question
stringlengths 11
149
| article
stringlengths 529
63.5k
| summary
stringlengths 4
444
| model source
stringclasses 3
values | length bucket
int8 0
2
| url
stringlengths 35
310
| qa classifier score
float32 0.1
0.85
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Whos to blame for failed hydro deal? | Hydro Ones failed merger with Avista will cost $103 million U.S., online, Jan. 23 Interesting that you fail to mention any reference to the Wynne Liberal government when opining about the failed Hydro One/Avista deal. Without Wynne foolishly selling off a large portion of Hydro One, there would never have been a deal to fail. If you believe the $137-million cost is the Ford interference levy, then you must also believe the $1 billion-plus cost of remediation to the Avista pollution problems in the U.S., should the deal have gone through, would be the Wynne stupidity levy. Following your own logic, the Ford Conservatives have done a great service to the electricity customers on Ontario. John F. Reid, Toronto | You fail to mention any reference to the Wynne Liberal government when opining about the failed Hydro One/Avista deal. Without Wynne foolishly selling off a large portion of Hydro One, there would never have been a deal to fail. | bart | 1 | https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2019/01/24/whos-to-blame-for-failed-hydro-deal.html | 0.156788 |
Whos to blame for failed hydro deal? | Hydro Ones failed merger with Avista will cost $103 million U.S., online, Jan. 23 Interesting that you fail to mention any reference to the Wynne Liberal government when opining about the failed Hydro One/Avista deal. Without Wynne foolishly selling off a large portion of Hydro One, there would never have been a deal to fail. If you believe the $137-million cost is the Ford interference levy, then you must also believe the $1 billion-plus cost of remediation to the Avista pollution problems in the U.S., should the deal have gone through, would be the Wynne stupidity levy. Following your own logic, the Ford Conservatives have done a great service to the electricity customers on Ontario. John F. Reid, Toronto | You fail to mention any reference to the Wynne Liberal government when opining about the failed Hydro One/Avista deal. Without Wynne foolishly selling off a large portion of Hydro One, there would never have been a deal to fail. Ford Conservatives have done a great service to the electricity customers on Ontario. | bart | 2 | https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2019/01/24/whos-to-blame-for-failed-hydro-deal.html | 0.218075 |
Who is John Hickenlooper, possible 2020 Democratic presidential candidate? | Hes former Denver Mayor and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. Hickenlooper pronounced HICK-in-loop-er, or Hick for short just wrapped up his two terms as governor, in which he led the state out of the Great Recession and into one of the strongest economies in the nation. Heres the short version of everything Democratic primary voters need to know about him. Almost certainly, most Colorado political insiders say. Hickenlooper who has a long record of political gaffes told a few folks in New Hampshire last fall that he is running, although his team quickly walked it back as a joke. He shows all the classic signs, from the creation of his Giddy Up PAC to the publication of his book, The Opposite of Woe, to his trips to early primary states. In an interview before leaving office, he said he was about 68 percent ready to make a final decision. He has also hired staff, including a pollster and national fundraiser. Hickenlooper often refers to himself as an extreme moderate. On many social issues, such as gay rights or gun control, hes progressive. However, hes also pro-business. Whats more, the extreme moderate goes to his temperament: Hes wary of making monumental policy shifts overnight and believes that most Americans are in the middle of the political spectrum, not on the ends. As Colorado political pollster Floyd Ciruli recently pointed out, Democrats have a long history of electing dark-horse governors. Hickenloopers team is framing him as an executive with progressive values and a record for delivering results. Unlike the high-profile senators entering the race, he can call himself a Washington outsider. At the same time, he has a national network of donors to sustain him as he builds name ID. Hickenlooper was born Feb. 7, 1952, in a suburb of Philadelphia. Hickenlooper is the youngest of four and was raised by his mother, Anne, after his fathers death when he was 8 years old. Hickenlooper often recounts stories of being an easy target of playground bullies. It was in these early geek years, he says, that he learned to defuse tense situations with humor. He graduated from the private Haverford School in 1970. He went on to graduate from Wesleyan University with a bachelors in English and a masters in geology. Hickenlooper moved to Colorado for work as a geologist. However, during a downturn in the economy in 1986, he was laid off. In 1988, he started the Wynkoop Brewing Company and helped lead the effort to revitalize Denvers lower downtown neighborhood. He married journalist Helen Thrope and had a son Teddy, now 16. However, the couple divorced in 2012. Hickenlooper remarried in 2016. His second wife, Robin Pringle Hickenlooper, is an executive at Liberty Media, which owns a stake in SiriusXM and the Atlanta Braves. Hickenlooper first entered politics in 2003, when he joined Denvers wide-open 2003 mayoral race promising a more robust economic development platform, better cooperation with Denvers suburbs and cheaper parking at meters downtown. He broke through the competition with commercials that Coloradans still talk about today. Heres one: Hickenlooper ultimately beat city Auditor Don Mares in a landslide. During his first term, Hickenlooper wiped out a $70 million deficit and helped the city land the Democratic National Convention. However, he faced scrutiny for mishandling election problems and a blizzard that shut down the Denver International Airport for 45 hours and left city streets covered in snow for days. Still, he won re-election in 2007, again by a wide margin. In 2010, after learning that then-Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter would not seek a second term, Hickenlooper trained his eyes on the states highest office. As in his first run for mayor, Hickenlooper made job creation a central theme of his gubernatorial bid. He went on to win a three-man race with 50 percent of the vote in one of the wildest races in modern Colorado history. Like many governors elected in 2010, Hickenlooper inherited an economy left in ruins after the Great Recession. However, when the term-limited governor left office January 2019, the states economy was one of the most respected in the nation and some credit him for that. Hickenlooper led Coloradans through numerous other challenges, during his first term, including devastating wildfires, a 100-year flood and gun violence most notably the mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater. Hickenloopers accomplishments as governor included: Reopening highways in northern Colorado within 100 days of the 2013 flood that killed 9. Establishing a national model for regulating recreational marijuana, despite being adamantly opposed to voters decision to legalize it. Signing a bill establishing civil unions in Colorado prior to the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage. Successfully pushing for the expansion of Medicaid. Signing gun-control legislation that established universal background checks and limited the size of magazines to 15 rounds. Creating a dashboard of goals and metrics to measure how efficient state government was. Above all, Hickenloopers supporters and detractors say his greatest success was in getting opposing sides to sit down and negotiate compromises on policy matters. Critics on both the left and the right have been frustrated when he tries to please everyone. Take, for instance, Hickenloopers record on oil and gas. He has long championed the states energy sector while simultaneously pushing for stricter regulation. Critics on the left suggest his push for higher methane standards is an empty gesture. Critics on the right have said his order for the adoption of low-emission standards for vehicles will hurt rural Colorado. Another example: Hickenloopers indefinite postponement of the execution of the man who killed four people at a suburban pizza parlor. Hickenlooper said he knew his decision would be highly scrutinized but said it was the only one that both respected the judicial process and his evolving position that the death penalty is unjust. What about a unity ticket with Hickenlooper and Republican former Ohio Gov. This is extremely unlikely. Both former governors who worked together on a bipartisan health care proposal in 2017 have expressed admiration for each other but said such a ticket isnt in the works. | John Hickenlooper is a former Denver mayor and Colorado governor. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/01/27/who-is-john-hickenlooper/ | 0.326628 |
Who is John Hickenlooper, possible 2020 Democratic presidential candidate? | Hes former Denver Mayor and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. Hickenlooper pronounced HICK-in-loop-er, or Hick for short just wrapped up his two terms as governor, in which he led the state out of the Great Recession and into one of the strongest economies in the nation. Heres the short version of everything Democratic primary voters need to know about him. Almost certainly, most Colorado political insiders say. Hickenlooper who has a long record of political gaffes told a few folks in New Hampshire last fall that he is running, although his team quickly walked it back as a joke. He shows all the classic signs, from the creation of his Giddy Up PAC to the publication of his book, The Opposite of Woe, to his trips to early primary states. In an interview before leaving office, he said he was about 68 percent ready to make a final decision. He has also hired staff, including a pollster and national fundraiser. Hickenlooper often refers to himself as an extreme moderate. On many social issues, such as gay rights or gun control, hes progressive. However, hes also pro-business. Whats more, the extreme moderate goes to his temperament: Hes wary of making monumental policy shifts overnight and believes that most Americans are in the middle of the political spectrum, not on the ends. As Colorado political pollster Floyd Ciruli recently pointed out, Democrats have a long history of electing dark-horse governors. Hickenloopers team is framing him as an executive with progressive values and a record for delivering results. Unlike the high-profile senators entering the race, he can call himself a Washington outsider. At the same time, he has a national network of donors to sustain him as he builds name ID. Hickenlooper was born Feb. 7, 1952, in a suburb of Philadelphia. Hickenlooper is the youngest of four and was raised by his mother, Anne, after his fathers death when he was 8 years old. Hickenlooper often recounts stories of being an easy target of playground bullies. It was in these early geek years, he says, that he learned to defuse tense situations with humor. He graduated from the private Haverford School in 1970. He went on to graduate from Wesleyan University with a bachelors in English and a masters in geology. Hickenlooper moved to Colorado for work as a geologist. However, during a downturn in the economy in 1986, he was laid off. In 1988, he started the Wynkoop Brewing Company and helped lead the effort to revitalize Denvers lower downtown neighborhood. He married journalist Helen Thrope and had a son Teddy, now 16. However, the couple divorced in 2012. Hickenlooper remarried in 2016. His second wife, Robin Pringle Hickenlooper, is an executive at Liberty Media, which owns a stake in SiriusXM and the Atlanta Braves. Hickenlooper first entered politics in 2003, when he joined Denvers wide-open 2003 mayoral race promising a more robust economic development platform, better cooperation with Denvers suburbs and cheaper parking at meters downtown. He broke through the competition with commercials that Coloradans still talk about today. Heres one: Hickenlooper ultimately beat city Auditor Don Mares in a landslide. During his first term, Hickenlooper wiped out a $70 million deficit and helped the city land the Democratic National Convention. However, he faced scrutiny for mishandling election problems and a blizzard that shut down the Denver International Airport for 45 hours and left city streets covered in snow for days. Still, he won re-election in 2007, again by a wide margin. In 2010, after learning that then-Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter would not seek a second term, Hickenlooper trained his eyes on the states highest office. As in his first run for mayor, Hickenlooper made job creation a central theme of his gubernatorial bid. He went on to win a three-man race with 50 percent of the vote in one of the wildest races in modern Colorado history. Like many governors elected in 2010, Hickenlooper inherited an economy left in ruins after the Great Recession. However, when the term-limited governor left office January 2019, the states economy was one of the most respected in the nation and some credit him for that. Hickenlooper led Coloradans through numerous other challenges, during his first term, including devastating wildfires, a 100-year flood and gun violence most notably the mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater. Hickenloopers accomplishments as governor included: Reopening highways in northern Colorado within 100 days of the 2013 flood that killed 9. Establishing a national model for regulating recreational marijuana, despite being adamantly opposed to voters decision to legalize it. Signing a bill establishing civil unions in Colorado prior to the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage. Successfully pushing for the expansion of Medicaid. Signing gun-control legislation that established universal background checks and limited the size of magazines to 15 rounds. Creating a dashboard of goals and metrics to measure how efficient state government was. Above all, Hickenloopers supporters and detractors say his greatest success was in getting opposing sides to sit down and negotiate compromises on policy matters. Critics on both the left and the right have been frustrated when he tries to please everyone. Take, for instance, Hickenloopers record on oil and gas. He has long championed the states energy sector while simultaneously pushing for stricter regulation. Critics on the left suggest his push for higher methane standards is an empty gesture. Critics on the right have said his order for the adoption of low-emission standards for vehicles will hurt rural Colorado. Another example: Hickenloopers indefinite postponement of the execution of the man who killed four people at a suburban pizza parlor. Hickenlooper said he knew his decision would be highly scrutinized but said it was the only one that both respected the judicial process and his evolving position that the death penalty is unjust. What about a unity ticket with Hickenlooper and Republican former Ohio Gov. This is extremely unlikely. Both former governors who worked together on a bipartisan health care proposal in 2017 have expressed admiration for each other but said such a ticket isnt in the works. | John Hickenlooper is a former Denver mayor and Colorado governor. He is considered a likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2020. He has a long record of political gaffes. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/01/27/who-is-john-hickenlooper/ | 0.637971 |
Who is John Hickenlooper, possible 2020 Democratic presidential candidate? | Hes former Denver Mayor and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. Hickenlooper pronounced HICK-in-loop-er, or Hick for short just wrapped up his two terms as governor, in which he led the state out of the Great Recession and into one of the strongest economies in the nation. Heres the short version of everything Democratic primary voters need to know about him. Almost certainly, most Colorado political insiders say. Hickenlooper who has a long record of political gaffes told a few folks in New Hampshire last fall that he is running, although his team quickly walked it back as a joke. He shows all the classic signs, from the creation of his Giddy Up PAC to the publication of his book, The Opposite of Woe, to his trips to early primary states. In an interview before leaving office, he said he was about 68 percent ready to make a final decision. He has also hired staff, including a pollster and national fundraiser. Hickenlooper often refers to himself as an extreme moderate. On many social issues, such as gay rights or gun control, hes progressive. However, hes also pro-business. Whats more, the extreme moderate goes to his temperament: Hes wary of making monumental policy shifts overnight and believes that most Americans are in the middle of the political spectrum, not on the ends. As Colorado political pollster Floyd Ciruli recently pointed out, Democrats have a long history of electing dark-horse governors. Hickenloopers team is framing him as an executive with progressive values and a record for delivering results. Unlike the high-profile senators entering the race, he can call himself a Washington outsider. At the same time, he has a national network of donors to sustain him as he builds name ID. Hickenlooper was born Feb. 7, 1952, in a suburb of Philadelphia. Hickenlooper is the youngest of four and was raised by his mother, Anne, after his fathers death when he was 8 years old. Hickenlooper often recounts stories of being an easy target of playground bullies. It was in these early geek years, he says, that he learned to defuse tense situations with humor. He graduated from the private Haverford School in 1970. He went on to graduate from Wesleyan University with a bachelors in English and a masters in geology. Hickenlooper moved to Colorado for work as a geologist. However, during a downturn in the economy in 1986, he was laid off. In 1988, he started the Wynkoop Brewing Company and helped lead the effort to revitalize Denvers lower downtown neighborhood. He married journalist Helen Thrope and had a son Teddy, now 16. However, the couple divorced in 2012. Hickenlooper remarried in 2016. His second wife, Robin Pringle Hickenlooper, is an executive at Liberty Media, which owns a stake in SiriusXM and the Atlanta Braves. Hickenlooper first entered politics in 2003, when he joined Denvers wide-open 2003 mayoral race promising a more robust economic development platform, better cooperation with Denvers suburbs and cheaper parking at meters downtown. He broke through the competition with commercials that Coloradans still talk about today. Heres one: Hickenlooper ultimately beat city Auditor Don Mares in a landslide. During his first term, Hickenlooper wiped out a $70 million deficit and helped the city land the Democratic National Convention. However, he faced scrutiny for mishandling election problems and a blizzard that shut down the Denver International Airport for 45 hours and left city streets covered in snow for days. Still, he won re-election in 2007, again by a wide margin. In 2010, after learning that then-Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter would not seek a second term, Hickenlooper trained his eyes on the states highest office. As in his first run for mayor, Hickenlooper made job creation a central theme of his gubernatorial bid. He went on to win a three-man race with 50 percent of the vote in one of the wildest races in modern Colorado history. Like many governors elected in 2010, Hickenlooper inherited an economy left in ruins after the Great Recession. However, when the term-limited governor left office January 2019, the states economy was one of the most respected in the nation and some credit him for that. Hickenlooper led Coloradans through numerous other challenges, during his first term, including devastating wildfires, a 100-year flood and gun violence most notably the mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater. Hickenloopers accomplishments as governor included: Reopening highways in northern Colorado within 100 days of the 2013 flood that killed 9. Establishing a national model for regulating recreational marijuana, despite being adamantly opposed to voters decision to legalize it. Signing a bill establishing civil unions in Colorado prior to the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage. Successfully pushing for the expansion of Medicaid. Signing gun-control legislation that established universal background checks and limited the size of magazines to 15 rounds. Creating a dashboard of goals and metrics to measure how efficient state government was. Above all, Hickenloopers supporters and detractors say his greatest success was in getting opposing sides to sit down and negotiate compromises on policy matters. Critics on both the left and the right have been frustrated when he tries to please everyone. Take, for instance, Hickenloopers record on oil and gas. He has long championed the states energy sector while simultaneously pushing for stricter regulation. Critics on the left suggest his push for higher methane standards is an empty gesture. Critics on the right have said his order for the adoption of low-emission standards for vehicles will hurt rural Colorado. Another example: Hickenloopers indefinite postponement of the execution of the man who killed four people at a suburban pizza parlor. Hickenlooper said he knew his decision would be highly scrutinized but said it was the only one that both respected the judicial process and his evolving position that the death penalty is unjust. What about a unity ticket with Hickenlooper and Republican former Ohio Gov. This is extremely unlikely. Both former governors who worked together on a bipartisan health care proposal in 2017 have expressed admiration for each other but said such a ticket isnt in the works. | John Hickenlooper is a former Denver mayor and governor of Colorado. He is considered a likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2020. He has a long record of political gaffes, but he has a national network of donors to sustain him as he builds name ID. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/01/27/who-is-john-hickenlooper/ | 0.663011 |
What should America do about Syria and ISIS? | Weve heard conflicting ideas from President Trump and some of his top advisers about what should happen. The president said in a video posted on Twitter Dec. 19 titled After historic victories against ISIS, its time to bring our great young people home! that the ISIS terrorist group has been defeated. Our boys, our young women, our men, theyre all coming back and theyre coming back now, he said. Democrats and Republicans in Congress criticized the withdrawal as premature, warning that with U.S. troops gone, ISIS terrorists could regroup and gain strength to become a more powerful force in Syria. FOX NEWS POLL: MOST VOTERS SAY ISIS NOT DEFEATED IN SYRIA Defense Secretary James Mattis and Brett McGurk the U.S. envoy to the coalition fighting ISIS resigned after the presidents withdrawal announcement. The New York Times reported that it had obtained an email McGurk wrote to colleagues stating that the recent decision by the president came as a shock and was a complete reversal of policy articulated to us and left our coalition partners confused and our fighting partners bewildered. National Security Adviser John Bolton then told reporters in Israel on Jan. 6 that U.S. troops wont leave Syria until ISIS is defeated and Kurdish troops allied with the U.S. are protected from attacks by Turkey. He said there was no timetable for the withdrawal. President Trump then said that we wont be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone and that we are pulling back in Syria. Were going to be removing our troops. I never said were doing it that quickly: Now that President Trump has signed a bill to temporarily reopen the government, perhaps we should expect some bipartisan consensus not only on immigration reform and border security but on countering ISIS in Syria and Iraq. ISIS is unquestionably far weaker than it once was and controls far less territory. But it has not disappeared or ceased operations. Tragically, on Jan. 16 ISIS terrorists in Syria killed two U.S. service members and two U.S. civilians in a suicide attack in Manbij. We are honoring and mourning our fallen heroes as we have so many times since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Now is a propitious time to debate the efficacy of forward-deploying U.S. military in the Middle East. In a speech to the American University in Cairo earlier this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlined three pillars of the Trump Doctrine for the Middle East: countering Iran and radical Islamic extremism; demanding more from regional partners; and reducing the U.S. military footprint. Syria is where the administrations policy will be judged. The U.S. troops in Syria have been enormously effective. They have trained and equipped the Syrian Democratic Forces, which have taken the fight to ISIS and decimated its ranks. U.S. troops also deterred Turkey from attacking the Syrian Democratic Forces, the bulk of whom are Kurds. Turkey considers the group an offshoot of a Kurdish group that has been outlawed as a terrorist organization in Turkey. The Turkish Ministry of Defense is reportedly planning an offensive against the Kurdish forces in Syria. That would cause tactical fratricide among our allies and create breathing space for ISIS to turn into an insurgency and potentially reconstitute itself. At its zenith, ISIS subjugated roughly 7 million people and controlled oilfields, smuggling routes, arms and military hardware in Syria and Iraq. The group attracted significant numbers of foreign extremists to live and fight in its caliphate. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who sent the first ISIS terrorist attackers to Europe in 2014, has not yet been captured. But with the loss of almost all the territory it controlled, ISIS propaganda has decreased considerably as has the flow of foreign jihadists into Syria and Iraq. Our Middle East intelligence and policy experts will be on the hook to assess whether ISISs ability to recruit followers will be significantly eroded with the loss of its geographic space even if ISIS is transformed into a virtual caliphate. American forces will also need to plan for targeting the remaining estimated 20,000 to 30,000 ISIS fighters in the Iraq-Syria battlespace. Emphasizing that when the U.S. retreats, chaos follows, Pompeo used his Cairo speech to highlight lessons learned from the Obama administrations precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. That withdrawal helped create the conditions for the massive growth and spread of ISIS in the region. After removing U.S. combat troops from Iraq in 2011, President Obama was forced to send them back in 2014 to fight ISIS. The U.S. currently has about 5,200 troops in Iraq, where ISIS stages occasional attacks. President Trump said in December he has no plans to reduce U.S. troop strength there. Iranian proxies in Iraq are trying to induce the withdrawal of U.S. troops from that nation to strengthen Irans effort to secure pre-eminent influence in Iraq. In his Cairo speech, Pompeo declared the U.S. would be a faithful ally, but one that would ask our regional partners to take primary responsibility for their own security. The U.S. is protected by two great oceans and enjoys good relations with our neighbors to the south and north. Over the years, many Americans have strongly desired to avoid becoming entangled in world affairs especially where U.S. troops could be called into battle. But the world is more interconnected today, including through cyberspace, than at any time in history. Our enemies can reach us in spite of our geographic separation from other parts of the world provided by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. U.S. efforts at nation-building in other countries have been extraordinarily costly to us both in the billions of dollars we have spent and more importantly in lost American lives. Still, despite all the sacrifices of Americans and deaths of members of the U.S. military and civilians, we have been unable to prevent the growth of disaffected people in failed states who are vulnerable to extremists exploitation. Al Qaeda is still a threat. Its leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is still committed to his declaration of jihad against the U.S. Even if the local authorities are unable to eliminate the underlying causes of terrorism we must be careful about outsourcing our national security. The late Charles Krauthammer articulated a strategy of forward defense where we confront our enemies over there rather than allow them to plan and execute attacks on our homeland from ungoverned space in failed states. Krauthammer believed we should only risk spilling American blood and treasure when there was strategic necessity. There would be no need to focus on nation-building. All we needed to do was enable and leverage our partners to eliminate threats before they reach our shores. To our brave patriots serving in harms way, mission success has meant no attack on the U.S. homeland. Right now we need a bipartisan assessment of the terrorist threats to our national security that emanates from Syria and Iraq. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP With this information in hand, we can consider whether our forward deployed U.S. military and intelligence personnel should withdraw from Syria and if so, under what timetable. President Trump has consistently argued for bringing the troops out of harms way in overseas combat zones and home to their families. We just need to be sure they are not needed over there, so that ISIS terrorists do not target our citizens over here. | President Trump announced in December that U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Syria. | pegasus | 0 | https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/what-should-america-do-about-syria-and-isis | 0.102279 |
What should America do about Syria and ISIS? | Weve heard conflicting ideas from President Trump and some of his top advisers about what should happen. The president said in a video posted on Twitter Dec. 19 titled After historic victories against ISIS, its time to bring our great young people home! that the ISIS terrorist group has been defeated. Our boys, our young women, our men, theyre all coming back and theyre coming back now, he said. Democrats and Republicans in Congress criticized the withdrawal as premature, warning that with U.S. troops gone, ISIS terrorists could regroup and gain strength to become a more powerful force in Syria. FOX NEWS POLL: MOST VOTERS SAY ISIS NOT DEFEATED IN SYRIA Defense Secretary James Mattis and Brett McGurk the U.S. envoy to the coalition fighting ISIS resigned after the presidents withdrawal announcement. The New York Times reported that it had obtained an email McGurk wrote to colleagues stating that the recent decision by the president came as a shock and was a complete reversal of policy articulated to us and left our coalition partners confused and our fighting partners bewildered. National Security Adviser John Bolton then told reporters in Israel on Jan. 6 that U.S. troops wont leave Syria until ISIS is defeated and Kurdish troops allied with the U.S. are protected from attacks by Turkey. He said there was no timetable for the withdrawal. President Trump then said that we wont be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone and that we are pulling back in Syria. Were going to be removing our troops. I never said were doing it that quickly: Now that President Trump has signed a bill to temporarily reopen the government, perhaps we should expect some bipartisan consensus not only on immigration reform and border security but on countering ISIS in Syria and Iraq. ISIS is unquestionably far weaker than it once was and controls far less territory. But it has not disappeared or ceased operations. Tragically, on Jan. 16 ISIS terrorists in Syria killed two U.S. service members and two U.S. civilians in a suicide attack in Manbij. We are honoring and mourning our fallen heroes as we have so many times since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Now is a propitious time to debate the efficacy of forward-deploying U.S. military in the Middle East. In a speech to the American University in Cairo earlier this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlined three pillars of the Trump Doctrine for the Middle East: countering Iran and radical Islamic extremism; demanding more from regional partners; and reducing the U.S. military footprint. Syria is where the administrations policy will be judged. The U.S. troops in Syria have been enormously effective. They have trained and equipped the Syrian Democratic Forces, which have taken the fight to ISIS and decimated its ranks. U.S. troops also deterred Turkey from attacking the Syrian Democratic Forces, the bulk of whom are Kurds. Turkey considers the group an offshoot of a Kurdish group that has been outlawed as a terrorist organization in Turkey. The Turkish Ministry of Defense is reportedly planning an offensive against the Kurdish forces in Syria. That would cause tactical fratricide among our allies and create breathing space for ISIS to turn into an insurgency and potentially reconstitute itself. At its zenith, ISIS subjugated roughly 7 million people and controlled oilfields, smuggling routes, arms and military hardware in Syria and Iraq. The group attracted significant numbers of foreign extremists to live and fight in its caliphate. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who sent the first ISIS terrorist attackers to Europe in 2014, has not yet been captured. But with the loss of almost all the territory it controlled, ISIS propaganda has decreased considerably as has the flow of foreign jihadists into Syria and Iraq. Our Middle East intelligence and policy experts will be on the hook to assess whether ISISs ability to recruit followers will be significantly eroded with the loss of its geographic space even if ISIS is transformed into a virtual caliphate. American forces will also need to plan for targeting the remaining estimated 20,000 to 30,000 ISIS fighters in the Iraq-Syria battlespace. Emphasizing that when the U.S. retreats, chaos follows, Pompeo used his Cairo speech to highlight lessons learned from the Obama administrations precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. That withdrawal helped create the conditions for the massive growth and spread of ISIS in the region. After removing U.S. combat troops from Iraq in 2011, President Obama was forced to send them back in 2014 to fight ISIS. The U.S. currently has about 5,200 troops in Iraq, where ISIS stages occasional attacks. President Trump said in December he has no plans to reduce U.S. troop strength there. Iranian proxies in Iraq are trying to induce the withdrawal of U.S. troops from that nation to strengthen Irans effort to secure pre-eminent influence in Iraq. In his Cairo speech, Pompeo declared the U.S. would be a faithful ally, but one that would ask our regional partners to take primary responsibility for their own security. The U.S. is protected by two great oceans and enjoys good relations with our neighbors to the south and north. Over the years, many Americans have strongly desired to avoid becoming entangled in world affairs especially where U.S. troops could be called into battle. But the world is more interconnected today, including through cyberspace, than at any time in history. Our enemies can reach us in spite of our geographic separation from other parts of the world provided by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. U.S. efforts at nation-building in other countries have been extraordinarily costly to us both in the billions of dollars we have spent and more importantly in lost American lives. Still, despite all the sacrifices of Americans and deaths of members of the U.S. military and civilians, we have been unable to prevent the growth of disaffected people in failed states who are vulnerable to extremists exploitation. Al Qaeda is still a threat. Its leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is still committed to his declaration of jihad against the U.S. Even if the local authorities are unable to eliminate the underlying causes of terrorism we must be careful about outsourcing our national security. The late Charles Krauthammer articulated a strategy of forward defense where we confront our enemies over there rather than allow them to plan and execute attacks on our homeland from ungoverned space in failed states. Krauthammer believed we should only risk spilling American blood and treasure when there was strategic necessity. There would be no need to focus on nation-building. All we needed to do was enable and leverage our partners to eliminate threats before they reach our shores. To our brave patriots serving in harms way, mission success has meant no attack on the U.S. homeland. Right now we need a bipartisan assessment of the terrorist threats to our national security that emanates from Syria and Iraq. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP With this information in hand, we can consider whether our forward deployed U.S. military and intelligence personnel should withdraw from Syria and if so, under what timetable. President Trump has consistently argued for bringing the troops out of harms way in overseas combat zones and home to their families. We just need to be sure they are not needed over there, so that ISIS terrorists do not target our citizens over here. | President Trump announced in December that U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Syria. Aaron Miller: Now is a propitious time to debate the efficacy of forward-deploying U.S. military in the Middle East. | pegasus | 1 | https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/what-should-america-do-about-syria-and-isis | 0.164549 |
What should America do about Syria and ISIS? | Weve heard conflicting ideas from President Trump and some of his top advisers about what should happen. The president said in a video posted on Twitter Dec. 19 titled After historic victories against ISIS, its time to bring our great young people home! that the ISIS terrorist group has been defeated. Our boys, our young women, our men, theyre all coming back and theyre coming back now, he said. Democrats and Republicans in Congress criticized the withdrawal as premature, warning that with U.S. troops gone, ISIS terrorists could regroup and gain strength to become a more powerful force in Syria. FOX NEWS POLL: MOST VOTERS SAY ISIS NOT DEFEATED IN SYRIA Defense Secretary James Mattis and Brett McGurk the U.S. envoy to the coalition fighting ISIS resigned after the presidents withdrawal announcement. The New York Times reported that it had obtained an email McGurk wrote to colleagues stating that the recent decision by the president came as a shock and was a complete reversal of policy articulated to us and left our coalition partners confused and our fighting partners bewildered. National Security Adviser John Bolton then told reporters in Israel on Jan. 6 that U.S. troops wont leave Syria until ISIS is defeated and Kurdish troops allied with the U.S. are protected from attacks by Turkey. He said there was no timetable for the withdrawal. President Trump then said that we wont be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone and that we are pulling back in Syria. Were going to be removing our troops. I never said were doing it that quickly: Now that President Trump has signed a bill to temporarily reopen the government, perhaps we should expect some bipartisan consensus not only on immigration reform and border security but on countering ISIS in Syria and Iraq. ISIS is unquestionably far weaker than it once was and controls far less territory. But it has not disappeared or ceased operations. Tragically, on Jan. 16 ISIS terrorists in Syria killed two U.S. service members and two U.S. civilians in a suicide attack in Manbij. We are honoring and mourning our fallen heroes as we have so many times since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Now is a propitious time to debate the efficacy of forward-deploying U.S. military in the Middle East. In a speech to the American University in Cairo earlier this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlined three pillars of the Trump Doctrine for the Middle East: countering Iran and radical Islamic extremism; demanding more from regional partners; and reducing the U.S. military footprint. Syria is where the administrations policy will be judged. The U.S. troops in Syria have been enormously effective. They have trained and equipped the Syrian Democratic Forces, which have taken the fight to ISIS and decimated its ranks. U.S. troops also deterred Turkey from attacking the Syrian Democratic Forces, the bulk of whom are Kurds. Turkey considers the group an offshoot of a Kurdish group that has been outlawed as a terrorist organization in Turkey. The Turkish Ministry of Defense is reportedly planning an offensive against the Kurdish forces in Syria. That would cause tactical fratricide among our allies and create breathing space for ISIS to turn into an insurgency and potentially reconstitute itself. At its zenith, ISIS subjugated roughly 7 million people and controlled oilfields, smuggling routes, arms and military hardware in Syria and Iraq. The group attracted significant numbers of foreign extremists to live and fight in its caliphate. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who sent the first ISIS terrorist attackers to Europe in 2014, has not yet been captured. But with the loss of almost all the territory it controlled, ISIS propaganda has decreased considerably as has the flow of foreign jihadists into Syria and Iraq. Our Middle East intelligence and policy experts will be on the hook to assess whether ISISs ability to recruit followers will be significantly eroded with the loss of its geographic space even if ISIS is transformed into a virtual caliphate. American forces will also need to plan for targeting the remaining estimated 20,000 to 30,000 ISIS fighters in the Iraq-Syria battlespace. Emphasizing that when the U.S. retreats, chaos follows, Pompeo used his Cairo speech to highlight lessons learned from the Obama administrations precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. That withdrawal helped create the conditions for the massive growth and spread of ISIS in the region. After removing U.S. combat troops from Iraq in 2011, President Obama was forced to send them back in 2014 to fight ISIS. The U.S. currently has about 5,200 troops in Iraq, where ISIS stages occasional attacks. President Trump said in December he has no plans to reduce U.S. troop strength there. Iranian proxies in Iraq are trying to induce the withdrawal of U.S. troops from that nation to strengthen Irans effort to secure pre-eminent influence in Iraq. In his Cairo speech, Pompeo declared the U.S. would be a faithful ally, but one that would ask our regional partners to take primary responsibility for their own security. The U.S. is protected by two great oceans and enjoys good relations with our neighbors to the south and north. Over the years, many Americans have strongly desired to avoid becoming entangled in world affairs especially where U.S. troops could be called into battle. But the world is more interconnected today, including through cyberspace, than at any time in history. Our enemies can reach us in spite of our geographic separation from other parts of the world provided by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. U.S. efforts at nation-building in other countries have been extraordinarily costly to us both in the billions of dollars we have spent and more importantly in lost American lives. Still, despite all the sacrifices of Americans and deaths of members of the U.S. military and civilians, we have been unable to prevent the growth of disaffected people in failed states who are vulnerable to extremists exploitation. Al Qaeda is still a threat. Its leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is still committed to his declaration of jihad against the U.S. Even if the local authorities are unable to eliminate the underlying causes of terrorism we must be careful about outsourcing our national security. The late Charles Krauthammer articulated a strategy of forward defense where we confront our enemies over there rather than allow them to plan and execute attacks on our homeland from ungoverned space in failed states. Krauthammer believed we should only risk spilling American blood and treasure when there was strategic necessity. There would be no need to focus on nation-building. All we needed to do was enable and leverage our partners to eliminate threats before they reach our shores. To our brave patriots serving in harms way, mission success has meant no attack on the U.S. homeland. Right now we need a bipartisan assessment of the terrorist threats to our national security that emanates from Syria and Iraq. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP With this information in hand, we can consider whether our forward deployed U.S. military and intelligence personnel should withdraw from Syria and if so, under what timetable. President Trump has consistently argued for bringing the troops out of harms way in overseas combat zones and home to their families. We just need to be sure they are not needed over there, so that ISIS terrorists do not target our citizens over here. | President Trump announced in December that U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Syria. Aaron Miller: Now is a time to debate the efficacy of forward-deploying U.S. military in the Middle East. He says ISIS is unquestionably far weaker than it once was and controls far less territory. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/what-should-america-do-about-syria-and-isis | 0.144819 |
Will the Supreme Court Use a New York City Regulation to Strike Down Gun Laws? | New York City is a strange and dangerous place, if the plaintiffs in a gun-control case that the Supreme Court has just agreed to hear are to be believed. The suit, which calls the citys restrictions on transporting handguns through its streets bizarre, irrational, and perverse, was brought by the New York State Rifle & Pistol Associationthe state affiliate of the National Rifle Associationalong with two gun owners who live in the Bronx and one from Staten Island. The case is notable for reasons that go beyond its caricature of the city and its mores. To begin with, this will be the first time the Court seriously considers the Second Amendment since it adopted a radical view of gun rights in District of Columbia v. Heller, in 2008, which overturned a near-ban on handguns in Washington, D.C., and in McDonald v. the City of Chicago, in 2010, which did away with similar restrictions in that city. Those decisions were transformational, the plaintiffs argue, but the news has not yet reached New York City. It will also be the first opportunity for the Courts newest member, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, to begin building what promises to be a disastrous pro-gun legacy. Heller, a 54 decision written by Justice Antonin Scalia, upended the way that generations of judges had read the Second Amendment, by recognizing a fundamental, individual right to bear arms, unconnected to a well-regulated militia. McDonald then confirmed that Heller could be used to overturn state and local gun laws, as well as federal legislation. Still, both decisions leave room for some basic, long-standing restrictions on guns, such as those that prevent violent felons from buying them. Kavanaugh, though, in the wake of Heller, appears ready to toss out as many restrictions as he can. As an appeals-court judge, he wrote, in a 2011 dissent, that the District of Columbia should not be allowed to ban semi-automatic assault rifles, largely because they were in common use. He added that asking people to register their guns is unconstitutional. The New York case has certain elements in common with Heller: it is a challenge to a municipal regulation which has the potential to loosen laws around the country. The very strictness of the regulation may have made it an appealing target. It is possible, but difficult, to get a license to carry a handgun in New York. An alternative is a premises license, which allows an owner to have a handgun in his or her home but also, under a city regulation that has been in force since 2001, requires that owner to keep it at home. With a few narrow exceptions, owners can only take their guns out of the house, unloaded and in a locked case, to go to a shooting range in the city which has certification from the N.Y.P.D. There are seven such ranges, with at least one in each of the five boroughs. The plaintiffs want to be able to take their guns to second homes or to shooting ranges out of town. They take the view that preventing them from travelling through the streets with their guns actually increases the risk to public safety, in part by forcing them to leave their weapons in their vacant New York residences, where anything could happen. One brief suggested that the city might be underestimating its burglars. (Crime rates in New York have, in fact, gone down dramatically in recent decades; the number of shootings is the lowest it has been in twenty-five years.) The plaintiffs also claim that being asked to travel without their guns is akin to being forbidden to travel at allas though a person were not constitutionally whole without a gun. To them, the restriction is as profound a violation of rights as a prohibition on leaving city limits to get an abortion. An overriding issue at stake, then, is whether the Court will decide that the right to bear arms is tantamount to a broad right to travel with them. (Justice Clarence Thomas has said, with regard to an earlier case, that he emphatically believes it is.) Gun regulations now vary widely among the states; the strictest of them may eventually be forced to conform to the loosest. A far greater risk to public safety than leaving handguns in empty apartments is the nationwide effort to sanctify the right to carry weapons, concealed or openly, in public places. A majority of states now permit open carrysome of them even in bars, stadiums, and day-care centersand some impose onerous requirements on stores, restaurants, and other businesses that seek to ban guns from their premises. Rates of gun deaths vary, too; they are about six times higher in Alaska and Louisianastates with very lax gun lawsthan they are in New York. Kavanaugh, for his part, has written that public safety should not be a determining factoronly text, history, and tradition really matter. With that view, he exceeds what had, until recently, been the gun lobbys wildest hopes. Meanwhile, the movement to pass stricter gun laws has been gathering strength. A recent Gallup poll found that more than sixty per cent of Americans are in favor of them. There is a growing revulsion at a state of affairs that has made lockdown drills a rite of passage for kindergartnersnot least from schoolchildren themselves, who, as the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, have shown, can be powerful advocates for saner laws. Candidates who support gun control won significant victories in the midterm elections, some of themsuch as Representatives Lucy McBath, of Georgia, and Jason Crow, of Coloradoin red and purple states. According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, forty members of Congress who had been regarded as N.R.A. stalwarts lost their seats. That political will is set to collide with the ideological priorities of the Courts conservatives. The larger conflict will play out in the 2020 campaign, as voters decide whether Donald Trump will get to appoint even more judges who share an expansive view of gun rights. In 2011, Kavanaugh wrote that, after Heller, D.C. seemed not to heed the Supreme Courts message. The echo of that language in the plaintiffs portrayal of New York is probably not accidental; gun-rights advocates have been waiting for Kavanaugh, or someone like him. Their brief was submitted on the day his confirmation hearings began. | The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case challenging a New York City gun regulation. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/04/will-the-supreme-court-use-a-new-york-city-regulation-to-strike-down-gun-laws | 0.247871 |
