi believes that it is incumbent on "first world" viewers to understand that "the world doesn't revolve around them. There are other histories." This season, Mr. Mokgosi, 37, is staking a lot on that first world (and likely American) viewer. By Nov. 1, when his show at Stevenson Gallery in Johannesburg closes, the artist will have taken over both of the Jack Shainman Gallery's exhibition spaces in Manhattan, as well as its colossal building in Kinderhook, N.Y. He will also have three solo museum shows: this fall at the University of Michigan's Museum of Art in Ann Arbor and the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, and later this winter at the Perez Art Museum in Miami. Mr. Mokgosi, whose paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures are as rooted in his native culture as in his readings in post colonial studies, cinema, psychoanalysis and critical theory, said he wants viewers to "figure out how to empathize and look at something from a position that is not theirs." "Democratic Intuition" examines democracy in relation to the daily lives of southern Africans, most often with political imagery like campaign posters as a subtle presence. The show derives its title from the critical theorist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. "Basically, her conceptualization is that democracy depends on our understanding of the state apparatus," Mr. Mokgosi explained. "It's kind of a counterintuitive intuition." To understand democracy, you need comfortable access to its various forms and institutions. Then, "depending on how you're educated, the kind of abstract thinking you have available to you, the kind of resources you have, it will affect how you conceptualize democracy," he said, adding that the risk is being "miseducated" and "misinformed." Though his paintings and sculptures depict African life and he still refers to Botswana as "back home," he is quick to draw parallels to the electorate in the United States, where he has lived since 2003. "If you look at America and the people who voted for the current sitter in the White House," he said, "what mental processes happened so that these people are convinced to vote against their own self interests? Whether it's class, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, tax breaks or you name it." Before bringing his ideas to life with paint, Mr. Mokgosi approached "Democratic Intuition" as he does most of his work, first as a research project steeped in theory and history. His one room studio in Brooklyn's Industry City has more books than canvases, and he quotes freely from the likes of Spivak, Karl Marx and Paul de Man. He's bringing that fierce intellectualism for the first time this fall to t he Yale School of Art, where he just joined the faculty. He also brings it to the tuition free Interdisciplinary Art and Theory Program he co founded in New York. Teaching is his way "to engage with social justice," he explained, since "I'm not an activist. I don't go out and protest. I don't really like protests." The one chapter of "Democratic Intuition" missing from Kinderhook, "Bread, Butter, and Power," is on display at the Smart Museum in Chicago through Dec. 15 as a single room installation of more than 20 paintings exploring "women's work" versus "men's work" and the consequent asymmetries of power. Artwork from a newer series Mr. Mokgosi has termed "Pan African Pulp" looks at power in a different way and populates the shows at both Mr. Shainman's West 24th Street gallery (Nov. 1 through Dec. 21) and at the University of Michigan Museum of Art ( through fall 2021). "Pan African Pulp" extrapolates and reinterprets through a political lens an early type of graphic novel widely circulated in Africa starting in the 1950s. Popularly called "look books," Mr. Mokgosi explained, "they weren't allowed to be political because it was during the apartheid regime." A popular hero was Lance Spearman, nicknamed the Spear. "It was this kind of adventurous black James Bond figure who's fighting crime, but the dialogue was tame." With access to a trove from the Comic Art Collection at Michigan State University, Mr. Mokgosi revisits the images in new, more overtly political ways through painting and screen prints. He also, as he put it, has "rewritten the script," bringing to the surface in speech bubbles, captions or annotations in his own hand the violence of colonial and post colonial Africa and the dream of Pan Africanism. Such annotated texts are also part of Mr. Mokgosi's all new body of paintings on view at Mr. Shainman's West 20th Street gallery (Nov. 1 though Dec. 21). In these large scale canvases, Mr. Mokgosi has painstakingly painted poems and prose by women from Africa and the African diaspora (including from Toni Morrison's novel "Beloved") whose subjects range from love to liberation. He has then added his own hand painted analyses as marginalia. The show is titled "The social revolution of our time cannot take its poetry from the past but only from the poetry of the future," after a line from Marx . Mr. Mokgosi examines a different cultural product in his final show of the season for The Perez Art Museum Miami (Feb. 27 though May 30, 2021), and it's an unsettling one. "Meleko Mokgosi: Your Trip to Africa" will be a new site specific commission of eight paintings created in response to the Austrian structuralist filmmaker Peter Kubelka's gruesome 1966 film "Unsere Afrikareise (Our Trip to Africa)," which exposes the violence of European hunters on safari and is a harsh critique of European colonialism and tourism in Africa. "That work, like a lot of my work, is never going to be easy to exhibit, sell, or, for some, maybe even to understand," Mr. Mokgosi conceded. "That's why I feel grateful for the support of the people in these galleries and institutions that care about and are invested in my ideas and commitment to considering other histories."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
Sherman the donkey was covered in parasites, with overgrown hooves and rotten teeth on the day he met his new owner. It was nearly dark when our neighbor pulled into our driveway with a brace yourself look in his eye. "He's in rough shape," he warned, as he got out of his pickup and walked back to open the trailer. "Rougher than I thought." I took a look at the donkey huddled inside, then grabbed my phone to call for backup. "Scott, you've got to get over here. This is really bad." My neighbor tried to lead the donkey out of the trailer but it could barely walk. Its fur was crusted with dung, turning its white belly black. In places the fur had torn away, revealing raw skin almost certainly infested with parasites. He was barrel shaped and bloated from poor feed and his mouth was a mess, with one tooth so rotten it fell right out when touched. Worst of all were his hooves, so monstrously overgrown they looked like swim fins. The donkey managed the few shuffling steps to the bottom of the ramp and then stopped, head hanging. When Scott arrived the next day, I was reassured by his confident grin until it faded. "I've seen it all," Scott repeated. "But not this." By day, Scott is a sales rep for a rural Pennsylvania company that makes those clogs that chefs and dancers love. In the evenings, he shifts his focus from feet to hooves, his real passion. Scott grew up in upstate New York and paid his way through college by learning to fit horses for shoes. After he moved to our neighborhood in Lancaster County, Pa. home of one of America's largest Amish communities he became the go to guy whenever local farmers needed help with their big work mules and buggy horses. Some weekends, Scott and his wife, Tanya, would wander around horse auctions as unofficial animal advocates, speaking up when they spotted a horse that needed care. Once, Tanya jumped in front of an auction trailer headed to the slaughterhouse, pulled out her wallet, and offered the driver any price for a mini donkey she'd spotted in the back. The little donkey was so far gone that the driver gave it to her free. Tanya thought she could heal it, and she was right. Today, tiny Matilda trots along when she and Scott take their carriage horses out for a drive. But this gray donkey that turned up in my driveway was even worse off than Matilda. "How did this happen?" Scott asked. "Hoarder," I explained. My Mennonite neighbor had stepped in after discovering a church member was keeping a donkey and goats penned in squalor in a cramped shed. The goats were easy to place someone in Lancaster can always use a free lawn mower but donkeys are tough. They're famously ornery, known for biting and kicking, and serve no purpose on a working farm. They can't be milked or butchered or, in many cases, even ridden. Keeping them in hay and feed can be expensive, and that's before you're shelling out for dental care and deworming and vaccinations. I didn't. Not at that moment, that's for sure. We'd agreed to take him in only because we figured he'd be fun and trouble free. We had moved from Philadelphia to a small farm in southern Lancaster County a few years ago, and as transplanted city folk who knew nothing about animals, we'd gotten a kick out of raising a few sheep and chickens. We'd wanted to help a creature in need, but this kind of creature and this kind of need was way beyond anything I'd imagined. "The most humane thing might be to put him down now," Scott said. The hooves, he explained, were a death sentence. Donkeys usually keep their hooves naturally pumiced by foraging for long miles over rocky ground. But if you pen them up on soggy straw, or even leave them standing around all the time in a grassy meadow, their hooves will eventually curl and become deformed. The damage can be irreversible and worse, a hobbled equine can't digest its food, leading to an excruciating death. Scott paused to think for a moment. "Do you have a hacksaw?" I fetched one from the shed, then held the donkey's legs as Scott sawed the hooves until they were short enough to be clipped and rasped down with a file. "I don't know if this will work," Scott said. "If he's not walking by tomorrow, all we can do is make him comfortable before he goes." Comfort was his wife's department, and it wasn't long before Tanya was roaring up the driveway in her pickup truck. Tanya is a licensed veterinary technician with more than 30 years of experience as a horse trainer. She charged into action with her medical kitand shears, swiveling her head back and forth as she alternately crooned to the donkey and barked commands back at me. "Good donkey!" she purred. "Good " She paused. "What's his name?" "Um... Sherman?" We'd just seen "Saving Mr. Banks" and my kids had gotten a kick out of the songwriting Sherman brothers. "Now, look," Tanya said. "If he makes it, you can't just stick a ribbon on his tail and leave him standing in a field like Eeyore. He's been abused and abandoned, and that can make an animal crazy with despair. You need to give this animal a purpose. You need to find him a job." Secretly, I already had something in mind. It was too ridiculous to say out loud, not unless I wanted to reveal I knew nothing about donkeys and probably shouldn't have one. It popped into my head as soon as Tanya began assessing the grim wreckage of Sherman's body, and maybe that's why I kept circling back to it: Focusing on a glorious long shot was a lot more pleasant than the ugly reality that was kicking us in the face. So while Sherman was struggling to walk, I was imagining that he could run. After all, it had worked for me. A few years earlier, I'd been a broken down ex athlete battling constant injuries and 50 excess pounds. I hated the monotony of the gym, and the endless yawning miles of cycling. I kind of liked running, but every time I got some momentum, I got hurt. "No surprise," doctors kept telling me. "Running is terrible for the body, especially big ones like yours." For years I believed them until, in 2006, I found myself in a bizarre adventure at the bottom of a Mexican canyon, where I learned the lost secrets of the world's greatest ultrarunners: the Tarahumara Indians. I shared those discoveries in my book, "Born to Run," which became a sensation because so many other people were struggling with the same challenges. Since then, I've run thousands of miles in bare feet or the thinnest of sandals, and become convinced that we evolved to fly across the landscape on our own two springy, remarkably durable legs. Movement is our best medicine so wouldn't that also be true for Sherman, with the blood of wild African asses in his veins? I knew just the thing maybe. While researching "Born to Run," I'd stumbled across a ragtag crew in the Rocky Mountains who kept alive an old miners' tradition of running alongside donkeys in races as long as 30 miles. Was it possible? Could I bring Sherman back from this calamity so that he and I, side by side, could run an ultramarathon? Secretly, I loved the idea of exploring another lost skill the way I had with barefoot running. Animal alliances were once our great art; for most of human existence we relied on other creatures. We could persuade horses and elephants to carry us into battle, and hawks to kill rabbits and drop them at our feet. We could saddle reindeer and herd geese and yoke yaks. Dogs would leap to us at a whistle and throw their bodies in front of anyone who meant us harm. Animals were our companions and transportation, our security systems and wilderness guides. It was a skill all of us shared because animals were all around us. Only recently have we severed that connection and now, with the surge in interest in therapy dogs, celebrity pet trainers, and equine treatment for everything from Parkinson's disease to sex addiction to post traumatic stress disorder, we're trying to recover what we've lost. Running with Sherman would take that challenge to the next level. It would mean forging a bond with a member of one of the most notoriously stubborn species on earth and training for big miles in nasty weather. But first, we had to keep him alive.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Well
Throughout Europe's debt crisis, Italy has largely managed to steer clear of the troubles that have engulfed its profligate Mediterranean neighbors. But the contagion that started in the euro zone's smaller countries is suddenly moving to some of its largest. As Greece teeters on the brink of a default, the game has changed: Investors are taking aim at any country suffering from a combination of high debt, slow growth and political dysfunction and Italy has it all, in spades. In recent days, Italy has become Europe's next weak link after Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, harmed in particular by a power struggle between Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his finance minister, Giulio Tremonti. The dispute threatens to turn the euro zone's third largest economy, after Germany and France, into one of its biggest liabilities. On Monday, the Italian government struggled to rein in the tensions, as fears rose that political paralysis could make it harder for Italy to embrace the austerity demanded by outsiders to reduce one of the highest debt levels in the world. European policy makers also sought to figure out how they would put out a bigger fire if Italy were to succumb. Those jitters hit stock markets on Monday not just in Italy, where the major index fell nearly 4 percent, but across much of Europe as well, with the markets in France and Germany off more than 2 percent each. The United States was affected, too, with the Standard Poor's 500 stock index down about 1.8 percent on European debt fears and worries about the showdown in Washington over raising the United States debt limit. "Italy is too big to fail," said Moises Naim, a senior associate in the international economics program at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington. "If Italy really gets hit by contagion because of political mismanagement, it would be a threat not only to the euro zone, but to the global economy." Political soap operas in Italy especially those featuring Mr. Berlusconi are nothing new. Nor do they usually matter much to financial markets, even after the debt crisis hit Europe. The widespread problems in Italy's economy, which has been sluggish for the better part of a decade, also rang few alarm bells. What's more, Italy's banks are sound; they never speculated in a housing bubble. The current annual budget deficit is low, at about 4.6 percent of gross domestic product. And while Italy issues the largest amount of bonds of any euro zone country, Italians own about half the debt, making it less vulnerable to the follies of financial markets. In a sign of how quickly things have turned against the country, the stock market regulator imposed emergency rules on Monday against speculation after shares in Italian banks slumped for a fifth consecutive session. The cost of insuring Italy's sovereign debt against default surged to a record high, and the interest on its 10 year bond leaped to a record 5.67 percent. While that is still well below what Greece pays, analysts say Italy will have serious problems if its borrowing costs exceed 6 percent. "Italy is a banana republic that didn't depend so much on foreign capital in the past, but now it does, and markets are less forgiving," said Daniel Gros, the director of the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels. "Italy is in the danger zone; that is quite clear now." Today in On Tech: Imagine not living in Big Tech's world. Dollar Tree will raise prices to 1.25 by the end of April. Italy tends to function best in crisis management mode, analysts say, and Mr. Berlusconi has begun to acknowledge the seriousness of the dangers facing the country after a phone conversation with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Sunday. Today, Mr. Berlusconi "understands the risks objectively because the situation is dramatic," said Stefano Folli, the chief political columnist for the financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore. Mr. Folli and other analysts predicted that the Italian Parliament would rally and pass a 40 billion euro ( 56 billion) austerity package that Mr. Tremonti had championed even if it turns out to be one of the last significant acts of a government running out of political capital. Last week, Mr. Berlusconi prompted a sell off in Italian bonds by suggesting that Mr. Tremonti, a longtime political rival and the sole guardian of fiscal prudence in Italy, could be elbowed out of government, imperiling the austerity package, the details of which still remain shrouded in confusion. "He thinks he's a genius and everyone else is stupid," Mr. Berlusconi said of Mr. Tremonti in an interview published on Friday in La Repubblica, the center left daily. "He is the only minister who is not a team player," he added. At the same time, Mr. Tremonti has other problems. Naples prosecutors are seeking the arrest of one of his close advisers, Marco Milanese, a member of Parliament who has been accused of accepting jewelry, cars and other luxury items from an Italian businessman. Until the accusations were made public, Mr. Tremonti had been staying in an apartment owned by Mr. Milanese. He moved out soon after they surfaced. In Brussels on Monday, Mrs. Merkel said: "I have firm confidence in the Italian government to approve exactly such a budget I spoke on the telephone with the Italian prime minister yesterday on precisely this issue and to signal that Italy feels a duty to consolidation and fighting debt." "The euro itself is stable," she added, "but we have a problem in some countries." For Italy, the biggest worry right now is that its fate may rest as much in Athens, Brussels and Berlin as it does in Rome. Only a week ago, it looked as if Greece might be turning a corner on its problems, after the government managed to push through an austerity package and French and German banks worked on ways to help Greece avoid default. But the plan by banks fell apart over the weekend, and policy makers are at an impasse on how to require contributions from private creditors as part of a second Greek bailout. "Markets were getting more optimistic, and suddenly they're saying, 'My God, this is as bad as it ever was,' " said Peter Westaway, the chief European economist at Nomura International and a former Bank of England official. "Now, it looks as if Italy and Spain are going to be involved, too. And that makes the problem an order of magnitude more complicated for policy makers." Mr. Westaway cautioned against getting too negative about Italy. For one thing, the austerity being sought is nowhere near as crushing as what Greece is having to take on. Still, if the crisis were to take hold in Italy, the problems for the euro union would dwarf all others to date. European banks have total claims and potential exposures of 998.7 billion to Italy, more than six times the 162.4 billion exposure they have to Greece, according to Barclays Capital. European banks have 774 billion of exposure to Spain and 532 billion of exposure to Ireland. In the United States, banks are also more exposed to Italy than to any other euro zone country, to the tune of 269 billion, according to Barclays. American banks' next biggest exposure is to Spain, with total claims estimated at 179 billion. But at the end of the day, "If Italy goes, it's no longer a domino," said Mr. Gros, the analyst in Brussels. "It's a brick."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Global Business
"For both of us, it's our dream," Sam Davies, right, said of both her and Romain Attanasio, her life partner, racing in this year's Vendee Globe. Sam Davies and Romain Attanasio have long supported each other in yacht races. Now, they are both in the Vendee Globe, a four month race around the world. This Couple Is Sailing Around the World Against Each Other Before beginning the Vendee Globe, a solo, nonstop around the world sailing race, Romain Attanasio could only describe the preparation as complicated. Sure, there was sorting out the sails. And fine tuning the navigation systems and acquiring and storing three months worth of freeze dried food and troubleshooting myriad technical issues, all while dealing with the pandemic. But the real complication was the skipper in the next room, Samantha Davies, who is his life partner, the mother of their 9 year old son Ruben, and for this race, a competitor. An accomplished British ocean sailor, Davies was among the 33 sailors on the starting line Sunday, too. They are the first couple to race in the Vendee Globe, which covers 24,000 nautical miles over nearly four months and is run every four years, starting and ending in the Vendee area of France. In a phone interview from Les Sables d'Olonne, France, the rough edge of the North Atlantic where the race starts, Attanasio likened the two of them racing to any working couple seeking a balance with the division of labor at home. "It's like in traditional family fishing," Attanasio said. "The husband goes fishing and the wife sells the fish. The work goes well because the two work together, like when Sam is sailing and I am with Ruben.'' Said Davies, "For both of us, it's our dream. We used to take turns, but as Ruben gets older, we are sharing a lot more of our experiences." This took a lot more calibration. Davies and Attanasio arrived together in Les Sables d'Olonne late Thursday after dropping Ruben off at school. Davies' parents are now taking care of her son, as they have each time the pair leaves for a race. This time, however, "there's no one to help with the details," Attanasio said. "Normally you can just grab your sea bag and head off to the race while the husband or wife takes care of everything, but one of us has to deal with the rental house." Splitting up their training over the past two years, each taking turns being with their son while the other is at sea, is distinct in the hyper focused world of solo sailing. Once working on each other's campaign in the past, they are now competitors but they are not competitive with each other, mostly because Davies is probably going to be a front runner in her more modern sailboat. Her boat reaches 30 knots. Attanasio has a slower, older generation boat that is competitive with about half the fleet, though mishaps and sea conditions can make for unlikely gains. Still, he knows his place. "I'm sure she can win the race," he said. He added in a lowered voice, "She doesn't like when I say this because it puts too much pressure." In France, Davies and Attanasio are considered a power couple. They met in 2003 during their first foray in the Solitaire du Figaro, a cutthroat solo racing circuit on the west coast of France that feeds the best skippers into events like the Vendee Globe. "I worked for six months to attract her. It was a big job," Attanasio said. Though Attanasio was already part of the French solo sailing scene when Davies arrived, Davies had the richer background in the sport. She grew up on a sailboat and her grandfather was a submariner. She wears his St. Christopher medal while at sea for good luck. Attanasio's heritage is in the mountains of Savoie. "I made my grandfather cry," he said, "because I prefer the sea to the mountains." Having finished fourth in her first attempt in the 2008 race, Davies had the heartbreak of a broken mast shortly after the start of the 2012 Vendee . Though she was a star in France, it was her role as leader of an all female team in the 2014 15 Volvo Ocean Race that cemented her status as one of the top female ocean racers in the world. With a new sponsor, Initiatives Coeur, Davies, one of six women in the race, has modified an older generation boat with sharp hydrofoils to keep up with the eight new boats built for the race. Her experience gives her a shot to be the first woman, and the first non French sailor, to win. "Sam is into pacing herself," said Charlie Dalin, a Frenchman in the race for the first time and a favorite with a newly designed boat. "She often catches up. For me pacing is a big unknown. Like a half marathoner. First time he goes for a marathon, he has a question about pace. She's been around the world before. She should do something better than her boat's performance. She could be there." Every winner of the Vendee Globe since 2000 has come from the ranks of Pole Finistere Course Au Large, an elite, invitation only cooperative that focuses on solo ocean sailing performance. There are eight sailors in the race from the team. Only Alex Thomson, a British sailor who finished second in the last Vendee with a broken boat and is now in his fifth Vendee , is considered a true threat to that streak. Jeanne Gregoire, Davies and Attanasio's coach at Pole Finistere, said that at the team they kept their relationship all business. "They give their opinion,'' she said. "They are part of the team. The only thing we notice is hearing them talk on weekends, 'Do you stay with Ruben, or do I stay with Ruben?'" Davies inspired her partner to do the 2016 race. "She was a very good help," Attanasio said of the last campaign. "Sam is very good with computers and with autopilots. She also managed all my communications. She took everything and put it on Facebook. When I'd send a good movie, she'd call all the journalists in France to say, 'Can you please put up this movie?'" Last year, when Attanasio was looking for a team, Davies told Attanasio he needed to find someone who did what she did, because she was sailing. "I didn't realize all the work she did for me," he said. After Sunday's sunny start, the fleet was in fresh winds at high speeds with the newer boats predictably outpacing the others on their way to the doldrums, the first major transition in the race where the Northern and Southern Hemisphere's weather systems converge to produce light and unpredictable winds. Davies and Attanasio know they will be worrying about each other. "Four years ago, I call home and have news to talk with Sam and my son," Attanasio said. "It will be different. Harder. Sam will receive more news from her parents so she will share with me. We will communicate almost every day on email. You can come back to it and reread when you're calm, like a special letter from 20 years ago." On paper, Davies will land back in France to see Ruben sooner than Attanasio. And she's at peace with their decision to both race in this year's Vendee Globe. "Our son loves what we do. He's not jealous of our boat," Davies said. "Not every family or mum can do this. It's like in the military or navy when parents leave for a long time. He knows nothing different. He knows we love him when we leave him with my parents."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
With easy access to the city but more affordable housing, the borough draws a range of residents even some who thought they'd never leave New York. Jeffrey and Susan Rothenberg were looking to downsize when they recently moved from their four bedroom home in northern Bergen County, N.J., to a two bedroom condominium in Cliffside Park. Now they're not only closer to New York City, but they also have sweeping views of the city and the Hudson River from their 25th floor unit in the Winston Towers complex. "There's something about a view that really adds to your life," said Ms. Rothenberg, 64, a retired teacher. She and Mr. Rothenberg, 65, a retired dentist, paid 510,000 for their new home. Across the Hudson River from Upper Manhattan and just seven and a half miles northwest of Times Square the borough of Cliffside Park packs 25,000 people into one square mile. It offers easy access to New York City by bus or ferry, with housing prices that are more affordable than those in the city. "A lot of people scoff at the idea of coming to New Jersey, but they don't realize how close it is," said Ani Whitney, 49, a television news producer, who moved to Cliffside Park from Greenwich Village in 2003 with her husband, Wil Whitney, 48, a brand manager for a sneaker retailer. The couple decided to make the move after visiting friends in a Cliffside Park co op called Apogee. "I was just floored by the view of the river and the space they had," Mr. Whitney said. "When they told us how much they paid, we were in." The Whitneys bought a one bedroom apartment in the building in 2003, paying 180,000. A few years after the birth of their daughter, who is now 11, they moved to a two bedroom in the same building, paying 209,000 in 2011. Now they are hoping to move to a three bedroom unit there. The Whitneys, both of whom work in New York City, said the commute by bus or ferry takes about 45 minutes. And they are happy with the diversity of Cliffside Park, which is about 30 percent Hispanic and 17 percent Asian. "My daughter is exposed to different ethnic groups in school, which we like a lot," Mr. Whitney said. Kaya Abe Magee, 56, a floral designer, moved to Cliffside Park from Bernardsville, N.J., to be closer to New York's flower markets. "I can go to the city easily and come back for a little peace," she said. Ms. Magee's son is heading to college in the fall, so she no longer has to live near his high school, the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J. She recently bought a two bedroom condo in a new building, One Park, on Adolphus Avenue. She declined to disclose the price, but two bedroom units in the building range from about 800,000 to 1.4 million. 65 LAWTON AVENUE A three bedroom house with two full and two half bathrooms, built in 1935 on 0.12 acres, listed for 799,000. 201 917 5884 Laura Moss for The New York Times Cliffside Park, which sits on the stretch of riverside cliffs known as the Palisades, is just south of Fort Lee, overlooking the town of Edgewater and the Hudson River. According to the most recent census, it has about 11,000 housing units, including about 2,100 single family homes and 2,300 two family properties. Bruce Elia Jr., 66, a builder and real estate agent with Keller Williams, grew up in the borough and has seen the housing stock evolve as a number of multifamily buildings have gone up. 771 WEST END AVENUE A three bedroom, three and a half bathroom semidetached townhouse, built in 2017 on 0.12 acres, listed for 680,000. 201 238 7987 Laura Moss for The New York Times "The biggest change is the mid rise and high rise" development, Mr. Elia said. "And it seems like it's still continuing." Recent examples include One Park, a 14 story luxury condominium that opened in October, with 204 units priced from 500,000 to 4.7 million. The Centre, another example, is a 16 story, 314 unit luxury rental building in the heart of the business district, with retail on the ground floor; rents start at 1,875 a month for alcove studios and 2,750 for two bedrooms. 455 LINCOLN AVENUE A three bedroom, three and a half bathroom semidetached townhouse, built in 2019 on 0.06 acres, listed for 679,000. 201 988 4670 Laura Moss for The New York Times Many of Cliffside Park's older single family houses on 50 by 100 foot lots have been replaced by attached duplex homes. "That's the most popular product in town," said Mr. Elia, who has built some of them. Units typically have three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms, and are priced from about 700,000 to 750,000. According to the New Jersey Multiple Listing Service and the real estate website Zillow, there were about 150 homes on the market in Cliffside Park as of July 1. Prices ranged from 199,000 for a studio condominium to 6.9 million for a five bedroom, single family house with river views. According to the Multiple Listing Service, 347 homes sold in Cliffside Park in the 12 months ending July 1, up 21 percent from the same period a year earlier. The median sale price was 460,000 for condos and townhouses, up 10.7 percent from the previous year, and the median for single family homes was 480,000, down 5 percent. 300 WINSTON DRIVE, No. 3102 A two bedroom, two bathroom condominium on the 31st floor of 300 Winston Towers, built in 1974 and listed for 499,000. 201 937 1575 Laura Moss for The New York Times Anderson Avenue is the main shopping street, with small businesses including tailors, restaurants and boutiques. Several have been in town for decades among them Miller's Bakery, which open its doors in 1947; D'Amore Jewelers, founded in 1917; and Music Country, a record store that opened in 1934. Cliffside Park has several popular Turkish and Italian restaurants, as well as the new Sedona Taphouse at the Centre. Because the town is so compact and has its own shopping district, it is ideal for pedestrians, said Jeanne Grod, a real estate agent with Group 26 Realty in Edgewater, who has lived in Cliffside Park for 40 years. "You don't even have to have a car," she said. When Palisades Amusement Park opened on the Cliffside Park Fort Lee border in 1908, it drew visitors from New York City and around the metropolitan area. Mary Ann Maiorana, 62, a lifelong Cliffside Park resident, remembers visiting the park often in her youth. "My cousins worked as lifeguards there, and our schools would have a class trip every spring," said Ms. Maiorana, a real estate appraiser. The park, which offered rides and a large pool complete with an artificial waterfall, inspired a 1962 pop song, "Palisades Park," as well as several books. But many people who lived nearby eventually grew tired of the crush of traffic around the park, and the land was rezoned for residential use. The 38 acre site closed in 1971 and was replaced by the high rise Winston Towers, on Palisade Avenue. 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
Mike Colter plays the coolest superhero going these days, on the binge worthy Netflix show "Luke Cage." Mr. Colter, who grew up in St. Matthews, S.C., let us in on his favorite clothing, explained how his role as a Marvel character has changed his wardrobe, and revealed why he prefers boots with zippers. Shirt I like henleys. I like the option of having a plunging neckline, but I like to be able to button it up. I have several from Rag Bone. Jeans I'll usually prefer jeans over pants. I have three main pairs. I have a pair by Paige I like how theirs have some stretch in the thigh. I have another by Ari, this store on West Broadway in SoHo. The other is by AG. Suit I gained 30 pounds for "Luke Cage," and it's changed what I can wear. I'm broader in the shoulders, and I need more room in the thigh. Before, I would wear Hugo Boss, but now I need more of a sports cut. I bought a suit in Paris a couple weeks ago from Canali that fits well. Burberry is also good. Or I'll go with a custom suit. The thing about fashion is I'm still learning about it. There was no fashion where I grew up. We had no money. I wore my brother's things, and he was shorter than me.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
WASHINGTON American imports from China are surging as the year draws to a close, fueled by stay at home shoppers who are snapping up Chinese made furniture and appliances, along with Barbie Dream Houses and bicycles for the holidays. The surge in imports is another byproduct of the coronavirus, with Americans channeling money they might have spent on vacations, movies and restaurant dining to household items like new lighting for home offices, workout equipment for basement gyms, and toys to keep their children entertained. That has been a boon for China, the world's largest manufacturer of many of those goods. In November, China reported a record trade surplus of 75.43 billion, propelled by an unexpected 21.1 percent surge in exports compared with the same month last year. Leading the jump were exports to the United States, which climbed 46.1 percent to 51.98 billion, also a record. That surge has defied the expectations of American politicians of both parties, who earlier this year predicted that the pandemic, which began in China, would be a moment for reducing trade with that country and finally bringing factories back to the United States. "The global pandemic has proven once and for all that to be a strong nation, America must be a manufacturing nation," President Trump said in May. "We're bringing it back." But despite Mr. Trump's restrictions on Chinese goods, including tariffs on more than 360 billion worth of its imports, there is little sign that global supply chains are returning to the United States. Instead, the prolonged effects of the pandemic on the United States appear to have only reinforced China's manufacturing position. China employed draconian lockdowns and extensive surveillance to shake off the effects of the pandemic earlier this year, allowing its factories to reopen at a large scale more quickly than businesses in America, where the disease is still running rampant. With many American companies, especially those based on services, crippled by coronavirus, consumers are pumping their money into online shopping for manufactured goods instead. Mary E. Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute, said that U.S. imports from the world were on track to be lower this year than in 2019, but that China's overall share of U.S. imports would likely increase. "Overall, China's quick economic recovery and its dominance as a source for products that Americans have turned to during the pandemic have outweighed the dampening effect of Trump's tariffs," she said. Consumer demand is so strong that it has overwhelmed the capacity of the cargo industry, leading to a record spike in shipping rates. The surge in shipments is clogging many supply chains, snarling major ports and delaying delivery of holiday gifts by up to several weeks. At the Port of Los Angeles, the country's largest processor of container cargo and the gateway for many Chinese goods, shipping containers carrying Chinese imports are stacked like Legos in piles six high. Truckers jam the parking lots, waiting hours to pick up goods, which are then dispatched across the continent. October was the busiest month in the port's 114 year history, and traffic has remained high. On Dec. 1, dockworkers were busy unloading 19 vessels, compared with 10 to 12 on a normal day, said Gene Seroka, the port's executive director. Twelve more ships waited in the harbor, which, on average, had been waiting about 48 hours beyond their scheduled arrival, he said. "We're going through a time that truly is unprecedented," Mr. Seroka said. "You're trying to stuff 10 pounds of potatoes in a five pound bag. This ordering and replenishment is bigger than anything we've seen, and now it coincides with holidays." The pileup started earlier this year, as American retailers and manufacturers began to restock products this summer after brief lockdowns in the spring, and consumer spending began to rebound. While the pandemic has left former employees of restaurants, airlines and theme parks destitute, many members of the country's vast remote work force have seen their bank accounts grow, and surveys show expectations for consumer spending remain strong. The initial data snapshot of November trade released earlier this month by China's General Administration of Customs did not include detailed data by product and country. But trade data for the first 10 months of this year, compiled from United States Customs data by IHS Markit, shows that American imports of consumer electronics from China have been strong, as have imports of masks and other personal protection equipment for the pandemic. Jay Foreman, chief executive of the toy company Basic Fun!, said his company had gone from being "panicked" about the future of its business in March and April to suddenly realizing that demand was stronger than ever. For the toy industry, it is shaping up to be one of the biggest holiday seasons in years. But Mr. Foreman said his business would be dampened somewhat by the shipping delays. Some of the Tonka Trucks, Lite Brite sets and Care Bears that the company sells are currently stuck on container ships, or in the yard of the Port of Los Angeles. 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. While Mr. Foreman was confident he could still sell those toys in January, he said missing the Christmas cutoff would be much more problematic for small companies and importers of seasonal products, like wreaths and Christmas lights. "Everyone has stuff sitting," he said. "Everything is a week or two behind schedule." Arnold Kamler, the chief executive of bicycle maker Kent International Inc., said he was also experiencing a historic combination of strong demand and shipping delays. Lockdowns in China earlier this year led to production delays at Kent's Chinese factories, while American demand for bicycles began to surge, as buyers sought them for entertainment and exercise, as well as an alternative to public transportation. Pandemic related demand for bicycles was so strong that some had begun referring to them as "the new toilet paper," Mr. Kamler said. "I never had hoped to be compared to toilet paper, but in this case, this was a good thing," he said. After maintaining light inventory all year, Mr. Kamler said his company had finally accumulated enough bicycles in its warehouses in California and South Carolina in the past four to six weeks to meet demand. But UPS and FedEx, which deliver the company's bicycles directly to customers on behalf of Target, Kohl's, Walmart and other retailers, have drastically cut the number of trucks they can dispatch to the warehouses each week. "We can't get trucks to show up," he said. "It's crazy to have this demand and not be able to ship it." That surge has created an unusual problem for China: finding enough 40 foot steel boxes into which all those goods can fit. China's exports have been so strong this autumn that far more shipping containers are leaving Chinese ports than are coming back. American exports to China have also soared this fall, driven by strong purchases of soybeans and other agricultural goods under the U.S. China trade agreement. But these goods like the iron ore and coal that China also imports plentifully travel in bulk freighters, not 40 foot containers. China imports few American manufactured goods that would travel in containers. Mr. Seroka said exports of containers stocked with American goods were down 14 percent annually so far this year at the L.A. port, creating inefficiencies and logistical issues for railroads, trucking companies and cargo lines. In the month of October, the port exported more than twice as many empty containers as those filled with American goods, Mr. Seroka said. He blamed the trend on the U.S. China trade war, which spurred Beijing to impose more tariffs on American products, as well as the strength of the U.S. dollar, which makes American goods more expensive overseas. For both importers and logistics companies, it remains unclear how U.S. trade policy will shape their business in China in the years to come. President elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has not committed to lifting any of Mr. Trump's tariffs, saying he will begin reviewing them once in office. Many of the exemptions that companies received from the tariffs are set to expire on Dec. 31, and the Trump administration has not said whether they would renew them. Chris Rogers, a global trade and logistics analyst at Panjiva, said that the trade wars and tariffs that the United States placed on China had actually reduced imports of the particular goods that were hit with tariffs but other products that have not been taxed are booming. He said that companies could still choose to relocate their production out of China, as their businesses emerge from the pandemic. "The time to muck about with your supply chain is not during the pandemic," Mr. Rogers said. "A lot of companies have been in cash preservation mode. Moving your supply chain is expensive and takes time. There clearly is an opportunity for companies coming out of the pandemic to say we need to build resilience, move manufacturing closer to consumers." Despite the shipping disruptions, some companies that have kept their production in China throughout Mr. Trump's trade wars are now feeling vindicated. Mr. Foreman said he considered moving some operations to Vietnam or India, like many toymakers did amid the trade wars last year, but "staying in China ended up to be the best move." "China still has the best production supply chain of anybody in the world, and as it turned out, they were able to tackle the pandemic faster and more efficiently than anybody else," he said. "China certainly has tested the boundaries and proven that they can weather the storm, as great as a storm as we've seen in a hundred years."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Economy
IN the late 1940s, when Levitt Sons, the builders of Levittown, started a more upscale subdivision of 668 homes in Roslyn Heights known as the Roslyn Country Club, it sweetened the appeal of a house or lot purchase with the promise of a neighborhood country club exclusively for residents' use, setting dues at 100 a year. The 10.5 acre Gold Coast pool and tennis club was the social center of the community, a place children could walk to. It also had a catering facility, now the Royalton. But six years ago, saddled with numerous lawsuits, Manouchehr Malekan, its owner, shut down the pool and the courts, much to the chagrin of residents. Along with golf courses, amenities like swimming and tennis have long been part of the suburban dream even in Levittown itself, one swimming pool was built for every 1,000 houses and their presence is tied to home values and desirability. Todd Zarin, the president of the Roslyn Country Club Civic Association, says that most of the nearly 700 residents "have a sense that we paid in our property values for a property located near an open space that was available for recreation." The biggest concern, of course, is having the recreational facilities available to their families and children, but people are also acutely aware "that it could have an effect on housing prices." Local real estate agents agree. The Roslyn Country Club subdivision, a prosperous looking mix of original and expanded ranches interspersed with 4,000 square foot newer homes costing as much as 2 million, has leafy, winding streets, and lots of about a third of an acre. But it has been hurt by the lack of a community pool, which contributed to a decline in property values during the last few years, said Maria Babaev, the managing director of the luxury portfolio for Laffey Fine Homes. Meanwhile, nearby, demand spiked for East Hills, a similar upscale community with a sprawling new village park offering pools, tennis and playground facilities. The park, open only to village residents, is supported by property taxes. "Young families like recreational facilities," Mr. Zarin said. "East Hills focused the light on what's not here and what's there." A look at similar sized houses in the two areas underscores the difference: a six bedroom house in East Hills is listed at 2.09 million; a Roslyn Country Club house, just under 1.4 million. After considering taking the club from Mr. Malekan by eminent domain, the Town of North Hempstead announced this month that it planned to buy about seven acres of club property for 2 million within the next few weeks and upgrade it to a luxury town park to be known as Levitt Park. With no other town park in Roslyn Heights, he added, "to buy land and restore the recreational component, we could kill two birds with one stone." The park, he added, will be supported by pool memberships to be set at 800 to 1,000 a summer season. In a recent telephone interview, Mr. Malekan acknowledged that he was "about to come to an agreement with the town" on a section of the property, although he plans to keep the catering hall and "whatever is left for me that I can do legally." Mr. Zarin said the potential sale to the town "has a lot for us" and nearby neighbors. In Huntington, the key to a zoning change approved on March 12 to allow construction of as many as 190 condominiums was the preservation of the golf course and 150 acres in Cold Spring Hills, said A. J. Carter, a town spokesman. An "open space cluster district," the Residences at Oheka, is now planned between the Cold Spring Country Club and Oheka Castle, the wedding palace and hotel built in 1917 as the home of the financier Otto Herman Kahn. To make it happen, said Gary Melius, the owner of Oheka Castle, he bought 14 wooded acres from the country club. The proposed development "is on my front lawn," Mr. Melius said. "We don't touch the golf course at all." The condominiums will be in four story buildings. One bedrooms will be priced from about 1 million, four bedrooms almost 2.5 million. Plans also incorporate an outdoor pool, four tennis courts and a gym for residents. Because of the slow market, the tough financing, and the time it takes to prepare site plans and obtain other approvals, Mr. Melius said he expected the project to be five years in the making. Meanwhile, since he went to contract on the land with the club two years ago, guests staying in the 32 rooms at Oheka are permitted to play golf on the Cold Spring course.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate
