#shadow banned global champions

[time4hemp]

Hemp In Fashion

Hemp Fashion's Are Leading A Sustainable Revolution!

The Rise of Hemp in Fashion

Written by Casper Leitch

Hemp fashion is now taking center stage in the garment district. Imagine a fabric that is soft, durable, and versatile, that can be used to make anything from jeans to jackets, from bags to shoes. A fabric that is also Eco-friendly, requiring less water, land, and chemicals than most other fabrics. A fabric that has been used for millennia, but has been banned for decades due to political and social reasons. This fabric is hemp, and it is making a comeback in the fashion industry. This versatile and Eco-friendly fabric is not just a trend; it's a movement towards a greener, more sustainable future.

Hemp, often misunderstood due to its association with marijuana, has a rich history dating back thousands of years. Revered for its robust fibers and myriad uses, hemp was once a staple in textile production and played a vital role in global economies. However, misguided regulations and stigma led to its prohibition, stifling its potential and relegating it to the shadows.

Thankfully, times are changing. As the fashion industry faces increasing scrutiny over its environmental impact, designers and consumers alike are turning to hemp as a solution. Unlike conventional fabrics like cotton, hemp requires minimal water, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers to thrive. Its deep roots help prevent soil erosion, making it a champion of sustainable agriculture.

Sustainable Eco-friendly Fabrics

One of the most compelling reasons for hemp's resurgence in fashion is its unparalleled sustainability. Traditional textiles like cotton are notorious water guzzlers, consuming vast amounts in cultivation. In contrast, hemp can thrive with minimal irrigation, making it a more Eco-conscious choice in regions prone to drought. Additionally, hemp's rapid growth and high yield per acre make it a highly efficient crop, requiring less land for cultivation compared to other fibers.

Beyond its Eco-friendly credentials, hemp fabric boasts a plethora of desirable qualities that appeal to both designers and consumers. Renowned for its durability, hemp fibers are stronger and more resilient than cotton, ensuring longevity and reducing the need for frequent replacements. Moreover, hemp fabric is naturally breathable and antimicrobial, making it ideal for garments that prioritize comfort and hygiene. From casual wear to high-end fashion, hemp's versatility knows no bounds.

The shift towards hemp in fashion represents more than just a fleeting trend; it signifies a fundamental transformation in the industry's values and practices. By embracing hemp, designers and brands are making a bold statement about their commitment to sustainability and ethical production. This shift isn't just about reducing environmental harm; it's about reimagining the entire fashion ecosystem to prioritize people and the planet over profit.

Breaking Down Barriers

Despite its remarkable potential, the widespread adoption of hemp in fashion faces regulatory hurdles and lingering stigma. By dismantling outdated regulations and fostering education, we can unlock the full potential of hemp and usher in a new era of sustainable fashion. Beyond its environmental benefits, the global hemp market holds immense promise for economic revitalization. Legalizing industrial hemp cultivation can create jobs, stimulate local economies, and reduce reliance on unsustainable practices. From farmers to manufacturers, the hemp industry offers opportunities for growth and innovation that can benefit communities worldwide.

As we look ahead to the future of fashion, one thing is clear: hemp is here to stay. With its unrivaled sustainability, durability, and versatility, hemp has the power to revolutionize the way we produce, consume, and perceive clothing. By embracing hemp as a symbol of progress and possibility, we can build a fashion industry that honors the earth, uplifts communities, and inspires generations to come.

Regenerative Agriculture Practices

In addition to its environmental benefits, hemp cultivation offers an opportunity to promote regenerative agriculture practices that regenerate soil health, enhance biodiversity, and sequester carbon. By incorporating hemp into crop rotation systems and agroforestry models, farmers can improve soil fertility, reduce the need for synthetic inputs, and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Moreover, hemp's deep root system helps break up compacted soil and prevent erosion, making it a valuable ally in the fight against soil degradation and desertification.

As the world grapples with the escalating impacts of climate change, hemp holds promise as a revolutionary tool for carbon sequestration and climate resilience. Unlike traditional crops that deplete soil nutrients and contribute to deforestation, hemp cultivation replenishes the soil and promotes biodiversity, creating resilient ecosystems that can withstand the challenges of a changing climate. By harnessing the power of hemp to sequester carbon and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, we can combat climate change and safeguard the future of our planet for generations to come.

In addition to its environmental benefits, hemp legalization has the potential to empower marginalized communities and promote social equity. By providing opportunities for small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs, hemp cultivation can create pathways out of poverty and foster economic independence. Moreover, initiatives that prioritize sustainable and fair-trade practices ensure that the benefits of hemp legalization are shared equitably among all stakeholders, promoting social justice and economic empowerment on a global scale.

Education and Awareness

While the benefits of hemp in fashion are undeniable, widespread adoption requires education and awareness among consumers, policymakers, and industry stakeholders. By debunking myths and misconceptions surrounding hemp, we can pave the way for informed decision-making and meaningful change. Additionally, initiatives that promote transparency and traceability in the fashion supply chain empower consumers to make ethical choices and support brands that align with their values, driving demand for sustainable and socially responsible products.

To fully realize the potential of hemp in fashion, collaboration and innovation are essential. By fostering partnerships between designers, manufacturers, policymakers, and advocacy groups, we can drive forward-thinking solutions that prioritize sustainability, inclusivity, and social responsibility. From pioneering new textile technologies to exploring innovative design techniques, the possibilities for hemp in fashion are limitless. By working together to harness the power of hemp, we can build a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable fashion industry that benefits people, the planet, and future generations.

As we navigate the complexities of hemp legalization and advocate for sustainable fashion practices, it's essential to amplify our voices and demand change. By supporting brands that prioritize hemp and advocating for progressive policies, we can accelerate the transition to a more sustainable future. Whether you're a fashion enthusiast, an environmental advocate, or a concerned citizen, your voice matters.

Below is a FREE TO DOWNLOAD marijuana music MP3 by David Kirton.

Green Camouflage.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 5, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

Yet another Friday without a news dump from the federal government (woo hoo!) means that I have the room to highlight something really interesting that was buried in President Biden’s speech at the State Department yesterday afternoon. Not surprisingly, Biden announced a return to a more traditional foreign policy than his predecessor’s. But he did more than that: he tied foreign policy to domestic interests in a way that echoed Republican president Theodore Roosevelt when he helped to launch the Progressive Era of the early twentieth century.

Biden’s predecessor wrenched U.S. foreign policy from the channel in which it had operated since WWII, replacing it with a new focus on the economic interests of business leaders. Trump chose as Secretary of State the former chief executive officer of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson, who oversaw the gutting of career officers in the State Department. When the department lost 12% of its foreign-affairs specialists in the first eight months of 2017, it was clear that the Trump administration was abandoning a foreign policy in which the United States tried to defend the idea of democracy and to advance its interests through diplomacy.

Instead, in his first trip overseas, the former president traveled to Saudi Arabia, where he announced the largest single arms deal in American history, worth $110 billion immediately and more than $350 billion over ten years. The White House noted that the deal was “a significant expansion of… [the] security relationship” between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

"That was a tremendous day. Tremendous investments in the United States," Trump told reporters. "Hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the United States and jobs, jobs, jobs." Lockheed Martin, one of the world’s largest defense contractors, cheered the sale.

It was a public relations victory for Mohammed bin Salman, often referred to as MBS and the deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia at the time, coming as it did just a year after Congress voted to allow the families of those killed in the 9/11 attacks to sue the country from which 15 of the 19 hijackers came. It also would increase the U.S. supply of arms to his country’s intervention in Yemen, the country to its south, where a pro-Saudi president had been ousted in 2015 by the Houthi movement, whose members accused him of corruption and ties to Saudi Arabia and the U.S.

In his remarks during his May visit to Saudi Arabia, Trump backed away from the role the United States had claimed to take on since its war with Spain in 1898, aiming to defend democracy around the world. “We are not here to lecture—we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship,” Trump said. “[W]e are here to offer partnership-- based on shared interests and values—to pursue a better future for us all.”

For the rest of his presidency, Trump worked to weaken the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance among 30 nations of Europe, the U.S., and Canada, formed in 1949 to stop the spread of Soviet, and now Russian, aggression in Europe. Instead, he worked to strengthen U.S. ties to countries with strongman leaders, such as MBS and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. He sidestepped career diplomats to run his own, shadow diplomacy out of the White House, tapping his son-in-law Jared Kushner to secure peace in the Middle East, for example, and asking administration officials to pressure Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation into Joe Biden’s son Hunter.

And he continued to sell billions worth of arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, even after Congress halted such transfers as indiscriminate Saudi bombing in Yemen created a deadly humanitarian crisis.

One of the first things Biden did when he took office was to freeze for review $23 billion in pending arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates negotiated by his predecessor (including 50 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets). Yesterday, he announced he was ending U.S. support for the Saudi war in Yemen.

In his speech to the State Department yesterday Biden immediately indicated that he was restoring traditional American diplomacy. The first thing he did was to acknowledge his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, a career diplomat with a degree from Columbia Law School and a long and impressive resume including work on U.S. policy in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan.

The next thing Biden said was to assure the world that diplomats around the world spoke for the country again: “when you speak, you speak for me.” Later on, he reiterated that idea: “I value your expertise and I respect you, and I will have your back. This administration is going to empower you to do your jobs, not target or politicize you.”  

Biden emphasized that he had spoken to “the leaders of many of our closest friends — Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, France, NATO, Japan, South Korea, Australia — to [begin] reforming the habits of cooperation and rebuilding the muscle of democratic alliances that have atrophied over the past few years of neglect and, I would argue, abuse.” The message he wants the world to hear is: “America is back.  America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy.”

Also back at the center of American diplomacy are “America’s most cherished democratic values,” Biden said, “defending freedom, championing opportunity, upholding universal rights, respecting the rule of law, and treating every person with dignity.” The case of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who was poisoned in August and returned to Russia in mid-January only to be thrown into jail, has enabled Biden to illustrate how dramatically his foreign policy differs from that of his predecessor. Biden called on Putin to release Navalny “immediately and without condition.”

Biden outlined his approach to Yemen, China, and Russia… and then he said something that jumped out.

Biden argued that foreign policy is an integral part of domestic policy. It requires that the government address the needs of ordinary Americans. “We will compete from a position of strength by building back better at home,” he said. “That’s why my administration has already taken the important step to live our domestic values at home — our democratic values at home.”  

This idea—that the U.S. must reform its own society in order to extend the principles of democracy overseas-- was precisely the argument Theodore Roosevelt and other reformers made in the late 1890s when they launched the Progressive Era. When Roosevelt became president in 1901, he used this rationale to take the government out of the hands of business interests and use it to protect ordinary Americans.

Roosevelt argued that the government must clean up the cities, educate children, protect workers and consumers, support farmers, and make business pay its fair share. Biden shared his own list on Thursday: ending the so-called Muslim ban, reversing the ban on transgender troops, defending the free press, respecting science, addressing systemic racism and white supremacy, and rebuilding the economy.

“All this matters to foreign policy,” he said, “because when we… rally the nations of the world to defend democracy globally, to push back… authoritarianism’s advance, we’ll be a much more credible partner because of these efforts to shore up our own foundations.”