Will the Supreme Court Use a New York City Regulation to Strike Down Gun Laws? | New York City is a strange and dangerous place, if the plaintiffs in a gun-control case that the Supreme Court has just agreed to hear are to be believed. The suit, which calls the citys restrictions on transporting handguns through its streets bizarre, irrational, and perverse, was brought by the New York State Rifle & Pistol Associationthe state affiliate of the National Rifle Associationalong with two gun owners who live in the Bronx and one from Staten Island. The case is notable for reasons that go beyond its caricature of the city and its mores. To begin with, this will be the first time the Court seriously considers the Second Amendment since it adopted a radical view of gun rights in District of Columbia v. Heller, in 2008, which overturned a near-ban on handguns in Washington, D.C., and in McDonald v. the City of Chicago, in 2010, which did away with similar restrictions in that city. Those decisions were transformational, the plaintiffs argue, but the news has not yet reached New York City. It will also be the first opportunity for the Courts newest member, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, to begin building what promises to be a disastrous pro-gun legacy. Heller, a 54 decision written by Justice Antonin Scalia, upended the way that generations of judges had read the Second Amendment, by recognizing a fundamental, individual right to bear arms, unconnected to a well-regulated militia. McDonald then confirmed that Heller could be used to overturn state and local gun laws, as well as federal legislation. Still, both decisions leave room for some basic, long-standing restrictions on guns, such as those that prevent violent felons from buying them. Kavanaugh, though, in the wake of Heller, appears ready to toss out as many restrictions as he can. As an appeals-court judge, he wrote, in a 2011 dissent, that the District of Columbia should not be allowed to ban semi-automatic assault rifles, largely because they were in common use. He added that asking people to register their guns is unconstitutional. The New York case has certain elements in common with Heller: it is a challenge to a municipal regulation which has the potential to loosen laws around the country. The very strictness of the regulation may have made it an appealing target. It is possible, but difficult, to get a license to carry a handgun in New York. An alternative is a premises license, which allows an owner to have a handgun in his or her home but also, under a city regulation that has been in force since 2001, requires that owner to keep it at home. With a few narrow exceptions, owners can only take their guns out of the house, unloaded and in a locked case, to go to a shooting range in the city which has certification from the N.Y.P.D. There are seven such ranges, with at least one in each of the five boroughs. The plaintiffs want to be able to take their guns to second homes or to shooting ranges out of town. They take the view that preventing them from travelling through the streets with their guns actually increases the risk to public safety, in part by forcing them to leave their weapons in their vacant New York residences, where anything could happen. One brief suggested that the city might be underestimating its burglars. (Crime rates in New York have, in fact, gone down dramatically in recent decades; the number of shootings is the lowest it has been in twenty-five years.) The plaintiffs also claim that being asked to travel without their guns is akin to being forbidden to travel at allas though a person were not constitutionally whole without a gun. To them, the restriction is as profound a violation of rights as a prohibition on leaving city limits to get an abortion. An overriding issue at stake, then, is whether the Court will decide that the right to bear arms is tantamount to a broad right to travel with them. (Justice Clarence Thomas has said, with regard to an earlier case, that he emphatically believes it is.) Gun regulations now vary widely among the states; the strictest of them may eventually be forced to conform to the loosest. A far greater risk to public safety than leaving handguns in empty apartments is the nationwide effort to sanctify the right to carry weapons, concealed or openly, in public places. A majority of states now permit open carrysome of them even in bars, stadiums, and day-care centersand some impose onerous requirements on stores, restaurants, and other businesses that seek to ban guns from their premises. Rates of gun deaths vary, too; they are about six times higher in Alaska and Louisianastates with very lax gun lawsthan they are in New York. Kavanaugh, for his part, has written that public safety should not be a determining factoronly text, history, and tradition really matter. With that view, he exceeds what had, until recently, been the gun lobbys wildest hopes. Meanwhile, the movement to pass stricter gun laws has been gathering strength. A recent Gallup poll found that more than sixty per cent of Americans are in favor of them. There is a growing revulsion at a state of affairs that has made lockdown drills a rite of passage for kindergartnersnot least from schoolchildren themselves, who, as the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, have shown, can be powerful advocates for saner laws. Candidates who support gun control won significant victories in the midterm elections, some of themsuch as Representatives Lucy McBath, of Georgia, and Jason Crow, of Coloradoin red and purple states. According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, forty members of Congress who had been regarded as N.R.A. stalwarts lost their seats. That political will is set to collide with the ideological priorities of the Courts conservatives. The larger conflict will play out in the 2020 campaign, as voters decide whether Donald Trump will get to appoint even more judges who share an expansive view of gun rights. In 2011, Kavanaugh wrote that, after Heller, D.C. seemed not to heed the Supreme Courts message. The echo of that language in the plaintiffs portrayal of New York is probably not accidental; gun-rights advocates have been waiting for Kavanaugh, or someone like him. Their brief was submitted on the day his confirmation hearings began. | The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case challenging a New York City regulation on carrying guns in the city. The case is notable for reasons that go beyond its caricature of the city and its mores. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/04/will-the-supreme-court-use-a-new-york-city-regulation-to-strike-down-gun-laws | 0.268011 |
Will the Supreme Court Use a New York City Regulation to Strike Down Gun Laws? | New York City is a strange and dangerous place, if the plaintiffs in a gun-control case that the Supreme Court has just agreed to hear are to be believed. The suit, which calls the citys restrictions on transporting handguns through its streets bizarre, irrational, and perverse, was brought by the New York State Rifle & Pistol Associationthe state affiliate of the National Rifle Associationalong with two gun owners who live in the Bronx and one from Staten Island. The case is notable for reasons that go beyond its caricature of the city and its mores. To begin with, this will be the first time the Court seriously considers the Second Amendment since it adopted a radical view of gun rights in District of Columbia v. Heller, in 2008, which overturned a near-ban on handguns in Washington, D.C., and in McDonald v. the City of Chicago, in 2010, which did away with similar restrictions in that city. Those decisions were transformational, the plaintiffs argue, but the news has not yet reached New York City. It will also be the first opportunity for the Courts newest member, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, to begin building what promises to be a disastrous pro-gun legacy. Heller, a 54 decision written by Justice Antonin Scalia, upended the way that generations of judges had read the Second Amendment, by recognizing a fundamental, individual right to bear arms, unconnected to a well-regulated militia. McDonald then confirmed that Heller could be used to overturn state and local gun laws, as well as federal legislation. Still, both decisions leave room for some basic, long-standing restrictions on guns, such as those that prevent violent felons from buying them. Kavanaugh, though, in the wake of Heller, appears ready to toss out as many restrictions as he can. As an appeals-court judge, he wrote, in a 2011 dissent, that the District of Columbia should not be allowed to ban semi-automatic assault rifles, largely because they were in common use. He added that asking people to register their guns is unconstitutional. The New York case has certain elements in common with Heller: it is a challenge to a municipal regulation which has the potential to loosen laws around the country. The very strictness of the regulation may have made it an appealing target. It is possible, but difficult, to get a license to carry a handgun in New York. An alternative is a premises license, which allows an owner to have a handgun in his or her home but also, under a city regulation that has been in force since 2001, requires that owner to keep it at home. With a few narrow exceptions, owners can only take their guns out of the house, unloaded and in a locked case, to go to a shooting range in the city which has certification from the N.Y.P.D. There are seven such ranges, with at least one in each of the five boroughs. The plaintiffs want to be able to take their guns to second homes or to shooting ranges out of town. They take the view that preventing them from travelling through the streets with their guns actually increases the risk to public safety, in part by forcing them to leave their weapons in their vacant New York residences, where anything could happen. One brief suggested that the city might be underestimating its burglars. (Crime rates in New York have, in fact, gone down dramatically in recent decades; the number of shootings is the lowest it has been in twenty-five years.) The plaintiffs also claim that being asked to travel without their guns is akin to being forbidden to travel at allas though a person were not constitutionally whole without a gun. To them, the restriction is as profound a violation of rights as a prohibition on leaving city limits to get an abortion. An overriding issue at stake, then, is whether the Court will decide that the right to bear arms is tantamount to a broad right to travel with them. (Justice Clarence Thomas has said, with regard to an earlier case, that he emphatically believes it is.) Gun regulations now vary widely among the states; the strictest of them may eventually be forced to conform to the loosest. A far greater risk to public safety than leaving handguns in empty apartments is the nationwide effort to sanctify the right to carry weapons, concealed or openly, in public places. A majority of states now permit open carrysome of them even in bars, stadiums, and day-care centersand some impose onerous requirements on stores, restaurants, and other businesses that seek to ban guns from their premises. Rates of gun deaths vary, too; they are about six times higher in Alaska and Louisianastates with very lax gun lawsthan they are in New York. Kavanaugh, for his part, has written that public safety should not be a determining factoronly text, history, and tradition really matter. With that view, he exceeds what had, until recently, been the gun lobbys wildest hopes. Meanwhile, the movement to pass stricter gun laws has been gathering strength. A recent Gallup poll found that more than sixty per cent of Americans are in favor of them. There is a growing revulsion at a state of affairs that has made lockdown drills a rite of passage for kindergartnersnot least from schoolchildren themselves, who, as the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, have shown, can be powerful advocates for saner laws. Candidates who support gun control won significant victories in the midterm elections, some of themsuch as Representatives Lucy McBath, of Georgia, and Jason Crow, of Coloradoin red and purple states. According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, forty members of Congress who had been regarded as N.R.A. stalwarts lost their seats. That political will is set to collide with the ideological priorities of the Courts conservatives. The larger conflict will play out in the 2020 campaign, as voters decide whether Donald Trump will get to appoint even more judges who share an expansive view of gun rights. In 2011, Kavanaugh wrote that, after Heller, D.C. seemed not to heed the Supreme Courts message. The echo of that language in the plaintiffs portrayal of New York is probably not accidental; gun-rights advocates have been waiting for Kavanaugh, or someone like him. Their brief was submitted on the day his confirmation hearings began. | The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a gun-control case involving New York City. The case is notable for reasons that go beyond its caricature of the city and its mores. It will be the first time the Court seriously considers the Second Amendment since it adopted a radical view of gun rights. | bart | 2 | https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/04/will-the-supreme-court-use-a-new-york-city-regulation-to-strike-down-gun-laws | 0.258177 |
Will the 35-day shutdown lead to privatizing government functions? | For one ideological constituency, the government shutdown may hold the seeds to privatizing functions such as air traffic control and airport security The US government is open again. For now. For many liberals, it will read as the spoils of Nancy Pelosis finest hour and proof of her superior bargaining acumen. For disappointed conservatives pundits, evidence that Trump is a proper wimp in his act of capitulation. End of shutdown: workers left with debts, bad credit and shattered trust Read more Beyond the beltway politicking, for about 800,000 federal workers who were either furloughed or working without pay it means the return of their currently absent paychecks and at least temporary relief to a stark financial hardship. But for one ideological constituency, the 35-day partial government shutdown the longest in US history may hold the seeds to a much bigger and longer-term picture: a radical contraction of the US federal government by privatizing government functions such as air traffic control and airport security. The Democrats have basically just started a new conversation on the political right about how to privatize the heck out of all of that, said Raheem Kassam, a fellow at the Claremont Institute, a conservative thinktank. Sign up for the US morning briefing The final day of the shutdown featured profound air traffic delays at three major east coast airports due to a lack of air traffic controllers on duty. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, staffing levels reached a 30-year low as controllers, who were being asked to work without pay, called in sick or otherwise did not show for work. And while many focused on which political party would take the blame for the travel debacle, and the prospect of decreased safety in air travel, some are saying it is a good time to re-examine the entire system. Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, noted that, largely due to the threat of shutdowns, the air traffic controllers own union has come down in favor of privatization as Canada did with its controllers in 1996 and as is the case in most of Europe. They pointed to the fact that there are these budget disruptions that are damaging to them and their profession, and that air traffic control technology upgrading has become imperiled by this dysfunction, Edwards said. Staffing shortages with the Transportation Security Administration, another federally staffed agency, also hamstrung air travelers with long security checkpoint wait times in some airports, including Atlantas Hartsfield-Jackson. Many nations including Canada and most of Europe have privatized these functions as well. Most government services affected by the shutdown from tax collection to food inspection, air monitoring and even the federal court system couldnt be decoupled from government administration as easily as air traffic or security. Still, what these small government proponents want is to use the shutdown as a point to stop and reconsider which services belong where. The real conclusion to draw from this is: which of these are truly inherent, governmental functions, and which of these could we take out of the hands of what is ultimately a hyper-partisan process now, said Romina Boccia, a federal budget expert at the Heritage Center. These views on the excessive scope of federal government are hardly new in the libertarian wing of American conservatism, and have rarely gained enough traction from Republican lawmakers to drive any significant scale-back. Behind the scenes in the White House, theres a current of opinion some key, right-leaning hardliners in Trumps shrinking inner circle, especially adviser Stephen Miller and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, were egging the president on over the shutdown because theyre small government zealots. Boccia and Edwards both said they hoped the fallout from the shutdown might move the notion into the mainstream political conversation, but shared the concern that more likely, Americans would focus on the political theater of who won and who lost than on structural questions like these. I dont know the answer, said Edwards. I do know that there are going to be more of these disruptions in the future. Food banks helped keep federal workers fed through the shutdown Read more Both faulted the Republicans, and especially the far-right Freedom Caucus, for failing to raise any of these questions during the shutdown debate. The Freedom Caucus, an outgrowth of the 2010 Tea Party movement, had been a loud voice for shrinking government size and spending under Barack Obamas presidency, but has been less outspoken in the Trump era. The fiscal hawks basically flew away the moment President Trump was elected, said Boccia. It makes you question if the Republicans were ever fiscal conservatives to begin with, or if it wasnt just the position they took during the Obama administration when they couldnt have much impact besides being in opposition to what the Democrats were doing. Edwards hopes that some of the quirkier facts of the shutdown will also get people to reconsider some of the regulatory roles the government performs and was forced to abdicate for the past month. He pointed to the fact that a regulation which requires federal government approval on all beer labels left microbrewers unable to tag and sell their small batch offerings. Theres regulatory things that the government does that its micromanagement - and its not really necessary, Edwards said. | The 35-day partial government shutdown may hold the seeds to a radical contraction of the US federal government by privatizing government functions such as air traffic control and airport security. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/27/shutdown-government-functions-will-they-be-privatized | 0.565744 |
Will the 35-day shutdown lead to privatizing government functions? | For one ideological constituency, the government shutdown may hold the seeds to privatizing functions such as air traffic control and airport security The US government is open again. For now. For many liberals, it will read as the spoils of Nancy Pelosis finest hour and proof of her superior bargaining acumen. For disappointed conservatives pundits, evidence that Trump is a proper wimp in his act of capitulation. End of shutdown: workers left with debts, bad credit and shattered trust Read more Beyond the beltway politicking, for about 800,000 federal workers who were either furloughed or working without pay it means the return of their currently absent paychecks and at least temporary relief to a stark financial hardship. But for one ideological constituency, the 35-day partial government shutdown the longest in US history may hold the seeds to a much bigger and longer-term picture: a radical contraction of the US federal government by privatizing government functions such as air traffic control and airport security. The Democrats have basically just started a new conversation on the political right about how to privatize the heck out of all of that, said Raheem Kassam, a fellow at the Claremont Institute, a conservative thinktank. Sign up for the US morning briefing The final day of the shutdown featured profound air traffic delays at three major east coast airports due to a lack of air traffic controllers on duty. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, staffing levels reached a 30-year low as controllers, who were being asked to work without pay, called in sick or otherwise did not show for work. And while many focused on which political party would take the blame for the travel debacle, and the prospect of decreased safety in air travel, some are saying it is a good time to re-examine the entire system. Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, noted that, largely due to the threat of shutdowns, the air traffic controllers own union has come down in favor of privatization as Canada did with its controllers in 1996 and as is the case in most of Europe. They pointed to the fact that there are these budget disruptions that are damaging to them and their profession, and that air traffic control technology upgrading has become imperiled by this dysfunction, Edwards said. Staffing shortages with the Transportation Security Administration, another federally staffed agency, also hamstrung air travelers with long security checkpoint wait times in some airports, including Atlantas Hartsfield-Jackson. Many nations including Canada and most of Europe have privatized these functions as well. Most government services affected by the shutdown from tax collection to food inspection, air monitoring and even the federal court system couldnt be decoupled from government administration as easily as air traffic or security. Still, what these small government proponents want is to use the shutdown as a point to stop and reconsider which services belong where. The real conclusion to draw from this is: which of these are truly inherent, governmental functions, and which of these could we take out of the hands of what is ultimately a hyper-partisan process now, said Romina Boccia, a federal budget expert at the Heritage Center. These views on the excessive scope of federal government are hardly new in the libertarian wing of American conservatism, and have rarely gained enough traction from Republican lawmakers to drive any significant scale-back. Behind the scenes in the White House, theres a current of opinion some key, right-leaning hardliners in Trumps shrinking inner circle, especially adviser Stephen Miller and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, were egging the president on over the shutdown because theyre small government zealots. Boccia and Edwards both said they hoped the fallout from the shutdown might move the notion into the mainstream political conversation, but shared the concern that more likely, Americans would focus on the political theater of who won and who lost than on structural questions like these. I dont know the answer, said Edwards. I do know that there are going to be more of these disruptions in the future. Food banks helped keep federal workers fed through the shutdown Read more Both faulted the Republicans, and especially the far-right Freedom Caucus, for failing to raise any of these questions during the shutdown debate. The Freedom Caucus, an outgrowth of the 2010 Tea Party movement, had been a loud voice for shrinking government size and spending under Barack Obamas presidency, but has been less outspoken in the Trump era. The fiscal hawks basically flew away the moment President Trump was elected, said Boccia. It makes you question if the Republicans were ever fiscal conservatives to begin with, or if it wasnt just the position they took during the Obama administration when they couldnt have much impact besides being in opposition to what the Democrats were doing. Edwards hopes that some of the quirkier facts of the shutdown will also get people to reconsider some of the regulatory roles the government performs and was forced to abdicate for the past month. He pointed to the fact that a regulation which requires federal government approval on all beer labels left microbrewers unable to tag and sell their small batch offerings. Theres regulatory things that the government does that its micromanagement - and its not really necessary, Edwards said. | The 35-day partial government shutdown may hold the seeds to a radical contraction of the US federal government by privatizing government functions such as air traffic control and airport security. Many nations including Canada and most of Europe have privatized these functions as well. The US government is open again. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/27/shutdown-government-functions-will-they-be-privatized | 0.624981 |
Did Chinas Wealthy Elite Secretly Move Capital Offshore via Hong Kongs Gemstones? | Theres attention being drawn to an anomaly in Chinas trade data. Compared to imports of precious gemstones from Hong Kong, it could point to Chinas wealthy overpaying for said imports. A method of moving capital out of the country that bypasses Chinas capital controls. The first trigger is an increase in Chinas capital outflow at the end of 2018. It correlates with both a devaluation of the Chinese yuan and an increase in the value of imports from Hong Kong. As noted by ZeroHedge and reported by the Financial Times, citing RBS strategist Elsa Lignos, there has been a recent rise in imports to China of precious stones from Hong Kong. That rise constitutes 53% of Chinas total imports from Hong Kong. A figure that was just 2.9% in February 2018. Read the full story on CCN.com. | An anomaly in China's trade data could point to China's wealthy overpaying for precious gemstones from Hong Kong, it could also point to a method of moving capital out of the country. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/did-china-wealthy-elite-secretly-130207937.html | 0.19846 |
Did Chinas Wealthy Elite Secretly Move Capital Offshore via Hong Kongs Gemstones? | Theres attention being drawn to an anomaly in Chinas trade data. Compared to imports of precious gemstones from Hong Kong, it could point to Chinas wealthy overpaying for said imports. A method of moving capital out of the country that bypasses Chinas capital controls. The first trigger is an increase in Chinas capital outflow at the end of 2018. It correlates with both a devaluation of the Chinese yuan and an increase in the value of imports from Hong Kong. As noted by ZeroHedge and reported by the Financial Times, citing RBS strategist Elsa Lignos, there has been a recent rise in imports to China of precious stones from Hong Kong. That rise constitutes 53% of Chinas total imports from Hong Kong. A figure that was just 2.9% in February 2018. Read the full story on CCN.com. | An anomaly in China's trade data could point to China's wealthy overpaying for precious gemstones from Hong Kong, it could also point to a method of moving capital out of the country that bypasses China's capital controls. The rise in imports to China of precious stones from Hong Hong constitutes 53% of Chinas total imports of Hong Kong. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/did-china-wealthy-elite-secretly-130207937.html | 0.338857 |
Does illegal immigration cost the U.S. more than $200 billion a year, as Trump claims? | CLOSE President Donald Trump said on Twitter that illegal immigration costs the United States at least $200 billion. William Flannigan and Annalee Monroe, Arizona Republic MEDIA: Web WHO SAID IT: President Donald Trump PARTY: Republican THE COMMENTS: 1. "Could somebody please explain to the Democrats (we need their votes) that our Country losses (sic) 250 Billion Dollars a year on illegal immigration, not including the terrible drug flow. Top Border Security, including a Wall is $25 Billion. Pays for itself in two months. Get it done!" 2. "Illegal immigration costs the United States more than 200 Billion Dollars a year. How was this allowed to happen?" OUR FINDING: No Stars, False. ANALYSIS: President Donald Trump has used several estimates about the cost of illegal immigration in the past few months as he seeks to garner support from Congress to build a wall on the southern border. The government shutdown centers around the issue. Throughout December, he made multiple claims on social media and to reporters about the cost of illegal immigration, ranging from $200 billion to $275 billion. In addition to the tweets made on Dec. 4 and Dec. 18, he said at a cabinet meeting on Dec. 19, "It's so insignificant compared to what we're talking about. You know, I've heard numbers as high as $275 billion we lose on illegal immigration." He repeated the number on Dec. 20 at a signing ceremony. "Illegal immigration costs our nation $275 billion a year. You hear many different numbers. You can say, 'billions and billions,' but the number that I hear most accurate is $275 billion a year at least." No backing for the numbers Neither Trump nor the White House has cited a source for the data about illegal immigration costs. His numbers are more than twice as high as the closest published estimate, which was made by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a conservative research organization that advocates for less immigration, both legal and illegal. The group's report, published in 2017, estimated the cost was $135 billion a year. In June, AZ Fact Check found significant limitations to the FAIR report in an examination of a separate claim on the cost of illegal immigration. Immigration researchers have also criticized the study's methodology. A critique by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, called the study "fatally flawed." Nonetheless, the report did not necessarily serve as Trump's source for the figures. Even FAIR appeared to be unaware of the research behind the $200 billion-plus costs. "I'm not sure where the president got his numbers," Dave Ray, communications director of FAIR, told the Associated Press. Immigration analysts scratch heads Other right-leaning research organizations also have not made estimates as high as those cited by Trump. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative research organization, released a report in 2013 about the costs of illegal immigration. The study found there were 3.7 million undocumented households and the costs were an estimated $54.5 billion per year five times less than Trump's estimate. And the critique by the Cato Institute in 2017 gave an even lower number, with costs estimated at between $3.3 billion to $15.6 billion annually. A range of immigration experts have said Trump's costs are exaggerated. NBC News asked a myriad of analysts about his numbers. "The $200 billion figure does seems inflated to me," said Randy Capps, director for research for U.S programs at the independent think tank Migration Policy Institute told NBC News. "It sounds extraordinarily high to me," Meg Wiehe, deputy director at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy told NBC. Some say the costs are difficult to extrapolate. Overall data on the undocumented population in the U.S. is limited, according to researchers. "It's really hard to calculate anyone's 'net cost' or 'net benefit," David Dyssegaard Kallick, the deputy director of the economic think tank Fiscal Policy Institute also told NBC. "We all use all kinds of services, from roads to military protection. How do we apportion what part of that is something I or you or an immigrant use?" When asked about the $200-billion plus cost Trump used however, Kallick said the figure was, "Frankly absurd." BOTTOM LINE: The Trump administration has not provided any sources for the claim of a $200-plus billion cost for illegal immigration. No public report supports the figure and existing studies even those with questionable methodology show costs are significantly lower. Not nearly as much as Trump claims," NBC News, Dec. 2018; "The Fiscal Cost of Unlawful Immigrants and Amnesty to the U.S. Taxpayer," The Heritage Foundation, May 2013; "The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers," Federation for American Immigration Reform, Sept. 2017; "FAIR's 'Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration' Study Is Fatally Flawed," CATO Institute, Sept. 2017. Click here to subscribe to azcentral.com. Go to connect.azcentral.com for a staff list, for more information about the newsroom and for details about upcoming events. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/fact-check/2019/01/27/donald-trump-how-much-does-illegal-immigration-cost-united-states/2540512002/ | President Donald Trump said on Twitter that illegal immigration costs the U.S. at least $200 billion. | bart | 0 | https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/fact-check/2019/01/27/donald-trump-how-much-does-illegal-immigration-cost-united-states/2540512002/ | 0.288392 |
Does illegal immigration cost the U.S. more than $200 billion a year, as Trump claims? | CLOSE President Donald Trump said on Twitter that illegal immigration costs the United States at least $200 billion. William Flannigan and Annalee Monroe, Arizona Republic MEDIA: Web WHO SAID IT: President Donald Trump PARTY: Republican THE COMMENTS: 1. "Could somebody please explain to the Democrats (we need their votes) that our Country losses (sic) 250 Billion Dollars a year on illegal immigration, not including the terrible drug flow. Top Border Security, including a Wall is $25 Billion. Pays for itself in two months. Get it done!" 2. "Illegal immigration costs the United States more than 200 Billion Dollars a year. How was this allowed to happen?" OUR FINDING: No Stars, False. ANALYSIS: President Donald Trump has used several estimates about the cost of illegal immigration in the past few months as he seeks to garner support from Congress to build a wall on the southern border. The government shutdown centers around the issue. Throughout December, he made multiple claims on social media and to reporters about the cost of illegal immigration, ranging from $200 billion to $275 billion. In addition to the tweets made on Dec. 4 and Dec. 18, he said at a cabinet meeting on Dec. 19, "It's so insignificant compared to what we're talking about. You know, I've heard numbers as high as $275 billion we lose on illegal immigration." He repeated the number on Dec. 20 at a signing ceremony. "Illegal immigration costs our nation $275 billion a year. You hear many different numbers. You can say, 'billions and billions,' but the number that I hear most accurate is $275 billion a year at least." No backing for the numbers Neither Trump nor the White House has cited a source for the data about illegal immigration costs. His numbers are more than twice as high as the closest published estimate, which was made by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a conservative research organization that advocates for less immigration, both legal and illegal. The group's report, published in 2017, estimated the cost was $135 billion a year. In June, AZ Fact Check found significant limitations to the FAIR report in an examination of a separate claim on the cost of illegal immigration. Immigration researchers have also criticized the study's methodology. A critique by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, called the study "fatally flawed." Nonetheless, the report did not necessarily serve as Trump's source for the figures. Even FAIR appeared to be unaware of the research behind the $200 billion-plus costs. "I'm not sure where the president got his numbers," Dave Ray, communications director of FAIR, told the Associated Press. Immigration analysts scratch heads Other right-leaning research organizations also have not made estimates as high as those cited by Trump. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative research organization, released a report in 2013 about the costs of illegal immigration. The study found there were 3.7 million undocumented households and the costs were an estimated $54.5 billion per year five times less than Trump's estimate. And the critique by the Cato Institute in 2017 gave an even lower number, with costs estimated at between $3.3 billion to $15.6 billion annually. A range of immigration experts have said Trump's costs are exaggerated. NBC News asked a myriad of analysts about his numbers. "The $200 billion figure does seems inflated to me," said Randy Capps, director for research for U.S programs at the independent think tank Migration Policy Institute told NBC News. "It sounds extraordinarily high to me," Meg Wiehe, deputy director at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy told NBC. Some say the costs are difficult to extrapolate. Overall data on the undocumented population in the U.S. is limited, according to researchers. "It's really hard to calculate anyone's 'net cost' or 'net benefit," David Dyssegaard Kallick, the deputy director of the economic think tank Fiscal Policy Institute also told NBC. "We all use all kinds of services, from roads to military protection. How do we apportion what part of that is something I or you or an immigrant use?" When asked about the $200-billion plus cost Trump used however, Kallick said the figure was, "Frankly absurd." BOTTOM LINE: The Trump administration has not provided any sources for the claim of a $200-plus billion cost for illegal immigration. No public report supports the figure and existing studies even those with questionable methodology show costs are significantly lower. Not nearly as much as Trump claims," NBC News, Dec. 2018; "The Fiscal Cost of Unlawful Immigrants and Amnesty to the U.S. Taxpayer," The Heritage Foundation, May 2013; "The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers," Federation for American Immigration Reform, Sept. 2017; "FAIR's 'Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration' Study Is Fatally Flawed," CATO Institute, Sept. 2017. Click here to subscribe to azcentral.com. Go to connect.azcentral.com for a staff list, for more information about the newsroom and for details about upcoming events. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/fact-check/2019/01/27/donald-trump-how-much-does-illegal-immigration-cost-united-states/2540512002/ | President Donald Trump said on Twitter that illegal immigration costs the United States at least $200 billion. He has used several estimates about the cost of illegal immigration in the past few months. | pegasus | 1 | https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/fact-check/2019/01/27/donald-trump-how-much-does-illegal-immigration-cost-united-states/2540512002/ | 0.400315 |
Does illegal immigration cost the U.S. more than $200 billion a year, as Trump claims? | CLOSE President Donald Trump said on Twitter that illegal immigration costs the United States at least $200 billion. William Flannigan and Annalee Monroe, Arizona Republic MEDIA: Web WHO SAID IT: President Donald Trump PARTY: Republican THE COMMENTS: 1. "Could somebody please explain to the Democrats (we need their votes) that our Country losses (sic) 250 Billion Dollars a year on illegal immigration, not including the terrible drug flow. Top Border Security, including a Wall is $25 Billion. Pays for itself in two months. Get it done!" 2. "Illegal immigration costs the United States more than 200 Billion Dollars a year. How was this allowed to happen?" OUR FINDING: No Stars, False. ANALYSIS: President Donald Trump has used several estimates about the cost of illegal immigration in the past few months as he seeks to garner support from Congress to build a wall on the southern border. The government shutdown centers around the issue. Throughout December, he made multiple claims on social media and to reporters about the cost of illegal immigration, ranging from $200 billion to $275 billion. In addition to the tweets made on Dec. 4 and Dec. 18, he said at a cabinet meeting on Dec. 19, "It's so insignificant compared to what we're talking about. You know, I've heard numbers as high as $275 billion we lose on illegal immigration." He repeated the number on Dec. 20 at a signing ceremony. "Illegal immigration costs our nation $275 billion a year. You hear many different numbers. You can say, 'billions and billions,' but the number that I hear most accurate is $275 billion a year at least." No backing for the numbers Neither Trump nor the White House has cited a source for the data about illegal immigration costs. His numbers are more than twice as high as the closest published estimate, which was made by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a conservative research organization that advocates for less immigration, both legal and illegal. The group's report, published in 2017, estimated the cost was $135 billion a year. In June, AZ Fact Check found significant limitations to the FAIR report in an examination of a separate claim on the cost of illegal immigration. Immigration researchers have also criticized the study's methodology. A critique by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, called the study "fatally flawed." Nonetheless, the report did not necessarily serve as Trump's source for the figures. Even FAIR appeared to be unaware of the research behind the $200 billion-plus costs. "I'm not sure where the president got his numbers," Dave Ray, communications director of FAIR, told the Associated Press. Immigration analysts scratch heads Other right-leaning research organizations also have not made estimates as high as those cited by Trump. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative research organization, released a report in 2013 about the costs of illegal immigration. The study found there were 3.7 million undocumented households and the costs were an estimated $54.5 billion per year five times less than Trump's estimate. And the critique by the Cato Institute in 2017 gave an even lower number, with costs estimated at between $3.3 billion to $15.6 billion annually. A range of immigration experts have said Trump's costs are exaggerated. NBC News asked a myriad of analysts about his numbers. "The $200 billion figure does seems inflated to me," said Randy Capps, director for research for U.S programs at the independent think tank Migration Policy Institute told NBC News. "It sounds extraordinarily high to me," Meg Wiehe, deputy director at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy told NBC. Some say the costs are difficult to extrapolate. Overall data on the undocumented population in the U.S. is limited, according to researchers. "It's really hard to calculate anyone's 'net cost' or 'net benefit," David Dyssegaard Kallick, the deputy director of the economic think tank Fiscal Policy Institute also told NBC. "We all use all kinds of services, from roads to military protection. How do we apportion what part of that is something I or you or an immigrant use?" When asked about the $200-billion plus cost Trump used however, Kallick said the figure was, "Frankly absurd." BOTTOM LINE: The Trump administration has not provided any sources for the claim of a $200-plus billion cost for illegal immigration. No public report supports the figure and existing studies even those with questionable methodology show costs are significantly lower. Not nearly as much as Trump claims," NBC News, Dec. 2018; "The Fiscal Cost of Unlawful Immigrants and Amnesty to the U.S. Taxpayer," The Heritage Foundation, May 2013; "The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers," Federation for American Immigration Reform, Sept. 2017; "FAIR's 'Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration' Study Is Fatally Flawed," CATO Institute, Sept. 2017. Click here to subscribe to azcentral.com. Go to connect.azcentral.com for a staff list, for more information about the newsroom and for details about upcoming events. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/fact-check/2019/01/27/donald-trump-how-much-does-illegal-immigration-cost-united-states/2540512002/ | President Donald Trump said on Twitter that illegal immigration costs the United States at least $200 billion. He has used several estimates about the cost of illegal immigration in the past few months. Neither Trump nor the White House has cited a source for the data about illegal immigration costs. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/fact-check/2019/01/27/donald-trump-how-much-does-illegal-immigration-cost-united-states/2540512002/ | 0.46261 |
Is First Solar a Buy? | It was an ugly year for solar stocks in 2018. The Ardour Solar Energy Index, which tracks a dozen of the biggest global solar companies, fell almost 44% on the year, while the Invesco Solar ETF, a fund that owns a more diversified collection of solar companies, fell 26% last year, and lost more than 31% of its value from the peak in early summer. No segment of the solar industry was harder hit than solar cell and module makers. Of the half-dozen biggest "pure-play" solar cell and panel makers, five saw their stock prices fall more than 45% from their 2018 peaks, including First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR), with a 45.5% drop from the peak in May, making it one of the better -- or maybe least worst -- performing solar panel stocks last year. Arial view of solar panel farm. More Image source: Getty Images. The short answer is yes, I think it is. But the slightly longer answer depends on how long you're willing to buy and hold your shares. If 2018 should have taught us anything about investing in solar panel makers, it's that things we can't reliably predict can change the short-term picture very quickly. Here's what happened for First Solar in 2018 What a crazy year we just ended. At the start of 2018, First Solar's stock has just rode a huge 110% gain in 2017 on the back of an incredibly successful year as customers lined up to order massive quantities of panels ahead of 2018's tariffs. And while its thin-film panels were excluded from the tariffs placed on silicon panels, this led to many investors baking in incredibly high expectations for the company's prospects for 2018 without considering the potential ramifications of 2017's orders taking a big bite out of order demand for 2018. Furthermore, almost nobody expected China to drop another massive hammer on the solar industry following the implementation of U.S. tariffs. But that's exactly what happened in June, when the country cut domestic incentives for both distributed (rooftop) solar and for utility-scale. | First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) was one of the worst performing solar panel stocks in 2018. The company's stock fell 45.5% from its 2018 peak in May. First Solar is still a good investment, but it's not a sure thing for the long term. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/first-solar-buy-140200006.html | 0.119646 |
Who Is Roger Stone? | MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Now we're going to take a few minutes to talk about Roger Stone. Now, you might have heard the name because he's had a long career in and around politics. And many, including possibly even himself, might argue he's spent his career on the dirtiest side of politics. To tell us more about him, we decided to call someone who has spent quite a bit of time learning about him. Morgan Pehme is a journalist and one of the directors of the Netflix documentary, "Get Me Roger Stone." And he's with us now from our bureau in New York. Morgan Pehme, thanks so much for joining us. MORGAN PEHME: Thank you, Michel. MARTIN: So he came to notoriety early. As early as the 1970s, he was on Nixon's Committee to re-elect the president. He became the youngest person to testify to the Watergate grand jury. And later, he became associated with lobbying for some of the world's most notorious dictators. PEHME: Well, Roger is a practitioner of the dark arts of politics. If you want something done that is unscrupulous or unseemly, Roger is your man. And he is enormously adept at being a dirty trickster, and he has successfully pulled off dirty tricks for a number of people who have wound up in the White House. MARTIN: So let me play a clip from the documentary where journalists, the people working on the film, asked him how he feels about being called a dirty trickster. Let's listen. (SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "GET ME ROGER STONE") PEHME: Well, I'm stuck with it now. It's going to be in the first paragraph of my New York Times obit, so I might as well go with the flow. The only thing I can think of worse than being talked about is not being talked about. MARTIN: So he is a dirty trickster. PEHME: Yes, he is - and proud of it. Roger is only too happy to play the villain and to bask in the glory of his malevolence. And he seems to turn up again and again at every low light in American history throughout the time of his life. MARTIN: Well, as we know from the clip, he does like attention and seeks attention. And he's got this tattoo of Nixon's face on his back, which he's only too happy to show people. You know, he's known for his expensive clothes and things of that sort. Because whenever he gets into trouble, as he does from time to time, people say, well, he really isn't there. He wasn't that important. He didn't really do those things. PEHME: Well, he certainly is an important figure over the last several decades. He is oftentimes the person that people point the finger at when something nefarious is done in politics. Sometimes Roger is responsible for those deeds, and sometimes he's not. That being said, you know, there are a number of occasions that we detail in our film where Roger was deeply involved in history-shaping events. And certainly, in the case of Donald Trump, Roger was literally the first person to suggest to Trump to run for the presidency back in the mid-'80s. And then, meticulously, he spent the next 29 years bringing that vision to reality. And Roger was there every step of the way. And every 4 years, he would float this trial balloon of Trump running for the presidency, and he was roundly ridiculed for that. But it was Roger who ultimately got the last laugh. MARTIN: Speaking of the last laugh, you know, there are those who even now argue that journalists, mainstream journalists have not taken Donald Trump seriously enough. They saw him as kind of a buffoon and really didn't take seriously not just his potential impact but also the malevolence that he often brings to public discourse. PEHME: Well, Roger is such a colorful character as a bodybuilding, pot-smoking dandy swinger that it's easy to get lost in that veneer. But that veneer is a distraction from the real powerful and highly negative effect, in my opinion, that he's had on our politics. And I do think that Roger has been underestimated and misunderstood over the years, and that has been to the detriment of his opponents. And Roger has a profound understanding of the dark heart of the American public and how to speak to us in a way that will manipulate and move us to be in service of his agenda. And it was that insight that he lent to the Trump campaign. For instance, Roger and one of his campaign associates, Sam Nunberg, by most accounts seemed to have been the founders of this idea to build the wall - that it was a great campaign rhetorical tool for Trump to use. And it meshed with the idea of Trump being a builder. And apparently, Trump was at first reluctant to embrace that idea. He thought it sounded kind of stupid. But then when he floated it in a campaign rally, it was immediately embraced. So, you know, Roger understands that hate is a more powerful motivator than love. And he has used that approach to great effect. MARTIN: That's Morgan Pehme. He co-director the Netflix documentary "Get Me Roger Stone." Morgan Pehme, thanks so much for joining us. PEHME: Thank you, Michel. Copyright 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. | Morgan Pehme: Roger Stone is a practitioner of the dark arts of politics. He says Stone is enormously adept at being a dirty trickster. | bart | 0 | https://www.npr.org/2019/01/26/689063642/who-is-roger-stone?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=allthingsconsidered | 0.274146 |