Billy McFarland, whose efforts at running the disastrous Fyre Festival led to wire fraud charges last year, pleaded guilty on Thursday to a new set of federal charges related to a fraudulent ticket selling scam that authorities said he operated while out on bail in the first case. The plea was entered in Federal District Court in Manhattan where investigators had charged Mr. McFarland, 26, with selling fictitious tickets to high profile events like Burning Man, the Super Bowl and Coachella. At least 30 people had spent 150,000 for the tickets from Mr. McFarland's company, NYC VIP Access, according to a statement from the United States Attorney's Office. "These customers later learned that the tickets didn't exist, and that this was just another fraud in McFarland's disturbing pattern of deception," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a statement.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Music
Although they will overlap only briefly, "Miguel Covarrubias: A Retrospective" is the perfect side dish to the movable feast of the Frida Kahlo exhibition opening Feb. 8 at the Brooklyn Museum. Born in Mexico City in 1904, Covarrubias was a member of Kahlo's inner circle a highly sociable workaholic, painter, anthropologist, teacher, writer and sometime curator who had a chameleonic talent for drawing. He would illustrate his own books on the ethnography of Mesoamerican Mexico, but arriving in New York, at age 19, he established himself with influential celebrity caricatures for magazines like The New Yorker, Vogue and Vanity Fair. He soon knew everyone who was anyone, figured in the Harlem Renaissance and, briefly in Paris, designed sets for Josephine Baker. It seems overly optimistic to call this show a retrospective, but its 50 or so works on paper memorably survey several of Covarrubias's graphic gifts. There's a Vanity Fair cover featuring Franklin Delano Roosevelt and a delightful watercolor collage caricature of his friend the photographer Carl Van Vechten. But mostly there are deft, insouciant ink and pencil drawings and a few fine grained lithographs, including "The Lindy Hop," whose sinuous dancing couple brings to mind the work of Archibald J. Motley Jr. Covarrubias's line could have the assured sparseness of Matisse, and he had a similar affinity for female beauty. But his drawings have more flair than artistic genius. Here he draws Mexican villages, ceremonial rituals in Bali (whose ethnography also occasioned a book) and near scientific renditions of a sting ray and a lobster. There are drawings and caricatures of his wife, the dancer and choreographer Rosa Rolanda , who learned to use a camera (from Edward Weston) and took photographs for his books. (Two of Weston's photographs of Rolanda are in the Kahlo show, which also has a film by Covarrubias, "El Sur de Mexico.") A few of the drawings qualify as racist by today's terms. But mostly a benign if paternalistic joy at the world prevails. The show would have been helped by including some of his meticulous renderings of Mesoamerican artifacts and motifs . But such illustrations appear in his books, several of which are here and available for browsing. Covarrubias died in 1957 at age 53, ending a career worthy of a much longer life. Maybe the Brooklyn Museum will turn to his achievement soon. ROBERTA SMITH Dance and movement are increasingly infiltrating museum and gallery spaces, and they do so in Mariam Ghani and Erin Ellen Kelly's "When the Spirits Moved Them, They Moved" at Ryan Lee, which takes its inspiration from the Shakers, a Christian sect founded in 18th century England. A daylong performance at Shaker Village in Pleasant Hill, Ky., in 2018, is shown here in the form of photographs and a three channel video that captures the performers moving in ways that conjure or pay homage to the ecstatic worship of the Shakers. In the 22 minute video, spread over three screens, this movement can be fluid or jerky, collective or solitary, taking place on a wooden floor or under a tree. Together, Ms. Ghani, an artist and filmmaker, and Ms. Kelly, who is described in the news release as someone who "constructs ways of moving, ephemeral collages and performance pieces" have shaped a version of the event that functions both as document and artwork. The video skillfully breaks down sequences and focuses on expressions or gestures that might be missed in a live performance. The photographs, also displayed in multipanel format, depict the performers in rest or motion, sometimes with eyes closed . The Shaker Village itself plays a role, too, with its spare buildings nestled in a verdant site . The Shakers provide a foil, since they believed in gender equality and women were founders and leaders of the sect. Their committed life experiment (which might be called a cult today) becomes not just a model for art making, but alternative ways of living or what Ms. Ghani and Ms. Kelly call "being in common." In other precincts, this is also called utopia. MARTHA SCHWENDENER If you can't get to the Smithsonian's remarkable Bill Traylor retrospective, you can at least visit Betty Cuningham Gallery and spend an hour or two in front of a blue gouache mule Traylor painted on cardboard. Born a slave and not known to have made drawings before his mid 80s, Traylor came to posthumous fame through the efforts of Charles Shannon, a younger white artist who met Traylor around the time of World War II. Shannon ultimately collected more than 1,200 of Traylor's drawings, many of them graphic, silhouette like portraits of animals. Traylor would sometimes start one of these portraits with a rectangle or flattened oval, as if trying to capture weight and body as general categories before moving on to specifics. But once he's added delicate hind legs, spindly forelegs, and the muscular slopes of rump and neck, Traylor invariably arrives at something with the eerie singularity of a Sumerian logogram. Part of it is his uncanny balance of simplification and detail. In "Blue Mule," it's a sticklike tail ending in a delicate puff of hair, or the measured rise and fall of an equine back accomplished with three blunt strokes. Part of it is the monochrome, which lets him picture the mule and its shadow simultaneously. And part of it is the distinctly syncopated composition: By placing the drawing's only element off center, Traylor brings forward the color of the blank cardboard ground, though it can also still read as earth and sky. But what really makes Traylor's silhouettes so extraordinary is how nakedly they grapple with the basic mystery of representational art: How can a two dimensional shape, which we take in at a glance, encompass a three dimensional object, which we can never see all of? WILL HEINRICH Vivian Maier's self portraits are tantalizing. The street photographer liked to shoot her shadow, the outline of a hat and raised arm darkening a patch of sidewalk or grass. Other times she offered glimpses of her body, as in a 1975 photograph taken in Chicago, Ms. Maier's longtime home, in which part of her head is visible in a small mirror that lies atop a bouquet of flowers on the ground. The rectangular mirror looks like a picture within the frame, and she seems to be staring out from it. Ms. Maier took many thousands of photographs while working full time as a nanny, but she almost never showed them; in later life, she didn't even develop much of her film. She left behind material to fill several storage lockers but no close friends or family. For those who have followed the discovery of her work including a legal dispute that halted the dissemination of it but was settled confidentially in 2016 the self portraits create the illusion of intimacy with a woman who remains unknowable. The 1975 picture is on view at Howard Greenberg Gallery in the exhibition "The Color Work," devoted to Ms. Maier's color photography, in tandem with a new book. (An album of vintage color prints by Ms. Maier will also be auctioned this month.) The show iterates her talent for infusing the everyday with dramatic tension; her scenes of street life are shot through with uncertainty and possibility. In a photograph from 1977, two boys stare out from behind glass with troubled expressions that belie their ages. In a picture from 1960, someone seems to be disappearing into a hedge. The exhibition is a potent reminder that Ms. Maier's capacity to cultivate mystery extended far beyond herself. JILLIAN STEINHAUER	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston has extended a 10 million reward for information leading to the return of 13 works valued at half a billion dollars that were pilfered in 1990. The board of directors voted to extend the reward, which was to have reverted to 5 million at the end of 2017, in the hope of enticing tips that would help recover works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas, Manet and others that were stolen in the world's largest unsolved art heist. That theft took place just after midnight on March 18, 1990, when a pair of thieves dressed as Boston police officers bamboozled museum guards to gain access to the building, then restrained them and left 81 minutes later with the artworks. There have been multiple suspects over the years including members of the mafia and the Irish Republican Army. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said in 2013 that agents had figured out who the thieves were but did not give their names, adding that the two were no longer alive. The statute of limitations on the theft ran out in 1995 but the investigation remains active.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
Credit...Whitney Curtis for The New York Times Luther Helland stood on a platform in the middle of the river and surveyed his dam. It was in bad shape. Several of the panels that kept the water back were missing, while others were out of true. Weeks of work stretched before him, compounded by the vagaries of the river. Mr. Helland, 37, is master of Lock and Dam No. 52 on the Ohio River. That makes him responsible for billions of dollars' worth of cargo and the operation of countless factories, power plants, farms and refineries east of the mighty Mississippi. By extension, then, he is responsible for the livelihoods of millions of Americans. Built in 1929, Lock No. 52 sits in a quiet corner of southern Illinois that happens to be the busiest spot on America's inland waterways, where traffic from the eastern United States meets and passes traffic from the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi River. More than 80 million tons of grain, coal, fuel and other goods worth over 22 billion move through here each year. Lock No. 52 is a serious bottleneck in innumerable supply chains nationwide. It is emblematic of the nation's crumbling transportation infrastructure coast to coast including locks, ports, highways and railroads. President elect Donald J. Trump has said he will spend 1 trillion on infrastructure, but how the money will be raised remains unclear. To avoid raising taxes or increasing debt, his plan calls for much of the money to come from the private sector, with a proposed tax credit offered in return. Funding might also come from taxes on repatriated money, as companies receive incentives to return cash that they have been accumulating overseas. Even with a tax credit, though, companies building roads or locks would want a return on their investment most likely in the form of toll collection, said Mike Toohey, president of the Waterways Council, an advocacy group for the river shipping industry. His industry is "not in favor of a toll," he said. Still, he is optimistic that spending on inland waterways will increase under a new administration. The average delay at No. 52 in October and November was 15 to 20 hours. At the moment, No. 52's sister dam downriver, No. 53, is adding 48 more hours to the wait. Dealing with both dams, it can take five days to travel just 100 miles on this stretch of the Ohio River. And if something goes wrong at either one which does happen the delay can build to a week or more. On Sept. 14, for instance, all river traffic stopped for an additional 15 hours while emergency repairs were made to No. 52's dam. No. 52 and No. 53 have been waiting to be blown up since 1998, when a new mega dam near Olmsted, Ill., was supposed to be finished. Authorized in 1988, the project is now wildly over budget and decades behind schedule. What was supposed to cost 775 million and be finished in 1998 will now most likely cost 2.9 billion and be operational in October 2018 at the earliest. Luther Helland, lockmaster, looking out onto Lock and Dam No. 52 in September. Goods shipped by water from the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River to points east pass through the dam, which was completed in 1929. Whitney Curtis for The New York Times Capt. David Stansbury was in the pilot house of the towboat William Hank, which was tied to a fleet of barges near Metropolis, Ill., waiting for its turn to pass through 52's lock. "What would happen if both lanes of Interstate 95 were completely shut down for three or four days?" he asked. "You're talking total gridlock in a major metropolitan area this is the equivalent of that." Right now, the inland waterways are out of most Americans' sights and minds. "If 52 does fail, or one of the other locks fails, and you cut off half the United States from their barge traffic, then you'll see a public outcry," Mr. Stansbury said. He explained: If corn cannot get to the factories, the price of any grain based product will go up, and people will say, "What do you mean I've got to pay 10 for a box of cornflakes? Are you out of your mind?" A towboat and its barges need at least nine feet of water to stay afloat. To guarantee this depth from, say, Pittsburgh to Cairo, Ill., a distance of 980 miles, the United States Army Corps of Engineers built dams. The dams make pools. Each pool is like a step, climbing from sea level to the Appalachians, say, or St. Paul. To get from one step to another, boats use water elevators, called locks, that raise anything that floats from one pool to another. Before the locks and dams, many rivers in the United States were low enough to walk across during dry months. On an overcast September morning, the William Hank was pushing 13 barges two tankers of soybean oil, one barge of dry cement, one barge of aluminum ingots, three barges of scrap steel, four barges of iron ingots, one barge of wheat and one of grain a total of 19,200 tons of cargo, worth around 6.5 million. Most towboats push a 15 barge tow, which holds the equivalent of 225 train cars or 1,050 truckloads. There is a lot at stake when this much stuff is late. In a low orange trimmed building on the outskirts of Paducah, Ky., are the offices of Tennessee Valley Towing, which owns the William Hank. Gordon Southern, the company's senior vice president, calculated that the 15 hour river closure on Sept. 14 cost him around 80,000. His company is just one of dozens. "We call that bleeding," said Harley Hall, Tennessee Valley Towing's vice president for operations. "If 52 failed, all that tonnage that passes through here each way, it would have to move on rail and road, and the rail cars aren't there and there's no room on the highways. There's no way to bypass this." Domestically, trucks moved five times as many goods, by weight, as ships or barges did in 2013. Trains moved twice as much as was moved via water, and planes moved far less. But 72 percent of all international trade moved via water in 2014, compared with 10 percent by truck, 5 percent by rail, and less than 1 percent by air. Many supply chains rely on multiple modes of transportation, and no single mode has enough redundancy to accommodate the goods of another. 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 corps does so much with so little," Mr. Hall said. "This is the hub, holding all the spokes together," he said of No. 52, but "until Olmsted is completed we have a ticking time bomb," referring to the dam under construction in Illinois. The corps, an agency within the federal government, decided to build Olmsted with an experimental "in the wet" construction method: Hollow sections of the dam are built on the bank, skidded down to the river, towed into position and lowered into the water, where they are filled with concrete. Traditionally, a project like this would have used a coffer dam a small temporary dam that keeps water out of the site while construction goes on in the dry. The "in the wet" method was supposed to save time and money and minimize delays, but it did the opposite. By the time the corps realized its folly, it was too late to alter course. The novel construction process and inadequate congressional funding, among other things, have dragged the project past the quarter century mark. Olmsted has been under construction for so long that the company contracted to build it has been bought and renamed three times, the new locks at the Panama Canal Olmsted's global equivalent have been begun and finished, and grandchildren of the early workers have been hired. Meanwhile, the old locks and dams are costing the country 640 million a year in delays and closures, according to the Army corps. Little has changed at No. 52 and No. 53 since 1929. Each dam is made of over 400 steel or oak panels, called wickets, that sit in the river and hold back water. When the river is high about 40 percent of the year for No. 52, more for No. 53 the wickets can be lowered to the river bottom to let boats pass above them. When the water goes down, a steam powered crane from 1937, with a boiler the size of a car, is towed out into the river. A worker reaches into the seething current with a 20 foot steel hook and feels around for an 18 inch bar. When he has hooked it, the crane grabs the end of the hook, pulls the wicket up, and the force of the current sets it in place. This is repeated until all the wickets are up, which might take 24 hours. "This is all farmer work," said Mr. Helland, the lockmaster. "If you grew up on a farm, what's in your back pockets? Either a pair of pliers or a hammer that one tool you always use to fix everything with." He sat on the steps of the old white frame house, on a hill above the lock, that serves as his office. "The lock is kept going with all the bubble gum and duct tape we've got left," he said, but "we're running out. She's deteriorating so fast it makes it hard to keep up." The corps has identified 25 failure points at No. 52 and No. 53 things that are on the verge of breaking, and shutting the locks down. Both are built on wood pilings driven into the river bottom sand. The lock walls are cracking and sagging, the hydraulic pipes are paper thin, concrete is crumbling, metal is rusted through, railings are gone, and seals are leaking. "These are old backbreaking places," said Randy Robertson, the 51 year old master of Lock and Dam No. 53. "Trying to keep these things going, it's a struggle every day. We work a lot of overtime just to try and maintain junk and that's what it is. There are things we can't get parts for anymore. You can't just go to a boat store or a hardware store and get a drum for a 1937 steam engine. You have to go to a machine shop and have it machined." On a recent Friday, Mr. Robertson's lock resembled ancient ruins, mud colored, emerging from the river. It is still in working order, but it looked abandoned. Paint peeled, concrete cracked, and there was no reason to fix it. Each piece of Olmsted that is placed in the river is "one step closer to 53 being obsolete," he said. "I'm getting phased out and I'm O.K. with that," Mr. Robertson said. Earlier, Mr. Robertson was driving past Mound City, Ill., just downstream from Olmsted. The grain harvest was coming in, filling the huge elevators and making two story piles on the ground. Trucks carrying grain drove by every few minutes. All the farmers in the surrounding countryside depend on him, he said. If the locks fail, their corn doesn't get to market. "You know that everybody pinpoints down to you. You see it firsthand, they've got a wife, kids, a paycheck," he said. "If you mess up, you cost everybody." One thousand feet in front of him, on the head of the tow, a deckhand called over the radio telling him how close he was: "All right, Bubba, four more feet you be looking at daylight on that long wall ... about a foot or two to the good." Mr. Walker maneuvered the William Hank into the 1,200 foot chamber, a temporary addition from 1969 that has long outlived its design life. Instead of a smooth wall, the chamber is made of poured concrete cylinders that almost seem designed to catch the front of a barge. "You can easily get quartered just enough that you can jam up in here and do a bunch of damage," Mr. Walker said. His tow, like most, was 105 feet wide. The lock chamber is 110 feet wide. To park his 1,130 foot, 19,200 ton craft, he had as much space as a car does in a crowded parking lot. Gently tapping the stainless steel levers that control the rudders and pulling back and forth on the two throttles, Mr. Walker steered, came ahead, and stopped in the center of the chamber. To his right, the bedraggled condition of the wickets was apparent. "It's just like holding your fingers up against the water and letting it flow through," he said. The William Hank had waited eight hours to get here. "This is one of the fastest I've seen it," Mr. Walker said.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Economy
Credit...Nate Palmer for The New York Times WASHINGTON As Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, rang in 2020 in Florida, where he was celebrating his son's wedding, his work life seemed to be entering a period of relative calm. President Trump's public attacks on the central bank had eased up after 18 months of steady criticism, and the trade war with China seemed to be cooling, brightening the outlook for markets and the economy. Yet the earliest signs of a new and far more dangerous crisis were surfacing some 8,000 miles away. The novel coronavirus had been detected in Wuhan, China. Mr. Powell and his colleagues were about to face some of the most trying months in Fed history. By mid March, as markets were crashing, the Fed had cut interest rates to near zero to protect the economy. By March 23, to avert a full blown financial crisis, the Fed had rolled out nearly its entire 2008 menu of emergency loan programs, while teaming up with the Treasury Department to announce programs that had never been tried including plans to support lending to small and medium size businesses and buy corporate debt. In early April, it tacked on a plan to get credit flowing to states. "We crossed a lot of red lines that had not been crossed before," Mr. Powell said at an event in May. The Fed's job in normal times is to help the economy operate at an even keel to keep prices stable and jobs plentiful. Its sweeping pandemic response pushed its powers into new territory. The central bank restored calm to markets and helped keep credit available to consumers and businesses. It also led Republicans to try to limit the vast tool set of the politically independent and unelected institution. The Fed's emergency loan programs became a sticking point in the negotiations over the government spending package Congress approved this week. But even amid the backlash, the Fed's work in salvaging a pandemic stricken economy remains unfinished, with millions of people out of jobs and businesses suffering. The Fed is likely to keep rates at rock bottom for years, guided by a new approach to setting monetary policy adopted this summer that aims for slightly higher inflation and tests how low unemployment can fall. And the Fed's extraordinary actions in 2020 weren't aimed only at keeping credit flowing. Mr. Powell and other top Fed officials pushed for more government spending to help businesses and households, an uncharacteristically bold stance for an institution that tries mightily to avoid politics. As the Fed took a more expansive view of its mission, it weighed in on climate change, racial equity and other issues its leaders had typically avoided. "We've often relegated racial equity, inequality, climate change to simply social issues," Mary C. Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said in an interview. "That's a mistake. They are economic issues." Republicans have worked to restrict the Fed to ensure that the role it has played in this pandemic does not outlast the crisis. Patrick J. Toomey, a Republican senator from Pennsylvania, spearheaded the effort to insert language into the relief package that could have forced future Fed emergency lending programs to stick to soothing Wall Street instead of trying to also directly support Main Street, as the Fed has done in the current downturn. Republicans worry that the Fed could use its power to support partisan goals by invoking its regulatory power over banks, for instance, to treat oil and gas companies as financial risks, or by propping up financially troubled municipal governments. "Fiscal and social policy is the rightful realm of the people who are accountable to the American people, and that's us, that's Congress," Mr. Toomey, who could be the next banking committee chairman and thus one of Mr. Powell's most important overseers, said last week from the Senate floor. Mr. Toomey's proposal was watered down during congressional negotiations, clearing the way for a broader relief deal: Congress barred the central bank from re establishing the exact facilities used in 2020, but it did not cut off its power to help states and companies in the future. Democrats said the new language was limited enough that the Fed could still buy municipal bonds or make business loans via emergency powers; Mr. Toomey told The New York Times that doing so would require congressional approval. The divide suggested that the scope of the Fed's powers could remain a point of debate. As Mr. Powell, 67, faces pressure from all sides in 2021, he could find himself auditioning for his own job. His term expires in early 2022, which means that President elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will choose whether to renominate him. Mr. Powell, a Republican who was made a Fed governor by President Barack Obama and elevated to his current position by Mr. Trump, has yet to say publicly whether he wants to be reappointed. His chances could be affected by the Fed's coronavirus crisis response, which has been credited as early and swift. Mr. Powell was at Group of 20 meetings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in late February when it began to become clear to him that the coronavirus was unlikely to remain regionally isolated. He checked in with his colleagues in Washington to see what emergency powers the central bank and Treasury Department had at their disposal. By the time his 14 hour flight landed at Dulles International Airport on Monday, Feb. 24, stocks were plummeting. He opened his phone to numerous missed calls and emails. From that point, the central bank's response kicked into gear. That Friday, the 28th the same day Mr. Trump called worries about the coronavirus a "new hoax" spread by Democrats Mr. Powell issued a statement conveying the Fed's concern. On March 3, the next Tuesday, the Fed made its first emergency rate cut since the global financial crisis 12 years earlier, the first of many steps the Fed would take to avert a catastrophic market meltdown. A lot, it appears in hindsight. The Fed's rate cuts set the stage for a refinancing boom and, more recently, a rush to buy houses. The decision of Penny Achina, a first time home buyer just outside Houston, shows how Fed policy can cascade through the economy. After thinking about buying a house for four years, Ms. Achina, a 31 year old medical technologist, took the leap in 2020. Covid's impact on the supply chain continues. The pandemic has disrupted nearly every aspect of the global supply chain and made all kinds of products harder to find. In turn, scarcity has caused the prices of many things to go higher as inflation remains stubbornly high. Almost anything manufactured is in short supply. That includes everything from toilet paper to new cars. The disruptions go back to the beginning of the pandemic, when factories in Asia and Europe were forced to shut down and shipping companies cut their schedules. First, demand for home goods spiked. Money that Americans once spent on experiences were redirected to things for their homes. The surge clogged the system for transporting goods to the factories that needed them and finished products piled up because of a shortage of shipping containers. Now, ports are struggling to keep up. In North America and Europe, where containers are arriving, the heavy influx of ships is overwhelming ports. With warehouses full, containers are piling up. The chaos in global shipping is likely to persist as a result of the massive traffic jam. No one really knows when the crisis will end. Shortages and delays are likely to affect this year's Christmas and holiday shopping season, but what happens after that is unclear. Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, said he expects supply chain problems to persist "likely well into next year." "I said it's either you sink or you swim, and the interest rates really enticed me," she said, and she is set to close next week. With 3 percent down, she was approved for a 2.5 percent interest rate on a 30 year mortgage. When people like Ms. Achina buy houses, they often then spend money on new couches and refrigerators to fill them. Higher consumer demand prompts businesses, also attracted by low rates, to borrow money to invest in equipment to produce more. The central bank's rescue could yet have side effects. While most economists believe that runaway inflation is unlikely, a minority warn that price increases, which have been quiescent for years, could be kindled by huge government spending and a post pandemic economic surge. Policymakers have been watching for signs of financial excess as their tools have helped stocks soar and companies to issue debt at a stunning pace. Jobs remain the Fed's biggest challenge. While low rates are helping many employed people like Ms. Achina, millions of others are out of work. Lower wage workers, women and minorities have been particularly likely to lose their livelihoods. The Fed's low rates and bond purchases may do little to immediately help people who rent, own few stocks and find their jobs eliminated. Many economists say the 900 billion assistance package passed on Monday will need to be followed by more. Some of its key provisions, such as extended jobless benefits, will expire before spring. "We have a tough period to get through," Loretta Mester, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, said Friday, pointing out that businesses and households will need help in the next few months as coronavirus cases swell before vaccines are widely distributed. Even after the recovery takes hold, the Fed is likely to be slow to lift interest rates and that's when those left behind in the pandemic may feel the more widespread benefits of its policies. If its policies work, the Fed could pave the way for the sort of stable, inclusive growth that was taking hold at the start of 2020. Mr. Powell has repeatedly called job losses "heartbreaking" and has pledged to use the Fed's powers to try to restore the job market to its former strength. "We're thinking that this could be another long expansion," he said at a news conference in mid December, as he vowed to boost the economy "until the expansion is well down the tracks."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Economy
Nov. 13 is the one year anniversary of the death of Nohemi Gonzalez, the only American among 130 killed in the terrorist attacks in Paris. Nohemi was on a semester abroad, trading in 15 weeks at California State University, Long Beach, for an experience at Strate School of Design in Sevres, outside of Paris. She was the first in her family to attend college a Mexican American industrial design student on her way to becoming one of just over 15 percent of young Hispanics who hold a bachelor's degree. On the night she was killed, she was enjoying the City of Light like a Parisienne, in a lively bistro on Rue de Charonne, perhaps toasting her Cal State design team, which, she had just learned, placed second in a competition for efficient packaging of snack food. The packaging would decompose, leaving no trace behind. It is hard to truly know this student from public comments. The language of grief exalts and reduces the dead with larger than life words. She is described by friends as "always happy," "beautiful" and "a bright spirit." Her own Facebook posts give a sense of a more particular Nohemi: "Learning a 3D modeling computer program in a language I don't know is up there in the top three hardest things I've ever had to do." (The reader can't help but wonder what the other two hard things were.) In interviews soon after the attack, Nohemi's mother sometimes used the present tense to describe her daughter: "She loves school," she said, adding that "Nohemi wanted a different life from most of our people who just go to work and come home. She wanted a career." Reading about Nohemi's short life reminded me of many of my students at Johnson State College in Vermont, where I recently retired as president. Vermont is as different from California in its demographic makeup, size and economy as two states can be, and yet her story could have been theirs. Some of my students had never held a passport or even left our state; like Nohemi, they took their first plane rides while in college, exiting wide eyed onto foreign lands. "I can go anywhere now," one student told me after returning from Greece, as stunned as she was newly confident. Finding your way home on the metro in another country is one thing; doing so on your first metro ride ever is a triumph. Like Johnson State, Cal State Long Beach is one of 400 regional colleges and universities educating 40 percent of the nation's undergraduates. These "middle children" of public higher education not a community college, not a state flagship are oft forgotten (and seldom celebrated) microcosms of their states. Nohemi might have thrived anywhere, but Cal State Long Beach, whose enrollment is 95 percent Californian and more than one third Hispanic, seems to have fostered a keen awareness and responsibility of place (her place) and given her not only a context in which to flourish, but also the confidence to venture beyond its borders. Nohemi had only begun her journey, but her sense of adventure might serve as a beacon for young people with limited family resources as they set out to discover worlds apart from their own. In some ways, she was a typical study abroad student. According to the Institute for International Education's Open Doors report, of the 304,500 Americans who studied in another country in 2013 14, 67 percent were women. Approximately 21,000 students, or 7 percent, were focused on fine or applied art. In other ways she was atypical: Nearly 75 percent of Americans who study overseas are non Hispanic white, and disproportionately from private schools. Despite the opening up of federal financial aid to support study abroad, international study is still more available to students with greater family resources. Nohemi would have beaten many odds, and we root for people who defy statistics and set new paths. Will Cal State students follow hers? I asked Dean Jeet Joshee, who oversees international study at the university, if he was seeing any drop in interest in study abroad since her death. He said that students tell him they will not be deterred from their plans. Of course, study abroad is not without its risks. Foreign students in Rome are frequent targets of robberies, including one last summer that ended in the death of an American student in an exchange program at John Cabot University. But such highly publicized deaths may skew our perceptions. Indeed, students are about twice as likely to die at their home campuses than in another country, according to the Forum on Education Abroad, which established a database of incidents in 2014. That year, 313 incidents were reported, 80 percent of them an illness; gastrointestinal ailments were a major culprit. Four deaths two accidental, two from pre existing medical conditions were also reported by study abroad insurance providers. The 2015 incidents report will include Nohemi Gonzalez's death. As unlikely as Nohemi's death was, it was not random. Her assassins did not set out to kill a Mexican American design student in particular, but they did set out to murder what she represents: the freedom of pleasure, choice and agency. Colleges are brave institutions. They must be part of the forces that shape the lives of young adults during their most alert and seeking years. As parents and educators, it's our job to ensure that we protect these freedoms for our young people here, at home and instill in them the values and responsibilities that such liberties require. Then we can set them free, and hope it's enough. Most students who return from a semester or more of international study report greater maturity and a clearer understanding of their own values. Living and learning in another culture is more important than ever for the individual students, of course, but also because the empathy such experiences foster is crucial in maintaining a safer, more loving world. No other single experience comes as close to building a new perspective on citizenship and place as study in another country. Nothing. Nohemi's brief immersion in that experience made her life, I am convinced, a larger one. This was a woman who refused to be constrained by tradition or circumstance. She chose knowledge instead of ignorance. She chose to imagine a future for herself. That she did not get to inhabit that future breaks our hearts but not our resolve to leave our homes and expand our notion of citizenship and belonging.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Education
"Sextuplets," the latest made for Netflix comedy from the "White Chicks" alum Marlon Wayans (following the 2017 rom com "Naked"), is about as funny as an amputation and nearly as painful. Wayans stars as Alan, who seeks out his birth mother on the eve of his first child's birth and discovers he was one of six sextuplets all of them played by Wayans. Hilarity, in theory, ensues, although if there is a solid laugh to be found in "Sextuplets," this viewer missed it. The writers pack their script with maddeningly familiar elements: a pending partnership at Alan's company, a zany odd couple road trip and (two for the price of one) a car chase en route to a hospital delivery room. But each comic set piece decomposes on the screen , lifeless and hopeless . The supporting players do their best Bresha Webb , as Alan's put upon wife, is spirited and engaging, and Molly Shannon is funny, as Molly Shannon always is but this is Wayans's vehicle, and in that respect, it's an embarrassment. The picture's most direct inspiration is "The Family Jewels," in which Jerry Lewis plays six brothers, though the makers of "Sextuplets" are clearly attempting to replicate the magic of Eddie Murphy's remake of Lewis's "The Nutty Professor" (and its sequel).	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Movies
Staff members at one of South Carolina's largest newspapers reported to the office on Monday after more than two months of working remotely. With the number of Covid 19 cases hitting new highs in the state, many of them said they were wary of going back. Employees at The Post and Courier, a locally owned daily in Charleston with a paid weekday circulation of about 40,000, had been doing their jobs from home since the second week of March to guard against the spread of the coronavirus. Early last month, the publisher and the top editor announced a limited reopening, telling its more than 250 employees, including more than 60 journalists, to work at least one day a week in the office. On Monday, staff members were asked to return full time, and they complied, although some said they had concerns about potentially exposing themselves to the virus. "I believe that the workplace is a safe place to be at the moment, but I understand why others are concerned," Mitch Pugh, the executive editor, said in an interview. "There's also no question we do better when we can talk to each other." More than 12,400 Covid 19 cases have been reported in South Carolina, with 500 deaths attributed to the virus in the state. The seven day average of new cases reached a high on Tuesday for the fifth day in a row, the paper reported.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
ORLANDO, Fla. In a scene more like a battlefield than an emergency room in a large American city, dozens of people hit by gunfire poured into the Orlando Regional Medical Center in the dark predawn hours of Sunday morning, lining the hallways and filling the operating rooms. The largest mass shooting in American history happened just a few blocks from the region's only major trauma care hospital an event that illuminates the new challenges facing emergency medicine. The gunman fired on his victims in a packed gay nightclub with an assault rifle that caused deep, gaping wounds. He also shot at them with a handgun whose smaller caliber rounds, in some cases, bounced around inside their bodies, inflicting internal injuries. "If they had not been three blocks from the hospital, they might not have made it to the hospital," said Dr. William S. Havron, a trauma surgeon at the center. Specialists in emergency medicine say the escalating severity of mass shootings in the United States calls for a re evaluation of the medical response. In the past, disaster drills have focused on crises like bus accidents or plane crashes, which involve blunt trauma injuries, not gunshots from high powered weapons capable of mowing down dozens of people at a time. Recognizing that more mass killings are likely, Dr. Jay A. Kaplan, the president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, said the group created a task force in January to determine how to improve the responses. Using the military as a model, the group wants to study "patterns of wounding" in civilian shootings to help find the best ways to save lives. "The battlefield has been brought to our communities, in terms of the kind of injuries we're seeing," said Dr. Kaplan, who is also vice chairman of emergency services at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans. He added, "We need to learn and we need to be better prepared." On Sunday, the casualties came to the medical center in two waves, the first around 2 a.m., shortly after the shooting started. Victims arrived several to an ambulance or in cars or trucks driven by people on the scene. The second wave, victims who had been trapped in the club with the gunman, arrived about 5 a.m., after police blasted through a wall in the club and killed the assailant. Of the 44 victims brought to the hospital, nine died within minutes of arriving, Dr. Michael L. Cheatham, a trauma surgeon at the center, said. Of the remaining 35, eight have gone home and 27 were still hospitalized on Tuesday. Six of those 27 are in critical condition, in the intensive care unit. Five others are in guarded condition, and 16 are stable. At a news conference at the hospital on Tuesday, trauma surgeons, emergency medicine specialists, nurses and one of the victims recounted the horrific events that began with the attack at the gay nightclub that left 50 dead, including the gunman. In interviews, doctors gave more details. "This is not a drill," Dr. Chadwick P. Smith, a surgeon at the center, said he told the trauma surgeons he woke up at home with phone calls summoning them to the emergency room. The surgeons went from one operating room to the next, performing 28 operations on Sunday, eight on Monday and eight on Tuesday. One victim, rushed into surgery on Sunday, had a severe abdominal wound and was also close to bleeding to death from shots to the arm and leg, said Dr. Matthew W. Lube, another trauma surgeon at the center. Dr. Cheatham said that he would not be surprised if one or two of the six victims who are in critical condition do not survive and that he had concerns about whether others would recover fully. At least one had been shot in the head. Eleven victims were taken to other hospitals in Orlando. The patient who attended the news conference, Angel Colon, was saying goodnight to friends at the club when the shooting began. He was shot three times in the right leg, fell and was trampled, shattering bones in his left leg. As he lay on the floor, the gunman shot a woman next to him and then shot him twice more, seeming to aim for his head but striking him in the hand and the hip. Mr. Colon remained motionless, hoping the shooter would think him dead. When the police arrived, Mr. Colon was unable to stand, so an officer hurriedly dragged him out of the club, across broken glass that cut his legs and back. "But I'm grateful for him," Mr. Colon said. To the doctors and nurses at the briefing, Mr. Colon said, "I will love you guys forever." When it came to rescuing victims at the site, the usual rules did not apply, Dr. George Ralls, the medical director for Orange County, where Orlando is located, said in an interview. At most sites with multiple casualties, emergency medical technicians assess the victims and color tag them according to how urgently they need to be evacuated. Yellow can wait, red means hurry up, black means it's too late. But that night, unless someone obviously needed urgent help for hemorrhaging or breathing trouble, technicians skipped the assessments and loaded people into ambulances and rushed them to the medical center, Dr. Ralls said. Because it was so close, the technicians realized they could drive patients there, several at a time, faster than they could assess them. And for critically injured people, the thing most likely to save their lives is getting to the hospital as fast as possible. A doctor waited in the driveway outside the emergency room performing triage on patients as they arrived and told the technicians where to take them. "At one point we had 90 plus patients in the emergency department," said Dr. Timothy B. Bullard, an emergency physician at the center and a member of the command structure that is activated to manage mass casualties. (Some patients were already at the hospital for reasons unrelated to the attack at the nightclub.) At the peak of the crisis, there were eight emergency doctors, six senior trauma surgeons and several residents, a few orthopedic surgeons, a vascular surgeon, a neurosurgeon, at least two specialists in critical care, respiratory therapists, chaplains, counselors, X ray personnel and countless nurses working, Dr. Bullard said. Police officers and security guards were also on duty. With so many patients, critical medical decisions had to be made quickly and doctors had to act more aggressively than they normally would, Dr. Bullard said. For example, if a patient showed any signs of breathing trouble, instead of waiting to see if it would resolve, doctors would put in a breathing tube so they could move on to the next patient. "Initially, we had four operating rooms going," Dr. Bullard said. "Then they opened a fifth, and after 3 a.m. they may have opened more." The hospital is well stocked, but with so many patients, supplies dwindled and hospital officials went across the street to a children's hospital to restock. So many people were shot in the chest that one item in short supply was special tubing needed to help reinflate the lungs. "I've been here 31 years at the trauma center, and I've not seen anything like this, nothing on this scale, nothing of this nature," Dr. Bullard said. "I guess, being it's the largest mass shooting in the history of the United States, nobody else has, either."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Health
One of the stranger things about New York Fashion Week thus far has been the way designers have dragged their guests all over the city from one landmark building and hard to access venue to the next and then, when everyone is inside, ogling their surroundings, immediately attempted to transport them somewhere else. Tory Burch invited everyone to the Whitney Museum of American Art, for example, in all its glassed in Renzo Piano glory, and then showed them the Philadelphia story (her own, and bits inspired by the 1940 George Cukor film) in 36 looks from coed Fair Isles and corduroy to PTA foulards with a big, swirling T.B. monogram and gold embroidered hostess glam. Brandon Maxwell brought everyone to the 71st floor of 4 World Trade Center, laid the Hudson River and the sunset over New Jersey at their feet, dimmed the lights and the darkened room became a nightclub, strafed by divas in short leather minidresses and sweetheart neckline jumpsuits, big emerald furs and slinky emerald gowns. What's that about? Inclusivity? Concern that on their own, the clothes are not exciting enough? (Sometimes this is true.) A desire to underscore the truth that the promise of fashion is the promise of transformation? Maybe all of the above. In his show statement, Mr. Maxwell who made his name as Lady Gaga's stylist before going out on his own said it was "a glimpse into the soul of a boy from Texas who dreamed his whole life of someday being here" as well as an effort to "branch out into unfamiliar territories." Though whether that meant New York or the heart of the fashion establishment, or simply the addition of jewel tones to a black and white palette, was unclear. Space and set are just narrative devices: a way of dressing up the dresses. In the end, clothes should speak for themselves. Certainly Coach 1941, the official name of the women's collection, where the creative director Stuart Vevers went off once again on a road trip across America, and found himself in a prairie meets badlands state of mind. Floral tea dresses came in earthy shades of brown and beige, trimmed in lace and beaded posies; tartans were burnt umber and black; and shearlings with a feral edge bloomed with dried out roses. Little charm bags dangled from gold chains around the neck, moon boot Birkenstocks were buckled by rhinestones, and frame bags or mega totes clutched in the hand. Puffer coats were supersized and printed with the same sere florals (for men and women Coach tells the same story for both), varsity jackets sported skulls 'n' roses, and duffels came strewn with patches. In case you didn't get it, the brand had lured everyone to the Far West Side of Manhattan and a pier by a bit of beach just abutting the Hudson, and seated the attendees around a little hut on the prairie that had been built inside a structure complete with tumbleweeds on dusty ground. But the story was so obvious, the setting wasn't necessary. Whack! It hit you on the head. Whack! It might have been better to let some of Manhattan in. Because, while it is perfectly clear what Mr. Vevers's Coach stands for, it is a limited idea. This time around he stretched it a bit literally: the dresses swirled at mid calf, instead of at the knee; there was a hint of hip hop in the sizing and the symbolism but save for one pair of patched jeans, prairie girls apparently don't wear pants (those were left to the boys), or suits, or ever go to the ball. Even Laura Ingalls Wilder moved on, and she got a whole book series out of it. If his ambitions for Coach go beyond a little dress, cool bags and a great coat, Mr. Vevers needs to do the same.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