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[mvndrvke-archive]

this is a very long and elaborate headcanon that goes way too far in-depth about nico’s physical and mental condition post-hoo series. trigger warnings for mental health, anxiety, depression, death, ptsd, scars, claustrophobia, and violence. 

putting under read more because it’s long af

ANXIETY, DEPRESSION, AND PTSD

i’ve honestly written a lot about nico’s anxiety and depression in the past, and you can find the main meta i wrote on them here, so i’m not gonna dive too deeply into this, just say that nico’s anxiety is definitely higher because of his hyper-paranoia in tartarus, etc. 

nico’s depression ties into his ptsd. yeah, nico is traumatized. severely. i also touch on that in the above meta, but nico is not the same mentally or emotionally after tartarus, and the killing of bryce lawrence. he really struggles with these moving forward, and continues to for the rest of his life, though he does eventually make a vague attempt to try and get professional help. 

LOSS OF POWERS

as a result of wildly overusing his powers and dissolving into a shade for a few minutes a couple of times, nico is banned by hades ( and will solace ) from using his powers for one month after the end of the war. hades warned nico before he took the athena parthenos that using his powers like he did would kill him, but nico managed  to shock everyone and survive. however, he can’t use his powers at all for a month, and then he has to work himself up to using them to their full extent again over the next year. after that, nico resumes training to strengthen his powers in the hopes that he can make himself resilient enough that it won’t kill him to use them. he does start to turn into a shade when he overuses them, though, so he has to be extremely careful and stop using his powers when he does start to dissolve. 

PHYSICAL INJURIES

nico is severely malnourished and weak after spending a month in tartarus, three days basically dead in a bronze jar ( see below section ), and then hauling the athena parthenos across the world in about two weeks with very few breaks and to the point where he almost dissolves because of him overusing his powers. on top of the injuries he received in tartarus, nico was also attacked by lycaon and his arms were both severely mauled. see below index of all of his scars and injuries as of august 1st, 2010 ( end of the second giants war ).

okay. so nico is severely injured at this point and it takes him a really frickin’ long time to recover from this. like a long time. 

OXYGEN DEPRIVATION

also known as cerebral hypoxia. we know that  after being captured by gaea in tartarus, nico is placed in a bronze jar and kept there for three days, which he just barely survives by putting himself in a death trance. nOW, i’m not a champion of math in the slightest, but i’m gonna try to do this anyway. humor me. 

i’m basing the size of the jar on a car trunk. nico is 5′9″ tall so the jar would’ve been a rather tight squeeze for him ( see above: claustrophobia for more info ). i’m rounding here but for the sake of ease let’s say that the jar is approximately 35 cubic feet ( based on averages for SUVs ). humans breathe 388 cubic feet of air a day. that’s about 0.25 cubic feet of air a minute. so about 15 cubic feet of air an hour. that’s a little over two hours of air total that he’s got by the most generous of estimates ( i’m not counting nico’s body mass in this the number would honestly be lower if i did by a fair margin ). 

nico has to stretch two hours worth of oxygen over three days. given previous sections about nico’s physical state being deteriorated after tartarus and his struggles with anxiety and claustrophobia ( panic attacks last about 20-30 minutes ), the odds of nico thinking of using the pomegranate seeds immediately is slim. he’s unconscious in there for about 15 minutes, let’s say, and then panic attack. he’s now used up 35-45 minutes of his air, and he has to make the rest of it count, or he’ll die. 

solution? pomegranate seeds. children of hades go into a death trance if they consume persephone’s pomegranate seeds. this gives nico one day where he doesn’t use up any oxygen, but puts him in a wildly weak and malnourished state. nico does this for three days straight, with very little time outside of the trances in between. 

all of this is a long way of saying that nico suffered oxygen deprivation on an epic scale during his time in the jar. the closest term i can find that describes nico’s condition is global cerebral ischemia, or a complete cessation of blood flow to the brain. nico is out of sorts  nad incredibly weak when he gets out of the jar, and unconscious for a few minutes before he comes to. nico is somewhat notorious for at least seeming to bounce back quickly from severe injuries or physically demanding events, especially on his quest to bring the athena parthenos back, so him coming back to consciousness isn’t all that out of character for him. that being said, he was without oxygen for a long time, magic death trance or not. 

so what are the longterm effects of this?

          - memory issues : coupled with nico’s trauma from being in             tartarus for a month and losing his sense of self, his memory             is also damaged by the lack of oxygen to his brain. 

          - damage to fine motor skills : nico’s coordination is a little bit off.              he learns to compensate for this, but it’s definitely a struggle for              him in the beginning. 

          - numbness : nico’s feeling on his left side is damaged,             making it mostly numb. 

          - speech difficulties : nico already struggles with english due to             it being his second language, but especially after being trapped             in the jar, he sometimes loses the ability to find words he is looking             for. this especially frustrates him, much like his memory issues, as             it impacts his day-to-day life in a noticeable way. 

         - vertigo : nico experiences random vertigo, mostly when he uses            his powers too much, especially shadow traveling. 

[thetigarchives]

THE TIG ARCHIVES│BEAUTY│INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

“Because, in our books, there is no better regram than this from International Women’s Day, 2015.

This past Sunday, men and women around the world celebrated, honored, and championed gender equality on the much anticipated International Women’s Day. I was in London to support Emma Watson in her HeforShe Initiative for UN Women. And just last night, at The UN celebration of Int’l Women’s Day in NYC, my new role as UN Women Advocate for Women’s Leadership & Political Participation was announced. What a tremendous honor – not only to be asked to speak but to do so in the presence of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Hillary Clinton, Patricia Arquette, my mentor (and Senior Advisor to ED) Elizabeth Nyamayaro, as well as my best friends and mom. A room of support from both men and women who share the dream of eradicating gender inequality. Because it’s so clear to me – when women are empowered, the entire community is empowered. And to do that, we need women leaders from the girl who runs for class president, to the woman who becomes head of state.

I often write about the moments in life that take your breath away – the ones you only have the luxury of experiencing when you say “yes” and when you live your life with an unbridled passion and quiet fearlessness – last night was the ultimate. After nine months of quietly working behind the scenes with UN Women, of shadowing meetings, and traveling from DC to Rwanda to absorb a wealth of knowledge, I am so grateful to now be able to share this with you.” - Meghan Markle, March 2016

From Meghan Markle’s 2015 UN Speech:

“Equality means that President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, whose country I recently visited as part of my learning mission with UN Women, is equal to the little girl in the Gihembe refugee camp who is dreaming about being a president one day.  Equality means that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is equal to the young intern at the UN who is dreaming about shaking his hand.  It means a wife is equal to her husband, a sister to her brother. Not better nor worse – they are equal.

As you all know, UN Women has defined the year 2030 as the expiration date for gender INequality. But studies show that at the current rate, the elimination of gender INequality will not be possible until 2095. That’s another 80 years from now. And when it comes to women’s political participation and leadership – the percentage of female parliamentarians globally has only increased by 11% since 1995. 11 percent in 20 years?!  This has to change… Women make up more than half of the world’s population and potential, so it is neither just nor practical for their voices, for OUR voices, to go unheard at the highest levels of decision-making.

The way we change that, in my opinion, is to mobilize girls and women to see their value as leaders, and to support them in these efforts. To have leaders such as President Kagame of Rwanda continue to be a role model of a country which has a parliamentary system comprised of 64% female leaders! That’s the highest of any government in the world. We need more men like that, just as we need more men like my father who championed my 11 year old self to stand up for what is right. In doing this, we remind girls that their small voices are, in fact, not small, and that they can effect change. In doing this, we remind women that their involvement matters. That they need to become active in their communities, local governments as well as in the highest parliamentary positions. This is imperative: Women need a seat at the table, they need an invitation to be seated there, and in some cases, where this is not available, they need to create their own table. We need a global understanding that we cannot implement change effectively without women’s political participation.

It is said that girls with dreams become women with vision. May we empower each other to carry out such vision — because it isn’t enough to simply talk of equality. One must believe it. And it isn’t enough to simply believe in it. One must work at it.  Let us work at it. Together. Starting now.” 

Watch Meghan’s speech here.

[paulbenedictblog]

%news%

New Post has been published on %http://paulbenedictsgeneralstore.com%

Bbc news Las mujeres de GB ganan 4x400m de bronce en el Mundial para terminar el Campeonato con seis medallas

Bbc news

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Toby Harries fell as he tried to pass the baton to Rabah Yousif within the males's 4x400m

Britain ended the World Athletics Championships with five medals - their worst total since the three they obtained at Helsinki 2005.

It regarded as if they would match their tally from 2017 when the ladies's 4x400m team had been upgraded to bronze after Jamaica's disqualification.

Nevertheless it modified into as soon as overturned on allure because the final day ended in GB disappointment.

Their males's 4x400m team had earlier did no longer enact their bustle after a changeover error.

The United States obtained the bustle as they done top of the medal desk with 14 golds.

Golds for Dina-Asher Smith within the 200m and Katarina Johnson-Thompson within the heptathlon, plus a silver for Asher-Smith within the 100m and two 4x100m silvers intended Britain done sixth within the desk.

The 10-day match, the build the highlight has fallen onsome low attendancesand theban for coach Alberto Salazaras essential as on the wearing action, ended by being hailed asthe "easiest now we admire ever had"by manner of athletic performance by IAAF chief Lord Coe.

Re-are living coverage of day 10 at World Championships

BBC to air next two World Championships

Calamity strikes British males's quartet

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Baton anguish for GB as USA clutch 4x400m gold

Britain admire historically obtained medals within the 4x400m relays at World Championships, however that spin got right here to an stop on Sunday.

The British ladies, medal winners on this match within the past seven editions, struggled within the final.

Laviai Nielsen modified into as soon as fourth when she took the baton on the final leg and must peaceable no longer terminate the outlet on Poland, Jamaica and runaway leaders USA, who took gold.

Britain had been temporarily moved into bronze station when Jamaica had been disqualified for a relate in terms of their changeover station, forward of that resolution modified into as soon as reversed.

"We ran our socks off this day, each and every single thought to be one of us. We wanted that medal so, so badly," said third-leg runner Emily Diamond.

"That is the fastest now we admire spin in many years, it surpasses the Olympics, and I train we are going to provide the chance to be jubilant with ourselves."

As for the British males, their final modified into as soon as over when Toby Harries slipped over as he tried at quit to Rabah Yousif on the third leg. Jamaica took silver and Belgium obtained bronze.

"Or no longer it is a exhausting capsule to swallow having medalled within the past," said Yousif.

"It modified into as soon as the upright time to aim something new, it is a exhausting lesson to be taught however we pass on from right here."

Cheruiyot on hearth in 1500m final

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Cheruiyot romps house to settle 1500m gold

In other locations at the Khalifa Global Stadium in Doha, Germany's European long jump champion Malaika Mihambo added the enviornment title with a blinding third-spherical effort of seven.30m - the 12th longest distance of all time.

Ukraine's European silver medallist Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk got right here second with 6.92m and Nigeria's Ese Brume, fifth at Rio 2016, leapt to 6.91m to train bronze.

Briton Abigail Irozuru, who returned to the game final season having retired three years ago, done seventh with 6.64m. Team-mate and Beijing 2015 silver medallist Shara Proctor got right here 11th.

Timothy Cheruiyot, 23, claimed 1500m gold with thought to be one of essentially the most efficient performances of these championships.

The Kenyan, who has obtained 11 of his final 12 Diamond League races, moved to the entrance within the hole lap and held that result in settle in three minutes 29.26 seconds.

Algeria's Taoufik Makhloufi took silver and Poland's Marcin Lewandowski situation a national yarn of 3: 31.46 as he done in bronze station. Norway's European champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen modified into as soon as fourth.

There had been non-public bests for fifth-placed Briton Jake Wightman (3: 31.87) and his sixth-placed compatriot Josh Kerr (3: 32.52). Wightman's station modified into as soon as the most life like likely a Briton has done on this match since Steve Cram and Steve Ovett in 1983. Neil Gourley modified into as soon as 11th.