Who Is Venezuela's Juan Guaid? | Enlarge this image toggle caption Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images In less than a month, Juan Guaid has risen from obscure, junior lawmaker to self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela and the most serious threat yet to the authoritarian government of Nicols Maduro. Guaid, who defied Maduro by taking the oath of office on Wednesday, claims to lead a transitional government that will call free elections and return Venezuela to democracy. The 35-year-old was immediately recognized as Venezuela's legitimate leader by the United States, Canada and most Latin American nations and received widespread support from European countries. In a speech Friday to cheering supporters at an outdoor plaza in Caracas, Guaid proclaimed: "We have awakened from the nightmare, brothers and sisters." Maduro, who has led Venezuela into food shortages, hyperinflation and political repression during six years in office, is refusing to budge. His ruling Socialist party controls nearly all government institutions. On Thursday, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lpez declared that the nation's powerful armed forces widely considered to be propping up the government recognize Maduro as Venezuela's true president. But at least for now, Guaid is breathing new life into an opposition movement that had been deeply demoralized by internal power struggles and government repression. "Thirty days ago, the opposition was demobilized and fractured with no leadership," said Michael Penfold, a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. "But that's not the case anymore. Guaid represents a sparkle of hope." "I think Guaid is delivering exactly what the opposition wanted at this point, which is a bold, risk-taking response," said Javier Corrales, a Venezuela expert and professor of political science at Amherst College. A youthful-looking industrial engineer, Guaid, got his start in politics by organizing student protests against the late Hugo Chvez, who ushered in Venezuela's socialist revolution two decades ago. In 2013, Chvez died of cancer and was succeeded by Maduro. As a member of the Popular Will party, Guaid in 2015 won a seat to the National Assembly Venezuela's legislature amid an opposition sweep of congressional elections. But that momentum quickly stalled. Anti-government demonstrations were crushed by security forces while an effort to remove Maduro through a recall election was vetoed by the government. The opposition's most charismatic leaders were arrested, forced into exile or stripped of their right to run for public office. Last year, Maduro won another six-year term in a presidential election widely considered a sham by international observers. Still, the opposition was determined to challenge Maduro's grip on power. It hatched an audacious plan to coincide with the start this month of what many view as Maduro's illegitimate second term. Guaid became its leader. Partly because more prominent politicians have been sidelined, the National Assembly in early January named Guaid as its president. Venezuela's constitution states that the head of the National Assembly takes over should the presidency become vacant, as the opposition claims it has under Maduro. After consulting with U.S. and Latin American officials, according to the Associated Press, the opposition organized nationwide street marches on Wednesday and held a make-shift outdoor ceremony where Guaid took the oath of office and launched his parallel government. In what amounted to his inaugural speech, Guaid called on military officers to withdraw their support from Maduro. "It has to be the Venezuelan people, the armed forces, and the international community that allow us to assume power, which we will not let slip away," Guaid told cheering supporters in what amounted to his inaugural address. At least one high-ranking military official, Col. Jos Luis Silva, who serves as military attach at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, has heeded Guaid's call. "As the Venezuelan defense attach in the United States, I do not recognize Mr. Nicols Maduro as president of Venezuela," Silva said in an interview Saturday with el Nuevo Herald. Guaid lacks any control over government ministries but he is more than just a figurehead. Analysts say that swelling international support for him, coupled with Maduro's diplomatic isolation, strengthens Guaid's claim to the presidency. Frank Mora, who heads the Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University, said Guaid's swearing-in ceremony could become a watershed moment, similar to the 2010 episode in Tunisia when an angry fruit vender set himself on fire and helped ignite the Arab Spring. Alternative leadership in Caracas has also opened the door for the Trump administration to squeeze the vital flow of petrodollars to the Maduro government which counts on oil for 95 percent of its export earnings. One option would be to send the proceeds from purchases of Venezuelan oil to foreign accounts that could be set up and controlled by Guaid's governing team, said Francisco Rodrguez, a former economic advisor to Venezuela's National Assembly. He said that diverting oil funds to Guaid would have a "huge impact" on the Venezuelan economy and put more pressure on Maduro to leave office. "The pieces are starting to fit together for a peaceful transition in Venezuela," said Benjamin Scharifker, a leading Venezuelan intellectual and an opposition activist. But Guaid also faces new risks. Earlier this month, he was briefly detained by security forces and fears are growing that he could be arrested. At Friday's rally, Guaid acknowledged that possibility but told supporters that if he were ever kidnapped, they should press ahead with nonviolent protests. | Juan Guaid is the self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela. The 35-year-old claims to lead a transitional government. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.npr.org/2019/01/27/688707295/who-is-venezuelas-juan-guaid?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news | 0.502536 |
Who Is Venezuela's Juan Guaid? | Enlarge this image toggle caption Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images In less than a month, Juan Guaid has risen from obscure, junior lawmaker to self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela and the most serious threat yet to the authoritarian government of Nicols Maduro. Guaid, who defied Maduro by taking the oath of office on Wednesday, claims to lead a transitional government that will call free elections and return Venezuela to democracy. The 35-year-old was immediately recognized as Venezuela's legitimate leader by the United States, Canada and most Latin American nations and received widespread support from European countries. In a speech Friday to cheering supporters at an outdoor plaza in Caracas, Guaid proclaimed: "We have awakened from the nightmare, brothers and sisters." Maduro, who has led Venezuela into food shortages, hyperinflation and political repression during six years in office, is refusing to budge. His ruling Socialist party controls nearly all government institutions. On Thursday, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lpez declared that the nation's powerful armed forces widely considered to be propping up the government recognize Maduro as Venezuela's true president. But at least for now, Guaid is breathing new life into an opposition movement that had been deeply demoralized by internal power struggles and government repression. "Thirty days ago, the opposition was demobilized and fractured with no leadership," said Michael Penfold, a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. "But that's not the case anymore. Guaid represents a sparkle of hope." "I think Guaid is delivering exactly what the opposition wanted at this point, which is a bold, risk-taking response," said Javier Corrales, a Venezuela expert and professor of political science at Amherst College. A youthful-looking industrial engineer, Guaid, got his start in politics by organizing student protests against the late Hugo Chvez, who ushered in Venezuela's socialist revolution two decades ago. In 2013, Chvez died of cancer and was succeeded by Maduro. As a member of the Popular Will party, Guaid in 2015 won a seat to the National Assembly Venezuela's legislature amid an opposition sweep of congressional elections. But that momentum quickly stalled. Anti-government demonstrations were crushed by security forces while an effort to remove Maduro through a recall election was vetoed by the government. The opposition's most charismatic leaders were arrested, forced into exile or stripped of their right to run for public office. Last year, Maduro won another six-year term in a presidential election widely considered a sham by international observers. Still, the opposition was determined to challenge Maduro's grip on power. It hatched an audacious plan to coincide with the start this month of what many view as Maduro's illegitimate second term. Guaid became its leader. Partly because more prominent politicians have been sidelined, the National Assembly in early January named Guaid as its president. Venezuela's constitution states that the head of the National Assembly takes over should the presidency become vacant, as the opposition claims it has under Maduro. After consulting with U.S. and Latin American officials, according to the Associated Press, the opposition organized nationwide street marches on Wednesday and held a make-shift outdoor ceremony where Guaid took the oath of office and launched his parallel government. In what amounted to his inaugural speech, Guaid called on military officers to withdraw their support from Maduro. "It has to be the Venezuelan people, the armed forces, and the international community that allow us to assume power, which we will not let slip away," Guaid told cheering supporters in what amounted to his inaugural address. At least one high-ranking military official, Col. Jos Luis Silva, who serves as military attach at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, has heeded Guaid's call. "As the Venezuelan defense attach in the United States, I do not recognize Mr. Nicols Maduro as president of Venezuela," Silva said in an interview Saturday with el Nuevo Herald. Guaid lacks any control over government ministries but he is more than just a figurehead. Analysts say that swelling international support for him, coupled with Maduro's diplomatic isolation, strengthens Guaid's claim to the presidency. Frank Mora, who heads the Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University, said Guaid's swearing-in ceremony could become a watershed moment, similar to the 2010 episode in Tunisia when an angry fruit vender set himself on fire and helped ignite the Arab Spring. Alternative leadership in Caracas has also opened the door for the Trump administration to squeeze the vital flow of petrodollars to the Maduro government which counts on oil for 95 percent of its export earnings. One option would be to send the proceeds from purchases of Venezuelan oil to foreign accounts that could be set up and controlled by Guaid's governing team, said Francisco Rodrguez, a former economic advisor to Venezuela's National Assembly. He said that diverting oil funds to Guaid would have a "huge impact" on the Venezuelan economy and put more pressure on Maduro to leave office. "The pieces are starting to fit together for a peaceful transition in Venezuela," said Benjamin Scharifker, a leading Venezuelan intellectual and an opposition activist. But Guaid also faces new risks. Earlier this month, he was briefly detained by security forces and fears are growing that he could be arrested. At Friday's rally, Guaid acknowledged that possibility but told supporters that if he were ever kidnapped, they should press ahead with nonviolent protests. | Juan Guaid is the self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela. The 35-year-old claims to lead a transitional government that will call free elections and return Venezuela to democracy. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.npr.org/2019/01/27/688707295/who-is-venezuelas-juan-guaid?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news | 0.510823 |
Who Is Venezuela's Juan Guaid? | Enlarge this image toggle caption Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images In less than a month, Juan Guaid has risen from obscure, junior lawmaker to self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela and the most serious threat yet to the authoritarian government of Nicols Maduro. Guaid, who defied Maduro by taking the oath of office on Wednesday, claims to lead a transitional government that will call free elections and return Venezuela to democracy. The 35-year-old was immediately recognized as Venezuela's legitimate leader by the United States, Canada and most Latin American nations and received widespread support from European countries. In a speech Friday to cheering supporters at an outdoor plaza in Caracas, Guaid proclaimed: "We have awakened from the nightmare, brothers and sisters." Maduro, who has led Venezuela into food shortages, hyperinflation and political repression during six years in office, is refusing to budge. His ruling Socialist party controls nearly all government institutions. On Thursday, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lpez declared that the nation's powerful armed forces widely considered to be propping up the government recognize Maduro as Venezuela's true president. But at least for now, Guaid is breathing new life into an opposition movement that had been deeply demoralized by internal power struggles and government repression. "Thirty days ago, the opposition was demobilized and fractured with no leadership," said Michael Penfold, a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. "But that's not the case anymore. Guaid represents a sparkle of hope." "I think Guaid is delivering exactly what the opposition wanted at this point, which is a bold, risk-taking response," said Javier Corrales, a Venezuela expert and professor of political science at Amherst College. A youthful-looking industrial engineer, Guaid, got his start in politics by organizing student protests against the late Hugo Chvez, who ushered in Venezuela's socialist revolution two decades ago. In 2013, Chvez died of cancer and was succeeded by Maduro. As a member of the Popular Will party, Guaid in 2015 won a seat to the National Assembly Venezuela's legislature amid an opposition sweep of congressional elections. But that momentum quickly stalled. Anti-government demonstrations were crushed by security forces while an effort to remove Maduro through a recall election was vetoed by the government. The opposition's most charismatic leaders were arrested, forced into exile or stripped of their right to run for public office. Last year, Maduro won another six-year term in a presidential election widely considered a sham by international observers. Still, the opposition was determined to challenge Maduro's grip on power. It hatched an audacious plan to coincide with the start this month of what many view as Maduro's illegitimate second term. Guaid became its leader. Partly because more prominent politicians have been sidelined, the National Assembly in early January named Guaid as its president. Venezuela's constitution states that the head of the National Assembly takes over should the presidency become vacant, as the opposition claims it has under Maduro. After consulting with U.S. and Latin American officials, according to the Associated Press, the opposition organized nationwide street marches on Wednesday and held a make-shift outdoor ceremony where Guaid took the oath of office and launched his parallel government. In what amounted to his inaugural speech, Guaid called on military officers to withdraw their support from Maduro. "It has to be the Venezuelan people, the armed forces, and the international community that allow us to assume power, which we will not let slip away," Guaid told cheering supporters in what amounted to his inaugural address. At least one high-ranking military official, Col. Jos Luis Silva, who serves as military attach at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, has heeded Guaid's call. "As the Venezuelan defense attach in the United States, I do not recognize Mr. Nicols Maduro as president of Venezuela," Silva said in an interview Saturday with el Nuevo Herald. Guaid lacks any control over government ministries but he is more than just a figurehead. Analysts say that swelling international support for him, coupled with Maduro's diplomatic isolation, strengthens Guaid's claim to the presidency. Frank Mora, who heads the Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University, said Guaid's swearing-in ceremony could become a watershed moment, similar to the 2010 episode in Tunisia when an angry fruit vender set himself on fire and helped ignite the Arab Spring. Alternative leadership in Caracas has also opened the door for the Trump administration to squeeze the vital flow of petrodollars to the Maduro government which counts on oil for 95 percent of its export earnings. One option would be to send the proceeds from purchases of Venezuelan oil to foreign accounts that could be set up and controlled by Guaid's governing team, said Francisco Rodrguez, a former economic advisor to Venezuela's National Assembly. He said that diverting oil funds to Guaid would have a "huge impact" on the Venezuelan economy and put more pressure on Maduro to leave office. "The pieces are starting to fit together for a peaceful transition in Venezuela," said Benjamin Scharifker, a leading Venezuelan intellectual and an opposition activist. But Guaid also faces new risks. Earlier this month, he was briefly detained by security forces and fears are growing that he could be arrested. At Friday's rally, Guaid acknowledged that possibility but told supporters that if he were ever kidnapped, they should press ahead with nonviolent protests. | Juan Guaid is the self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela. The 35-year-old claims to lead a transitional government that will call free elections and return Venezuela to democracy. The opposition has been demoralized by internal power struggles and government repression, experts say. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.npr.org/2019/01/27/688707295/who-is-venezuelas-juan-guaid?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news | 0.526708 |
Where Will Verizon Communications Be in 5 Years? | The last five years have been eventful for Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ). The company acquired the 45% of Verizon Wireless that it didn't own from Vodafone, and bought tech companies AOL and Yahoo. It's also tried to become more of a tech and media company than just a telecommunications giant, although it's had limited success outside of its core wireless business. The next five years will be similarly transformative for Verizon, but this time it'll focus on its core business. And faster wireless connections from 5G technology could make this stock a great long-term buy for investors. Illustration of a 5G connected city. More Image source: Getty Images. Verizon will be 5G The mobile telecommunications industry has been promising speedy 5G connections for years, and we're finally starting to see them in the field. Verizon is offering 5G connections -- 5G Home -- in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Houston, and Indianapolis, with more cities set to launch in 2019. Getting fiber-type speed with a mobile device will be incredible for advancing mobile devices to another level of performance. And it'll also allow for new technologies such as self-driving vehicles and virtual reality. The rollout of 5G will be slow, and for the next few years, 4G LTE networks will likely remain the standard for most users. But five years from now, the U.S. should be blanketed with 5G, likely from a leader like Verizon. So investors looking at the stock today should understand that when the company is operating at 5G speeds, that will ultimately transform Verizon's business. Entering the home 5G speeds won't just impact mobile phones; the bigger impact will be in the home. Verizon's first 5G product to launch isn't a mobile phone at all -- it's an in-home router. Thanks to 5G Home, customers will be able to cut their cable broadband connection and replace it with a wireless 5G connection. This could actually increase internet speeds to the home and allow Verizon to enter the home market in areas it's never been able to reach before. A fiber-optic service was once Verizon's path into the home, but that required billions of dollars of investment and a physical line running into each home. 5G Home will allow Verizon to serve the same physical markets as mobile phones -- or nearly the entire country -- and enter the home as well. Cable companies should be on notice. Growth markets we can't imagine As a 5G company, Verizon will play a big role in the next wave of innovations in connected devices. We know industries including self-driving vehicles, connected cities, and virtual reality are eyeing 5G as a way to improve their own technologies on the go. But there will be additional impacts that we don't know about yet. Faster connections will allow for new innovations and business performance. "Edge computing," or pushing the computing power from devices to central servers, will become more popular and allow companies to build services in the cloud and distribute them to consumers. The smartphone and 4G enabled advancements like ride sharing, mobile video services, and even online shopping like we've never seen before. We simply don't know what businesses 5G will bring about until the technology gets into innovators' hands. | The next five years will be transformative for Verizon Communications. Verizon will be a leader in 5G technology, which will transform its business. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://news.yahoo.com/where-verizon-communications-5-years-151700444.html | 0.149337 |
Where Will Verizon Communications Be in 5 Years? | The last five years have been eventful for Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ). The company acquired the 45% of Verizon Wireless that it didn't own from Vodafone, and bought tech companies AOL and Yahoo. It's also tried to become more of a tech and media company than just a telecommunications giant, although it's had limited success outside of its core wireless business. The next five years will be similarly transformative for Verizon, but this time it'll focus on its core business. And faster wireless connections from 5G technology could make this stock a great long-term buy for investors. Illustration of a 5G connected city. More Image source: Getty Images. Verizon will be 5G The mobile telecommunications industry has been promising speedy 5G connections for years, and we're finally starting to see them in the field. Verizon is offering 5G connections -- 5G Home -- in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Houston, and Indianapolis, with more cities set to launch in 2019. Getting fiber-type speed with a mobile device will be incredible for advancing mobile devices to another level of performance. And it'll also allow for new technologies such as self-driving vehicles and virtual reality. The rollout of 5G will be slow, and for the next few years, 4G LTE networks will likely remain the standard for most users. But five years from now, the U.S. should be blanketed with 5G, likely from a leader like Verizon. So investors looking at the stock today should understand that when the company is operating at 5G speeds, that will ultimately transform Verizon's business. Entering the home 5G speeds won't just impact mobile phones; the bigger impact will be in the home. Verizon's first 5G product to launch isn't a mobile phone at all -- it's an in-home router. Thanks to 5G Home, customers will be able to cut their cable broadband connection and replace it with a wireless 5G connection. This could actually increase internet speeds to the home and allow Verizon to enter the home market in areas it's never been able to reach before. A fiber-optic service was once Verizon's path into the home, but that required billions of dollars of investment and a physical line running into each home. 5G Home will allow Verizon to serve the same physical markets as mobile phones -- or nearly the entire country -- and enter the home as well. Cable companies should be on notice. Growth markets we can't imagine As a 5G company, Verizon will play a big role in the next wave of innovations in connected devices. We know industries including self-driving vehicles, connected cities, and virtual reality are eyeing 5G as a way to improve their own technologies on the go. But there will be additional impacts that we don't know about yet. Faster connections will allow for new innovations and business performance. "Edge computing," or pushing the computing power from devices to central servers, will become more popular and allow companies to build services in the cloud and distribute them to consumers. The smartphone and 4G enabled advancements like ride sharing, mobile video services, and even online shopping like we've never seen before. We simply don't know what businesses 5G will bring about until the technology gets into innovators' hands. | The next five years will be transformative for Verizon Communications. Verizon will be a leader in 5G technology, which will transform its business. 5G speeds will allow for new innovations and business performance. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/where-verizon-communications-5-years-151700444.html | 0.189523 |
Where Will Verizon Communications Be in 5 Years? | The last five years have been eventful for Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ). The company acquired the 45% of Verizon Wireless that it didn't own from Vodafone, and bought tech companies AOL and Yahoo. It's also tried to become more of a tech and media company than just a telecommunications giant, although it's had limited success outside of its core wireless business. The next five years will be similarly transformative for Verizon, but this time it'll focus on its core business. And faster wireless connections from 5G technology could make this stock a great long-term buy for investors. Illustration of a 5G connected city. More Image source: Getty Images. Verizon will be 5G The mobile telecommunications industry has been promising speedy 5G connections for years, and we're finally starting to see them in the field. Verizon is offering 5G connections -- 5G Home -- in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Houston, and Indianapolis, with more cities set to launch in 2019. Getting fiber-type speed with a mobile device will be incredible for advancing mobile devices to another level of performance. And it'll also allow for new technologies such as self-driving vehicles and virtual reality. The rollout of 5G will be slow, and for the next few years, 4G LTE networks will likely remain the standard for most users. But five years from now, the U.S. should be blanketed with 5G, likely from a leader like Verizon. So investors looking at the stock today should understand that when the company is operating at 5G speeds, that will ultimately transform Verizon's business. Entering the home 5G speeds won't just impact mobile phones; the bigger impact will be in the home. Verizon's first 5G product to launch isn't a mobile phone at all -- it's an in-home router. Thanks to 5G Home, customers will be able to cut their cable broadband connection and replace it with a wireless 5G connection. This could actually increase internet speeds to the home and allow Verizon to enter the home market in areas it's never been able to reach before. A fiber-optic service was once Verizon's path into the home, but that required billions of dollars of investment and a physical line running into each home. 5G Home will allow Verizon to serve the same physical markets as mobile phones -- or nearly the entire country -- and enter the home as well. Cable companies should be on notice. Growth markets we can't imagine As a 5G company, Verizon will play a big role in the next wave of innovations in connected devices. We know industries including self-driving vehicles, connected cities, and virtual reality are eyeing 5G as a way to improve their own technologies on the go. But there will be additional impacts that we don't know about yet. Faster connections will allow for new innovations and business performance. "Edge computing," or pushing the computing power from devices to central servers, will become more popular and allow companies to build services in the cloud and distribute them to consumers. The smartphone and 4G enabled advancements like ride sharing, mobile video services, and even online shopping like we've never seen before. We simply don't know what businesses 5G will bring about until the technology gets into innovators' hands. | The next five years will be transformative for Verizon Communications. Verizon will be a leader in 5G technology, which will transform its business. 5G will allow for new innovations and business performance, but there are still many unknowns about 5G. The company will also play a big role in the next wave of innovations in connected devices. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/where-verizon-communications-5-years-151700444.html | 0.239423 |
Will a Three-Way Split Release Value for United Technologies Shareholders? | Ever since the announcement that industrial conglomerate United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) intends to split up, investors have been wondering whether the split really would release value in the way that management is hoping. Let's reassess the question in light of the recent fourth-quarter earnings reports. Timing and cost of the separation There are two main concerns that investors have over United Technologies and the forthcoming split. The first relates to the timing and hefty separation costs and dis-synergies associated with the deal. Going back to the breakup announcement, CEO Greg Hayes had outlined his expectation for one-time breakup costs in a range of $2.5 billion to $3 billion, with $350 million to $400 million in negative synergy from the breakup. Meanwhile, the separation was seen as taking 18 to 24 months -- a long time to wait in an uncertain economic environment. Shoes in front of three arrows pointing in three different directions. More Image source: Getty Images. On the Q4 earnings call, Hayes had a positive update, informing investors that the time frame had been shortened: "Based on the work we've done over the last two months, we now see a path to achieve the separation in no more than about 18 months." This should please impatient investors. Hayes also addressed the issues of estimated costs and dis-synergies coming from the split. He hinted at structural cost-reduction actions that Carrier (heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and security products) and Otis (elevators) management were looking at in order to minimize dis-synergies, but for now, it's better to assume the $350 million-$400 million dis-synergies estimate will apply. To put these figures into context, capitalizing them would make them worth $3 billion to $4 billion -- equivalent to 3% to 4% of United Technologies' market cap. That said, United Technologies on the whole still trades at a substantive discount to its peers, so a 3%-4% "cost" to the market cap should be more than made up for if the stock gets a re-rating in line with its peers. UTX EV to EBITDA (TTM) Chart More UTX EV to EBITDA (TTM) data by YCharts. Business trajectory of the three businesses The second major concern among investors relates to the divergence in performance of the aerospace business (Pratt & Whitney, the legacy United Technologies Aerospace Systems, and the acquired Rockwell Collins) and the two commercial businesses, Carrier and Otis. | United Technologies plans to split into three publicly traded companies. One-time breakup costs are expected to be in the range of $2.5 billion to $3 billion. | pegasus | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/three-way-split-release-value-150400065.html | 0.119344 |
Will a Three-Way Split Release Value for United Technologies Shareholders? | Ever since the announcement that industrial conglomerate United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) intends to split up, investors have been wondering whether the split really would release value in the way that management is hoping. Let's reassess the question in light of the recent fourth-quarter earnings reports. Timing and cost of the separation There are two main concerns that investors have over United Technologies and the forthcoming split. The first relates to the timing and hefty separation costs and dis-synergies associated with the deal. Going back to the breakup announcement, CEO Greg Hayes had outlined his expectation for one-time breakup costs in a range of $2.5 billion to $3 billion, with $350 million to $400 million in negative synergy from the breakup. Meanwhile, the separation was seen as taking 18 to 24 months -- a long time to wait in an uncertain economic environment. Shoes in front of three arrows pointing in three different directions. More Image source: Getty Images. On the Q4 earnings call, Hayes had a positive update, informing investors that the time frame had been shortened: "Based on the work we've done over the last two months, we now see a path to achieve the separation in no more than about 18 months." This should please impatient investors. Hayes also addressed the issues of estimated costs and dis-synergies coming from the split. He hinted at structural cost-reduction actions that Carrier (heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and security products) and Otis (elevators) management were looking at in order to minimize dis-synergies, but for now, it's better to assume the $350 million-$400 million dis-synergies estimate will apply. To put these figures into context, capitalizing them would make them worth $3 billion to $4 billion -- equivalent to 3% to 4% of United Technologies' market cap. That said, United Technologies on the whole still trades at a substantive discount to its peers, so a 3%-4% "cost" to the market cap should be more than made up for if the stock gets a re-rating in line with its peers. UTX EV to EBITDA (TTM) Chart More UTX EV to EBITDA (TTM) data by YCharts. Business trajectory of the three businesses The second major concern among investors relates to the divergence in performance of the aerospace business (Pratt & Whitney, the legacy United Technologies Aerospace Systems, and the acquired Rockwell Collins) and the two commercial businesses, Carrier and Otis. | United Technologies plans to split into three publicly traded companies. One-time breakup costs are expected to be in the range of $2.5 billion to $3 billion. Costs and dis-synergies are expected to be in the range of $350 million to $400 million. | pegasus | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/three-way-split-release-value-150400065.html | 0.103144 |
Are Millennials Killing Harley-Davidson? | Harley-Davidson is struggling to stay afloat, and some say the culprit is millennials. Harley Davidson sales have taken a significant hit over the last four years, and the company is struggling to attract new and younger customers. A survey of 2,100 U.S. adults over the age of 21, cited in a note published by UBS research analyst Robin Farley, found a generational divide in the ways young people think about motorcycles compared to older generations, CNBC reported. Whereas older generations purchased motorcycles recreationally, or as a hobby, people between the ages of 21 and 34 would consider purchasing motorcycles for ease of transportation, the survey found. That is, younger people would be motivated to purchase a motorcycle specifically for practical reasons. We believe this significant divergence in incentives to buy a new bike could be what is partly behind Harleys and the broader heavyweight motorcycle industrys challenge to tap into a new segment of younger riders to drive growth, said Farley. So unless there is a generational shift among younger riders to see motorcycling as a hobby vs. means of transportation, the outlook for the heavyweight industry could continue to be more dependent on an aging demographic. It may not be just a generational shift in outlook thats killing the industry, however. Younger generations might have different attitudes toward purchasing motorcycles than older generations because they cant afford such a hobby. Average Harley-Davidson consumers are married men in their early 50s with a household income of $90,000 or higher, according to CNBC. On the other hand, a report by economists at the Federal Reserve found that, Millennials are less well off than members of earlier generations when they were young, with lower earnings, fewer assets, and less wealth. In an effort to attract a new generation of riders, Harley-Davidson introduced its first electric motorcycle, the LiveWire, earlier this year. The bike will be available at U.S. dealerships this summer. In a statement to CNBC, the company said, Our advanced analytic capabilities allow us to deeply understand rider migration trends. In fact, our knowledge of riders informed our strategy to build the next generation of Harley-Davidson riders globally, which we launched in early 2017. | Harley Davidson sales have taken a significant hit over the last four years. A survey of 2,100 U.S. adults over the age of 21 found a generational divide. Younger people would be motivated to purchase a motorcycle for practical reasons. | bart | 1 | http://fortune.com/2019/01/27/millennials-harley-davidson-motorcycles/ | 0.138515 |
Are Millennials Killing Harley-Davidson? | Harley-Davidson is struggling to stay afloat, and some say the culprit is millennials. Harley Davidson sales have taken a significant hit over the last four years, and the company is struggling to attract new and younger customers. A survey of 2,100 U.S. adults over the age of 21, cited in a note published by UBS research analyst Robin Farley, found a generational divide in the ways young people think about motorcycles compared to older generations, CNBC reported. Whereas older generations purchased motorcycles recreationally, or as a hobby, people between the ages of 21 and 34 would consider purchasing motorcycles for ease of transportation, the survey found. That is, younger people would be motivated to purchase a motorcycle specifically for practical reasons. We believe this significant divergence in incentives to buy a new bike could be what is partly behind Harleys and the broader heavyweight motorcycle industrys challenge to tap into a new segment of younger riders to drive growth, said Farley. So unless there is a generational shift among younger riders to see motorcycling as a hobby vs. means of transportation, the outlook for the heavyweight industry could continue to be more dependent on an aging demographic. It may not be just a generational shift in outlook thats killing the industry, however. Younger generations might have different attitudes toward purchasing motorcycles than older generations because they cant afford such a hobby. Average Harley-Davidson consumers are married men in their early 50s with a household income of $90,000 or higher, according to CNBC. On the other hand, a report by economists at the Federal Reserve found that, Millennials are less well off than members of earlier generations when they were young, with lower earnings, fewer assets, and less wealth. In an effort to attract a new generation of riders, Harley-Davidson introduced its first electric motorcycle, the LiveWire, earlier this year. The bike will be available at U.S. dealerships this summer. In a statement to CNBC, the company said, Our advanced analytic capabilities allow us to deeply understand rider migration trends. In fact, our knowledge of riders informed our strategy to build the next generation of Harley-Davidson riders globally, which we launched in early 2017. | Harley Davidson sales have taken a significant hit over the last four years. A survey of 2,100 U.S. adults over the age of 21 found a generational divide in the ways young people think about motorcycles compared to older generations. Younger people would be motivated to purchase a motorcycle specifically for practical reasons. | bart | 2 | http://fortune.com/2019/01/27/millennials-harley-davidson-motorcycles/ | 0.143469 |
Could Aurora Cannabis Be a Millionaire-Maker Stock? | Let's cut to the chase. Yes, Aurora Cannabis (NYSE: ACB) could be a millionaire-maker stock. Given a large enough initial investment and enough time, many stocks -- including Aurora -- could generate returns of $1 million or more. The real question, though, is whether an investor buying a reasonable stake in Aurora Cannabis has a realistic chance of becoming a millionaire from this initial investment over a period of time that's not ridiculously long. Few stocks can achieve such a feat. To pull it off would require a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of a little over 20%. Shadow of dollar sign on top of a pile of marijuana leaves More Image source: Getty Images. What it would take To become a millionaire-maker stock, Aurora Cannabis would need to grow its market cap from around $6 billion today to $600 billion. The marijuana producer would probably have to generate annual revenue in the ballpark of $125 billion to justify that kind of market cap. Assuming the company continues to focus on the cannabis industry, the answer depends on just how big the global marijuana market will be. Aurora itself says that the total global cannabis opportunity is around 200 billion in Canadian dollars, or roughly $150 billion. That's in line with what other marijuana executives state publicly as well. However, the figure only includes medical and recreational use of marijuana. There are several other markets that could be disrupted by cannabis producers, including alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and pharmaceuticals. Canopy Growth CEO Bruce Linton thinks all of these potential markets that could be disrupted total $500 billion in annual sales. Let's assume that Linton is right. If so, Aurora Cannabis would need to capture around 25% of the total global opportunity. That isn't a totally outlandish proposition. Aurora claimed a market share of around 30% in Ontario soon after the Canadian recreational marijuana market opened. Ontario is Canada's largest province and is a very competitive market. Why it's not likely You might have noticed a lot of "ifs" in what it would take for Aurora to be a millionaire-maker stock. Let's add another one: If any of those assumptions fall through, Aurora won't make anyone a millionaire. First of all, the $150 billion global marijuana figure that gets thrown around assumes that recreational cannabis will be legalized in the U.S. and throughout Europe. No European country has legalized recreational marijuana at this point. And while 10 U.S. states have legalized recreational pot, it remains illegal at the federal level. Maybe all of that could change in 25 years. However, there's certainly no guarantee that it will. An even higher hurdle to jump is achieving such a disruption in other markets that it would amount to $500 billion in total annual sales. Aurora Cannabis points to the potential in disrupting other markets, but the company wisely doesn't attempt to project the dollar value of the opportunity. It's also highly doubtful that Aurora Cannabis would attain a 25% global market share. Consider in Constellation Brands' decision to make a major investment in Canopy Growth, the big alcoholic beverage maker estimated that Canopy could realistically capture no more than 15% of the global market outside of Canada. I don't see Aurora topping Canopy Growth by a significant margin. | Aurora Cannabis could be a millionaire-maker stock, but few stocks can achieve such a feat. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://news.yahoo.com/could-aurora-cannabis-millionaire-maker-190000017.html | 0.52056 |
Could Aurora Cannabis Be a Millionaire-Maker Stock? | Let's cut to the chase. Yes, Aurora Cannabis (NYSE: ACB) could be a millionaire-maker stock. Given a large enough initial investment and enough time, many stocks -- including Aurora -- could generate returns of $1 million or more. The real question, though, is whether an investor buying a reasonable stake in Aurora Cannabis has a realistic chance of becoming a millionaire from this initial investment over a period of time that's not ridiculously long. Few stocks can achieve such a feat. To pull it off would require a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of a little over 20%. Shadow of dollar sign on top of a pile of marijuana leaves More Image source: Getty Images. What it would take To become a millionaire-maker stock, Aurora Cannabis would need to grow its market cap from around $6 billion today to $600 billion. The marijuana producer would probably have to generate annual revenue in the ballpark of $125 billion to justify that kind of market cap. Assuming the company continues to focus on the cannabis industry, the answer depends on just how big the global marijuana market will be. Aurora itself says that the total global cannabis opportunity is around 200 billion in Canadian dollars, or roughly $150 billion. That's in line with what other marijuana executives state publicly as well. However, the figure only includes medical and recreational use of marijuana. There are several other markets that could be disrupted by cannabis producers, including alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and pharmaceuticals. Canopy Growth CEO Bruce Linton thinks all of these potential markets that could be disrupted total $500 billion in annual sales. Let's assume that Linton is right. If so, Aurora Cannabis would need to capture around 25% of the total global opportunity. That isn't a totally outlandish proposition. Aurora claimed a market share of around 30% in Ontario soon after the Canadian recreational marijuana market opened. Ontario is Canada's largest province and is a very competitive market. Why it's not likely You might have noticed a lot of "ifs" in what it would take for Aurora to be a millionaire-maker stock. Let's add another one: If any of those assumptions fall through, Aurora won't make anyone a millionaire. First of all, the $150 billion global marijuana figure that gets thrown around assumes that recreational cannabis will be legalized in the U.S. and throughout Europe. No European country has legalized recreational marijuana at this point. And while 10 U.S. states have legalized recreational pot, it remains illegal at the federal level. Maybe all of that could change in 25 years. However, there's certainly no guarantee that it will. An even higher hurdle to jump is achieving such a disruption in other markets that it would amount to $500 billion in total annual sales. Aurora Cannabis points to the potential in disrupting other markets, but the company wisely doesn't attempt to project the dollar value of the opportunity. It's also highly doubtful that Aurora Cannabis would attain a 25% global market share. Consider in Constellation Brands' decision to make a major investment in Canopy Growth, the big alcoholic beverage maker estimated that Canopy could realistically capture no more than 15% of the global market outside of Canada. I don't see Aurora topping Canopy Growth by a significant margin. | Aurora Cannabis could be a millionaire-maker stock, but few stocks can achieve such a feat. The marijuana producer would need to grow its market cap from around $6 billion today to $600 billion. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/could-aurora-cannabis-millionaire-maker-190000017.html | 0.582908 |
Could Aurora Cannabis Be a Millionaire-Maker Stock? | Let's cut to the chase. Yes, Aurora Cannabis (NYSE: ACB) could be a millionaire-maker stock. Given a large enough initial investment and enough time, many stocks -- including Aurora -- could generate returns of $1 million or more. The real question, though, is whether an investor buying a reasonable stake in Aurora Cannabis has a realistic chance of becoming a millionaire from this initial investment over a period of time that's not ridiculously long. Few stocks can achieve such a feat. To pull it off would require a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of a little over 20%. Shadow of dollar sign on top of a pile of marijuana leaves More Image source: Getty Images. What it would take To become a millionaire-maker stock, Aurora Cannabis would need to grow its market cap from around $6 billion today to $600 billion. The marijuana producer would probably have to generate annual revenue in the ballpark of $125 billion to justify that kind of market cap. Assuming the company continues to focus on the cannabis industry, the answer depends on just how big the global marijuana market will be. Aurora itself says that the total global cannabis opportunity is around 200 billion in Canadian dollars, or roughly $150 billion. That's in line with what other marijuana executives state publicly as well. However, the figure only includes medical and recreational use of marijuana. There are several other markets that could be disrupted by cannabis producers, including alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and pharmaceuticals. Canopy Growth CEO Bruce Linton thinks all of these potential markets that could be disrupted total $500 billion in annual sales. Let's assume that Linton is right. If so, Aurora Cannabis would need to capture around 25% of the total global opportunity. That isn't a totally outlandish proposition. Aurora claimed a market share of around 30% in Ontario soon after the Canadian recreational marijuana market opened. Ontario is Canada's largest province and is a very competitive market. Why it's not likely You might have noticed a lot of "ifs" in what it would take for Aurora to be a millionaire-maker stock. Let's add another one: If any of those assumptions fall through, Aurora won't make anyone a millionaire. First of all, the $150 billion global marijuana figure that gets thrown around assumes that recreational cannabis will be legalized in the U.S. and throughout Europe. No European country has legalized recreational marijuana at this point. And while 10 U.S. states have legalized recreational pot, it remains illegal at the federal level. Maybe all of that could change in 25 years. However, there's certainly no guarantee that it will. An even higher hurdle to jump is achieving such a disruption in other markets that it would amount to $500 billion in total annual sales. Aurora Cannabis points to the potential in disrupting other markets, but the company wisely doesn't attempt to project the dollar value of the opportunity. It's also highly doubtful that Aurora Cannabis would attain a 25% global market share. Consider in Constellation Brands' decision to make a major investment in Canopy Growth, the big alcoholic beverage maker estimated that Canopy could realistically capture no more than 15% of the global market outside of Canada. I don't see Aurora topping Canopy Growth by a significant margin. | Aurora Cannabis (NYSE: ACB) could be a millionaire-maker stock. To pull it off would require a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of a little over 20%. Aurora Cannabis would need to grow its market cap from around $6 billion today to $600 billion. | bart | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/could-aurora-cannabis-millionaire-maker-190000017.html | 0.577859 |
Whats the story behind Drew Brees and the Red Sox cap at the Pelicans game? | Drew Brees attended a New Orleans Pelicans game Saturday (Jan. 26) while wearing a Boston Red Sox cap, which many people took to mean he had a preference for which team wins the Super Bowl next weekend. The New Orleans Saints season ended last week with an NFC Championship loss to the Los Angeles Rams that included a controversial no-call on what the Saints argued should have been pass interference. Had the penalty been called, the Saints could have been in position to attempt a potential winning field goal with little time remaining. Instead, the Rams won in overtime and will face the New England Patriots next week in Atlanta. Drew Brees given a shout-out at tonights Pelicans game. Not necessarily. The 40-year-old quarterback has long been known to be an admirer of Hall of Fame baseball player Ted Williams, who played his full 19-year major league career with the Red Sox. The appreciation Brees has for the Splendid Splinter runs so deep as to be part of the reason he wears No. 9. However, Brees also wore red, white and blue sneakers that have a color pattern similar to the one used by the Patriots. Those colors also arent far from those used by the Pelicans, so perhaps more is being made of this than is necessary. Brees hasnt spoken publicly since the postgame press conference after the 26-23 overtime loss to the Rams. If he makes the promotional rounds during Super Bowl week like has in past years, hell certainly be asked his feeling about the upcoming game. | Drew Brees wore a Boston Red Sox cap at a New Orleans Pelicans game Saturday. Many people took it to mean he had a preference for which team wins the Super Bowl next weekend. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.nola.com/saints/2019/01/whats-the-story-behind-drew-brees-and-the-red-sox-cap-at-the-pelicans-game.html | 0.241539 |
Whats the story behind Drew Brees and the Red Sox cap at the Pelicans game? | Drew Brees attended a New Orleans Pelicans game Saturday (Jan. 26) while wearing a Boston Red Sox cap, which many people took to mean he had a preference for which team wins the Super Bowl next weekend. The New Orleans Saints season ended last week with an NFC Championship loss to the Los Angeles Rams that included a controversial no-call on what the Saints argued should have been pass interference. Had the penalty been called, the Saints could have been in position to attempt a potential winning field goal with little time remaining. Instead, the Rams won in overtime and will face the New England Patriots next week in Atlanta. Drew Brees given a shout-out at tonights Pelicans game. Not necessarily. The 40-year-old quarterback has long been known to be an admirer of Hall of Fame baseball player Ted Williams, who played his full 19-year major league career with the Red Sox. The appreciation Brees has for the Splendid Splinter runs so deep as to be part of the reason he wears No. 9. However, Brees also wore red, white and blue sneakers that have a color pattern similar to the one used by the Patriots. Those colors also arent far from those used by the Pelicans, so perhaps more is being made of this than is necessary. Brees hasnt spoken publicly since the postgame press conference after the 26-23 overtime loss to the Rams. If he makes the promotional rounds during Super Bowl week like has in past years, hell certainly be asked his feeling about the upcoming game. | Drew Brees wore a Boston Red Sox cap at a New Orleans Pelicans game Saturday. Many people took it to mean he had a preference for which team wins the Super Bowl next weekend. The 40-year-old quarterback has long been known to be an admirer of Hall of Fame baseball player Ted Williams. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.nola.com/saints/2019/01/whats-the-story-behind-drew-brees-and-the-red-sox-cap-at-the-pelicans-game.html | 0.369823 |