PARIS The Hungarian national airline, Malev, halted all flights Friday, stranding thousands of passengers after creditors started seizing its planes outside the country over unpaid debts, and becoming the second state owned airline in a week to succumb to Europe's economic woes. The airline, which was re nationalized two years ago after a failed privatization, had been losing money for years, while its debt had ballooned to 60 billion forints, or 271 million. On Thursday, a court in Budapest placed Malev under the control of a bankruptcy trustee, saying the airline could only make payments that were essential to continue offering service. The government, which is itself seeking help from the European Union and the International Monetary fund to handle its own heavy debt load, had hoped the court move would stave off the claims of creditors while Malev, a member of the Oneworld airline alliance, drew up a restructuring plan. But with the airline's future in doubt, creditors at airports in Ireland and Israel refused to allow Malev aircraft to take off, necessitating the decision to ground the airline's flights. In recent days, a number of suppliers and service providers had begun to demand payments in advance, draining the airline's cash reserves to levels it said were "unsustainable." "What we fretted about the most and what we've done the most to avert has come to pass," Lorant Limburger, Malev's chief executive, said in a statement posted on the airline's Web site. "We apologize to all of our passengers." Malev's situation had been more tenuous since the European Commission ordered it in January to repay about 100 billion forints of state aid, including loans and debt deferrals, that it had received from 2007 to 2010. The commission, which polices Europe's competition rules, said there was no reason to believe that Malev could turn itself around. Malev and other airlines that have relied on state support to stay afloat are seeing the flow of government cash dwindle as Europe's protracted sovereign debt crisis leads governments to cut spending. Spanair, based in Barcelona, collapsed on Jan. 27, stranding 23,000 passengers. The Spanish airline had been kept aloft with the help of EUR150 million, or about 200 million, of subsidies from regional authorities in Catalonia. A consortium of investors led by the Catalonian government held a stake of nearly 86 percent in Spanair, while SAS, the Scandinavian carrier, held 10.9 percent. Such carriers, which turned to governments after failing to drum up support from private sector investors, are likely to find access to new funds difficult in the current environment, analysts said. But Europe's economic downturn, combined with high fuel prices and rising airport taxes and fees, has been threatening the viability of smaller, privately owned airlines as well. Czech Connect Airlines, based in Brno, ceased operations last month, as did the Italian carrier Air Alps and Cirrus Airlines of Germany. CargoItalia, a freight operator based in Milan, wound up its business last month. "The classic way that airlines go bankrupt is they run out of cash," especially in the low season from January to April, said Paul Sheridan, global head of risk at Ascend, an aviation consulting firm in London. "There will be more airlines like Malev facing a squeeze on revenue and profit generation in 2012," Mr. Sheridan said. "They will also be facing lack of access to finance and the rising cost of finance." Malev's grounding was likely to have affected 5,000 to 6,000 passengers Friday. The airline said that it would arrange alternate flights for passengers with confirmed bookings for the next three days, provided those tickets were purchased before the groundings Friday. At Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris, most of the confusion had been cleared up by late Friday afternoon, as Air France, a code sharing partner, was working to accommodate stranded Malev passengers there. "I really trusted Malev," said Eszter Vegh, 26, a medical student from Szeged, Hungary, who had been in France for training and was still waiting to hear whether she would be able to make it home Friday night. "I'm very disappointed." "What I really liked about Malev was that the price you saw on the page was the price you pay," Ms. Vegh said, "unlike so called cheap airlines where you ended up paying 50 percent more by the time you've added in baggage fees and stuff." Malev's market share has stalled in recent years, faced with growing competition on its European routes, particularly from low cost carriers. The airline carried roughly three million passengers in 2011 and 2010, down from 3.3 million in 2009. The Budapest based budget airline Wizz Air, meanwhile, saw its Hungarian traffic climb 13 percent last year, to 1.4 million passengers. EasyJet, which is based in London, had traffic on its Hungarian routes rise 10 percent in the year to Sept. 30, to 556,000. Analysts predicted that rival airlines would quickly move in fill the void left by Malev's demise. Ryanair, the largest low cost carrier in Europe, which had stopped its Hungary services two years ago, said Friday that it would start operating 31 routes from Budapest in April, in the hope of capturing two million passengers a year. Wizz Air has announced plans to invest 25 billion forints to expand its Budapest operation this year and to nearly double the number of its weekly flights. Wizz Air said it expected its passenger numbers to reach two million this year, a jump of more than 40 percent from 2011.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Global Business
Our museums, movies and magazines have been on a yearslong binge of '60s nostalgia, pegged to a rolling sequence of 50th anniversaries: the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Neil Armstrong, Woodstock and the Manson murders. It seems Americans can't get enough of the era, and the optimism that percolated amid great social upheaval. But well beyond our borders, before the 1973 oil crisis tanked the global economy, other countries were partying and protesting just as hard, and a youth culture of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll spanned the globe. This country had no monopoly on grooviness. "Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion," now on view at the Brooklyn Museum, offers a swinging reintroduction to Parisian style in the 1960s and 1970s, when the New Look gave way to thigh high boots and dresses of heat molded synthetics. The Concorde was flying, Francoise Hardy and Joe Dassin were singing and women (and men) cruised the Left Bank in Mr. Cardin's stretchy knits and swooping miniskirts. With 85 ensembles, the earliest dating from 1953 and the most recent from this decade, "Future Fashion" is not, strictly speaking, another '60s show. But its core are the space age outfits that Mr. Cardin designed in a young, newly prosperous Paris, seen here on mannequins as well as in photographs and films of Jeanne Moreau, Mia Farrow and the cast of "Star Trek." Some are chic, many are risible; all of it has an exuberant view of the future that marks it as decidedly from the past. Mr. Cardin, one of the most commercially successful of all French designers (and still working at 97), was never a great artist in the manner of Christian Dior, Cristobal Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent. Born Pietro Cardin in 1922, he fled with his family from fascist Italy to Vichy, which would become the seat of France's nominal government in 1940. After the liberation of France, he moved to Paris and apprenticed with the couturier Jeanne Paquin. Later he worked in the studios of Elsa Schiaparelli and Dior, went into costuming and presented his first couture collection in 1953. He won acclaim for his "bubble dresses" (disappointingly absent from this show), cinched at the waist and hem. Here are a beige coatdress of beige boucle wool, plus a fitted day suit worn by Jackie Kennedy; both have thick roll collars that would become a Cardin signature.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
Kay, Lorraine and Amber share a stage but not a single conversation in Elaine Murphy's "Little Gem." Yet as the show goes on, it becomes increasingly obvious that the women, who represent three generations of a Dublin family, are very close. When one speaks, the others look on, sometimes silently reacting: a raised eyebrow here, pursed lips there. They may not directly speak to each other, but they do look out for each other. Ms. Murphy's play, which had its New York premiere in 2010 and is now revived at the Irish Repertory Theater, is structured as a series of interconnected monologues, with the women trading places center stage as they take turns holding forth. The first one we meet is Amber (Lauren O'Leary), who is in her late teens and prone to hitting the sambuca. And the vodka. And the Coronas. And the cocaine and spliffs. "My hangovers are brutal lately," Amber tells a colleague after throwing up. We in the audience suspect something else, and lo and behold, Amber is pregnant by her casual boyfriend, who is more interested in going to Australia than in his new responsibilities.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Theater
PHILADELPHIA Princes have a way of showing up in dances even the innocent young interstellar traveler from Antoine de Saint Exupery's "The Little Prince." Now, BalletX has added its own rendition of that beloved novella, and it's all about letting the inner child out. But it's hard to know exactly for whom this ballet, performed Wednesday at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia where the company is based, is intended. While the book and its delicate drawings, also by Saint Exupery have long captivated readers of all ages, this ballet, by the Belgian Colombian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, never rises to the kind of sophisticated whimsy that might make an adult fall in love with a kid's show. Even in its most etched afterimages the character of the Snake (Stanley Glover), in particular, with his bowler hat and walking stick the choreography, repetitive and frequently choppy, doesn't elevate the production beyond a story staged as a dance rather than a dance that tells a story. It's helpful to set the scene, which includes a landscape of rugged mountains made from stacked white boxes by the set designer Matt Saunders. In the ballet, the Pilot (Zachary Kapeluck) has crashed his plane in the desert yellow pieces of it litter the floor where he meets the Little Prince (Roderick Phifer), who asks the Pilot to draw a sheep. But that fails repeatedly until the Pilot produces a box; the sheep, it turns out, is inside it. This delights the Prince to no end. They bond.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Dance
LONDON On Monday lunchtime, a steady trickle of people wandered into the gift shop of the National Gallery in the British capital, browsing souvenirs to mark their first visit to a museum since Britain started emerging from lockdown. Staying socially distanced, visitors glanced around the racks that held National Gallery umbrellas, National Gallery gin and National Gallery pencil cases. But many were quickly drawn to the museum's range of face masks. "They're really cool," said Jessica Macdonald, a 16 year old student, as she grabbed one featuring Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers," on sale for 9.50 pounds, about 12. "My mum's been trying to find nice ones for ages so we don't have to wear these," she added, pointing at the blue medical mask she was wearing. The masks have been some of the gift shop's biggest sellers since the museum reopened on July 8, said Yumi Nakajima, a store assistant. Although not everyone was impressed. Alison Ripley, 66, said she thought that the floral choices were tame. "Why not that?" she said, pointing at a postcard of Diego Velazquez's "The Toilet of Venus," which shows the goddess lying naked on a bed. "You've got to make masks funky if you want youngsters to wear them," she said. As museums start to reopen in Europe and the United States, and many countries require people to wear masks to halt the further spread of the coronavirus, masks on sale at gift shops are likely to become a frequent sight. The British government said on Tuesday that masks would have to be worn in shops in England, with fines handed out to those who refuse. (Museums were not expressly included in the new mask regulations. The National Gallery has asked visitors to wear them but is not enforcing the rule.) The same day, in France, President Emmanuel Macron said that masks would soon have to be worn in all enclosed public spaces. In the U.S., many states have face covering orders in effect that, in general, require people to wear masks in public places where distance cannot be maintained. Judith Mather, the National Gallery's buying director, said in a telephone interview that the decision to sell masks was quite a last minute decision. In June, she said, she was in a supermarket, and, "I was looking around at people and their masks looked so surgical and so ugly," she said. "I just thought some art would be really different and striking." For the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, there's also been a financial incentive. Leanne Graeff, a senior manager in the museum's product development team, said in a telephone interview that masks were an easy way for people to give money to museums. The Met is already selling four masks online, featuring impressionist paintings and New York scenes, and a larger range is expected when the museum reopens in late August. Wearing a face covering with the logo of the Uffizi, at the gallery in Florence. Mask designs at museums vary widely. The Uffizi in Florence has stamped its logo all over its masks, reminiscent of the way Italian fashion houses do the same on handbags. The Tate, which runs several museums in Britain, has prepared a range of masks that feature paintings such as Turner's "The Lagoon near Venice, at Sunset." The museum that has arguably had the most success in selling face masks so far is the Klimt Villa in Vienna, a museum housed in one of Gustav Klimt's former studios. In March, the museum had to close when Austria went into lockdown, according to Baris Alakus, the museum's director, and it was soon in desperate need of money. "We're a private museum so we don't get any support from the government," Mr. Alakus said. "It was a very critical situation." Then Brigitte Huber, a fashion designer and Klimt's great granddaughter, suggested making masks to help raise funds. She came up with a simple navy design with a touch of white embroidery reminiscent of Klimt's paintings, and made them out of the same material used to make his painting overalls. The museum, which reopened in May, has sold over 6,000 so far, at 20 euros each, about 23. "With the money, we've paid all the bills," Mr. Alakus said. Not every museum is selling masks to raise money for their own operations. The Stedelijk art museum in Amsterdam is selling masks designed by Carlos Amorales, a Mexican artist whose exhibition at the museum was suspended by the pandemic. The masks feature a mothlike creature that moves when the wearer breathes in or talks, and the profits are being used by Mr. Amorales to make masks for Mexican street workers. The Stedelijk might commission more artists to design masks, said Rein Wolfs, the museum's director, in a telephone interview. "It's a perfect opportunity when artists are struggling," he said. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has also teamed up with a charity for its face masks, which somewhat bizarrely feature a wide eyed self portrait by Rembrandt. "Since this is a face mask, we thought we should put a face on it," Philine Hofman, the head of the museum's shop, said in a telephone interview. "We thought, 'If you have to wear it, let's at least have some humor to it,'" she added.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
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. 'CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY' at the Lunt Fontanne Theater (previews start on March 28; opens on April 23). Pop an Everlasting Gobstopper and settle in for this Broadway adaptation of Roald Dahl's beloved children's book about a boy, a genius confectioner and an orange work force. Jack O'Brien directs this musical, with songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and a book by David Greig, starring Christian Borle as the top hatted candy man. 877 250 2929, charlieonbroadway.com 'DANIEL'S HUSBAND' at the Cherry Lane Theater (in previews; opens on April 4). A comedy and a tragedy of marriage equality, Michael McKeever's play focuses on Daniel, an architect who wants to live in nuptial bliss, and his boyfriend, Mitchell, a writer who has never seen the point of saying "I do." Joe Brancato directs this Primary Stages production. 866 811 4111, primarystages.org 'A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2' at the Golden Theater (previews start on March 30; opens on April 27). When we last saw Henrik Ibsen's Nora, she had left her husband and young children in pursuit of personal freedom. Lucas Hnath's sequel, set 15 years after the original, observes her return. Sam Gold steps away from his "Glass Menagerie" to direct a cast including Laurie Metcalf as the older Nora, as well as Chris Cooper, Jayne Houdyshell and Condola Rashad. 212 239 6200, dollshousepart2.com 'THE HAIRY APE' at the Park Avenue Armory (previews start on March 25; opens on March 31). Bobby Cannavale gets in touch with his simian side in this revival of Eugene O'Neill's 1921 expressionist drama about a man wrestling with his own brutishness. Richard Jones restages his acclaimed Old Vic production in the armory's capacious drill hall, with Mr. Cannavale as a ship stoker named Yank. 212 933 5812, armoryonpark.org 'THE LITTLE FOXES' at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater (previews start on March 29; opens on April 19). In this wily revival of Lillian Hellman's 1939 play, directed by Daniel Sullivan, the actresses Cynthia Nixon and Laura Linney alternate in the roles of Regina and Birdie. An Alabama set drama of family, ambition, greed and betrayal, it also stars Darren Goldstein, Michael McKean and Richard Thomas. 212 239 6200, littlefoxesbroadway.com 'THE PROFANE' at Playwrights Horizons (in previews; opens on April 9). Zayd Dohrn's play, which won the 2016 Horton Foote Prize for promising new American play, centers on the uneasy intertwining of two first generation American families, one westernized, the other less so. Kip Fagan directs a cast including Ali Reza Farahnakian, Heather Raffo and Babak Tafti. 212 279 4200, playwrightshorizons.org 'SWEAT' at Studio 54 (in previews; opens on March 26). Lynn Nottage's work about a declining industrial town and its wounded citizens arrives on Broadway, directed by Kate Whoriskey. Last fall, Charles Isherwood described the Public Theater production as "keenly observed and often surprisingly funny but ultimately heartbreaking." The events of the last several months have not made it any less timely. 212 239 6200, sweatbroadway.com 'VANITY FAIR' at the Pearl Theater (previews start on March 24; opens on April 2). William Makepeace Thackeray's social satire goes onstage in a new adaptation by the actress Kate Hamill, who recently gave us a galloping, moving "Sense and Sensibility." The scheming Becky Sharp (Ms. Hamill) and her winsome friend Amelia will intrigue anew, courtesy of the director Eric Tucker. 212 563 9261, pearltheatre.org 'BULL IN A CHINA SHOP' at the Claire Tow Theater (closes on April 2). Ruibo Qian and Enid Graham star in Bryna Turner's playful biography of the writers and feminists Mary Woolley and Jeannette Marks for LCT3. Laura Collins Hughes described the play, directed by Lee Sunday Evans, as "pugnacious, tender and gloriously funny." 212 239 6200, lct.org '887' at BAM Harvey Theater (closes on March 26). In this wondrous and humane solo piece, the Canadian director Robert Lepage returns to his Quebec City childhood home with the aid of dolls, toy cars and a revolving cube. In his hands, a cramped apartment transforms into a vaulting memory palace. Step inside. 718 636 4100, bam.org 'GOD OF VENGEANCE' at the Theater at St. Clement's (closes on March 26). This 1907 Yiddish play about an Orthodox Jewish brothel owner and his rebellious daughter, which caused a scandal when it debuted in New York and is the inspiration for Paula Vogel's Broadway bound "Indecent," returns for an encore after a successful run at La MaMa. In his review of that first run, Charles Isherwood wrote that "the cast's commitment brings the work's flashes of lyricism to powerful life." 800 838 3006, newyiddishrep.org 'SUNDOWN, YELLOW MOON' at the McGinn/Cazale Theater (closes on April 1). Rachel Bonds's play about an artistically gifted but emotionally challenged family, directed by Anne Kauffman, sounds its last, yearning chords. Ben Brantley praised this "quietly perceptive portrait" of twin girls returning home and noted "the irresistibly plaintive tones of down home folk songs" written by the Bengsons. 866 811 4111, arsnovanyc.com, wptheater.org 'WAITRESS' at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. The Tony winning actress Jessie Mueller will plate her final slice of pie on March 26 when she departs this Sara Bareilles musical about love and pastry. But don't signal for the check just yet: On March 31, Ms. Bareilles herself will put on an apron and take on the role of Jenna in this Diane Paulus production, which Charles Isherwood described as "slick but superficial." 877 250 2929, waitressthemusical.com 'WAKEY, WAKEY' at the Pershing Square Signature Center (closes on April 2). Will Eno's two character melange of mordant philosophy, slapstick comedy and ample tear jerking, which Ben Brantley described as a "glowingly dark, profoundly moving new play," will make its final exit next month. It stars Michael Emerson as a dying man, with January LaVoy as a home care aide. 212 244 7529, signaturetheatre.org	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Theater
From 88 Canadian dollars, or 77 at 1.14 Canadian dollars to the U.S. dollar, for a double room. A bed in a dorm room is 34 Canadian dollars ( 30). The Cube opened its doors in this rising south central British Columbia town last January, its Mondrian patterned exterior hinting that this wasn't a traditional backpacker's hostel like the one that sits just two blocks away, with its warren of rooms housed in a big, creaky Victorian. The Cube fancies itself a newer, hybrid take on lodging, offering fewer comforts than a regular hotel, but more amenities than a hostel. The goal? To target those who want some of a hotel's comforts and privacy, but who also like a hostel's conviviality and pricing. The Cube is in a great location near downtown Revelstoke, a one time railroad community with a mountaineering addiction. The town is changing rapidly, thanks to the 2007 opening of Revelstoke Mountain Resort, which has huge snowfalls and the biggest vertical drop in North America. But the area also has a thriving heli skiing, snowcat skiing and backcountry skiing scene, too, so it's a great base for a week or more of outdoor winter adventure. Downtown "Revy" is tiny; a walker can get almost everywhere except to the ski hill, five miles up the road.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
This article is part of Frank Bruni's free newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it every Wednesday. Conservatives' complaints that the media exaggerates the threat of the coronavirus to make President Trump look bad are at this point drearily familiar. But a few days ago, the Fox News host Steve Hilton added a new twist, an additional reason "our ruling class and their TV mouthpieces" are "whipping up fear." "They can afford an indefinite shutdown," he said. And by his estimation, they don't care enough about the tens of millions of less privileged Americans who can't. Let's leave aside the strange notion that it's the president's critics, and not the president himself, who have a caring deficit. Let's not touch the odd use of "ruling class" to define those critics, most of whom can't match the president's wealth, cronyism, nepotism and tax shenanigans, and none of whom are rulers of his station, because none sit, as he does, at the apex of government. Let's look instead at Hilton's suggestion that this pandemic is amplifying the different vulnerabilities and fates of people who occupy different tiers of wealth in America. Let's examine the idea that as the pandemic disrupts life for some Americans much more consequentially and irreversibly than for others, resentment will rise. Hilton gets that much right. The pandemic is first a story about public health. But it's maybe second a story about class, and I think the conversation about income inequality in America, which has increasingly heated over recent years, is about to grow more heated still. I spotted a wickedly observant and totally depressing tweet on Monday. Above a picture of dozens of people pressed tightly together not six feet apart outside a New York restaurant beloved by New Yorkers with the budget for that love, the tweet said: "Lockdown, Manhattan style: an incredibly grim photo of all the Caviar delivery guys waiting to pick up orders of 70 veal parm at Carbone." Caviar transports meals from high end restaurants to well paid people eating at home, and it's unknowable whether everyone in that scrum worked for the service. Some could have been Carbone customers who themselves dropped by for takeout. But it's undeniable that many hourly laborers who don't get paid if they don't show up are ignoring the dictates of social distancing and taking the accordant risks as they cater to salaried professionals who can socially distance to their hearts' content. The Times's Opinion section recently published an article by one of those workers, a woman who in fact works for Caviar in Seattle. She wrote: "I can't self quarantine because not working is not an option. If I don't make enough money, I can't feed my children for the next six weeks. I'm not stopping, fever or no fever. And that's what most other gig workers would do too, because none of us makes enough money to save up for an emergency like this." The discrepancy between her situation and that of the people whose homes she delivers food to is obviously bothering and even infuriating many Americans. The tweet that I mentioned before, by Tom Gara, an editor at BuzzFeed News, was liked by more than 4,500 Twitter users and re tweeted by more than 1,500 of them. I also spotted, in The New York Post, a column by Maureen Callahan with a headline proclaiming "class warfare in Hamptons." What prompted the hostilities? According to Callahan, the influx of second home owners (or, this being the Hamptons, third and fourth home owners) who fled their populous, congested, infectious New York City neighborhoods for greener pastures and are monopolizing the precious resources there with no regard for the less affluent folks who live and work in that area of Long Island year round. The column quoted one lifelong East Hampton resident, Jason LaGarenne, as saying that he'd seen "breathtaking acts of selfishness," including a man leaving a grocery store with "a cart full of carrots." "Just carrots," LaGarenne said. "Another cart was full of bottles of water and orange antimicrobial dish soap. If you're a ridiculous person in general, I guess your ridiculousness is amplified by something like this." One more thing I spotted: an article in Axios, by Kim Hart, that beautifully and succinctly summarized how "the coronavirus economy will devastate those who can least afford it." Hart noted that you can't "shelter in place if you don't have shelter in the first place," and while that's an extreme iteration of epidemiological inequality, it gets at a broad truth: Despite occasional platitudes about illness being a great leveler and despite the susceptibility of anyone even Prince Charles to infection by the coronavirus, this pandemic does discriminate. There are affluent Americans for whom it's a forced vacation and less affluent Americans for whom it's the road to financial and emotional ruin. Not even a 2 trillion federal aid package is going to change that. I invite you to sign up for my free weekly email newsletter. You can follow me on Twitter ( FrankBruni). The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We'd like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here's our email: letters nytimes.com.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Opinion
It was, it seemed, the end of the world and that was before the plague came. In the first decade of the 14th century, the climate was changing, and not for the good. "A physical chill settled on the 14th century at its very start, initiating the miseries to come," Barbara W. Tuchman wrote in her 1978 book "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century." "The Baltic Sea froze over twice, 1303 and 1306 07; years followed of unseasonable cold, storms and rains, and a rise in the level of the Caspian Sea." Known as the Little Ice Age, the shift in weather was mysterious in cause but clear in its devastating effects: Colder weather meant a curtailed growing season, which in turn meant less food, which in the last resort meant people starved to death. Then came the rains, which in 1315 washed out what crops there were, and famine, Tuchman reported, "the dark horseman of the Apocalypse, became familiar to all. ... Reports spread of people eating their own children, of the poor in Poland feeding on hanged bodies taken down from the gibbet." And then, at last, as if ice and cold and famine weren't enough, came the bubonic plague. Rats were long believed to be the culprit, but the Black Death is now thought to have largely spread by fleas, lice and through the air transmitted, in other words, from human to human. As Tuchman described it, the sailors who brought the contagion to Europe from the Black Sea in October 1347 "showed strange black swellings about the size of an egg or an apple in the armpits and groin. The swellings oozed blood and pus and were followed by spreading boils and black blotches on the skin from internal bleeding. The sick suffered severe pain and died quickly within five days of the first symptoms." Soon the road from apparent infection to death shortened considerably. "These victims coughed and sweated heavily and died even more quickly, within three days or less, sometimes in 24 hours. ... Depression and despair accompanied the physical symptoms, and before the end 'death is seen seated on the face.'" Thus began the deadliest pandemic in human history. The Black Death killed an estimated third of the world's population, leading to fundamental social, economic and political shifts. It's too early to know where our own battle against Covid 19 will lead us the fight is far from over but the nonfiction literature of plague reveals that pandemics, while ending individual human lives, can mark the beginnings of new ways of being and of thinking.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Books
Our new Learning sections will feature a question and answer segment with an education expert. For our first installment, we've chosen Sir Ken Robinson, a best selling author and longtime advocate of transforming education. His latest book, "You, Your Child, and School," was published in March by Viking. The following interview was edited and condensed. Your new book offers wide ranging advice for parents as they try to manage their children's education. If you had to choose one takeaway, what would it be? Parents have more power and more choices than they may realize in educating their children. Many parents are worried about how the world is changing and the uncertain futures their children face. Parents are especially anxious about education. They worry that there's too much testing and competition, that the curriculum is too narrow, that their children are not treated as individuals and that schools are not cultivating their curiosity, confidence and creative talents. They worry about how many young people are being medicated for "learning problems." They worry about the rising costs of college and whether their children will eventually find a job, whether or not they go to college. Often parents feel powerless to do anything about all of this. The good news is that a great many educators share these concerns and are also campaigning for change. While it's reasonable to lay heavy responsibility on parents for charting the path of their children's education, they are no match for the bureaucracy of any single school, let alone a state or federal Department of Education. How can parents expect to have any real impact? The challenges parents face and the options they have are naturally affected by their circumstances. Parents living in poor neighborhoods with limited resources face different challenges from those in wealthy suburbs with paid help. Some parents can pay for the education they want; most cannot. In general, they have three options: They can work for changes within the current system, particularly in their children's own school; they can press for changes to the system; or they can educate their children outside the system. Whatever their circumstances, parents are not powerless and their voices must be heard. Is there one school system you think is doing things right? And if so, how? Governments everywhere are trying to improve education. For decades, the main strategies have been standardization, competition and incessant testing, especially in literacy, mathematics and science. It's been a partial success at best and in many ways a dismal failure. The story in Finland is different. Finland is regularly at or near the top of international league tables in those disciplines but its success is much broader. Significantly, there is no mandated curriculum in Finland. Schools are encouraged to follow a broad curriculum that includes the arts, sciences, mathematics, languages, humanities and physical education. There is hardly any standardized testing. Finland invests heavily in the selection and training of teachers, and teaching is a high status profession. The Finnish system is not perfect and it's still evolving, but it's succeeding against a wide range of measures, where many other systems fall tragically short, and it's doing that by following a different path. You talk about the stress students are under these days. What's the best way for a parent to ease that stress, while still keeping their students competitive in a very tough and demanding global environment? In the United States, more than eight out of 10 teenagers experience extreme or moderate stress during the school year, including headaches, loss of sleep, anger and irritability. The main causes include anxieties about academic performance, the pressures of testing, and parental pressures to excel at school and get into a good college. Many young people feel overscheduled with nearly every waking hour being assigned, plotted and planned with little time for just "being a kid." Parents can help in three ways: by learning to recognize the signs of "toxic" stress, by easing the pressures at home through encouraging more downtime and by working collectively with the school to reduce some of the avoidable causes of stress, including the often excessive levels of homework and testing. You have been critical as have many of standardized testing. If you could change it, how would you do it differently? End it altogether? Change the format? Do it less often? And if the last, how do you ensure that students are learning what they need to know? High stakes testing was meant to raise standards in education. Instead, it's generated a dreary culture of incessant competition, which has soaked up billions of taxpayer dollars with no significant improvement in standards, causing enormous stress for teachers, children and their families. Constructive assessment is an essential part of high quality education, and some forms of diagnostic testing can be helpful. The usual forms of high stakes testing are neither constructive nor essential. The proper purposes of assessment are to support and improve student learning and to provide an informative record of their achievements. There are many better ways to do this than through the barren rituals of bubble tests. What is your view of charter schools? Would you encourage or discourage their existence? Charter schools are independently operated public schools, which have freer rein than regular public schools in what they teach and how they are run. In themselves, they are neither better nor worse than ordinary public schools. Some are very successful, others less so. One argument for charter schools is that they can invigorate the public sector by spreading new practices. Some do and some don't. Another is that they give parents more choice in education. The choice can be more apparent than real. All schools have limited spaces, and popular ones soon become oversubscribed. Either way, for most families, public schools are still their best opportunity in education. If you were the United States education secretary, what is the first thing you would do to change the American school system? What is education for? In my view, it is to enable all students to understand the world around them and the talents within them so that they can become fulfilled individuals and active, compassionate citizens. The proper role of government is to create the best conditions for that to happen.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Education
A year since its opening, the Louvre Abu Dhabi drew more than a million visitors to its dome shaped museum that features borrowed treasures by Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent van Gogh from the collections of French institutions. Those visitors were dominated by foreign tourists, with more than 60 percent from other countries topped by India, along with Germany, China, England, the United States and France, according to the new museum. The crowd figures are still small in comparison to the flagship Louvre in Paris, which is lending its brand through a 30 year government accord between the United Arab Emirates and France. The oil rich monarchy is paying 400 million euros (more than 453 million) for the name and almost a billion euros ( 1.1 billion) for French expertise and guidance from the Louvre and a consortium of museums. Earlier this year, the Louvre the world's largest art museum reported a sharp increase in attendance, up more than 14 percent, to 8.1 million visitors. But in its debut year, the Middle Eastern namesake has already eclipsed the Louvre's satellite in a former coal mining district in northern France and institutions in its own region, such as Qatar's flagship Museum of Islamic Art, which attracted more than 400,000 visitors last year. The Abu Dhabi museum is teaming again with the Louvre in February to mount an exhibition, "Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age," which starts Feb. 14. The show includes 17th century works on loan from Paris and from the private, New York based Leiden collection, which owns more than 250 Dutch paintings and drawings and lent some earlier this year for special exhibitions in Russia at the Hermitage and the Pushkin State Museum.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
After several years of state and local budget cuts, thousands of school districts across the nation are gutting summer school programs, cramming classes into four day weeks or lopping days off the school year, even though virtually everyone involved in education agrees that American students need more instruction time. Los Angeles slashed its budget for summer classes to 3 million from 18 million last year, while Philadelphia, Milwaukee and half the school districts in North Carolina have deeply cut their programs or zeroed them out. A scattering of rural districts in New Mexico, Idaho and other states will be closed on Fridays or Mondays come September. And in California, where some 600 of the 1,100 local districts have shortened the calendar by up to five days over the past two years, lawmakers last week authorized them to cut seven days more if budgets get tighter. "Instead of increasing school time, in a lot of cases we've been pushing back against efforts to shorten not just the school day but the week and year," said Justin Hamilton, a spokesman for the federal Department of Education. "We're trying to prevent what exists now from shrinking even further." For two decades, advocates have been working to modernize the nation's traditional 180 day school calendar, saying that the languid summers evoked in "To Kill a Mockingbird" have a pernicious underside: each fall, many students especially those who are poor return to school having forgotten much of what they learned the previous year. The Obama administration picked up the mantra: at his 2009 confirmation hearing, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan declared, "Our school day is too short, our school week is too short, our school year is too short," but its efforts in this realm have not been as successful as other initiatives. "It feels like it's been pushed to the back burner a bit," said Jeff Smink, a vice president at the National Summer Learning Association in Baltimore. The most ambitious federal program in this realm is part of a 4 billion effort to overhaul 1,150 failing schools, in which each is required to select an improvement model that includes a new schedule increasing learning time. In the Denver suburbs, for example, Fort Logan Elementary School has used the federal money to add four and a half hours of instruction per week. But an interim report on the program in 10 states found that several districts visited by federal inspectors were out of compliance. In Reno, Nev., for example, officials found that Smithridge Elementary School was using the 15 minutes it had added each morning for breakfast, not academics. District officials in San Francisco, the report said, "believed that Everett Middle School extended the school day by an hour six years ago and due to this reason was not required to implement any additional time." In a separate report scheduled for release on Thursday, the National Center on Time and Learning, a Boston group that advocates expanding instruction time, acknowledges that an "untold number" of schools nationwide have reduced their hours and days, often by furloughing teachers. But the report also says more than 1,000 schools and districts have expanded their schedules, and highlights many examples. In Pittsburgh, for example, 11 million in federal stimulus money is being used this summer to provide 5,300 students more than twice the 2,400 enrolled last year 23 additional days of math and reading instruction in a camplike atmosphere that converts some of the city's museums, recording studios and even bicycle repair shops into classrooms. In the small town of Brandon, S.D., near Sioux Falls, some 65 teachers and principals plan to work without pay this summer to keep alive a summer school program that would have otherwise been canceled because of cuts in state aid. And in Chicago, which has had one of the shortest school days of any major urban system, Mayor Rahm Emanuel won powers last month to impose a longer day and year. Mr. Emanuel is working with school authorities to add time for the fall term. But each of these seems to have a counterexample. Across Oregon, districts have been negotiating furlough days with teachers' unions. In April, for instance, the local union agreed with the 17,000 student North Clackamas district, south of Portland, to six unpaid days off in 2011 12, leaving students with 168 days of class. Many of Oregon's 200 districts have cut similar deals. The average number of days teachers are scheduled to be with students next year fell to 165 from 167 this year, according to a survey by the Oregon School Boards Association. Oregon sets minimum annual instructional hours 990 hours for ninth grade, for example. Most states set minimum days, and several that do including Arizona, California and Nevada have lowered the bar amid belt tightening. Nevada's new law, signed in June, allows as few as 175 days, down from 180. California made the same cut in 2009, but last week dropped the minimum to 168 for any district where revenues fall short of projections during the 2011 12 school year. Hawaii, mired in red ink, shortened its 180 day school year to 163 days in 2009, shuttering schools on many Fridays. But lawsuits and widespread protests last year persuaded lawmakers to restore the school year to 178 days. Last month, North Carolina lawmakers moved in the same direction, raising the state's minimum to 185 days of instruction, up from 180. But since the legislature provided no additional financing, some education officials there were less than thrilled. The 2,800 student Balsz elementary district in Phoenix adopted a 200 day calendar starting in 2009 10, drawing on a local tax levy and a decade old state law that increased financing by 5 percent for districts that meet that threshold. "Parents love it," said Jeffrey Smith, the superintendent. And Mr. Smith said the results were palpable: after one year of the new schedule, reading scores jumped 43 percent in Grades 5 and 6 and 19 percent in Grades 3 and 4.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Education
BERKELEY, Calif. Every other week for the past 18 years, my wife and I have made a five hour round trip drive between here and Mendocino County. She has a health care practice in both places, so our rural home isn't a retreat; nonetheless, like others who had the option, when the pandemic kicked in we opted for the country, where social distance is axiomatic and anxiety less likely. But that was before fire season, which has just returned with a vengeance. (Just as hurricanes have resumed storming the Gulf.) In the past week, hundreds of blazes have incinerated more than a million acres, destroyed nearly 2,000 homes and buildings and taken seven lives. Such devastation is now an annual occurrence. Last October, when Covid 19 was just a gleam in a fruit bat's eye and Pacific Gas and Electric shut off power throughout Northern California during a red flag fire alert, we packed up and drove south toward the Bay Area. We turned back, however, in Sonoma County, where the Kincade conflagration closed U.S. 101. We considered heading east to I 5, but that was shut down by a different fire. Same for the coastal route. Luckily we found a supermarket with ice and retreated to our Mendocino cabin for another night, endangered only by lack of light. Forest fires haven't threatened our property, but they've come within a few miles. We've spent a lot of time this summer cutting tree limbs and clearing brush, but still we know that one day we might need a refuge from our refuge fleeing one disaster into the maw of another. Fire season, of course, was bad enough before. But pandemic fire season is disaster squared: a collaboration of catastrophes. This was immediately evident in evacuation centers. More than 100,000 people have had to abandon their homes during the past week, but since packing hundreds of refugees indoors at close quarters doesn't conform to coronavirus guidelines, some are checking into guest starved hotels. But lodging costs money, which is notably in short supply for too many people especially with senators on vacation, speaking of making things worse. And the California wine industry, already hurting at the hands of the pandemic, now faces the specter of "smoke taint" in grapes, few of which had been harvested before the fires started. The climate, and the world, are changing. What challenges will the future bring, and how should we respond to them? What should our leaders be doing? Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the United States, finds reasons for optimism in the Biden presidency. What are the worst climate risks in your country? Select a country, and we'll break down the climate hazards it faces. Where are Americans suffering most? Our maps, developed with experts, show where extreme heat is causing the most deaths in the U.S. What does climate devastation look like? In Sept. 2020, Michael Benson studied detailed satellite imagery. Here's the earth that he saw and the one he wants to see. In San Francisco, where the twin calamity challenge is more about tolerance than survival, disaster dissonance is also on display. Back in the (now carefree seeming) spring when everything shut down, people embraced the great outdoors. Because germs are better dispersed outside, and exercise is good for the mind and immune system, public parks filled up so fast that social distancing there was hard to maintain. You might think you could take your mask off in nature, but turns out you have to keep putting it back on whenever somebody comes around the next bend which is to say, every other minute. Now we're supposed to stay inside because smoke filled air isn't safe to breathe. Even if we wanted to buck the advisories and take our chances, parks are closed because of fire danger. (The good news: Trails are now empty.) We've all been dreading the onset of winter and its Covid 19 consequences indoors, but to paraphrase a local doctor at a hospital faced with closing an outdoor waiting area because of the unhealthy air quality: It's like winter started in August. Then there's the mask conflict. Not whether to wear one; in the politically correct Bay Area, most of us do. The question now is what kind. For the pandemic we were told that N95 paper masks (especially those with respirator valves) were no good: "Because the valve releases unfiltered air when the wearer breathes out, this type of mask doesn't prevent the wearer from spreading the virus," the Mayo Clinic advised. For the last several fire seasons, however, N95's were de rigueur, acquiring the M.I.A. status of pandemic toilet paper. As it happens, I still have an N95 left over from last year. But which am I supposed to wear now? N95 to protect myself or fabric to protect others? Both? Layering does offer style options, and the pandemic has shown that face coverings can be a fashion statement. So I'm going with cloth over paper, as the outlaw image of even a faux bandanna is cooler than the health freak look of the N95. (Remember when people in protective masks seemed paranoid? Now we all are, corresponding with the general "Could you ever have imagined?" state of the union.) The catastrophe convergence is, of course, also at work in hurricane regions, whose ramifications we're witnessing this week. Relief wise, it's awkward that hurricane season overlaps with fire season, and that the two major climate change disaster scenarios involve opposite forces: fire and water. Again, this contemporary crisis paradigm has got us coming and going. And don't even get me started about disaster cubed: During the past week, our part of Mendocino County experienced more than 40 earthquakes. David Darlington is the author of "An Ideal Wine: One Generation's Pursuit of Perfection and Profit in California." The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We'd like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here's our email: letters nytimes.com. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter ( NYTopinion) and Instagram.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Opinion