"I train I must peaceable be celebrating and no longer disappointed, however I train it modified into as soon as plenty nearer than I thought it modified into as soon as going to be for the medals," said Wightman.

"It would possibly possibly presumably perchance well admire taken actually a tiny petite bit bigger than I had, however that's essentially the most efficient I would possibly presumably perchance give this day and I'm jubilant with ending fifth peaceable in that extra or much less field.

"If you spin a PB you can't whinge because I've delivered my easiest performance at the excellent time, so I will happily clutch that and work into the iciness into next season."

Grenada's Peters wins gold as Kirt retires

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World Athletics Championships: Joshua Cheptegei wins 10,000m gold

USA's Nia Ali, silver medallist at Rio 2016, claimed 100m hurdles gold with a non-public easiest of 12.34 seconds. World yarn holder and compatriot Kendra Harrison clinched silver forward of Jamaica's Danielle Williams.

Grenadian 21-yr-gentle Anderson Peters took javelin gold with 86.89m. Pre-match current Magnus Kirt, who has twice thrown further than 90m this yr, took silver. The Estonian retired afflict forward of his sixth throw.

German Johannes Vetter, fourth at the Rio Olympics, obtained bronze.

Joshua Cheptegei, second to Briton Mo Farah at London 2017, obtained 10,000m gold in 26 minutes 48.36 seconds.

The Ugandan obtained the easier of Ethiopia's Yomif Kejelcha in a jog enact. Kenya's Rhonex Kipruto clinched bronze.

USA dominate the medal desk - and the sprints

With fine 9 months to pass till the Tokyo Olympics, the united states enact these championships with four extra gold medals than they obtained at London 2017.

Their 14 golds had been 9 bigger than second-placed Kenya and their total of 29 modified into as soon as nearly three events bigger than any various nation managed.

Among the many highlights modified into as soon as Dalilah Muhammad bettering her bear world yarn within the 400m hurdles - which BBC pundit and outdated skool Olympic champion Michael Johnson said modified into as soon as his current second of the championships - and sprinter Allyson Felix breaking Usain Poke's yarn for just a few World Championship gold medals.

Felix obtained her 12th within the 4x400m combined relay and her 13th within the ladies's match - even supposing she did no longer truly bustle in Sunday's final - all 11 months after giving starting up.

After picking up fine one one gold medal within the males's sprinting events in London two years ago, the Individuals head house with five out of a that it is likely you'll presumably perchance train of seven golds.

It modified into as soon as the excellent tally since the six sprinting golds obtained by the US at the 2007 championships in Osaka, a yr forward of the begin of Jamaican Poke's decade of dominance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Christian Coleman, who obtained the males's 100m, and 200m winner Noah Lyles build apart in performances in Doha that suggest they'll be the ones to beat for some time to advance in a sport that's peaceable trying to obtain the athlete who will clutch over from the charismatic Poke as its leading gentle.

'Assign judgement till after Tokyo' - diagnosis

BBC Sport's Saj Chowdhury in Doha:

Sure, that is the worst performance at a World Championships in 14 years, however it undoubtedly modified into as soon as arguably worse two years ago when Mo Farah modified into as soon as the order particular particular person medallist as Britain done with six medals.

Dina Asher-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson had been touted as medallists - they delivered and extra. Had Laura Muir averted injury all via the season then who knows what she would possibly presumably perchance need done within the 1500m.

Then there modified into as soon as the unsuccessful allure to overturn Gash Miller's capacity medal-worthwhile 'no throw' within the hammer, Holly Bradshaw's fourth station within the pole vault and Adam Gemili's advance miss within the 200m.

For British Athletics it is all in regards to the Olympic cycle, so set judgement till after Tokyo.

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'Favourites create no longer continuously bring' - Ali wins 100m hurdles gold

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[supriyogupta]

The Mirzapur of Oakley

He was, in a sense, the last British India businessman. Edward Oakley passed away today in Delhi though his story was forged in the grotty little town of Mirzapur on the banks of the Ganges.

Edward was a British India businessman playing the role of a British gentleman in India with all the panache of a white carpet baron. It was a role that he loved to play to the hilt to the utter discomfiture of those around him.

He would deliberately make himself obnoxious and it gave him great pleasure to extract reactions for his most outrageous statements.

Sitting in the verandah of his massive bungalow in Mirzapur, his loyal Man Friday, Bhagwan Das, would wipe his perspiring bald head, as he would sigh with deliberate affectation, "This is a tough life". You almost pitied the man as he soldiered through eight courses churned out by the cook trained by his Mother or sister over the years.

Or he would needle my woefully cut-off existence in the boondocks of Mirzapur by helpfully informing me that North Korea had invaded South Korea (they hadn't!) and then took pleasure in watching a newsman squirm (as my instinct was to rush to a radio or television) while he kept me on my seat talking inanities about life in general.

At my wedding in Mysore, for which he travelled down, he solemnly and loudly informed me thrice over, "lambs to slaughter". (The photograph here is of Edward with Jessica Karumbiah)

To a prominent British correspondent's equally renowned girlfriend he announced that the 'talk in London was that you are his kept'.

In latter years, the power of email gave him the opportunity to harangue the world with his "Epistolary Christmas Confidences", dishing out choice epithets for both British and Indian politicians. He was in equal parts British and Indian and held politicians on both sides with equal contempt.

But underneath the genial humbug was a hard-nosed businessman not afraid to take tough decisions, even at his own cost.

Edward decided to lead the charge against child labour by not only cleaning up looms working for OBEETEE but also coaxing the industry to move in the same direction even as NGOs were content to use the plight of children to garner global attention.

From introducing modern dye houses to new designs, Edward shaped a modern company that today is 100 years old, still makes the finest carpets and is a brand to be reckoned with.

***

Our meeting was pure happenstance.

Summarily ordered at The Observer of Business & Politics to chase Advani for his first speech which he was going to deliver in Vaishali a few months after the demolition of Babri Masjid, I found myself happily parked in the First Class AC coupe of the Magadh Express that shuttled between Delhi and Patna. (Bless the admin guy who was told to get a ticket at any cost for a relatively rookie assistant editor).

In a short while came a passel of suitcases and a man with an impressive entourage which took charge of the space. He settled down among the flurry of attendants and coolies. His countenance bore all the resemblance of a tough UP baron and I dug deeper into my book to escape any potential conflict with the notorious gangsters of UP.

Once the man settled down, he proceeded to question me in a very cultured manner in impeccable English and an inherent sense of courtesy and culture that would shame any royal today.

That was my introduction to Vishnu Raj Sharma or, as I got to know over time, Vinoo.

As my answers rolled out, I could sense a rising excitement in Vinoo. After a while, he could barely contain his excitement and proceed to interrogate me on my views on child labour. I knew little and didn't even have enough to bullshit my way through.

Vinoo figured I needed full education and marched me down the corridor of a now speeding train to the other end of the coach and the other coupe where I had my first sight of a gentle walrus shaped Englishman, Edward Oakley.

As it transpired, Edward Oakley was the owner and the last descendant and inheritor of a firm set up in 1920 by Oakley, Bowden & Taylor who founded OBEETEE in Mirzapur, India.

Some of the finest carpets in the country came from OBEETEE whose hand made woollen carpets were many a notch above their contemporary competitors.

The carpet belt was then feted as the dollar belt of India and yet the industry was under attack on all fronts, largely due to its own failings. Child labour was rampant. Chemical dyes had resulted in countries moving to ban Indian carpets and NGOs were hounding and making a career out of attacking the industry.

Much of this and more poured out in that train journey, watered by the finest of scotches and an abundant supply of ice.

We parted in Allahabad next morning with the offer of a job to be a part of the machinery to end child labour in the carpet industry, an effort that Edward had decided to champion even while being at odds with Kailash Satyarthi who was building his reputation on highlighting the wretched conditions of children in the industry.

Over the next few months, I managed to convince myself that my destiny, acumen and excellence lay in the carpet industry.

I took up the offer to visit Mirzapur and proceeded to stay there for six months till I realized that if carpets were an elephant and hit me on the head, I would still have little clue about knots, designs, warps and wefts.

But those six months were an object lesson on how a British businessman had built an impressive and modern machinery in the early 1990s that was in the business of carpets - a product that was not even made in their own facilities but in village homes.

Over the months, for me it also became a story of an extremely humane set of people of impeccable manners, superb ethics and a sound business.

***

The story of Edward was also a story about him and his man Friday Bhagwan Das. Bhagwan Das was ever present at his elbow for every whim and need. His shadow if you please. Always without footgear, Bhagwan Das was often seen to be a power unto himself as he interpreted for the household the wishes of the master or carried messages to other people.

And then, so the story goes, Bhagwan Das' son fell into a pit dug for construction within the compound of the bungalow.

Edward was shattered. He took over the upbringing of Bhagwan Das' two daughters. Over the years, he sent them to the finest of boarding schools and then to England and educated them like his own daughters.

Long after Bhagwan Das passed away, Edward played the guardian angel and only late last year, the elder daughter was married off in London.

*** Here's another happenstance.

Two decades and more later, a friend called up and asked me to meet a lady who was trying to find her next calling, but not in our line of business. Going through her CV, I saw that her early years were in Mirzapur.

If nothing else but to get the story of how things had moved on in Mirzapur or Miserypur as it was popularly called, I looked forward to the meeting.

After a bit of chatter, we talked about her family. I asked where her father worked.

She said it was a small firm in Mirzapur.

Name?

OBEETEE.

And her father's name?

Vishnu Raj Sharma.

[adelaidecity]

In the footsteps of the Eagle Huntress

On the western edge of Mongolia, The Adelaide Review visits the Golden Eagle Festival, which is experiencing an influx of tourism thanks to a remarkable former champion receiving global acclaim. The descending plane casts its shadow over western Mongolias parched desert mountains dusted with the first snow of winter. Below us, the sporadic sight of white yurts the circular tents known locally as gers of the regions nomadic community offset the prevailing view of desolate brown chasms of cracked earth. Wedged in the Altai Mountains just 100 kilometres from the Kazakhstan border, the Bayan-Olgii province logs one of the lowest density populations on the planet, but for one weekend a year it enjoys a statistical upwards jolt. Today my ATR 72 flight is at capacity, with 70 international tourists journeying to this unforgiving district for the annual Golden Eagle Festival. For many, the roots of their pilgrimage to this landlocked nation can be traced to the actions of a single local: a teenaged girl named Aisholpan. Two years ago, English director Otto Bell introduced the world to Olgii schoolgirl Aisholpan in his award-winning documentary, The Eagle Huntress. Premiering at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, the film traced the quietly determined 13-year-old Kazakh as she pursued the regions centuries-old tradition of training eagles to hunt foxes, wolves and other quarry for their fur. No mere bloodsport, the local nomad culture has historically relied on the furs for clothing, a trading resource and for fortifying their gers against the Mongolian winters abrasive sub-zero temperatures. While The Eagle Huntress showed Aisholpans father Nurgaiv passing on his hunting skills to his daughter with a calm wisdom, not all locals were depicted as being so supportive. Although Kazakh eagle hunting can be traced back more than a millennium, some elders were ruffled by the fact a young girl was taking on a historically male-dominated tradition. Aisholpan answered the resistance with an act of subtle, dogged resolve: she beat out an exclusively male field at the 2014 Golden Eagle Festival. To accentuate the coup, Aisholpan and her bird Aq Qattanari (White Wings) notched up a record time in one event.