Did Kiwi star Melanie Lynskey become a mum? | Kiwi superstar Melanie Lynskey has reportedly welcomed her first child, with longtime love Jason Ritter. While the couple have not yet announced anything officially, Us Weekly reports their bundle of joy is at least one month old. The news comes after director Neema Barnette posted a congratulatory message on social media to the happy couple. She wrote on December 18: "Congrats to Raising Dion Co Star Jason Ritter & his wife on the birth of their beautiful Sag baby girl. Babies are a blessing & so is Jason! Advertisement "What a hands down brilliant talent & exceptional human being he is! I'm blessed to have shared creative energy with you. Thank you for giving me a seamless performance." A fan of the Kiwi star also tweeted that she saw the pair with a baby at the airport. "I saw @JasonRitter and @melanielynskey at the airport and I smiled at her and I hope she took that as 'I love you, you've been in so many movies I adore and your baby is adorable,'" she wrote. Neither of the pair responded but Ritter did 'like' the tweet. | Kiwi superstar Melanie Lynskey has reportedly welcomed her first child. Us Weekly reports their bundle of joy is at least one month old. | bart | 0 | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/spy/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503840&objectid=12197263 | 0.229846 |
Did Kiwi star Melanie Lynskey become a mum? | Kiwi superstar Melanie Lynskey has reportedly welcomed her first child, with longtime love Jason Ritter. While the couple have not yet announced anything officially, Us Weekly reports their bundle of joy is at least one month old. The news comes after director Neema Barnette posted a congratulatory message on social media to the happy couple. She wrote on December 18: "Congrats to Raising Dion Co Star Jason Ritter & his wife on the birth of their beautiful Sag baby girl. Babies are a blessing & so is Jason! Advertisement "What a hands down brilliant talent & exceptional human being he is! I'm blessed to have shared creative energy with you. Thank you for giving me a seamless performance." A fan of the Kiwi star also tweeted that she saw the pair with a baby at the airport. "I saw @JasonRitter and @melanielynskey at the airport and I smiled at her and I hope she took that as 'I love you, you've been in so many movies I adore and your baby is adorable,'" she wrote. Neither of the pair responded but Ritter did 'like' the tweet. | Kiwi superstar Melanie Lynskey has reportedly welcomed her first child. Us Weekly reports their bundle of joy is at least one month old. The news comes after director Neema Barnette posted a congratulatory message on social media. | bart | 1 | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/spy/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503840&objectid=12197263 | 0.235572 |
Did Kiwi star Melanie Lynskey become a mum? | Kiwi superstar Melanie Lynskey has reportedly welcomed her first child, with longtime love Jason Ritter. While the couple have not yet announced anything officially, Us Weekly reports their bundle of joy is at least one month old. The news comes after director Neema Barnette posted a congratulatory message on social media to the happy couple. She wrote on December 18: "Congrats to Raising Dion Co Star Jason Ritter & his wife on the birth of their beautiful Sag baby girl. Babies are a blessing & so is Jason! Advertisement "What a hands down brilliant talent & exceptional human being he is! I'm blessed to have shared creative energy with you. Thank you for giving me a seamless performance." A fan of the Kiwi star also tweeted that she saw the pair with a baby at the airport. "I saw @JasonRitter and @melanielynskey at the airport and I smiled at her and I hope she took that as 'I love you, you've been in so many movies I adore and your baby is adorable,'" she wrote. Neither of the pair responded but Ritter did 'like' the tweet. | Kiwi superstar Melanie Lynskey has reportedly welcomed her first child. Us Weekly reports their bundle of joy is at least one month old. Director Neema Barnette posted a congratulatory message on social media. Neither of the pair responded but Ritter did 'like' the tweet. | bart | 2 | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/spy/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503840&objectid=12197263 | 0.269028 |
Is the new Google Guarantee program worth the hassle? | Avery Swartz is a tech consultant who advises small businesses on all things digital. She is also the founder of Camp Tech, a tech training company for businesses and individuals across Canada. Alphabet Inc.'s Google has rolled out a new service in Canada that promises to help your professional service business stand out from the crowd. Businesses in the program will have Googles badge of approval next to their listing in the search engines results. The Google Guarantee program is a feature of the companys Local Services ads service, which launched in Canada in late 2018 in the Toronto and Vancouver areas. The program is currently only available in Canada for plumbers, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) professionals and locksmiths, but is expected to be rolled out for other service providers down the road. Story continues below advertisement Google started testing Local Services ads in San Francisco in 2015 and has expanded to more than 30 metropolitan areas in the United States. In the United States, Local Services ads are available for service categories including locksmiths, plumbers, electricians, HVAC services, carpet cleaners, house cleaners and garage door services. Local Services ads are similar to Google Ads (previously called Google AdWords), in that they appear at the top of search engine result pages when someone is doing an internet search. Businesses only pay Google when a lead is generated through Local Services ads. Google provides a forwarding phone number in the ad, and leads are tracked through those phone calls. If privacy is top of mind for your business, be warned: A recent Star Metro report says both sides of the phone calls are recorded by Google. The service provider is only charged for the calls that come through from Google and can set a weekly budget based on the average number of leads theyd like to receive. Unlike Google Ads, which anyone can create, Local Services ads have a detailed application process. Google vets each service provider, verifying that they have insurance and meet all local licence requirements. They also perform background checks on the business and the owner. Jumping through the extra hoops can be worthwhile, though, as the end result is an ad in Google with a special designation: a Google Guarantee. When a customer books through Google Local Services, the service is Google Guaranteed for up to $2,000 money back if the customer is unhappy. The Google Guarantee badge appears right in the ad itself. On the customer side, the Google Guarantee is compelling. Odds are, when someone is searching for a plumber, HVAC or locksmith service, theyre in a moment of need. They have a problem, need it fixed fast, and are likely to book a service right away. It can be hard for the customer to determine whos trustworthy in a Google search though, as reputable service providers have to compete against shady businesses who may be buying Google Ads to stand out. Service providers with a Google Guarantee designation appear first in search results (higher than Google Ads). This helps instill customer trust and provide peace of mind. Brock Murray is co-founder and chief operating officer of seoplus+ , an Ottawa-based digital marketing agency. He has been following the rollout of Local Services ads in the United States and is excited to see them launch in Canada. He sees the appeal in Local Service ads, particularly because of their ease of use. "I like that from business owners perspective, its really simple to use, Mr. Murray says. Its a very easy way to get leads at a predictable cost. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement Mr. Murray suspects that Google will expand the types of professional service businesses eligible for Local Services ads beyond the plumbing, HVAC and locksmith industries into other services as theyve done in the United States. He encourages businesses to try Local Service ads as early as they can, as being one of the first service providers to have the Google Guarantee can be a key differentiator against competition. "The first ones who get Google Guaranteed are going to be getting the traffic. If youre not, youre going to fall behind, Mr. Murray advises. Lior Shaykevich, owner of Toronto Pro Locksmith, has experimented with Local Services ads. Its fantastic. It gets me to the top and shows the actual businesses that are capable of doing the job and makes me stand out, he says. Mr. Shaykevich was able to set up his Google Local Services account himself, and spending about $400 a week, he says he is receiving an estimated five calls a day. Thats a relatively low cost for each lead when compared with Google Ads, where it can cost a business $30 to $40 for each lead-generating click to appear at the top of a search for Toronto locksmith. As more businesses sign up for Google Local Services ads, the cost to compete could rise. "As more people get on it, thats when theyll drive up the prices. Just like AdWords five years ago, Mr. Murray says. | The Google Guarantee program is a feature of the companys Local Services ads service, which launched in Canada in late 2018 in the Toronto and Vancouver areas. Google vets each service provider, verifying that they have insurance and meet all local licence requirements. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/small-business/marketing/article-is-the-new-google-guarantee-program-worth-the-hassle/ | 0.129591 |
Will Decelerating Growth Continue When Facebook Reports Earnings? | Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) has endured a stunning fall from grace over the past year. The Cambridge Analytica scandal was just the first in a seemingly endless series of missteps, mostly concerning users' data privacy and the role of bad actors on its platform. Most recently, Facebook has been dealing with slowing user growth, something the company has been signaling for some time. The combination of these factors and the recent market correction had caused Facebook's stock to lose as much as 40% of its value in the second half of 2018, though it has recently recouped some of those losses. Facebook is scheduled to release the financial results of its just-completed fourth quarter on Wednesday, Jan. 30, after the market closes. Let's take a look at the company's third-quarter performance and its most recent forecast to see if they provide any insight into what investors can expect from the upcoming earnings report. The back of a young man wearing a Facebook shirt working at a computer screen filled with code. More Image source: Facebook. Decelerating revenue growth For the third quarter, Facebook reported revenue of $13.7 billion, up 33% year over year. While this result might seem enviable, it missed analysts' consensus estimates of $13.78 billion and represents a rapid deceleration from the company's performance in the two previous sequential quarters, which produced year-over-year growth of 42% and 50%, respectively. Third quarter operating margins also took a hit against the prior-year quarter, declining 800 basis points from 50% to 42% of revenue. This resulted in diluted earnings per share of $1.76, an increase of just 11% compared to the prior-year quarter. The biggest cause for the financial shortfall was slowing user growth. Monthly active users increased to 2.27 billion, up 9.6% year over year, while daily active users grew to 1.49 billion, up 9.3% against the comparable quarter. European users contracted for the second quarter in a row, which hurt overall user growth. Facebook updated how it counts existing users during the quarter, which also took a toll on aggregate numbers. Expectations for the quarter For the fourth quarter, Facebook didn't provide specific metrics, rather, it provided the following guidance. The company is expecting revenue growth to decelerate by a mid- to high-single-digit percentage, which would result in a decrease of 5% to 9% compared to the 33% growth it achieved in the third quarter. Spending will also be higher, with full-year expenses growing between 50% and 55% compared with 2017 -- when spending topped $20.45 billion. Backing out the year-to-date expenses thus far puts fourth-quarter costs in a range of $8.84 to $9.87 billion. This would result in operating margins of between 40% and 46%, so there's a chance for sequential margin improvement. While we don't want to get caught up in Wall Street's short-term mindset, knowing its expectations can provide context regarding investors' overall sentiment toward the company. Analysts' consensus estimates anticipate revenue of $16.4 billion, up 26% year over year, near the midpoint of management's guidance, and earnings per share of $2.19, an increase of 52% over the prior-year quarter. Investor takeaway Challenges remain for Facebook and its investors. The company is continuing its ongoing battle with fake news and those who would seek to manipulate its users. The increase in spending is designed to address some of those issues. The slowing revenue growth will likely continue until user confidence is restored, which won't happen overnight. We'll know more when Facebook reports earnings on Wednesday. More From The Motley Fool Danny Vena owns shares of Facebook. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. | Facebook is scheduled to release the financial results of its just-completed fourth quarter on Wednesday, Jan. 30. For the third quarter, Facebook reported revenue of $13.7 billion, up 33% year over year. The company is expecting revenue growth to decelerate by a mid- to high-single-digit percentage. | bart | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/decelerating-growth-continue-facebook-reports-211500618.html | 0.299766 |
How Does Romance Is A Bonus Book Compare To Younger? | Translating the TV Land hit Younger, which stars Sutton Foster, Nico Tortorella and Debi Mazar, into a Korean drama was never going to be simple, but thats the task taken on by the new drama Romance Is A Bonus Book, starring Lee Jong Suk and Lee Na Young. The original comedy-drama was created and produced by Darren Starr and is based on the novel Younger by Pamela Redmond Satran. The k-drama version is produced by Studio Dragon for the Korean television station tvN and features Lee Na Youngs first drama appearance in nine years. Some plot alterations have taken place to appeal to a Korean audience, but it remains a winning story. Spoilers ahead: The first hurdle a Korean version has to overcome is the fact that Fosters character Lisa lies about her age. Its a lot harder to avoid talking about your age in Korea since so much of the way people relate to each other or even speak to each other is based on their relative age. Whats different is that instead of lying about her age, Lee Na Youngs character Kang Dan Bi has to lie about her education and experience, ditching accomplishments rather than years. Whats the same is that both women took time off from their careers to raise a child and that works against them when they apply for a job. Whats the same in both cases is that the main character lost her home due to her husbands shortcomings. And in both cases, the financially destitute, single mom has a daughter to support who is attending an expensive school. Both women are desperate for a job. Whats different is that Fosters character has a quirky artist friend who is prepared to share her loft in trendy Williamsburg. Lee Na Young's character has friends but no one is offering her a couch, so she is secretly living in Lee Jong Suks house. Its a classic k-drama trope that a man and woman are forced to live together before they find out how well they fit together. Both women work for a publishing company. In Younger, Fosters character Lisa wears a fun collection of funky secondhand clothes to her job. That might not work in a Korean office, so a fairy godmother of sorts gets her counterpart some designer clothes. In both cases the clothes make the character look younger than her years. The biggest difference between the original and the k-drama remake is that Lee Na Youngs character knows her future employer, who is obviously already in love with her. In this drama Lee Jong Suk, who recently played a doomed poet in Hymn of Death, plays a professor, editor, and author. He is five years younger than her and they've been friends since childhood. In the American story, Younger, Fosters character is actually the same age as her publisher, although pretending to be younger, but then considerably older than the young tattoo artist she dates. In both versions a younger man is interested in an older woman, but given the ages that the characters are supposed to be, Lee Na Youngs character could wind up in a love triangle with two younger men. The other romantic possibility is the freelance book designer played by Wi Ha Joon, who is supposed to be eight years younger. By the end of the first episode hes already charmed Lee Na Young's character by finding her lost heels and slipping them on her feet, Cinderella style. The younger man character definitely got a makeover in the k-drama version. He's far less edgy than Tortorellas tattoo artist. Dating a tattoo artist gives Fosters character an exciting new perspective, so it remains to be seen what Wi Ha Joons character will offer. Lee Jong Suk is popular actor with a long string of successful k-dramas, including Pinocchio, Doctor Stranger, W and While You Were Sleeping, so this drama is likely to earn good ratings. Even if it veers from the original American story, both stories still offer an important lesson. Judging women negatively for interrupting a career to raise children is short sighted. Raising a child confers many practical skills that can help you succeed in the workplace. Both stories explain why employers should perhaps step beyond simple hiring prejudices and take a chance. Exactly reproducing Younger would have been impossible, but the k-dramas compendium of romance, publishing and top stars, is likely to make Romance Is A Bonus Book a hit. | The new drama Romance Is A Bonus Book, starring Lee Jong Suk and Lee Na Young. The original comedy-drama was created and produced by Darren Starr and is based on the novel Younger by Pamela Redmond Satran. Some plot alterations have taken place to appeal to a Korean audience, but it remains a winning story. | bart | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanmacdonald/2019/01/27/how-does-romance-is-a-bonus-book-compare-to-younger/ | 0.166915 |
Are we seeing greater inclusivity in the movie industry? | Video On its 20th anniversary, Talking Movies assesses what progress has been made to bring about greater inclusivity in films. The rise of #OscarsSoWhite and #Metoo campaigns has seen the issues of gender disparity and a lack of diversity gain more of a profile. Superhero movie Black Panther was seen as a leap forward in diversity, but away from the big blockbusters other film-makers are also telling a wider range of stories. The tools to make films, the tools to create cinema have finally after 80, 90 years reached the people who didnt grow up in the suburbs, or who didnt grow up with a silver spoon and now those people have been empowered to tell their stories, says director Barry Jenkins. The BBCs Tom Brook reports. Talking Movies can be seen on BBC World News. | On its 20th anniversary, Talking Movies assesses what progress has been made to bring about greater inclusivity in films. | bart | 0 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-46964839/are-we-seeing-greater-inclusivity-in-the-movie-industry | 0.136556 |
Are we seeing greater inclusivity in the movie industry? | Video On its 20th anniversary, Talking Movies assesses what progress has been made to bring about greater inclusivity in films. The rise of #OscarsSoWhite and #Metoo campaigns has seen the issues of gender disparity and a lack of diversity gain more of a profile. Superhero movie Black Panther was seen as a leap forward in diversity, but away from the big blockbusters other film-makers are also telling a wider range of stories. The tools to make films, the tools to create cinema have finally after 80, 90 years reached the people who didnt grow up in the suburbs, or who didnt grow up with a silver spoon and now those people have been empowered to tell their stories, says director Barry Jenkins. The BBCs Tom Brook reports. Talking Movies can be seen on BBC World News. | On its 20th anniversary, Talking Movies assesses what progress has been made to bring about greater inclusivity in films. #OscarsSoWhite and #Metoo campaigns has seen the issues of gender disparity and a lack of diversity gain more of a profile. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-46964839/are-we-seeing-greater-inclusivity-in-the-movie-industry | 0.196497 |
Is Orkney the best place to live in the UK? | The archipelago which lies 10 miles (16km) off Scotland's north coast, is famed for its spectacular landscapes and archaeological treasures but it is home to just 22,000 people, spread over 20 inhabitable islands. The Halifax Bank of Scotland Quality of Life survey ranked it above all other areas of the UK, with Richmondshire in North Yorkshire in second place, followed by Rutland in the East Midlands, Hambleton in North Yorkshire and Eden in Cumbria in fifth place. Orkney got the top spot based on its high employment levels, low crime rate, strong exam results, smaller primary class sizes and good health and happiness scores. But is it really possible to say that these factors outweigh the difficulties of living on an island, with the problems that brings. By Huw Williams, BBC Scotland reporter in Orkney Image copyright Colin Keldie Image caption Hoy is one of the 70 islands that make up the archipelago This survey, like many others before it, takes into account factors like residents' health and life expectancy, employment and crime rates. And, like many other similar surveys, it gives top place to Orkney. Organisations which promote the islands will seize on that fact. And many local people will undoubtedly be proud that Orkney regularly scores well in such league tables. But there may also be some scepticism - based largely on what reports like this don't ask about. They never seem to include things like the cost of living, reliability of transport links, robustness of digital connectivity and levels of fuel poverty. Even Orkney's biggest fans would have to concede the results might look rather different if those factors were included. All the top five are relatively sparsely populated, with Orkney averaging just 22 people per kilometre. Image copyright Amanda Ruddick Image caption Orkney is one of the best places in the UK to see the aurora borealis Image copyright Peter Starling Image caption Reflections of Scapa Pier, near Kirkwall, Orkney's main town. Other factors that were judged to be in Orkney's favour were the affordability of housing (an average house price of 173,349) and the high employment rate, with almost nine in ten (88%) 16-64 year-olds in work. The weekly average earnings in Orkney (671) were well below some other parts of Scotland and the UK but are slightly above the average. Image copyright Catherine Mackinnon Image caption Skara Brae is a Unesco world heritage site, which is older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid Image copyright Dr Sarah Christie Image caption The Italian Chapel was built by prisoners of war during World War Two People in Orkney also enjoy one of the lowest crime rates in Scotland, with 5.9 crimes per 10,000 population, compared to a national average of 44.1. Maybe this is why figures from the Office of National Statistics indicate adults living in Orkney are among the most happy, satisfied and content in the UK, with low anxiety rates. | Halifax Bank of Scotland Quality of Life survey ranks Orkney as best place to live in the UK. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-47000276 | 0.334333 |
Is Orkney the best place to live in the UK? | The archipelago which lies 10 miles (16km) off Scotland's north coast, is famed for its spectacular landscapes and archaeological treasures but it is home to just 22,000 people, spread over 20 inhabitable islands. The Halifax Bank of Scotland Quality of Life survey ranked it above all other areas of the UK, with Richmondshire in North Yorkshire in second place, followed by Rutland in the East Midlands, Hambleton in North Yorkshire and Eden in Cumbria in fifth place. Orkney got the top spot based on its high employment levels, low crime rate, strong exam results, smaller primary class sizes and good health and happiness scores. But is it really possible to say that these factors outweigh the difficulties of living on an island, with the problems that brings. By Huw Williams, BBC Scotland reporter in Orkney Image copyright Colin Keldie Image caption Hoy is one of the 70 islands that make up the archipelago This survey, like many others before it, takes into account factors like residents' health and life expectancy, employment and crime rates. And, like many other similar surveys, it gives top place to Orkney. Organisations which promote the islands will seize on that fact. And many local people will undoubtedly be proud that Orkney regularly scores well in such league tables. But there may also be some scepticism - based largely on what reports like this don't ask about. They never seem to include things like the cost of living, reliability of transport links, robustness of digital connectivity and levels of fuel poverty. Even Orkney's biggest fans would have to concede the results might look rather different if those factors were included. All the top five are relatively sparsely populated, with Orkney averaging just 22 people per kilometre. Image copyright Amanda Ruddick Image caption Orkney is one of the best places in the UK to see the aurora borealis Image copyright Peter Starling Image caption Reflections of Scapa Pier, near Kirkwall, Orkney's main town. Other factors that were judged to be in Orkney's favour were the affordability of housing (an average house price of 173,349) and the high employment rate, with almost nine in ten (88%) 16-64 year-olds in work. The weekly average earnings in Orkney (671) were well below some other parts of Scotland and the UK but are slightly above the average. Image copyright Catherine Mackinnon Image caption Skara Brae is a Unesco world heritage site, which is older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid Image copyright Dr Sarah Christie Image caption The Italian Chapel was built by prisoners of war during World War Two People in Orkney also enjoy one of the lowest crime rates in Scotland, with 5.9 crimes per 10,000 population, compared to a national average of 44.1. Maybe this is why figures from the Office of National Statistics indicate adults living in Orkney are among the most happy, satisfied and content in the UK, with low anxiety rates. | Halifax Bank of Scotland Quality of Life survey ranks Orkney as best place to live in the UK. But is it really possible to say that these factors outweigh the difficulties of living on an island, with all the problems that brings? The survey takes into account factors like residents' health and life expectancy, employment and crime rates. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-47000276 | 0.384909 |
Can commercial satellites be used for espionage? | For decades, the U.S. has relied on spy satellites to look deep into the territory of American adversaries, and for years, these were the cameras dominating Earth's orbit. Not anymore. As David Martin reports on 60 Minutes this week, there are now commercial companies putting small satellites in space and allowing customers to purchase panoramic images of Earth. As a result, the U.S. government no longer holds a monopoly on the photos taken from orbitand has no power to classify commercial images as top secret. One of those companies, Planet Labs, has put about 300 satellites into orbit, enough to image the entire landmass of Earth every day. The company has done it, in part, by reducing the dimension of its satellites. Government satellites are the size of a pickup truck; Planet Labs' are the size of a loaf of bread. Planet Labs' commercial satellites are no bigger than a loaf of bread. For comparison, government satellites are about the size of a pickup truck. The U.S. government sets limits on commercial satellite use and mandates that American companies obtain a license. It also restricts the optical resolution of satellites; commercial cameras are not allowed to zoom down to the same detail as a spy satellite. Still, the resolution comes relatively close. Martin told 60 Minutes Overtime that U.S. military officers could use commercial satellites for 90 percent of the intelligence they need. These new satellites make close monitoringif not outright espionagean option, particularly for governments that do not have their own advanced satellite technology. The first spy photos that American satellites took of the former Soviet Union were not as high quality as the photos that Planet Labs is now taking. The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency even uses Planet Labs images to get a more complete look at the world, particularly in places where U.S. spy satellites are not focused. The humanitarian uses for commercial satellite images are numerous. Planet Labs' photographs monitor change, creating before-and-after pictures of environmental transformations, such as deforestation, receding glaciers, and melting ice caps. Planet Labs Planet Labs Satellite images captured by Planet Labs Planet Labs But there is also plenty of potential for people to use commercial images in nefarious ways. For example, people with access to satellite images could keep a daily record of the number of U.S. Navy ships in port. "If the United States were trying to move an army, as they did in the first Persian Gulf War," Martin said, "move an army without the enemy seeing it, the satellite would see it." Anyone who obtained the images would also see an army on the move. Dictators wanting to cleanse an ethnicity would similarly be able to track movements of refugees, Martin said. Will Marshall, a Planet Labs co-founder, told Martin his company hired an ethics officer to monitor this specific question. "We have a process to review every single new client on a case-by-case basis," Marshall said. "Is it in line with our values?" U.S. sanctions prohibit companies like Planet Labs from selling to countries like North Korea or Russia. But, Martin said, that's what front companies are for. "You can, I think, rely on Planet to operate in good faith," Martin said. "Whether or not they can be fooled is another question." To watch David Martin's 60 Minutes report on small satellites, click here. The video above was produced by Will Croxton and Brit McCandless Farmer. It was edited by Will Croxton. Satellite photos courtesy of Planet Labs Inc. | For decades, the U.S. relied on spy satellites to look deep into the territory of American adversaries. Now there are commercial companies putting small satellites in space and allowing customers to purchase panoramic images of Earth. | pegasus | 1 | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/can-commercial-satellites-be-used-for-espionage-60-minutes/ | 0.116203 |
Can commercial satellites be used for espionage? | For decades, the U.S. has relied on spy satellites to look deep into the territory of American adversaries, and for years, these were the cameras dominating Earth's orbit. Not anymore. As David Martin reports on 60 Minutes this week, there are now commercial companies putting small satellites in space and allowing customers to purchase panoramic images of Earth. As a result, the U.S. government no longer holds a monopoly on the photos taken from orbitand has no power to classify commercial images as top secret. One of those companies, Planet Labs, has put about 300 satellites into orbit, enough to image the entire landmass of Earth every day. The company has done it, in part, by reducing the dimension of its satellites. Government satellites are the size of a pickup truck; Planet Labs' are the size of a loaf of bread. Planet Labs' commercial satellites are no bigger than a loaf of bread. For comparison, government satellites are about the size of a pickup truck. The U.S. government sets limits on commercial satellite use and mandates that American companies obtain a license. It also restricts the optical resolution of satellites; commercial cameras are not allowed to zoom down to the same detail as a spy satellite. Still, the resolution comes relatively close. Martin told 60 Minutes Overtime that U.S. military officers could use commercial satellites for 90 percent of the intelligence they need. These new satellites make close monitoringif not outright espionagean option, particularly for governments that do not have their own advanced satellite technology. The first spy photos that American satellites took of the former Soviet Union were not as high quality as the photos that Planet Labs is now taking. The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency even uses Planet Labs images to get a more complete look at the world, particularly in places where U.S. spy satellites are not focused. The humanitarian uses for commercial satellite images are numerous. Planet Labs' photographs monitor change, creating before-and-after pictures of environmental transformations, such as deforestation, receding glaciers, and melting ice caps. Planet Labs Planet Labs Satellite images captured by Planet Labs Planet Labs But there is also plenty of potential for people to use commercial images in nefarious ways. For example, people with access to satellite images could keep a daily record of the number of U.S. Navy ships in port. "If the United States were trying to move an army, as they did in the first Persian Gulf War," Martin said, "move an army without the enemy seeing it, the satellite would see it." Anyone who obtained the images would also see an army on the move. Dictators wanting to cleanse an ethnicity would similarly be able to track movements of refugees, Martin said. Will Marshall, a Planet Labs co-founder, told Martin his company hired an ethics officer to monitor this specific question. "We have a process to review every single new client on a case-by-case basis," Marshall said. "Is it in line with our values?" U.S. sanctions prohibit companies like Planet Labs from selling to countries like North Korea or Russia. But, Martin said, that's what front companies are for. "You can, I think, rely on Planet to operate in good faith," Martin said. "Whether or not they can be fooled is another question." To watch David Martin's 60 Minutes report on small satellites, click here. The video above was produced by Will Croxton and Brit McCandless Farmer. It was edited by Will Croxton. Satellite photos courtesy of Planet Labs Inc. | For decades, the U.S. relied on spy satellites to look deep into the territory of American adversaries. Now there are commercial companies putting small satellites in space and allowing customers to purchase panoramic images of Earth. Planet Labs has put about 300 satellites into orbit, enough to image the entire landmass of Earth every day. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/can-commercial-satellites-be-used-for-espionage-60-minutes/ | 0.118004 |
What follows, should U.S. troops indeed leave Syria? | When President Donald Trump abruptly announced on Dec. 19 that he was pulling all U.S. troops out of Syria, he suggested they were already on the way home. We have won against ISIS, the president said. Our boys, our young women, our men theyre all coming back, and theyre coming back now. His now was premature. More than a month later, the 2,000 or so U.S. military personnel remain in eastern Syria and administration policy remains as much a muddle as ever. American diplomats are still haggling with Turkey over the conditions under which U.S. troops will come out, and the Pentagon has announced no timeline for their removal. The holdup isnt merely logistical. Like it or not and the president often sounds as if he doesnt the United States still has significant interests in Syria. Despite Trumps claim, ISIS appears stubbornly alive, if not well. Its militants have launched two suicide attacks against U.S. troops in the past week, one of which killed four Americans. Iran, which Trump considers a malevolent enemy, has moved thousands of forces into Syria and could try to grab territory abandoned by U.S. troops as it seeks to further its influence. The latest war within a war, between Iran and Israel, has now escalated sharply. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his air force had struck Iranian-linked targets in Syria hundreds of times. Trumps initial order to remove U.S. troops was impulsive at best, taking senior aides by surprise and without any evident support from the Pentagon or his national security team. Indeed, his decision prompted Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to resign in protest due, in part, to concerns that Turkey would use the U.S. pullout to slaughter Kurdish fighters who have been stalwart American allies but oppose the regime in Ankara. Theres no plan for whats coming next, Brett McGurk, the former U.S. diplomat who ran the coalition against ISIS but also resigned early over the Syria decision, complained Sunday on CBS-TVs Face the Nation. Aides have scrambled to convince the president that an orderly withdrawal of 2,000 troops and their equipment will require more than 30 days, and they appear to have succeeded. By all reports, only a few vehicles have decamped. I never said we are doing it that quickly, Trump said on Jan. 6, or 18 days after he said they were coming back now. But the president and his advisers still havent solved a more complex problem: finding a post-withdrawal strategy that protects U.S. interests. So far, administration officials merely say they will pursue the same goals by working through allies. Its hard to see that as a blueprint for success. In a recent speech in Cairo, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said U.S. forces would continue to fight ISIS with U.S. and coalition airstrikes, but on the ground were looking for our partners to do more. U.S. officials long have pleaded with Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies to deploy a multinational force in Syria, to no avail. There is no capable ground force available. Organizing a new military coalition takes American leadership and takes American presence and weve just told the world that were not going to be present, McGurk said. In his Cairo speech, Pompeo reaffirmed another ambitious goal, saying the administration intended to expel every last Iranian boot from Syria. In Pompeos formulation, the Trump administration will push the Iranians out through diplomatic pressure and work with the United Nations a body that Trump has regularly scorned to bring peace and stability to the long-suffering Syrian people. If President Barack Obama had said that three years ago, then-Rep. Pompeo would have dismissed it as meaningless rhetoric. Still, when it comes to Irans presence, the Trump administration has the next best thing to a strategy: the Israeli air force. Netanyahu and Israeli military leaders decided more than a year ago that Irans forces posed a threat on their northern border, and they escalated airstrikes against Iranian military units there. Until then, Israeli warplanes had targeted Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militia, but mostly avoided Iranian forces. Now Israeli officials are publicizing their military offensive in a clear message to Tehran. Dont get the idea you can move in just because the Americans are moving out, a foreign policy expert in Jerusalem said. Thats not quite expelling every Iranian boot, but its more concrete than what the White House has offered. Lets be clear. Theres nothing inherently wrong with pulling U.S. troops out of Syria as long as its part of a well-crafted strategy. Obama reluctantly deployed troops in 2015 and planned to keep them in Syria only long enough to defeat ISIS. On that count, Trump agreed. The question bedeviling the Trump administration is how to continue pursuing American interests in Syria the suppression of terrorism and the containment of Iran after complying with the presidents order to leave. Better to settle on more plausible goals and recognize that the United States will still be engaged in a long twilight war in Syria even after our troops are gone. Trumps withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria isnt happening as quickly as he wanted. The administration has slowed the withdrawal for fear that it would allow Iran to expand its influence. An escalating war between Iran and Israel only heightens the stakes. | President Donald Trump abruptly announced on Dec. 19 that he was pulling all U.S. troops out of Syria. More than a month later, the 2,000 or so U.S. military personnel remain in eastern Syria. | pegasus | 1 | http://www.startribune.com/the-war-on-terror-but-what-follows-should-u-s-troops-indeed-leave-syria/504891902/ | 0.110359 |
What follows, should U.S. troops indeed leave Syria? | When President Donald Trump abruptly announced on Dec. 19 that he was pulling all U.S. troops out of Syria, he suggested they were already on the way home. We have won against ISIS, the president said. Our boys, our young women, our men theyre all coming back, and theyre coming back now. His now was premature. More than a month later, the 2,000 or so U.S. military personnel remain in eastern Syria and administration policy remains as much a muddle as ever. American diplomats are still haggling with Turkey over the conditions under which U.S. troops will come out, and the Pentagon has announced no timeline for their removal. The holdup isnt merely logistical. Like it or not and the president often sounds as if he doesnt the United States still has significant interests in Syria. Despite Trumps claim, ISIS appears stubbornly alive, if not well. Its militants have launched two suicide attacks against U.S. troops in the past week, one of which killed four Americans. Iran, which Trump considers a malevolent enemy, has moved thousands of forces into Syria and could try to grab territory abandoned by U.S. troops as it seeks to further its influence. The latest war within a war, between Iran and Israel, has now escalated sharply. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his air force had struck Iranian-linked targets in Syria hundreds of times. Trumps initial order to remove U.S. troops was impulsive at best, taking senior aides by surprise and without any evident support from the Pentagon or his national security team. Indeed, his decision prompted Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to resign in protest due, in part, to concerns that Turkey would use the U.S. pullout to slaughter Kurdish fighters who have been stalwart American allies but oppose the regime in Ankara. Theres no plan for whats coming next, Brett McGurk, the former U.S. diplomat who ran the coalition against ISIS but also resigned early over the Syria decision, complained Sunday on CBS-TVs Face the Nation. Aides have scrambled to convince the president that an orderly withdrawal of 2,000 troops and their equipment will require more than 30 days, and they appear to have succeeded. By all reports, only a few vehicles have decamped. I never said we are doing it that quickly, Trump said on Jan. 6, or 18 days after he said they were coming back now. But the president and his advisers still havent solved a more complex problem: finding a post-withdrawal strategy that protects U.S. interests. So far, administration officials merely say they will pursue the same goals by working through allies. Its hard to see that as a blueprint for success. In a recent speech in Cairo, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said U.S. forces would continue to fight ISIS with U.S. and coalition airstrikes, but on the ground were looking for our partners to do more. U.S. officials long have pleaded with Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies to deploy a multinational force in Syria, to no avail. There is no capable ground force available. Organizing a new military coalition takes American leadership and takes American presence and weve just told the world that were not going to be present, McGurk said. In his Cairo speech, Pompeo reaffirmed another ambitious goal, saying the administration intended to expel every last Iranian boot from Syria. In Pompeos formulation, the Trump administration will push the Iranians out through diplomatic pressure and work with the United Nations a body that Trump has regularly scorned to bring peace and stability to the long-suffering Syrian people. If President Barack Obama had said that three years ago, then-Rep. Pompeo would have dismissed it as meaningless rhetoric. Still, when it comes to Irans presence, the Trump administration has the next best thing to a strategy: the Israeli air force. Netanyahu and Israeli military leaders decided more than a year ago that Irans forces posed a threat on their northern border, and they escalated airstrikes against Iranian military units there. Until then, Israeli warplanes had targeted Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militia, but mostly avoided Iranian forces. Now Israeli officials are publicizing their military offensive in a clear message to Tehran. Dont get the idea you can move in just because the Americans are moving out, a foreign policy expert in Jerusalem said. Thats not quite expelling every Iranian boot, but its more concrete than what the White House has offered. Lets be clear. Theres nothing inherently wrong with pulling U.S. troops out of Syria as long as its part of a well-crafted strategy. Obama reluctantly deployed troops in 2015 and planned to keep them in Syria only long enough to defeat ISIS. On that count, Trump agreed. The question bedeviling the Trump administration is how to continue pursuing American interests in Syria the suppression of terrorism and the containment of Iran after complying with the presidents order to leave. Better to settle on more plausible goals and recognize that the United States will still be engaged in a long twilight war in Syria even after our troops are gone. Trumps withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria isnt happening as quickly as he wanted. The administration has slowed the withdrawal for fear that it would allow Iran to expand its influence. An escalating war between Iran and Israel only heightens the stakes. | President Donald Trump said he was pulling all U.S. troops out of Syria. More than a month later, the 2,000 or so military personnel remain in eastern Syria. Despite Trumps claim, ISIS appears stubbornly alive, if not well. Iran has moved thousands of forces into Syria and could try to grab territory. | bart | 2 | http://www.startribune.com/the-war-on-terror-but-what-follows-should-u-s-troops-indeed-leave-syria/504891902/ | 0.210962 |
Can NZ keep allowing private equity poaching? | New Zealand needs to decide whether it's acceptable for so many companies to be snapped up by overseas private equity firms long before those companies are developed enough to list on NZX, says Financial Markets Authority chief executive Rob Everett. "If all the best investment opportunities are taken up by private equity, what's available for listing, more often than not, will have had all the juice squeezed out of it," Everett told BusinessDesk. NZX has tried a number of things to try to encourage smaller and earlier-stage companies to list by establishing a junior board. But three iterations the New Capital Market, Alternative Market and the short-lived NXT Market tried since early 2000 have all failed to fire. Advertisement NZX finally threw in the towel last year when it decided to fold the two remaining junior boards, AX and NXT, into the main board. "That, in many ways, is the crux of the issue," Everett says. "If you look at the New Zealand economy, most of the companies that are being bought by overseas private equity are a long way from being ready for listing," he says. It's this situation, and the consequent dearth of new equity listings on NZX, that have inspired the current formal review sponsored by NZX and the FMA. It is designed to try and revive listings and called Capital Markets 2029. Not only are new equity listings on NZX almost non-existent there were two last year, neither of them initial public offerings, and two in 2017, only one of them an IPO but takeovers and business failures mean the number of equity listings has dropped steadily year after year, most recently to 138 in December from 173 in December 2015 But Everett says the review needs to take a much broader look than at the impediments to listing. "You can't have a conversation about more listings unless you look at the entire ecosystem," he says. Another attempt to generate early stage capital to fund new businesses was including crowd-funding rules in the Financial Markets Conduct Act passed in 2013. Everett says legislators took "quite a brave step" creating the crowd-funding regime but it hasn't taken off in any size. An obvious question is whether merchant bankers and fund managers are less willing to take risks than they once were. TIL Logistics, with a current market capitalisation of $119.2 million, listed in late 2017 via a backdoor listing because its owners were told there was no support for an IPO. TIL's size and operations are reasonably comparable to those of Mainfreight, which raised $57 million by selling shares at 96 cents each in its 1996 float. Mainfreight has since expanded globally and its market capitalisation is now $3.2 billion, or $32.01 per share. TIL had already demonstrated an appetite for growth before its listing. Certainly, the evidence of recent rights issues from Fletcher Building's $750 million issue last year to Gentrack's $90 million and Seeka's $50 million issues appears to show that underwriters will only take "risks" when the outcome is a sure bet that could be achieved without underwriting. Everett says he has sat on the merchant banking and funds management side of the fence and notes the New Zealand firms are small by international standards. "It only takes one or two to go wrong" and potential New Zealand underwriters would be severely damaged, if not wiped out. The resources required to support both early stage capital raising through to an NZX listing are matters the review needs to examine, he says. "My impression is that there's a fairly strong sentiment among New Zealand investors that ideally they would like to be supporting the New Zealand economy people want to support New Zealand businesses," Everett says. "At the moment, the opportunities for them to do so aren't there because New Zealand businesses aren't listing and there aren't mechanisms further down the chain." Now is a good time for such a conversation, he says. He would have preferred to get the review up and running last year, but the FMA and Reserve Bank of New Zealand were distracted by their reviews of the banking and insurance industries. But the delay was also due in part to the time needed to find the right people available to run the review former FNZC head of investment banking Martin Stearne is leading the review with accounting firm EY providing support. "There's been a fair amount of warming up before we got to this." The results are expected to be published in the September quarter. Everett says it is important to get the review launched before the next election in 2020. "I think we've got time to get something meaningful done this year before people start to get distracted with elections." The problem isn't isolated to New Zealand the United States and Britain are having similar conversations about how to keep up a flow of new listings and to keep their stock exchanges growing, he says. "Most stock exchanges are struggling with how do we attract new listings, how do we keep growing." One school of thought is that the rise of exchange-traded passive funds - and NZX manages several such funds - may be a reason smaller companies are starved of capital. Smaller companies typically don't qualify for inclusion in the indices such funds track. | New Zealand needs to decide whether it's acceptable for so many companies to be snapped up by overseas private equity firms. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12197388 | 0.124372 |