With his declaration on Friday that he would waive the most contentious provisions of a federal education law, President Obama effectively rerouted the nation's education history after a turbulent decade of overwhelming federal influence. Mr. Obama invited states to reclaim the power to design their own school accountability and improvement systems, upending the centerpiece of the Bush era No Child Left Behind law, a requirement that all students be proficient in math and reading by 2014. "This does not mean that states will be able to lower their standards or escape accountability," the president said. "If states want more flexibility, they're going to have to set higher standards, more honest standards that prove they're serious about meeting them." But experts said it was a measure of how profoundly the law had reshaped America's public school culture that even in states that accept the administration's offer to pursue a new agenda, the law's legacy will live on in classrooms, where educators' work will continue to emphasize its major themes, like narrowing student achievement gaps, and its tactics, like using standardized tests to measure educators' performance. In a White House speech, Mr. Obama said states that adopted new higher standards, pledged to overhaul their lowest performing schools and revamped their teacher evaluation systems should apply for waivers of 10 central provisions of the No Child law, including its 2014 proficiency deadline. The administration was forced to act, Mr. Obama said, because partisan gridlock kept Congress from updating the law. "Given that Congress cannot act, I am acting," Mr. Obama said. "Starting today, we'll be giving states more flexibility." But while the law itself clearly empowers Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to waive its provisions, the administration's decision to make the waivers conditional on states' pledges to pursue Mr. Obama's broad school improvement agenda has angered Republicans gearing up for the 2012 elections. On Friday Congressional leaders immediately began characterizing the waivers as a new administration power grab, in line with their portrayal of the health care overhaul, financial sector regulation and other administration initiatives. "In my judgment, he is exercising an authority and power he doesn't have," said Representative John Kline, Republican of Minnesota and chairman of the House education committee. "We all know the law is broken and needs to be changed. But this is part and parcel with the whole picture with this administration: they cannot get their agenda through Congress, so they're doing it with executive orders and rewriting rules. This is executive overreach." Mr. Obama made his statements to a bipartisan audience that included Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee, a Republican, Gov. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, an independent, and 24 state superintendents of education. "I believe this will be a transformative movement in American public education," Christopher Cerf, New Jersey's education commissioner under Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, said after the speech. The No Child law that President George W. Bush signed in 2002 was a bipartisan rewrite of the basic federal law on public schools, first passed in 1965 to help the nation's neediest students. The 2002 law required all schools to administer reading and math tests every year, and to increase the proportion of students passing them until reaching 100 percent in 2014. Schools that failed to keep pace were to be labeled as failing, and eventually their principals fired and staffs dismantled. That system for holding schools accountable for test scores has encouraged states to lower standards, teachers to focus on test preparation, and math and reading to crowd out history, art and foreign languages. Mr. Obama's blueprint for rewriting the law, which Congress has never acted on, urged lawmakers to adopt an approach that would encourage states to raise standards, focus interventions only on the worst failing schools and use test scores and other measures to evaluate teachers' effectiveness. In its current proposal, the administration requires states to adopt those elements of its blueprint in exchange for relief from the No Child law. Mr. Duncan, speaking after Mr. Obama's speech, said the waivers could bring significant change to states that apply. "For parents, it means their schools won't be labeled failures," Mr. Duncan said. "It should reduce the pressure to teach to the test." Critics were skeptical, saying that classroom teachers who complain about unrelenting pressure to prepare for standardized tests were unlikely to feel much relief. "In the system that N.C.L.B. created, standardized tests are the measure of all that is good, and that has not changed," said Monty Neill, executive director of Fair Test, an antitesting advocacy group. "This policy encourages states to use test scores as a significant factor in evaluating teachers, and that will add to the pressure on teachers to teach to the test." Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said her union favored evaluation systems that would help teachers improve their instruction, whereas the administration was focusing on accountability. "You're seeing an extraordinary change of policy, from an accountability system focused on districts and schools, to accountability based on teacher and principal evaluations," Ms. Weingarten said. For most states, obtaining a waiver could be the easy part of accepting the administration's invitation. Actually designing a new school accountability system, and obtaining statewide acceptance of it, represents a complex administrative and political challenge for governors and other state leaders, said Gene Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, which the White House said played an important role in developing the waiver proposal. Only about five states may be ready to apply immediately, and perhaps 20 others could follow by next spring, Mr. Wilhoit said. Developing new educator evaluation systems and other aspects of follow through could take states three years or more, he said. Officials in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and in at least eight other states Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Idaho, Minnesota, Virginia and Wisconsin said Friday that they would probably seek the waivers.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Education
The moment the curtain rises on Andonis Foniadakis's "Glory," you have some idea of the melodrama you're in for: The stage is a swirl of fog. One light, placed on the floor at the back, shoots beams upward in the graceful shape of a fan through which a lithe woman in a transparent black dress emerges. Cutting through the hazy air with sharp, commanding bursts of movement a deep plie with a sweeping arm, lashing leans both forward and back, whipping hair Daniela Zaghini is the work's melodramatic queen bee. Not to say that the 19 other dancers aren't just as busy: Mr. Foniadakis, a Greek choreographer, likes to keep his pulsating stage frantic and dense. Everything is happening; nothing is happening. It's exhausting. Performed by the Ballet du Grand Theatre de Geneve at the Joyce Theater on Tuesday, "Glory" makes you pine for 1969. That's when George Balanchine became the artistic adviser to this company; the troupe, which included the American choreographer Karole Armitage, was dedicated to his repertory. There have been other iterations since; it is now led by the ballet director Philippe Cohen. And while it's true that dance companies can't exist as museums, another question persists, as it often does in contemporary ballet: What is the point of "Glory"? Set to a mishmash of Handel's choral and instrumental works with music arrangement and additional electronic sound design by Julien Tarride "Glory" is more soul sapping than uplifting.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Dance
The Encores! Off Center series, at City Center, has been giving us a crash course in bookless musicals this summer. "Songs for a New World," which opened the season, not only has no book; it barely has a subject. Mostly it's just a bravura calling card for its author, Jason Robert Brown, letting him say at the start of his career, in 1995, "Here's what I can do." Next up, "Gone Missing," from 2003, served as both a memorial to its composer, Michael Friedman, who died last year at 41, and a prime example of the Off Broadway genus of musicals with abstract themes instead of plots. Aptly, this one's theme was loss. When it opened in New York City in 1972 after smaller productions elsewhere, "Don't Bother Me" was the Broadway writing debut of its author, Micki Grant, and the Broadway directing debut of Vinnette Carroll, who conceived and staged it. (Both had performed before on Broadway.) More than that, it made Ms. Grant the first woman to write the music and lyrics to a Broadway musical, and Ms. Carroll the first black woman to direct one. So "Don't Bother Me," like "Songs for a New World," was a calling card one with a lot to say. And like "Gone Missing," it is built around a theme rather than characters or narrative. There the similarity ends, though, because in "Don't Bother Me" the theme is hardly abstract. It is nothing less than the resilience of black people in America. Not that it's a lecture it wouldn't have run on Broadway for two and a half years if it seemed like Sunday school. There's nothing pious about it. Rather, Ms. Grant's eclectic music is virtuosically ingratiating. (The score is crammed with rock, jazz, funk, calypso, spiritual, gospel, blues, spoken word and other pertinent styles.) And dance the original production featured Alvin Ailey style choreography by George Faison is used throughout to relieve the pressure of song. The Off Center production, directed and choreographed by Savion Glover, never shrinks from the musical's ambition to address the range of black experience in popular entertainment. This begins even before the curtain rises, with a poem called "Universe in Mourning," recently recorded by Ms. Grant. Her bemused take on tragedy she utters an amazing, rueful chuckle while saying "I think someone is lying" sets the tone for the rest of the 75 minute show, which has been rearranged and condensed into one act. "Don't Bother Me" then proceeds to sketch, often in humorous or uplifting terms, the daily insults and systemic disasters that have shaped black life, from slavery to assassinations to substandard housing. Some of the references have become even more piercing now that Ms. Grant has updated them. In a song called "Ghetto Life," the line "Adam gone," referring to Adam Clayton Powell Jr., has been replaced by "Trayvon gone," meaning Trayvon Martin. And the irony of "Time Brings About a Change," in which racism never goes away but takes on different masks over the years, is brought into sharp focus by the replacement of Archie Bunker with Roseanne. For all its historical weight, "Don't Bother Me" is primarily what Ms. Grant originally called it: "A Musical Entertainment." So a production's success depends as much on its singing and dancing as its message. The Off Center outing doesn't disappoint on either count. The 13 performers (and five musicians) are onstage nearly nonstop, delivering knockout after knockout. If I single out Aisha de Haas and Wayne Pretlow it's partly because they have the best material. Ms. de Haas gets two of Ms. Grant's most powerful numbers: "Billie Holiday Blues" and "Fighting for Pharaoh," both in the rich vein of songs that sound like laments but turn out to be protests. And in "Looking Over From Your Side," Mr. Pretlow has a showcase for his extraordinary range, from joviality to wryness to anger. He somehow twists the last note of the song on the word "riot" from a wail into a siren. Surprisingly for a show staged by Mr. Glover, dance, and especially tap dancing, is backgrounded. Though the stage is in constant motion throughout, Mr. Glover forbears to knock our socks off or upstage the material with the pyrotechnics we know he is capable of. You can feel him holding back, which makes it all the more joyful when, in the penultimate number, "Good Vibrations," he finally lets loose with big, unison choreography. Not all of his staging concepts are convincing; the "riot" that follows Mr. Pretlow's alarm seems to be mostly about ducking while wearing berets. Parts of the church segment, near the end, are difficult to decipher.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Theater
If we're going to get out there and travel no matter what, as our earlier look at gay travel post Orlando suggested, where should we go? Matthieu Jost, the chief executive and a founder of misterb b, a website that helps travelers find gay friendly bed and breakfasts around the world, said Santiago, Chile, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, have been popular searches on his site recently. And those who responded to our callout on the Scruff app, when we also asked them for lesser known destinations that they have found to be lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender friendly, suggested many, including Ogunquit, Maine; the Scottish Highlands; the Smoky Mountains and Malta. Here are some other places recommended. To some, the Philippines will present a conundrum: It's a religious place with a strong Roman Catholic presence, and there have been some high profile stories of violence there, including the 2015 murder of a transgender woman by a United States marine. But the country is also considered by many to be one of the most friendly places in Asia for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and voters there even elected a transgender woman to their congress recently. Most travelers to Asia tend to head for the more obvious gay friendly spots like Thailand and Bali, Stefan Arestis, of Nomadic Boys, wrote in an email. "But we found the Philippines to be incredibly open to us. This is largely because the Filipinos are well known, and very proud of their Filipino hospitality." Mr. Arestis and Sebastien Chaneac are a gay couple who quit jobs in London in 2014 and have been traveling the world ever since, writing about their adventures on their website. "Places like Boracay in the Philippines are particularly gay friendly, with both party venues and some beautiful beaches," Mr. Arestis wrote. In Boracay you can even dress like and learn to swim like a mermaid at the Philippine Mermaid Swimming Academy. These two New Mexico cities are currently popular with lesbian travelers, Merryn Johns, of Curve magazine, wrote in a recent email. Both have vibrant lesbian scenes that are significantly supported by "female business owners and local lesbian entities," she wrote. The current mayor of Santa Fe, Javier Gonzales, is the city's first openly gay mayor and one of his first acts upon taking office in 2015 was to propose an ordinance requiring single occupancy public restrooms to be gender neutral. The ordinance passed the city council last June. Among Ms. Johns's specific suggestions when visiting Taos are the lesbian owned and operated Sugar Nymphs Bistro and a visit to Mabel Dodge Luhan's historic inn and former residence. "She was a bisexual New York socialite and friend of Gertrude Stein who married a local Indian from the Taos Pueblo (indigenous village, the longest continuously inhabited in the United States), and conducted a literary and artistic salon in her distinctive house that attracted the likes of Georgia O'Keeffe, Willa Cather and Martha Graham." Mr. Werner is especially fond of Nashville, which has gay bars and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender friendly businesses like the lesbian bar Lipstick Lounge in East Nashville and Suzy Wong's House of Yum, an Asian fusion lounge in midtown known for its "Drag'n Brunch." The most popular area for the L.G.B.T. crowd, Mr. Werner wrote, is in midtown around Church Street. "This area has several gay bars and clubs well suited for everything from casual drinking to all night dance partying," he wrote. And of course any tourist is sure to be taken with the Nashville music scene. "In addition to the gay night life there's something about crooning cowboys in Nashville that makes us swoon," he wrote. Ben Lambert spent six months traveling around Southeast Asia last year, he wrote in a recent email, and while he was not shocked to find Thailand, especially Bangkok, to be lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender friendly he said he was indeed surprised by the positive reception in some of the other countries he visited. "While there are a great many people in these countries who cannot accept homosexuality, there are large communities of people who do especially among the younger generations," Mr. Lambert wrote. "This leads to the creation of flourishing, yet discreet, L.G.B.T. communities throughout the region." There are many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender owned or L.G.B.T. friendly businesses bars, clubs, saunas and hotels in cities including Saigon, Vietnam; Yangon in Myanmar and Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, Mr. Lambert wrote. And "while these places may not be brazenly waving the Pride flag, they are not hidden. They do not exist behind unmarked doors with secret passwords and handshakes required for entry. They exist in regular neighborhoods and are open to the entire public. The locals, including police, know exactly what they are and tend to leave well enough alone." The freelance travel writer Kelsy Chauvin wasn't surprised that Manchester has a strong L.G.B.T. community the British version of "Queer as Folk" was set there, after all but she said she was nonetheless "blown away" when she visited for the first time last year. "It was like West Hollywood, England style," she said. "But more gritty." The city's gay village (simply called "The Gay Village") is full of bars, shops and restaurants including many L.G.B.T. owned businesses, like Richmond Tea Rooms, she said. There's even a festival devoted to transgender people "Sparkle: The National Transgender Celebration" running July 8 to 10. Manchester is home to LGBT Foundation, a national charity, and Manchester Pride, another charity that supports numerous community organizations. They know how to hold a party, too: The annual Manchester Pride Festival is a big undertaking that has its own fringe festival comprising events around the city in August. Another Manchester advantage: "This is a rare case of a city that has actually more than one lesbian bar and they were both happening," Ms. Chauvin said, recalling her visit. "I think that's pretty indicative of a thriving gay community." Davey Wavey, who has almost a million subscribers to his YouTube channel, where he posts funny and frank videos about gay sexuality and acceptance as well as reports from Pride events and street interviews from around the world, spends at least seven months a year traveling, he said in a phone conversation. He had recently returned from Puna, Hawaii, where he had stayed at Kalani, a retreat center founded by Richard Koob, a gay man. Puna, he said, is "a very queer community. And it's not just gay men; there are a lot of transgender individuals, people who are gender queer and lesbians. It's really a more diverse spectrum of L.G.B.T.Q. than you see in most of those other places like Provincetown or Palm Springs." Outside of the confines of Kalani, all of Puna is welcoming and the natural environment affords plenty of reasons to visit, too, he said. "It's this incredible, almost magical place where the rain forest meets the ocean. Just imagine this lush, juicy jungle abutting black lava cliffs and these deep, rich black sand beaches." In a follow up note after the shooting in Orlando, he underlined yet another reason to consider Puna: "One of the things that struck me about my time in Puna or Hawaii was that so many people went there to heal, especially after the death of a loved one," he wrote. "There's something about Puna, the people and the land that's very healing and nurturing. And a lot of us need that right now."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
Q. To activate Microsoft Word on my new laptop, I had to open a Microsoft account, but I didn't use my real name. Now, when I edit a document in Word and add a comment, it lists the note under that made up name. Any way I can get it to switch back to my real name? A. The Track Changes, Comments and other tools built into Microsoft Word are designed to let users collaborate on a document and keep tabs on who did exactly what to the file (and when). When the document editing tools are enabled, every text deletion and insertion is marked in the file and labeled with the name or initials of the person who made the change. Nonprinting comments added to the file from collaborators are also tagged with names. Even if the program picked up the moniker you used to create your Microsoft account, you can reclaim your rightful name by making a change in the program's settings. When you make the switch, though, the new identification takes effect from that point forward and does not retroactively change the name attached to your editing changes.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
Neil Young has sued President Trump for using "Rockin' in the Free World" and "Devil's Sidewalk," which both played at Mr. Trump's rally in Tulsa, Okla., in June. On Election Day in 2018, Neil Young posted a frustrated statement about President Trump. Three years earlier, Mr. Trump had used Mr. Young's song "Rockin' in the Free World" a protest against injustice when announcing his campaign, drawing Mr. Young's ire. With the divisive midterms underway, Mr. Young once again complained, yet said he had no legal recourse to stop Mr. Trump from using his music. "Legally, he has the right to," Mr. Young wrote on his website, "however it goes against my wishes." Last week, Mr. Young finally sued Mr. Trump's campaign over the use of "Rockin' in the Free World" and another song, "Devil's Sidewalk," both of which were played at Mr. Trump's rally in Tulsa, Okla., in June. In his suit, the musician accused the campaign of copyright infringement for playing the tracks without a license, and asked for the campaign to be ordered to stop using them, as well as for statutory damages. Mr. Young's complaint said he "in good conscience cannot allow his music to be used as a 'theme song' for a divisive, un American campaign of ignorance and hate." What changed in the intervening years, intellectual property experts say, is a new strategy by musicians to stop political candidates from using their songs without permission, though the legality of their approach is uncertain. For years, musicians and songwriters have balked when politicians play their songs at public events, like campaign rallies. A politician's embrace of their work can imply an endorsement, they say, or distort a song's meaning as when Ronald Reagan praised Bruce Springsteen in a speech in 1984, after a conservative columnist's misinterpretation of the bleak "Born in the U.S.A." In the Trump era, this conflict has only grown more intense, as the president has drawn condemnations from a huge range of acts for using their music like Rihanna, Elton John, Pharrell Williams, Axl Rose, Adele, R.E.M., the estates of Tom Petty and Prince though Mr. Trump has often responded to their complaints with defiance. "I think he is just extending a big middle finger to musical artists to say, 'You can't stop me,'" said Lawrence Y. Iser, a lawyer who has handled several prominent lawsuits over political campaigns' use of copyrighted songs, including one filed in 2010 by David Byrne against Charlie Crist, then the governor of Florida. Yet artists have often had little power to block political use of their songs. Most campaigns have the same kind of legal cover to play songs that radio stations or concert halls do through blanket licensing deals from entities like ASCAP and BMI, which clear the public performance rights for millions of songs in exchange for a fee. ASCAP and BMI even offer special licenses to political campaigns, letting them use songs wherever they go. For artists like Mr. Young and the Rolling Stones whose 1969 song "You Can't Always Get What You Want" has been the closing theme for countless Trump rallies their involvement in those deals meant they could not take legal action. But in June, the Stones said they would sue if Mr. Trump used their music again, and both ASCAP and BMI said that at the band's request they had removed its songs from the list of works offered to political campaigns. (The rules for using a song in a film or commercial are clearer: direct permission from a writer or their publisher is needed.) ASCAP and a lawyer for Mr. Young both said that "Rockin' in the Free World" and "Devil's Sidewalk" had similarly been removed from ASCAP's political license. Yet it is not clear whether such withdrawals are allowed under ASCAP and BMI's regulatory agreements with the federal government, which were instituted decades ago to prevent anticompetitive conduct. "Artists are faced with an uphill legal battle for asserting their rights to prevent politicians with whom they disagree from performing their sings," said Christopher J. Buccafusco, a professor at Cardozo Law School. "They may have some options to do so, via the withdrawal of the political license, but those have dubious validity." ASCAP and BMI both believe their consent decrees allow the writers and publishers they represent to withdraw material under certain conditions, including if a particular use could damage the economic value of a song's copyright. "BMI does not remove a song from the license in order to achieve higher rates or for any reason other than that the rightsholders believe the association of their song with a campaign is an implied endorsement and diminishes the value of that work," said Stuart Rosen, BMI's general counsel. A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Young's case is being closely watched as a test of artists' power to protect their work against political use. Last month, an advocacy group, the Artists' Rights Alliance, released a public letter demanding that campaigns seek the consent of artists, songwriters and copyright owners before using their songs in a campaign. The letter was signed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, John Mellencamp, Lionel Richie, Sheryl Crow and dozens of others. Professor Buccafusco, a specialist in intellectual property issues, said that the best avenue for artists' complaints may be outside the law and that a politician's use of their song can serve as an opportunity for those artists to articulate their own positions and clarify the messages in their work. "Their best recourse is probably one that they have been using for many years," he said, "which is to complain publicly and engage in shaming sessions, which very often have won."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Music
Ningali Lawford Wolf, one of Australia's most noted Indigenous actors, in the Sydney Theater Company production of "The Secret River" at the Edinburgh International Festival, shortly before she died. Ningali Lawford Wolf, an Indigenous Australian actress who brought the world of her people to the stage and, most notably, to the screen in the film "Rabbit Proof Fence," died on Aug. 11 in Edinburgh, where she was touring with the Sydney Theater Company. She was believed to be 52. Her death, from complications of an asthma attack, was confirmed by her partner, Joe Edgar, with whom she lived in Broome, a town on Australia's northwest coast. Ms. Lawford Wolf spent more than two decades playing Indigenous roles, enlightening audiences about the experience of Aboriginal Australians. "What people saw in her," Mr. Edgar said, "was a real, genuine personality that was not pretentious." Ms. Lawford Wolf originally trained as a dancer with the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theater and later performed with the Bangarra Dance Theater, both in Sydney. Her stage breakthrough came in 1994 with a critically praised one woman show, "Ningali," which portrayed through dance, song and satire her struggle to maintain her identity as an Aboriginal woman in mainstream Australia. Ms. Lawford Wolf said she wanted to challenge white people's generalizations about Aboriginal Australians. "I am sick and tired of people categorizing us," she told The Age of Melbourne in 1995. "I'm sick and tired of people just talking." "That's why I'm doing this," she added, "because I was one of those people talk, talk and no action." Ms. Lawford Wolf was born in the remote community of Wangkatjungka in Western Australia, probably in 1967 but possibly in 1968. (Mr. Edgar said there was no official record of her birth.) She spoke three languages Gooniyandi, Walmajarri and Wangkatjungka but little English until she was 11. Her father, who worked on a cattle farm, had been forcibly removed from his own parents as a child under a national policy designed to assimilate Aboriginal children, known as the "stolen generations." He reinforced to his own children that in order to educate white Australians, they would have to become adept at navigating deftly between the Indigenous and white realms. "If you want to say something in anger they won't listen to you," Ms. Lawford Wolf said in an interview with The Observer of London in 1995. "So you've got to learn to be diplomatic, to learn to change it all around, to do it in their little syrupy way." At 13, Ms. Lawford Wolf left for boarding school in Perth on a government scholarship. Soon after, she applied to go to the United States on an exchange program. She was hoping to move to Hollywood, but at 17 she was instead posted to Anchorage, where, despite the fact that her first languages had no words for ice, she found similarities between her own experience and those of Native Americans. "Their struggle in America made me realize our struggle more. Made me notice my culture, my language, my people more, and our fight for recognition," Ms. Lawford Wolf told The Canberra Times in 1995. Following the success of that show, Ms. Lawford Wolf performed in stage productions for the Belvoir St Theater, the Black Swan State Theater Company and the Sydney Theater Company. She also appeared in films. In addition to Philip Noyce's "Rabbit Proof Fence" (2002), which depicted the plight of three girls forcibly removed from their mother under the government assimilation policy, she was seen in "Bran Nue Dae" (2009), about a teenager trying to hitchhike home to his community, and "Last Cab to Darwin" (2015), in which she played the love interest of a taxi driver with terminal cancer. That performance led to a nomination for an Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award for best actress in a leading role. In 2002, Ms. Lawford Wolf developed and starred in an improvised play together with Hung Le, an Australian Vietnamese actor and comedian. In the play, based on a true story, the two meet in a bar and crack jokes about race that at the time were uncomfortable for many Australians. "Nobody had ever seen a Vietnamese and an Aboriginal person onstage together before," Mr. Le wrote in a tribute to Ms. Lawford Wolf on Facebook. By email, he added that the show had "kicked the door open for comedy lovers who had never had the opportunity to hear blackfella stories before," using a slang term for an Indigenous Australian.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Movies
Just when did we let 57th Street slip out of our hands? I mean the fashionable address that had room for the funny little shop, the offbeat bookstore, the aged brownstone, the fragment of a mansion? It is hard to put a finger on any particular new development that crossed the line, but one disappearance sums up for me the long lost magic of the street. In the early 1960s, when I went to the Browning School on 62nd off Madison, I often walked along East 57th Street on the way home. East 57th Street, indeed much of Midtown Manhattan, was then a refuge for peculiar little buildings and odd businesses, like George Wittenborn's rowhouse store of vintage art books between Madison and Park. But the strangest of all was one block east, the little piece of medieval England Arthur Todhunter built in 1926 at 119 East 57th Street. Born in Herefordshire, England, in 1887, Todhunter was from a family of antiques dealers whose clients were said to have included a Russian emperor and an English queen. He came to New York in 1909 and at first imported mantelpieces and entire rooms. But around 1920 he shifted to reproduction iron pieces and woodwork, with a factory turning out weather vanes, hinges and paneling. A catalog from the 1920s offered a sundial called the Priory, described as based on an original from 1679 found on the "south buttress of Bolton Abbey" in Yorkshire.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate
Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, is well on his way to becoming the richest person in the world, with a net worth of more than 80 billion. What's less certain is what he plans to do with his fortune, and how he could reinvent philanthropy. On Thursday, after questions from The New York Times about the level of his giving, Mr. Bezos posted on Twitter a "request for ideas" for philanthropy. "I'm thinking about a philanthropy strategy that is the opposite of how I mostly spend my time working on the long term," he wrote. "For philanthropy, I find I'm drawn to the other end of the spectrum: the right now." Citing a homeless program in Seattle, Amazon's hometown, that the company is working with, he said he was seeking to help people "at the intersection of urgent need and lasting impact," adding, "If you have any ideas, just reply to this tweet..." The message was classic Bezos challenging conventional wisdom, seeking the wisdom of the market and highlighting his various businesses. Yet it failed to answer a question that is likely to follow him more often if and when he becomes the richest man: What are his plans to give away some or all of his wealth? Mr. Bezos, who owns about 17 percent of Amazon, has enjoyed what could be the most rapid personal wealth surge in history. As Amazon's share price has more than tripled since 2015, its leader has added more than 50 billion to his net worth, bringing his current total to nearly 83 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He is now less than 7 billion shy of taking the title of the world's richest person from Bill Gates, who has held the crown for 18 of the past 23 years. Mr. Bezos' wealth is proof of Amazon's seemingly unstoppable growth and dominance in a wide range of fields, including online retailing and cloud computing. It adds another Horatio Alger story to the mythmaking machine of American wealth showcasing someone from the middle class who was adopted by his Cuban immigrant stepfather, quit his Wall Street job to start selling books online from his garage and created a company now worth nearly a half trillion dollars. Yet until Thursday, his philanthropy remained largely a mystery. He is the only one of the top five billionaires in America who has not signed the Giving Pledge, the promise created by Mr. Gates and Warren Buffett for the superrich to give away at least half of their wealth. Experts on nonprofits and friends of Mr. Bezos say he has been more focused on building Amazon and would probably turn to philanthropy later. The more wealth he creates today, they said, the more he can give away later. Granted, money has never been Mr. Bezos' public goal. Like many of today's tech tycoons, he has said his mission is changing the world and satisfying customers rather than getting rich. In a commencement speech at Princeton in 2010, he recounted his choice to quit his comfortable job in finance in 1994 to take a risk on selling books online. "I took the less safe path to follow my passion," he said, "and I'm proud of that choice." He does enjoy some of the trappings of being a billionaire. Last fall, he bought the most expensive home ever sold in Washington, D.C., when he paid 23 million for the former Textile Museum, which he plans to turn into a single family residence. Aside from his main residence in Seattle, he has a 24 million home in Beverly Hills, Calif., and a ranch in Texas. He is one of the largest landowners in America, with nearly 300,000 acres. Yet Mr. Bezos has so far refused the kind of charitable pledges common among billionaires today. The Bezoses' giving has largely been a family affair, with Mr. Bezos' role hard to determine. Nonprofit experts said the Bezos Family Foundation, while funded with Amazon stock, is mainly led by Mr. Bezos' mother. The foundation has given away tens of millions of dollars, mainly to causes related to child brain development and early education. It's typical, of course, for the wealthy to shift to philanthropy later in life. Mr. Gates was accused of not being charitable enough before he became the richest man in 1995, with a fortune of 12.9 billion. By the end of the 1990s, he had given away more than 2 billion through foundations he created that focused on health and technology. Then, in 1999, he ramped up his giving just before stepping down as Microsoft's chief executive and setting up the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, with more than 20 billion in funding. Mr. Bezos and Amazon have stepped up their giving in recent years, after critical coverage in the Seattle press. A 2012 article in The Seattle Times called Amazon a "virtual no show in hometown philanthropy," but since then, the company has given millions to local institutions and causes.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
The nation's employers eased up on hiring in August, making it clear that the economy was stuck in low gear. The pace of job creation, disclosed in government figures released on Friday, fell far short of the stronger showing at the start of the year. It presents a fresh challenge to President Obama just two months before the election. It also provides more ammunition for Republicans, who say the country needs a new economic course. While the weak report reverberated on the campaign trail, traders and economists immediately focused on the Federal Reserve, betting increasingly that its policy makers will take new action to stimulate the economy when they meet next week. The nation added 96,000 jobs in August, compared with a revised figure of 141,000 in July and well below the 125,000 level economists had expected. Over the last six months, job growth has averaged 97,000 a month, typically not enough to absorb new entrants to the labor force, let alone cut the unemployment rate significantly. "This is one of those reports that as you dig deeper, it looks less friendly," said Ethan Harris, chief United States economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "The improvement in the rate was purely due to people who gave up looking for jobs." For August, the jobless rate did fall to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent in July, but that was largely because more people left the work force entirely. The government report showed that the overall labor force dropped by 368,000 workers in August. The portion of the population in the labor force fell to 63.5 percent, the lowest level since September 1981. "Politically, you can spin the drop in the rate as a positive, but it's a sign of weakness," Mr. Harris said. "The economy is slowing down and it wasn't very robust to begin with." As job growth in the United States has cooled in recent months, European economies have weakened as the debt crisis deepened there. And the Chinese economy has shown signs of a sharp slowdown recently. Though the figures for August did not represent a drastic plunge in job creation from recent months in June the economy created just 45,000 jobs many experts quietly raised their forecasts ahead of the announcement by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That optimism seemed to be supported by a drop in first time unemployment claims on Thursday, as well as a report the same day from Automatic Data Processing, a private payroll firm, that showed a gain of 201,000 jobs in the private sector. A.D.P. tracks about 400,000 companies that are clients, Mr. Harris said, while the government statisticians capture a broader range of businesses. For the Federal Reserve, Friday's report provided more evidence of economic weakness. Economists said it raised the likelihood of action to stimulate the economy when the Fed's Open Market committee convened on Wednesday and Thursday. Just last week, Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, delivered a forceful argument for more action, calling the unemployment level a "grave concern." Unemployment has been above 8 percent since February 2009. Today in On Tech: Imagine not living in Big Tech's world. Dollar Tree will raise prices to 1.25 by the end of April. One possible course would be another round of asset purchases intended to push down rates, making it easier for consumers and businesses to borrow and invest. A more limited option would be for the Fed to extend its commitment to a low benchmark interest rate, now near zero, into 2015 from late 2014. Despite the weak jobs report, the Standard Poor's 500 stock index posted a slight gain on Friday, highlighting a conviction among many investors that the Fed will act. Many economists, though, are not so sure about how far the Fed will go. Some, like Nigel Gault of IHS Global Insight, predicted a third round of so called quantitative easing, with the Fed buying 500 billion to 600 billion worth of assets, mostly mortgage backed securities, to try to lower rates. Others, like Steve Blitz, chief economist at ITG Investment Research, predicted that the Fed would limit itself to extending the ultralow benchmark rate. He estimated a 60 percent chance that the Fed would extend the rate but only a 10 percent chance of another round of asset purchases. "I don't think the economy is quite as weak as the 96,000 figure suggests," he said. "The Fed doesn't react to one data point." One problem for the Fed is that more easing tends to lower the value of the dollar against foreign currencies, he said. Besides driving up the price of commodities like oil, it does little to help China or Europe avert a further slowdown. The rate of job creation has been erratic in 2012. After adding more than 250,000 jobs in both January and February, the economy slowed. Job creation briefly recovered a bit in July, but few economists expect big gains in the coming months. Sectors with growth in employment tended to be lower paying ones, said Mark Vitner, a senior economist with Wells Fargo. About 40 percent of the new jobs came from four areas: retail, leisure and hospitality, temporary help services and home health care services. Manufacturing, a closely watched barometer for the economy, lost 15,000 jobs. "This is one of the reasons wages haven't been growing," he said. "People are taking jobs they didn't take in the past, moving from sectors like construction into jobs at lower paying, big box retailers." There were a few slivers of encouragement in Friday's report. Using the broadest measure of unemployment, which includes part time workers who want to work full time as well as individuals who are not looking for jobs but indicate they want to work, the unemployment rate fell to 14.7 percent from 15 percent. The pace of government layoffs seems to be slowing, said Peter Cappelli, a professor of management at the Wharton School and director of the school's Center for Human Resources. As the private sector added 103,000 jobs in August, governments cut just 7,000. That is down from 21,000 in July, and well below the average of 16,000 reductions a month since March. Federal employment actually increased by 3,000 in August, to 2.8 million, the first monthly increase since February 2011. There was only slight relief for the long term unemployed, defined as workers out of a job for at least 27 weeks. Their ranks fell by 152,000 to just over five million in August, and they account for 40 percent of all unemployed people. Among workers with less than a high school education, the unemployment rate fell to 12 percent from 12.7 percent, but that remains far above the 4.1 percent unemployment level for workers with a college degree or more. Still, there were plenty of other signs the economy was still treading water. Average hourly earnings paid by private employers ticked downward by 1 cent in August, to 23.52, while the length of the typical private sector workweek remained flat at 34.4 hours. Both measures have barely budged from where they were six months ago.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Economy
HOUSTON Is it time to go back to Neptune? Scientists representing NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory proposed a spacecraft and mission on Tuesday at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas that would explore Triton, Neptune's largest moon. The unusual satellite is believed to be an object similar in many ways to Pluto from the solar system's icy Kuiper belt that was captured billions of years ago by the giant planet's gravity. And Triton is thought to harbor an ocean, hinting at the possibility that a world quite distant from the sun may contain the ingredients for life. Unlike multibillion dollar proposals for spacecraft that the agency has usually sent to the outer solar system, this spacecraft, named Trident, aims to be far less expensive, the mission's scientists and engineers said, or the price of a small mission to the moon. "The time is now to do this mission," said Louise Prockter, director of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston and the principal investigator of the proposed mission. "The time is now to do it at a low cost. And we will investigate whether it is a habitable world, which is of huge importance." Sign up to get reminders for space and astronomy events on your calendar. Visits to the outer solar system are usually conducted as NASA flagship missions that cost billions of dollars, like the recently concluded Cassini mission to Saturn or the Europa Clipper spacecraft set for launch in the 2020s. While these projects have produced significant achievements, smaller, less pricey missions also might advance planetary science. On Mars, for instance, no single spacecraft did everything, but in aggregate and over time, the robots sent there revealed the planet's watery past and set the stage for future astronauts. That's why the scientists behind Trident proposal, which will be formally presented to NASA later this month, are seeking support under the agency's highly competitive Discovery program, for missions that are supposed to cost less than 500 million. NASA aims to launch these missions every two years. The most recent Discovery program was the InSight lander, which reached Mars in November. The next is expected to be the Lucy mission, which will explore asteroids that share Jupiter's orbit around the sun. Neptune and its moons were last visited in 1989 during a brief flyby of the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which took Earth's first and only close images of the solar system's eighth planet. Voyager 2 also recorded data showing possible plumes of water being blasted from Triton's interior. Since that time, many planetary scientists have wanted to return to Triton. It was recently declared a top priority for exploration in NASA's Roadmap for Ocean Worlds. "Triton shows tantalizing hints at being active and having an ocean," said Dr. Amanda Hendrix of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz., who was a leader of the Roadmap study. "It is a three for one target, because you can visit the Neptune system, visit this interesting ocean world, and also visit a Kuiper belt object without having to go all the way out there." Studying such places, she said, could bring new insights into how ocean worlds originate, how they vary and how they maintain liquid water. For instance, water in Triton's ocean could be much colder than the usual freezing point, but the presence of ammonia could preserve it in a liquid state. Such clues will help in the search for life beyond Earth. Neptune is thirty times farther from the sun than Earth. Over the last couple of decades, the notion of where life could arise in the solar system has greatly expanded. Scientists once thought the habitable zone ended at Mars, because places farther out would not be warmed enough by the sun. But then an ocean was discovered beneath Europa, one of Jupiter's big moons, and then farther out, another beneath Saturn's Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. If Trident confirms an ocean exists on Triton, it would mean that an even broader expanse of the solar system may be capable of sustaining life. To get to Triton, the spacecraft would fly in a fast, straight trajectory after an orbital assist from Jupiter, similar to the flyby that was used by the New Horizons spacecraft to visit Pluto in 2015. It would rely on a payload of scientific instruments to conduct ocean detection and atmospheric and ionospheric science. The spacecraft would photograph the entirety of Triton, which is the largest object in the solar system that has not yet been fully imaged. " We are comparing with the Voyager encounter in 1989, which was built on early 1970s technology, essentially a television camera attached to a fax machine," said Karl Mitchell, the proposed mission's project scientist, of the Voyager imager. "It was remarkable for its day, but it doesn't have anything like the efficiency of a modern digital imaging system." Timing is also critical because of the moon's changing seasons as Neptune makes its orbit around the sun. "In order to view the plumes that Voyager saw in 1989, we have to encounter Triton before 2040," said Dr. Mitchell. Otherwise, because of the positions of the objects in their orbits, Triton will not be illuminated again for over eighty years.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