Ultimately awarded a BAFTA for best documentary in 2017, The Eagle Huntress was expertly underpinned by three powerful film tropes: cinematography capturing the countrys inhospitable beauty; an engaging and unlikely protagonist; and perhaps most triumphantly, a subtle display of defiance against a hoary patriarchy. What began as a young girls fierce determination to follow in her fathers footsteps resulted in Time Out labelling Aisholpan one of lifes trailblazers a feminist pioneer. Fast forward a couple of years since The Eagle Huntress release and Aisholpans community has been buoyed by an influx in foreigner travellers. Along with around 80 eagle hunter competitors making their way to the 2018 Golden Eagle Festival on foot, horseback and by camel, approximately 1000 international tourists have travelled to a barren location on Olgiis outskirts. A dustbowl valley resembling a Martian moon, the site was chosen almost 20 years ago for pragmatic reasons: it was close to town and offered a robust mountain slope from where competing eagles could launch. Local police valiantly attempt to maintain parking order as cavalcades of incoming four-wheel-drives spit up dust, the grime blowing onto the ad hoc bazaar of local vendors whove set up colourfully crude stalls of confectionery, jewellery and local furs. In front of the flat bed truck doubling as a shaded vantage point for judges, VIPs and the MC, a roped off area marks out the exhibition zone for the festivals two-day programme. While also offering a showcase of other Kazakh traditions (including kokbar, a tug of war on horseback where two riders tussle over a sheep carcass), its the eagle events drawing the largest crowds. Olgii resident Dosjan Khaval has been to all 19 of the annual Golden Eagle festivals. A multilingual Kazakh, Khaval has spent a decade building a local travel company and, as the head of Bayan-Olgii Tourism, is now a regional heavyweight. His business has seen a favourable uplift off the back of The Eagle Huntress. Everyone is proud of Aisholpan because she has affected not only local Bayan-Olgii tourism, but also Mongolian tourism, Khaval says. Local people understand that a lot of tourists now have information about Mongolia because of her. In these days of social media more people are spreading the information about Aisholpan to the world and every year the number of tourists is increasing. Even on my summer tours now, most tourists have watched the movie. When the official figures are stripped of business visits and international workers, Khaval says Mongolias annual tourism figure sits at just 130,000 less than the number Australia welcomed in an average week in 2017. A calendar highlight like the Golden Eagle Festival provides the rural territory of Bayan-Olgii an important financial boost. This year at the festival we were expecting around 1200 international tourists, Khaval says. When you add Mongolians, in total its up to 4000 people. Mongolians who live in other parts of Mongolia do not know about this culture, so a lot of people are interested in this and more are coming every year. I dont think the Eagle Festival is going to just boom, but we have observed a slow increase. Inaugurated as a one-day event, the festival schedule has expanded to two days as more traditional Kazakh pastimes have been added to the roster. An alcohol ban has been introduced this year after 2017s festival descended into drunken mayhem, with reports of intoxicated hunters falling from their horses, fights intermittently breaking out in the crowd and police resorting to tasers to deal with unruly locals.

A hunter ready to launch While theres a lingering element of Wild West temperaments in play, the 2018 Golden Eagle Festival brushes away last years blemishes in favour of civic pride. Over the crackling tannoy, the weekend festivities kick off with a nod to the teen who has increased focus on this region: Aisholpan, renowned throughout the world, has brought glory to our province. In the wake of Aisholpans success, more local females are training eagles and competing in the Golden Eagle Festival. Based around 50 kilometres out of Olgii, 15-year-old Zamanbol trains eagles with her father, Talap. While she fails to make it beyond the first round of competition this year, Zamanbol proves popular photographic fodder for the intrusive black lenses of global travellers. Far more at home calling her eagle down from cliff crags than experiencing her horse being surrounded by photographers, there are moments when Zamanbol appears to be physically retreating behind her eagle for sanctuary from the SLRs. Dosjan Khaval suggests young blood such as Zamanbol and Aisholpan has revitalised a Kazakh skill that risked dying out before the Golden Eagle Festival was introduced at the turn of the century. Until Aisholpan, no other girls had entered the Eagle Festival as a huntress, Khaval says. After Aisholpan won, right from the second year, there were more young girls who tried to become an eagle huntress. Now there are maybe eight or nine girls that are trying to be like Aisholpan. The acclaim, spectacle and splendour of the Golden Eagle Festival has also seen an increase in young local boys following in the footsteps of their forefathers. The younger generation didnt want to hunt with these eagles as it takes so much work, Khaval explains. You need to train the eagles, go up the mountain when its minus 35 degrees With the eagle festivals, theres been an increase in eagle hunters and there are many young teenagers also participating now. It continues our culture, plus of course its good for income because of tourists. The Eagle Huntress hasnt just resulted in financial reward and cultural renewal. An Asian Review story in June this year even suggested the film had played an important role in the acceptance of Kazakhs within the Mongolian community. The minority group accounts for 100,000 citizens in a national population of three million, with alleged racism blamed for traditionally keeping the Bayan-Olgii border province (where 90 per cent of the population are Kazakhs) out of political decision-making in the countrys capital Ulaanbaatar. Its a weighty assertion to be placed on the shoulders of a high school student who simply showed a unique connection to her eagle. As the finals to identify 2018s champion eagle hunter progress in the arena, I spot Bayan-Olgiis most famous resident beyond the fragrant smoke of the kebab vendors. Astride her stocky bay mare, Aisholpan is beautifully presented in a traditional outfit of white fox fur, embroidered pants and bejewelled leather belt. The heavy outfit is at odds with the 25-degree conditions, but Aisholpan smiles serenely as her international fans mill around for photographs. Despite Aisholpan attending the Golden Eagle Festival this year as a special guest rather than a competitor, there are no officials keeping watch over their local dignitary. If the crowd becomes as unruly as 2017s mob, the most famous Mongolian since Genghis Khan only has her eagle White Wings to offer protection.

Zamanbol For almost an hour Aisholpan poses for tourist photographs, apparently aware of the power her film has had in showing the world the beauty and wonder of her homeland. Shes a one-woman international export in a region with so few commodities they import from their Russian neighbours everything from eggs to electricity. Although her English is limited, a translator relays some of Aisholpans comments to her impromptu audience. The 17-year-olds eagle regimen depicted in The Eagle Huntress remains unchanged as she completes her final year of high school in Olgii. I have school on Monday to Friday and during the weekend I practise with my eagle, she says. When I finish study I want to be a doctor. The success of The Eagle Huntress saw international education institutions scuttling to offer the gutsy Kazakh girl scholarships to attend respected universities in England, the United States and neighbouring Kazakhstan, however Aisholpan is yet to announce where shell study in 2019. In the meantime, shes making the most of being in her arid homeland with her eagle and her friends. The film had a big influence on my life, Aisholpan says. My friends are proud of me and they are glad that I let the world know about our culture. A day after the festival, Dosjan Khaval reflects on Aisholpans success. Four years after her Eagle Festival win theres still some local dissent over the eagle huntress term as shes never taken White Wings hunting by herself, but her importance to the community is undeniable. People still treat her the same here and most of the people like her, Khaval says. Whatever they did with this movie, it was good for Mongolia as an advertisement. Khaval suggests Mongolias deficient infrastructure, dearth of human resources and fractious political stonewalling restrict the developing nation from making the most of its tourist potential, but every year more people get information about Mongolia and our services are getting better and better. In the future, I see theres going to be more tourism. Hollywood isnt finished with Aisholpans story, either. Khaval says Sony Pictures are currently adapting the story of Mongolias famed eagle huntress into a multi-million dollar cartoon. In Kazakh, Ai means moon, Sholpan means the first star which comes out in the evening, Khaval says. That is what Aisholpan means. A remarkable light in dark times, Aisholpans star continues to shine. Lead photo is ofAisholpan. All photographs taken by Scott McLennan. https://www.adelaidereview.com.au/features/travel/eagle-huntress/

[neptunecreek]

Our EU Policy Principles: Platform Liability

As the European Union is gearing up for a major reform of the current backbone of the EU’s Internet regulation—the e-Commerce Directive will be replaced by the Digital Services Act (DSA)—there are choices to be made. Rather than following in the footsteps of recent disastrous Internet legislation (such as the Copyright Directive), the EU should focus on how to put users back in control of their online experiences. Rather than giving more executive power to large platforms that have monopolized the digital space, the EU should protect the public interest Internet by focusing on users’ rights to self-determination and measures on transparency, anonymity, and interoperability.

We are hopeful that the EU will move in the right direction on Internet policy, especially given that member countries have championed Internet bills that seek to create  a more restrictive European Internet. In a recent victory for free speech and the Internet, EFF helped to strike down core provisions of a French bill meant to curb hate speech, arguing that it would unconstitutionally catch legal speech in its net. Meanwhile, the infamous German law NetzDG, which requires companies to respond to reports of illegal speech within 24 hours, has been toughened to make platforms not only delete suspected criminal content, but also send reports to the federal police, including information about the user.

Rules on Liability and Monitoring: An Opportunity to Make it Right

The upcoming reform of EU Internet legislation is a great opportunity to redo some of the damage done by bad Internet bills, and to acknowledge that it is a bad idea to turn platforms into the Internet police that scan and censor billions of users’ social media posts, videos, or other forms of communication. It is also a good occasion to modernize some outdated rules and to make sure that the Internet remains an open platform for free expression.

In this post, we will explain in more detail our position against mandated monitoring and filtering of user content and why the EU should not hold platforms liable for content provided by users.

Principle 1: Online Intermediaries Should Not Be Held Liable for User Content

Intermediaries have a pivotal role to play in ensuring the availability of content and the development of the Internet. They are a driver of free speech, as they enable people to share content with audiences at an unprecedented scale. One of the reasons for the success of online intermediaries is the immunity they enjoy for third-party content. This is one of the fundamental principles that we believe must continue to underpin Internet regulation: Platforms should not be held responsible for the ideas, images, videos, or speech that users post or share online. If such a principle were not in place, platforms would be pushed to affirmatively monitor how users behave; would filter and check users’ content; and would block and remove everything that is controversial, objectionable, or potentially illegal to avoid legal responsibility. By the same token, users would likely not feel inclined to speak freely in the first place; they would avoid sharing their artistic expression or publishing a critical essay about political developments. Worse yet, without legal protection, service providers could easily become targets for corporations, governments, or bad actors who want to target and silence users.

The EU should therefore make sure that online intermediaries continue to benefit from comprehensive liability exemptions and not be held liable for content provided by users. The current nebulous distinction between passive and active host providers for exemptions to apply should be given up: Intermediaries should not be held liable for user content as long as they are not involved in co-creating or modifying that content in a way that substantially contributes to illegality, and provided that they do not have actual knowledge about its illegal or infringing character. Any additional obligations must be proportionate and not curtail the free expression of users and innovation.

Principle 2: Only Court Orders Should Trigger Liability

Intermediaries should not be held liable for choosing not to remove content simply because they received a private notification by a user. In order to protect freedom of speech, the EU should adopt the principle that actual knowledge of illegality is only obtained by intermediaries if they are presented with a court order. It should be up to independent judicial entities, not platforms or disgruntled users, to decide the legality of any other user’s content. Any exceptions to this principle should be limited to content that is manifestly unlawful; that is, content that is obviously illegal irrespective of the context. Notices about such content should be sufficiently precise and substantiated.

Principle 3: No Mandatory Monitoring or Filtering

The ban on general monitoring under the current e-Commerce Directive has the purpose of protecting users, by guaranteeing their freedom of expression and their rights to personal data as memorialized in the Fundamental Rights Charter. Should this important principle be abandoned, it would not only have disastrous consequences for the freedom of users, but would also inevitably lead to shadow regulation; that is, privatized enforcement by platforms without transparency, accountability, or other safeguards.