Can NZ keep allowing private equity poaching? | New Zealand needs to decide whether it's acceptable for so many companies to be snapped up by overseas private equity firms long before those companies are developed enough to list on NZX, says Financial Markets Authority chief executive Rob Everett. "If all the best investment opportunities are taken up by private equity, what's available for listing, more often than not, will have had all the juice squeezed out of it," Everett told BusinessDesk. NZX has tried a number of things to try to encourage smaller and earlier-stage companies to list by establishing a junior board. But three iterations the New Capital Market, Alternative Market and the short-lived NXT Market tried since early 2000 have all failed to fire. Advertisement NZX finally threw in the towel last year when it decided to fold the two remaining junior boards, AX and NXT, into the main board. "That, in many ways, is the crux of the issue," Everett says. "If you look at the New Zealand economy, most of the companies that are being bought by overseas private equity are a long way from being ready for listing," he says. It's this situation, and the consequent dearth of new equity listings on NZX, that have inspired the current formal review sponsored by NZX and the FMA. It is designed to try and revive listings and called Capital Markets 2029. Not only are new equity listings on NZX almost non-existent there were two last year, neither of them initial public offerings, and two in 2017, only one of them an IPO but takeovers and business failures mean the number of equity listings has dropped steadily year after year, most recently to 138 in December from 173 in December 2015 But Everett says the review needs to take a much broader look than at the impediments to listing. "You can't have a conversation about more listings unless you look at the entire ecosystem," he says. Another attempt to generate early stage capital to fund new businesses was including crowd-funding rules in the Financial Markets Conduct Act passed in 2013. Everett says legislators took "quite a brave step" creating the crowd-funding regime but it hasn't taken off in any size. An obvious question is whether merchant bankers and fund managers are less willing to take risks than they once were. TIL Logistics, with a current market capitalisation of $119.2 million, listed in late 2017 via a backdoor listing because its owners were told there was no support for an IPO. TIL's size and operations are reasonably comparable to those of Mainfreight, which raised $57 million by selling shares at 96 cents each in its 1996 float. Mainfreight has since expanded globally and its market capitalisation is now $3.2 billion, or $32.01 per share. TIL had already demonstrated an appetite for growth before its listing. Certainly, the evidence of recent rights issues from Fletcher Building's $750 million issue last year to Gentrack's $90 million and Seeka's $50 million issues appears to show that underwriters will only take "risks" when the outcome is a sure bet that could be achieved without underwriting. Everett says he has sat on the merchant banking and funds management side of the fence and notes the New Zealand firms are small by international standards. "It only takes one or two to go wrong" and potential New Zealand underwriters would be severely damaged, if not wiped out. The resources required to support both early stage capital raising through to an NZX listing are matters the review needs to examine, he says. "My impression is that there's a fairly strong sentiment among New Zealand investors that ideally they would like to be supporting the New Zealand economy people want to support New Zealand businesses," Everett says. "At the moment, the opportunities for them to do so aren't there because New Zealand businesses aren't listing and there aren't mechanisms further down the chain." Now is a good time for such a conversation, he says. He would have preferred to get the review up and running last year, but the FMA and Reserve Bank of New Zealand were distracted by their reviews of the banking and insurance industries. But the delay was also due in part to the time needed to find the right people available to run the review former FNZC head of investment banking Martin Stearne is leading the review with accounting firm EY providing support. "There's been a fair amount of warming up before we got to this." The results are expected to be published in the September quarter. Everett says it is important to get the review launched before the next election in 2020. "I think we've got time to get something meaningful done this year before people start to get distracted with elections." The problem isn't isolated to New Zealand the United States and Britain are having similar conversations about how to keep up a flow of new listings and to keep their stock exchanges growing, he says. "Most stock exchanges are struggling with how do we attract new listings, how do we keep growing." One school of thought is that the rise of exchange-traded passive funds - and NZX manages several such funds - may be a reason smaller companies are starved of capital. Smaller companies typically don't qualify for inclusion in the indices such funds track. | New Zealand needs to decide whether it's acceptable for so many companies to be snapped up by overseas private equity firms long before those companies are developed enough to list on NZX. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12197388 | 0.114038 |
Can NZ keep allowing private equity poaching? | New Zealand needs to decide whether it's acceptable for so many companies to be snapped up by overseas private equity firms long before those companies are developed enough to list on NZX, says Financial Markets Authority chief executive Rob Everett. "If all the best investment opportunities are taken up by private equity, what's available for listing, more often than not, will have had all the juice squeezed out of it," Everett told BusinessDesk. NZX has tried a number of things to try to encourage smaller and earlier-stage companies to list by establishing a junior board. But three iterations the New Capital Market, Alternative Market and the short-lived NXT Market tried since early 2000 have all failed to fire. Advertisement NZX finally threw in the towel last year when it decided to fold the two remaining junior boards, AX and NXT, into the main board. "That, in many ways, is the crux of the issue," Everett says. "If you look at the New Zealand economy, most of the companies that are being bought by overseas private equity are a long way from being ready for listing," he says. It's this situation, and the consequent dearth of new equity listings on NZX, that have inspired the current formal review sponsored by NZX and the FMA. It is designed to try and revive listings and called Capital Markets 2029. Not only are new equity listings on NZX almost non-existent there were two last year, neither of them initial public offerings, and two in 2017, only one of them an IPO but takeovers and business failures mean the number of equity listings has dropped steadily year after year, most recently to 138 in December from 173 in December 2015 But Everett says the review needs to take a much broader look than at the impediments to listing. "You can't have a conversation about more listings unless you look at the entire ecosystem," he says. Another attempt to generate early stage capital to fund new businesses was including crowd-funding rules in the Financial Markets Conduct Act passed in 2013. Everett says legislators took "quite a brave step" creating the crowd-funding regime but it hasn't taken off in any size. An obvious question is whether merchant bankers and fund managers are less willing to take risks than they once were. TIL Logistics, with a current market capitalisation of $119.2 million, listed in late 2017 via a backdoor listing because its owners were told there was no support for an IPO. TIL's size and operations are reasonably comparable to those of Mainfreight, which raised $57 million by selling shares at 96 cents each in its 1996 float. Mainfreight has since expanded globally and its market capitalisation is now $3.2 billion, or $32.01 per share. TIL had already demonstrated an appetite for growth before its listing. Certainly, the evidence of recent rights issues from Fletcher Building's $750 million issue last year to Gentrack's $90 million and Seeka's $50 million issues appears to show that underwriters will only take "risks" when the outcome is a sure bet that could be achieved without underwriting. Everett says he has sat on the merchant banking and funds management side of the fence and notes the New Zealand firms are small by international standards. "It only takes one or two to go wrong" and potential New Zealand underwriters would be severely damaged, if not wiped out. The resources required to support both early stage capital raising through to an NZX listing are matters the review needs to examine, he says. "My impression is that there's a fairly strong sentiment among New Zealand investors that ideally they would like to be supporting the New Zealand economy people want to support New Zealand businesses," Everett says. "At the moment, the opportunities for them to do so aren't there because New Zealand businesses aren't listing and there aren't mechanisms further down the chain." Now is a good time for such a conversation, he says. He would have preferred to get the review up and running last year, but the FMA and Reserve Bank of New Zealand were distracted by their reviews of the banking and insurance industries. But the delay was also due in part to the time needed to find the right people available to run the review former FNZC head of investment banking Martin Stearne is leading the review with accounting firm EY providing support. "There's been a fair amount of warming up before we got to this." The results are expected to be published in the September quarter. Everett says it is important to get the review launched before the next election in 2020. "I think we've got time to get something meaningful done this year before people start to get distracted with elections." The problem isn't isolated to New Zealand the United States and Britain are having similar conversations about how to keep up a flow of new listings and to keep their stock exchanges growing, he says. "Most stock exchanges are struggling with how do we attract new listings, how do we keep growing." One school of thought is that the rise of exchange-traded passive funds - and NZX manages several such funds - may be a reason smaller companies are starved of capital. Smaller companies typically don't qualify for inclusion in the indices such funds track. | New Zealand needs to decide whether it's acceptable for so many companies to be snapped up by overseas private equity firms long before those companies are developed enough to list on NZX, says Financial Markets Authority chief executive Rob Everett. NZX has tried a number of things to try to encourage smaller and earlier-stage companies to list by establishing a junior board. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12197388 | 0.134479 |
Who was the mysterious Madame Valerie? | Image copyright Shutterstock Image caption Patisserie Valerie, Old Compton Street, 1951 Madame Valerie founded Patisserie Valerie in 1926 and, as you can read on the company's website, it's quite an inspiring tale. From her caf in London's Soho, the Belgian introduced continental cakes and pastries to the English. Not even the Luftwaffe, which destroyed her first cafe in a bombing raid in 1941, could stop her. Madame Valerie just set up shop around the corner. Stirring stuff indeed, but there is a problem - there's not much evidence that the story is true. Right now the survival of Patisserie Valerie is in the balance. Administrators are hoping to sell 122 outlets, after closing 71. Its future is murky, but so is its past. Tracing the company's history is a tricky business, not least because the owners could not supply any information. I asked Patisserie Valerie if they had evidence to support the story of Madame Valerie. They couldn't produce anything. And no-one I spoke to while researching this piece even knew Madame Valerie's full name. Wrong place, wrong time Patisserie Valerie's website says the original shop was opened in 1926 by Madame Valerie on Frith Street. But according to an edition of Soho Clarion magazine from 1988, the first Patisserie Valerie was opened by Carlos and Laura Fonteyn in the early 1920s, at 59/60 Dean Street, a parallel street. And there is evidence supporting that. The National Archives in London holds Post Office Directories going back almost 200 years. Patisserie Valerie first appears in those directories in 1925 at 59/60 Dean Street - not on Frith Street. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Tracing the company's history has been tricky Electoral records for 1926 show Laura Mito Victoria Fonteyn was registered at Dean Street - supporting, but not necessarily proving, that she was one of the founders. Carlos Fonteyn turns out to be her father-in-law, and a man with some catering experience. He was the owner of Grand Patisserie Belge, also registered at 59/60 Dean Street during the 1920s. Thanks must go to Sarah Buttery, who works with the Soho Society, for helping uncover these details. Bombshell There is no mention of a Madame Valerie. It is possible that she was an employee of the firm, so may not appear in historical documents like electoral, tax and insolvency records. Perhaps the Fonteyns supplied money and expertise to help the Belgian get her shop going. But so far I have not uncovered any evidence of that. However, there is evidence that the first shop was destroyed by the Luftwaffe. Air raid records show a devastating Luftwaffe raid in the early hours of 11 May 1941. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption London's West End was among the areas hit by Luftwaffe bombing raids in 1941 Bombs fell all over London that night, but one high explosive bomb hit the corner of Old Compton Street and Dean Street. Among the properties destroyed was Patisserie Valerie. In 1942 it disappears from the Post Office Directories. Well the name Patisserie Valerie does not reappear in the Post Office Directories until 1958, and at 44 Old Compton Street in Soho which, until it closed this week, was the chain's oldest branch. For years this property had been the home of Theo Vermeirsch, described as a pastry cook. Soho Clarion magazine says he took over Patisserie Valerie and kept the name going. The photograph at the top of the piece is listed as from 1951, so the shop seems to have been a presence in Soho then. Memories In trying to find out more about Madame Valerie I spoke to some former owners. In 1987 Patisserie Valerie, still with only one store, was bought by the Scalzo brothers, Roberto, Enzo and Victor. They built it up into a much larger chain and sold it to Luke Johnson in 2006. Enzo and Victor are both "confident" that Madame Valerie did exist and did oversee the Old Compton Street store. They can remember several customers who talked about Madame Valerie. Unfortunately, it's so long ago, that they couldn't put me in touch with anyone who remembers, or who was alive, during Madame Valerie's era. Enzo, who now runs the Best of Italy car rally, thinks the caf chain was contacted by someone claiming to be a relation of Madame Valerie, but so far Patisserie Valerie has not been able to confirm that. Perhaps with more historical research Madame Valerie will emerge from documents or memories, but from my initial sift of the evidence available, she remains an elusive figure. Tell us by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: | Patisserie Valerie was founded by a Belgian woman in 1926. There is not much evidence that the story is true. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46821488 | 0.121767 |
Who was the mysterious Madame Valerie? | Image copyright Shutterstock Image caption Patisserie Valerie, Old Compton Street, 1951 Madame Valerie founded Patisserie Valerie in 1926 and, as you can read on the company's website, it's quite an inspiring tale. From her caf in London's Soho, the Belgian introduced continental cakes and pastries to the English. Not even the Luftwaffe, which destroyed her first cafe in a bombing raid in 1941, could stop her. Madame Valerie just set up shop around the corner. Stirring stuff indeed, but there is a problem - there's not much evidence that the story is true. Right now the survival of Patisserie Valerie is in the balance. Administrators are hoping to sell 122 outlets, after closing 71. Its future is murky, but so is its past. Tracing the company's history is a tricky business, not least because the owners could not supply any information. I asked Patisserie Valerie if they had evidence to support the story of Madame Valerie. They couldn't produce anything. And no-one I spoke to while researching this piece even knew Madame Valerie's full name. Wrong place, wrong time Patisserie Valerie's website says the original shop was opened in 1926 by Madame Valerie on Frith Street. But according to an edition of Soho Clarion magazine from 1988, the first Patisserie Valerie was opened by Carlos and Laura Fonteyn in the early 1920s, at 59/60 Dean Street, a parallel street. And there is evidence supporting that. The National Archives in London holds Post Office Directories going back almost 200 years. Patisserie Valerie first appears in those directories in 1925 at 59/60 Dean Street - not on Frith Street. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Tracing the company's history has been tricky Electoral records for 1926 show Laura Mito Victoria Fonteyn was registered at Dean Street - supporting, but not necessarily proving, that she was one of the founders. Carlos Fonteyn turns out to be her father-in-law, and a man with some catering experience. He was the owner of Grand Patisserie Belge, also registered at 59/60 Dean Street during the 1920s. Thanks must go to Sarah Buttery, who works with the Soho Society, for helping uncover these details. Bombshell There is no mention of a Madame Valerie. It is possible that she was an employee of the firm, so may not appear in historical documents like electoral, tax and insolvency records. Perhaps the Fonteyns supplied money and expertise to help the Belgian get her shop going. But so far I have not uncovered any evidence of that. However, there is evidence that the first shop was destroyed by the Luftwaffe. Air raid records show a devastating Luftwaffe raid in the early hours of 11 May 1941. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption London's West End was among the areas hit by Luftwaffe bombing raids in 1941 Bombs fell all over London that night, but one high explosive bomb hit the corner of Old Compton Street and Dean Street. Among the properties destroyed was Patisserie Valerie. In 1942 it disappears from the Post Office Directories. Well the name Patisserie Valerie does not reappear in the Post Office Directories until 1958, and at 44 Old Compton Street in Soho which, until it closed this week, was the chain's oldest branch. For years this property had been the home of Theo Vermeirsch, described as a pastry cook. Soho Clarion magazine says he took over Patisserie Valerie and kept the name going. The photograph at the top of the piece is listed as from 1951, so the shop seems to have been a presence in Soho then. Memories In trying to find out more about Madame Valerie I spoke to some former owners. In 1987 Patisserie Valerie, still with only one store, was bought by the Scalzo brothers, Roberto, Enzo and Victor. They built it up into a much larger chain and sold it to Luke Johnson in 2006. Enzo and Victor are both "confident" that Madame Valerie did exist and did oversee the Old Compton Street store. They can remember several customers who talked about Madame Valerie. Unfortunately, it's so long ago, that they couldn't put me in touch with anyone who remembers, or who was alive, during Madame Valerie's era. Enzo, who now runs the Best of Italy car rally, thinks the caf chain was contacted by someone claiming to be a relation of Madame Valerie, but so far Patisserie Valerie has not been able to confirm that. Perhaps with more historical research Madame Valerie will emerge from documents or memories, but from my initial sift of the evidence available, she remains an elusive figure. Tell us by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: | Patisserie Valerie was founded by a Belgian woman in 1926. There is not much evidence that the story is true, but there is evidence to back up some of the claims. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46821488 | 0.146663 |
Who was the mysterious Madame Valerie? | Image copyright Shutterstock Image caption Patisserie Valerie, Old Compton Street, 1951 Madame Valerie founded Patisserie Valerie in 1926 and, as you can read on the company's website, it's quite an inspiring tale. From her caf in London's Soho, the Belgian introduced continental cakes and pastries to the English. Not even the Luftwaffe, which destroyed her first cafe in a bombing raid in 1941, could stop her. Madame Valerie just set up shop around the corner. Stirring stuff indeed, but there is a problem - there's not much evidence that the story is true. Right now the survival of Patisserie Valerie is in the balance. Administrators are hoping to sell 122 outlets, after closing 71. Its future is murky, but so is its past. Tracing the company's history is a tricky business, not least because the owners could not supply any information. I asked Patisserie Valerie if they had evidence to support the story of Madame Valerie. They couldn't produce anything. And no-one I spoke to while researching this piece even knew Madame Valerie's full name. Wrong place, wrong time Patisserie Valerie's website says the original shop was opened in 1926 by Madame Valerie on Frith Street. But according to an edition of Soho Clarion magazine from 1988, the first Patisserie Valerie was opened by Carlos and Laura Fonteyn in the early 1920s, at 59/60 Dean Street, a parallel street. And there is evidence supporting that. The National Archives in London holds Post Office Directories going back almost 200 years. Patisserie Valerie first appears in those directories in 1925 at 59/60 Dean Street - not on Frith Street. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Tracing the company's history has been tricky Electoral records for 1926 show Laura Mito Victoria Fonteyn was registered at Dean Street - supporting, but not necessarily proving, that she was one of the founders. Carlos Fonteyn turns out to be her father-in-law, and a man with some catering experience. He was the owner of Grand Patisserie Belge, also registered at 59/60 Dean Street during the 1920s. Thanks must go to Sarah Buttery, who works with the Soho Society, for helping uncover these details. Bombshell There is no mention of a Madame Valerie. It is possible that she was an employee of the firm, so may not appear in historical documents like electoral, tax and insolvency records. Perhaps the Fonteyns supplied money and expertise to help the Belgian get her shop going. But so far I have not uncovered any evidence of that. However, there is evidence that the first shop was destroyed by the Luftwaffe. Air raid records show a devastating Luftwaffe raid in the early hours of 11 May 1941. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption London's West End was among the areas hit by Luftwaffe bombing raids in 1941 Bombs fell all over London that night, but one high explosive bomb hit the corner of Old Compton Street and Dean Street. Among the properties destroyed was Patisserie Valerie. In 1942 it disappears from the Post Office Directories. Well the name Patisserie Valerie does not reappear in the Post Office Directories until 1958, and at 44 Old Compton Street in Soho which, until it closed this week, was the chain's oldest branch. For years this property had been the home of Theo Vermeirsch, described as a pastry cook. Soho Clarion magazine says he took over Patisserie Valerie and kept the name going. The photograph at the top of the piece is listed as from 1951, so the shop seems to have been a presence in Soho then. Memories In trying to find out more about Madame Valerie I spoke to some former owners. In 1987 Patisserie Valerie, still with only one store, was bought by the Scalzo brothers, Roberto, Enzo and Victor. They built it up into a much larger chain and sold it to Luke Johnson in 2006. Enzo and Victor are both "confident" that Madame Valerie did exist and did oversee the Old Compton Street store. They can remember several customers who talked about Madame Valerie. Unfortunately, it's so long ago, that they couldn't put me in touch with anyone who remembers, or who was alive, during Madame Valerie's era. Enzo, who now runs the Best of Italy car rally, thinks the caf chain was contacted by someone claiming to be a relation of Madame Valerie, but so far Patisserie Valerie has not been able to confirm that. Perhaps with more historical research Madame Valerie will emerge from documents or memories, but from my initial sift of the evidence available, she remains an elusive figure. Tell us by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: | Patisserie Valerie was founded by a Belgian woman in 1926. There is not much evidence that the story is true, but there is evidence to back it up. The company is now in the process of closing 71 of its 122 outlets in the UK and Ireland. It is unclear whether the company will survive. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46821488 | 0.127916 |
Is Taiwan Semiconductor a Buy? | While dividend investors love their payouts, they face a conundrum: Rising interest rates in the U.S. have made steady dividend payers less attractive. In addition, companies with steady dividends are often big, mature companies. In this age of exciting technological disruption, many such companies in, say, retail and oil are having difficulties adapting. However, the tech world itself has matured, and offers several promising candidates that pay out secure and rising dividends. One such company is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (NYSE: TSM), which has more than doubled its payout over the past five years, from $0.50 in 2014 to $1.34 today -- good for 167% growth and a current yield of 3.7%. Taiwan Semi is the world's largest outsourced semiconductor manufacturer, with over 50% market share. TSM manufactures chips for other companies, including Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM), and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). There are several reasons Taiwan Semiconductor could be a long-term buy for dividend investors, but also some potential red flags in the near term. Here is a closer look at this unique company. a young man in a suit stands in front of a blackboard with question marks written above his head. More Image source: Getty Images. Reasons to buy TSM One of the more interesting tech stories of 2018 was Taiwan Semiconductor beating Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) to become the first foundry to manufacture leading-edge 7nm semiconductor chips. Intel is one of only two semiconductor companies (the other is Samsung (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF)) to manufacture its own semiconductors. For years, Intel had been dominant in leading-edge nodes, which pack more transistors into ever smaller and smaller die sizes. So, the lower the number of nanometers, the more advanced the chip. Intel had been the first to produce 14nm chips back in 2013. However, Intel has stumbled in its progression to 10nm chips (which are equivalent to TSM's 7nm node). In its most recent projection, Intel announced its 10nm offerings won't be available until the end of 2019. Meanwhile, TSM began producing 7nm chips at scale in 2018. Despite Intel's larger size, TSM's position as a manufacturer of so many different kinds of chips (mobile, PC, data center, GPUs) for a variety of clients has given it wide-ranging expertise. That cumulative knowledge, along with Intel's stumbles, seems to have allowed TSM to catch up and surpass Intel in the race to 7nm. Furthermore, the other large outsourced chip manufacturer, GlobalFoundries, which is privately held, announced late last year that it was abandoning 7nm in order to focus on specialized trailing-nodes (higher nm, less advanced), due to 7nm's complexity and cost. That left TSM as one of only two manufacturers (it and Samsung) to produce 7nm chips. As the semiconductor market rapidly expands, more and more companies, are going "fabless," (designing their own chips, while outsourcing manufacturing). Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) spun out its manufacturing arm, GlobalFoundries, years ago. Meanwhile, new chip upstarts, as well as giant companies such as Apple that make their own processors, don't want to invest in expensive manufacturing fabs. All of these players, large and small alike, are turning more and more to Taiwan Semiconductor for manufacturing. That's a great long-term competitive position to be in. | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (NYSE: TSM) has more than doubled its payout over the past five years. There are several reasons TSM could be a long-term buy for dividend investors. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/taiwan-semiconductor-buy-013400237.html | 0.22245 |
Is Taiwan Semiconductor a Buy? | While dividend investors love their payouts, they face a conundrum: Rising interest rates in the U.S. have made steady dividend payers less attractive. In addition, companies with steady dividends are often big, mature companies. In this age of exciting technological disruption, many such companies in, say, retail and oil are having difficulties adapting. However, the tech world itself has matured, and offers several promising candidates that pay out secure and rising dividends. One such company is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (NYSE: TSM), which has more than doubled its payout over the past five years, from $0.50 in 2014 to $1.34 today -- good for 167% growth and a current yield of 3.7%. Taiwan Semi is the world's largest outsourced semiconductor manufacturer, with over 50% market share. TSM manufactures chips for other companies, including Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM), and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). There are several reasons Taiwan Semiconductor could be a long-term buy for dividend investors, but also some potential red flags in the near term. Here is a closer look at this unique company. a young man in a suit stands in front of a blackboard with question marks written above his head. More Image source: Getty Images. Reasons to buy TSM One of the more interesting tech stories of 2018 was Taiwan Semiconductor beating Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) to become the first foundry to manufacture leading-edge 7nm semiconductor chips. Intel is one of only two semiconductor companies (the other is Samsung (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF)) to manufacture its own semiconductors. For years, Intel had been dominant in leading-edge nodes, which pack more transistors into ever smaller and smaller die sizes. So, the lower the number of nanometers, the more advanced the chip. Intel had been the first to produce 14nm chips back in 2013. However, Intel has stumbled in its progression to 10nm chips (which are equivalent to TSM's 7nm node). In its most recent projection, Intel announced its 10nm offerings won't be available until the end of 2019. Meanwhile, TSM began producing 7nm chips at scale in 2018. Despite Intel's larger size, TSM's position as a manufacturer of so many different kinds of chips (mobile, PC, data center, GPUs) for a variety of clients has given it wide-ranging expertise. That cumulative knowledge, along with Intel's stumbles, seems to have allowed TSM to catch up and surpass Intel in the race to 7nm. Furthermore, the other large outsourced chip manufacturer, GlobalFoundries, which is privately held, announced late last year that it was abandoning 7nm in order to focus on specialized trailing-nodes (higher nm, less advanced), due to 7nm's complexity and cost. That left TSM as one of only two manufacturers (it and Samsung) to produce 7nm chips. As the semiconductor market rapidly expands, more and more companies, are going "fabless," (designing their own chips, while outsourcing manufacturing). Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) spun out its manufacturing arm, GlobalFoundries, years ago. Meanwhile, new chip upstarts, as well as giant companies such as Apple that make their own processors, don't want to invest in expensive manufacturing fabs. All of these players, large and small alike, are turning more and more to Taiwan Semiconductor for manufacturing. That's a great long-term competitive position to be in. | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (NYSE: TSM) has more than doubled its payout over the past five years. There are several reasons TSM could be a long-term buy for dividend investors, but also some potential red flags in the near term. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/taiwan-semiconductor-buy-013400237.html | 0.210172 |
What next for Brexit? | Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29 (AFP Photo/JOHN THYS) London (AFP) - Despite the humiliating rejection of Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal, Britain is no closer to knowing the end result of its vote to leave the European Union. A raft of amendments to be voted on by MPs on Tuesday threaten to further muddy the waters as the clock ticks down to Britain's scheduled departure from the EU on March 29. Three ultimate scenarios remain -- leaving without an official deal, leaving with a very similar deal or no Brexit at all. But each path is fraught with uncertainty, political volatility, constitutional logjams and an increasingly embittered electorate. Here are the potential next steps: - No deal - Britain is legally on track to leave the EU with or without a deal on March 29, unless it delays or stops the process. A no-deal scenario threatens to trigger a recession in Britain and markedly slow the EU's economic growth, as well as causing significant legal disruption. The world's fifth-biggest economy could lose preferential access to its largest export market overnight, affecting every sector, leading to rising costs and disruption at British ports. As D-Day looms, the government has conducted visible displays of its ramped-up no-deal preparations over the past few weeks. But speculation is growing that the government, under pressure from parliament, could seek to delay the process and take no-deal off the table. - Delay - Some amendments introduced in parliament are seeking to delay Britain's departure date, although all the other 27 EU countries would have to agree. A potential complication is that elections to the European Parliament are due in late May and the new chamber is set to sit on July 2. Some of Britain's 73 seats have already been reallocated. A delay to give May time to pass legislation enshrining her Brexit deal would likely command widespread support, said leading pollster John Curtice. But Brexit supporters would be deeply opposed to a delay motivated by a desire "to go away and have a referendum or a general election or softer Brexit", he added. Brussels also may not be so keen if the delay would simply translate into more months of political gridlock. - Second referendum - Growing numbers of MPs are seeking a new referendum to reverse the 2016 result, when the Leave campaign won by 52 percent to 48 percent. But supporters admit they do not currently have the numbers in parliament to make it happen. No law prevents Britain from doing it all over again, but many question whether a revote would be democratic -- or resolve anything. May has warned that another vote "would do irreparable damage to the integrity of our politics". It also threatens to be just as divisive as the last one, with opinion polls showing the country is still split over the issue. - Try to get another deal - After MPs overwhelmingly rejected the deal agreed between May and Brussels, May held talks with lawmakers across parliament as well as business figures and trade unions to try to find a way through. The key sticking point is the deal's "backstop" solution to keep the Irish border open, which has the potential to leave Britain indefinitely tied to some form of EU customs union. Influential Brexit supporters say that with changes to the backstop, they could support the agreement. EU leaders have said they are willing to talk further, including on plans for the future trading relationship, but have repeatedly said they do not want to reopen the deal itself. - General election - Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sought to oust May's government by calling a confidence vote after her Brexit deal was defeated, but she won. There is a risk that her Conservative party and their Northern Irish allies, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), could turn against her if she pursues either a "softer" or a no-deal Brexit. But if not, the only other way to force an election is for the prime minister herself to gamble and call a snap vote to break the impasse. - No Brexit - Some lawmakers favour the nuclear option of cancelling Brexit altogether, despite the threat of widespread public rage. Finance minister Philip Hammond even told business leaders last week that Article 50 could be rescinded. burs-jwp/ar/gd | Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29. Three ultimate scenarios remain -- leaving without an official deal, leaving with a very similar deal or no Brexit at all. Each path is fraught with uncertainty, political volatility, constitutional logjams and an increasingly embittered electorate. | bart | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/next-brexit-014916073.html | 0.101397 |
Will Artificial Intelligence Soon Tell Us How To Live? | What people dont realize is that we are on the verge of a paradigmatic shift in thinking on par with the Copernican Revolution, says Dr. Angel Iscovich. The way we make our most personal decisionsfrom our partners, to our health choices, to yes, even our daily routines is going to transform due to the falling cost of data storage and rising computing power. If you only happened to glance at what Dr. Iscovich said, let me repeat the latter part as it bears further mention. According to him, in the future, AI will advise us how to structure our days for the most fulfilling life. It will literally tell us what to do for optimal living. Iscovichs assertion comes as the result of a new book he is writing with six-time New York Times bestselling author Joe Garner and myself entitled, Time Bubble: The Art and Science of Routine. An experienced CEO in the healthcare industry, Iscovich is chairman of the Board of Directors for Potentia Analytics, named in 2018 as one of the Top 10 Intelligence Solution Providers by Healthcare Tech. He received his post graduate training in Psychiatry from the Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine. While serving as Associate Clinical Professor at the USC Keck School of Medicine in the LA County Medical Center, Iscovich became intrigued by the subject of routine from witnessing how humans behave in stressful environments, such as emergencies. Interestingly, the harrowing E.R. frontline experience pales in many ways to the environment we all live in today, says Iscovich. Its hard not to be absorbed and disturbed by the events of our times: mass killings and unpredictable violence; regional wars, which devastate whole countries, displacing millions; intolerance of others race or religious beliefs and personal freedoms. Then theres political strife, which, as we all know, has become increasingly strident and belligerent. On top of these, we are bombarded daily with a barrage of stimuli and distractions, especially through our smartphones. Though Iscovich works in the tech sector, the very eye of the storm when it comes to perpetuating our 24/7/365 go-go culture, his new book bucks 21st century conventional wisdom by suggesting the best way to navigate our noisy new world is to reject constant novelty to reduce the relentless pelting of fresh content minute by minute. Iscovichs disruptive big idea is that we need to carve out mental space for ourselves away from the madding hubbub to bring order to our lives. Case study after case study, cited in the book, bolsters Iscovichs thinking, revealing humans not only require structure, they thrive in it. At every stage of life, people do best when following a routine or what he terms a time-bubble. A time-bubble is a kind of mental barrier between the world and the individual, comprised of the activities we choose to occupy our days. According to Iscovichs findings, when we stick to a plan when we do the same things in a predictable fashion we develop balance and wellbeing, despite the curve balls life throws at us. The reality is, as biological organisms, our bodies and minds perform best when maintaining an equilibrium, explains Iscovich. We feel best when our environment is familiar, and our lives possess consistency. We need look no further than the case study of Angel Martinez to witness Iscovichs theory in action. Prior to serving as Chairman of the Board of Deckers Brands (best known for Uggs and Tevas), Martinez co-founded Reebok. A high performer in the business world, Martinezs achievements are especially impressive in light of his personal history. A native from Cuba, he didnt see his parents for more than thirty-four years. His grandmothers sister and her husband adopted him when he was three-years-old before fleeing to the US. Unfortunately, the Cuban revolution prevented his immediate family from joining him in the South Bronx for decades. Bereft of a traditional support system and wanting to make his parents proud back home, Martinez vowed to succeed. He built a disciplined personal routine based on the physical act of running. The summer of my freshman year, I decided I was going to run five miles every single day, Martinez says. To hold himself accountable, he pledged that if he missed his quota, he would run ten miles to make up for it. I had a job where I remember getting off at 4:30 p.m., says Martinez. From there, I would go home, and by 5:00, I was off and running. I really had to hustle, too, because I had another job that began at 7:00 p.m., and I didnt want to miss putting in the five miles I promised myself. As Iscovich recounts in the book, Martinezs self-imposed time-bubble, centered around running, developed within him a strong work ethic, which later paid off handsomely. After graduating from college, he opened running-shoe stores in Mountain Valley and Alameda, which led to Reebok, a tremendously profitable company. Martinezs example demonstrates Iscovichs larger point: developing and living within a consistent routine can bring the body the balance it craves. Of course, another word for balance is homeostasis. And as biology informs us, all organisms on Earth strive for homeostasis: to find food when hungry, warmth when cold, shelter from the elements. But humans strive for other things, too: meaning and fulfillment. The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote, He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. Whats different about the era we live in as opposed to Nietzsches 19th century, is that with the emergence of technology, in particular AI, we neednt depend on our own brains to develop the best routine; instead we can outsource such decision-making to thinking machines. As it turns out, computers know a lot more about us than we do. Just consider the Fitbit. Nonjudgmental, available on demand, and endlessly patient, it contains an infallible record of our biometric data. Right now, many users only utilize their devices to monitor their health goals, whether they be getting better REM-sleep or walking a certain number of steps per day. But this only represents a tiny sliver of whats possible when it comes to AIs full range of capabilities. What distinguishes third-wave computing (todays processors) from past computing epochs is their ability not merely to process complex calculations but to offer predictive insights. Put simply: AI can learn from data sets to offer us helpful suggestions. Our computers can do our thinking for us. Certainly, it might seem odd to turn to a computer to tell how us how to better live, but there is precedent behind this notion. Already, the AI-based traffic app Waze tells us which route to take to and from destinations. Similarly, dating sites like Match.com and eHarmony rely on algorithms backed by big data to determine romantic matches rather than something as analog as butterflies in the stomach. Its important to note turning to technology is not the only answer to solve the crisis humanity finds itself in. Iscovichs book emphasizes the importance of creating a stable environment while pointing out AI is an invention created by human intelligence and therefore one of our greatest tools and assets. Still, outsourcing how we make life choices to a computer fits within a pattern of evolving thought processes surrounding decision-making. In the last few thousand years humans have shifted beliefs when it comes to which authorities to follow. Once upon a time, kings ruled us with divine authority from God. Later, we internalized our decision-making as religion lost its sway and modern liberalist ideas swept the world. However, in the future, its conceivable many of our choices will be influenced or made for us through algorithms based on data. Recognizing our growing dependence on predictive technology, Iscovich is developing a software application offering various routines people could employ to bring balance to their lives and even possibly attain something as subjective as purpose and meaning. This idea isnt as far-fetched as one might think, says Iscovich. AI requires data to work. It thrives on information. Our app would function similarly to a smartwatch, learning about a person all day long. It would take in biometric data, such as heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate to learn whats working in a persons life and what might be improved. Though the app is still in the early stages, Iscovich conceives of a time in the not too distant future when the technology works in tandem with users goals. For instance, after analyzing data, the app might suggest new ways to structure your own time-bubble. It could recommend you break up your day by doing twenty-minute naps or meditations to lower your resting heart rate, says Iscovich. It could also get you out of your comfort zone, establishing new neural pathways by suggesting you do unusual activities. It might recommend you take the whole day off to visit a new city. Likewise, it could tell you to explore a museum to get inspired based on what it knows about your interests. Though the promise behind the app is its ability to know us better than ourselves and therefore suggest ways to live more happily, it might feel like relying on AI to plan ones life is akin to cheating. After all, Know thyself is the commandment Socrates, the father of Philosophy, once extolled. Maybe. But not necessarily. Burdened by arduous responsibilities, jobs, and duties, existence in the 21st century is far from a walk in the park, even for the most affluent of us. In my clinical practice, I saw so many patients dissatisfied by the ways their lives were going, says Iscovich. They were lost, confused. Miserable. So many of us feel alone and sad today. Why not turn to outside assistance? Certainly, technology is no panacea for all of the problems we face as a society and as people. Moreover, even if Iscovich succeeds in developing an app for suggesting our ideal routines, there will never be an app that can live our lives for us. Existence itself will continue to be our privilege and our burden as thinking carbon-based creatures. However, with the growing power of AI to improve our quality of life, a time-bubble app just might bring us greater balance, meaning, and happiness. | In the future, AI will advise us how to structure our days for the most fulfilling life. | pegasus | 0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/01/27/will-artificial-intelligence-soon-tell-us-how-to-live/ | 0.300015 |
Will Artificial Intelligence Soon Tell Us How To Live? | What people dont realize is that we are on the verge of a paradigmatic shift in thinking on par with the Copernican Revolution, says Dr. Angel Iscovich. The way we make our most personal decisionsfrom our partners, to our health choices, to yes, even our daily routines is going to transform due to the falling cost of data storage and rising computing power. If you only happened to glance at what Dr. Iscovich said, let me repeat the latter part as it bears further mention. According to him, in the future, AI will advise us how to structure our days for the most fulfilling life. It will literally tell us what to do for optimal living. Iscovichs assertion comes as the result of a new book he is writing with six-time New York Times bestselling author Joe Garner and myself entitled, Time Bubble: The Art and Science of Routine. An experienced CEO in the healthcare industry, Iscovich is chairman of the Board of Directors for Potentia Analytics, named in 2018 as one of the Top 10 Intelligence Solution Providers by Healthcare Tech. He received his post graduate training in Psychiatry from the Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine. While serving as Associate Clinical Professor at the USC Keck School of Medicine in the LA County Medical Center, Iscovich became intrigued by the subject of routine from witnessing how humans behave in stressful environments, such as emergencies. Interestingly, the harrowing E.R. frontline experience pales in many ways to the environment we all live in today, says Iscovich. Its hard not to be absorbed and disturbed by the events of our times: mass killings and unpredictable violence; regional wars, which devastate whole countries, displacing millions; intolerance of others race or religious beliefs and personal freedoms. Then theres political strife, which, as we all know, has become increasingly strident and belligerent. On top of these, we are bombarded daily with a barrage of stimuli and distractions, especially through our smartphones. Though Iscovich works in the tech sector, the very eye of the storm when it comes to perpetuating our 24/7/365 go-go culture, his new book bucks 21st century conventional wisdom by suggesting the best way to navigate our noisy new world is to reject constant novelty to reduce the relentless pelting of fresh content minute by minute. Iscovichs disruptive big idea is that we need to carve out mental space for ourselves away from the madding hubbub to bring order to our lives. Case study after case study, cited in the book, bolsters Iscovichs thinking, revealing humans not only require structure, they thrive in it. At every stage of life, people do best when following a routine or what he terms a time-bubble. A time-bubble is a kind of mental barrier between the world and the individual, comprised of the activities we choose to occupy our days. According to Iscovichs findings, when we stick to a plan when we do the same things in a predictable fashion we develop balance and wellbeing, despite the curve balls life throws at us. The reality is, as biological organisms, our bodies and minds perform best when maintaining an equilibrium, explains Iscovich. We feel best when our environment is familiar, and our lives possess consistency. We need look no further than the case study of Angel Martinez to witness Iscovichs theory in action. Prior to serving as Chairman of the Board of Deckers Brands (best known for Uggs and Tevas), Martinez co-founded Reebok. A high performer in the business world, Martinezs achievements are especially impressive in light of his personal history. A native from Cuba, he didnt see his parents for more than thirty-four years. His grandmothers sister and her husband adopted him when he was three-years-old before fleeing to the US. Unfortunately, the Cuban revolution prevented his immediate family from joining him in the South Bronx for decades. Bereft of a traditional support system and wanting to make his parents proud back home, Martinez vowed to succeed. He built a disciplined personal routine based on the physical act of running. The summer of my freshman year, I decided I was going to run five miles every single day, Martinez says. To hold himself accountable, he pledged that if he missed his quota, he would run ten miles to make up for it. I had a job where I remember getting off at 4:30 p.m., says Martinez. From there, I would go home, and by 5:00, I was off and running. I really had to hustle, too, because I had another job that began at 7:00 p.m., and I didnt want to miss putting in the five miles I promised myself. As Iscovich recounts in the book, Martinezs self-imposed time-bubble, centered around running, developed within him a strong work ethic, which later paid off handsomely. After graduating from college, he opened running-shoe stores in Mountain Valley and Alameda, which led to Reebok, a tremendously profitable company. Martinezs example demonstrates Iscovichs larger point: developing and living within a consistent routine can bring the body the balance it craves. Of course, another word for balance is homeostasis. And as biology informs us, all organisms on Earth strive for homeostasis: to find food when hungry, warmth when cold, shelter from the elements. But humans strive for other things, too: meaning and fulfillment. The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote, He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. Whats different about the era we live in as opposed to Nietzsches 19th century, is that with the emergence of technology, in particular AI, we neednt depend on our own brains to develop the best routine; instead we can outsource such decision-making to thinking machines. As it turns out, computers know a lot more about us than we do. Just consider the Fitbit. Nonjudgmental, available on demand, and endlessly patient, it contains an infallible record of our biometric data. Right now, many users only utilize their devices to monitor their health goals, whether they be getting better REM-sleep or walking a certain number of steps per day. But this only represents a tiny sliver of whats possible when it comes to AIs full range of capabilities. What distinguishes third-wave computing (todays processors) from past computing epochs is their ability not merely to process complex calculations but to offer predictive insights. Put simply: AI can learn from data sets to offer us helpful suggestions. Our computers can do our thinking for us. Certainly, it might seem odd to turn to a computer to tell how us how to better live, but there is precedent behind this notion. Already, the AI-based traffic app Waze tells us which route to take to and from destinations. Similarly, dating sites like Match.com and eHarmony rely on algorithms backed by big data to determine romantic matches rather than something as analog as butterflies in the stomach. Its important to note turning to technology is not the only answer to solve the crisis humanity finds itself in. Iscovichs book emphasizes the importance of creating a stable environment while pointing out AI is an invention created by human intelligence and therefore one of our greatest tools and assets. Still, outsourcing how we make life choices to a computer fits within a pattern of evolving thought processes surrounding decision-making. In the last few thousand years humans have shifted beliefs when it comes to which authorities to follow. Once upon a time, kings ruled us with divine authority from God. Later, we internalized our decision-making as religion lost its sway and modern liberalist ideas swept the world. However, in the future, its conceivable many of our choices will be influenced or made for us through algorithms based on data. Recognizing our growing dependence on predictive technology, Iscovich is developing a software application offering various routines people could employ to bring balance to their lives and even possibly attain something as subjective as purpose and meaning. This idea isnt as far-fetched as one might think, says Iscovich. AI requires data to work. It thrives on information. Our app would function similarly to a smartwatch, learning about a person all day long. It would take in biometric data, such as heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate to learn whats working in a persons life and what might be improved. Though the app is still in the early stages, Iscovich conceives of a time in the not too distant future when the technology works in tandem with users goals. For instance, after analyzing data, the app might suggest new ways to structure your own time-bubble. It could recommend you break up your day by doing twenty-minute naps or meditations to lower your resting heart rate, says Iscovich. It could also get you out of your comfort zone, establishing new neural pathways by suggesting you do unusual activities. It might recommend you take the whole day off to visit a new city. Likewise, it could tell you to explore a museum to get inspired based on what it knows about your interests. Though the promise behind the app is its ability to know us better than ourselves and therefore suggest ways to live more happily, it might feel like relying on AI to plan ones life is akin to cheating. After all, Know thyself is the commandment Socrates, the father of Philosophy, once extolled. Maybe. But not necessarily. Burdened by arduous responsibilities, jobs, and duties, existence in the 21st century is far from a walk in the park, even for the most affluent of us. In my clinical practice, I saw so many patients dissatisfied by the ways their lives were going, says Iscovich. They were lost, confused. Miserable. So many of us feel alone and sad today. Why not turn to outside assistance? Certainly, technology is no panacea for all of the problems we face as a society and as people. Moreover, even if Iscovich succeeds in developing an app for suggesting our ideal routines, there will never be an app that can live our lives for us. Existence itself will continue to be our privilege and our burden as thinking carbon-based creatures. However, with the growing power of AI to improve our quality of life, a time-bubble app just might bring us greater balance, meaning, and happiness. | In the future, AI will advise us how to structure our days for the most fulfilling life. Dr. Angel Iscovich is chairman of the Board of Directors for Potentia Analytics. | pegasus | 1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/01/27/will-artificial-intelligence-soon-tell-us-how-to-live/ | 0.324375 |