AMERICAN COMPOSERS ORCHESTRA at Zankel Hall (Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m.). In addition to Joan Tower's "Chamber Dance," this concert includes two premieres: Valerie Coleman's "Phenomenal Women," a concerto for wind quintet (here, it's the Imani Winds); and Alex Temple's "Three Principles of Noir," a monodrama for the singer Meaghan Burke that's directed by Amber Treadway. George Manahan conducts. 212 247 7800, carnegiehall.org MAHAN ESFAHANI at Miller Theater (Nov. 7 8, 8 p.m.). Making the harpsichord modern again, Esfahani has a happy habit of commissioning new works for his instrument and unearths a rich repertoire of 20th century pieces that languished unplayed as the early music movement took hold. Selections from Bach's "The Well Tempered Clavier" sit alongside the premiere of George Lewis's "Timelike Weave" on Wednesday and Berio's "Rounds" on Thursday. 212 854 7799, millertheatre.com PAUL LEWIS at Washington Irving High School (Nov. 3, 7:30 p.m.). The Peoples' Symphony Concerts always punch far above their weight, offering bargain basement tickets to hear serious artists. Lewis, though, is not just any old major artist; rather, he's one of the major pianists of our time. Here he plays two sonatas by Haydn; Beethoven's earlier set of Bagatelles, Op. 33; and Brahms's Fantasies, Op. 116. 212 586 4680, pscny.org 'MEFISTOFELE' at the Metropolitan Opera (Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m.; through Dec. 1). More famous as one of Verdi's librettists, Arrigo Boito also wrote this opera, appearing at the Met for the first time in nearly two decades in a production by Robert Carsen. Carlo Rizzi conducts a strong cast, with Christian Van Horn in the title role, Michael Fabiano as Faust and Angela Meade as Margherita. 212 870 7457, metopera.org MIVOS STRING QUARTET at the Italian Academy (Nov. 7, 7 p.m.). A daring new music quartet gives a free concert, with music by Stefano Gervasoni, Simone Movio, Zosha Di Castri and Ivan Fedele. italianacademy.columbia.edu NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC at David Geffen Hall (Nov. 7 8, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 10, 8 p.m.). Ivan Fischer, always an innovator, is on the podium for this week's subscription concerts, leading Beethoven's Symphony No. 4, Schubert's Symphony No. 5 and an arrangement of Schubert's "Der Hirt auf dem Felsen," with the soprano Miah Persson and the orchestra's principal clarinetist, Anthony McGill. 212 875 5656, nyphil.org RZEWSKI FESTIVAL at Spectrum (Nov. 4, 5:30 p.m.; Nov. 5 8, 7 p.m.). This weeklong celebration of one of America's most important composers offers highlights throughout, not least Ursula Oppens and Jerome Lowenthal's performance of "Four Hands" on Tuesday and Lisa Moore in various piano pieces on Thursday. Sunday's concert looks like a particularly solid bet, with three pianists in action, including Corey Hamm in that immense set of variations "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!" spectrumnyc.com WEST EASTERN DIVAN ORCHESTRA at Carnegie Hall (Nov. 8, 8 p.m.). Still promoting dialogue in the Middle East, as hard as that has become, Daniel Barenboim's ensemble arrives in New York for one night only. On the bill for this Isaac Stern Memorial Concert are Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 and Strauss's "Don Quixote," with the violist Miriam Manasherov and the cellist Kian Soltani. 212 247 7800, carnegiehall.org	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Music
Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 is a monumental, historically freighted score. Composed partly during the Siege of Leningrad, it is a programmatic evocation of war that was broadcast at the invading Germans. Used as propaganda and often denigrated as such, it can be interpreted more subtly, its crude bombast sardonically indicting Stalinist as well as Nazi totalitarianism, its pathos expressing private emotions forbidden by the Soviet state. "Personal Symphonic Movement," by the Finnish choreographer Elina Pirinen, acknowledges this heaviness by dodging and resisting it. Against world historical significance, this dance sets personal banality. The mismatch is intended ironically, but that dissonance is too weak and brittle to sustain the work across the score's 75 minutes. The program, which had its United States debut at New York Live Arts on Wednesday as part of the Joyce Theater's Joyce Unleashed series, gives Shostakovich the first word. Much of the symphony's first movement plays in darkness, and then, as the "Bolero" like snare drums kick in, lights come up and fog swirls. Eventually, Ms. Pirinen, Kati Korosuo and Katja Sallinen emerge with awe struck, expressive faces. Then they smash plastic baggies on their heads, and colored paint drips down like egg yolk. Is this comedy? The sense of vulgar farce continues as the women twitch and flop on the ground. They grab their own crotches and tweak each other's nipples. They exchange kisses and spit. Ms. Korosuo squeezes a marshmallow between her bared buttocks. These ladies can't keep their pants on.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Dance
The former goalkeeper on Real Madrid, managing Clasico rivalries and the "madness" of the toughest three weeks of his career. Occasionally, as he idled on the sidelines at Real Madrid's training facility, Iker Casillas would be asked to wheel out his party trick. A coach or a teammate would throw out the date of a game he had played and the name of an opponent: Jan. 5, 2002, Deportivo de La Coruna. Casillas would pause for a moment. And then he would tell them the score. By his own very specific estimate, he got about 98 percent right. Given the context, it is an impressive success rate. The category "Games Played By Iker Casillas" is a considerable one, even for Casillas himself. His career touched three decades, and two centuries. Between Real Madrid, F.C. Porto and Spain, he racked up more than a thousand games. In an ideal world, that list would still be growing. Casillas announced his retirement in August, at age 39. He had little choice. In May 2019, during a training session at Porto, he noticed pain in his chest, his mouth and his arms. The club's doctors took him to the hospital; it was only after he had surgery that he was told he had had a heart attack. As he recuperated, he thought about returning to the field. He was enjoying his time in Portugal, relishing the "tranquillity" he had found there in the autumn of his career. He was named in Porto's squad for last season. And a few months after the heart attack, he was back in the gym. Eventually, though, the medical advice became clear. "The doctors said the best I could do would be to stop," he said. It is hard for athletes to stand down, to stand aside it is, as Casillas said, as much an identity as a job but he is also a husband, and a father of two young children. "There was a risk," he said. "And if there is a risk, then it would be absurd to carry on." And so, now, all he is left with are his memories: vivid and bright and 98 percent eidetic, and not just for score lines but for sensations, too. He remembers what he was thinking as he walked up to collect the trophy in Vienna in 2008, the few seconds before Spain was officially crowned European champion, its first international honor since 1964. "We had broken the curse that seemed to have been on Spanish football," he said. He remembers how normal the same walk felt two years later, at Soccer City in Johannesburg, after Andres Iniesta's goal had turned Spain into a world champion. "It was history, but you do not value it in that moment," Casillas said. "You think it is normal: 'We've won the Euros, we've won the World Cup, we're a strong team.'" And he remembers, in 2012, when Spain retained its European crown, feeling as if that team "might have played the Globetrotters or the Dream Team from the 1992 Olympics and we would have won." They are all real memories, he said, not ghosts of memories, memories of photographs, composed and layered and compacted over time. It is a blessing, of course, to recall with such clarity all of those high points: the trophies won and the triumphs claimed, for club and for country. But it comes with a curse, too, because Casillas remembers the defeats with no less precision. His memory, after all, works just as well when he would rather forget. A few days before we spoke, Casillas had retweeted a video from UEFA's official Champions League account. It was a montage of his performance at Anfield, in 2009, when he captained Real Madrid against Liverpool in the competition's round of 16. It was not hard to see why they had compiled it: Casillas filled it with a string of spectacular saves, defying Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard again and again. What was not mentioned and what made it curious that Casillas had, effectively, endorsed it was the score. Liverpool had won, 4 0. Anfield had afforded Casillas a standing ovation, but the crowd, like the goalkeeper, understood that "Liverpool could have scored 12." Casillas left the field with tears in his eyes. "It was a face of powerlessness, not rage," he said. "I was frustrated, sad. It meant it was seven years since Real had reached the final. You can lose a knockout game. We lost the first leg, 1 0. But to lose, 4 0? All of the Real fans in Liverpool, all of the fans around the world I felt their frustration." Despite his heroics, he also felt a lot of "responsibility." He had felt that responsibility, he said, since he was 8 or 9, since the day he joined his childhood team. He had grown used to it, even started to enjoy it, but it exerted a particular strain on him. His one time teammate, Fernando Hierro, used to say that one year at Madrid is like five anywhere else. At times, Casillas said, he felt as if he had been there for half a century. "The pressure," he said, "is constant." Particularly given what he experienced at the height of his career. In the years that he was lifting all of those trophies and breaking all of those barriers for Spain, his club career was consumed by what may in time come to be seen as the most intense rivalry soccer has ever seen: Real Madrid against Barcelona; Cristiano Ronaldo against Lionel Messi; Jose Mourinho against Pep Guardiola and Tito Vilanova. For four years, the two sides of one of the world's most ferocious derbies were also the two best teams in the world. What had always been a fierce enmity turned into something darker, more political, more toxic. The Italian journalist Paolo Condo wrote an entire book about the three weeks in the spring of 2011 when the clubs faced each other four times in 18 days, and the whole of the soccer world seemed to stop to watch. It was, Casillas can say now, "madness." "We were not prepared to play four Clasicos in a month," he said. "There was a lot of tension, a lot of craziness." The rivalry became tangled in, and exacerbated by, the issue of Catalan independence, and there was a point, Casillas said, when it appeared to be "more politics than football." All he could hope to do was "not pour gasoline on the fire." His position, though, was invidious. He was Real Madrid's captain. "The club that formed me, that meant so much to everyone around me," he said. But he was also captain of Spain, of this team that seemed so important to a country still reeling from the effects of an economic crisis, this team that would conquer Europe, and then the world. He felt he had a responsibility to his club's fans and to the whole country. "You have to do the right thing for everyone," he said. It was no wonder, then, that by 2015, Casillas was ready for a change of scenery. His relationship with Real Madrid had changed; he admitted to feeling "alone" at one point, as he was ostracized first by Mourinho and then, later, cut adrift by the club's president, Florentino Perez. He saw, in Porto, the chance to find "some peace." "I needed to be calm to enjoy it again," he said. "I didn't like seeing myself in the press every day, or in the middle of certain arguments. The best option was to leave, even if it was the place where I grew up, the place that was my home, the place where many people suffered with me. I didn't want that angst. I wanted less fear." The stress and the strain, though, do not change the memories. That is what Casillas cherishes from his career: not so much all of the acclaim praised by no less an authority than Gianluigi Buffon as one of the best goalkeepers of all time or all of the trophies he won, but all of the things he remembers, and is remembered for. Soccer, to Casillas, is about memory: not the score lines, necessarily, but the sensations. The players he holds in the highest esteem are the ones who played the most games, lasted the longest he mentions Paul Scholes and Francesco Totti the ones who burned themselves into the history of a club. He likes those moments when fans tell him where they were when Spain won the World Cup, or what they were doing when he came off the bench, barely out of his teens, to win his second Champions League. "It happens when you go to the park, go to a restaurant, meet someone Spanish when you're abroad," he said. "They remember where they were: getting married, or watching it with their son. These moments mark everyone. It is lovely to know that you are remembered."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
On the night I watched several of the short plays that make up "Here We Are," I was at my laptop in the living room while one roommate cooked dinner in the kitchen, just a few feet away, and my other roommate shuffled in and out, doing laundry. Behind me, on the other side of our bay windows, the sounds of Brooklyn wafted in from the street: people chatting, cars going by, dogs barking. I say this so you understand that when I tell you that "Here We Are" snagged my attention and held it, I'm not overstating things. "Here We Are," a production of Theater for One, is made up of eight 10 minute microplays all written by women of color that pair a single actor and a single audience member. The four that I watched realistically re created the experience of a private, personal exchange except for one surprising extraterrestrial outing but all remained grounded in the politics of our current moment. How to describe these one on ones? My colleague Jesse Green, who favorably reviewed the first plays in the series (commissioned by Arts Brookfield), compared it to speed dating when you fall in love each time agreed. Or you could say each sweet morsel, delivered with charged intimacy in this time of isolation, is like a truffle: small, delicious, refined and over in an instant.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Theater
Not only does New York City Ballet plan to present a record number of Sugarplum Fairy ballerinas this year (22) and Cavaliers (17) in "George Balanchine's 'The Nutcracker,' " but it's also giving audiences a bumper crop of debuts in the roles: six new Sugarplums, four new Cavaliers. Apart from Ashly Isaacs, who made her (admirable) debut on Dec. 12, all these performances take place this week. Megan LeCrone who, like Ms. Isaacs, is a company soloist makes her debut on Wednesday afternoon. The others are all corps dancers: Peter Walker and Joseph Gordon as the Cavalier on Wednesday evening and Thursday afternoon; Unity Phelan and Cameron Dieck as the couple at the Saturday matinee; Indiana Woodward as Sugarplum that evening; Claire Kretzschmar and Silas Farley together on Sunday at 1 p.m.; Ashley Hod as Sugarplum at the 5 p.m. performance that day. None of these dancers are unknowns. None of them is well known either, though several are very carefully watched by company devotees. It's possible that this will prove a historic week for at least some of them (though a debut in these roles is no guarantee of other lead roles or of promotion) and therefore for the company. The original "Nutcracker" was choreographed in 1892 by Lev Ivanov. (Marius Petipa, then in his 70s, fell ill early in rehearsals, though it was he who planned the ballet with Tchaikovsky.) It's too bad that no production anywhere uses his Snowflakes Waltz (Peter Wright's version for the Royal Ballet takes some of its ideas but wrecks their point), which was revelatory for many Russian observers. Just to look at its patterns in the Stepanov notation in the Harvard Theater Collection (you can see them online) is tantalizing. And it's too bad that few New Yorkers know Ivanov's choreography for the Sugarplum Fairy. As a Christmas gift to its patrons, the archive at Jacob's Pillow has sent out this wonderfully vivid clip of Alexandra Danilova in the Ivanov Sugarplum solo. A few points are worth noting and let's talk technique a little. This is a silent film to which music has been attached. At least one of its repeated steps (pique arabesque with an immediate, focus changing fouette into passe) also occurs in George Balanchine's version. Another step, the diagonal of sideways jumping pas de chat (each followed by a quick soutenu turn) was Ms. Danilova's alternative for the original chorography's trickier gargouillades (pas de chat in which each foot quickly writes rings in the air) of the original choreography. And the solo ends as Ivanov planned, without the musical coda that has been restored since the mid 20th century. It's worth comparing Danilova's performances with that of her great friend Alicia Markova (below). Markova who danced the Sugarplum in the first complete Western production of "The Nutcracker" (1934) and continued in the role well into the 1950s certainly does the gargouillades, but that doesn't mean she's altogether better. In her autobiography (one of my favorite books), Margot Fonteyn relates a story told to her by Frederick Ashton after he had watched Markova and Danilova rehearsing the same role. "Markova was dancing with her effortless grace and creating a great impression on the surrounding corps de ballet. Danilova, when it came her turn to rehearse the same dance, announced: 'I am Russian. I dance strong!' Whereupon she went into a spitfire attack on the same solo. From that day I danced strong, with every bit of energy I could muster." Now before the New Year brings new companies and changes of repertory may be a good time for advance reading. Hans Christian Andersen wanted to be a dancer; his fairy tales have been choreographed by August Bournonville (his friend and contemporary), Bronislava Nijinska, George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, David Bintley and many more. Feb. 2 brings the world premiere of Justin Peck's first narrative ballet, a treatment of Andersen's "The Most Incredible Thing," to a commissioned score by Bryce Dessner, at City Ballet. It's to be Mr. Peck's biggest production to date: 50 company dancers, 11 dancers from the School of American Ballet, designs by Marcel Dzama. Curiously, there is an American connection. "The Most Incredible Thing" was first published here, in an English translation in September 1870, one month before the Danish version was published in Copenhagen.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Dance
For months, the call for coronavirus testing has been led by one resounding refrain: To keep outbreaks under control, doctors and researchers need to deploy the most accurate tests available ones reliable enough to root out as many infections as possible, even in the absence of symptoms. That's long been the dogma of infectious disease diagnostics, experts say, since it helps ensure that cases won't be missed. During this pandemic, that has meant relying heavily on PCR testing, an extremely accurate but time and labor intensive method that requires samples to be processed at laboratories. But as the virus continues its rampage across the country and tests remain in short supply in many regions, researchers and public health experts have grown increasingly vocal about revising this long held credo. The best chance to rein in the sprawling outbreaks in the United States now, experts say, requires widespread adoption of less accurate tests, as long as they're administered quickly and often enough. "Even if you miss somebody on Day 1," said Omai Garner, director of clinical microbiology in the U.C.L.A. Health System. "If you test them repeatedly, the argument is, you'll catch them the next time around." This quantity over quality strategy has its downsides, and is contingent on an enormous supply of testing kits. But many experts believe more rapid, frequent testing would identify those who need immediate medical care and perhaps even pinpoint those at greatest risk of spreading the disease. Such a considerable shift would likely be a welcome change for a country where the status quo of testing was just described as "unacceptable, period" by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in an interview Wednesday on CNN. "If you had asked me this a couple months ago, I would have said we just need to be doing the PCR tests," said Susan Butler Wu, a clinical microbiologist at the University of Southern California. "But we are so far gone in this country. It is a catastrophe. It's kitchen sink time, even if the tests are imperfect." Of the dozens of coronavirus tests that have been granted emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration, most rely on complex laboratory procedures, like PCR, to detect the coronavirus's genetic material. Only a handful are quick and simple enough to be run in what is called a point of care setting, like a doctor's office or urgent care clinic, without the need for lab equipment. And these tests are still relatively scarce nationwide. Government officials have pledged to astronomically scale up the number of point of care tests by fall, increasing by millions the weekly tally of tests conducted. A better option, Dr. Mina said, might be antigen testing, which identifies pieces of protein. Two such tests, made by BD and Quidel, have received emergency authorization from the F.D.A. Both require instruments to run, but even simpler versions of this technology could provide a fast answer in the same way as pregnancy tests, allowing users to swab their mouths or noses or spit into a tube, then read the results as colored bars on a strip of paper within minutes. These tests could be done at a doctor's office, or even at home no fancy machines or specially trained personnel required and cost just a few dollars a pop, perhaps even less. And there would be no delays of a week or longer. Companies like the Massachusetts based E25Bio are currently cooking up tests that might fit this need. Such convenient setups could resolve some of the supply shortages that have plagued testing laboratories across the nation for months and caused a national embarrassment over inadequate, inaccessible testing. In many cities, people are still experiencing turnaround times of over a week, sometimes three or more as people did at the beginning of the U.S. epidemics for results from PCR based tests, effectively rendering them useless for themselves and the people around them. Hamstrung by a long delay, even an accurate test can morph into a useless one. Natalie Magnus, who got tested in Winnebago County, Ill., on July 14, still didn't have results 22 days later. Her brother and sister in law, who were each tested twice at separate facilities in Colorado on July 7 and July 8, have so far received only one set of results after a 17 day wait. One of them was positive for the coronavirus. Ms. Magnus, who has already completed a two week quarantine at home, no longer cares if she gets her results. "By now, that doesn't tell me anything," she said. Who should get a booster shot? It depends, Dr. Scott Gottlieb says. Antigen tests, on the other hand, can be low tech and easy to manufacture en masse. Distributed weekly or even daily, they could painlessly screen people headed back into offices, schools and universities, delivering peace of mind to parents, teachers and employers. Everyone not just those feeling ill would have an easier way to assess their health status on a regular basis. "The goal here is to detect as many infections as possible," said Daniel Larremore, an applied mathematician who models infectious diseases at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "That means taking as many shots on goal as we can." Broad distribution of antigen tests might also ease the demand for PCR, which still has an important role in hospitals and vulnerable communities like nursing homes. As things stand, many doctors still can't get their patients' results within 24 hours. In those settings, accuracy is crucial, said Melissa Miller, director of the Clinical Molecular Microbiology Laboratory for U.N.C. Hospitals. "You don't want to miss that diagnosis." There are drawbacks. Antigen tests will miss some people who would test positive by PCR, which amplifies coronavirus RNA and picks up even tiny amounts of it. With antigen tests, proteins can't be copied in the same way, making it easier to mistake some people who are carrying minute levels of the coronavirus in their bodies as pathogen free. Some antigen tests used in the past miss up to half the infections they look for. Early on, many experts balked because of these shortcomings. "As laboratorians, we wanted the most sensitive test, the most specific test, the most accurate test," Dr. Miller said. "End of story." But Dr. Mina argues that false negatives might not be as bad as they seem. Virus levels vary from person to person, and can wax and wane in an individual over the course of an infection, typically peaking around the time symptoms first appear. People carrying and thus probably shedding gobs of germs will most likely turn up positive using every test on the market, Dr. Mina said. Those harboring less virus in their bodies might get more mixed results. Many of these individuals, however, probably aren't the cases of most concern. It's another way to look at testing accuracy, Dr. Mina said: "Detecting the most infectious people." Researchers don't yet know how much virus a person needs to carry in their body to actually transmit it. But the range in which the accuracy of antigen tests starts to drop off is probably far below that level, Dr. Mina said. Testing frequency can also be a formidable foe to disease transmission. In a recent paper that has yet to be published in a peer reviewed scientific journal, he and Dr. Larremore showed through mathematical models that a relatively insensitive test, rolled out twice a week, vastly outperformed a more accurate test, administered once every two weeks, in curbing the spread of disease. Other studies pitting speed against sensitivity have come to similar conclusions. The upshot here is a practical one, Dr. Garner said. "You're not trying to find every single person who has the virus," he said. "You're trying to mitigate outbreaks." That approach is a substantial departure from the way that many lab researchers have traditionally tackled infectious disease testing. A testing rethink this substantial will inevitably come with snags. The success of the speedy testing strategy hinges heavily on availability something the United States has utterly failed at since the virus first made landfall within its borders. Ramping up antigen testing may only add strain to an already sputtering supply chain, potentially hampering plans for widespread use. "If you test people all the time, you can account for lack of sensitivity," Dr. Butler Wu said. "But are you really going to test people all the time? If the answer is no, then that lack of sensitivity becomes more of a big deal." And many experts are still hesitant to trust negative antigen results, which may need to be backed up with a more sensitive test. That might not be very burdensome in the midst of an outbreak, when positivity rates are likely to be high, Dr. Babady said. In spots where infection rates are especially low, however, "that is not going to be the best approach to testing," she said. Cheap tests also aren't the same thing as free tests. Even 1 tests can start to rack up quite a bill, especially for large families hoping to do daily checkups or nursing home aides required to get tested repeatedly. Left unregulated, the testing market could end up exacerbating the socioeconomic split that's already disproportionately burdened some sectors of the population with the worst effects of Covid 19. Concerns over accuracy bogged down the approval process for simple, speedy tests. F.D.A. guidelines stipulate that any new coronavirus test vying for emergency clearance from the agency must perform nearly as well as the gold standard of PCR. The F.D.A.'s rules frustrate Dr. Mina, who noted that several companies on the verge of debuting antigen tests have found the regulatory hurdles daunting. "Many of them are not even bothering," he said. "'Our product might not be good enough. So what's the point?'" That's left the onus on the few companies who already have the F.D.A.'s green light. In hopes of encouraging a speedier, ramped up production, the governors of seven states announced this week a joint bid to purchase a total of 3.5 million antigen tests from BD and Quidel. There probably isn't one way to grapple with all these issues and certainly not an obvious one, Dr. Butler Wu said. What's clear to her and others, though, is that the current situation is untenable. "Our backs are against the wall, and it's Hail Mary time," Dr. Butler Wu said. "We have to try something different."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Health
PERRYSBURG, Ohio Dawn Patterson keeps a multimillion dollar drug in the fridge, next to a bottle of root beer and a jar of salsa. The drug, Strensiq, treats a rare bone disease that afflicted her with excruciating pain and left her struggling to work or care for her family. A year after she began taking the drug, Ms. Patterson, 49, credits it with nearly vanquishing her pain, enabling her to return to work part time for a hospital. But her family and her husband's union , which covers the drug's cost, have been shocked by the mounting bills for the treatments for her and two of her children, who have the same genetic disease . In 2018, the union faced a potential 6 million annual bill for the Patterson household, casting doubt over the future of the labor group's generous drug coverage and the family's health . As more and more families are beseeching drug companies and insurers to pay for this novel class of treatments, both big and small employers are getting hit with higher drug bills. It may be for a worker's child with hemophilia whose treatments can cost over 1 million or for an employee receiving immunotherapy for lung cancer. But not every union or corporate employer has an adequate cushion to absorb these prescription bills. "In the past, we'd think of rare and orphan diseases and an employer would say, oh, I just had bad luck I had one of these patients," said Dr. Steve Miller, the chief clinical officer of Cigna, which owns Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit manager that negotiates with drug companies on behalf of employers to cover prescriptions for 75 million Americans. "Going forward, if we're successful and have therapies for these things, everyone's going to have them." The Patterson family's experience also exposes a stunning lack of transparency in drug pricing; many rare disease drugs are priced based on a patient's weight, meaning a prescription for an adult costs many times more than one for a child or infant. Pharmaceutical companies often obscure the real cost with initial estimates provided to the media or Wall Street analysts that are far less than the eventual real world cost of the medicines . In the Pattersons' case, Strensiq was expected to cost about 285,000 in 2015 according to its manufacturer, Alexion Pharmaceuticals. But here's the catch: That price was based on the assumption that most patients would be children or infants and would weigh an average of about 50 pounds. In addition, Alexion would not discuss how much it would cost adults. In 2018, Ms. Patterson's drug bill approached 2 million. The breathtaking price threw the labor union the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, which covers her health care through her husband , Bill into a crisis. Four months after she began taking Strensiq, the union's health plan put payment for the drug on hold to evaluate whether she really needed it. "It's an alarm that goes off when you see this," said Lori Jasperson, who oversees the health care plan for the union's workers and their families. Boilermakers keep the country's industrial plants running, maintaining and building equipment in everything from oil refineries to shipbuilding factories. Because Strensiq needs to be taken indefinitely by patients who need it, Ms. Jasperson estimated that the Pattersons' total drug coverage could cost the union 60 million. Alexion , which focuses on treatments for rare diseases and is based in Boston, declined several requests for an interview. Ultimately, under pressure from the boilermakers' union and Express Scripts and questioned by The New York Times, the company told Express Scripts that it would cap the annual cost at 1.5 million for each adult in commercial plans covered by the pharmacy benefits manager, including the union's. Alexion said that it is negotiating similar price caps with others, but that those talks were confidential. In a statement, Alexion defended its prices, saying that developing medicines for rare diseases is complex, costly and carries a significant risk of failure. "Society can't lose focus on very small populations of several hundred people," it said. Presidential candidates and members of Congress have railed against drug companies in recent years, but have largely overlooked the spate of million dollar treatments for uncommon illnesses or cancers. Employers and unions say the impact is already being felt. Some small businesses, hit with just a single claim for a family like the Pattersons, have considered ending their employee health coverage. Others have drastically cut back coverage for drugs, and some employers are considering excluding coverage for expensive and novel treatments like gene therapy. The number of these claims is climbing. Sun Life, which provides specialized insurance to employers to cover their most expensive medical bills, saw claims over 1 million increase by a third over three years, reaching 20 3 claims in 2018. Companies cannot predict these costs. "You are one hire, one diagnosis away from this happening to you," said Rich Fuerstenberg who advises employers for the consulting firm Mercer. "It's literally like being struck by lightning." Maria Kefalas, a patient advocate whose daughter, Calliope, has a rare form of leukodystrophy, described the situation as a "slow moving train collision." At least two companies are developing gene therapies for leukodystrophy, a deadly group of genetic disorders that cause damage to the brain and central nervous system, robbing children of the ability to crawl, walk, swallow and speak. Treatments, Ms. Kefalas worries, will cost millions of dollars. "And I'm sitting here, as a mom, looking at working with families and saying, 'I don't know who is going to pay for this.'" Some attribute the trend of drug companies charging very high prices to the Affordable Care Act, the federal law that banned lifetime caps and annual limits on patients' coverage. It includes a mandate that employers keep paying for drugs, no matter the cost. "There was no market for this," Mr. Fuerstenberg said. "Now there is." Because these drugs are one of a kind, companies like Alexion hold all the leverage. They offer minimal discounts and control the price. Dr. Jonathan Gavras, the chief medical officer of the pharmacy benefit manager Prime Therapeutics, recalled a small, self insured employer that was forced to cover a worker who needed Strensiq a few years ago. Paying for the employee's drug, he said, "essentially almost put the group under." The Pattersons' bills forced the boilermaker union's leaders to consider raising its workers' premium contributions for the first time in eight years . Ms. Jasperson sought help from officials reaching out to her congressman, the Labor Department and even President Trump, who has made consumer drug prices a major talking point. Dosages based on weight are not unique to Alexion . For example, Exondys 51, a treatment for a rare form of muscular dystrophy sold by Sarepta Therapeutics, was supposed to run about 300,000 a year when it was approved in 2016, according to the company's statements to analysts at the time. But the annual cost is closer to 1 million, according to an analysis by Express Scripts. Lumizyme, for people with Pompe disease, an inherited enzyme disorder that can prove fatal in infants, costs nearly double the 300,000 its manufacturer, Genzyme later acquired by Sanofi said it would likely cost when it was approved in 2010. Drugs for hemophilia and other rare diseases are similarly pricey. Sarepta, Sanofi and other m anufacturers of rare disease drugs say they provide assistance to patients who are uninsured or can't afford the out of pocket costs of their products. The companies say they have to recoup their investment in drugs that treat a small pool of patients rare diseases are defined as affecting fewer than 200,000 people nationwide. The Pattersons' disease, hypophosphatasia, is believed to affect just 1,300 people in the United States. But even a treatment for hundreds of people can become a billion dollar product. Alexion acquired Strensiq in 2012 , when it bought Enobia Pharma for about 1.1 billion. Strensiq has since generated about 1.3 billion in revenue for Alexion including 271 million in the first half of 2019 alone . Strensiq is not even Alexion's top selling drug. Another drug, Soliris, for rare immune and blood disorders , brought in more than 3.5 billion last year and regularly ranks among the world's most expensive drugs. The new payment options also don't address drugs like Strensiq, which patients will need for the rest of their lives. Ms. Patterson learned that she had the condition when she was undergoing unrelated tests a few years ago, and then her children were tested. She doesn't know if other relatives have the disease, but recalled that one of her great grandmothers was bedridden through much of her childhood. She worries about the impact of her family's medical situation on the boilermakers' union. Bill Patterson, 47, has been a member for more than 20 years. He "would gladly pay for any other person's family, their wife, their children, because that's what boilermakers do," she said. But "that's a lot of money." "And why?" she said. "Why does it have to be that much? I don't understand that." One Sunday, Ms. Patterson puttered around her kitchen, stirring ground beef for tacos and checking on a queso dip in the slow cooker. Before she began taking Strensiq, Ms. Patterson had all but stopped cooking for her family. Her daughter, Melissa Mason, said she began experiencing pain and fatigue about three years ago, when she turned 20. "I was helping my grandmother with some yard work for a few days and I could barely help her," she said. "It seemed like she could do more than I could." Ms. Patterson's son, Will, is 18 and has virtually no symptoms. He played first base for his high school baseball team and plans to play baseball at Adrian College in Michigan next year.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Health
WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, meant to deliver two dollops of good news on Wednesday: the economy is doing better, and the Fed is determined to keep it that way. He announced that the Fed would extend one part of its stimulus campaign, suggested that it might extend another part, and offered new details about the timing. Yet his primary audience, the investors whose decisions spread Fed policy through the economy, responded as if the news had been grim. The Standard Poor's 500 stock index took its worst two day dive since November 2011 and has lost 5 percent of its value in the last month. Wells Fargo, the nation's largest mortgage lender, raised its advertised rate on 30 year loans to 4.5 percent from 3.9 percent in the same period. The call and response underscores the complexity of the Fed's task as it seeks to do more to help the economy, but not too much. Fed officials increasingly are convinced that they are finally doing enough to stimulate the economy not just the steps already taken, but the plans they have detailed for the next several years. That is why they felt comfortable suggesting that they could begin before the end of the year to scale back their purchases of government securities. But some critics see clear evidence in the persistence of high unemployment and low inflation that the Fed should do even more. And many others are simply nervous. "People aren't sure that the economy is well enough for the Fed to pull back," said Paul Christopher, chief international strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors. "The market is signaling to the Fed that we don't trust your assessment of the economy; we don't trust your assessment of inflation." On Wednesday, Mr. Bernanke sought to underscore that the Fed still planned to stimulate the economy on a big scale over the next few years. The central bank continues to hold short term interest rates near zero, and Mr. Bernanke said it might maintain that policy for longer than previously expected. The Fed has amassed more than 3 trillion in Treasury securities and mortgage backed securities, and Mr. Bernanke said that it no longer intended to sell the mortgage bonds as the economy improved. Yet public attention focused almost entirely on the least potent part of the Fed's stimulus effort, its pledge to expand its holdings of mortgage bonds and Treasuries to increase job growth. Those purchases will continue for now, but Mr. Bernanke for the first time sketched a timeline for winding them down, beginning this year and ending next summer, as long as growth keeps pace with the Fed's expectations. Specifically, he said that the Fed expected the unemployment rate to decline to 7 percent by next summer, from 7.6 percent in May. This was a good demonstration of the difference between probably and certainly. While the timeline generally corresponded to investors' expectations, Mr. Bernanke's remarks made it official. And his repeated insistence that investors should focus instead on the evolution of economic data worked about as well as telling people not to think about purple kangaroos. "If you draw the conclusion that I've just said that our policies, that our purchases will end in the middle of next year, you've drawn the wrong conclusion, because our purchases are tied to what happens in the economy," Mr. Bernanke said in one response to a question at a news conference on Wednesday. Some analysts and economists said the reaction was particularly striking because the Fed seemed more committed than ever to its stimulus campaign. "They are getting very close to where I would have had them be two or three years ago," said Joseph E. Gagnon, a former Fed economist and architect of the first round of asset purchases who is now a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "I find it odd, and probably the chairman is surprised and unhappy with the market reaction, too." The Fed declined on Thursday to comment on the market reaction to Mr. Bernanke's remarks. But he expressed himself clearly during the news conference on the negative market response since his last public appearance in May. "Well, we were a little puzzled by that," he said. He also acknowledged that the Fed might need to respond if the market's reaction persisted. "It's important to understand that our policies are economic dependent," he said. "And in particular, if financial conditions move in a way that makes this economic scenario unlikely, for example, then that would be a reason for us to adjust our policy." Some analysts said that would not be necessary, arguing that the market would soon settle down. Others, however, saw legitimate reasons for concern. The Fed has made the unemployment rate the measuring stick for its stimulus effort. It doubled down on Wednesday by saying that it would buy bonds until the rate fell to 7 percent. But the unemployment rate so far has fallen almost entirely because people have stopped looking for work. The share of adults with jobs, known as the employment to population ratio, has barely changed over the last three years. In past recoveries, declining unemployment has encouraged people to re enter the labor market, but some economists argue that that will not begin to happen until the rate falls well below 7 percent. "Why is monetary policy linked to unemployment rate as opposed to employment to population ratio?" Amir Sufi, an economist at the University of Chicago, wrote on Twitter. "Seems bonkers. Does anyone seriously think labor market is improving dramatically?" Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, wrote in an e mail that he doubted the Fed's current plans would be sufficient. "I am much less sanguine under our forecasts for the economy," he wrote, "and to a somewhat lesser degree even under theirs."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Economy