The Member States of the European Union should thus not be permitted to impose obligations on digital service providers to affirmatively monitor their platforms or networks for illegal content that users post, transmit, or store. Nor should there be a general obligation for platforms to actively monitor facts or circumstances indicating illegal activity by users. The ban on general monitoring obligations should include a ban on mandated automated filter systems that evaluate the legality of third-party content or which prevent the (re)upload of illegal content. Additionally, no liability should be based on an intermediary’s failure to detect illegal content. Related privacy rights, such as the right not to be subjected to automated individual decision-making, must also be protected in this context.

Principle 4: Limit the Scope of Takedown Orders

Recent cases have demonstrated the perils of worldwide content takedown orders. In Glawischnig-Piesczek v Facebook, the Court of Justice of the EU held that a court of a Member State can order platforms not only to take down defamatory content globally, but also to take down identical or “equivalent” material. This was a terrible outcome as the content in question may be deemed illegal in one State, but is clearly lawful in many other States. Also, by referring to “automated technologies” to detect similar language, the court opened the gates of monitoring by filters, which are notoriously inaccurate and prone to overblocking legitimate material.

The reform of EU Internet legislation is an opportunity to acknowledge that the Internet is global and takedown orders of global reach are immensely unjust and impair users’ freedom. New rules should make sure that court orders—and particularly injunctions—should not be used to superimpose the laws of one country on every other state in the world. Takedown orders should be limited to the content in question and based on the principles of necessity and proportionality in terms of its geographical scope. Otherwise, it is possible that we will see one country’s government dictating what residents of other countries can say, see, or share online. This would lead to a “race to the bottom” toward creating an ever more restrictive global Internet.

Conclusion: Protect the Internet

Facing the most significant reform project of Internet law undertaken in two decades, the EU should choose to protect the Internet rather coercing online platforms into policing their users. EFF intends to fight for users’ rights, transparency, anonymity, and limited liability for online platforms every step of the way. 

from Deeplinks https://ift.tt/2O8cepN

[coolmohnishahluwalia]

At Howdy Modi, Trump plays second fiddle

The rally brought together two leaders with similar styles. Both rose to power by embracing right-wing populism. Both presented voters with a vision to make their respective countries "great again," and both have fanned tensions along religious, economic and social fault lines

President Donald Trump played second fiddle Sunday to Narendra Modi, prime minister of India, at a boisterous cultural rally in which the U.S. president was technically just an invited guest.

But never one to let a good crowd go to waste, Trump treated the giant gathering at NRG Stadium in Houston as his own, declaring that “you have never had a better friend as president than President Donald Trump, that I can tell you.”

Tens of thousands of Indian Americans gathered to celebrate the recent reelection of India’s fiery populist leader at an event cheekily called “Howdy, Modi!” Big screens throughout the stadium displayed the face of the prime minister, who arrived to thunderous cheers on a red carpet.

There were no Trump signs in the crowd, as there would be at one of his “Make America Great Again” rallies. And the president mostly stuck to his prepared remarks as the crowd of mostly Indian Americans responded largely with polite applause.

Trump praised Modi, marveling that some 600 million people voted in India’s recent elections. “That’s a lot of people,” the president said, adding that Indian Americans enrich the culture of the United States and that the two nations are “grounded in our common values.”

But he mostly seized on his own rally themes, bragging about slashing regulations, lowering unemployment, implementing a tax cut and hardening the nation’s borders against “those who would threaten our security.”

“There are those in Washington who would raid your health care to fund free benefits to those who enter our country illegally,” he said, previewing his attacks on Democrats during the presidential campaign. “I will never allow politicians to take away your health care or give it to illegal immigrants.”

The rally brought together two leaders with similar styles. Both rose to power by embracing right-wing populism, portraying themselves as champions of the masses fighting against an entrenched establishment. Both presented voters with a vision to make their respective countries “great again,” and both have fanned tensions along religious, economic and social fault lines.

Modi, who is in the United States for a week largely to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, won a landslide reelection in May. But Trump and Modi are also both polarizing figures among the people they lead. While many Indians see Modi as a strong, decisive leader, a small but vocal minority say he is becoming an autocrat, rapidly consolidating power, going after political enemies inside his country and sowing division between Hindus and Muslims.

In the United States, Trump is preparing to run for reelection in a bitterly divided country with polls regularly showing him receiving well short of 50% support. His participation in Sunday’s rally with Modi offered a chance to woo a constituency — the 4 million U.S. residents of Indian descent — whose support could prove helpful.

Modi delivered in English an over-the-top introduction of Trump, declaring that the president’s name is “familiar to every person on the planet” and “comes up in almost every conversation in the world on global politics.”

Standing next to Modi, the president beamed with pleasure as the prime minister delivered a twist on his own election slogan: “Abki baar Trump sarkar” or “This time, a Trump government.”

But earning votes from Indian Americans will not be easy for Trump, even with Modi by his side.

Indian Americans have supported both Democrats and Republicans in the past, though they have gravitated away from Trump’s party more recently. Although the president’s tax and economic policies appeal to many Indians, his tough stance on immigration, including legal immigrants from India, has caused great angst, especially in Silicon Valley, which relies heavily on Indian workers who come on H-1B visas.

An overwhelming majority of Indian American voters are registered as Democrats and voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

M.R. Rangaswami, founder of Indiaspora, a group that tries to organize Indian Americans, said events like Sunday’s rally help the community become more relevant in the United States. He said Trump’s appearance here was an opportunity to increase his 14% showing among Indian Americans in 2016.

“He could hope he could change some minds,” Rangaswami said. “It could happen.”

Trump crowed last week that his decision to join Modi at the event Sunday enlarged the crowd at the stadium, which can hold up to about 70,000 people.

“I have a very good relationship with Prime Minister Modi. By the way, great relationship with Pakistan and with India,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One several days before the Modi event. “But he’s got a big crowd coming, and I guess the crowd just got a lot bigger because they just announced — he asked would I go, and I will go.”

Trump’s appearance at the event, which was followed by a stop with the Australian prime minister at an Ohio recycled packaging plant owned by an Australian company, comes as his administration is finalizing plans for a modest trade deal with India, a step that would help resolve earlier tensions between Trump and Modi over India’s trade balance with the United States and other trade issues.

The trade agreement, which could be finalized by the two leaders as soon as this week, is expected to help U.S. farmers and manufacturers by eliminating Indian restrictions on electronics, medical devices and a few agricultural goods. In return, Trump would restore a special trade status for developing countries, something the president stripped from India this year.

Resolving a nettlesome trade dispute with India presents Trump with an opportunity for a public relations victory amid increasing frustration over his global trade wars with China and other countries.

Modi, 69, is at his best outside India. He has prioritized, more than any other Indian leader in recent decades, India’s brand around the world and projecting an image of a muscular India, an emerging superpower. He travels all across Asia, he was the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel, he has journeyed across Africa and during a visit to New York in 2014 he packed Madison Square Garden with ecstatic crowds cheering: “Modi! Modi! Modi!”

He has come a long way. Years ago, he was banned by U.S. authorities from even entering the United States because of allegations that as chief minister in Gujarat in the early 2000s he was responsible for an explosion of religiously driven violence that claimed more than 1,000 lives, most of them Muslim.

The goal of this trip is to attract investment to India, and there is a little extra urgency: India’s economy is suffering its biggest downturn in years. Modi is also eager to shore up diplomatic support. But a controversy threatens to cast a shadow over his visit.

Human rights groups and three Nobel Peace Prize winners have criticized the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a prestigious award they plan to bestow upon Modi this week. Peace activists said that under Modi’s leadership, “India has descended into dangerous and deadly chaos that has consistently undermined human rights.”

A group of protesters gathered in Houston on Sunday to denounce Modi.

But Modi has typically drawn strong support from the Indian diaspora, even those who disagree with some of his domestic policies, because he has been so successful at burnishing India’s image on the world stage. #MohnishRANotes

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[biofunmy]

In Spain, Buyers Relish Designing Their Own Golf Homes

Caldes de Malavella, Spain — A few years ago, while vacationing on the coast of Spain, John Carter drove inland to the PGA Catalunya Resort to book a tee time. He wasn’t intending to buy more than a round of golf.

But before the week was out, he and his wife had reserved a plot overlooking the ninth hole of one of Spain’s top courses, and they had committed to building a vacation home that would cost 3 million euros, about $3.3 million.

Five years later, the house is a model of contemporary architecture. Geometric structures stand in stark contrast to the rugged Mediterranean terrain. Floor-to-ceiling glass walls offer views of the Montseny mountain range to the southwest. The driveway sweeps up to the front door in the manner of grand carriage entrance ramps in 16th-century Italian villas.

“We enjoyed building it,” said Mr. Carter, 56, an investment fund manager who lives in a traditional brick home in England. “It was an adventure.”

What it takes to build your dream house in a residential golf complex varies from club to club. But you won’t have free rein. Most clubs ask that you respect their guidelines, designed to ensure visual consistency. Fences may not be allowed. Certain trees may not be cut down, and those statues you had an eye on may have to go in the corner of the backyard so that your neighbor doesn’t have to look at them.

The probability of challenges is even greater in a country where you don’t speak the language.

But the Carters were able to avoid extra costs by opting for a “turnkey” contract. That meant they hired the PGA Catalunya Resort to take care of everything. The resort proposed a list of approved architects, put the construction up for tender, monitored the building works from start to finish and made payments to all suppliers.

“Turnkey contracts are recommended if you want to avoid unexpected price increases,” said Nicolás Melchior, a real estate expert at the law firm Mariscal & Abogados, “as long as the price agreed with the interlocutor is not excessive.”

The turnkey contract also meant that the Carters did not have to deal with mishaps. Though tempers flared when builders fitted their daughter’s en-suite bathroom with pink and cream instead of pink and white tiles, it was the PGA Catalunya Resort that sorted out the mess.

“Sometimes things weren’t done the way we wanted, but nothing was unresolvable,” Mr. Carter said.

Recently, political turmoil following the 2017 Catalan bid for independence has discouraged some foreigners from buying property in this region.

While more international investors than ever bought Spanish real estate in the first half of 2018, in Catalonia the number fell by 5.3 percent.

But building a luxury home at PGA Catalunya Resort is still a draw for overseas investors. Sales are up 9 percent from last year. Potential buyers can expect to spend around half a million euros for the land and an additional €1 million to €3 million for a house that complies with the club’s strict architectural guidelines.

A few holes down the course from the Carters’ villa, beside the lake on the 15th hole, a crane looms over the building site where Sarah and Oliver Kesting’s new home will soon stand.

The Kestings, who until recently led a hectic life juggling the management of their electronics company with school runs into traffic-congested downtown Munich, have enrolled their children in a local school and hope to move here permanently.

While construction is underway, they are staying nearby and keeping a close eye on developments.

On a recent afternoon, they climbed a paint-splashed ladder onto what will be the first floor of their new home. Black rubber tubes dangled from concrete slabs, and a microwave sat in a pile of rubble, a long cable connecting it to the mains so that the workmen could heat up their lunches.

“It has been fun designing our own home,” Mr. Kesting, 49, said.

They’re not just building a new home — they’re building a new lifestyle. One that will include a stand-alone bathtub with views over the fairway, a large garage for Mr. Kesting’s collection of cars and, because they are wary of potentially hefty Spanish electricity and gas bills, a geothermal heating system.

“The cost of living in Spain is lower than in Germany and better quality,” said Mr. Kesting. “Except for energy.”