Will Artificial Intelligence Soon Tell Us How To Live? | What people dont realize is that we are on the verge of a paradigmatic shift in thinking on par with the Copernican Revolution, says Dr. Angel Iscovich. The way we make our most personal decisionsfrom our partners, to our health choices, to yes, even our daily routines is going to transform due to the falling cost of data storage and rising computing power. If you only happened to glance at what Dr. Iscovich said, let me repeat the latter part as it bears further mention. According to him, in the future, AI will advise us how to structure our days for the most fulfilling life. It will literally tell us what to do for optimal living. Iscovichs assertion comes as the result of a new book he is writing with six-time New York Times bestselling author Joe Garner and myself entitled, Time Bubble: The Art and Science of Routine. An experienced CEO in the healthcare industry, Iscovich is chairman of the Board of Directors for Potentia Analytics, named in 2018 as one of the Top 10 Intelligence Solution Providers by Healthcare Tech. He received his post graduate training in Psychiatry from the Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine. While serving as Associate Clinical Professor at the USC Keck School of Medicine in the LA County Medical Center, Iscovich became intrigued by the subject of routine from witnessing how humans behave in stressful environments, such as emergencies. Interestingly, the harrowing E.R. frontline experience pales in many ways to the environment we all live in today, says Iscovich. Its hard not to be absorbed and disturbed by the events of our times: mass killings and unpredictable violence; regional wars, which devastate whole countries, displacing millions; intolerance of others race or religious beliefs and personal freedoms. Then theres political strife, which, as we all know, has become increasingly strident and belligerent. On top of these, we are bombarded daily with a barrage of stimuli and distractions, especially through our smartphones. Though Iscovich works in the tech sector, the very eye of the storm when it comes to perpetuating our 24/7/365 go-go culture, his new book bucks 21st century conventional wisdom by suggesting the best way to navigate our noisy new world is to reject constant novelty to reduce the relentless pelting of fresh content minute by minute. Iscovichs disruptive big idea is that we need to carve out mental space for ourselves away from the madding hubbub to bring order to our lives. Case study after case study, cited in the book, bolsters Iscovichs thinking, revealing humans not only require structure, they thrive in it. At every stage of life, people do best when following a routine or what he terms a time-bubble. A time-bubble is a kind of mental barrier between the world and the individual, comprised of the activities we choose to occupy our days. According to Iscovichs findings, when we stick to a plan when we do the same things in a predictable fashion we develop balance and wellbeing, despite the curve balls life throws at us. The reality is, as biological organisms, our bodies and minds perform best when maintaining an equilibrium, explains Iscovich. We feel best when our environment is familiar, and our lives possess consistency. We need look no further than the case study of Angel Martinez to witness Iscovichs theory in action. Prior to serving as Chairman of the Board of Deckers Brands (best known for Uggs and Tevas), Martinez co-founded Reebok. A high performer in the business world, Martinezs achievements are especially impressive in light of his personal history. A native from Cuba, he didnt see his parents for more than thirty-four years. His grandmothers sister and her husband adopted him when he was three-years-old before fleeing to the US. Unfortunately, the Cuban revolution prevented his immediate family from joining him in the South Bronx for decades. Bereft of a traditional support system and wanting to make his parents proud back home, Martinez vowed to succeed. He built a disciplined personal routine based on the physical act of running. The summer of my freshman year, I decided I was going to run five miles every single day, Martinez says. To hold himself accountable, he pledged that if he missed his quota, he would run ten miles to make up for it. I had a job where I remember getting off at 4:30 p.m., says Martinez. From there, I would go home, and by 5:00, I was off and running. I really had to hustle, too, because I had another job that began at 7:00 p.m., and I didnt want to miss putting in the five miles I promised myself. As Iscovich recounts in the book, Martinezs self-imposed time-bubble, centered around running, developed within him a strong work ethic, which later paid off handsomely. After graduating from college, he opened running-shoe stores in Mountain Valley and Alameda, which led to Reebok, a tremendously profitable company. Martinezs example demonstrates Iscovichs larger point: developing and living within a consistent routine can bring the body the balance it craves. Of course, another word for balance is homeostasis. And as biology informs us, all organisms on Earth strive for homeostasis: to find food when hungry, warmth when cold, shelter from the elements. But humans strive for other things, too: meaning and fulfillment. The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote, He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. Whats different about the era we live in as opposed to Nietzsches 19th century, is that with the emergence of technology, in particular AI, we neednt depend on our own brains to develop the best routine; instead we can outsource such decision-making to thinking machines. As it turns out, computers know a lot more about us than we do. Just consider the Fitbit. Nonjudgmental, available on demand, and endlessly patient, it contains an infallible record of our biometric data. Right now, many users only utilize their devices to monitor their health goals, whether they be getting better REM-sleep or walking a certain number of steps per day. But this only represents a tiny sliver of whats possible when it comes to AIs full range of capabilities. What distinguishes third-wave computing (todays processors) from past computing epochs is their ability not merely to process complex calculations but to offer predictive insights. Put simply: AI can learn from data sets to offer us helpful suggestions. Our computers can do our thinking for us. Certainly, it might seem odd to turn to a computer to tell how us how to better live, but there is precedent behind this notion. Already, the AI-based traffic app Waze tells us which route to take to and from destinations. Similarly, dating sites like Match.com and eHarmony rely on algorithms backed by big data to determine romantic matches rather than something as analog as butterflies in the stomach. Its important to note turning to technology is not the only answer to solve the crisis humanity finds itself in. Iscovichs book emphasizes the importance of creating a stable environment while pointing out AI is an invention created by human intelligence and therefore one of our greatest tools and assets. Still, outsourcing how we make life choices to a computer fits within a pattern of evolving thought processes surrounding decision-making. In the last few thousand years humans have shifted beliefs when it comes to which authorities to follow. Once upon a time, kings ruled us with divine authority from God. Later, we internalized our decision-making as religion lost its sway and modern liberalist ideas swept the world. However, in the future, its conceivable many of our choices will be influenced or made for us through algorithms based on data. Recognizing our growing dependence on predictive technology, Iscovich is developing a software application offering various routines people could employ to bring balance to their lives and even possibly attain something as subjective as purpose and meaning. This idea isnt as far-fetched as one might think, says Iscovich. AI requires data to work. It thrives on information. Our app would function similarly to a smartwatch, learning about a person all day long. It would take in biometric data, such as heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate to learn whats working in a persons life and what might be improved. Though the app is still in the early stages, Iscovich conceives of a time in the not too distant future when the technology works in tandem with users goals. For instance, after analyzing data, the app might suggest new ways to structure your own time-bubble. It could recommend you break up your day by doing twenty-minute naps or meditations to lower your resting heart rate, says Iscovich. It could also get you out of your comfort zone, establishing new neural pathways by suggesting you do unusual activities. It might recommend you take the whole day off to visit a new city. Likewise, it could tell you to explore a museum to get inspired based on what it knows about your interests. Though the promise behind the app is its ability to know us better than ourselves and therefore suggest ways to live more happily, it might feel like relying on AI to plan ones life is akin to cheating. After all, Know thyself is the commandment Socrates, the father of Philosophy, once extolled. Maybe. But not necessarily. Burdened by arduous responsibilities, jobs, and duties, existence in the 21st century is far from a walk in the park, even for the most affluent of us. In my clinical practice, I saw so many patients dissatisfied by the ways their lives were going, says Iscovich. They were lost, confused. Miserable. So many of us feel alone and sad today. Why not turn to outside assistance? Certainly, technology is no panacea for all of the problems we face as a society and as people. Moreover, even if Iscovich succeeds in developing an app for suggesting our ideal routines, there will never be an app that can live our lives for us. Existence itself will continue to be our privilege and our burden as thinking carbon-based creatures. However, with the growing power of AI to improve our quality of life, a time-bubble app just might bring us greater balance, meaning, and happiness. | In the future, AI will advise us how to structure our days for the most fulfilling life. Dr. Angel Iscovich is chairman of the Board of Directors for Potentia Analytics. Time Bubble: The Art and Science of Routine is written with six-time New York Times bestselling author Joe Garner. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/01/27/will-artificial-intelligence-soon-tell-us-how-to-live/ | 0.290184 |
Did a Russian-Made Missile Strike an F-35? | According to the available information, the Syrian Defense Forces used a S-200 missile against the Israeli warplane, Southfront claimed. Pro-Russian media are claiming that an Israeli F-35I was hit and damaged by a Russian-made S-200 surface-to-air missile during an Israeli air strike in Syria earlier this month. Israel says one of its F-35s was damagedafter colliding with a bird. (This first appeared in October of 2017.) The story begins on October 16, when Israel announced that its aircraft had struck a Syrian SAM battery near Damascus that had fired two hours earlier on Israeli reconnaissance planes flying over Lebanon. The attack damaged the missile battery, and no Israeli aircraft were hit, according to Israel. Coincidentally or not, the incident happened the same day that Russias defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, arrived in Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. However, Southfront.org, a website that covers the Russian military and its intervention in the Syrian Civil War, suggested a different story. According to the available information, the Syrian Defense Forces used a S-200 missile against the Israeli warplane, Southfront claimed. Recommended: 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History Southfront could not resist pointing out that a much-vaunted F-35 stealth fighter had been hit by a missile that dates back to the 1960s. This Soviet-made missile is the most advanced long range anti-aircraft system operated by the Syrian military. Even in this case, its old-fashioned in terms of modern warfare. However, the evidence cited by Southfront seems rather tenuous. Hours after the Israeli military announced the strike on the Syrian missile battery, Israeli media reported that an Israeli F-35 had been damaged by a bird strike two weeks before (Google translation here). The plane reportedly landed safely, but the Israeli Air Force did admit that it wasnt sure whether the plane will fly again. Israel has taken delivery of only seven F-35Is so far, with a total of fifty on order. Recommended: 5 Reasons No Nation Wants to Go to War with Israel The incident allegedly took place two weeks ago but was publicly reported only on October 16, Southfront noted. However, Israeli sources were not able to show a photo of the F-35 warplane after the bird collision. Southfront didnt explain why the Israeli Air Force would feel a need to release a photo of a damaged stealth aircraft. As U.S. defense website The Drive points out, the F-35 is just entering Israeli service now, and wouldnt likely be flying missions over Syria just yet unless there was some kind of emergency (and Israel has plenty of F-15s and F-16s to handle those right now). Nor is it optimized for the kind of photographic reconnaissance missions that Israel flies over Lebanon. As The Drive summed up rather neatly, Although we cannot rule the possibility out entirely, as Freud would saysometimes a bird strike is just a bird strike. In any event, whats most interesting about this story isnt whether an F-35 was hit by a Russian missile. Like the existence of UFOs, the story may or not be true, but we need more than circumstantial evidence to give it any credence. No, the interesting part is that the F-35 has become such a symbol of U.S. technological prowessor incompetencethat any rumor that an F-35 has been damaged or shot down in combat will draw attention. Russia and its boosters will pounce on any suggestion that an F-35 has been hit, and no doubt the pro- F-35 crowd will counter those suggestions accordingly. Already there are reportsagain, just reportsthat Israeli F-35s have flown combat missions. Given that the U.S. and Israeli air forces are among the most active in the world, sooner or later the F-35 will really, truly see combat. But the rumors are out there now. This is just the beginning. Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook. Image: Creative Commons. Read full article | Pro-Russian media are claiming that an Israeli F-35I was hit and damaged by a Russian-made S-200 surface-to-air missile during an Israeli air strike in Syria. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/did-russian-made-missile-strike-100100414.html | 0.374784 |
Did a Russian-Made Missile Strike an F-35? | According to the available information, the Syrian Defense Forces used a S-200 missile against the Israeli warplane, Southfront claimed. Pro-Russian media are claiming that an Israeli F-35I was hit and damaged by a Russian-made S-200 surface-to-air missile during an Israeli air strike in Syria earlier this month. Israel says one of its F-35s was damagedafter colliding with a bird. (This first appeared in October of 2017.) The story begins on October 16, when Israel announced that its aircraft had struck a Syrian SAM battery near Damascus that had fired two hours earlier on Israeli reconnaissance planes flying over Lebanon. The attack damaged the missile battery, and no Israeli aircraft were hit, according to Israel. Coincidentally or not, the incident happened the same day that Russias defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, arrived in Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. However, Southfront.org, a website that covers the Russian military and its intervention in the Syrian Civil War, suggested a different story. According to the available information, the Syrian Defense Forces used a S-200 missile against the Israeli warplane, Southfront claimed. Recommended: 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History Southfront could not resist pointing out that a much-vaunted F-35 stealth fighter had been hit by a missile that dates back to the 1960s. This Soviet-made missile is the most advanced long range anti-aircraft system operated by the Syrian military. Even in this case, its old-fashioned in terms of modern warfare. However, the evidence cited by Southfront seems rather tenuous. Hours after the Israeli military announced the strike on the Syrian missile battery, Israeli media reported that an Israeli F-35 had been damaged by a bird strike two weeks before (Google translation here). The plane reportedly landed safely, but the Israeli Air Force did admit that it wasnt sure whether the plane will fly again. Israel has taken delivery of only seven F-35Is so far, with a total of fifty on order. Recommended: 5 Reasons No Nation Wants to Go to War with Israel The incident allegedly took place two weeks ago but was publicly reported only on October 16, Southfront noted. However, Israeli sources were not able to show a photo of the F-35 warplane after the bird collision. Southfront didnt explain why the Israeli Air Force would feel a need to release a photo of a damaged stealth aircraft. As U.S. defense website The Drive points out, the F-35 is just entering Israeli service now, and wouldnt likely be flying missions over Syria just yet unless there was some kind of emergency (and Israel has plenty of F-15s and F-16s to handle those right now). Nor is it optimized for the kind of photographic reconnaissance missions that Israel flies over Lebanon. As The Drive summed up rather neatly, Although we cannot rule the possibility out entirely, as Freud would saysometimes a bird strike is just a bird strike. In any event, whats most interesting about this story isnt whether an F-35 was hit by a Russian missile. Like the existence of UFOs, the story may or not be true, but we need more than circumstantial evidence to give it any credence. No, the interesting part is that the F-35 has become such a symbol of U.S. technological prowessor incompetencethat any rumor that an F-35 has been damaged or shot down in combat will draw attention. Russia and its boosters will pounce on any suggestion that an F-35 has been hit, and no doubt the pro- F-35 crowd will counter those suggestions accordingly. Already there are reportsagain, just reportsthat Israeli F-35s have flown combat missions. Given that the U.S. and Israeli air forces are among the most active in the world, sooner or later the F-35 will really, truly see combat. But the rumors are out there now. This is just the beginning. Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook. Image: Creative Commons. Read full article | Pro-Russian media are claiming that an Israeli F-35I was hit and damaged by a Russian-made S-200 surface-to-air missile during an Israeli air strike in Syria earlier this month. The incident allegedly took place two weeks ago but was publicly reported only on October 16. | bart | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/did-russian-made-missile-strike-100100414.html | 0.388622 |
What is proper procedure when the crosswalk countdown starts? | Open this photo in gallery A crosswalk at the corner of Richards and Nelson Streets in Vancouver. I always wait, and my friends say Im being ridiculous. They say that if it says five seconds, youve got five seconds to get across. Gabriela, Toronto That countdown isnt a challenge if you havent started crossing before it starts, youre supposed to stay put. Except plenty of us dont know that. I got in an argument with a pedestrian whod started crossing and said I have 10 seconds left, said Toronto Police Sgt. Clint Stibbe. The countdown is how much time you have left when youre in the roadway already. Story continues below advertisement When the countdown starts, its accompanied by a flashing hand. That hand means dont walk. Section 144 (27) of Ontarios Highway Traffic Act (HTA) says no pedestrian approaching pedestrian-control signals and facing a solid or flashing dont walk indication shall enter the roadway. Legally, you can only start crossing when the walk signal is on. If you step off the curb to cross when that flashing hand is there whether its flashing or solid you could face a $35 fine. Before intersections had timers, there was just the flashing hand, and crossers wouldnt know how long they had to get across, Stibbe said. The countdown was supposed to help solve that. But plenty of pedestrians think it means you can keep crossing until the last second. A 2013 study published in the journal Injury Prevention showed that after countdown timers were introduced in Toronto, the number of pedestrians hit by cars while crossing increased by 26 per cent, and serious injuries and fatalities increased by 51 per cent. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement When the countdown starts, dont cross The exact rules vary by province, but theyre all similar youre not supposed to cross when that hand is flashing, period. If you see anything other than the white walk signal, youre supposed to remain on the curb until the light resets, said Const. Jason Doucette, Vancouver Police spokesman. Even if it says 27 seconds and you think you can make it, youre supposed to stay. If you try to beat the clock in British Columbia, its a $109 fine. If you do race across, you could get in the way of cars trying to turn left before the light changes. And they might not see you. Police couldnt immediately give numbers on how many tickets they give out for crossing against the countdown. We dont get brownie points for giving out tickets, so we focus more on education, Doucette said. Story continues below advertisement When police do educate crossers on the rules, the lesson doesnt always sink in. This university student said, I get it, am I free to go? and then she looks and sees she has ten seconds and races across, Doucette said. In Toronto, the walk sign flashes for a minimum of seven seconds. Its not long enough to get across, so pedestrians also get the time shown on the timer to clear the intersection. Even with the timer, it might not be enough time for everyone, especially seniors. In Toronto, the city is retiming intersections to account for a slower average walking speed, lowered from 1.2 metres a second (4.3 km/h) to one metre a second (3.6 km/h). Still, you should try to get to the other side as quickly as you safely can; the crosswalk probably isnt the best place to text or fool around. Drivers should expect people to be in a crosswalk, but that doesnt guarantee safety, police say. The safest place is on the sidewalk, Doucette said. Get across the intersection and get your head out of you phone. Send it to globedrive@globeandmail.com. Canadas a big place, so let us know where you are so we can find the answer for your city and province. Stay on top of all our Drive stories. We have a Drive newsletter covering car reviews, innovative new cars and the ups and downs of everyday driving. Sign up for the weekly Drive newsletter, delivered to your inbox for free. Follow us on Instagram, @globedrive. | When the countdown starts, its accompanied by a flashing hand. Legally, you can only start crossing when the walk signal is on. | bart | 0 | https://www.theglobeandmail.com/drive/culture/article-what-is-proper-procedure-when-the-crosswalk-countdown-starts/ | 0.273321 |
What is proper procedure when the crosswalk countdown starts? | Open this photo in gallery A crosswalk at the corner of Richards and Nelson Streets in Vancouver. I always wait, and my friends say Im being ridiculous. They say that if it says five seconds, youve got five seconds to get across. Gabriela, Toronto That countdown isnt a challenge if you havent started crossing before it starts, youre supposed to stay put. Except plenty of us dont know that. I got in an argument with a pedestrian whod started crossing and said I have 10 seconds left, said Toronto Police Sgt. Clint Stibbe. The countdown is how much time you have left when youre in the roadway already. Story continues below advertisement When the countdown starts, its accompanied by a flashing hand. That hand means dont walk. Section 144 (27) of Ontarios Highway Traffic Act (HTA) says no pedestrian approaching pedestrian-control signals and facing a solid or flashing dont walk indication shall enter the roadway. Legally, you can only start crossing when the walk signal is on. If you step off the curb to cross when that flashing hand is there whether its flashing or solid you could face a $35 fine. Before intersections had timers, there was just the flashing hand, and crossers wouldnt know how long they had to get across, Stibbe said. The countdown was supposed to help solve that. But plenty of pedestrians think it means you can keep crossing until the last second. A 2013 study published in the journal Injury Prevention showed that after countdown timers were introduced in Toronto, the number of pedestrians hit by cars while crossing increased by 26 per cent, and serious injuries and fatalities increased by 51 per cent. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement When the countdown starts, dont cross The exact rules vary by province, but theyre all similar youre not supposed to cross when that hand is flashing, period. If you see anything other than the white walk signal, youre supposed to remain on the curb until the light resets, said Const. Jason Doucette, Vancouver Police spokesman. Even if it says 27 seconds and you think you can make it, youre supposed to stay. If you try to beat the clock in British Columbia, its a $109 fine. If you do race across, you could get in the way of cars trying to turn left before the light changes. And they might not see you. Police couldnt immediately give numbers on how many tickets they give out for crossing against the countdown. We dont get brownie points for giving out tickets, so we focus more on education, Doucette said. Story continues below advertisement When police do educate crossers on the rules, the lesson doesnt always sink in. This university student said, I get it, am I free to go? and then she looks and sees she has ten seconds and races across, Doucette said. In Toronto, the walk sign flashes for a minimum of seven seconds. Its not long enough to get across, so pedestrians also get the time shown on the timer to clear the intersection. Even with the timer, it might not be enough time for everyone, especially seniors. In Toronto, the city is retiming intersections to account for a slower average walking speed, lowered from 1.2 metres a second (4.3 km/h) to one metre a second (3.6 km/h). Still, you should try to get to the other side as quickly as you safely can; the crosswalk probably isnt the best place to text or fool around. Drivers should expect people to be in a crosswalk, but that doesnt guarantee safety, police say. The safest place is on the sidewalk, Doucette said. Get across the intersection and get your head out of you phone. Send it to globedrive@globeandmail.com. Canadas a big place, so let us know where you are so we can find the answer for your city and province. Stay on top of all our Drive stories. We have a Drive newsletter covering car reviews, innovative new cars and the ups and downs of everyday driving. Sign up for the weekly Drive newsletter, delivered to your inbox for free. Follow us on Instagram, @globedrive. | When the countdown starts, you're supposed to stay put. If you try to beat the clock in British Columbia, it's a $109 fine. In Ontario, you can only start crossing when the walk signal is on. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.theglobeandmail.com/drive/culture/article-what-is-proper-procedure-when-the-crosswalk-countdown-starts/ | 0.149745 |
What is proper procedure when the crosswalk countdown starts? | Open this photo in gallery A crosswalk at the corner of Richards and Nelson Streets in Vancouver. I always wait, and my friends say Im being ridiculous. They say that if it says five seconds, youve got five seconds to get across. Gabriela, Toronto That countdown isnt a challenge if you havent started crossing before it starts, youre supposed to stay put. Except plenty of us dont know that. I got in an argument with a pedestrian whod started crossing and said I have 10 seconds left, said Toronto Police Sgt. Clint Stibbe. The countdown is how much time you have left when youre in the roadway already. Story continues below advertisement When the countdown starts, its accompanied by a flashing hand. That hand means dont walk. Section 144 (27) of Ontarios Highway Traffic Act (HTA) says no pedestrian approaching pedestrian-control signals and facing a solid or flashing dont walk indication shall enter the roadway. Legally, you can only start crossing when the walk signal is on. If you step off the curb to cross when that flashing hand is there whether its flashing or solid you could face a $35 fine. Before intersections had timers, there was just the flashing hand, and crossers wouldnt know how long they had to get across, Stibbe said. The countdown was supposed to help solve that. But plenty of pedestrians think it means you can keep crossing until the last second. A 2013 study published in the journal Injury Prevention showed that after countdown timers were introduced in Toronto, the number of pedestrians hit by cars while crossing increased by 26 per cent, and serious injuries and fatalities increased by 51 per cent. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement When the countdown starts, dont cross The exact rules vary by province, but theyre all similar youre not supposed to cross when that hand is flashing, period. If you see anything other than the white walk signal, youre supposed to remain on the curb until the light resets, said Const. Jason Doucette, Vancouver Police spokesman. Even if it says 27 seconds and you think you can make it, youre supposed to stay. If you try to beat the clock in British Columbia, its a $109 fine. If you do race across, you could get in the way of cars trying to turn left before the light changes. And they might not see you. Police couldnt immediately give numbers on how many tickets they give out for crossing against the countdown. We dont get brownie points for giving out tickets, so we focus more on education, Doucette said. Story continues below advertisement When police do educate crossers on the rules, the lesson doesnt always sink in. This university student said, I get it, am I free to go? and then she looks and sees she has ten seconds and races across, Doucette said. In Toronto, the walk sign flashes for a minimum of seven seconds. Its not long enough to get across, so pedestrians also get the time shown on the timer to clear the intersection. Even with the timer, it might not be enough time for everyone, especially seniors. In Toronto, the city is retiming intersections to account for a slower average walking speed, lowered from 1.2 metres a second (4.3 km/h) to one metre a second (3.6 km/h). Still, you should try to get to the other side as quickly as you safely can; the crosswalk probably isnt the best place to text or fool around. Drivers should expect people to be in a crosswalk, but that doesnt guarantee safety, police say. The safest place is on the sidewalk, Doucette said. Get across the intersection and get your head out of you phone. Send it to globedrive@globeandmail.com. Canadas a big place, so let us know where you are so we can find the answer for your city and province. Stay on top of all our Drive stories. We have a Drive newsletter covering car reviews, innovative new cars and the ups and downs of everyday driving. Sign up for the weekly Drive newsletter, delivered to your inbox for free. Follow us on Instagram, @globedrive. | When the countdown starts, its accompanied by a flashing hand. Legally, you can only start crossing when the walk signal is on. If you step off the curb to cross when that flashing hand is there, you could face a $35 fine. | bart | 2 | https://www.theglobeandmail.com/drive/culture/article-what-is-proper-procedure-when-the-crosswalk-countdown-starts/ | 0.300103 |
Are John Krasinski and Emily Blunt Hollywoods new golden couple? | The power pair are filling up newsfeeds with their #relationshipgoals content. Since they have been stepping out together on the awards circuit, theyve been generating most adorable couple in Hollywood headlines (The Hollywood Reporter even got the exclusive rare joint interview), as well as #CoupleGoals hashtags and fashion approval. The most irritating thing about them is that theres nothing irritating about them. As moviedoms First Family, they are perfect casting. Krasinski is the smart dude-next-door: Jim from The Office with added Jack Ryan heroism. Blunt is the refined Brit with kick-ass credentials: Mary Poppins/Young Victoria meets Edge of Tomorrow. Right now, they could probably clean up with a joint-authored vegan cookbook, or a range of organic bed linens. Sign up to our Film Today email Read more There are many famous actors who married civilians and lived happily ever after, but when two stars collide, the odds are stacked against them. They have competing careers, egos and personality flaws to balance. You came together as equals, a few years later youre Ryan Phillippe gritting your teeth through Reese Witherspoons Oscar speech and wishing youd done Cruel Intentions 2. Doubling your star-wattage also immediately turns you into a Couple of Interest for the paparazzi, which is sure to make matters worse. The best option is to pretend youre not really married and hope nobody puts one and one together like Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, say. Krasinski and Blunt pledged to keep their careers separate. But they then broke their rules by making hit horror A Quiet Place together. It was one of the highest-grossing movies of 2018 (budget: $17m; box office: $341m worldwide). Between that and Blunts Poppins, they are practically glued to the red carpet, which means more #CoupleGoals content, such as the recent Hollywood Reporter romcom-like video Q&A. There is currently a vacancy for this type of couple: successful yet domestically cosy; stable, relatable, and not the least bit dangerous. Since the departure of the Obamas, America has hardly had the White House to look to for such role models. British royalty, steeped in unearned privilege, doesnt really cut it, either. Movie stars must fill the void. However, compared to the tempestuous, extravagant, semi-mythical relationships of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, or Winona Ryder and Johnny Depp, or even Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton, todays conscious couples seem rather safe and dull. Blunt and Krasinski are probably fine with that, and good luck to them. As long as they dont win any awards this month they should be all right, but one over-gushy acceptance speech from either could tip the balance. | John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are Hollywood's new golden couple. The power pair are filling up newsfeeds with their #relationshipgoals content. They are perfect casting as moviedom's First Family. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jan/28/bluntinski-why-john-krasinski-and-emily-blunt-are-hollywoods-new-golden-couple | 0.566086 |
Are John Krasinski and Emily Blunt Hollywoods new golden couple? | The power pair are filling up newsfeeds with their #relationshipgoals content. Since they have been stepping out together on the awards circuit, theyve been generating most adorable couple in Hollywood headlines (The Hollywood Reporter even got the exclusive rare joint interview), as well as #CoupleGoals hashtags and fashion approval. The most irritating thing about them is that theres nothing irritating about them. As moviedoms First Family, they are perfect casting. Krasinski is the smart dude-next-door: Jim from The Office with added Jack Ryan heroism. Blunt is the refined Brit with kick-ass credentials: Mary Poppins/Young Victoria meets Edge of Tomorrow. Right now, they could probably clean up with a joint-authored vegan cookbook, or a range of organic bed linens. Sign up to our Film Today email Read more There are many famous actors who married civilians and lived happily ever after, but when two stars collide, the odds are stacked against them. They have competing careers, egos and personality flaws to balance. You came together as equals, a few years later youre Ryan Phillippe gritting your teeth through Reese Witherspoons Oscar speech and wishing youd done Cruel Intentions 2. Doubling your star-wattage also immediately turns you into a Couple of Interest for the paparazzi, which is sure to make matters worse. The best option is to pretend youre not really married and hope nobody puts one and one together like Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, say. Krasinski and Blunt pledged to keep their careers separate. But they then broke their rules by making hit horror A Quiet Place together. It was one of the highest-grossing movies of 2018 (budget: $17m; box office: $341m worldwide). Between that and Blunts Poppins, they are practically glued to the red carpet, which means more #CoupleGoals content, such as the recent Hollywood Reporter romcom-like video Q&A. There is currently a vacancy for this type of couple: successful yet domestically cosy; stable, relatable, and not the least bit dangerous. Since the departure of the Obamas, America has hardly had the White House to look to for such role models. British royalty, steeped in unearned privilege, doesnt really cut it, either. Movie stars must fill the void. However, compared to the tempestuous, extravagant, semi-mythical relationships of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, or Winona Ryder and Johnny Depp, or even Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton, todays conscious couples seem rather safe and dull. Blunt and Krasinski are probably fine with that, and good luck to them. As long as they dont win any awards this month they should be all right, but one over-gushy acceptance speech from either could tip the balance. | John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are Hollywood's new golden couple. The power pair are filling up newsfeeds with their #relationshipgoals content. They are perfect casting as moviedoms First Family, says Tom Charity. The pair are a safe yet domestically cosy, relatable, and not the least bit dangerous. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jan/28/bluntinski-why-john-krasinski-and-emily-blunt-are-hollywoods-new-golden-couple | 0.653184 |
How dangerous is marijuana for young men's mental health? | A bestselling anti-marijuana book, Tell Your Children, is sounding the alarm with a link between cannabis and violence. Just because today marijuana is widely regarded as safer than alcohol doesnt mean thats the final word. A bestselling anti-marijuana book is making waves for suggesting that the drug may be far more dangerous than the industry would have us believe. Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence, by the former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson, reminds readers that when it comes to health, we never know as much as we think we do. The most demonstrable health risk associated with marijuana is that for a small portion of users, largely men in their teens and early 20s, the drug may induce psychosis and schizophrenia, sometimes after only short-term use. By highlighting this real, and terrifying, risk of marijuana use, Berenson has done an important public service. But as others have pointed out, the book overreaches in trying to establish a causal link between cannabis use and violence. And it suffers from Berensons refusal to consider marijuana as anything other than a serious threat to a relatively small segment of the population. Brain scans show how cannabis extract may help people with psychosis Read more Science takes time and is not immune to the dogmas of its era. Today doctors universally recognize the dangers of cigarette smoking, but it took decades and millions of early, agonizing deaths before the consensus solidified. The best parts of Tell Your Children document the connection between pot smoking and psychosis, from 19th century Mexico and India to the present day. The connection hadnt been a secret. According to a 2013 statement from the American Psychiatric Association, current evidence supports, at minimum, a strong association of cannabis use with the onset of psychiatric disorders. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to harm, given the effects of cannabis on neurological development. But Berenson has amplified it more effectively than anyone else. It isnt a fashionable argument right now. The for-profit cannabis industry promotes the drug as a nearly harmless medicine and it seems to be working. Last year, Canada became the first large country to legalize recreational cannabis. About 90% of Americans favor access to medical marijuana and roughly two-thirds favor full legalization. The rapid shift in US public opinion towards legalization has been fueled by disgust with the war on drugs and mass incarceration, as well as the largely unproven hopes that medical marijuana can mitigate complex health crises such as the opioid epidemic. Facebook Twitter Pinterest For many men in their teens and early 20s, marijuana use may induce psychosis and schizophrenia. Photograph: UPI / Barcroft Media According to Berenson, the great majority of teenagers who smoke weed will not be affected by psychosis. But young people who are at greatest risk deserve the best available information. By describing numerous psychotic breakdowns in excruciating detail, the books scare tactics could save a few lives. Berenson is also not the first person to soundly argue that the high-potency pot products available now are likely to make the problem worse. The second part of Berensons argument, however, has attracted more criticism. He attempts to show that because marijuana can cause psychosis and psychosis can cause violence, marijuana causes users to commit senseless, nightmarish acts of violence. (For rebuttals see here, here, here and here. For a discussion of the issues involved see here.) Tell Your Children opens with an Australian woman who knifed eight children to death, seven of them hers. Later it tells the story of Jared Loughner, a 22-year-old Arizona man who in 2011 shot six people to death and nearly killed Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords; Loughner also smoked pot. Theres lots more. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Legal marijuana markets dont seem to have witnessed an uptick in ultraviolence. Illustration: George Wylesol Yet legal marijuana markets dont seem to have witnessed an uptick in ultraviolence. Berenson suggests the crimes are out there but have not been well-publicized, and that the problem is gestating. Maybe, but the argument suffers from a definition of psychosis which seems to encompass everything from low-level paranoia to fits of homicidal rage. And while Berenson focuses on questionable concerns over violence, he misses a number of less cinematic, but perhaps more dangerous threats. He could have looked, for example, into the little studied question of whether cannabis use by pregnant women can impair fetal brain development. Every adult in America, meanwhile, knows someone they think smokes too much weed, not because the user mutilated someone, but because it seemed to diminish their emotional or intellectual capacities. By some estimates, 10% of marijuana users develop a dependency on the drug. Under any legalization scenario, its this population, the anonymous problem user, who will weigh most heavily on society. A better anti-weed book would tell their stories. But this would force questions Berenson has no interest in answering. If 20% of marijuana users have a problem, 80% dont. Berenson doesnt want to come off as a prig. He gets that people like to get high and tries not to hold it against them. But hes uninterested in why people get high, much less able to acknowledge the possibility that theres any good reason for it. Like a lot of weed opponents, he says only a small fraction of marijuana users use it to treat a clinical medical need. Thats true. Much about weed invites this kind of easy contempt. But the great bulk of users feel its beneficial, because it helps them relax, it improves their sex life or makes it more fun to play with their kids. Maybe it helps them drink less alcohol, which they find more destructive. Quitting cannabis could lead to better memory and cognition Read more And at the other end of the spectrum from the problem users is a population who consider weed something like a performance-enhancing drug. They can be found, among other places, throughout the ranks of Hollywood and Silicon Valley. The last century of music, one might argue, was brought to us by weed. The book would have been better if Berenson had some understanding of, or curiosity about, the drugs allure and complexity, or even could put its dangers in context. By some criteria, I am dependent, the journalist Andrew Sullivan wrote in 2017. Weed most definitely isnt for everyone. But compared with all the other substances available, and most other avenues to chill and friendship, it remains, it seems to me, a no-brainer to legalize it, and for many sane adults, one of Gods great gifts to humankind. | Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence, by Alex Berenson, is making waves. The book suggests that the drug may be far more dangerous than the industry would have us believe. For many men in their teens and early 20s, marijuana use may induce psychosis and schizophrenia. | bart | 2 | https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/28/how-dangerous-is-marijuana-for-young-mens-mental-health | 0.429099 |
What are non-disclosure agreements? | Image copyright EPA Image caption Sir Philip Green denies allegations of sexual harassment and racist behaviour Topshop boss Sir Philip Green has dropped his legal action against the Daily Telegraph, which prevented it publishing allegations of racist behaviour and sexual harassment. He had argued that former staff were breaking the law by breaching non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) they had signed. Sometimes known as "gagging orders" or "hush agreements", they're legal contracts between employees and companies, typically preventing staff and ex-staff making information public. This applies to commercially sensitive details such as inventions, ideas, accounts or strategies, or anything likely to damage an organisation's reputation. Recently, Jose Mourinho was reported to have signed an NDA as part of his pay-off when he was sacked as Manchester United manager. But NDAs have also been used to prevent employees reporting allegations of misbehaviour in the workplace to the media after a settlement has been agreed. They are signed when employees and organisations decide to resolve a dispute - such as claims of wrongful dismissal - without having to go through a full tribunal hearing. But they can be signed earlier, such as when staff are taken on. They can be about specific details, such as a certain invention or contract, or they can be more general. In the UK, NDAs don't stop people reporting alleged illegal acts. If a manager or colleague faced allegations of attempted rape or fraud, for instance, reporting these to the police would not be prevented. But allegations of a boss making sexual comments or bullying staff could be covered. Campaigners argue that this could allow those responsible to get away with misbehaviour and stops other potential victims coming forward. The length of time for which an NDA applies varies. In the US, it's thought that a third of workers have signed NDAs but no equivalent figures exist for the UK. Julie Morris, a senior employment partner at Slater and Gordon Lawyers, says that, in her experience, "almost all settlement agreements" contain NDAs "which prevent employees from speaking about various matters, including allegations about harassment or discrimination". The Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned law firms against "inappropriate" use of NDAs, including to prevent reporting of "sexual harassment or misconduct". The Commons Women's and Equality Committee has recommended that the government "clean up" the use of NDAs in sexual harassment cases, and is now looking at what effect NDAs have on pregnancy or maternity discrimination or racist abuse. In one committee hearing, Nick Whittingham, chief executive of Kirklees Citizens Advice and Law Centre, said about 80% of settled tribunal cases involved an NDA. If someone breaches an NDA, they break a contract. This leaves them open to being sued. But if a company thinks the NDA is going to be breached anyway, it can apply for an injunction, as Sir Philip did to prevent his name being circulated by the Daily Telegraph in connection with allegations of racial and sexual harassment. If someone breaches an injunction, this is a criminal offence, and can lead to a fine or jail for those found guilty. Yes. Parliamentary privilege - guaranteeing free speech for parliamentarians - allows MPs and peers to mention them in the House of Commons or House of Lords. Last October, former Labour cabinet minister Lord Hain used this to name Sir Philip as the businessman accused by the Daily Telegraph of sexual and racial harassment, after the newspaper was prevented by the injunction from doing this. It reported that interviews with five members of staff revealed that victims had been paid "substantial sums" in return for legal commitments not to discuss their alleged experiences. But it hadn't named Sir Philip, because of the injunction. Sir Philip says he is "not guilty of unlawful sexual or racist behaviour" and that he has been the subject of "vicious" and "untrue" personal attacks in the media. | Topshop boss dropped legal action against Daily Telegraph over non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) NDAs are legal contracts between employees and companies, typically preventing staff and ex-staff making information public. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47027062 | 0.186243 |