Liz Raines was three years into her first on camera job as a political reporter at KTVA, the CBS affiliate in Anchorage, when a chance to cover the Iditarod, the nearly 1,000 mile dog sled race, landed in her lap in March 2018. Winning the coveted assignment was "a shocker," she said. "I never got to do fun stuff," said Ms. Raines, 30. "I would have to go to these long legislative sessions that would run overtime." When a colleague texted her the news, she thought she had been chosen because her bosses felt sorry for her. Instead, her name had been pulled from a hat a random pick that would set her on a course to a fairy tale ending that would involve living with 53 dogs. After he spoke and chose his racing bib number out of a mukluk boot, an Iditarod tradition, he returned to his table. "My mom and dad and all my sponsors were there. I told them I had just met the prettiest girl in the room." For Mr. Failor, then a veteran of six Iditarods, the banquet was business as usual. Ms. Raines had to find her footing and let go of some preconceived notions about mushers. "I kind of thought they were full of themselves," she said. "I knew of some who wouldn't talk to reporters." She thought Mr. Failor might be one of them. "But then he introduced himself and our eyes met, and there was a spark," she said. "For a few minutes, I forgot my co worker was standing next to me." They didn't see each other again until the ceremonial start of the race a few days later. Ms. Raines was scouting for interview subjects when she heard a familiar voice. "I saw her from across the road, where I was getting my dogs ready," Mr. Failor said. "I shouted at her, 'When am I going to see you on the trail?' She said, 'How about right now? Do you want to do an interview?'" He did. Ms. Raines's heart leapt. The short interview they filmed never aired, but Mr. Failor was only pretending to be interested in publicity. He thought of Ms. Raines throughout the 10 days, five hours and 53 minutes it took him to complete the 2018 race. (Among the 67 mushers, he came in 13th). Two days later, when his cellphone was back in service, he found her on Facebook and asked her for coffee. For Ms. Raines, then living in an apartment in Anchorage, the social media message came as a relief. "I told my mom, 'He doesn't have my number. How is he going to reach me?'" she said. "She said he'd find me through the station. I decided, 'I'll give it two weeks. If he doesn't call me, I'll move on emotionally.'" After years of fits and starts on the local dating scene, Ms. Raines had gotten used to tempering her expectations. "If you're a woman in Alaska, you always hear that 'the odds are good but the goods are odd,'" Ms. Raines said. "I was a little cynical because of that saying." Mr. Failor, she said, is too Midwestern to be odd. He grew up in Mansfield, Ohio, with his parents, Cheryl and Timothy Failor, and four siblings. He started journeying to Alaska every summer in 2006 while getting a bachelor's degree in fine arts photography at Ohio State University. Grooming and cleaning up after dogs for Gold Rush Dog Sled Tours in Juneau was a way to earn tuition money. Initially, the dogs held more appeal than the Alaskan lifestyle. "I grew up with yellow labs we would train to hunt for waterfowl," he said. "I've always loved dogs." He didn't fully appreciate the Alaskan culture until two years after graduating, in 2010, he made a permanent move to Big Lake to try professional mushing. "At first it was really hard the cold, dark nights," he said. "I didn't have many friends up here." Working with his mentor, the four time Iditarod champion Martin Buser, was an incentive to stay. So were the people he met during his first Iditarod in 2012. "The whole idea of the race is to preserve the culture of dog mushing here," he said. Along the rugged course, "you pass through about a dozen Native communities. Part of the allure is these little Native children who want to come out and meet the dogs and ask you for your autograph. It's like you're Michael Jordan walking down their street." Ms. Raines's introduction to Alaskan culture came earlier. She was born in Tokyo and moved to Anchorage when she was 7 with her parents, Jane and Lloyd Raines, and three siblings; Mr. Raines, who retired from the Air Force, had been stationed in Anchorage. After graduating from La Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca in Spain with a journalism degree in 2014 and briefly working in Belgium, she didn't expect to return to Alaska. Then the KTVA job came along, and with it a renewed appreciation for Alaska. "You work hard for what you have here, and you value it more for that," she said. "We know lots of people who built their own houses and drilled their own wells. We have to chop our own wood for our heat source. If you want to learn to be self sufficient, you can put that into practice here." Ms. Raines was taken aback. "Before I met Matthew, I liked dogs, but I didn't think I wanted to own one," she said. "When I told my friends he brought three dogs to our first date, they laughed. I was like, 'Is that weird? Is he going to be disappointed that I'm not a crazy dog person?'" Her midlevel enthusiasm was good enough for Mr. Failor. By the end of the date, he was so certain he wanted to be her boyfriend that he broached a subject more suited to serious couples. "I told her I was going back to Juneau for the summer tourism season like I always do, and I asked her how she felt about long distance relationships," he said. Juneau is 850 miles from Anchorage. "My friends thought I was crazy for even entertaining the idea," Ms. Raines said. But that summer, what seemed a giant leap of faith paid off. "Doing long distance solidified our relationship," she said. Mr. Failor, living in a tent on a glacier, had to use a cellphone booster and stand in a certain position to get a single bar of signal so he could call her. But every night, he managed. "I didn't really grasp that, wow, this guy's making a huge effort for me, until onetime the connection dropped," she said. "He called me right back and said, 'Sorry, I had to switch feet.'" "We very quickly found one in the shape of a snowflake," Mr. Failor said. Ms. Raines thought he would propose over the holidays. When he didn't, she predicted he was holding out for the 2020 Iditarod. Wrong again. On Jan. 19, Mr. Failor completed the Kuskokwim 300, a race he won in 2019 with the fastest ever time, beating Mr. Buser's previous record. That morning, he tucked the snowflake ring in his breast pocket. "When we won that race before, she was at the finish line cheering us on," he said. "I wanted to do it there because she was a big part of that win." Mr. Failor carried the ring for the 300 mile race; 50 miles before the finish line, he moved it from his breast pocket to the right pocket of his coat, where he usually keeps his hand warmers, to make it more accessible. He neglected to zip that pocket. "It could have fallen out anywhere," said Mr. Failor, who wound up finishing second in a tight race. But, when he reached for the ring after crossing the finish line, it was there. So was Ms. Raines, who was so surprised when he knelt down and asked her to marry him she couldn't speak. "I was crying and everybody wanted to see the ring and it was 20 below and I had lost my glove," she said. "I couldn't get the words out, but when I did I said, 'Yes yes yes yes yes!'" On July 18, at their Willow home, which is also the site of 17th Dog Kennel, and where Mr. Failor trains for the Iditarod, they hosted an outdoor wedding for 85 guests who were largely unaffected by the coronavirus. The pandemic actually compelled them to keep their original wedding date. Mr. Failor's parents had traveled to Alaska for the 2020 Iditarod in March and stayed, living with them at 17th Dog since to avoid returning to higher risk Ohio. Ms. Raines wore a sleeveless white lace mermaid style gown in a day with temperatures in the 60s. She walked down a white carpeted aisle with her parents to an altar decorated with fireweed and roses. Mr. Failor, in a royal blue suit, awaited her with Mr. Buser, who was appointed a marriage commissioner by the State of Alaska for the event. DeeDee Jonrowe, a retired Iditarod racer and close friend, took part in the ceremony. Just after, though there was no snow on the ground, Ms. Raines climbed into a caribou fur lined sled with a team of six dogs leading; Mr. Failor stood behind her in his musher's position. Before the sled, decorated with summer flowers, rounded the corner to where guests were mingling, Ms. Raines raised her bouquet in the air as the dogs rushed them to their finish line. Tying the Knot During the ceremony, Ms. Raines and Mr. Failor each held a length of rope. After they tied the two together, Mr. Failor used the lovers' knot to lead his team on the dog sled. That's a Good Dog In addition to a matron of honor, three bridesmaids and five groomsmen, Ms. Raines was attended by her "dog of honor," Cool Cat. Mr. Failor was attended by his "best dog," Shaun White. News Flash A dessert table at the reception held cupcakes decorated with the words, "Breaking News: Liz and Matthew are married."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go Last summer Nicole Gordon posted an Instagram snap of herself framed in a doorway at home. In a slinky sleeveless dress, vivid makeup and towering heels, Ms. Gordon, a writer and art adviser, was the picture of cocktail hour glamour. Just weeks ago she posted a nearly identical image: her lips tinted scarlet, hair swept back from her face. That dress, as she noted, still fit, though she'd filled out in the interim. Her caption, a cross between boast and lament, read: "What a difference a year makes." Ms. Gordon, 51, was alluding of course to the pain and sense of powerlessness that the pandemic has sown. "It has stripped me of everything that I knew of myself," she said last week not least the semimonthly lash extensions and Botox treatments that were among her cherished maintenance rituals. She had rigorously prepped for her most recent post, tugging on two pair of Spanx, rimming her eyes in dark liner, and coating her feet in Lidocaine to help her squeeze into the stilettos she had not worn since March. "How do we continue to express ourselves through the joy of dressing with no place to go?" Ari Seth Cohen, asked plaintively. During lockdown, Mr. Cohen, 38, the creator of Advanced Style, a popular street blog, three books, and a film celebrating the sartorial quirks of the senior set, was hard pressed to find subjects. Instead he posted pictures of himself turned out in gaudy turbans and leopard print caftans. At a time of widespread suffering and social unrest, that gesture may seem brazen. "Even among high level fashion people, posting outfits is apt to be viewed as kind of tone deaf," said Lyn Slater, a professor at the graduate School of Social Service at Fordham University. Ms. Slater, 66, who moonlights as a model and blogger, persisted nonetheless, coolly vamping on accidentalicon, her Instagram account, in a wardrobe of slogan T shirts and rainbow hued kimonos, her trademark silver bob grown out during quarantine to shoulder length. Social feeds have lately teemed with similarly colorful, often wickedly over the top fashion portraits and selfies. They proliferate these days on strikingly varied individual accounts and with hashtags like quarantinelookoftheday and quarantinefashionchallenge, reinforcing a sense of joy and connection, serving as a platform for self promotion (and more rarely, social activism), and restoring, for many, a sense of self as fragile and faded as an old postcard. "We're all cobbling behaviors together to get through the days," said Leandra Medine, 31, the founder of Man Repeller, a popular blog. Ms. Medine announced in June that she would "step back" from the company after being called out for a lack of diversity on the site. But on leandramcohen, her personal Instagram feed, she shows off a playful cacophony of wildflower, stripe and kaleidoscopic tie dye motifs. Her posts are a reflexive response to the dreariness of lockdown, she said, "when there is no one to evaluate who you're telling the world you believe yourself to be." To some social media die hards, posting in that kind of vacuum is life affirming. "It's a joy to be your own muse," Mr. Cohen said, illustrating that notion in posts that show him garbed in a manner that is partly inspired by his grandmother. "I'm wearing all her old jewelry," he said. "During quarantine that makes me feel connected to her again." He also draws for inspiration from a well that includes Marc Jacobs, who has created a minor internet sensation posting quasi comic makeup tutorials and high glam images that show him wreathed in pearls, and balancing on king platform boots. No question, Mr. Cohen said, such flamboyant get ups can bring comfort now and then, and express the hint of optimism that is a tonic during somber times. The impulse to fan out one's feathers can be deeply ingrained. As Eleanor Lambert, the venerable American fashion publicist, once observed: "You cannot separate people, their yearning, their dreams and their inborn vanity from an interest in clothes." Sharing that itch on social media "is no different from any other effort to be seen," Ms. Medine said. "What any one of us is doing is trying to prove that we are worthy, lovable and socially acceptable." If only to ourselves. Online, as in life, "We're dressing for the audience in our head," said Merle Ginsberg, a fashion writer and former judge on "RuPaul's Drag Race" who prefers not to disclose her age, citing bias in the industry. Ms. Ginsberg recently posted a photograph of her favorite John Fluevog floral patterned Mary Jane pumps. "I used to get excited for fall around mid July," she said in a caption. "Now what? Nowhere to wear these puppies." "Still, the aesthetic impulse never goes," she said in a phone conversation from rural Michigan, where she has been sheltering. She recently unearthed a pair of powder blue Dr. Scholl's sandals at a local thrift store. "They cost 2," said Ms. Ginsberg, who was thinking about showing them off in a post. "But I feel like I'm wearing Louboutins." Shawna Ferguson, 37, a stylist and art director, has sprinkled her account Ferguson darling, with a series of sassy self portraits. She was turned out in a recent post in a peach colored off the shoulder dress, a bit fancy, she acknowledged, for a day spent at home. "This may or may not be a bridesmaid's gown," her caption read. Inappropriate, for sure. But so what. "I do what I want," she wrote, adding with a dash of gallows humor, "Dressing for the end of the world." Bella McFadden, 24, a.k.a. Internetgirl, publishes selfies primarily as a way of keeping her brand afloat. (Her thrift store finds are in high demand on Depop, a popular e commerce app.) But posting during quarantine boosts her confidence as well, she said, and lends form to her vision, a fusion of late 1990s mall rat and Y2K Goth. Posing feline style in a black sweatshirt and tiny kilt, she asks in a caption, "Anyone else playing dress up for a slice of excitement?" Ms. McFadden occasionally splices her feed with enjoinders. "Pause," she urged fans last week. "All lives won't matter until Black lives matter." Her account, like those of some contemporaries, doubles as a platform for activism. On his Instagram account, youngblackarchitect, D' Smith Alexander, an architect and musician, captioned a portrait of himself dapperly turned out in a bright blue suit and patent leather loafers. "I am a Black man," Mr. Alexander, 33, wrote, his post a call for unity. "I build. I don't tear down other Black Men!" Jason Rice, 44, has taken his activism in another, equally pointed direction. "For me posting is an act of rebellion," said Mr. Rice, a partner in Changez Hair Salon in Royal Oak, Mich.: one way, he explained of ridding himself of the stigma of wearing women's clothes. "I grew up a queer kid," said Mr. Rice, who appears online variously garbed in ultrawide paisley neckwear, layered jeweled chokers and, in one instance, a filmy blush tone off the shoulder dress. "For me posting is a way of stating, 'I refuse to let this moment take me down,'" he said. Paula Sutton, a lifestyle blogger in Norfolk, England, has taken up the gauntlet. On hillhousevintage, her Instagram account, she fans out her skirts or cavorts on her lawn in a series of colorful garden worthy frocks, her poses expressions of unfettered joy. "I am fifty years of age and I see no shame in enjoying pretty dresses and attempting to live life as beautifully and positively as I can," Ms. Sutton declares in one of her extended captions. In the text accompanying an image that shows her in a gingham dress with extravagantly puffy sleeves, she urges fans to follow her lead. "Show your face, show your homes, show your gardens," she writes, "and celebrate your version of beauty. "Pose like Dovima," she adds. "After all, life is hard enough without feeling pressured into being self censored by the frivolity police!"	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Style
IT isn't the familiar Adidas look that bold and basic three stripe logo. Instead, it's a design meant to evoke blowing wind, flowing water and flapping wings. The tricked out design for new T shirts in China was created by Chen Leiying, a 27 year old artist known as Shadow Chen who lives in the coastal city of Ningbo. She is not even an employee of the company, but multinationals like Adidas are beginning to turn to young creative types like her to dream up images and logos for the under 30 set in China, a group that is 500 million strong. Call them China's youth whisperers. From Harbin in the north to Guangzhou in the south, young artists, musicians and designers are being tapped to make companies' brands cool. Like its counterparts elsewhere, this arty crowd sometimes looks and acts unconventional but it's not with political ends in mind. These young artists tend to set aside politics for commerce, and the promise of attractive paydays from foreign businesses. At the center of this experiment is NeochaEdge, the first and only creative agency of its type in China. It was started in 2008 by two Americans, Sean Leow and Adam Schokora, to showcase the work of illustrators, graphic designers, animators, sound designers and musicians from across China. It now has 200 member artists; NeochaEdge pays them per project to work on campaigns and product designs for brands like Nike, Absolut vodka and Sprite. Adidas wants to be cool, "and the only way to be cool is to appeal to young people," says Jean Pierre Roy, who until recently helped oversee product development in China for Adidas. To help enhance that image, Adidas selected four Chinese artists, including Ms. Chen, to design 20 graphics for its new T shirts. Over the last year, members of the agency have also produced a soundtrack and a streetlight graffiti show for Absolut, designed sneakers for the Jimmy Kicks shoe company and created content for an e magazine for Nike about basketball culture in China. And by the end of this year, NeochaEdge will also become a virtual art gallery, selling artwork from its artists through its Web site. "You can't just stroll into China and see who is a hot artist," says Mr. Roy (who now works for Oakley, the eyewear company, in Shanghai). "It's all still a little underground." So Mr. Schokora, 30, and Mr. Leow, 29, have become trusted guides. Members of NeochaEdge are a far cry from Ai Weiwei, the 53 year old Chinese artist and dissident who was recently detained by the government. These graphic designers, sound artists and animators have other motivations. "They want to advance their careers, not challenge the political establishment," Mr. Leow says. "Commercial art has rarely, if ever, contained dissent." Defne Ayas, an art history instructor at New York University in Shanghai, put it this way in an e mail: "For some artists in this younger generation, the new political has become the 'market.' They tend to be curious and friendly to the market; they don't want to miss out on its opportunities." In fact, the government is putting its muscle behind companies like NeochaEdge. In Shanghai alone, the government has created more than 80 creative industry zones for 6,000 businesses. In 2008, the Shanghai municipal government named NeochaEdge as "one of the top representatives of the creative industry." SO how did two young guys from the United States Mr. Schokora grew up in Detroit and Mr. Leow in Silicon Valley end up becoming conduits to the young, creative community in China? Before founding the company, Mr. Leow, who studied Chinese as an undergraduate at Duke, was living and working in Shanghai as a business consultant and consuming large quantities of Chinese culture. "I was going to a lot of art exhibitions and indie rock shows, and I always thought that China was all about imitation and nothing creative, but I was wrong," Mr. Leow says. That prompted the idea to develop a social networking site for creative types in China called neocha.com. ("Cha" is Chinese for tea.) There was just one problem: revenue from advertisers was not coming in. At the same time, Mr. Schokora, who has been living in China since 2003, was working as a manager of digital and social media for Edelman, the global communications firm. "I knew about neocha.com even before I met Sean," Mr. Schokora recalls. "It was pretty much the only site out there aggregating what young, creative kids in China were doing online." In 2007, Mr. Schokora and Mr. Leow met at a music festival in Shanghai, and the meeting quickly evolved into a partnership. Other projects by NeochaEdge artists include work for Go Skateboarding Day (a Vans promotion) and a shirt design for Nike's World Basketball Festival. Soon, Mr. Schokora left his position at Edelman and teamed up with Mr. Leow to take neocha.com in a new direction. Mr. Schokora, influenced by his perspective working for a big agency, suggested changing the business model from a social networking site to a creative consortium. The founders say the strategy has worked. They would not reveal their revenue, but they say it has more than doubled in the last year. They are also considering expanding to other Asian markets, like India. Depending on the type of project, members of the artists' group make 20 percent to 90 percent of NeochaEdge's fee, which can range from 10,000 to 100,000. The compensation, Ms. Chen said in an e mail, is "more or less the same as a senior designer at an in house agency makes in China." But, she adds, "there is much more freedom and opportunity to build your name." Li Man, 27, an independent music producer in Beijing, is a NeochaEdge member who has been contracted to work on three projects over the last year, including a video for Absolut. He makes 6,666 renminbi, or around 1,000, per assignment. "The income I've brought in from my work from NeochaEdge has allowed me to buy a lot of electronics," he said via e mail, "and I'm now starting to work on record projects." Shadow Chen heard about the consortium through Twitter. She says NeochaEdge has helped her become noticed. "In China, it's very hard to be appreciated if you are an ordinary, independent artist, as opposed to a famous artist who is represented by an art gallery," she says. "NeochaEdge is probably the only good outlet for independent young artists to be discovered." Hurri Jin, 26, a Shanghai based artist who goes by the name Hurricane, has worked on five different projects with NeochaEdge and earned 20,000 renminbi, or a little more than 3,000, since he became a member of the consortium in December 2009. "NeochaEdge has really helped my work," he says. BACK in the early days, Mr. Schokora and Mr. Leow went searching for members at indie rock concerts, gallery openings and music festivals; now, however, the artists mostly come to them. Mr. Schokora says the company receives dozens of e mails a day from young people all over China who want to be featured on the Web site, which also showcases work from artists who are not members of the consortium. Sometimes, artists even show up at the company's office in the Jing An District in Shanghai without an appointment. The agency was started by two Americans, Adam Schokora, left, and Sean Leow. C.J. Gunther for The New York Times; Peter DaSilva for The New York Times As well as playing matchmaker, NeochaEdge produces trend reports and a monthly e magazine on the creative scene in the youth market. It also recruits for focus group research, plans exhibitions and performances and holds workshops and training for artists. "We are a complement to advertising agencies," Mr. Schokora said. "If an advertising agency wanted an illustrator from, let's say, Harbin, it would be pretty easy to search the database and find their portfolio online," he says, referring to the capital of Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China. "Then we just hop on instant message and get in touch." As companies expand their reach beyond the big cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, local talent and authenticity will be more important, says Damian Coren, chief operating officer at Leo Burnett in Shanghai. "All the brands are looking to get into those second and third tier cities, and anything that will help them push into regional markets will be quite welcome." Mr. Coren, incidentally, had not heard of NeochaEdge. But many others have. Coca Cola recently teamed up with it for a contest to find a young, creative type to put a Chinese spin on its American theme of "energizing refreshment." The winner or winners will receive up to 65,000 in cash prizes and a trip to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The agency has found its niche in providing innovative art and music. But will that be a selling point with bigger brands that are less out of the box? "NeochaEdge does so much cool, quirky stuff, but a lot of brands want less quirky stuff," Mr. Ward says. "If they are going to appeal to wider range of brands a Procter Gamble, for example they are going to have to combat the image that they only do stuff with graffiti art." Mr. Coren also wonders whether NeochaEdge will have appeal beyond multinational companies. It's hard to imagine major interest from local Chinese brands, he says, "because they are just not as experimental or avant garde yet." The future direction of NeochaEdge is not yet certain. The founders could decide to be absorbed by a large ad agency and work exclusively for that firm's roster of clients. They say they have been approached by three major advertising conglomerates interested in acquiring them. The company could also stay independent and become even more daring, perhaps by showing brands that they don't have to involve the middlemen the ad agencies. NeochaEdge is proving that with some clear direction from a brand, it can find the right illustrator, graphic designer or music producer for the job from its outside pool. No in house creative team is needed. "The traditional agency model is broken, and it's only a matter of time before it's disrupted," Mr. Leow said. Still, the ad industry hasn't yet gone through that seismic change and that leaves NeochaEdge in an interesting position to consider its next move. "Whatever we do next, we want to continue to give hope to the young, talented kids in China that they can make money in the creative industry," Mr. Schokora says.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Global Business
Since moving to Brooklyn in 2012, the Nets have closely aligned their brand with that of Christopher Wallace, the rapper known as the Notorious B.I.G., who grew up a brisk walk from where Barclays Center was later built to host the N.B.A. But a special version of the team's jersey, with a design inspired by Wallace, is at the center of a copyright violation lawsuit against the Nets, the N.B.A. and Nike filed by the clothing brand Coogi in Manhattan federal court Wednesday. Before the season, the Nets debuted their new Nike manufactured "City Edition" jerseys, which feature a multicolored striped pattern down the sides that the team called "Brooklyn Camo." In marketing materials, the team said the jerseys were inspired by Wallace. The "Brooklyn Camo" pattern bears a close resemblance to patterns Coogi has used in its clothing for years, and for which it claims to have over 300 design copyrights. Coogi, a New York based brand, is also heavily associated with Wallace. The rapper was photographed in Coogi's clothing, and he referred to the brand in at least two of his songs, including the hit "Hypnotize."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
If the varicolored candles lighting the way to Rosie Assoulin's presentation in the meatpacking district on Monday posed a fire hazard, no one seemed to mind. Most visitors milling around the otherwise austere space on Gansevoort Street were far too busy taking in Ms. Assoulin's romantically inclined collection of floor length coats, dresses and jumpsuits, some effusively ruffled, others pointedly underadorned. A visibly pregnant Ms. Assoulin concealed her baby bump under a glen plaid maxi coat of her own design. "I'm feeling sweaty but great," she said. "And I'm wearing what fits." Ms. Assoulin is scarcely a newcomer on the fashion scene. Ever since her promising debut collection of 2014, she has intrigued tastemakers like Solange Knowles, who wore an Assoulin off the shoulder top and culottes to a Bergdorf Goodman fashion bash in December, and fashion influentials like the blogger Leandra Medine.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
Everglades National Park is famed for its colorful and often savage wildlife. But rangers at the Florida park also take visitors to one of its equally fearsome man made attractions: the HM 69 Nike Missile Base. Built in the jittery wake of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and quietly mothballed in 1979, the Nike base sits amid the swamp as an eerie reminder of an era when South Florida remained on high alert. Day in and day out, soldiers at the base pored over radar screens, waiting for Soviet bombers to come screaming north out of Cuba. With the push of a button and the launch of 11,000 pound Nike Hercules missiles some armed with nuclear warheads these attackers would, theoretically, be blown out of the sky before reaching their American targets. "Listen closely and you can hear the residual whispers of the Cold War," explained Leon Howell, a ranger, while leading several dozen people through the base recently. A mix of homegrown tourists and history buffs from Europe and Japan, they were among the 15,000 or so visitors who have taken the free tour since the base opened to the public in 2009. Yet neither accessibility nor this winter's thawing of once icy diplomatic relations with Cuba have dispelled the ominous vibe. Much of the grounds, still enclosed by barbed wire, remains seemingly untouched, from the guard dog kennels whose inhabitants once sniffed the humid air for lurking saboteurs, to a 41 foot long Nike Hercules missile, recently returned to its original hangar. As Mr. Howell escorted the group to the hangar for a hands on encounter with a nuclear weapon (with warhead removed), the only sound was the wind rushing through the tall grass. The base's low slung barracks, which once housed approximately 140 soldiers as well as a rec room, bar and basketball court now hold a scientific research center run by the federal government. Yet little else has changed, from a warning sign declaring this to be a "restricted area" to a cartoon painted on the road of a malevolent cow size mosquito, a reminder of the threat soldiers here battled during the rainy summers. Even the barracks' exterior retains its original Pepto Bismol pink. Mr. Howell said the anything but military regulation paint job was likely chosen for its soothing impact on stressed out soldiers. It was this preserved in amber state that prompted Charles Carter, a Miami raised military historian, to spearhead efforts to transform the base into a historic site. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he flashed back to his teenage self watching President Kennedy's 1962 televised address on the looming threat of war from Cuba. Freshly inspired, he drove to the Nike base, where he'd been a missile operator from 1963 to 1965. "We came as close as the world has ever come to the thermonuclear annihilation of mankind," Mr. Carter said solemnly of those tense years, a cautionary lesson "worth preserving and interpreting for future generations." By the late 1960s, the American military's main focus had shifted to Vietnam. But the Nike base continued gazing south. Long stretches of boredom, often filled by soldiers drag racing their souped up roadsters on the base's long straightaways, would suddenly be shattered by Cuban fighter jets flying into American airspace. The Cubans routinely turned tail upon being intercepted by Air Force jets scrambled out of Key West or Homestead, Fla. But several base veterans have stories of "cat and mouse games" that came close to turning deadly. Unsurprisingly, Cold War veterans make up a large chunk of the base's visitors. With the emerging United States Cuba detente, Mr. Howell sees his tours also filling with curious Cuban exiles. On this postcard perfect afternoon, one such multigenerational clan arranged themselves in front of and in the case of their infant, atop a missile, making for a downright macabre family portrait. Mr. Howell said such sights are increasingly commonplace, even featuring veterans of Cuba's armed forces who have since immigrated to the United States. It would seem like an odd photo op: The missile's sole purpose was to kill them and their comrades. Yet Mr. Howell said the Cuban vets don't take it personally; their selfies often end in cheers and high fives. "They don't see the missiles as having once been aimed at them, so much as having been aimed at Fidel Castro," he explained wryly.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
When Ronan Farrow made a guest appearance on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" on Tuesday night, he tried to make it clear that he was the reporter, not the story. "We are there in service of women doing something really tough," Mr. Farrow told the host, "and I hope people hear their voices and focus on that." The next day, however, the media and entertainment industries were still discussing how and why Mr. Farrow's story on allegations of sexual abuse levied against the film mogul Harvey Weinstein by numerous women had ended up being published by The New Yorker after it began as an investigative report for NBC News. Mr. Farrow, formerly a contributing correspondent for NBC News, told Ms. Maddow he had taken his investigation to The New Yorker only after the network dragged its feet. But Noah Oppenheim, the president of NBC News, disputed the suggestion that the network's news division had lacked the courage to air Mr. Farrow's expose. "We supported him and gave him resources to report that story over many, many months," Mr. Oppenheim said during an annual meeting with NBC News staff members on Wednesday at Studio 8H, the home of NBC's "Saturday Night Live." "The notion that we would try to cover for a powerful person is deeply offensive to all of us." Mr. Farrow's 8,000 word article concerned 13 women, several of whom went on the record to accuse Mr. Weinstein of sexual harassment, assault and rape. The story, published on Tuesday, went online days after the publication of the first of two investigative articles by The New York Times on Mr. Weinstein, who was fired from the Weinstein Company on Sunday. Mr. Farrow, 29, is a son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, and a graduate of Yale Law School who hosted a short lived show on MSNBC that was canceled because of low ratings. Since then, he has filed pieces for "Today" Mr. Oppenheim's last stop before his promotion in February as part of a series called "Undercover With Ronan Farrow." So, why did Mr. Farrow, who had worked for NBC News since 2013, take it to a rival organization? "I walked into the door at The New Yorker with an explosively reportable piece that should have been public earlier," Mr. Farrow told Ms. Maddow on Tuesday. "And immediately, obviously, The New Yorker recognized that, and it's not accurate to say that it was not reportable. In fact, there were multiple determinations that it was reportable at NBC." When Ms. Maddow pressed him to explain what had happened with NBC, he said, "Look, you would have to ask NBC and NBC executives about the details of that story." At the annual town hall meeting, Mr. Oppenheim said NBC had determined over the summer that Mr. Farrow's reporting lacked some elements it needed for publication, but that he had since filled the gaps. "Ronan very understandably wanted to keep forging ahead," Mr. Oppenheim said, according to a transcript of his remarks provided by the network. "So we didn't want to stand in his way, and he took it to The New Yorker and did a ton more extraordinary work. He greatly expanded the scope of his reporting. Suffice to say, the stunning story, the incredible story that we all read yesterday, was not the story that we were looking at when we made our judgment several months ago." Mr. Oppenheim said NBC News "couldn't be prouder" of Mr. Farrow, who is no longer under contract with the network. Jeff Bezos gives 100 million to the Obama Foundation. Stocks rise after President Biden says Jerome Powell will stay atop the Fed. "I think all you need to know about our feeling about the importance of the story is that we have been putting him on our air throughout the day yesterday, and this morning, ever since," he said. The report, which Mr. Farrow worked on for several months with Rich McHugh, a producer in the investigative unit at NBC News, went through rounds of vetting within NBC including with Kimberley Harris, NBC Universal's general counsel, according to two people familiar with his reporting who were not authorized to speak publicly. By the time Mr. Farrow had given up on the idea that the story would air on NBC, he had on camera interviews with the subjects' faces rendered in shadow with employees at the Weinstein Company as well as other victims of harassment and assault, the people said. In addition, Mr. Farrow had in his possession an audio recording made as part of a New York Police Department sting operation, in which Mr. Weinstein admitted groping a model named Ambra Battilana Gutierrez in 2015. Mr. Farrow had also collected LinkedIn messages from a concerned Weinstein Company executive that would ultimately make its way into his New Yorker article. As of late July, Mr. Farrow also had an interview with one accuser who appeared on camera with her identity revealed. But that person wavered months after giving the interview, fearing legal action from Mr. Weinstein. Once the interview with the woman was removed, NBC had concerns that the resulting piece would no longer include any on camera interviews with people who revealed their identity, according to two people familiar with the news division's thinking. NBC recommended hitting the pause button on the story partly because Mr. Farrow's contract with the network was about to expire but Mr. Farrow wanted to continue. A new accuser had agreed to appear on camera in shadow and she had a serious sexual assault claim to make. After some back and forth between Mr. Farrow and the network, NBC said he was free to proceed but without help from the news division. Officials at the network wanted it postponed. Mr. Farrow went ahead with the interview and hired his own camera crew to conduct it. During the course of his reporting, Mr. Farrow also interviewed, in the role of an expert talking head, the longtime New Yorker staff writer Ken Auletta, who had written a lengthy profile of Mr. Weinstein for the magazine in 2002. Given Mr. Farrow's material, Mr. Auletta said on camera that it would be a "scandal" if NBC refused to air it, according to a person familiar with the interview. The publication of Mr. Farrow's New Yorker story roughly coincided with the one year anniversary of NBC's losing a scoop when it hesitated to publish a story on the "'Access Hollywood' tape" the recording of Mr. Trump, then a presidential candidate, boasting of having forced himself on women. NBCUniversal is the owner of the syndicated "Access Hollywood" and had the recording in its archives. It lost the story, however, as its lawyers put the tape through a three day vetting process. Complicating matters was the fact that Billy Bush, the "Access Hollywood" correspondent who played the eager and willing interlocutor to Mr. Trump in the 2005 tape, was by then a host of "Today." On Oct. 7, 2016, The Washington Post published the audio recording and an accompanying story about it under the headline "Trump recorded having extremely lewd conversation about women in 2005" just hours after it received a copy of the tape. Mr. Trump at first defended his comments as "locker room banter," before issuing a video apology in which he said, "Anyone who knows me knows these words don't reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize." At the meeting of NBC News staff members on Wednesday, Mr. Oppenheim seemed adamant that NBC News would not shy away in the future. "So, what I would say is that we are going to keep digging, we are going to keep pursuing these stories," he said. "We are not always going to be the ones that get it to the finish line, but I think, more often than not, we will be." Mr. Farrow did not reply to interview requests for this story, but when asked by Jake Tapper on CNN's "The Lead" to clear up the back and forth, he said, "I truly do think we should stay focused on the women here."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
Fall for Dance, the annual appetizer sampler of performers and choreographers from around the world, will return to New York City Center in October with four world premieres including one by Kyle Abraham for the American Ballet Theater star Misty Copeland and appearances by the Mariinsky Ballet and the tap wunderkind Caleb Teicher. The festival, in its 16th season, is planned for Oct. 1 13, City Center announced on Tuesday. Tickets, only 15 and so fast selling, will be available starting at 11 a.m. on Sept. 8. Program One, which features Mr. Abraham's new work for Ms. Copeland, will have also appearances by Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and the South African troupe Vuyani Dance Company; Mr. Teicher will unveil "Bzzzz" an expansion of "Bzzz," which he presented at last year's Fall for Dance. (Siobhan Burke, reviewing the premiere in The New York Times, called "Bzzz" "rousing, clever, sometimes madcap" and "a music making triumph.") The Mark Morris Dance Group opens Program Two, which also features the French company Dyptik and Washington Ballet, as well as Malevo, of Argentina. On Program Three, the storied Mariinsky Ballet will dance the American premiere of Alexander Sergeev's "At the Wrong Time"; the evening's other troupes are the English National Ballet, performing a work by Akram Khan; Skanes Dansteater of Sweden; and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, presenting a portion of Rennie Harris's "Lazarus," which had its premiere last season.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Dance
Being known as "the girl with no friends" wasn't my favorite part about having made a video that went viral but you take what you can get. About a year ago, as a college freshman at Cornell, I was assigned a short video project for my Intro to Digital Media course. I decided to focus on my disappointment with the early weeks of college: How I couldn't get past superficial conversation, how I couldn't seem to enjoy parties, feel comfortable on campus, or just meet people who I wanted to spend more time around. I felt so lost and beyond confused. I had been a pretty social person in high school and I fully expected to make great friends right away when I got to college. It's supposed to be the time of your life, right? I had been looking forward to college for years. I started studying for standardized tests in 10th, hammering out extracurricular activities and A.P. courses all through 11th, and spent senior year typing applications till my fingers practically bled. I got into a great school, pleasing myself and my family. This was not the payoff I expected. The worst part was that I felt as if I were the only one who was this lonely. I'd see all these freshmen walk in packs just massive groups of friends already formed in the first two weeks of school. I couldn't muster the courage to ask people to get lunch. It was so frustrating. I immediately turned on myself criticized and blamed myself for being weird and unapproachable. I spent a ton of time on social media, constantly checking in on my high school friends and seeing how they were getting along at their colleges. They'd post more and text me less. I really tried to put myself out there, but the more people I met, the more defeated I felt. I wasn't interested in forging fake relationships out of necessity, I wanted genuine friendships that I could treasure. Why couldn't I find them in my first month on campus? I poured my loneliness into the four and a half minute film I made, called "My College Transition." I posted it on YouTube expecting only my professor and a couple friends to see it. It was overwhelming in the most beautiful way, and was further proof that I wasn't alone in my experience. It also showed how necessary it was for people to be open about isolation on college campuses. Now a sophomore, I see how ridiculous my expectations were for my first year. To assume I could instantly meet my New Best Friends while also getting used to a new place, starting a new academic career, and learning how to adjust to life away from home that's a full plate already. Some of the high school friends I was missing had been my friends for my whole life. Expecting close relationships like the ones that had taken years to develop was unfair to myself and the people around me. Going to college is a massive change so many students are being uprooted from the familiar comforts of their homes and thrust into a completely new place. It was beyond unrealistic for me to anticipate a seamless transition. After I posted the video I had people of all ages and genders reaching out to me, explaining how they felt the same way when they started a new job, when they moved to a new place, even when they started retirement. Loneliness is too often paired with self blame and self criticism: "I can't find my place among these people, so it must be my fault." My social life became a big game of trial and error, slowly learning in which groups I felt welcome and included. It was hard! It was draining! But by putting myself out there, I found so many communities on campus to invest myself in, and where I knew I would be happily received. The video was definitely a conversation starter, and it made people more likely to open up to me about their struggles as a freshman. But I don't think the video was any sort of motivator for people to actually become my friend. Now, a year after making the film, I've settled in to college a lot better. But I see the new batch of freshmen around me and imagine many of them are going through the same transition. Here's what I know now that I wish I could have told my younger self. The notion that my college friends should be stand ins for my close relationships from home: impossible. One of the great things about going away to college is the chance to meet people who are not the same. I learned to cherish each relationship for its uniqueness, for the different perspective and ideas it brought into my life. At first I searched for people who reminded me of my friends from home, who would play a similar role in my life that they do. But I began to realize that no one can stand in for or replace them which was oddly comforting, and a relief to acknowledge. I had to minimize my time on social media. It became a platform for comparison. I evaluated every picture my friends posted, determining whether their college looked like more fun than mine, if they had made more friends than I had, just meaningless justifications for my unhappiness. It was comforting when old friends reached out to me to say that they related to the video. Many of them were people I thought were having a fantastic time at school. Social media reinforces the notion that you should always be enjoying yourself, that it's strange to not be happy and that life is a constant stream of good experiences and photo worthy moments. I taught myself that everyone's college experience is different, and slowly, I started to embrace the uniqueness of my own. Transitions are always hard regardless of your age. But the social expectations around college put overwhelming pressure on students to fit in seamlessly into their campus, without truly acknowledging the difficulty of uprooting your life and starting fresh. The hardest thing to tell struggling freshmen is that acclimation takes time and "thriving" even longer. Making friends is an active process, and all the preconceived ideas college students arrive with can make for a defeating experience. Understand that your loneliness is not failure, and that you are far from being alone in this feeling. Open your mind and take experiences as they come. You're going to find your people.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Well
A choreographer, at least one worth her weight, never stops asking questions. For Deborah Hay, a founding member of Judson Dance Theater, the groundbreaking postmodern movement of the 1960s, those two words are a vital prompt for her playful, tenacious curiosity. "Questions lift me up," she said at Danspace Project on Thursday. 'When I get an answer, it's over." "An Evening With Deborah Hay," a one night event, celebrated that choreographer in a two part program featuring "reorganizing myself," a performative talk, and the screening of a film by Becky Edmunds documenting a group of dancers as they are coached by Ms. Hay as part of her Solo Performance Commissioning Project. For the movie, participants learned the solo "Dynamic" over 10 consecutive days. Part of Ms. Hay's mandate as a choreographer is to change learned behavior in dancers to challenge them to relinquish their habits by posing questions that shift the tone and texture of a performance. While moving, a dancer stays in the present by thinking about questions like, "What if every cell in my body is served by how I see?" How that changes a dancer's intensity, believability and commitment is the foundation of Ms. Hay's work. It's not a technique that can be mastered; it's elusive and focuses on organizing the body, without artifice or self censorship, in the moment. As she explained in her talk, "A continuity of discontinuity is kind of where I am now."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Dance
Admittedly, it is a pretty geeky parlor game, maybe one that has faded with time. But for years in many households, it provoked endless dinnertime debate. In the annals of the 20th century, who was the greater, more significant historical figure: Franklin D. Roosevelt or Winston Churchill? The case for Churchill is powerful. He rallied Britain against Hitler's hordes when the rest of Europe had fallen. While the United States remained on the sidelines and the Soviet Union embraced its devil's bargain alliance with Nazi Germany, Churchill virtually single handedly defied the Third Reich in the face of existential threat: He was personally at risk, along with his countrymen, amid the cascade of bombs raining down on London during the Blitz. But count Nigel Hamilton in Roosevelt's camp not just in his camp but perhaps his most passionate and eloquent champion. In "War and Peace," his latest book on the American wartime leader, Hamilton presents a farsighted Roosevelt riding to the rescue of freedom, then setting the stage for a new world order to come. Churchill is depicted as a military dunderhead who let ego and imperial ambition get in the way of sensible strategy. Courageous? Yes. A stirring orator? Absolutely. But if not restrained by Roosevelt, Churchill, in Hamilton's view, might easily have lost World War II for the Allies. "War and Peace" is the third and final volume in Hamilton's "F.D.R. at War" trilogy and certainly as gripping and powerfully argued as the first two, "The Mantle of Command" and "Commander in Chief." Hamilton, as the historian Evan Thomas once observed, ended up producing the extended memoir that Roosevelt himself never got to write. Throughout Hamilton's three books, Roosevelt is the wise and clever sage fending off myopic cabinet secretaries, generals, admirals and colleagues to steer the Allies to victory and the world to a better future. Hamilton, a British born historian and naturalized American at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, is known for a well regarded multivolume biography of Bernard Montgomery, the British field marshal during World War II, as well as more controversial books on Bill Clinton's presidency and John F. Kennedy's salacious personal life. He set out to write a single stand alone book on Roosevelt, only to have it evolve into a decade long project that required three titles to complete, with the goal, as he put it, "to set the record of this man's contribution to the history of humanity straight." Want to keep up with the latest and greatest in books? This is a good place to start. None Learn what you should be reading this fall: Our collection of reviews on books coming out this season includes biographies, novels, memoirs and more. See what's new in October: Among this month's new titles are novels by Jonathan Franzen, a history of Black cinema and a biography by Katie Couric. Nominate a book: The New York Times Book Review has just turned 125. That got us wondering: What is the best book that was published during that time? Listen to our podcast: Featuring conversations with leading figures in the literary world, from Colson Whitehead to Leila Slimani, the Book Review Podcast helps you delve deeper into your favorite books. Hamilton's disdain for Churchill will surprise no one who has read the first two installments. Unlike more sentimental accounts of the relationship between Roosevelt and Churchill, like Jon Meacham's engaging best seller "Franklin and Winston," Hamilton's trilogy presents the American as more exasperated than enamored when it came to his London partner, leery of the prime minister's latest schemes and intrigues and constantly maneuvering to keep the war heading in the right direction. In "War and Peace," as in the first two books, Hamilton condemns "Winston's erratic course," his "sheer amateurishness," his "new madness," his "autocratic and often wild behavior" and his "homicidal meddling" in military matters. "Time and again," he writes, "Churchill had been infamously wrong on strategy." The wrongheaded Churchill obsessively continued pressing for military action in the Mediterranean and Balkans while resisting the cross channel D Day invasion that even the Nazis foresaw would decide the fate of the war. "Whitewashed by generations of subsequent historians, this was the great tragedy of the war in late 1943," Hamilton writes. In Hamilton's view, his three volumes are a long overdue correction to the mythmaking in Churchill's own six volume account of the war. After all, Churchill famously said, "History will be kind to me for I intend to write it." Hamilton seems intent on rewriting it. "I deeply admired" Churchill, he informs readers, noting without elaboration that as a college student he "proudly stayed for a weekend at Chartwell, his home in Kent, before he died." But, Hamilton adds, "I do not think it unfair to his memory, 65 years later, to correct the record regarding his version." Hamilton's Roosevelt, by contrast, was an all knowing demigod, at once judicious and cunning, so visionary that he devoted much of his energy in the final chapters of the war to what would follow. Roosevelt did not live to see the United Nations that was his brainchild but, Hamilton argues, fairly enough, that no one did more to create a global structure that might forestall a third world war. Since Roosevelt left no lasting record of his life and thoughts following his untimely death in Warm Springs, Ga., in April 1945 at age 63, Hamilton relies on those left by others, including insightful diaries by Mackenzie King, the Zelig like Canadian prime minister who always seemed to be on hand at key moments, and Henry L. Stimson, the Republican secretary of war who at times resisted Roosevelt's judgments only to come around to recognize the virtues of the president's approach. As "War and Peace" opens, Roosevelt has entered the twilight of his presidency, no longer the commanding figure of the first two books, heading inexorably toward an early grave, aided and abetted by a doctor and aides who considered him too necessary to America and the world to let him ease offstage to tend to his failing health. Though his faculties were fading, Roosevelt remained the driving force behind the strategy for winning the war and winning the peace. "Without F.D.R.'s extraordinary military leadership after Pearl Harbor," Hamilton writes, "the course of World War II might well have turned out differently and I would probably not be here, writing about it." The centerpiece of Roosevelt's strategy, of course, was Operation Overlord, the Normandy invasion, which Roosevelt advocated relentlessly despite doubts, arguments and even sabotage by Churchill. The prime minister, aware that the sun was setting on the empire on which the sun never set, suggested almost every other option. He pressed for more Allied focus on Italy, as well as landings in Greece and the Aegean. He was consumed inexplicably with the island of Rhodes. He fixated on the bloody battle of Anzio. Roosevelt batted away one Churchill effort to derail the D Day invasion after another, single mindedly determined to seize the beaches of Normandy. Hamilton's case for Roosevelt is a compelling one. Even in decline, the president had a vision that eluded others, including his closest partner. Yet if the author's antipathy for Churchill's strategic miscalculations is buttressed by prodigious research, it nonetheless seems to sweep aside too easily the profound importance of his singular resolve, grit and determination to defeat Hitler not to mention his cleareyed view of Stalin and the looming Soviet threat that Roosevelt, ever confident of his own powers of persuasion, mistakenly thought he could manage. To Hamilton, Churchill's inspiration was no match for Roosevelt's sagacity, his stirring speeches no substitute for the American's strategic brilliance. Roosevelt was the architect and engineer who translated Churchill's grandiloquence into a plan for victory. The Allies did fight on the beaches, as Churchill once memorably vowed, but it fell to Franklin Roosevelt to make sure they were the right beaches.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Books