Though not a turnkey project — they are working directly with the developers — so far there have been no setbacks, besides an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the PGA Catalunya Resort to lower the height of the curb on the street so that their sports car can drive more easily into the garage.

Perhaps the most striking feature of their project, on paper, is the giant pergola over both the indoor and outdoor living areas.

It is designed in homage to the early-20th century Japanese novelist Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, who claimed that shadows have the power to make materials such as gold or crystal seem more beautiful in dark rooms than in broad daylight.

Aluminum and copper will be used to this end in some of the walls and columns, which will stand in groups of odd rather than even numbers in a modern take on the temples of classical times.

For Ignacio López Alonso, one of five partners at the Barcelona-based firm Lagula Arquitectes, designing the Kestings’ villa is part of a love affair with a daring residential project that began at the outset of the global financial crisis a decade ago.

Spain’s construction bubble had burst, and 800,000 new vacation homes were unsold along the coastline and at many of Spain’s golf courses, said David Plana, the chief executive of PGA Catalunya Resort.

“Many were failed housing projects, with 18 holes built in the middle,” Mr. Plana said. “We did things the other way around.”

Initially, the PGA Catalunya Resort had no real estate. It had two golf courses, the Stadium and the Tour, which were conceived as candidates to host the 1997 Ryder Cup by the European golfing masters, Neil Coles and Angel Gallardo.

Then in 2008, at a time when banks were not giving out loans, the resort’s owners used private funds to hire Mr. López Alonso’s firm to design one showcase signature villa.

The villa was completed in 2011. Over the next eight years, more than 200 properties were built, of which approximately 50 are bespoke villas.

Though designed by a medley of local and international architects, including the 2017 Pritzker Prize laureates, RCR Arquitectes, all the properties, whether terraced houses, flats or villas, must abide by aesthetic rules designed to respect the lay of the land.

“It is important to find an equilibrium between what the land asks for and what the client asks for,” said Mr. López Alonso, recalling some difficult requests from clients.

When a retired couple insisted on building a porch with a balustrade, Mr. López Alonso had to tactfully put his foot down. But that wasn’t the end of it. Shortly afterward, a truckload of poor-imitation Giacometti statues arrived from Switzerland. Though Mr. López Alonso considered them tacky, they didn’t infringe on any guidelines — only prefabricated statues are banned.

In the end, aided by a couple of builders, Mr. López Alonso placed the statues, some of them more than two meters high, or about 6.5 feet, around the garden so they were hidden from the neighbors.

A weather vane in the shape of a witch on a broomstick was the only element that could be seen from the golf course.

Luckily, according to Mr. López Alonso, most of the owners appreciate contemporary architectural aesthetics.

When Hans Eekhof, 60, a businessman and former Dutch ocean-racing world champion, teed off at the Stadium course earlier this year, he glimpsed the villas among the pine trees at the edges of the fairways. But none were for sale.

There was, however, the opportunity to buy a turnkey project on an empty plot.

Recently, the only evidence of activity was a white line in the grass around the border of Mr. Eekhof’s land. But if everything goes according to plan, a grandchild-friendly, horseshoe-shaped villa will be completed for an estimated €3.5 million by September next year.

PGA Catalunya Resort employs a local biologist to grow organic fruit and vegetables for residents. Once or twice a week, homeowners can stop off at his vegetable garden and pick up a courtesy basket of tomatoes, peppers, plums or whatever else is in season.

There is a vineyard, too, which is expected to yield its first harvest later this year and give owners their first bottles of homegrown wine.

And at last count there were at least 16 Michelin-star restaurants within a 30-mile radius.

“I love good food,” Mr. Eekhof said. “Dining at all the restaurants will keep me occupied for the rest of my life.”

Sahred From Source link Real Estate

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Nature Russia’s Antidoping Agency Is Reinstated by WADA

Nature Russia’s Antidoping Agency Is Reinstated by WADA Nature Russia’s Antidoping Agency Is Reinstated by WADA http://www.nature-business.com/nature-russias-antidoping-agency-is-reinstated-by-wada/

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Craig Reedie, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency. WADA voted on Thursday to reinstate Russia’s antidoping agency.CreditCreditIshara S. Kodikara/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The global regulator of drugs in sports on Thursday voted to allow Russia to resume testing its athletes for performance-enhancing drugs, despite an outcry from athletes and watchdogs that Moscow has not done enough to clean up its record of corruption in competitions.

Russia, whose drug-testing agency has been banned for three years, will now be able to certify on its own that its athletes are not using illicit drugs, allowing them easier entry to a range of competitions. Russia will also be able to issue what are known as therapeutic use exemptions, which permit athletes to use certain prohibited drugs for medical reasons.

The executive board of the World Anti-Doping Agency made the move despite a series of independent investigations that found Russia had orchestrated a vast, state-sponsored doping scheme that tainted the Olympics and other major sports events.

It comes at a time of mounting skepticism about the fairness of international sports competitions as the use of performance-enhancing drugs remains pervasive. Athletes say they do not have faith that their competitors are not doping. They also say the governing bodies of their sports have failed to ensure the integrity of the competition, even at the highest-profile events, like the Olympics.

The decision clears Russia to start hosting international sports events again. In addition, it paves the way for Russian athletes to begin competing under their own flag in every sport. Russia’s track and field athletes might be welcomed back at all international events; the I.A.A.F., track and field’s world governing body, had refused to accept Russian athletes while the country’s antidoping agency was not considered in compliance with WADA standards.

Minutes after Russia was cleared by WADA, the organizers of the European Games, a multisport event, named Kazan, Russia, to a shortlist of three cities to host the event in 2023.

The vote by WADA’s board was 9 to 2, with one abstention, to reinstate Russia’s antidoping agency, which had been banned since 2015 after investigators found it was at the center of the doping conspiracy at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

The conspiracy included, among other methods, substituting clean urine for tainted samples through a hidden hole in the wall at the agency’s testing laboratory in Sochi. The lab was guarded by members of Russia’s state security services, according to the investigations.

The doping conspiracy led the International Olympic Committee to ban Russia from the Winter Olympics this year in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Nearly 170 Russian athletes ultimately participated through special dispensations from the international sports federations. But Russia’s National Olympic Committee was prohibited from attending. The Russian flag was not officially displayed and the athletes had to wear neutral uniforms with “Olympic Athlete From Russia” printed on them.

After the Games, Russia continued to deny the state had sponsored the doping and it declined to give investigators access to its testing labs and possibly tainted urine samples. Russia, in an agreement with WADA, was supposed to admit to the doping scheme and turn over data and samples before the agency reinstated it.

After negotiations between Russian officials and leaders of international sports organizations, however, a WADA committee unexpectedly recommended the reinstatement last Friday. The full board, meeting in the Seychelles, affirmed it.

The organization backed off insisting that Russia accept the findings of an investigation by Richard McLaren that laid out evidence of a state-supported doping program in Sochi. Instead, WADA asked Russia to accept the less harsh findings on the government’s role in what is known as the Schmid report, produced by an International Olympic Committee commission.

Pavel Kolobkov, Russia’s sports minister, said in a letter to WADA that his government accepted the findings of the Schmid report and agreed to turn over data and stored samples from Russian athletes.

WADA’s president, Craig Reedie, said that the reinstatement came with “strict conditions” and that Russia could be ruled noncompliant again if it failed to follow a timeline for allowing access to Russian data and samples before Dec. 31. That data is crucial for adjudicating hundreds of possible cases of cheating from years ago.

The decision brought renewed criticism of WADA, which had angered athletes and other antidoping officials by softening some of the demands it made of Russia.

Travis Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, called the decision “a devastating blow to the world’s clean athletes.”

Mr. Tygart and other antidoping leaders and athletes critical of the decision said going back on the so-called “road map” for Russia’s reinstatement was akin to putting the desires of sports officials and a powerful nation above the rights of clean athletes.

He vowed to use the decision to build momentum for a significant reformation of WADA so the organization does not include representatives from sports organizations. The world’s athletes “want a WADA with teeth, authority, sanctioning power and the determination to get the job done of cleaning up sport and restoring the trust of the billions of sports fans and athletes worldwide.”

Richard Pound, the I.O.C. member who was the first president of WADA and who conducted an initial report on Russian doping in 2015, defended the deal as the only way to guarantee access to all the information necessary to pursue cases of cheating. The original requirements for reinstatement did not explicitly state that the Russians must provide the computer records of each athlete’s cheating, but the latest ones do. In exchange for that, WADA essentially dropped its demand that Russia admit to state-sponsored doping.

“When you’re dealing with issues diplomatically, sometimes you can’t go at them directly,” Mr. Pound said. “Sometimes by circling you get at it.”

Mr. Tygart and WADA’s other critics have long complained that the organization includes too many leaders of sports organizations with conflicted loyalties in positions of power. Six members of WADA’s 12-person executive committee have positions with an international or national sports organization.

Linda Hofstad Helleland of Norway, who voted against reinstatement, said the vote “casts a dark shadow over the credibility of the antidoping movement.”

Max Cobb, a member of the International Biathlon Union’s executive board, said WADA needed to get access to the lab data as quickly as possible. “I want to see these cases adjudicated,” Mr. Cobb said.

Mr. Reedie told the BBC before the vote on Thursday: “I think it’s entirely within the road map that was specified. The second condition still requires a copy of the database and raw data to come to us. If they don’t deliver, they won’t be compliant.”

But many athletes and officials expressed dismay.

Beckie Scott, a former cross-country skier from Canada who resigned from the WADA compliance review committee after it endorsed readmitting the Russian antidoping authorities, said after the decision on Thursday that she was “profoundly disappointed.”

In a statement on Thursday, the I.A.A.F. said it had its own set of criteria for reinstating Russia. Rune Andersen, an antidoping expert from Norway who has been leading the track federation’s task force on Russia, will review WADA’s decision and make a recommendation to the I.A.A.F in December. But the federation suggested that it might continue to take a hard line on Russia and insist that Russia admit to state-sponsored doping.

“The setting of our own criteria and the process of evaluating progress against these criteria has served the sport of athletics well over the last three years, so we will continue to rely on the task force and our clear road map,” said Sebastian Coe, the Olympic champion who is the president of the I.A.A.F.

In a statement, U.K. Sport, the United Kingdom’s government agency charged with the development of elite athletes, said it was disappointed in the decision: “We call on WADA to fully and transparently explain how it came to the compromise of reinstating Russia — and how it will ensure that the new conditions are fully met and implemented. A strong WADA and a unified antidoping community are vital to the integrity of sport and to ensure public trust and support is maintained.”

Ahead of the decision, in an opinion article in The New York Times, Edwin Moses, the former hurdling star and chairman of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, said, “Having spoken to athletes, I know they overwhelmingly support the right decision being made in the Seychelles — they overwhelmingly support WADA’s sticking to its road map.”

Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the whistle-blower who revealed Russia’s doping program, urged against the decision in an opinion article published by USA Today. “WADA must not fall prey to manipulation and false assertions from the ministry, the same arm of the Kremlin that facilitated the doping program and asserted false compliance,” Dr. Rodchenkov wrote. “To do so would be nothing short of a catastrophe for clean sport.”

His lawyer, Jim Walden, said after the decision, “WADA’s decision to reinstate Russia represents the greatest treachery against clean athletes in Olympic history.”

Victor Mather contributed reporting.

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/sports/olympics/russia-wada-antidoping-reinstated.html |

Nature Russia’s Antidoping Agency Is Reinstated by WADA, in 2018-09-20 23:45:16

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World: In Ireland, Pope finds a country transformed and a church in tatters

DUBLIN — Nearly 40 years since the last papal visit to Ireland, Pope Francis arrived Saturday to a transformed country where the once-mighty Roman Catholic Church is in tatters.