What are non-disclosure agreements? | Image copyright EPA Image caption Sir Philip Green denies allegations of sexual harassment and racist behaviour Topshop boss Sir Philip Green has dropped his legal action against the Daily Telegraph, which prevented it publishing allegations of racist behaviour and sexual harassment. He had argued that former staff were breaking the law by breaching non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) they had signed. Sometimes known as "gagging orders" or "hush agreements", they're legal contracts between employees and companies, typically preventing staff and ex-staff making information public. This applies to commercially sensitive details such as inventions, ideas, accounts or strategies, or anything likely to damage an organisation's reputation. Recently, Jose Mourinho was reported to have signed an NDA as part of his pay-off when he was sacked as Manchester United manager. But NDAs have also been used to prevent employees reporting allegations of misbehaviour in the workplace to the media after a settlement has been agreed. They are signed when employees and organisations decide to resolve a dispute - such as claims of wrongful dismissal - without having to go through a full tribunal hearing. But they can be signed earlier, such as when staff are taken on. They can be about specific details, such as a certain invention or contract, or they can be more general. In the UK, NDAs don't stop people reporting alleged illegal acts. If a manager or colleague faced allegations of attempted rape or fraud, for instance, reporting these to the police would not be prevented. But allegations of a boss making sexual comments or bullying staff could be covered. Campaigners argue that this could allow those responsible to get away with misbehaviour and stops other potential victims coming forward. The length of time for which an NDA applies varies. In the US, it's thought that a third of workers have signed NDAs but no equivalent figures exist for the UK. Julie Morris, a senior employment partner at Slater and Gordon Lawyers, says that, in her experience, "almost all settlement agreements" contain NDAs "which prevent employees from speaking about various matters, including allegations about harassment or discrimination". The Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned law firms against "inappropriate" use of NDAs, including to prevent reporting of "sexual harassment or misconduct". The Commons Women's and Equality Committee has recommended that the government "clean up" the use of NDAs in sexual harassment cases, and is now looking at what effect NDAs have on pregnancy or maternity discrimination or racist abuse. In one committee hearing, Nick Whittingham, chief executive of Kirklees Citizens Advice and Law Centre, said about 80% of settled tribunal cases involved an NDA. If someone breaches an NDA, they break a contract. This leaves them open to being sued. But if a company thinks the NDA is going to be breached anyway, it can apply for an injunction, as Sir Philip did to prevent his name being circulated by the Daily Telegraph in connection with allegations of racial and sexual harassment. If someone breaches an injunction, this is a criminal offence, and can lead to a fine or jail for those found guilty. Yes. Parliamentary privilege - guaranteeing free speech for parliamentarians - allows MPs and peers to mention them in the House of Commons or House of Lords. Last October, former Labour cabinet minister Lord Hain used this to name Sir Philip as the businessman accused by the Daily Telegraph of sexual and racial harassment, after the newspaper was prevented by the injunction from doing this. It reported that interviews with five members of staff revealed that victims had been paid "substantial sums" in return for legal commitments not to discuss their alleged experiences. But it hadn't named Sir Philip, because of the injunction. Sir Philip says he is "not guilty of unlawful sexual or racist behaviour" and that he has been the subject of "vicious" and "untrue" personal attacks in the media. | Topshop boss dropped legal action against Daily Telegraph over non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) NDAs are legal contracts between employees and companies, typically preventing staff and ex-staff making information public. In the UK, NDAs don't stop people reporting alleged illegal acts. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47027062 | 0.205221 |
Will Netflix Fall Into the Apple Trap? | For the past several years, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) seemed invincible. Sure, there were ongoing concerns about slowing iPhone sales, but the company's revenue continued to grow, spurred on by a seemingly endless string of price increases for its flagship device. That all came crashing down recently. A combination of increasing smartphone penetration, slowing growth in China, and lackluster adoption of the latest model caused Apple to warn that its revenue results for the important holiday quarter would fall well below its previous guidance. There are some interesting parallels with Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) as it begins to more aggressively raise prices. An Apple sits atop a bear trap. Image source: Getty Images. A similar mindset Over the years, Apple has often suggested that as it continued to add high-end features to its iPhone, consumers would be willing to pay a premium for the device. Here's what Apple CEO Tim Cook had to say on the subject on the third-quarter 2018 conference call last June: If you look at iPhone X in particular, it's the most innovative smartphone on the market. We priced it at a level that represented the value of it. And we could not be happier that it has been the top-selling iPhone since the launch. Netflix had been much more reluctant to raise prices since the ill-fated splitting of its DVD and streaming services back in 2011. Where customers were previously charged $10 for both services, the price jumped to $8 each or $16 for both. Customers revolted at the 60% price increase and Netflix lost 800,000 members that quarter, or 3% of its subscriber base. That led to a long period of stable pricing. Over the past couple of years, however, Netflix has been much more willing to institute price increases. Consider this recent quote from Netflix's chief product officer, Greg Peters, on the company's fourth-quarter conference call, referring to the recent price increase: "Our job is to effectively invest the money that our subscribers give us every month so that we can give them incredible content and a better and better product experience. And if we do that well, we create more value for our subscribers and then occasionally, we'll come to them and we'll ask for a little bit more money." That sounds an awful lot like Apple's justification for higher prices. Diverging paths While both companies have a history of recent increases, the results over time have been vastly different. Since 2014, Netflix has raised the cost of its standard plan -- which includes high-definition streaming and concurrent streaming on two devices -- from $7.99 to $12.99, a 63% increase. While that might seem ambitious, the path of price increases for the iPhone has been far more aggressive. In 2014, a low-end iPhone 6 cost about $199. Today, the cheapest iPhone XS comes in at $999 -- a fivefold increase. Not Apples to apples It's important to note that other factors are at play, so this is obviously not a perfect comparison. Smartphones have experienced much greater penetration worldwide than streaming has. In addition, the ongoing trade war and slowing economic growth in China probably took the greatest toll on Apple's results, so growth may rebound somewhat once Washington, D.C., and Beijing strike an accord. | Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is raising prices at a much faster rate than Apple. The two companies have different approaches to price increases. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://news.yahoo.com/netflix-fall-apple-trap-123000378.html | 0.102804 |
Will Netflix Fall Into the Apple Trap? | For the past several years, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) seemed invincible. Sure, there were ongoing concerns about slowing iPhone sales, but the company's revenue continued to grow, spurred on by a seemingly endless string of price increases for its flagship device. That all came crashing down recently. A combination of increasing smartphone penetration, slowing growth in China, and lackluster adoption of the latest model caused Apple to warn that its revenue results for the important holiday quarter would fall well below its previous guidance. There are some interesting parallels with Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) as it begins to more aggressively raise prices. An Apple sits atop a bear trap. Image source: Getty Images. A similar mindset Over the years, Apple has often suggested that as it continued to add high-end features to its iPhone, consumers would be willing to pay a premium for the device. Here's what Apple CEO Tim Cook had to say on the subject on the third-quarter 2018 conference call last June: If you look at iPhone X in particular, it's the most innovative smartphone on the market. We priced it at a level that represented the value of it. And we could not be happier that it has been the top-selling iPhone since the launch. Netflix had been much more reluctant to raise prices since the ill-fated splitting of its DVD and streaming services back in 2011. Where customers were previously charged $10 for both services, the price jumped to $8 each or $16 for both. Customers revolted at the 60% price increase and Netflix lost 800,000 members that quarter, or 3% of its subscriber base. That led to a long period of stable pricing. Over the past couple of years, however, Netflix has been much more willing to institute price increases. Consider this recent quote from Netflix's chief product officer, Greg Peters, on the company's fourth-quarter conference call, referring to the recent price increase: "Our job is to effectively invest the money that our subscribers give us every month so that we can give them incredible content and a better and better product experience. And if we do that well, we create more value for our subscribers and then occasionally, we'll come to them and we'll ask for a little bit more money." That sounds an awful lot like Apple's justification for higher prices. Diverging paths While both companies have a history of recent increases, the results over time have been vastly different. Since 2014, Netflix has raised the cost of its standard plan -- which includes high-definition streaming and concurrent streaming on two devices -- from $7.99 to $12.99, a 63% increase. While that might seem ambitious, the path of price increases for the iPhone has been far more aggressive. In 2014, a low-end iPhone 6 cost about $199. Today, the cheapest iPhone XS comes in at $999 -- a fivefold increase. Not Apples to apples It's important to note that other factors are at play, so this is obviously not a perfect comparison. Smartphones have experienced much greater penetration worldwide than streaming has. In addition, the ongoing trade war and slowing economic growth in China probably took the greatest toll on Apple's results, so growth may rebound somewhat once Washington, D.C., and Beijing strike an accord. | Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is raising prices at a much faster rate than Apple. The two companies have different approaches to price increases. Netflix has raised its standard plan by 63%, while Apple has increased its iPhone price by fivefold. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/netflix-fall-apple-trap-123000378.html | 0.183411 |
Will Netflix Fall Into the Apple Trap? | For the past several years, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) seemed invincible. Sure, there were ongoing concerns about slowing iPhone sales, but the company's revenue continued to grow, spurred on by a seemingly endless string of price increases for its flagship device. That all came crashing down recently. A combination of increasing smartphone penetration, slowing growth in China, and lackluster adoption of the latest model caused Apple to warn that its revenue results for the important holiday quarter would fall well below its previous guidance. There are some interesting parallels with Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) as it begins to more aggressively raise prices. An Apple sits atop a bear trap. Image source: Getty Images. A similar mindset Over the years, Apple has often suggested that as it continued to add high-end features to its iPhone, consumers would be willing to pay a premium for the device. Here's what Apple CEO Tim Cook had to say on the subject on the third-quarter 2018 conference call last June: If you look at iPhone X in particular, it's the most innovative smartphone on the market. We priced it at a level that represented the value of it. And we could not be happier that it has been the top-selling iPhone since the launch. Netflix had been much more reluctant to raise prices since the ill-fated splitting of its DVD and streaming services back in 2011. Where customers were previously charged $10 for both services, the price jumped to $8 each or $16 for both. Customers revolted at the 60% price increase and Netflix lost 800,000 members that quarter, or 3% of its subscriber base. That led to a long period of stable pricing. Over the past couple of years, however, Netflix has been much more willing to institute price increases. Consider this recent quote from Netflix's chief product officer, Greg Peters, on the company's fourth-quarter conference call, referring to the recent price increase: "Our job is to effectively invest the money that our subscribers give us every month so that we can give them incredible content and a better and better product experience. And if we do that well, we create more value for our subscribers and then occasionally, we'll come to them and we'll ask for a little bit more money." That sounds an awful lot like Apple's justification for higher prices. Diverging paths While both companies have a history of recent increases, the results over time have been vastly different. Since 2014, Netflix has raised the cost of its standard plan -- which includes high-definition streaming and concurrent streaming on two devices -- from $7.99 to $12.99, a 63% increase. While that might seem ambitious, the path of price increases for the iPhone has been far more aggressive. In 2014, a low-end iPhone 6 cost about $199. Today, the cheapest iPhone XS comes in at $999 -- a fivefold increase. Not Apples to apples It's important to note that other factors are at play, so this is obviously not a perfect comparison. Smartphones have experienced much greater penetration worldwide than streaming has. In addition, the ongoing trade war and slowing economic growth in China probably took the greatest toll on Apple's results, so growth may rebound somewhat once Washington, D.C., and Beijing strike an accord. | Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is raising prices at a much faster rate than Apple. The two companies have different approaches to price increases. Netflix has raised its standard plan by 63%, while Apple has increased its iPhone price by fivefold in the past three years. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/netflix-fall-apple-trap-123000378.html | 0.155033 |
Is Van Eck Emerging Markets A (GBFAX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now? | If investors are looking at the Non US - Equity fund category, make sure to pass over Van Eck Emerging Markets A (GBFAX). GBFAX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. Objective GBFAX is classified in the Non US - Equity area by Zacks, and this segment is full of potential. Non US - Equity funds focus their investments on companies outside of the United States, which is an important distinction since global mutual funds tend to keep a sizable portion of their portfolio based in the United States. Most of these funds will allocate across emerging and developed markets, and can often extend across cap levels too. History of Fund/Manager GBFAX finds itself in the Van Eck family, based out of New York, NY. Van Eck Emerging Markets A made its debut in January of 1994, and since then, GBFAX has accumulated about $119.07 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager, David A. Semple, has been in charge of the fund since December of 2002. Performance Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of -0.23%, and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of 4.57%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. The standard deviation of GBFAX over the past three years is 16.16% compared to the category average of 10.08%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 15.38% compared to the category average of 10.02%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Risk Factors Investors should always remember the downsides to a potential investment, and this segment carries some risks one should be aware of. In the most recent bear market, GBFAX lost 73.44% and underperformed its peer group by 14.99%. This makes the fund a possibly worse choice than its peers during a sliding market environment. Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.89, so investors should note that it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -6.67, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Expenses Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, GBFAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.41% compared to the category average of 1.21%. So, GBFAX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective. While the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100. Bottom Line Overall, Van Eck Emerging Markets A ( GBFAX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and higher fees, this fund looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now. For additional information on the Non US - Equity area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into GBFAX too for additional information. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. | Van Eck Emerging Markets A (GBFAX) has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell) GBFAX is classified in the Non US - Equity area by Zacks, and this segment is full of potential. | bart | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/van-eck-emerging-markets-gbfax-120012752.html | 0.171106 |
Is Van Eck Emerging Markets A (GBFAX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now? | If investors are looking at the Non US - Equity fund category, make sure to pass over Van Eck Emerging Markets A (GBFAX). GBFAX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. Objective GBFAX is classified in the Non US - Equity area by Zacks, and this segment is full of potential. Non US - Equity funds focus their investments on companies outside of the United States, which is an important distinction since global mutual funds tend to keep a sizable portion of their portfolio based in the United States. Most of these funds will allocate across emerging and developed markets, and can often extend across cap levels too. History of Fund/Manager GBFAX finds itself in the Van Eck family, based out of New York, NY. Van Eck Emerging Markets A made its debut in January of 1994, and since then, GBFAX has accumulated about $119.07 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager, David A. Semple, has been in charge of the fund since December of 2002. Performance Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of -0.23%, and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of 4.57%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. The standard deviation of GBFAX over the past three years is 16.16% compared to the category average of 10.08%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 15.38% compared to the category average of 10.02%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Risk Factors Investors should always remember the downsides to a potential investment, and this segment carries some risks one should be aware of. In the most recent bear market, GBFAX lost 73.44% and underperformed its peer group by 14.99%. This makes the fund a possibly worse choice than its peers during a sliding market environment. Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.89, so investors should note that it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -6.67, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Expenses Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, GBFAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.41% compared to the category average of 1.21%. So, GBFAX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective. While the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100. Bottom Line Overall, Van Eck Emerging Markets A ( GBFAX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and higher fees, this fund looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now. For additional information on the Non US - Equity area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into GBFAX too for additional information. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. | Van Eck Emerging Markets A (GBFAX) has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell) GBFAX has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of -0.23%, and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/van-eck-emerging-markets-gbfax-120012752.html | 0.183866 |
Is ClearBridge Large Cap Growth A (SBLGX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now? | ClearBridge Large Cap Growth A (SBLGX) is a potential starting point. SBLGX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. Objective SBLGX is classified in the Large Cap Growth segment by Zacks, an area full of possibilities. Companies are usually considered to be large-cap if their stock market valuation is more than $10 billion. Large Cap Growth mutual funds invest in many large U.S. firms that are projected to grow at a faster rate than their large-cap peers. History of Fund/Manager SBLGX finds itself in the Legg Mason family, based out of Baltimore, MD. ClearBridge Large Cap Growth A debuted in August of 1997. Since then, SBLGX has accumulated assets of about $1.89 billion, according to the most recently available information. The fund's current manager, Peter Bourbeau, has been in charge of the fund since July of 2009. Performance Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 10.47%, and it sits in the top third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of 10.01%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. The standard deviation of SBLGX over the past three years is 11.58% compared to the category average of 9.76%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 11.43% compared to the category average of 9.64%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Risk Factors One cannot ignore the volatility of this segment, however, as it is always important for investors to remember the downside to any potential investment. In the most recent bear market, SBLGX lost 46.03% and outperformed its peer group by 2.81%. This might suggest that the fund is a better choice than its peers during a bear market. Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 1, so it is likely going to be as volatile as the market at large. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. With a positive alpha of 1.93, managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Holdings Exploring the equity holdings of a mutual fund is also a valuable exercise. This can show us how the manager is applying their stated methodology, as well as if there are any inherent biases in their approach. For this particular fund, the focus is largely on equities that are traded in the United States. Right now, 87.53% of this mutual fund's holdings are stocks, with an average market capitalization of $280.46 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors: Technology Other Retail Trade Finance With turnover at about 18%, this fund makes fewer trades than the average comparable fund. Expenses Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, SBLGX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.03% compared to the category average of 1.05%. SBLGX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost. Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000 and that each subsequent investment needs to be at $50. Bottom Line Overall, ClearBridge Large Cap Growth A ( SBLGX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, ClearBridge Large Cap Growth A ( SBLGX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now. For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Large Cap Growth, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information. If you want to check out our stock reports as well, make sure to go to Zacks.com to see all of the great tools we have to offer, including our time-tested Zacks Rank. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research | ClearBridge Large Cap Growth A (SBLGX) has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy) The fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 10.47%, and it sits in the top third among its category peers. | bart | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/clearbridge-large-cap-growth-sblgx-120012740.html | 0.169928 |
Is DFA US Small Cap Institutional (DFSTX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now? | Starting with DFA US Small Cap Institutional (DFSTX) is one possibility. DFSTX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. Objective Zacks categorizes DFSTX as Small Cap Blend, which is an area packed with options. Usually targeting stocks with market caps of less than $2 billion, a Small Cap Blend mutual fund lets investors diversify their funds among other kinds of small-cap equities. This can help reduce risk found in companies that have a lower stock market valuation. History of Fund/Manager Dimensional is based in Austin, TX, and is the manager of DFSTX. DFA US Small Cap Institutional made its debut in March of 1992, and since then, DFSTX has accumulated about $17.52 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals. Performance Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. DFSTX has a 5-year annualized total return of 3.86% and is in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 6.17%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Compared to the category average of 15.86%, the standard deviation of DFSTX over the past three years is 15.48%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 14.84% compared to the category average of 15.25%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Risk Factors It's always important to be aware of the downsides to any future investment, so one should not discount the risks that come with this segment. In the most recent bear market, DFSTX lost 53.79% and underperformed comparable funds by 1.62%. This makes the fund a possibly worse choice than its peers during a sliding market environment. Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.1, so investors should note that it is hypothetically more volatile than the market at large. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a negative alpha of -4.6. This means that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Holdings Exploring the equity holdings of a mutual fund is also a valuable exercise. This can show us how the manager is applying their stated methodology, as well as if there are any inherent biases in their approach. For this particular fund, the focus is largely on equities that are traded in the United States. The mutual fund currently has 79.33% of its holdings in stocks, with an average market capitalization of $2.37 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors: Other Finance Industrial Cyclical Technology Turnover is about 12%, so those in charge of the fund make fewer trades than its comparable peers. Expenses For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, DFSTX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.37% compared to the category average of 1.04%. So, DFSTX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective. While the minimum initial investment for the product is $0, investors should also note that there is no minimum for each subsequent investment. Bottom Line Overall, DFA US Small Cap Institutional ( DFSTX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, DFA US Small Cap Institutional ( DFSTX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now. For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Small Cap Blend, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information. If you are more of a stock investor, make sure to also check out our Zacks Rank, and our full suite of tools we have available for novice and professional investors alike. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. | DFA US Small Cap Institutional (DFSTX) has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy) DFSTX has a 5-year annualized total return of 3.86% and is in the middle third among its category peers. The fund has a negative alpha of -4.6. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/dfa-us-small-cap-institutional-120012299.html | 0.115468 |
Is Permanent Portfolio Fund (PRPFX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now? | Any investors hoping to find an Allocation Balanced fund could think about starting with Permanent Portfolio Fund (PRPFX). PRPFX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. Objective PRPFX is one of many Zacks' Allocation Balanced mutual funds to pick from. Allocation Balanced funds seek to invest in a balance of asset types, like stocks, bonds, and cash, though including precious metals or commodities is not unusual; these funds are mostly categorized by their respective asset allocation. Investors utilize Allocation Balanced funds as a way to get a good start with diversified mutual funds, as well as for core holdings in a portfolio of funds. History of Fund/Manager PRPFX is a part of the Permanent family of funds, a company based out of San Francisco, CA. Permanent Portfolio Fund made its debut in December of 1982, and since then, PRPFX has accumulated about $2.36 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by Michael J. Cuggino who has been in charge of the fund since May of 2003. Performance Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. PRPFX has a 5-year annualized total return of 1.32% and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 4.85%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Compared to the category average of 7.14%, the standard deviation of PRPFX over the past three years is 7.1%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 6.98% compared to the category average of 7.27%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Risk Factors Investors cannot discount the risks to this segment though, as it is always important to remember the downside for any potential investment. In PRPFX's case, the fund lost 15.14% in the most recent bear market and outperformed its peer group by 21.26%. This makes the fund a possibly better choice than its peers during a sliding market environment. Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.33, so it is likely going to be less volatile than the market at large. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. PRPFX's 5-year performance has produced a negative alpha of -1.72, which means managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Expenses Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, PRPFX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.83% compared to the category average of 0.88%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, PRPFX is actually cheaper than its peers. Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $1,000; each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100. Bottom Line Overall, Permanent Portfolio Fund ( PRPFX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a great potential choice for investors right now. For additional information on the Allocation Balanced area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into PRPFX too for additional information. If you are more of a stock investor, make sure to also check out our Zacks Rank, and our full suite of tools we have available for novice and professional investors alike. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research | Permanent Portfolio Fund (PRPFX) has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy) PRPFX is one of many Zacks' Allocation Balanced mutual funds to pick from. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/permanent-portfolio-fund-prpfx-strong-120012755.html | 0.102179 |
Is Permanent Portfolio Fund (PRPFX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now? | Any investors hoping to find an Allocation Balanced fund could think about starting with Permanent Portfolio Fund (PRPFX). PRPFX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. Objective PRPFX is one of many Zacks' Allocation Balanced mutual funds to pick from. Allocation Balanced funds seek to invest in a balance of asset types, like stocks, bonds, and cash, though including precious metals or commodities is not unusual; these funds are mostly categorized by their respective asset allocation. Investors utilize Allocation Balanced funds as a way to get a good start with diversified mutual funds, as well as for core holdings in a portfolio of funds. History of Fund/Manager PRPFX is a part of the Permanent family of funds, a company based out of San Francisco, CA. Permanent Portfolio Fund made its debut in December of 1982, and since then, PRPFX has accumulated about $2.36 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by Michael J. Cuggino who has been in charge of the fund since May of 2003. Performance Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. PRPFX has a 5-year annualized total return of 1.32% and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 4.85%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Compared to the category average of 7.14%, the standard deviation of PRPFX over the past three years is 7.1%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 6.98% compared to the category average of 7.27%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Risk Factors Investors cannot discount the risks to this segment though, as it is always important to remember the downside for any potential investment. In PRPFX's case, the fund lost 15.14% in the most recent bear market and outperformed its peer group by 21.26%. This makes the fund a possibly better choice than its peers during a sliding market environment. Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.33, so it is likely going to be less volatile than the market at large. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. PRPFX's 5-year performance has produced a negative alpha of -1.72, which means managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Expenses Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, PRPFX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.83% compared to the category average of 0.88%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, PRPFX is actually cheaper than its peers. Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $1,000; each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100. Bottom Line Overall, Permanent Portfolio Fund ( PRPFX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a great potential choice for investors right now. For additional information on the Allocation Balanced area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into PRPFX too for additional information. If you are more of a stock investor, make sure to also check out our Zacks Rank, and our full suite of tools we have available for novice and professional investors alike. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research | Permanent Portfolio Fund (PRPFX) has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy) PRPFX is one of many Zacks' Allocation Balanced mutual funds to pick from. The fund has a 5-year annualized total return of 1.32%. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/permanent-portfolio-fund-prpfx-strong-120012755.html | 0.116652 |
Is T. Rowe Price Japan Fund (PRJPX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now? | Starting with T. Rowe Price Japan Fund (PRJPX) is one possibility. PRJPX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. Objective PRJPX is part of the Japan - Equity section, which is a segment that boasts many possible selections. Japan - Equity mutual funds mostly invest in Japan-based companies, which is one of the world's richest and most diversified economies. Japan's focus on exports allows them to be somewhat exposed to global economic trends, but investors should note that the country's lack of natural resources can also have an impact. History of Fund/Manager T. Rowe Price is based in Baltimore, MD, and is the manager of PRJPX. T. Rowe Price Japan Fund made its debut in December of 1991, and since then, PRJPX has accumulated about $918.73 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by Archibald A. Ciganer who has been in charge of the fund since December of 2013. Performance Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. PRJPX has a 5-year annualized total return of 6.37% and is in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 9.02%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Compared to the category average of 16.56%, the standard deviation of PRJPX over the past three years is 13.31%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 12.63% compared to the category average of 16.18%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Risk Factors It's always important to be aware of the downsides to any future investment, so one should not discount the risks that come with this segment. In the most recent bear market, PRJPX lost 50.7% and outperformed its peer group by 5.92%. This makes the fund a possibly better choice than its peers during a sliding market environment. Nevertheless, investors should also note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.78, which means it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. The fund has produced a positive alpha over the past 5 years of 0.01, which shows that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Expenses For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, PRJPX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.94% compared to the category average of 1.20%. So, PRJPX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective. While the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,500, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100. Bottom Line Overall, T. Rowe Price Japan Fund ( PRJPX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, T. Rowe Price Japan Fund ( PRJPX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now. Don't stop here for your research on Japan - Equity funds. We also have plenty more on our site in order to help you find the best possible fund for your portfolio. Make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for more information about the world of funds, and feel free to compare PRJPX to its peers as well for additional information. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Get Your Free (PRJPX): Fund Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. | T. Rowe Price Japan Fund (PRJPX) has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy) PRJPX has a 5-year annualized total return of 6.37%. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/t-rowe-price-japan-fund-120012551.html | 0.170013 |
Is T. Rowe Price Japan Fund (PRJPX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now? | Starting with T. Rowe Price Japan Fund (PRJPX) is one possibility. PRJPX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. Objective PRJPX is part of the Japan - Equity section, which is a segment that boasts many possible selections. Japan - Equity mutual funds mostly invest in Japan-based companies, which is one of the world's richest and most diversified economies. Japan's focus on exports allows them to be somewhat exposed to global economic trends, but investors should note that the country's lack of natural resources can also have an impact. History of Fund/Manager T. Rowe Price is based in Baltimore, MD, and is the manager of PRJPX. T. Rowe Price Japan Fund made its debut in December of 1991, and since then, PRJPX has accumulated about $918.73 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by Archibald A. Ciganer who has been in charge of the fund since December of 2013. Performance Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. PRJPX has a 5-year annualized total return of 6.37% and is in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 9.02%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Compared to the category average of 16.56%, the standard deviation of PRJPX over the past three years is 13.31%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 12.63% compared to the category average of 16.18%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Risk Factors It's always important to be aware of the downsides to any future investment, so one should not discount the risks that come with this segment. In the most recent bear market, PRJPX lost 50.7% and outperformed its peer group by 5.92%. This makes the fund a possibly better choice than its peers during a sliding market environment. Nevertheless, investors should also note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.78, which means it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. The fund has produced a positive alpha over the past 5 years of 0.01, which shows that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Expenses For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, PRJPX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.94% compared to the category average of 1.20%. So, PRJPX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective. While the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,500, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100. Bottom Line Overall, T. Rowe Price Japan Fund ( PRJPX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, T. Rowe Price Japan Fund ( PRJPX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now. Don't stop here for your research on Japan - Equity funds. We also have plenty more on our site in order to help you find the best possible fund for your portfolio. Make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for more information about the world of funds, and feel free to compare PRJPX to its peers as well for additional information. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Get Your Free (PRJPX): Fund Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. | T. Rowe Price Japan Fund (PRJPX) has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy) PRJPX has a 5-year annualized total return of 6.37% and is in the top third among its category peers. The fund has produced a positive alpha over the past 5 years of 0.01. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/t-rowe-price-japan-fund-120012551.html | 0.230379 |
What Would John Stuart Mill Doto Fix Facebook? | Mills concept of harm is notoriously slippery: Its not necessarily clear how the Liberty principle would apply in cleaning up Facebook. Mill probably wouldnt have much objection to Facebooks attention-hijacking maneuvers, for instance. Its your choice how you procrastinate, and as long as youre not harming others in the process, the government shouldnt patronize you by micromanaging. When it comes to privacy, again Mill might have argued that by agreeing to the terms and conditions, one voluntarily consents to giving Facebook access to some private data. The voluntary nature of data sharing there is questionable. Complicating matters further, Mill encouraged states to protect peoples rightssuch as the contemporary right to privacy some legal frameworks now recognize. But what counts as a right, according to Mill, is specifically something without which human happiness cannot be maximized. We cant be sure whether data privacy would have been the kind of thing Mill would have thought necessary for maximizing happiness. When it comes to the 2016 election-related scandals, there are two separate issues: The dissemination of fake news stories with the aim to spread confusion and short-circuit the democratic process, and the use of data by third parties, such as Cambridge Analytica, with the aim to influence voters in very personalized ways. Mill wouldnt have seen the spreading of fake news as problematic. Mill wouldnt have seen the spreading of fake news as problematic. When discussing freedom of speech, Mill argued that not only are false views not damaging, they are actually beneficial. Encountering and combating false views helps prevent the truth from becoming dead dogma, Mill wrote: Truth would constantly need defending and reaffirming. Mill seemed to believe that an open, free debate meant the truth would usually prevail, whereas under censorship, truth could end up being accidentally suppressed, along with falsehood. Its a view that seems a bit archaic in the age of an online marketplace of memes and clickbait, where false stories tend to spread faster and wider than their true counterpoints. But Mill did also believe that some cases called for the limiting of the freedom of expression. When it is highly likely that ones remarks will lead to the physical harm of others, then you can be punished for them by the state. The enabling and dissemination of inflammatory content believed to have contributed to the genocide of the Rohingya in Myanmar would very much fall under that category: In a series of posts going back years, The New York Times reported last fall, military personnel in Myanmar turned the social network into a tool for ethnic cleansing, taking advantage of the platforms ubiquity to spread propaganda vilifying the countys minority Muslim group, who were then repeatedly massacred. | John Stuart Mill wouldn't have seen the spreading of fake news as problematic, writes Andrew Keen. Keen: It's not necessarily clear how the Liberty principle would apply in cleaning up Facebook. He says Mill would have argued that by agreeing to the terms and conditions, one voluntarily consents to giving Facebook access to some private data. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://newrepublic.com/article/152939/john-stuart-mill-doto-fix-facebook | 0.118972 |
Who made Rob Maclean's Scottish Premiership team of the weekend? | The Scottish Premiership is back in full swing after two rounds of fixtures following the winter break. BBC commentator Rob Maclean picks his team of the weekend. Formation 4-3-3: Ofir Marciano (Hibernian); James Tavernier (Rangers), John Souttar (Hearts), Stuart Findlay (Kilmarnock), Nathan Ralph (Dundee); David Turnbull (Motherwell), Stevie Mallan (Hibernian), Callum McGregor (Celtic); Alfredo Morelos (Rangers), Oli Shaw (Hibernian), Ryan Kent (Rangers). Goalkeeper - Ofir Marciano Hibernian, minus head coach Neil Lennon, showed real character to come back from a goal down against St Mirren in Paisley and goalkeeper Ofir Marciano takes a lot of credit for the 3-1 win. He made a couple of great saves to deny Stephen McGinn and Kyle McAllister. Defenders - James Tavernier, John Souttar, Stuart Findlay, Nathan Ralph Rangers captain James Tavernier set the tone for an impressive team performance. On his 28th birthday, Tavernier was influential from start to finish, still piling in maximum effort when the match was well won at 3-0. John Souttar made his first start for Hearts in two-and-a-half months and cruised through the win over Dundee. The Scotland defender was typically calm at the back and picked out Godinho with a perfect assist for the opening goal. Media playback is not supported on this device Highlights: Heart of Midlothian 2-0 St Johnstone Kilmarnock did not do much going forward in the goalless draw against Aberdeen at Pittodrie but they were solid in defence. Stuart Findlay is consistently outstanding for them. The former Celtic and Newcastle defender is a big part of the Killie success story. Nathan Ralph has been a big plus for Dundee during a difficult time. The former Woking left-back is comfortable on the ball and delivers well from out wide. In a regularly changing team he's been an automatic pick. Midfield - David Turnbull, Stevie Mallan, Callum McGregor Motherwell midfielder David Turnbull has been one of the newcomers of the season so far and scored the only goal of the game twice in four days for the Steelmen. The 19-year-old makes a quality contribution whenever he plays. There was, rightly, no great celebration from Stevie Mallan as the Hibs midfielder came back to haunt his old team St Mirren on Sunday. He had a hand in the first two goals then scored the clincher himself as Hibs moved up to seventh in the Premiership. Media playback is not supported on this device Highlights: St Mirren 1-3 Hibernian Another no-sweat Saturday for Celtic midfielder Callum McGregor as he quietly controlled the game against Hamilton Academical. The opening goal in a comfortable 3-0 win was his first since October but the Scotland stick-on does not get so many scoring chances these days as he continues to flourish in a deeper role. Forwards - Alfredo Morelos, Oli Shaw, Ryan Kent Alfredo Morelos looked happier doing his own thing in Rangers' emphatic win at Livi than trying to team up with Jermaine Defoe in the 2-1 defeat at Kilmarnock last Wednesday. He scored, hit the post and, on another day, would have had a hat-trick. You may say Oli Shaw played only 40 minutes of Hibs' defeat of St Mirren but his introduction off the bench made all the difference. Like team-mate Mallan, the 20-year-old striker scored one goal and was involved in the other two. Rangers winger Ryan Kent tormented the Livingston defence all Sunday afternoon at the Tony Macaroni Arena and lashed in the second goal. He's on loan from Liverpool and gaffer Steven Gerrard will be keen to make the temporary arrangement a permanent one. | Rob Maclean picks his team of the weekend from the Scottish Premiership. Hibernian goalkeeper Ofir Marciano is named in the side. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47030632 | 0.337971 |