But his use of the orchestra reveals a composer confident in his idiom, reaching out for new effects. Those "simpler" strings, while not intrinsically complex, lent moments of piercing harmony to the orchestral textures during the first movement, as the more featured instruments engaged in thrilling volleys of canonic imitation. Occasional eruptions from an electric bass often announced new motifs in the ensemble, and had intense power. The work is written in arch form, in five movements that keep the tempo the same but change the length of the notes being played to convey the illusion of transition from fast to slower to fast. Around the midpoint there was also room for a sense of reverie, as the churning pianos familiar from some of Mr. Reich's past works were allowed to relent (briefly). In its final moments, the piece took on the feeling of a meditative exhalation, suggesting prior touchstones like "Music for 18 Musicians," without seeming derivative. The Philharmonic players savored the sounds. Some scintillating passages for trumpets and vibraphones were brimming with a metallic resonance that the orchestra and its music director, Jaap van Zweden, balanced beautifully with the strings and winds. It was a good night for the orchestra, in general, in a program otherwise devoted to Beethoven. In that composer's Symphony No. 2, Mr. van Zweden suppressed his characteristic impulse toward feverish dynamic intensity, leading a suave and engaging performance that built to a satisfying climax. If the Larghetto was a touch draggy, Mr. van Zweden made up for it during the quiet middle movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4. There, in partnership with the soloist, Yefim Bronfman, this conductor created a chilly sense of mystery. Mr. Bronfman was in touch with the concerto's quick changing energies throughout ramping from naively winning melodies to stormy outbursts with reliable command. This program of classics plus an exciting contemporary work is exactly the kind of eclectic, highly enjoyable evening that an elite orchestra can and should pull off regularly. But as I looked around Geffen Hall on Thursday, I wondered whether the audiences that pack the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Mr. Reich's performances were aware of this major local premiere. This week, the Philharmonic's website has been advertising an evening of "Bronfman and Beethoven." That's true enough, but hardly the whole story. This orchestra has changed its approach to the repertoire in recent years but marketing habits die hard. This program is repeated through Saturday at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center; 212 875 5656, nyphil.org.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Music
Soon, though, it descends into several discrete modes of misogyny. Terry moonily elevates Catherine while Phil treats her with an earthier near contempt. In the view of the movie, the character has earned both objectifications. The conniving heartbreaker is eventually forced to confront the Damage She Has Done. But she proves to have a postmodern trick up her sleeve. Franco plays a glib director who argues that sexual harassment is necessary to cinematic art. (That Franco has faced real life allegations of exploitative behavior makes these scenes extra discomfiting .) Juno Temple incarnates another feminine cliche, the grasping harpy. Sometimes the only reason a grown man doesn't tear his head off is because of physical limitations.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Movies
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Consider the following scenes from the N.B.A.'s annual bacchanal/business convention known as All Star weekend: Spike Lee standing on a street corner waiting for the crosswalk signal. Stan Kroenke, whose family owns the Denver Nuggets, holding court in a hotel lobby. Joel Embiid, the star center of the Philadelphia 76ers, making small talk with the governor of North Carolina. An army of personal stylists waiting to be summoned by their clients for some of the flashiest events of the year. And then there were the agents and league officials and sneakerheads and reporters, some of whom traveled great distances to make unconventional requests of the weekend's main attractions. "Shout out to my fans in Mongolia!" John Collins of the Atlanta Hawks yelled into a camera the morning before his appearance in the Saturday slam dunk contest. Slam Dunk Contest: Hamidou Diallo's Dunk Is Even Better Viewed Frame by Frame All Star weekend tends to be a blend of basketball and branding, business and pleasure a showcase for a powerful league whose global influence continues to expand. "The whole weekend," Mike Conley of the Memphis Grizzlies said, "is just a big party." The All Star Game itself, scheduled for Sunday night, felt secondary to just about everything else in the host city, as it has for many years. Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, recalled waiting in line in 2006 for one of the more popular parties at All Star weekend in Houston, where he watched Maciej Lampe a center from Poland who appeared in 64 career games over parts of three seasons bypass the line so that he could immediately be waved inside by security. "And I'm like, 'Man, I'm behind Maciej Lampe?'" said Morey, who would officially join the front office of the Rockets a little more than six weeks later. All Star weekend has only grown in recent years. One spreadsheet making the rounds in Charlotte listed more than 100 parties, and that did not include many of the more exclusive events. (Michael Jordan hosted a big one.) Thanks to a change in the league schedule, there is more partying and less deal making than there used to be. Last year, the league moved the trade deadline up so that it preceded All Star weekend. In the past, the deadline came a few days after the game, a sequence which helped create its share of absurdity. One of the more notorious examples came in 2017, when word leaked during the fourth quarter of the All Star Game that the New Orleans Pelicans had struck a deal to acquire DeMarcus Cousins from the Sacramento Kings. Cousins learned of the trade during postgame interviews. In the corner, a disc jockey who appeared to be in his 60s spun tunes in a Hawaiian shirt and red tinted glasses, while women wearing bright red dresses passed out hors d'oeuvres. Agents, clients and marketing honchos milled about the room. But none of this is meant to suggest that deals do not get done. On Thursday night, at a downtown hotel bar where patrons sipped 25 cocktails, a crowd of very tall men gathered as a private event wound down at a nearby steakhouse. Among the luminaries who emerged from the event: Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner; Kroenke, who also owns the Los Angeles Rams; Brian Rolapp, the N.F.L.'s chief media and business officer; Bill Simmons, the founder of The Ringer; Connor Schell, ESPN's executive vice president for content; and Bob Myers, the general manager of the Golden State Warriors. "There are definitely conversations happening," Morey said. "And there's serendipity involved. You're always bumping into people." Morey was finishing lunch at an upscale restaurant. Warren LeGarie, a longtime agent to many coaches and executives, and Kiki Vandeweghe, the league's executive vice president for basketball operations, were dining at nearby tables. Morey was about to head into a meeting with Vandeweghe and Monty McCutchen, who supervises the league's referees. "Obviously, we care deeply about where the league is going," Morey said, "so talking to Adam Silver about strategy or Monty McCutchen about changing how they might call certain things all that kind of stuff could impact our franchise moving forward, so I try to be involved." The atmosphere may seem more relaxed than it was two years ago, when most team executives and agents were focused on the trade deadline, but the shift in the schedule has not pushed aside the league's most pressing issues. In Charlotte, a cloud loomed over the festivities, and it came in the shape of a unibrow. Perhaps you have heard? Anthony Davis, the star center for the Pelicans, requested a trade 10 days before the deadline. The Pelicans, though, rejected all trade offers for him and instead hope to reap better players and draft picks in a deal this summer. Last week, Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry called the drama of it all a "dumpster fire." On Friday, the Pelicans fired their general manager. On Saturday, Davis told reporters that his list of preferred destinations included the Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers. Hours later, Silver said he would like trade demands and discussions to remain behind closed doors. In any case, the Davis situation only underscored how much the topic of player movement dominates the league even in the middle of the season, and even after the trade deadline. Everyone here was fixated on what could happen just over four months from now at the start of free agency. Will Kevin Durant leave the Warriors? Will Kawhi Leonard spurn the Toronto Raptors? Will Kyrie Irving bolt from the Boston Celtics? And, again, what about Davis?	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
Kate Mara isn't onscreen much in "Chappaquiddick," John Curran's account of the maelstrom surrounding July 18, 1969, when Senator Edward M. Kennedy drove his Oldsmobile off a narrow bridge into a pond on the Massachusetts island, leaving the scene and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, who died. And effectively killing his presidential aspirations. As Kopechne, Ms. Mara was determined to find justice for a campaign aide who, after her death, was reduced by some to a groupie who was having an affair with the married Kennedy, played here by Jason Clarke. ("Chappaquiddick" opens on Friday, April 6.) "Like a lot of people, I'm fascinated with the Kennedys and their history and their achievements and the tragic stories that follow them," Ms. Mara said. But she insisted on portraying Kopechne "as the brilliant, hard working woman that she was and not just some tabloid story." It isn't the first time Ms. Mara's character has suffered at the hand of politics. As the dogged D.C. reporter Zoe Barnes in "House of Cards," she slept with the House majority whip, Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey), who pushed her in front of a train once he was tagged for the vice presidency. This summer, she'll play a 1980s New Jersey housewife whose husband works for the Trump organization in FX's "Pose," which is currently shooting in New York. As a snowstorm approached, Ms. Mara, 35 chatty in bare feet in the downtown Manhattan apartment where she's living temporarily with her husband, Jamie Bell, and her elderly Boston terrier, Bruno discussed her harrowing scenes as Kopechne and the recent sexual assault allegations against Mr. Spacey. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation. Kopechne joined Senator Robert F. Kennedy's secretarial staff in 1964 and then became a "boiler room girl." What's that? It's a term they used for the girls who worked on Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign. Their office was boiling hot because there were no windows, and it was in this dark area of the building. They'd be down there for hours working their asses off. How did you make sure you weren't playing into the rumors surrounding Kopechne? She achieved so much, and she was only 28 when she died. She started out as a teacher, and then she went on to play a very important role in Bobby Kennedy's campaign. So I wanted to make sure that she wasn't shown as just some rumored fling that Ted Kennedy might have had. Obviously, it was a possibility. But I appreciated the fact that we were going to leave it as it actually is, which is a mystery. The official finding was "death by drowning." But some have speculated that she suffocated as the water rose in Kennedy's car across several hours. What was that like to shoot? Horrible. Laughs grimly It was very surreal. We actually shot in a car that was flipped upside down in an underwater tank, and it was being held up by wires. And they would submerge it a little bit more, then a little bit more, and the car filled up with water over time. They had one of the doors off so I could swim underneath and get to the bottom half of the car where the actual air pockets were. And I had this amazing stunt team of ex Navy SEALs that were under there protecting me in case anything goes wrong. It was quite an ordeal. Yeah, it wasn't fun. At all. And now you're shooting Ryan Murphy's "Pose," about the 1980s ball culture. It's inspired by "Paris Is Burning." I'm excited to see all those women dancing on the series , because if you go online or on Instagram and follow any of the "houses," it's so incredible. Their actual vogueing, posing whatever you want to call it it's an art form. The show is said to have the largest L.G.B.T. cast of any scripted series. It's pretty mental how many characters we have, and it keeps growing with each episode. It's so fantastic when you open a script and see all the characters' names, and most of them are trans. They're not killing you off, are they? I have to ask about "House of Cards" and working with Kevin Spacey. I had a really amazing experience on that show for the 13 episodes I was on it. Did you have any inkling as to the alleged sexual misconduct that led to his termination from the show?	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Movies
After being introduced by Reese Witherspoon, she acknowledged the significance of becoming the first black woman to win the award, and said she hoped that the raised voices of her fellow actresses might lead to a world in which "nobody ever has to say, 'Me too,' again." Here is a full transcript of Ms. Winfrey's speech: Ah! Thank you. Thank you all. O.K., O.K. Thank you, Reese. In 1964, I was a little girl sitting on the linoleum floor of my mother's house in Milwaukee, watching Anne Bancroft present the Oscar for best actor at the 36th Academy Awards. She opened the envelope and said five words that literally made history: "The winner is Sidney Poitier." Up to the stage came the most elegant man I had ever seen. I remember his tie was white, and of course his skin was black. And I'd never seen a black man being celebrated like that. And I've tried many, many, many times to explain what a moment like that means to a little girl a kid watching from the cheap seats, as my mom came through the door bone tired from cleaning other people's houses. But all I can do is quote and say that the explanation's in Sidney's performance in "Lilies of the Field": "Amen, amen. Amen, amen." In 1982, Sidney received the Cecil B. DeMille Award right here at the Golden Globes, and it is not lost on me that at this moment there are some little girls watching as I become the first black woman to be given this same award. It is an honor, and it is a privilege to share the evening with all of them, and also with the incredible men and women who've inspired me, who've challenged me, who've sustained me and made my journey to this stage possible. Dennis Swanson, who took a chance on me for "A.M. Chicago"; Quincy Jones, who saw me on that show and said to Steven Spielberg, "Yes, she is Sophia in 'The Color Purple'"; Gayle, who's been the definition of what a friend is; and Stedman, who's been my rock just a few to name. I'd like to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, because we all know that the press is under siege these days. But we also know that it is the insatiable dedication to uncovering the absolute truth that keeps us from turning a blind eye to corruption and to injustice. To tyrants and victims and secrets and lies. I want to say that I value the press more than ever before, as we try to navigate these complicated times. Which brings me to this: What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have. And I'm especially proud and inspired by all the women who have felt strong enough and empowered enough to speak up and share their personal stories. Each of us in this room are celebrated because of the stories that we tell. And this year we became the story. But it's not just a story affecting the entertainment industry. It's one that transcends any culture, geography, race, religion, politics or workplace. So I want tonight to express gratitude to all the women who have endured years of abuse and assault, because they like my mother had children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue. They're the women whose names we'll never know. They are domestic workers and farmworkers; they are working in factories and they work in restaurants, and they're in academia and engineering and medicine and science; they're part of the world of tech and politics and business; they're our athletes in the Olympics and they're our soldiers in the military. And they're someone else: Recy Taylor, a name I know and I think you should know, too. In 1944, Recy Taylor was a young wife and a mother. She was just walking home from a church service she'd attended in Abbeville, Ala., when she was abducted by six armed white men, raped and left blindfolded by the side of the road, coming home from church. They threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone, but her story was reported to the N.A.A.C.P., where a young worker by the name of Rosa Parks became the lead investigator on her case and together they sought justice. But justice wasn't an option in the era of Jim Crow. The men who tried to destroy her were never persecuted. Recy Taylor died 10 days ago, just shy of her 98th birthday. She lived, as we all have lived, too many years in a culture broken by brutally powerful men. And for too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those men. But their time is up. Their time is up. Their time is up. And I just hope that Recy Taylor died knowing that her truth like the truth of so many other women who were tormented in those years, and even now tormented goes marching on. It was somewhere in Rosa Parks's heart almost 11 years later, when she made the decision to stay seated on that bus in Montgomery. And it's here with every woman who chooses to say, "Me too." And every man every man who chooses to listen. In my career, what I've always tried my best to do, whether on television or through film, is to say something about how men and women really behave: to say how we experience shame, how we love and how we rage, how we fail, how we retreat, persevere, and how we overcome. And I've interviewed and portrayed people who've withstood some of the ugliest things life can throw at you, but the one quality all of them seem to share is an ability to maintain hope for a brighter morning even during our darkest nights. So I want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say, 'Me too' again. Thank you."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Movies
For Alex Trebek, the Toughest Question: Can He Face Down Pancreatic Cancer? The cancer that has struck Alex Trebek, the 78 year old host of the television quiz show "Jeopardy!," is uncommon and devastating: a Stage 4 malignancy of the pancreas, the insulin producing organ that lies behind the stomach. Pancreatic cancer strikes about 55,000 people each year in the United States, accounting for 3 percent of all cancers but 7 percent of all cancer deaths. That's because it can be so difficult to detect and treat. Stage 4, unfortunately, is the most advanced level. The main risk factor is aging, and Mr. Trebek is "in the right age range," said Dr. Ursina Teitelbaum, clinical director of the Pancreatic Cancer Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania. There are several types, but the most common by far is adenocarcinoma: Tumors arise in pancreatic glands that make enzymes to help digest foods. Nearly all pancreatic tumors are of this type, said Dr. William Jarnagin, a pancreatic surgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. It's "the kind of cancer most people think of when they say pancreatic cancer." Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. Why is this such a dreaded diagnosis? There is no screening test that can find it early, Dr. Teitelbaum said. The pancreas is deep in the body and hard even to biopsy. "It is a fluffy organ nestled in a rich bed of blood vessels," Dr. Teitelbaum said. Those vessels serve as highways transporting the cancer cells to other organs. And it is a very aggressive cancer, a highly lethal disease with few good treatment options. Even in a patient who is fortunate who is among the 10 percent to 15 percent whose cancer is found when it still can be surgically removed the risk of recurrence is great. Up to 85 percent of patients who have surgery followed by chemotherapy have a recurrence at some point, usually within two years. Even those who survive five or more years are still at risk of another episode. "We've seen that happen," Dr. Jarnagin said. "It seems quite unfair." Why can't the cancer be found early? The problem is that pancreatic cancer usually has no symptoms until it is far advanced. By the time patients complain of pain, unintended weight loss or jaundice typical symptoms the tumor tends to be well established. By the time the cancer can easily be seen in M.R.I. or CT scans, it almost always has spread beyond the pancreas, even if there are no obvious signs in other organs. How is it treated? If the tumor can be removed, doctors operate. Surgery is followed by chemotherapy to attack microscopic cancer cells that are left behind in the pancreas or are hiding in other organs. For patients whose cancers can be treated with surgery and chemotherapy, the median survival time is 54 months, although on rare occasions patients are cured. The rising survival rate is a huge advance, compared to what patients faced ten years ago. "There was such nihilism," Dr. Teitelbaum said of the diagnosis then. Now new chemotherapy regimens have more than doubled survival times. "It is really good news," she said. "Patients are living longer and better." In some men with localized pancreatic tumors, the malignancy has grown too large for surgery to be useful but it has not spread. These patients are treated with chemotherapy and sometimes radiation therapy. They have a median survival rate of 10 to 12 months. Patients with Stage 4 cancer, like Mr. Trebek, are not candidates for surgery, because the cancer has already spread throughout the body. Chemotherapy is the only option.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Health
The police and Major League Baseball said Friday they were each investigating a video that appeared to show the chief executive of the San Francisco Giants in an altercation with his wife. The video clip, which was posted by TMZ Sports, provided no context for what led up to the episode on Friday in San Francisco involving the executive, Larry Baer, and his wife, Pam. In the video, the Baers were in what appeared to be a public plaza and Ms. Baer was seated in a chair. Mr. Baer, who was wearing a suit, stood over his wife and suddenly lunged for something in her hand, the video showed. The clip appeared to show him forcefully grabbing at her hand or arm. A struggle ensued, causing her to lose her balance in the chair, falling on her back and screaming, "Oh my God!" A second clip appeared to show the aftermath of the episode and Mr. Baer, carrying a coffee cup and walking away, saying, "Stop, Pam, stop."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
My name is Marielle Heller. I'm the director of 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.' "And trolley. Action." MUSIC PLAYING So this scene is when Matthew Rhys's character, Lloyd Vogel, has shown up to the studio to meet Fred Rogers for the first time. And they've had their first very short interview, and he has a chance to watch them film one of the episodes from the Neighborhood in the Land of Make Believe. "Hello, Lady Aberlin." "Oh, hi, Daniel." So technically, it was a very tricky scene. We filmed what we called 'inside the show.' Anything that was in the program, we filmed on these Ikegami cameras, these tube cameras that were just like the original cameras they filmed the real program on. We had a live feed going to these monitors, and then we were filming on a digital Alexa camera, so we were capturing two physical formats of the show at the same time. So all of the cameras that you're seeing that look like props, they're actually working cameras that are also filming the program inside the show. And we wanted to recreate the way they really made the show, so we filmed it in the actual studio where they filmed 'Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood' originally in Pittsburgh. We recreated the set in the exact same orientation that they had it as well and really looked at plans of where they would have had their cameras, and then we set up our cameras sort of one step behind that so we could kind of pull back and watch the making of the show. "(SINGING) When the whole wide world seems oh so wrong and nothing you do seems very right." But we didn't want to get too bogged down with the technical aspects of this scene because what's actually happening in the scene is Lloyd is having a very big emotional turning point that starts to happen to him there, and that's more important than any of the technical aspects that are happening. "(SINGING) I can stop when I want to, can stop when I wish." And then my secret is Tom Hanks didn't actually know that I was focusing on him for this scene. He thought we were really just focusing on Daniel Tiger and Lady Aberlin and the scene as it was being captured for the program, but we were on Zoom lenses, which means the camera wasn't actually pushing toward him. We were just zooming into him. He figured it out after a few takes, but he was so busy concentrating on the puppeteering that he was actually doing that he was not really very aware of what he was doing inside that clock. And so we used one of the takes before he realized that I was actually focusing on him. "Thank you, Lady Aberlin." "Thank you, Daniel." "I feel better." "Oh, I'm so glad."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Movies
The couple's first dance was to "The Way You Look Tonight," which was performed by a five piece band. Sean Rayford for The New York Times	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Style
ANAHEIM, Calif. When the first TikTok star is elected president, I hope she will save some room in her cabinet for older and more conventional bureaucrats, even if they don't have millions of followers, great hair or amazing dance moves. I say "when," not "if," because I just spent three days at VidCon, the annual social media convention in Anaheim, hanging out with a few thousand current and future internet celebrities. And it's increasingly obvious to me that the teenagers and 20 somethings who have mastered these platforms and who are often dismissed as shallow, preening narcissists by adults who don't know any better are going to dominate not just internet culture or the entertainment industry but society as a whole. On the surface, this can be a terrifying proposition. One day at VidCon, I hung out with a crew of teenage Instagram stars, who seemed to spend most of their time filming "collabs" with other creators and complimenting one another on their "drip," influencer speak for clothes and accessories. (In their case, head to toe Gucci and Balenciaga outfits with diamond necklaces and designer sneakers.) Another day, I witnessed an awkward dance battle between two budding TikTok influencers, neither of whom could have been older than 10. (Adults who are just catching up: TikTok is a short form video app owned by the Chinese internet company Bytedance.) But if you can look past the silliness and status seeking, many people at VidCon are hard at work. Being an influencer can be an exhausting, burnout inducing job, and the people who are good at it have typically spent years working their way up the ladder. Many social media influencers are essentially one person start ups, and the best ones can spot trends, experiment relentlessly with new formats and platforms, build an authentic connection with an audience, pay close attention to their channel analytics, and figure out how to distinguish themselves in a crowded media environment all while churning out a constant stream of new content. Not all influencers are brilliant polymaths, of course. Some of them have succeeded by virtue of being conventionally attractive, or good at video games, or in possession of some other surface level attribute. Others have made their names with dubious stunts and extreme political commentary. But as social media expands its cultural dominance, the people who can steer the online conversation will have an upper hand in whatever niche they occupy whether that's media, politics, business or some other field. "The way to think of influencers or creators is as entrepreneurs," said Chris Stokel Walker, the author of "YouTubers." "These people are setting up businesses, hiring staff, managing budgets. These are massively transferable skills." Just look at Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, the New York Democrat who has become a powerful force in Congress by pairing her policy agenda with an intuitive understanding of what works online. Or look at what's happening in Brazil, where YouTubers are winning political elections by mobilizing their online fan bases. In the business world, influencer culture is already an established force. A generation of direct to consumer brands that were built using the tools and tactics of social media has skyrocketed to success like Glossier, the influencer beloved beauty company that recently raised 100 million at a valuation of more than 1 billion, or Away, the luggage start up whose ubiquitous Instagram ads helped it reach a valuation of 1.4 billion. Many social media stars strike endorsement deals with major brands, in addition to earning money through advertising and merchandise sales. And even executives in sleepy, old line industries now hire "personal branding consultants" to help increase their online followings. Natalie Alzate, a YouTuber with more than 10 million subscribers who goes by Natalies Outlet, is an example of the wave of influencers who treated their online brand building as a business rather than a fun hobby. Four years ago, when Ms. Alzate first came to VidCon, she was a marketing student with fewer than 7,000 subscribers. She decided to study her favorite YouTubers, watch how they made their videos and then test videos in multiple genres, seeing which ones performed best on her channel. "I grew up watching people, like Michelle Phan, that were building legacies out of, honestly, just being really relatable online," Ms. Alzate said. "It was always an aspiration." Eventually, she hit on formats like beauty tips and lifehacks that reliably performed well, and she was off to the races. Today, she is a full time YouTuber with a small staff, a production studio and the kind of fame she once coveted. In truth, influencers have been running the world for years. We just haven't called them that. Instead, we called them "movie stars" or "talk radio hosts" or "Davos attendees." The ability to stay relevant and attract attention to your work has always been critical. And who, aside from perhaps President Trump, is better at getting attention than a YouTube star? VidCon, which started 10 years ago as a meet and greet event for popular YouTubers, is a perfect place to observe influencers in their natural habitat. And many of them were here to promote their channels, to network with other creators and to make strides toward the dream of internet fame. Sometimes, that meant appearing in photos and videos with more popular influencers in an attempt to increase their own following, a practice known in influencer circles as "clout chasing." Other times, it meant going to panels with titles like "Curating Your Personal Brand" and "How to Go Viral and Build an Audience." For VidCon's featured creators, the super famous ones with millions of followers, it can mean spending the day at a meet and greet with fans before going out to V.I.P. parties at night.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
Horses lend themselves to stories. In America in particular, wild horses, manes streaming, nostrils flaring, hooves thudding, carry with them something of our projected national psyche. A woman named Marguerite Henry understood this. In 59 wildly popular books, featuring the mostly true stories of famous equines, from a plucky burro who lived in the Grand Canyon to a plain brown stallion in Vermont, Henry, who died in 1997, harnessed horse stories and turned them into a best selling genre over which she still reigns supreme. But there was only one place where her stories turned the horses into "forever a part of the rocks and streams and wind and sky": the islands of Assateague and Chincoteague, in the archipelago of Virginia's Outer Banks. And so I found myself one morning last summer, soaked to the bone, enduring the third hour of a deluge of pelting rain, in a little red kayak filled at least a third of the way up with storm water. I was following the myth of a pony Henry launched into legend in 1947 with her children's book about a real pony that lived here, "Misty of Chincoteague." I was not alone. It was by now approaching 8 a.m. All around me on the water in the channel, which runs between Chincoteague Island and the uninhabited nature preserve of Assateague Island, were other pony seekers. We sat quietly, noses of our craft snug in stands of sea grass to keep the boats still in the pelting rain, craning occasionally to look for wild horses. We were a flotilla of readers whose hearts were stolen by a cream and tan spotted pony, a creature we all knew from poring over Henry's pages in grade school, who once swam these waters. The ponies are the property of the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, and proceeds from the sales fund things like their new firehouse, hoses and uniforms. Before Henry, it was a quaint local rite; "If you're from Chincoteague, wherever you are, you come home for Pony Penning Day," said Richard Conklin, 78, as he sat on his porch on Main Street. Before Henry's book, a Christmaslike dinner was served, he recalled, with potpie as the traditional meal, and the auction, held at a fair set up on main street, was a townwide affair. As he spoke, his granddaughter, Hope Abell, 15 at the time, sat at the foot of his rocking chair, discussing with her grandmother Carolyn Conklin, 76, which colt she was going to buy at the auction the next day with the money she had saved up digging for quahogs, a local mollusk. Hope has been buying ponies since she was 8 years old, she said, training them herself and selling them for a profit. "When I see a pony, it's like I feel it," she said, describing how she chooses her mounts. "Like it is meant for me." For the more than 70 years since Henry's best seller, Pony Penning has been a phenomenon the real Misty was featured in Life Magazine several times, and the birth of her first foal was celebrated in 1960 with a day off from school for the local children. Visitors have swelled the town, population about 3,000, by as many as 40,000 people, on penning day, according to the chamber of commerce. Henry's story has stoked the equestrian fantasies of little girls the world over, including one growing up in mostly horseless New York City me. I was wet and cold and the coffee was getting to me, but the moment the pink puff of a flare gun went off, it was all worth it. The ponies took to the seawater as one, a mass of 150 adult animals, plus babies, who streamed out across the channel and churned the water white with more than 600 hooves galloping beneath the waves. They swam with their noses held high like crocodiles, tiny new babies at their sides or tangled in tails that streamed out behind them in the surf. At one point, a renegade pack of four broke off, swimming back toward their refuge. Behind them was a coal black foal, who pinwheeled his legs under the water, swimming like a seal after his mother. Back on dry land, I wrung out my shorts and headed to the center of town. On Main Street, people sitting in beach chairs had been lined up since early morning, waiting for the next event of Hoss Penning (as it is also called): the pony parade. The animals approach was heard first the rumbling of hundreds of hooves clopping on the pavement then they appeared in all their shaggy, soaked glory. The cavalcade came down the avenue flanked by a phalanx of Saltwater Cowboys, there to make sure the ponies didn't break away to munch on someone's lawn. The equines were herded to the auction grounds which is inside the Chincoteague Volunteer Fireman's Carnival at the center of town. They trotted past their likenesses doing a roundelay on the carousel, and plush pony prizes at the carnival game booths. I ducked into a tent selling spurs, saddles and whips everything I would need to outfit a new pony should I fall hard at the auction the next morning. I limited myself to a 7 iron door knocker in the shape of a pony's head. The swim is not without controversy. Several ponies have died over the past years, including one a few days after I attended. Animal activists say the whole tradition is unnecessary and cruel. In fact, the ponies could also be brought over to Chincoteague on a bridge built in 1962. "The pony swim is cruel and dangerous to the animals and should end now," Kathy Guillermo, the senior vice president for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said, comparing the swim to greased pig wrestling and turkey drops. The fire department has vigorously defended the tradition, rebutting PETA's claims in an official statement, saying that it sees the ponies "as the beautiful creatures they are and we handle them with the care and respect they deserve." The evening after the swim I crept into the fairground after the Ferris wheel had staggered to a stop at 11 p.m. There, the ponies were asleep in the gloom, the little ones stretched out like cats. In the morning, at the sale, most would be separated from their mothers for good, but tonight their dams still watched over them in the dirt, their babies' milk full bellies heaving with deep sleep sighs. I pored over a booklet detailing the pedigrees of each animal. The ponies were registered as a breed in 1994, and legions of obsessives document each stallion's band of mares and track their couplings on Facebook, and local shops sell catalogs of the animals. Some stallions, like Riptide, with his Fabio mane, are celebrities, with fan pages of their own. I looked up from my book as a collective "aww!" rippled through the crowd. A filly the size and color of a yellow Labrador toddled into the pen and wouldn't budge. Her handler, a burly firefighter, scooped her into his arms, and paraded her around the auction block. The audience swooned. Somehow I stopped myself from bidding. Seven years ago, when they were in elementary school, Anna Beer, 18, and her sister, Amanda, 17, bought a pony. The siblings from Clarkston, Mich., have pet their animal, Dreamer's Gift, precisely once: the day they purchased her. They immediately returned her to the wild, one of several foals each year designated as "buybacks." Ponies run from about 3,000 to 6,000, but buybacks have sold for more than 20,000, the prices jacked up by consortiums of people who pool their money to buy horses that will perpetuate the herd. As the Beer sisters stared at Dreamer longingly in the pen last year, I asked if they wished they had a pony they could ride, or at least touch. "She gets to have all those things that a tame horse doesn't; she doesn't have to worry about having to work for somebody, having to do what somebody says, all the time," Anna said. Amanda finished her sister's thought: "We bought her her freedom," she said. Mr. Beebe sold pails marked with the B of his family brand for 100 a piece. They're from the 1950s, he said, and may have held Misty's grain and been touched by her velvet muzzle. I started to open my wallet I had wanted a Chincoteague pony for as long as I can remember, and here was a piece of their history. I put the money back. The Misty I had loved had never drunk from that pail, because the creature Ms. Henry had conjured on the page had never really lived. I instead bought a copy of "Misty of Chincoteague" at the museum, the story I preferred, and asked Mr. Beebe to sign it.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
BROOKLYN BALLET at the Mark O'Donnell Theater at the Actors Fund Arts Center (Feb. 13 14, 7:30 p.m.; through Feb. 16). In London in 1845, four early ballet stars caused a sensation when they performed Jules Perrot's "Pas de Quatre," an elegant illustration of ballet technique and an embodiment of the Romantic style. As part of Brooklyn Ballet's "Revisionist History 2" program, four of its diverse dancers will perform the work. It will be paired with "Quartet" by the company's founder and director, Lynn Parkerson. This work in progress is inspired by the structure and essence of "Pas de Quatre," but it features four male hip hop dancers. Rounding out the bill is Parkerson's "Intersection," which puts ballet dancers in dialogue with hip hop artists. 718 246 0146, brooklynballet.org CHE MALAMBO at the Joyce Theater (Feb. 11 12, 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 13 14, 8 p.m.; through Feb. 16). In 17th century Argentina, gauchos flaunted their strength and agility through a lightning quick percussive dance called malambo, often facing off in dance battles to prove their mettle. This all male Argentine troupe continues the tradition, but with rock concert lighting and attitude. Gilles Brinas, the company's founder and choreographer, provides rousing synchronized stomping routines for the dozen virile dancers, supported by the thunder of live drumming. It's a spectacle, rooted in tradition, spiked with swagger. 212 242 0800, joyce.org	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Dance
"I have to try to make ends meet," said Quintina Moore Caraway, an airport worker in Houston. A minimum wage of 12 an hour at the airport will take effect in 2021; some there now make less than 9. Labor unions and community groups are pursuing an increasingly successful strategy to force employers to pay their workers more: minimum wages for specific occupations and industries. The effort has resulted in several noteworthy victories recently mandatory pay of up to 20 an hour for hotel workers in Oakland, and raises for airport employees in Denver and Houston. Organizers behind these efforts say they want to shift the debate from establishing a bare minimum wage for workers at the lowest rung of the economic ladder to lifting more people into the middle class. "Our goal was to keep up with rising housing costs and help people stay in their homes and communities," said Jahmese Myres, acting executive director of the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, a major force behind the Oakland effort. "While we're hoping it gets addressed comprehensively at the federal and state level, workers in Oakland can't afford to wait," she added. By keeping the focus on specific industries and occupations, organizers have largely been able to bypass the partisan divide over the national minimum wage, which has been frozen at 7.25 for a decade. The House has passed legislation that would raise the minimum wage to 15 an hour, but the bill has no chance in the Republican controlled Senate. The push for sector specific minimum wages comes amid a broader debate about inequality, and a sense that the fruits of the decade long recovery have largely gone to highly educated Americans while most workers have had to make do with modest gains. It also seeks to build on the momentum from successful efforts for state and local minimum wage increases in places like Seattle, New York State and California. "Workers are standing up to a broken system," said David Madland, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress. "It's largely in progressive cities and states right now, but there's a renewed sense of grass roots activism." But it is workers in particular businesses that have seen the biggest gains. Under pressure from unions like the Service Employees International Union and UNITE HERE, local governments have raised salaries for airport employees and hotel workers across the country. Part of the unions' calculus is that the costs of such targeted higher minimum wages, especially in the travel and hospitality industries, will primarily be borne by visitors and affluent local residents, rather than those with lower incomes. That has made the increases more palatable to voters and elected officials. "We know our industry," said D. Taylor, international president of UNITE HERE, which represents hotel workers. "We don't pretend to know every industry like retail or construction." But employers and some economists argue that raising the minimum wage, even if only for some workers, will raise the cost of doing business and could ultimately backfire by discouraging hiring. "You're creating incentives for hotels and airports to find ways to get by with fewer workers," said Michael R. Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. "The losers are the least experienced, least skilled people in the labor market." Still, Mr. Strain said local efforts made more economic sense than increasing the federal minimum wage of 7.25 an hour. Employers in big cities in California can more easily pay workers 15 an hour than those in, say, small town Ohio. In March, the Denver City Council lifted wages for more than 6,000 airport workers, including ramp agents, baggage handlers and retail employees, to 15 an hour by 2021, with intermediate increases to 13 in 2019 and 14 in 2020. That followed successful campaigns for higher pay at airports in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Earlier this month, the mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner, instituted a 12 an hour minimum for airport workers that will go into effect in 2021. Currently, some airport workers make less than 9 an hour, not much more than national minimum wage. 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 have to try to make ends meet," said Quintina Moore Caraway, 45, a ramp agent at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. "Everything in my house I've had to pawn. It's hard to find a second job when you have a family." Hotel workers in Oakland saw a bigger bump when Measure Z, a ballot proposal approved last November by a margin of three to one, went into effect over the summer. It requires hotels to pay at least 15 an hour and 20 an hour if they do not provide health insurance. The minimum wage for other workers in Oakland is 13.80. The minimum wage in California is 12 an hour and will increase by 1 annually until it reaches 15 in 2022. Many cities will hit that benchmark before then; San Francisco is already at 15.59. Besides the pay increase, Measure Z limits the total area that hotel workers have to clean daily and requires employers to equip them with panic buttons to use if they are in danger. UNITE HERE led the campaign for the measure along with the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy. The travel industry is doing well, advocates assert, and employers can afford raises. "Hospitality has pretty comfortable margins, compared with, say, restaurants or retail," said Wei Ling Huber, president of UNITE HERE's Local 2850 in Oakland. About 20 hotels will be affected by the law, according to Dhruv Patel, president of Ridgemont Hospitality, which operates two of them. Measure Z applies to establishments with more than 50 rooms. Before Measure Z, Mr. Patel paid 14.50 an hour with optional health insurance. Now many workers are asking for 20 and forgoing health coverage. "Going from 14.50 to 20, that has a huge economic impact," Mr. Patel said. "To single out an industry shouldn't be legal." Ridgemont has 45 employees, he said, but would have added 10 to its support staff were it not for the new minimum wage. "Something has to give to make up for the higher salaries," Mr. Patel said. Oakland is going through a renaissance, Mr. Patel said, but now hotel developers might choose to build elsewhere in the East Bay. Libby Schaaf, Oakland's mayor, said she supported Measure Z as a necessary step to raise wages for working class employees. But she said she worried that businesses would be confused by wage rules that vary by city and industry. "This will result in a patchwork of local activism, but we have to do it because the federal government has not," Ms. Schaaf said. "I'm very frustrated by the failure of federal policymakers to set a livable minimum wage." The Fight for 15 movement has sought to raise the national minimum wage to 15 and has received strong support from Democrats, including the party's presidential candidates. In July, the House, which has a Democratic majority, passed legislation that would raise the minimum wage to 15 an hour by 2025, but the Senate has not taken up the measure. Opponents of raising the minimum wage have long warned that doing so would cost jobs, but the low unemployment rate has undercut those arguments. Research following minimum wage increases in Seattle offered conflicting results about the benefits for most workers. Denver, Houston and other cities that have raised minimum wages tend to have strong local economies, which makes it less likely that they will suffer net job losses. While not as prosperous as some of those cities, Oakland is gaining residents and jobs as a result of the boom in neighboring San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Airlines for America, an industry association, has opposed airport specific wage increases across the country, including the move in Denver. The group has argued that the increases will be passed on to travelers through higher airfares. "We continue to believe that the appropriate way to address wage issues is to ensure that all workers are covered equally across the board," the group said in a statement. "Picking winners and losers and creating a patchwork of conflicting and confusing local standards is just bad policy." But labor activists and some economists say industry specific minimum wages serve an important purpose increasing the incomes of workers who are not clustered at the bottom of the pay scale. "This is for middle income workers," said Ben Zipperer, an economist with the liberal Economic Policy Institute. "Having sectoral standards can have a much broader effect than just raising the minimum wage." Places like Oakland may stand out, but more cities could adopt this approach, said Ken Jacobs, chair of the Labor Center at the University of California, Berkeley. A recession might delay the process, but even then he expects it to continue. "I expect we will see more of this kind of experimentation in the coming years," Mr. Jacobs said. "How do you create more middle class jobs and go above 15 an hour? That's where you have sectoral and local strategies."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Economy