As recently as a few weeks ago, the pope’s visit to Ireland mostly promised an awkward encounter in an estranged relationship.

Since the last papal visit — by John Paul II in 1979 — Ireland, once a cornerstone of the church, has abandoned its teachings by legalizing divorce and same-sex marriage.

The country now has a gay prime minister, and just a few months ago voted to lift a ban on abortion.

But recent revelations in the United States and Chile of the institutional covering-up of sexual abuse by clerics have lent sudden urgency to the pope’s visit, where he will speak at the church’s ninth World Meeting of Families. The issue threatens to overshadow the visit by Francis, who has struggled to grasp the enormity of the scourge throughout his papacy.

Catholics worldwide wait to see whether he would use Ireland, with its own painful history of abuse, as a symbolic stage upon which to announce concrete measures to combat a crisis that threatens the future of his church.

It was not clear how far he would go. Instead, the pope offered expressions of regret and anger Saturday at Dublin Castle, where he met with Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who is gay and called on Francis to take action on the “legacy of pain and suffering” in Ireland. He has called the pope’s visit “an opportunity” to demonstrate that things are going to change.

“With regard to the most vulnerable, I cannot fail to acknowledge the grave scandal caused in Ireland by the abuse of young people by members of the church charged with responsibility for their protection and education,” Francis said.

“The failure of ecclesiastical authorities — bishops, religious superiors, priests and others — adequately to address these repugnant crimes has rightly given rise to outrage, and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community,” the pope added. “I myself share those sentiments.”

Speaking in front of advocates for abuse survivors who have criticized him for not doing enough, Francis went on to cite the outrage expressed in a 2010 letter by his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, and the measures Benedict had demanded.

“His frank and decisive intervention continues to serve as an incentive for the efforts of the church’s leadership both to remedy past mistakes and to adopt stringent norms meant to ensure that they do not happen again,” Francis said, adding that in his letter this month to all Catholics, “I reiterated this commitment, or rather, a greater commitment to eliminating this scourge in the church — at whatever cost.”

The shadow cast by the scandals now reaches beyond Ireland and to the heart of the Vatican, where it threatens to darken the legacy and remaining influence of Pope Francis.

Well into his fifth year as pope, Francis has focused on championing migrants, the poor and the disenfranchised, all the while shifting the church’s emphasis away from divisive issues social issues such as abortion and toward a more inclusive, pastoral style.

That mission is imperiled by his slow response to a scandal that some of his top advisers argue is the central issue facing the church.

For decades, the Vatican’s top officials covered up abuse. It took the explosion of the first sex abuse crisis in the United States in the early 2000s to get the church to pay attention. Pope Benedict XVI eventually began ridding the church of what he called the “filth” of abusive priests, but an attitude of denial pervaded in the Vatican, where many considered the scandal the invention of an aggressive and anti-Catholic media.

By the time Francis was elected in 2013, many officials had come to acknowledge the scandal for the global and institutional threat it was, though many more considered the problem solved by new vetting procedures.

Francis instead promised to tackle what many advocates consider the heart of the issue by insisting on accountability for the bishops in the hierarchy who covered up abuse. But talk of special tribunals for bishops and other tough, centralized measures evaporated, and advocates grew so disillusioned with pope’s lack of action that some quit his pontifical commissions in protest.

Francis, who this month apologized for the church’s “delayed” response to the crisis, himself came late to it. It was only in January, amid the uproar over his reflexively believing a Chilean bishop and his doubting of Chilean survivors, that Francis has begun to act more decisively, sending investigators, accepting resignations of top Chilean bishops and promising victims that there would be further measures.

But more cases of abuse and cover-up keep coming to light.

The more than 1,000 cases of abuse discovered over 70 years in Pennsylvania, the accusations against Theodore E. McCarrick, the former cardinal of Washington, and the cover-ups of abuse in Chile have all cast a pall over the pope’s busy schedule and the triennial world meeting.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington withdrew as the keynote speaker at the World Meeting of Families to face accusations that he covered up for abusive clergy when he was the bishop of Pittsburgh decades ago.

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, president of the Vatican’s Commission for the Protection of Minors, canceled an appearance to address accusations of widespread sexual impropriety at the seminary of his archdiocese and his failure to heed warnings about McCarrick.

In Ireland, the question is less whether Francis will broach sexual abuse — the Vatican has said he will meet with abuse survivors, and he is certain to address the issue — than whether he will take new action.

Expectations are high among sex abuse survivors and their advocates that the pope will find time in his 36 hours in the country to announce historic measures that would show, rather than promise, that the church is serious about the issue.

Before the trip, Francis made it clear that he viewed the secrecy, ambition and self-preservation that came with a culture of clericalism — priests putting themselves above their parishioners — as the root cause of the crime. For years, he has scorned priests who raise themselves as unreachable elites invested with authority, infantilizing laymen in a vicious cycle.

“To say ‘no’ to abuse is to say an emphatic ‘no’ to all forms of clericalism,” Francis wrote in a remarkable letter of apology to all Catholics last week.

“The actions of the church do not match the words,” Marie Collins, a former member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors said at the world meeting’s panel on safeguarding children. “And in fact they are totally opposite.”

She called the pope’s speech “disappointing — nothing new.”

Others said the situation was even worse outside the United States, Ireland and a few other countries and urged the pope to do something.

“Words are sweet,” said another panelist, Gabriel Dy-Liacco, a Filipino psychologist who sits on the pope’s commission, “but love means deeds.”

On Saturday, Varadkar, speaking on stage feet from the pope, gave the forceful criticism of the church’s sins that many wish the pope would deliver.

“In place of Christian charity, forgiveness and compassion, far too often there was judgment, severity and cruelty, in particular, towards women and children and those on the margins,” he said, citing “stains” such as child abuse, illegal adoptions, forced labor and other sins. “People kept in dark corners, behind closed doors, cries for help that went unheard.”

He continued, “Holy Father, we ask that you use your office and influence to ensure this is done here in Ireland and also around the world,” recalling the pope had called for zero tolerance against child abusers.

Advocates, church officials and some clerics have articulated a wish list of what should happen. Among the demands are that each church diocese publish the names of abusive priests and hand over church records to civil law enforcement instead of fighting subpoenas.

Some have urged working with courts to aid, rather than hinder, prosecutions of abusive priests and ceasing efforts to indemnify the church from financial penalties. Others have called for enshrining zero-tolerance policies into the church’s canon law so it can be enforced globally, not only in specific countries.

As the sex abuse scandal exploded once again before the pope’s trip, a fierce debate about those contributing factors raged in Catholic journals and across churches.

But the one factor many seemed to agree on is that clericalism, from the seminaries to the top of the hierarchy, is insidious.

On Friday in Dublin, Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, who has blamed a “clerical culture” for the abuse, began a panel he moderated on “The Dignity and Beauty of Sexual Love: Finding New Language for Ancient Truths,” by lamenting “the woeful responses of bishops who failed to protect” abuse survivors.

Ireland knows the ravages of clericalism first hand, from its sex abuse scandals to forcing the adoption of the children of unwed mothers to many other exploitations of what was for decades authoritarian power.

The abuses the clergy committed, and their tendency to seek exaltation by parishioners instead of humbly serving and accompanying them through troubles cost the church a country where it once had more than 90 percent attendance at mass. Now it has about 30 percent.

But if Francis decides to make a bold policy change to protect his surviving flock around the world from the same threat, Ireland gives him a compelling backdrop from which to do so.

“It is my hope,” the pope said Saturday, “that the gravity of the abuse scandals, which have cast light on the failings of many, will serve to emphasize the importance of the protection of minors and vulnerable adults on the part of society as a whole.”

On Saturday afternoon, Tony Kelly, 58, a bar manager in Dublin, who waited outside the St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral for Francis, said he had watched the pope’s speech at Dublin Castle on television and found his apology sincere.

But, he said, “people are looking more for actions rather than words.”

The Irish church, he said, had suffered the consequences of “living in the past” and breaking its trust with the faithful through abuse.

“There was a lot of negativity, a lot of cover up, and they tended to protect themselves,” he said.

But Kelly said he hoped the pope would take everything he heard back with him to Rome and spur him to do something to protect children in other churches around the world.

“Maybe this country could lead the way in certain respects,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Jason Horowitz © 2018 The New York Times

source http://www.newssplashy.com/2018/08/world-in-ireland-pope-finds-country.html

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He’ll be back: why old age can’t stop Arnold Schwarzenegger down

The man they call the Austrian Oak has wielded a sword, a shotgun and a governors pen. But as he turns 70, is time finally catching up with Arnie?

All his life, Arnold Schwarzenegger has embodied dominance. Mr Olympia, Conan the Barbarian, the Terminator, the Governator on screen or on a podium he was the biggest, the strongest, the mightiest. Whether wielding a sword, a shotgun or a governors pen, as a film character or himself, he exulted in success in victory.

Crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of the women. Ill be back. If they dont have the guts, I call them girlie men. He was, and seemingly always would be, the Austrian Oak.

A preternatural degree of confidence, focus and ambition propelled him from the forest village of Thal to triumph in bodybuilding, Hollywood and US politics. The accent and a name once deemed unpronounceable did nothing to slow him. Even the jokes, such as Clive James comparing him to a brown condom full of walnuts, only bolstered the mystique.

But as Schwarzenegger approaches his 70th birthday on Sunday he confronts a relentless, insidious foe not even he can vanquish: time. Schwarzenegger, after all, is human. And the clock, unlike alien predators and rival cyborgs from the future, cannot be stopped. As it ticks, his supremacy ebbs.

He just wants to be number one, in whatever context. He would do anything to sustain it. But the ageing process … its never welcome, said Barbara Outland Baker, a former girlfriend. I think deep inside him there is some discomfort: What am I supposed to do with this journey? I only want to be number one. If not number one, what am I supposed to do?

Schwarzenegger remains famous, popular and busy manically busy. Early mornings you can spot him in Santa Monica, belting up Ocean Avenue on his bicycle, flying through red lights for his cardio. He still pumps iron, acts, travels and champions political candidates and causes.

He is like a Terminator machine in terms of ceaseless going, going, going, striving, striving, striving, said Bonnie Reiss, global director of an institute that bears his name at the University of Southern California.

Striving, but no longer conquering. Schwarzeneggers recent films have fizzled at the box office. He stumped in vain for John Kasich in last years Republican primaries. Chatter of him running for Senate or mounting some type of political comeback has faded. The former action hero who ran California is no longer number one.

He has invested his remaining political capital in the worthy if arcane issue of redistricing reform – curbing the gerrymandering which bedevils local and state elections and fuels partisanship. He is ginning up money and attention for a case which will reach the Supreme Court in October.

Hes a gadfly. He doesnt really have much of a constituency in the Republican party, said Jack Pitney, a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College. California Republicans dont talk about him any more. Hes essentially a non-person.

Schwarzenegger used to be political royalty. He married Maria Shriver, John F Kennedys niece, and as an outsized GOP outsider brushed off sexual harassment allegations dubbed gropegate and won Californias governorship in 2003.

It was a rocky tenure. He mocked Democratic opponents as girlie men, clashed with unions and other powerful interest groups and watched the recession ignite a fiscal crisis. He averted meltdown and won re-election by rebooting his administration, moving to the political centre and grinding out legislative gains. Upon leaving office in 2011 he tainted his legacy by commuting the jail sentence of the son of a political ally. His divorce from Shriver amid revelations of an affair and secret son with their housekeeper further dented his reputation.