Who made Rob Maclean's Scottish Premiership team of the weekend? | The Scottish Premiership is back in full swing after two rounds of fixtures following the winter break. BBC commentator Rob Maclean picks his team of the weekend. Formation 4-3-3: Ofir Marciano (Hibernian); James Tavernier (Rangers), John Souttar (Hearts), Stuart Findlay (Kilmarnock), Nathan Ralph (Dundee); David Turnbull (Motherwell), Stevie Mallan (Hibernian), Callum McGregor (Celtic); Alfredo Morelos (Rangers), Oli Shaw (Hibernian), Ryan Kent (Rangers). Goalkeeper - Ofir Marciano Hibernian, minus head coach Neil Lennon, showed real character to come back from a goal down against St Mirren in Paisley and goalkeeper Ofir Marciano takes a lot of credit for the 3-1 win. He made a couple of great saves to deny Stephen McGinn and Kyle McAllister. Defenders - James Tavernier, John Souttar, Stuart Findlay, Nathan Ralph Rangers captain James Tavernier set the tone for an impressive team performance. On his 28th birthday, Tavernier was influential from start to finish, still piling in maximum effort when the match was well won at 3-0. John Souttar made his first start for Hearts in two-and-a-half months and cruised through the win over Dundee. The Scotland defender was typically calm at the back and picked out Godinho with a perfect assist for the opening goal. Media playback is not supported on this device Highlights: Heart of Midlothian 2-0 St Johnstone Kilmarnock did not do much going forward in the goalless draw against Aberdeen at Pittodrie but they were solid in defence. Stuart Findlay is consistently outstanding for them. The former Celtic and Newcastle defender is a big part of the Killie success story. Nathan Ralph has been a big plus for Dundee during a difficult time. The former Woking left-back is comfortable on the ball and delivers well from out wide. In a regularly changing team he's been an automatic pick. Midfield - David Turnbull, Stevie Mallan, Callum McGregor Motherwell midfielder David Turnbull has been one of the newcomers of the season so far and scored the only goal of the game twice in four days for the Steelmen. The 19-year-old makes a quality contribution whenever he plays. There was, rightly, no great celebration from Stevie Mallan as the Hibs midfielder came back to haunt his old team St Mirren on Sunday. He had a hand in the first two goals then scored the clincher himself as Hibs moved up to seventh in the Premiership. Media playback is not supported on this device Highlights: St Mirren 1-3 Hibernian Another no-sweat Saturday for Celtic midfielder Callum McGregor as he quietly controlled the game against Hamilton Academical. The opening goal in a comfortable 3-0 win was his first since October but the Scotland stick-on does not get so many scoring chances these days as he continues to flourish in a deeper role. Forwards - Alfredo Morelos, Oli Shaw, Ryan Kent Alfredo Morelos looked happier doing his own thing in Rangers' emphatic win at Livi than trying to team up with Jermaine Defoe in the 2-1 defeat at Kilmarnock last Wednesday. He scored, hit the post and, on another day, would have had a hat-trick. You may say Oli Shaw played only 40 minutes of Hibs' defeat of St Mirren but his introduction off the bench made all the difference. Like team-mate Mallan, the 20-year-old striker scored one goal and was involved in the other two. Rangers winger Ryan Kent tormented the Livingston defence all Sunday afternoon at the Tony Macaroni Arena and lashed in the second goal. He's on loan from Liverpool and gaffer Steven Gerrard will be keen to make the temporary arrangement a permanent one. | Rob Maclean picks his team of the weekend from the Scottish Premiership. Hibernian goalkeeper Ofir Marciano is named in the side. Rangers' James Tavernier and Hearts' John Souttar are also included. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47030632 | 0.510076 |
Who made Rob Maclean's Scottish Premiership team of the weekend? | The Scottish Premiership is back in full swing after two rounds of fixtures following the winter break. BBC commentator Rob Maclean picks his team of the weekend. Formation 4-3-3: Ofir Marciano (Hibernian); James Tavernier (Rangers), John Souttar (Hearts), Stuart Findlay (Kilmarnock), Nathan Ralph (Dundee); David Turnbull (Motherwell), Stevie Mallan (Hibernian), Callum McGregor (Celtic); Alfredo Morelos (Rangers), Oli Shaw (Hibernian), Ryan Kent (Rangers). Goalkeeper - Ofir Marciano Hibernian, minus head coach Neil Lennon, showed real character to come back from a goal down against St Mirren in Paisley and goalkeeper Ofir Marciano takes a lot of credit for the 3-1 win. He made a couple of great saves to deny Stephen McGinn and Kyle McAllister. Defenders - James Tavernier, John Souttar, Stuart Findlay, Nathan Ralph Rangers captain James Tavernier set the tone for an impressive team performance. On his 28th birthday, Tavernier was influential from start to finish, still piling in maximum effort when the match was well won at 3-0. John Souttar made his first start for Hearts in two-and-a-half months and cruised through the win over Dundee. The Scotland defender was typically calm at the back and picked out Godinho with a perfect assist for the opening goal. Media playback is not supported on this device Highlights: Heart of Midlothian 2-0 St Johnstone Kilmarnock did not do much going forward in the goalless draw against Aberdeen at Pittodrie but they were solid in defence. Stuart Findlay is consistently outstanding for them. The former Celtic and Newcastle defender is a big part of the Killie success story. Nathan Ralph has been a big plus for Dundee during a difficult time. The former Woking left-back is comfortable on the ball and delivers well from out wide. In a regularly changing team he's been an automatic pick. Midfield - David Turnbull, Stevie Mallan, Callum McGregor Motherwell midfielder David Turnbull has been one of the newcomers of the season so far and scored the only goal of the game twice in four days for the Steelmen. The 19-year-old makes a quality contribution whenever he plays. There was, rightly, no great celebration from Stevie Mallan as the Hibs midfielder came back to haunt his old team St Mirren on Sunday. He had a hand in the first two goals then scored the clincher himself as Hibs moved up to seventh in the Premiership. Media playback is not supported on this device Highlights: St Mirren 1-3 Hibernian Another no-sweat Saturday for Celtic midfielder Callum McGregor as he quietly controlled the game against Hamilton Academical. The opening goal in a comfortable 3-0 win was his first since October but the Scotland stick-on does not get so many scoring chances these days as he continues to flourish in a deeper role. Forwards - Alfredo Morelos, Oli Shaw, Ryan Kent Alfredo Morelos looked happier doing his own thing in Rangers' emphatic win at Livi than trying to team up with Jermaine Defoe in the 2-1 defeat at Kilmarnock last Wednesday. He scored, hit the post and, on another day, would have had a hat-trick. You may say Oli Shaw played only 40 minutes of Hibs' defeat of St Mirren but his introduction off the bench made all the difference. Like team-mate Mallan, the 20-year-old striker scored one goal and was involved in the other two. Rangers winger Ryan Kent tormented the Livingston defence all Sunday afternoon at the Tony Macaroni Arena and lashed in the second goal. He's on loan from Liverpool and gaffer Steven Gerrard will be keen to make the temporary arrangement a permanent one. | Rob Maclean picks his Scottish Premiership team of the weekend. Ofir Marciano, James Tavernier, John Souttar, Stuart Findlay, Nathan Ralph, David Turnbull, Stevie Mallan, Callum McGregor, Alfredo Morelos, Oli Shaw, Ryan Kent. | bart | 2 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47030632 | 0.623345 |
Why was Bradley Cooper's mom and not Irina Shayk with him at the 2019 SAG Awards? | Bradley Cooper took his mom, Gloria Campano to the 2019 SAG Awards (Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris, Getty Images for Turner) Bradley Cooper showed up to the 2019 Screen Actors Guild Awards with his mom --leaving us all wondering where his girlfriend, Irina Shayk, was. The Russian supermodel appears to have been busy performing supermodel duties and couldn't attend the awards with Cooper. Shayk was in Moscow to attend a Marc Jacobs and Sephora event, according to a post from Shayk on Instagram. She was even spotted with some friends of her own, puppies Kolizey and Glinka. The 33-year-old also made appearances at Paris Fashion Week a few days before going to Russia. Although Cooper's longtime girlfriend was missing, the actor had his mom, Gloria Campano, to keep him company and support his nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Related: Bradley Cooper joins Lady Gaga for surprise 'Shallow' duet at her Las Vegas show More: SAG Awards 2019: What you didn't see on the telecast Winners: SAG Awards 2019 Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2019/01/28/why-irina-shayk-wasnt-bradley-cooper-sag-awards-gloria-campano/2698783002/ | Bradley Cooper took his mom, Gloria Campano, to the 2019 SAG Awards. Shayk was in Moscow to attend a Marc Jacobs and Sephora event, according to a post from Shayk on Instagram. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2019/01/28/why-irina-shayk-wasnt-bradley-cooper-sag-awards-gloria-campano/2698783002/ | 0.189737 |
Why was Bradley Cooper's mom and not Irina Shayk with him at the 2019 SAG Awards? | Bradley Cooper took his mom, Gloria Campano to the 2019 SAG Awards (Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris, Getty Images for Turner) Bradley Cooper showed up to the 2019 Screen Actors Guild Awards with his mom --leaving us all wondering where his girlfriend, Irina Shayk, was. The Russian supermodel appears to have been busy performing supermodel duties and couldn't attend the awards with Cooper. Shayk was in Moscow to attend a Marc Jacobs and Sephora event, according to a post from Shayk on Instagram. She was even spotted with some friends of her own, puppies Kolizey and Glinka. The 33-year-old also made appearances at Paris Fashion Week a few days before going to Russia. Although Cooper's longtime girlfriend was missing, the actor had his mom, Gloria Campano, to keep him company and support his nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Related: Bradley Cooper joins Lady Gaga for surprise 'Shallow' duet at her Las Vegas show More: SAG Awards 2019: What you didn't see on the telecast Winners: SAG Awards 2019 Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2019/01/28/why-irina-shayk-wasnt-bradley-cooper-sag-awards-gloria-campano/2698783002/ | Bradley Cooper took his mom, Gloria Campano, to the 2019 SAG Awards. Shayk was in Moscow to attend a Marc Jacobs and Sephora event, according to a post from Shayk on Instagram. The Russian supermodel appears to have been busy performing supermodel duties. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2019/01/28/why-irina-shayk-wasnt-bradley-cooper-sag-awards-gloria-campano/2698783002/ | 0.33349 |
What's Next For Commerce In 2019? | In January 2018, few people could have predicted that artificial-intelligence technology would become so commonplace in payments and commerce. But by late 2018, I was boarding planes using a facial scan and no boarding card and not stopping to pay at Amazon Go, because my items were tracked by artificial intelligence (AI). Last year was a breakout year for payments innovation. As the CEO of a global multi-industry trade association focused on growing online-to-offline commerce worldwide through cross-industry collaboration, common standards and strategic partnerships, I have met with industry leaders, investors and entrepreneurs to discuss their strategies and expectations for global commerce this coming year. Here are the top three themes that emerged for 2019. 1. Cross-Border Commerce Accelerates It seems counterintuitive. The U.S. is threatening new tariffs on China, and the European Union is stipulating the U.K.s tax policy even after Brexit. Yet cross-border commerce is positioned to explode in 2019. World tourism increased by 6% in the first half of 2018, and this trend will continue in 2019 as China and other nations use their newfound wealth to travel and buy new things and experiences. New technology platforms are making it easier for tourists to access local restaurants, shops and attractions by reducing the friction in purchases through multi-language support, international payment options or loyalty benefits. Cross-border trade is also accelerating online as payment networks and tech startups address traditional pain points to make shopping on a non-U.S.-based website as easy as on Amazon. 2. The Data Reckoning Recent scandals at Facebook and Marriott have put a renewed focus on consumer data breaches. What has not been covered well is the trend toward consumers gaining more control of their personal data. Europes General Data Protection Regulation, which went into effect in May, gave EU citizens the right to transfer their information from one company to another. This new right has inspired similar legislation in some states and the new Congress will likely consider this legislation in the coming year. In 2019, companies will fall into two categories: Those companies that consumers trust with their data and those companies that consumers dont trust due to their poor reputations. If your company ends up in that second category, your ability to compete will be damaged as consumers move their data and their business away from you. Trusted companies will abide by legislation like Californias recent consumer data privacy law, which requires consumer notification of the types of personal data companies collect and why, the right to request that personal information be deleted, the right to opt out of the sale of personal data and the ability to transfer personal information to third parties. To gain consumer trust, companies can be transparent when enacting policies that align with these principles and clearly communicate the changes and their benefits. As consumers turn toward trusted companies, these companies will continue to grow more quickly than others. You probably already know the companies that are not trusted. This will be a tough year for those companies. 3. Commerce And Offers Everywhere It is pretty clear that 2018 may be the peak of growth for the current economic cycle. As the U.S. and global economy and stock market face more limited growth and even potential decline, consumers will look for more value in their spending. According to The Wall Street Journal (paywall), 92% of card spending in the U.S. was on payments cards that offered cash-back rewards or card-linked offers. That trend will accelerate in 2019 as consumers increasingly expect perks and clever ways to save across all of their digital experiences. Consumers expect a card-linked offer when they search on Yelp and theyll find it. You got it at American Express Offers. But the deals are not just in search and shopping apps; in 2019, most digital platforms will add contextual offers and discounts, including Google, cars and much more. Contextual offers can take into consideration location, branding preferences, past shopping preferences and even the weather to present coupons and discounts consumers actually want when they need them. These highly personalized offers will provide greater value to consumers while generating more sales for retailers. Card-linked offers lead to more incremental sales as well as sales among first-time shoppers, a win-win. There will be offers everywhere! | Cross-border commerce is positioned to explode in 2019. Consumers will look for more value in their spending. | bart | 0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/01/28/whats-next-for-commerce-in-2019/ | 0.15032 |
What's Next For Commerce In 2019? | In January 2018, few people could have predicted that artificial-intelligence technology would become so commonplace in payments and commerce. But by late 2018, I was boarding planes using a facial scan and no boarding card and not stopping to pay at Amazon Go, because my items were tracked by artificial intelligence (AI). Last year was a breakout year for payments innovation. As the CEO of a global multi-industry trade association focused on growing online-to-offline commerce worldwide through cross-industry collaboration, common standards and strategic partnerships, I have met with industry leaders, investors and entrepreneurs to discuss their strategies and expectations for global commerce this coming year. Here are the top three themes that emerged for 2019. 1. Cross-Border Commerce Accelerates It seems counterintuitive. The U.S. is threatening new tariffs on China, and the European Union is stipulating the U.K.s tax policy even after Brexit. Yet cross-border commerce is positioned to explode in 2019. World tourism increased by 6% in the first half of 2018, and this trend will continue in 2019 as China and other nations use their newfound wealth to travel and buy new things and experiences. New technology platforms are making it easier for tourists to access local restaurants, shops and attractions by reducing the friction in purchases through multi-language support, international payment options or loyalty benefits. Cross-border trade is also accelerating online as payment networks and tech startups address traditional pain points to make shopping on a non-U.S.-based website as easy as on Amazon. 2. The Data Reckoning Recent scandals at Facebook and Marriott have put a renewed focus on consumer data breaches. What has not been covered well is the trend toward consumers gaining more control of their personal data. Europes General Data Protection Regulation, which went into effect in May, gave EU citizens the right to transfer their information from one company to another. This new right has inspired similar legislation in some states and the new Congress will likely consider this legislation in the coming year. In 2019, companies will fall into two categories: Those companies that consumers trust with their data and those companies that consumers dont trust due to their poor reputations. If your company ends up in that second category, your ability to compete will be damaged as consumers move their data and their business away from you. Trusted companies will abide by legislation like Californias recent consumer data privacy law, which requires consumer notification of the types of personal data companies collect and why, the right to request that personal information be deleted, the right to opt out of the sale of personal data and the ability to transfer personal information to third parties. To gain consumer trust, companies can be transparent when enacting policies that align with these principles and clearly communicate the changes and their benefits. As consumers turn toward trusted companies, these companies will continue to grow more quickly than others. You probably already know the companies that are not trusted. This will be a tough year for those companies. 3. Commerce And Offers Everywhere It is pretty clear that 2018 may be the peak of growth for the current economic cycle. As the U.S. and global economy and stock market face more limited growth and even potential decline, consumers will look for more value in their spending. According to The Wall Street Journal (paywall), 92% of card spending in the U.S. was on payments cards that offered cash-back rewards or card-linked offers. That trend will accelerate in 2019 as consumers increasingly expect perks and clever ways to save across all of their digital experiences. Consumers expect a card-linked offer when they search on Yelp and theyll find it. You got it at American Express Offers. But the deals are not just in search and shopping apps; in 2019, most digital platforms will add contextual offers and discounts, including Google, cars and much more. Contextual offers can take into consideration location, branding preferences, past shopping preferences and even the weather to present coupons and discounts consumers actually want when they need them. These highly personalized offers will provide greater value to consumers while generating more sales for retailers. Card-linked offers lead to more incremental sales as well as sales among first-time shoppers, a win-win. There will be offers everywhere! | Cross-border commerce is positioned to explode in 2019. Consumers will look for more value in their spending. The Data Reckoning will be a tough year for companies that don't trust their reputations. | bart | 1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/01/28/whats-next-for-commerce-in-2019/ | 0.139858 |
What's Next For Commerce In 2019? | In January 2018, few people could have predicted that artificial-intelligence technology would become so commonplace in payments and commerce. But by late 2018, I was boarding planes using a facial scan and no boarding card and not stopping to pay at Amazon Go, because my items were tracked by artificial intelligence (AI). Last year was a breakout year for payments innovation. As the CEO of a global multi-industry trade association focused on growing online-to-offline commerce worldwide through cross-industry collaboration, common standards and strategic partnerships, I have met with industry leaders, investors and entrepreneurs to discuss their strategies and expectations for global commerce this coming year. Here are the top three themes that emerged for 2019. 1. Cross-Border Commerce Accelerates It seems counterintuitive. The U.S. is threatening new tariffs on China, and the European Union is stipulating the U.K.s tax policy even after Brexit. Yet cross-border commerce is positioned to explode in 2019. World tourism increased by 6% in the first half of 2018, and this trend will continue in 2019 as China and other nations use their newfound wealth to travel and buy new things and experiences. New technology platforms are making it easier for tourists to access local restaurants, shops and attractions by reducing the friction in purchases through multi-language support, international payment options or loyalty benefits. Cross-border trade is also accelerating online as payment networks and tech startups address traditional pain points to make shopping on a non-U.S.-based website as easy as on Amazon. 2. The Data Reckoning Recent scandals at Facebook and Marriott have put a renewed focus on consumer data breaches. What has not been covered well is the trend toward consumers gaining more control of their personal data. Europes General Data Protection Regulation, which went into effect in May, gave EU citizens the right to transfer their information from one company to another. This new right has inspired similar legislation in some states and the new Congress will likely consider this legislation in the coming year. In 2019, companies will fall into two categories: Those companies that consumers trust with their data and those companies that consumers dont trust due to their poor reputations. If your company ends up in that second category, your ability to compete will be damaged as consumers move their data and their business away from you. Trusted companies will abide by legislation like Californias recent consumer data privacy law, which requires consumer notification of the types of personal data companies collect and why, the right to request that personal information be deleted, the right to opt out of the sale of personal data and the ability to transfer personal information to third parties. To gain consumer trust, companies can be transparent when enacting policies that align with these principles and clearly communicate the changes and their benefits. As consumers turn toward trusted companies, these companies will continue to grow more quickly than others. You probably already know the companies that are not trusted. This will be a tough year for those companies. 3. Commerce And Offers Everywhere It is pretty clear that 2018 may be the peak of growth for the current economic cycle. As the U.S. and global economy and stock market face more limited growth and even potential decline, consumers will look for more value in their spending. According to The Wall Street Journal (paywall), 92% of card spending in the U.S. was on payments cards that offered cash-back rewards or card-linked offers. That trend will accelerate in 2019 as consumers increasingly expect perks and clever ways to save across all of their digital experiences. Consumers expect a card-linked offer when they search on Yelp and theyll find it. You got it at American Express Offers. But the deals are not just in search and shopping apps; in 2019, most digital platforms will add contextual offers and discounts, including Google, cars and much more. Contextual offers can take into consideration location, branding preferences, past shopping preferences and even the weather to present coupons and discounts consumers actually want when they need them. These highly personalized offers will provide greater value to consumers while generating more sales for retailers. Card-linked offers lead to more incremental sales as well as sales among first-time shoppers, a win-win. There will be offers everywhere! | The CEO of a global multi-industry trade association shares his predictions for 2019. He says cross-border commerce is positioned to explode in 2019. Data Reckoning will be a tough year for companies that don't abide by privacy laws, he says. He also says consumers will look for more value in their spending. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/01/28/whats-next-for-commerce-in-2019/ | 0.155654 |
Does January Transfer Window Spending Provide Short-Term Success? | Since its introduction in the 2002/03 season, the winter window has seen big-money moves, expensive flops and dramatic last-minute deals. While plenty think it is difficult to sign players in January, often because selling clubs would lack time to find a replacement, clubs still splash the cash if they see the value. The common belief is that the window is best for buying one or two players if the right ones are available, rather than a complete squad overhaul. But panic-buys are not uncommon the relegation-threatened team taking a chance on a new striker or the title-chasers replacing an injured centre-back. To see the effectiveness of doing business in January at least in the short-term Ive looked at the spending of Premier League clubs in the past five January windows. By looking at the biggest spending club and most expensive signing from each window, we can see whether they were costly mistakes or gambles worth taking. *Figures sourced from transfermarkt.com. All figures converted from EURO to USD $ at current exchange rate* Transfer window: January 2018 (season 17/18) Biggest spending club: Liverpool - $90 million Last Januarys transfer window saw a record amount $622.7 million spent by Premier League clubs. Liverpool were the biggest spenders, paying $90 million for two players (more below). However, the sale of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for $153.9 million meant they still finished the month with a decent profit. Most expensive signing: Virgil Van Dijk (Southampton to Liverpool) - $89.8 million Liverpool smashed the transfer record for the most expensive defender when they signed centre-back Virgil Van Dijk from Southampton. The Reds were fourth going into January but, with the worst defensive record of the top five, clearly felt Van Dijk was worth the money. Liverpool finished the season fourth but with an improved defence, conceding nine goals in the final 14 matches after Van Dijks arrival. Van Dijk has continued to show his value this season and has been crucial in helping Liverpool establish a four-point gap at the top of the table. Transfer window: January 2017 (season 16/17) Biggest spending club: Crystal Palace - $44.9 million Palace went into January in 17th, a place and two points above the relegation zone. Clearly feeling they needed immediate reinforcements, the Eagles brought in three players. As well as experienced Premier League players Jeffrey Schlupp and Patrick van Aanholt, Palace signed Serbian international midfielder Luka Milivojevic on deadline day. The club finished the season 14th, seven points clear of relegation zone. Considering the cost of relegation, Palace probably consider the January outlay money well spent. Most expensive signing: Morgan Schneiderlin (Manchester United to Everton): $26.1 million Though striker Gabriel Jesus arrived at Manchester City in January for $36.4 million, the transfer was actually agreed the previous summer. Midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin was the most expensive signing in January, arriving at Everton hungry to recapture the excellent form that convinced Manchester United to buy him from Southampton. Everton were seventh when he arrived and finished in the same position, but, after a bright start, Schneiderlins performances have dipped and he faces an uncertain future at the club. Transfer window: January 2016 (season 15/16) Biggest spending club: Newcastle United - $43 million Finding themselves in the bottom three halfway through the season, Newcastle forked out $43 million on three players they hoped could secure their survival. Midfielders Jonjo Shelvey, Andros Townsend and Henri Saivet arrived but could not prevent the Magpies finishing 18th and going down to the Championship. Most expensive signing: Giannelli Imbula (Porto to Stoke City) - $27.6 million Stoke City paid a club record fee to sign Giannelli Imbula on deadline day. The 23-year-old Frenchman was a highly-rated defensive midfielder and made a good early impression in a Stoke side that went on to finish a respectable ninth. But the following season Imbula fell out of favor and has spent the past two seasons on loan. Transfer window: January 2015 (season 14/15) Biggest spending club: Manchester City - $36.8 million In a relatively quiet window, Manchester City were the biggest spenders but only signed one player. They narrowly edged eventual champions Chelsea, who paid $35.3 million for Colombian winger Juan Cuadrado. One move that was easy to miss, but in hindsight would be considered by far the best bargain of the window, was Dele Allis move from MK Dons to Spurs for just $7.5 million. Most expensive signing: Wilfried Bony (Swansea City to Manchester City) - $36.8 million City splashed out on Swansea striker Wilfried Bony as they tried to catch Chelsea in that seasons title race. However Bony only scored twice in two matches and City had to settle for the runner-up spot. Things didnt get much better for Bony and he was sent on loan to Stoke City before rejoining Swansea, two-and-a-half-years after he left. Transfer window: January 2014 (season 13/14) Biggest spending club: Chelsea - $64 million Nemanja Matic, Kurt Zouma and a certain Mohamed Salah (signed for $18.8 million) agreed to join Chelsea in January 2014. Though the club finished the season third, in later seasons Matic was a key member of the starting 11 and Zouma, though currently on loan, has been a useful part of the squad. Things didnt work out for Salah but, as we now all know, it wasnt down to a lack of talent. Chelsea were the biggest window spenders but still brought in more than they spent, largely due to the sale of Juan Mata (see below). However they might also look back at this window with regret after selling another player who went on to great things current Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne. Most expensive signing: Juan Mata (Chelsea to Manchester United) - $51 million Midfield schemer Juan Mata arrived at Old Trafford with big expectations after establishing himself as one of the leagues most creative players while at Chelsea. He made an immediate impact but couldnt help United finish higher than seventh a disaster for the club that saw manager David Moyes sacked. Mata is now in his sixth season with United and, having make more than 150 appearances, his signing must be considered a success. | The winter window has seen big-money moves, expensive flops and dramatic last-minute deals. To see the effectiveness of doing business in January at least in the short-term Ive looked at the spending of Premier League clubs in the past five January windows. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertkidd/2019/01/28/does-january-transfer-window-spending-provide-short-term-success/ | 0.148849 |
Can Strong Cloud Growth Propel Alibaba's (BABA) Q3 Earnings? | Alibaba Group Holding Limiteds BABA expanding core commerce and cloud portfolio is expected to have performed well, which will likely be reflected when the company reports fiscal third-quarter 2018 results on Jan 30. Alibabas cloud business has fast emerged as a major contributor to top-line growth. In the last reported quarter, revenues in its core commerce segment were up 56% year over year to RMB72.5 billion (US$10.5 billion). Revenues from the cloud computing segment increased 90% from the prior-year quarter to RMB5.7 billion (US$825 million). Click here to know how the companys overall fiscal third-quarter performance is expected to be. Lets Delve Deeper Alibabas core commerce segment comprises marketplaces operating in retail and wholesale commerce in China, and international commerce. Innovation in data technology, widespread application of big data, as well as increasing validation for Taobao and Tmall portals will continue to expand revenues in this segment. The Cloud Computing segment, which comprises Alibaba Cloud offering a complete suite of cloud services, is in top gear. Management remains positive about the cloud computing business, as more and more businesses are shifting their servers and broadband subscriptions to cloud computing technology in order to streamline costs. The company is considering cloud computing as a means to diversify business beyond retail. Revenues from this segment have been impressive over the past few quarters. Sales growth accelerated in the fiscal second quarter, driven by an increase in the number of paying customers and improved revenue mix of higher valued-added services. Lately, Alibabas cloud computing business has been gaining a lot of traction. It is a dominant force in China, but has also gained traction in other regions. The company has opened new data centers across the world, particularly in Asia and Europe. Lately, it has also opened a data center in U.K. in a bid to expand the cloud business. In addition, Alibaba has been introducing new products based on the emerging technology of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Internet of Things (IoT) to cater to the rising demand for cloud architecture, along with data analytics and security in the retail industry. These products assist the retail clients of the company to implement its New Retail concept in business operations. Given the growing position of Alibabas cloud business in China and aggressive international expansion strategies, we believe that cloud computing will be one of the major growth drivers in the long run. Alibaba Group Holding Limited Revenue (TTM) Alibaba Group Holding Limited Revenue (TTM) | Alibaba Group Holding Limited Quote Zacks Rank & Key Picks Currently, Alibaba carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector are Twitter, Inc. TWTR, Cloudera, Inc. CLDR and Groupon GRPN. While Twitter and Cloudera sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Groupon carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Long-term earnings growth rate for Twitter, Clouder and Groupon is currently pegged at 22.1%, 8% and 3%, respectively. | Alibaba Group Holding Limiteds BABA expanding core commerce and cloud portfolio is expected to have performed well, which will likely be reflected when the company reports fiscal third-quarter 2018 results on Jan 30. | bart | 1 | https://finance.yahoo.com/news/strong-cloud-growth-propel-alibabas-133401969.html | 0.172231 |
Is a Beat in Store for Hawaiian Holdings (HA) in Q4 Earnings? | Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. HA is scheduled to report fourth-quarter 2018 results on Jan 29, after market close. In the third quarter, the company delivered mixed results, with earnings beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate and revenues missing the same. However, the top line improved year over year on the back of strong passenger revenues. Hawaiian Holdings has an impressive earnings surprise history. The companys earnings surpassed the consensus mark in each of the trailing four quarters, the average being 14.4%. Factors at Play Hawaiian Holdings is expected to perform well in the fourth quarter on the back of efforts to modernize fleet. The company is continuously remodeling the A330 fleet by adding lie flat premium seats. Additionally, the exit of Island Air has strengthened Hawaiian Holdings foothold in Hawaii. Efforts to expand scope of operations are expected to boost top-line results in the to-be-reported quarter. Furthermore, strong passenger revenues are anticipated to drive the top line in the to-be-reported quarter, as they account for a major portion of the companys revenues. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter 2018 passenger revenues is pegged at $636 million. Moreover, the current tax law is a boon for U.S.-based transportation companies like Hawaiian Holdings. The significant cut in corporate tax rate is likely to boost cash flow, which will drive the bottom line in the to-be-reported quarter. Additionally, with oil prices declining nearly 40% in the October-December period, fuel costs are expected to be less of a headwind in the to-be-reported quarter. The consensus estimate for fourth-quarter average fuel cost per gallon is pegged at $2.20, lower than $2.26 reported in the third quarter of 2018. However, we are concerned about the companys unit revenues and capacity-related woes. These concerns are likely to dent bottom-line growth in the to-be-reported quarter. Our proven model shows that Hawaiian Holdings is likely to beat estimates in the to-be-reported quarter, as it has the perfect combination of the following key ingredients: Earnings ESP: Hawaiian Holdings has an Earnings ESP of +1.63%. The Most Accurate Estimate is at $1 per share, higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 98 cents. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. Zacks Rank: Hawaiian Holdings carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Notably, stocks with a favorable Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 have higher chances of beating estimates. Conversely, we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) or 5 (Strong Sell) going into an earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions. Stocks to Consider Investors interested in the Zacks Transportation sector may check other companies with the right combination of elements to beat estimates in the upcoming releases. Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. EXPD has an Earnings ESP of +0.39% and a Zacks Rank #1. The company will release fourth-quarter 2018 results on Feb 19. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. | Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. HA is scheduled to report fourth-quarter 2018 results on Jan 29, after market close. In the third quarter, the company delivered mixed results, with earnings beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate and revenues missing the same. | bart | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/beat-store-hawaiian-holdings-q4-132401935.html | 0.132601 |
Is Anthony Davis Trying to Force His Way to the Lakers? | The Anthony Davis era in New Orleans reached its inevitable denouement Monday, when Daviss agent Rich Paul told ESPNs Adrian Wojnarowski the star forward has requested a trade from the Pelicans. Davis is under contract through next season, but hes informed the team he wont sign an extension this summer, a surefire indication that hell leave via free agency if hes not traded. Of course, all sorts of baseless rumors will appear now that Daviss request has been made public. I happen to believe thats an obvious yes! It doesnt take Oz the Mentalist to read the tea leaves here. Davis shares an agent with James. If Paul and Davis had made the request during the summer, the Celtics couldve made perhaps the most appealing trade offer to New Orleans, based around a young player (or two) and a bevy of draft picks. But because of the Rose Rule, Boston cant acquire Davis while Kyrie Irving is on his current contract (or until after July 1.) That means if New Orleans seriously attempts to deal Davis before the trade deadline, the Celtics are all but out of the runningunless they make the shocking decision to move Irving. (You probably know all of this already.) Anthony Davis Requests Trade From Pelicans Essentially, I dont see any reason why Paul would somewhat handicap Boston unless Davis indicated he doesnt have a strong desire to play there. Its still beneficial for the Pelicans to know sooner rather than later Daviss intentions, but making the request public nowand hinting that Davis would like to be moved before the trade deadlineseems to be something of a message to the Celtics. A message like, even if Boston eventually trades for Davis, it will have to put on the full-court press to re-sign him. Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images Now, there are plenty of caveats here. New Orleans is under no obligation to rush this trade. They can wait until the summer for the best package. The Pelicans have also no reason to deal Davis to the Lakers unless they are enamored with L.A.s prospectsthe same group of players who have struggled without James on the floor. Basically, making the trade request now doesnt guarantee Davis is going to end up with LeBron (no matter how many photoshops youll encounter in the coming days.) What it may do is give Davis a little better chance of ending up in L.A. than if he made the request public in the offseason. (Of course, there are going to be wild cards that enter this race. As weve seen repeatedly over the last couple seasons, stars who try to force their way to a certain teamPaul George, Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonardoften end up somewhere surprising.) SHAPIRO: Considering Trades for NBA's Great Albatrose Deals A real galaxy brain reading of this scenario is that LeBron, through Paul and Davis, is strongly suggesting to the Lakers that he wants to be on a contender right awaycontrary to some offseason comments. L.A.s front office held back when George and Leonard were on the trade market, and its not hard to imagine LeBron is getting restless as his teammates have fallen out of a playoff spot during his extended absence. Pauls public declaration is begging for the Lakers to swing big for Davis. If L.A. doesnt make its top offer, the Pelicans could and should wait until the summer for Bostons best possible package (while obviously also looking at every other teamits not a two-horse race.) LeBron is reportedly already cool on Luke Walton, so its not a stretch to speculate he could be growing impatient with management, and Pauls public comments are now some sort of backroom ploy to put pressure on Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka to deliver a winner more quickly. Daviss request means were in the endgame now, but its impossible to know which of the millions of realities hell end up in. Paul has already told Marc Stein that Davis has not given the Pelicans a list of preferred destinations. But by making the trade request now, it seems as if Davis is dropping a pretty major hint. | Anthony Davis has requested a trade from the New Orleans Pelicans. Davis shares an agent with LeBron James, who has been linked to a move to L.A. The Pelicans are under no obligation to rush this trade, but making the request public now seems to be something of a message to the Celtics. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.si.com/nba/2019/01/28/anthony-davis-pelicans-lakers-trade-request-rumors-lebron-james-rich-paul | 0.135603 |
Could 'Alita' be Hollywood's breakthrough manga movie? | WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) The manga movie "Alita: Battle Angel" has been 20 years in the making, and producer Jon Landau thinks it will finally be the breakthrough success in Hollywood for a genre which has proved problematic. Landau says previous manga movies that haven't worked have been Asian-centric in their worlds, whereas "Alita" is set in a melting-pot world and traverses universal themes of discovery and self-awareness. The film has an estimated budget of $200 million and Twentieth Century Fox will be hoping for a much better reception than Paramount's 2017 manga flop "Ghost in the Shell." "Alita" tells the story of cyborg Alita played by Rosa Salazar who awakens without memory in a dystopic world. It will be released in theaters in the U.S. on Feb. 14. | Manga movie "Alita: Battle Angel" has been 20 years in the making. Producer Jon Landau thinks it will finally be the breakthrough success in Hollywood. Previous manga movies that haven't worked have been Asian-centric in their worlds. | bart | 1 | https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/Could-Alita-be-Hollywood-s-breakthrough-manga-13567049.php | 0.424121 |
Could 'Alita' be Hollywood's breakthrough manga movie? | WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) The manga movie "Alita: Battle Angel" has been 20 years in the making, and producer Jon Landau thinks it will finally be the breakthrough success in Hollywood for a genre which has proved problematic. Landau says previous manga movies that haven't worked have been Asian-centric in their worlds, whereas "Alita" is set in a melting-pot world and traverses universal themes of discovery and self-awareness. The film has an estimated budget of $200 million and Twentieth Century Fox will be hoping for a much better reception than Paramount's 2017 manga flop "Ghost in the Shell." "Alita" tells the story of cyborg Alita played by Rosa Salazar who awakens without memory in a dystopic world. It will be released in theaters in the U.S. on Feb. 14. | Manga movie "Alita: Battle Angel" has been 20 years in the making. Producer Jon Landau thinks it will finally be the breakthrough success in Hollywood. The film has an estimated budget of $200 million. It will be released in theaters in the U.S. on Feb. 14. | bart | 2 | https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/Could-Alita-be-Hollywood-s-breakthrough-manga-13567049.php | 0.466454 |
Will L Brands (LB) Beat Estimates Again in Its Next Earnings Report? | It is worth considering L Brands (LB), which belongs to the Zacks Retail - Apparel and Shoes industry. This owner of Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works and other chain stores has an established record of topping earnings estimates, especially when looking at the previous two reports. The company boasts an average surprise for the past two quarters of 6.27%. For the last reported quarter, L Brands came out with earnings of $0.16 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.15 per share, representing a surprise of 6.67%. For the previous quarter, the company was expected to post earnings of $0.34 per share and it actually produced earnings of $0.36 per share, delivering a surprise of 5.88%. Price and EPS Surprise For L Brands, estimates have been trending higher, thanks in part to this earnings surprise history. And when you look at the stock's positive Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction), it's a great indicator of a future earnings beat, especially when combined with its solid Zacks Rank. Our research shows that stocks with the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time. In other words, if you have 10 stocks with this combination, the number of stocks that beat the consensus estimate could be as high as seven. The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a version of the Zacks Consensus whose definition is related to change. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier. L Brands currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.91%, which suggests that analysts have recently become bullish on the company's earnings prospects. This positive Earnings ESP when combined with the stock's Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) indicates that another beat is possibly around the corner. We expect the company's next earnings report to be released on February 27, 2019. When the Earnings ESP comes up negative, investors should note that this will reduce the predictive power of the metric. But, a negative value is not indicative of a stock's earnings miss. Many companies end up beating the consensus EPS estimate, but that may not be the sole basis for their stocks moving higher. On the other hand, some stocks may hold their ground even if they end up missing the consensus estimate. Because of this, it's really important to check a company's Earnings ESP ahead of its quarterly release to increase the odds of success. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report L Brands, Inc. (LB) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. | L Brands has an impressive record of topping earnings estimates. The company boasts an average surprise of 6.27% over the past two quarters. | pegasus | 0 | https://news.yahoo.com/l-brands-lb-beat-estimates-151003356.html | 0.104748 |
Will L Brands (LB) Beat Estimates Again in Its Next Earnings Report? | It is worth considering L Brands (LB), which belongs to the Zacks Retail - Apparel and Shoes industry. This owner of Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works and other chain stores has an established record of topping earnings estimates, especially when looking at the previous two reports. The company boasts an average surprise for the past two quarters of 6.27%. For the last reported quarter, L Brands came out with earnings of $0.16 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.15 per share, representing a surprise of 6.67%. For the previous quarter, the company was expected to post earnings of $0.34 per share and it actually produced earnings of $0.36 per share, delivering a surprise of 5.88%. Price and EPS Surprise For L Brands, estimates have been trending higher, thanks in part to this earnings surprise history. And when you look at the stock's positive Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction), it's a great indicator of a future earnings beat, especially when combined with its solid Zacks Rank. Our research shows that stocks with the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time. In other words, if you have 10 stocks with this combination, the number of stocks that beat the consensus estimate could be as high as seven. The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a version of the Zacks Consensus whose definition is related to change. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier. L Brands currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.91%, which suggests that analysts have recently become bullish on the company's earnings prospects. This positive Earnings ESP when combined with the stock's Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) indicates that another beat is possibly around the corner. We expect the company's next earnings report to be released on February 27, 2019. When the Earnings ESP comes up negative, investors should note that this will reduce the predictive power of the metric. But, a negative value is not indicative of a stock's earnings miss. Many companies end up beating the consensus EPS estimate, but that may not be the sole basis for their stocks moving higher. On the other hand, some stocks may hold their ground even if they end up missing the consensus estimate. Because of this, it's really important to check a company's Earnings ESP ahead of its quarterly release to increase the odds of success. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report L Brands, Inc. (LB) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. | L Brands (LB) has an average surprise for the past two quarters of 6.27%. L Brands currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.91%, which suggests that another beat is possibly around the corner. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/l-brands-lb-beat-estimates-151003356.html | 0.11691 |
Will L Brands (LB) Beat Estimates Again in Its Next Earnings Report? | It is worth considering L Brands (LB), which belongs to the Zacks Retail - Apparel and Shoes industry. This owner of Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works and other chain stores has an established record of topping earnings estimates, especially when looking at the previous two reports. The company boasts an average surprise for the past two quarters of 6.27%. For the last reported quarter, L Brands came out with earnings of $0.16 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.15 per share, representing a surprise of 6.67%. For the previous quarter, the company was expected to post earnings of $0.34 per share and it actually produced earnings of $0.36 per share, delivering a surprise of 5.88%. Price and EPS Surprise For L Brands, estimates have been trending higher, thanks in part to this earnings surprise history. And when you look at the stock's positive Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction), it's a great indicator of a future earnings beat, especially when combined with its solid Zacks Rank. Our research shows that stocks with the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time. In other words, if you have 10 stocks with this combination, the number of stocks that beat the consensus estimate could be as high as seven. The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a version of the Zacks Consensus whose definition is related to change. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier. L Brands currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.91%, which suggests that analysts have recently become bullish on the company's earnings prospects. This positive Earnings ESP when combined with the stock's Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) indicates that another beat is possibly around the corner. We expect the company's next earnings report to be released on February 27, 2019. When the Earnings ESP comes up negative, investors should note that this will reduce the predictive power of the metric. But, a negative value is not indicative of a stock's earnings miss. Many companies end up beating the consensus EPS estimate, but that may not be the sole basis for their stocks moving higher. On the other hand, some stocks may hold their ground even if they end up missing the consensus estimate. Because of this, it's really important to check a company's Earnings ESP ahead of its quarterly release to increase the odds of success. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report L Brands, Inc. (LB) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. | L Brands has an impressive record of topping earnings estimates. The company boasts an average surprise of 6.27% over the past two quarters. The Zacks Earnings ESP (ExpectedExpected Surprise Prediction) is a great indicator of an earnings beat. | pegasus | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/l-brands-lb-beat-estimates-151003356.html | 0.120486 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.