The final month of 2019 ended almost the same way the year began: with an oversize sale at 220 Central Park South. A sprawling duplex, Penthouse 73, sold for 92.7 million, and was New York City's most expensive closing for the month of December, as well as the year's second biggest sale over all. The buyer, reportedly the hedge fund manager Daniel Och, also picked up a studio on the 19th floor for an additional 2.1 million. While eye popping in its own right, the penthouse sale still paled in comparison to the record breaking, nearly 240 million purchase of four full floors by Kenneth Griffin, another hedge fund manager, in January 2019. (Mr. Griffin also acquired two adjacent studios on a lower floor in October.) "Nothing may surpass it for a while," Andrew Wachtfogel, the head of research for Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, said of the January sale, which was the most ever paid for a single residence in the nation. In the current market, he noted, "sales at 220 Central Park South are outliers." The limestone clad tower the most expensive condominium in 2019, with an average price per square foot of 7,122, according to CityRealty was designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects and is near Columbus Circle in Midtown Manhattan. Several other closings took place there in December, including a 48th floor unit for 59 million, the month's runner up sale. Among other notable transactions, a 65th floor apartment at the supertall 432 Park Avenue, another of the city's priciest buildings, changed owners for the fourth time since 2016. John J. Legere sold his Central Park West duplex penthouse, just weeks after announcing he would be stepping down in April as the chief executive of T Mobile; the buyer was the designer Giorgio Armani. Also, David A. Sackler, whose family owns Purdue Pharma, the makers of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, sold his Upper East Side apartment. Besides being the building's second most expensive unit, the apartment also is the third priciest residence ever sold in the city behind Mr. Griffin's purchase and a duplex at the pinnacle of One57, on West 57th Street, that was bought in 2015 for nearly 100.5 million, reportedly by Michael Dell, the chief executive of Dell Technologies. The 59 million apartment on the 48th floor was sold to a New York entity called Noble Birch (US) Inc. The full floor unit, which encompasses 6,591 square feet, has five bedrooms, six full baths, two powder rooms and a 96 square foot balcony. The list price was 67 million. Also closing in the building at year's end was No. 66, another full floor unit, with 4,935 square feet, four bedrooms, five full baths, two powder rooms and a 96 square foot balcony. It was bought for 54.5 million by the limited liability company Datoun66. No. 59A, a 3,814 square foot unit with three bedrooms and three and a half baths, sold for 36.1 million, The buyers were listed as Liedong Ding and Haiyan Bao. No. 34A was purchased for 31 million by the limited liability company SPC 34A. It has 3,703 square feet with four bedrooms and four and a half baths, along with a 20 foot balcony. And No. 55B, which sold for 26.8 million, has 3,211 square feet, three bedrooms and three and a half baths. The buyer was 220 March LLC. At 432 Park, the concrete and glass skyscraper between 56th and 57th Streets, apartment No. 65A closed at nearly 24 million. The 4,019 square foot aerie has three bedrooms, four and a half baths and a library. The sale price was below the 27 million that it first sold for in July 2016. (The unit was sold back to the building sponsor, in September 2017, for 27.9 million, and then sold again in December 2017, for 26.4 million.)	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate
Through its 114 year history, Harley Davidson has taken on numerous contenders intent on dethroning it as the dominant American motorcycle maker. So far, it has a perfect record. But Harley now faces perhaps its most trying challenge in decades. Polaris, an established American company with manufacturing know how and a revered motorcycle brand in Indian, is quickly making big strides. Polaris surprised the industry in January when it announced that it would shut its homegrown motorcycle brand, Victory, and focus entirely on Indian, a company it bought in 2011. So far, the move seems like a smart one. Indian's sales grew 17 percent in the second quarter of this year, while Harley's sales shrank nearly 7 percent. Overall sales for large displacement bikes, the kind that Harley specializes in, shrank 9 percent in the second quarter of this year. Even with those results, Harley's grip on the overall market remains strong, holding a market share that hovers around 50 percent for big bikes, handily eclipsing Indian's single digit slice. But the Indian surge is striking in that it counters the overall market's downward drift. To some degree, the rapid rise is a result of lessons learned from 18 years of building the Victory brand. "That was the school of hard knocks," said Scott Wine, chief executive of Polaris Industries. "Indian's share of its segment is already higher than Victory's was." Polaris, long known for snowmobiles and off road vehicles, expanded into motorcycles with the introduction of its Victory line in 1998. Victory's big V twin engines, combined with layouts that favored a relaxed riding posture what bikers classify as the cruiser genre crib somewhat from Harley's playbook. That approach attracted a devoted following, but not the volume and profits needed to sustain production in a mature market. Though not apparent at the time, Victory's fate was sealed by Polaris's purchase of the Indian brand in 2011. The original Indian company, which opened in 1901 and failed in 1953 despite a history of innovation and racetrack success, had been the subject of previous revival attempts. But no modern owner had the industrial clout of Polaris. The rebirth started well, with attractive bikes earning positive reviews from enthusiast publications, and the potential for growth was greater with Indian than with Victory. "Victory ended 2016 up 7 percent in sales, but it wasn't profitable," Mr. Wine said. "Winding it down made sense in terms of allocating capital and engineering resources." All Indian motorcycles are built in Spirit Lake, Iowa. While its bikes like the Scout and the just released Scout Bobber are aimed at younger buyers, most models revel in heritage, with styling and names that hark back to the company's prewar glory days. They represent, as Karl Brauer of Kelley Blue Book, an auto research firm, put it, "a cool theme married to a modern chassis" and particularly appeal to buyers with a "what have you done for me lately" outlook on brand loyalty. Inevitably, Indian's retro approach makes the brand a head to head competitor for Harley Davidson, offering bikes in the touring, cruiser and midsize classes as well as the popular bagger category, or bikes carrying saddlebags but not the full windscreen and gear of a long distance touring machine. History has taught Harley that taking a wait and see attitude to this development could be painful. Even if competitors haven't beaten Harley, they have whittled away at its market share most notably Japanese brands, which have created model lines like the Kawasaki Vulcan and the Suzuki Boulevard. Michael W. Kennedy, Harley's vice president and managing director for the United States, points to the company's ambitious programs for the coming decade, including introducing two million new riders to motorcycling through its Riding Academy and the release of 100 new models. There is also the matter of affordability: "We've got nine bikes under 12,000 in the United States and a Street Rod model that's 9,000," Mr. Kennedy said, addressing a perception that Harley Davidson products carry a big price tag. Robin Farley, who leads leisure market analysis at UBS Investment Bank, said Harley's problem was not a simple matter of shifting loyalties. Sales have been declining for the last three years, partly because an aging rider population is shrinking Harley's core customer base. The slide is not just a recent development. "Harley's sales were declining in 2007, before even the recession hit the industry," Ms. Farley said. "Harley Davidson dropped more than Indian gained, and new entries like the middleweight Street models have lower margins that cannot offset declines in the core business." Adding to its woes, the company was fined 15 million last year for selling engine control devices that violated exhaust emissions regulations, though the Trump administration in July dropped a 3 million portion of that settlement that required Harley to fund an antipollution program. Another wild card in the industry is the future of Ducati, a brand that shuffled among various owners until landing in the Volkswagen corporate portfolio, under Audi's supervision, in 2012. Despite reports that Ducati is up for sale, analysts have expressed skepticism about how much it could improve the results for a new company. The economics would be hard to justify as well: Motorcycle sales in the United States have not nearly recovered to pre 2008 levels, and Harley recently lowered its forecasts for 2017 sales. Indian's product plans call for eight new models in 2017, and Mr. Wine hinted broadly about entering new market segments. The company's successful dirt track racing program another direct challenge to Harley may offer some clue. Polaris also acquired an electric motorcycle maker, Brammo, in 2015, but the company has said it is not yet satisfied that the bikes meet its standards for performance, range and price. To be sure, there is little chance that Indian will run Harley Davidson out of business anytime soon. Harley's sales last year, some 260,000 motorcycles worldwide, generated revenue of 6 billion. Polaris does not release sales volume figures, but motorcycles in 2016 accounted for just 16 percent of the company's 4.5 billion revenue. Indian's growth is bound to look strong, at least in percentage terms, given its modest baseline, and that will be especially true for international markets. But to Steve Menneto, president for motorcycle operations at Polaris, the reality of a market that has seemingly topped out means that cannibalism is unavoidable. "As you go up in engine size, you have to take share from your competitors," Mr. Menneto said. The corollary one formula for growth is then to engineer motorcycles with smaller engines like the Bobber and the Scout 60. "That's where you'll find the chance to bring in new riders," he said.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Automobiles
President Trump was right about the "deep state" sort of. There exist, in government, people and forces rigged to foil disruption. But the deep state isn't, as he suggested, a reflexive defense of a corrupt status quo. It's a righteous defense against the corruption of democracy, which he continues to attempt. And that defense is holding. Three cheers for the deep state, which has been on a roll these past three weeks. I'm thinking of Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's secretary of state, who supervises its elections. He refused to cry foul and fraud just because others in his party couldn't abide Joe Biden's victory in a state that hadn't gone to a Democrat in a presidential election for nearly three decades. "People are just going to have to accept the results," he told The Washington Post. "I'm a Republican. I believe in fair and secure elections." He ordered a recount, but as President Trump, the two U.S. senators from Georgia and plenty of others on the right pilloried him, he stuck to his assurance that a fair and secure election was precisely what Georgians had participated in and what had delivered the state's electoral votes to Biden. He was bolstered on Tuesday by another top ranking Georgia official, another Republican not about to let the republic go to hell. Gabriel Sterling, Georgia's voting system implementation manager, scolded and shamed Trump at a news conference at the state Capitol, warning the president that his unwarranted smearing of the balloting in Georgia was "inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence" and that "someone is going to get killed." "It has to stop," he said. That was the deep state speaking, and its words were gold. Raffensperger and Sterling are hardly the only Republican election officials who have refused to buy into Trump's conspiracy theories. They have restored some of the faith and hope in me that the past four years eroded. So have Lee Chatfield, the Republican speaker of Michigan's House of Representatives, and Mike Shirkey, the Republican majority leader of Michigan's Senate, who took that scary trip to the White House almost two weeks ago and then took a pass on propping up Trump. "We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and, as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan's electors," they said in a joint statement immediately following their meeting with the president. Follow the normal process. Such milquetoast verbiage, and such a titanic reassurance. Also in my deep state: Judge Stephanos Bibas of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, a Trump appointee who, in a blistering ruling on Friday, rejected the president's efforts to invalidate millions of Pennsylvania ballots. "Voters, not lawyers, choose the president," he wrote on behalf of the three judges hearing the case, all appointed by Republicans. "Ballots, not briefs, decide elections." Such statements of the obvious, and such sweet, sweet relief. Was there a seed of truth in Trump's fulminations about insiders so stuck in their ways and attached to their stations that they might balk instinctively at newcomers and new ideas? Absolutely. That's a danger within any sprawling and enduring organization. It's something to watch for and worry about. But Trump's watching was paranoid. His worry was hysterical. And his motive wasn't the improvement of government but the inoculation of self. The deep state saw through that, and the deep state stirred. "Deep state" isn't the right term its overtone is too clandestine, its undertone too nefarious but let's go with it, co opt it, turn a put down into a point of honor, the way gay rights activists did with "queer" and anti Trump feminists did with "nasty woman." Let's define it ourselves, not as a swampy society of self preserving bureaucrats in Washington but as a steadfast, tradition minded legion of public officials and civil servants all over the country, in every branch of government. These officials and servants are distinguished by a professionalism that survives and edges out their partisan bearings, by an understanding that the codes of conduct and rules of engagement become more important, not less, when passions run hot. They're incorrigible that way. Invaluable, too. "Thank God for the deep state," John McLaughlin, a former deputy and acting director of the C.I.A., said in October 2019 at a panel on election security at the National Press Club in Washington. It was organized and sponsored by the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy and International Security at George Mason University, and McLaughlin's fellow panelists were other former leaders of the C.I.A. and F.B.I. But my deep state is both deeper and broader than those agencies. It extends beyond the diplomats (William Taylor, Marie Yovanovitch) and security officials (Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman) who played starring roles in Trump's impeachment. Anthony Fauci is the steely superhero of my deep state, and he's flanked and fortified by all the government health officials who also pushed back against the quackery of Scott Atlas, the Trump flattering pandemic adviser who resigned on Monday. They belong to a quiet and then not so quiet resistance that blunted, thwarted or tried to blunt and thwart Trump's worst impulses when it came not just to public health but also to foreign policy, immigration, the environment. In The Times late last week, Lisa Friedman described such efforts within the Environmental Protection Agency. "With two months left of the Trump administration," she wrote, "career E.P.A. employees find themselves where they began, in a bureaucratic battle with the agency's political leaders. But now, with the Biden administration on the horizon, they are emboldened to stymie Mr. Trump's goals and to do so more openly." That's the deep state rearing up. That's the deep state roaring. It should be music to our ears. I invite you to sign up for my free weekly email newsletter. You can follow me on Twitter ( FrankBruni).	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Opinion
Listening to our marginally articulate president the other night, I suddenly understood: The economy wasn't merely his pride. It was more like his lover. He can't get enough of it. He won't be kept from it. Ain't no mountain high enough. Ain't no pandemic grim enough. Briefing after briefing, I see it, sense it: how he itches to feel that rush again. He digresses from the terrifying present and uncertain future to revisit the heady past, when he lavished trinkets on the Dow and it purred on cue, telling him how potent he was. Having it turn on him is more than he can bear. It has addled him I mean even further. "Our country wasn't built to be shut down," he said during the White House briefing on Monday evening, as if other countries planned their own obsolescence. He repeated those words "this is not a country that was built for this; it was not built to be shut down" and then trotted them out yet again at a town hall on Fox News on Tuesday, apparently convinced that their profundity demanded it. My metaphor may be lighthearted but my concern sure as hell isn't. There are difficult choices ahead, because what's necessary to save lives and what's necessary to salvage livelihoods are in tension. Our leaders have to figure out how much disruption is too much disruption. That's the calculus that Trump is signaling with his and his allies' new favorite refrain: "We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem." That's what was on his mind when, during the Monday briefing, he insisted that the health and economic threats of the coronavirus were separable. "We are not going to let it turn into a long lasting financial problem," he said. "It started out as a purely medical problem, and it's not going to go beyond that." News flash: It already has. But that aside, the president is acknowledging a genuine and intensifying debate over whether social distancing, if enforced too rigidly and for too long, could leave so many people destitute, isolated and despairing that what America sacrifices rivals what it gains. "Look, you're going to lose a number of people to the flu," he said during the town hall. "But you're going to lose more people by putting a country into a massive recession or depression." That unease is hardly confined to the president and to glib conservative supporters of his like Dan Patrick, the 69 year old lieutenant governor of Texas, who said in an interview on Fox News on Monday night: "I'm not living in fear of Covid 19. What I'm living in fear of is what's happening to this country. And you know, Tucker, no one reached out to me and said, 'As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival, in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?' And if that's the exchange, I'm all in." The issue of trade offs and of how best to balance epidemiological and economic concerns has informed many articles in the Opinion pages of The Times, receiving more measured consideration from my colleague Tom Friedman, from two academic titans and from a public health expert, David Katz, who recently wrote, "I am deeply concerned that the social, economic and public health consequences of this near total meltdown of normal life schools and businesses closed, gatherings banned will be long lasting and calamitous, possibly graver than the direct toll of the virus itself." That perspective transcends political party. A prominent Democrat, for instance, said to me, "Will we lose more Americans to suicide than to the coronavirus?" That was days before Trump, during the town hall, said that if the country is locked down for long, "you're going to have suicides by the thousands." This is excruciatingly tough stuff, and yet Trump is pre empting the thorough and thoughtful deliberation that it demands and painting himself into a corner with pledges that the economy will roar back and that America will "be open for business very soon, a lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting a lot sooner," as he said on Monday. If you're an enemy of "soon," you're on thin ice with him. I can hear it cracking under Anthony Fauci even as I type. The president's obsession with the economy is an extension of his obsession with wealth. He has only two lenses through which he sees the world, two yardsticks by which he measures everyone and everything: money and celebrity. He can't pretend otherwise because he doesn't bother to try. During Sunday evening's briefing, when he was supposed to be comforting Americans on the precipice of financial ruin, he instead lamented the billions of dollars he had supposedly forgone to be president. Our self glorifying "wartime president" morphed into a self pitying Daddy Warbucks. "I think it's very hard for rich people to run for office," he said. "It's far more costly. It's a very tough thing. Now, with all of that being said, I'm so glad I've done it. Because, you know, there are a lot rich people around. I've got a lot of rich friends, but they can't help and they can't do what I've done, in terms of helping this country." I'm glad he's glad. Scratch that. I'm dumbfounded. It has been observed, accurately, that he's exactly the wrong leader for this crisis because he has thinned the ranks of responsible professionals in government, because he has hollowed out relevant departments and agencies, because he devalues science, because he degrades information and because he parted ways with credibility years ago. But it's worse than that. He's facing judgment calls that require an emotional depth and a moral finesse that simply don't exist in him. America is relying on him, of all presidents, to care as much about vital signs as about dollar signs. He did that when he asked the nation to stand still for 15 days, but can he continue to do it? I'd have doubts if the economy were merely the biggest of many bragging points for him, if it were just a major part of his political profile. But it's all defining and all consuming, the repository of his vanity and an expression of his virility. And clear thinking is sometimes impossible and conscience inaccessible when you're this crazy in love. I invite you to sign up for my free weekly email newsletter. You can follow me on Twitter ( FrankBruni). The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We'd like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here's our email: letters nytimes.com.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Opinion
Nothing in ABC's broadcast of the 2020 Emmy Awards was as impressive, or as appropriate to the occasion, as the aplomb with which the first presenter, Jennifer Aniston, wielded a fire extinguisher. Unfortunately, she was only shooting foam at a prop envelope in an endless coronavirus routine. She couldn't put out the dumpster fire that was going on all around her at the Staples Center on Sunday night. Jimmy Kimmel, hosting the show in the mostly empty arena, invoked "our old pal television" in his introduction, pushing the theme that the medium has provided an essential relief this year from the emotional toll of pandemic, protest and disunion. The world may be terrible, he said, but television has never been better. That may be true, but the Emmys show continued its trend of feeling out of tune with the way most of us watch TV. Once a year, it gives us that old feeling of being trapped inside a very small box. The restrictions imposed by the Covid 19 pandemic have required rethinking awards show formats, and the Emmys' announcement that there would be cameras at most nominees' remote locations was promising. The opportunity to see how and where the nominees presented themselves living room or scenic vista? Bed head or ball gown? sounded like a kick. There was some of that satisfaction, mostly in brief glimpses of non winners, like Alex Borstein of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" resplendent on a rooftop bed, or Ramy Youssef of "Ramy" planted on his couch in T shirt and cap. And through the bulk of the telecast, the technological challenges of doing so many remote connections weren't an issue everyone delivered their speeches with a minimum of glitch. But the promise wasn't really fulfilled we got good looks at all the nominees only in the marquee categories, with lesser awards settling for jamming all the nominees on the screen together or showing just the winners. (It also didn't help that the first seven awards went to "Schitt's Creek," whose nominees had all assembled, somewhat socially distanced, in the same place, a big featureless room that looked like a wedding venue.) The show undeniably had an unaccustomed variety it necessarily broke out of the lock step of tuxedos, teleprompters, crowd shots and walks to the podium. But instead of enlivening the proceedings, the mix of pretaped bits, remote acceptances and solo appearances by guests on the Staples sets made you nostalgic for the hothouse atmosphere and occasional breakdowns of the traditional awards show format. The spontaneity that was award shows' saving grace was largely replaced by stage managed banality, like the bit in which Aniston, Courteney Cox, and Lisa Kudrow of "Friends" apparently a Covid 19 pod pretended to still be roommates. That was probably to be expected, as was the consistent note of earnest, if sometimes coded, political and social solicitation in both acceptance speeches and scripted segments. One winner after another encouraged people to get out and vote, without any specific guidance regarding whom to vote for the inference of vote suppression being sufficiently partisan. It fell to Jesse Armstrong, the creator of "Succession," to make a brief reference to President Trump in the night's last acceptance speech. The producers' attempts to make the show conscious in its own right had mixed success. A series of awards presentations by "essential personnel" a schoolteacher, a rancher, a U.P.S. deliveryman were well meaning, at least. Other decisions were problematic, like an unfunny sketch that tried to tie together Russian election interference and voting by mail, or the hazmat suits worn by people delivering statuettes to the winners, which appeared to mock the pandemic. And before Aniston picked up the fire extinguisher, her and Kimmel's scripted banter about not being able to hear each other at their socially sanctioned distance was starkly lacking in humor. As always, there were high points, even if you had to wait longer than usual in between. The reliance on pretaped presentations allowed for David Letterman's characteristically sharp appearance, firing off jokes about TV in 1986 (the last year he hosted the Emmys) and slipping in the night's most touching line: "Regis, I checked. You're in the montage, buddy." John Oliver, whose "Last Week Tonight" won again for variety talk series, gave a quick demonstration in his acceptance speech of why he's the most valuable player in American TV. Sunrise Coigney, jumping for joy when her husband, Mark Ruffalo, won for "I Know This Much Is True," actually delivered on the promise of the at home awards. Eugene Levy, accepting multiple awards for "Schitt's Creek," was a model of grace.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Television
SAN FRANCISCO A soaring wood spire by artist Andy Goldsworthy in the Presidio national park that has proved popular with art seekers and nature lovers alike was damaged by fire early Tuesday morning. The fire was quickly extinguished but the sculpture was extensively charred. The Presidio Trust, which was examining the work's condition, was also waiting for the results of a fire department investigation to determine a cause. "It's confusing and dismaying to imagine that someone would vandalize a work that celebrates our connection to nature at a time when we need it the most to buoy our spirits and provide solace," said Cheryl Haines of the For Site Foundation, who commissioned the artwork for the Presidio in 2008. But she said arson was a distinct possibility given the "current unrest in the city" and the number of people in the past "who have commented that the piece would make a very dramatic campfire or conflagration." Reached by phone in Penpont, Scotland, the artist said that when he first saw images of the artwork, "Spire," in flames on Twitter, he assumed it had been completely destroyed. "It seemed impossible that anything could have survived that inferno, but in fact later images showed the timbers to be more intact that I thought," he said. "I suspect the bark has been peeling off for the 12 years it has been there and worked as tinder." He noted that a Bay Area engineer involved with the original construction of the work was planning to assess any structural damage.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
BARRE, Vermont On the first Friday in June, Jefrey Cameron, 29, left his home around midnight to buy heroin. He had been struggling with addiction for seven years but had seemingly turned a corner, holding down a job that he loved at Basil's Pizzeria, driving his teenage sister to the mall to go shopping and sharing a home with his grandmother. But then the coronavirus pandemic hit. When he returned home that night and tried the product, it was so potent that he fell and hit his head in the bathroom. Mr. Cameron texted a friend soon after, saying that he had messed up and would go to a 12 step meeting with a friend that weekend. "I promise I'm good and I can't get in any more trouble tonight," he wrote. "Sweet dreams, if you wake up before you hear from me definitely call me. The sooner I get up and into town the better." When Mr. Cameron woke up, he used the rest of the powder largely fentanyl, not heroin, his family would later learn from a small bag with a bunny stamped on it. Less than five hours after he sent the text, his grandmother found him dead. In the six months since Covid 19 brought the nation to a standstill, the opioid epidemic has taken a sharp turn for the worse. More than 40 states have recorded increases in opioid related deaths since the pandemic began, according to the American Medical Association. In Arkansas, the use of Narcan, an overdose reversing drug, has tripled. Jacksonville, Fla., has seen a 40 percent increase in overdose related calls. In March alone, York County in Pennsylvania recorded three times more overdose deaths than normal. When Vermont shut down in March, so did Mr. Cameron's job, which provided his biggest support network. He was lonely and had money to spare: the 600 per week he received in extra unemployment benefits from the federal government was more than he earned from his job. "Jefrey hated being alone. And the last couple of weeks, he was," said Ms. Reil, who is 47. His grandmother had gone to Atlanta to visit her other children and had delayed flying home for fear of catching Covid 19. In her absence, Mr. Cameron started keeping the television tuned to her favorite channel, blaring Western movies and "Bonanza" reruns. "He was home alone a lot more," Ms. Reil said. "And I think the drug became his friend." Mr. Cameron had stopped taking Suboxone, a medication that helps suppress the cravings and withdrawal symptoms that plague people addicted to opioids, last fall; it has been found to sharply reduce the risk of dying from an overdose, but he had grown tired of taking it after three years, his mother said. Opioid addiction has been a scourge in Vermont for more than two decades. When dealers and illegal drug organizations realized they could charge more for narcotics here than they could in nearby cities such as Boston, New York or Montreal, the market was flooded. As the painkillers that many young Vermonters became addicted to in the early 2000s grew harder to get starting about a decade ago, heroin moved in. Then came fentanyl, which is far more potent and has driven up deaths in almost every corner of the country. Last year, after aggressive efforts to expand access to treatment, Vermont saw its first decrease in opioid related deaths since 2014; that year, then Gov. Peter Shumlin devoted his entire State of the State Message to what he called "a full blown heroin crisis" gripping Vermont. But Vermont saw 82 opioid overdoses through July of this year, up from 60 during the same period last year. But in order to be admitted, patients have to test negative for Covid 19 a potentially deadly setback for some who are unable or unwilling to wait several days for results. Far more common than inpatient addiction care is treatment with three medications that help suppress the cravings and withdrawal symptoms that plague people addicted to opioids. Vermont has gone further than most states in expanding access to medication assisted treatment, as it is known; at least 8,960 residents about 1.5 percent of the state's population were taking one of the three medications, buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone, during the first quarter of this year. Once the pandemic began, the federal government tried to make it easier for patients to stay on these medications while doctors' offices and clinics were generally closed and people were being asked to stay home. Nik Rowley, 37, has been taking a daily dose of Suboxone a brand name for buprenorphine for about eight years. Mr. Rowley was getting back on his feet after being hospitalized for pneumonia when the pandemic hit. With nowhere else to go, he found housing in a hotel through a state funded program to keep residents off the streets. The extra supply of medication helped him avoid drugs, but in his hotel room, he relapsed on alcohol. "I had a few beers at the hotel because you're stuck in a room all by yourself," he said. "You have nothing to do. So all you do is sit there and ruminate and your depression gets worse." Brattleboro has several hotels that the state helped convert into temporary housing units for homeless and other at risk people. Groundworks, a year round housing service in Windham County, typically places 33 people in hotels during the winter months; in the spring, the number swelled to 150. Many of the recent lethal overdoses in the town have taken place at those hotels. "We immediately saw a skyrocket in the amount of substances that people were using," says Rhianna Kendrick, director of operations for Groundworks. When he got housed at a hotel in late March he was using less than a bag of heroin a day, but his use has gone up. Despite efforts to stop he briefly tried medication assisted treatment he accidentally overdosed twice in July. "I am not honoring some of the parts of myself that have so much potential," Mr. Luoma wrote in a text message that month. Understand the Opioid Crisis During the Pandemic The first months. As Covid 19 brought the U.S. to a standstill, the opioid epidemic took a sharp turn for the worse. More than 40 states recorded increases in opioid related deaths in the first six months of the pandemic. A reversal of progress. Despite modest gains against addiction including a slight dip in deaths in 2018 fatal overdoses were rising even before Covid arrived. But the pandemic unquestionably exacerbated the trend. An unprecedented spike. U.S. overdose deaths rose nearly 30 percent in 2020 to 93,000, then the largest single year increase recorded. Deaths peaked nationally in the spring amid the most severe period of shutdowns. Fueled by fentanyl. The rise in deaths was fueled by increased use of fentanyl, a cheap and readily available drug that is 100 times as powerful as morphine. It is often added surreptitiously as a substitute to other drugs. A grim threshold. Overdose deaths in the U.S. exceeded 100,000 for the first time in the yearlong period ending in April 2021. The figure is more than the death toll of car accidents and guns combined. "Last night I almost died again," he wrote. "I may have to wait 2 3 weeks to get into rehab. I'm fortunate to have the folks from Groundworks willing to find ways to help me through this waiting period, but the nagging urge, the beast inside that sits waiting for a moment of weakness could kill me before I am able to get in." Not all drug related deaths during the pandemic have been from overdoses. Jessie Mae DeCosta, 32, died from sepsis, an infection she got from injecting drugs. "Covid kind of sealed Jessie's fate," said her mother, LaNell DeCosta, 62, of Bristol, Vt. The Reil family decided to wait over a month after Mr. Cameron died to hold a service. On a bright and humid afternoon in July, more than 80 friends and family members came together at St. Sylvester's Catholic Cemetery in Barre to mourn him. "Our hearts break, our heads shake at the injustice of yet another young life extinguished by the disease of addiction," Pastor Rachel Fraumann said after beginning her service with a strong warning for mourners to stay as distant from one another as possible. "I don't want to do a bunch of funerals on the heels of this one." Tara Reil and her four surviving children sat in white folding chairs with masks, tissues and water bottles handy. Two of Mr. Cameron's brothers had flown in from out of state, taking leave from their posts in the Marine Corps and Navy. Six family members spoke, including Mr. Cameron's stepfather, Terry Reil. "Let Jef's purpose empower you to make a difference in yours or someone else's life," he said, "to do good things in this world or just let someone you know, know you care about them."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Health
On Thursday, Stacia Canon, remembered from Dernier Cri, her shop in the meatpacking district, will open Canon NYC, a specialty boutique filled with under the radar designer finds like a Wonder Anatomie tie dye bird jacket ( 575) and an Asli Filinta gingham sweatshirt ( 255). At 150 Sullivan Street. Also on Thursday, Trunk Club, the personal shopping retail concept owned by Nordstrom, will open a Zachary Prell room, where you'll find an elegant collection of men's shirts, including a linen plaid button down finished with mother of pearl buttons ( 228) perfect for the workplace and beyond. At 457 Madison Avenue. On Saturday, Freemans Sporting Club will open a pop up for the heritage footwear brand Viberg. It will have handmade Chelsea boots in exclusive colorways like tan horsehide and black calf ( 690). At 8 Rivington Street.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
Sally Floyd, a computer scientist whose work in the early 1990s on controlling congestion on the internet continues to play a vital role in its stability, died on Aug. 25 at her home in Berkeley, Calif. She was 69. Her wife, Carole Leita, said the cause was metastatic gall bladder cancer. Dr. Floyd was best known as one of the inventors of Random Early Detection, or RED , an algorithm widely used in the internet. Though not readily visible to internet users, it helps traffic on the network flow smoothly during periods of overload. The internet consists of a series of linked routers. When computers communicate with one another through the internet, they divide the information they intend to exchange into packets of data, which are sent to the network in a sequence. A router examines each packet it receives, then sends it on to its intended destination. But when routers receive more packets than they can handle immediately, they queue those packets in a holding area called a buffer , which can increase the delay in transmitting data. Moreover, the buffer has a limited capacity, so if the router continually receives traffic at a higher rate than it can forward, at some point it will discard incoming traffic.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
Credit...Ramsay de Give for The New York Times Instead of spending their golden years baking in the sun, a growing number of grandparents are choosing a grittier spot to play out their third act New York City. Not for them the early bird special when dinner awaits at the latest hot spot and Broadway shows abound. But for some, the impetus for uprooting is not the pull of city life, but an urgent request to help raise a grandchild. These later in life New Yorkers find they come for the children but stay for the city. The other day, Mary Anne Swickerath, 74, a retired newspaper writer, was pushing her granddaughter in a stroller down Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, the affluent and family oriented neighborhood's main drag. She looked the part of a true New Yorker, dressed in all black with a cross body purse and dark sunglasses. But until 2013, she was living in Ocoee, Fla. A week before her granddaughter, Ramona, was born, Mrs. Swickerath, a widow, sold her house for less than 100,000 and moved, sight unseen, into a one bedroom, third floor walk up in Brooklyn where the rent is 2,775 a month more than any mortgage payment she ever made on her Florida home. "I said, 'I'm going to be open,' " Mrs. Swickerath said. "Life is about change. Although I lived in the same house for 40 years, married to the same man for 44, had the same job, I think it's important to keep growing. I thought it would be very good for me, and I knew it'd be good for my grandchild. My own kids turned out well. I have a good track record!" Mrs. Swickerath's daughter, Carla Swickerath, 42, a chief executive officer of Studio Libeskind, the architectural firm, and her partner, David Stockwell, 40, a senior associate at Libeskind, love having Mary Anne just blocks from their home near Prospect Park. Off duty, Ms. Rice, who moved to New York from Maryland to help with child care, strolls through the Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy with friends. Ramsay de Give for The New York Times "I saw the move as another great adventure for her," Carla Swickerath said. "She's from Mobile, Ala., and after college she joined the Peace Corps and taught English in Nigeria. She has always loved New York, and it just made sense." Mrs. Swickerath tended Ramona part time for the first six months, and then switched to providing full time weekday care. "My daughter and I thought we'd give it a year and see how it goes," she said, "and we never really looked back." Grandparents are flocking to cities precisely because their adult children need them," said Van C. Tran, an assistant professor of sociology at Columbia University. "The younger generation are working more hours than ever before, so they desperately need their parents to be around," he said. "This is why the help that the grandparents provide is so crucial. I think we're in a very interesting cultural norm shifting moment because this was not expected or acceptable even a generation ago." And while previous generations left cities to give their children fresh air and a better life, many millennials and Gen Xers don't view the suburbs as aspirational places to raise children. But they do need babysitters. Meris Zittman, the president of International Artists Group, a Miami based talent agency, was summoned to Manhattan seven years ago by her daughter, Nicole Hart, when she and her husband, Michael Hart, were expecting. Ms. Hart and Mr. Hart are in their 40s; she's in advertising sales, and he's a building developer. Ms. Zittman, who had long lived in Kendall, Fla., complied with the request, but with the intention of trying out the job of nanny before committing. About 10 percent of the residents of the 899 rental units of New York by Gehry are 60 and older, said Scott Walsh, the vice president of residential leasing for Forest City Ratner Companies, the developer of the skyscraper. "In many cases," he said, " it means living closer to their families and grandchildren in the city, plus New York by Gehry is where the action is. So many exciting things are happening in Lower Manhattan right now, with more to come. Many of our older tenants have expressed to us, 'Why stay in the suburbs when you could be here in the heart of it all?' " These days, Ms. Zittman takes Dylan, now a 7 year old model and actor, on casting calls and is often enlisted to retrieve him and her two other grandsons, who also live in Manhattan, from after school sports. Hopping on the subway and exploring New York with her boys is not an activity reserved for special occasions it's a part of daily life. Ms. Zittman keeps up the fast pace even when she's not with her family. A typical day includes working out with a personal trainer in her building's gym, attending a performance by a client, and meeting friends for lunch or dinner at spots like the Park in Chelsea or Machiavelli on the Upper West Side. Mrs. Swickerath dines out at Ten sushi in Brooklyn. Ramsay de Give for The New York Times "I'm happy I did this whole thing," she said. "And now I'm here in New York. That's the best part." Between 2009 and 2013, 1.2 percent of New Yorkers age 62 and older did not reside in the city in the previous year, according to an analysis of census and other data by Susan Weber Stoger, a researcher in the sociology department at Queens College. And while the majority of these new city residents came from abroad or other parts of the United States, real estate agents report increasing traffic from the suburbs, older clients leaving behind homes they had resided in for many years in order to give New York a whirl. Peggy Dahan, an associate broker for Siderow Residential Group, has noticed a pattern: Grandparents try out New York by renting first and then, after realizing they feel at home here, decide to purchase. "I see more families staying in Manhattan," she said. "Grandparents want to be closer to the kids and grandkids, so they are moving to Manhattan and enjoying the easier lifestyle and amenities." For Julie Rice, a founder of SoulCycle, the fitness chain, starting a business while raising a baby would have been almost impossible without the help of her mother in law, Bonnie Rice, 68. Ms. Rice relocated from the suburbs of Baltimore to become her granddaughter Phoebe's full time nanny about a decade ago. "My daughter in law asked if I would consider moving to New York City to be their nanny," Ms. Rice said. "She and I had developed a very close relationship and my son told me it was her idea." Now both in their early 40s, Julie Rice and her husband, Spencer, the chief marketing officer of SoulCycle, rented an apartment for Bonnie seven blocks away from their home on the Upper West Side. Ms. Rice would show up in the morning at 7 a.m. and take care of Phoebe, now 10, until one of them relieved her at 7 p.m. "Those were long days," Ms. Rice says. "I did everything. I know where almost every path leads to in Central Park. I changed about 10,000 diapers. It was exhausting, but I was spending every day with my granddaughter and I wouldn't have changed it for the world." "I started to meet people my age in my building and made friends," Ms. Rice said. "I joined a mah jongg group and we play for five dollars once a week. I've dated some men but so far nothing has stuck." Now a grandmother to four city children, she has retired from nannying but is still a frequent presence in the lives of her children and grandchildren. "I just lend a hand when my kids need me and they need me a lot!" she said. "There's a new tradition of upward social mobility that revolves around staying put in cities, which are more vibrant than ever before," said Mr. Tran, the assistant professor. "The younger cohort, they don't want to drive they want to walk places and feel connected. And connecting with their parents is part of that experience." The daughters of Jose Vidal, 63, and his wife, Angeles, 69, had been trying for years to convince them to leave Palm Coast, Fla., and join them in the new frontier of Bushwick, Brooklyn. It took coinciding events to make them agree to the plan. Their daughter Beatriz Vidal, and her husband, Fabrizio Uberti Bona, both 40 and senior managing directors of Citi Habitats, found out they were expecting a child at around the same time that Mr. Vidal received a diagnosis of lung cancer. The Vidals sold the Florida house for 171,500 in August and now call Bushwick their only home. Of course, these family centric moves are not without their challenges. "Life here is physically more demanding than I was used to," Mrs. Swickerath said. "I felt disoriented at first. I had to learn how to navigate the transportation, I had never lived in a cold climate. But these were not big problems, just a series of small ones. More like puzzles to be worked out." She and her now 2 year old granddaughter, whom she calls Moni, have become connoisseurs of the city. " Moni has art class; last spring we took a gardening class at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Her dad gardens on the roof so she was really into it." The two take full advantage of the city and the unique experiences it offers. "We stroll through the Whitney. She was sitting there looking at a big de Kooning picture." When she's not caring for Ramona, Mrs. Swickerath plies her own path in the city. "I go see movies at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. I just love walking down the street, there's so much available. One thing I love about New York is all the ethnic restaurants," she said, recalling a recent trip to Ivan Ramen on the Lower East Side. "Give me a good ramen place and I'm happy." Just as this generation of parents celebrates the idea of raising children in a diverse environment, grandparents like Mrs. Swickerath see the value in it, too. "I don't want to be around a bunch of people my own age," she said. "I like people my age, but I like a variety of people. That's more interesting. I like the whole multicultural thing about New York, about Brooklyn, in particular. There's life here, you know?"	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate

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