For all his political accomplishments he mobilised California in the fight against climate change the loss of executive clout must hurt, said Outland Baker. He really likes fame and power and the movie industry cant provide the same level of real fulfillment, she said. Their relationship ended in 1974 but they remained in touch and he gave an interview for her 2006 memoir, Arnold and Me: In the Shadow of the Austrian Oak.

Schwarzenegger, who became a US citizen in 1983, dreamed of the White House. But an effort to amend the constitution, the so-called Arnold amendment, failed to lift the ban on foreign-born candidates. A huge blow, said Outland Baker: You want to be the best, the top, if youre Arnold. If he could run, he would try.

The ascent of another celebrity-turned-GOP politician to the Oval Office, however, has conjured an unexpected role, one with a global spotlight and rapt audience: needler of Donald Trump.

The two used to be on good terms but Trumps rise triggered a feud. It erupts in slug and counter-slug every few weeks. The president branded Schwarzenegger a total disaster and pathetic as host of Celebrity Apprentice, which he used to host himself. He told a national prayer breakfast gathering: I want to just pray for Arnold … for those ratings.

Schwarzenegger has swung back with gusto. Hey Donald, I have a great idea, he said in a video posted on social media. Why dont we switch jobs? You take over TV because youre such an expert on ratings and I take over your job and then people can finally sleep comfortably again. When Trumps approval ratings sank he gloated: The ratings are in, and you got swamped.

Speculation abounds over Trumps motivation for the trolling.

A competition with someone he thinks is worthy of being an opponent, suggested Joel Fox, a tax policy consultant who collaborated with the Governator. I think he finds Schwarzenegger threatening because he has this deep insecurity about his manhood, said Pitney, the analyst.

Photograph: Allstar/ORION PICTURES

Whatever the reason, the Terminator star has become a subtle irritant and agent provocateur to the worlds most powerful man, said Michael Blitz, co-author a 2004 biography titled Why Arnold Matters: The Rise of a Cultural Icon. Arnold may not be able to pump much iron anymore but he remains a persistent virtuoso of pumping irony into the bizarre state of American politics. He is the has-been who still is.

Schwarzenegger is well equipped for battle in this nexus of politics and celebrity, said Reiss, of the Schwarzenegger Institute. Trash-talking and head psyching was part of the bodybuilding world, she said. The future governor honed his taunting skills against a bodybuilding rival, Lou Ferrigno, the future Incredible Hulk, in the 1977 documentary Pumping Iron.

Trump and Schwarzenegger convert the feud into publicity, said Outland Baker: They have enough in common that they probably understand the psyche of each other better than the rest of us.

Schwarzenegger had more to gain, said Fox, the policy consultant. If the president wants to engage with Arnold, its advantage Arnold. The former governor has used the attention to spotlight climate change and an after-school programme, both causes close to his heart.

Trump-trolling aside, Schwarzenegger works hard to sustain his brand against the ravage of time. It conspires to downsize him, literally: his official height, 6ft2in, has been disputed over the years by doubters who claim he is closer to 5ft10in.

He still works out at Golds gym in Venice, trundles around Los Angeles in his (biodiesel) Hummer and travels widely to promote climate change measures, bodybuilding contests and movies.

The bankable star of action flicks such as Predator, Commando and Total Recall, and comedies such as Twins and Kindergarten Cop is long gone. Recent action outings such as The Last Stand, Escape Plan and Sabotage misfired. Pivoting to smaller, quieter films Maggie, Aftermath won over some critics (Arnie can act!) but audiences stayed away. He plays a hitman in the upcoming comedy Why Were Killing Gunther.

Schwarzenegger still brings stardust and policy mastery to events promoting the environment, bipartisanship, voting reform and youth programmes. France recently recognised his climate change efforts with the Legion dHonneur.

A packed, rewarding life for most mortals but Arnie? The meaning of life, he one said, was not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.

The post He’ll be back: why old age can’t stop Arnold Schwarzenegger down appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

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New Post has been published on OmCik

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Jamie Dimon ventures beyond Wall Street to have a say in Washington

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon is starting to look like Corporate America’s shadow president.

The 61-year-old banker has made more than a dozen trips to Washington so far this year to press a broad agenda with a range of influential policymakers, people who attended the meetings or are familiar with his schedule said. Dimon has already visited the nation’s capital four times as much as he does in a typical year.

His ramped-up presence comes after taking the helm of the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group that represents CEOs of large U.S. companies, in December.

“We couldn’t ask for a more engaged or more effective Business Roundtable chair,” said Joshua Bolten, former chief of staff for President George W. Bush, whom Dimon installed as the organization’s president and CEO.

The frequency of his trips, and the wide range of policies he has been discussing, have started chatter among power brokers in Washington and on Wall Street about how much energy Dimon is devoting to issues beyond JPMorgan.

At times, they said, Dimon carries himself more like someone running the country than someone running a bank.

“If you’re Jamie Dimon, you’ve always had access,” said Tim Pawlenty, CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable, a Wall Street trade group. “The difference is, now he wants it. He wants to play a role in policy more broadly than just representing his company.”

Dimon has said in the past that the only big job he would want would be U.S. president, but also said running for office would be impractical. Associates told Reuters he has abandoned the idea entirely, and only became more active in Washington because he was worried about his bank, the economy and the future of the country.

A JPMorgan spokesman declined to comment or make Dimon available for an interview. Reuters spoke to over a dozen people who have interacted with Dimon in Washington or were briefed on his meetings. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss his activities.

Those who have met Dimon recently include Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown and Mark Warner, Rep. Patrick McHenry, who is a member of House Republican leadership, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

FAMILIAR SIGHT

He was around so much during the summer that Washington regulars said it was no longer surprising to see Dimon pop out of the Capitol Hill subway system or leave a lawmaker’s office. He has joked with staff about getting a condominium in Washington because of how often he travels there, one person said.

Although Dimon’s meetings typically center on topics like tax reform or financial rules, he is not shy about weighing in on issues ranging from immigration to education and criminal justice reform, those familiar with the discussions said.

FILE PHOTO: Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 1, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

In meetings, he has been using an app he asked Business Roundtable staff to build. It allows member CEOs to show how many voters in a district work for their companies, and how many facilities the companies have there, to persuade lawmakers that their priorities are aligned.

During his interactions with lawmakers, Dimon can be brash and expresses annoyance with Congress’s inability to advance legislation, people who attended the meetings said.

Sometimes he would show his lighter side.

One day in July, Dimon spotted his Democratic Senator Richard Durbin, an old foe who championed a rule that slashed debit card fees and which Dimon has called “downright idiotic.”

Durbin was withdrawing money from a non-Chase ATM when Dimon approached from behind and quipped: “We welcome competition.”

A Durbin representative confirmed the interaction, first described by a Politico reporter in a tweet, took place but declined to elaborate.

Those who have followed Dimon through his career are not surprised that the straight-talking New York banker has become even more outspoken during Donald Trump’s presidency.

Associates say he has been shocked by some of Trump’s actions, such as abandoning the Paris climate accord, threats to tear up free trade deals, a call for a ban of transgender people from the military and ending a program that protects people who were brought into the United States illegally as children from deportation.

Dimon is not the only corporate boss venturing outside his usual terrain. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) CEO Lloyd Blankfein has criticized Trump in tweets, while others including Apple Inc CEO (AAPL.O) Tim Cook and Merck & Co (MRK.N) CEO Ken Frazier have condemned the president’s actions in public statements.

But Dimon, who often refers to himself as a “patriot,” differs in tone and demeanor, sources said.

The table of contents for his April letter to shareholders includes categories such as “The United States of America is truly an exceptional country,” and devoted more space to public policy prescriptions than in prior years.

After Trump said “both sides” were to blame for the violence between white supremacists and left-wing protesters in Virginia, Dimon offered unsolicited advice on how a president should carry himself.

“It is a leader’s role, in business or government, to bring people together, not tear them apart,” he wrote in an employee memo.

(The story changes headline to clarify Dimon is not leaving his bank)

Reporting by Pete Schroeder in Washington and David Henry in New York; Additional reporting by Patrick Rucker in Washington and Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Tomasz Janowski

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[anchorarcade]

Jamie Dimon ventures beyond Wall Street to have a say in Washington

http://ryanguillory.com/jamie-dimon-ventures-beyond-wall-street-to-have-a-say-in-washington/

Jamie Dimon ventures beyond Wall Street to have a say in Washington

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon is starting to look like Corporate America’s shadow president.

The 61-year-old banker has made more than a dozen trips to Washington so far this year to press a broad agenda with a range of influential policymakers, people who attended the meetings or are familiar with his schedule said. Dimon has already visited the nation’s capital four times as much as he does in a typical year.

His ramped-up presence comes after taking the helm of the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group that represents CEOs of large U.S. companies, in December.

“We couldn’t ask for a more engaged or more effective Business Roundtable chair,” said Joshua Bolten, former chief of staff for President George W. Bush, whom Dimon installed as the organization’s president and CEO.

The frequency of his trips, and the wide range of policies he has been discussing, have started chatter among power brokers in Washington and on Wall Street about how much energy Dimon is devoting to issues beyond JPMorgan.

At times, they said, Dimon carries himself more like someone running the country than someone running a bank.

“If you’re Jamie Dimon, you’ve always had access,” said Tim Pawlenty, CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable, a Wall Street trade group. “The difference is, now he wants it. He wants to play a role in policy more broadly than just representing his company.”

Dimon has said in the past that the only big job he would want would be U.S. president, but also said running for office would be impractical. Associates told Reuters he has abandoned the idea entirely, and only became more active in Washington because he was worried about his bank, the economy and the future of the country.

A JPMorgan spokesman declined to comment or make Dimon available for an interview. Reuters spoke to over a dozen people who have interacted with Dimon in Washington or were briefed on his meetings. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss his activities.

Those who have met Dimon recently include Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown and Mark Warner, Rep. Patrick McHenry, who is a member of House Republican leadership, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

FAMILIAR SIGHT

He was around so much during the summer that Washington regulars said it was no longer surprising to see Dimon pop out of the Capitol Hill subway system or leave a lawmaker’s office. He has joked with staff about getting a condominium in Washington because of how often he travels there, one person said.

Although Dimon’s meetings typically center on topics like tax reform or financial rules, he is not shy about weighing in on issues ranging from immigration to education and criminal justice reform, those familiar with the discussions said.

FILE PHOTO: Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 1, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

In meetings, he has been using an app he asked Business Roundtable staff to build. It allows member CEOs to show how many voters in a district work for their companies, and how many facilities the companies have there, to persuade lawmakers that their priorities are aligned.

During his interactions with lawmakers, Dimon can be brash and expresses annoyance with Congress’s inability to advance legislation, people who attended the meetings said.

Sometimes he would show his lighter side.

One day in July, Dimon spotted his Democratic Senator Richard Durbin, an old foe who championed a rule that slashed debit card fees and which Dimon has called “downright idiotic.”

Durbin was withdrawing money from a non-Chase ATM when Dimon approached from behind and quipped: “We welcome competition.”

A Durbin representative confirmed the interaction, first described by a Politico reporter in a tweet, took place but declined to elaborate.

Those who have followed Dimon through his career are not surprised that the straight-talking New York banker has become even more outspoken during Donald Trump’s presidency.

Associates say he has been shocked by some of Trump’s actions, such as abandoning the Paris climate accord, threats to tear up free trade deals, a call for a ban of transgender people from the military and ending a program that protects people who were brought into the United States illegally as children from deportation.

Dimon is not the only corporate boss venturing outside his usual terrain. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) CEO Lloyd Blankfein has criticized Trump in tweets, while others including Apple Inc CEO (AAPL.O) Tim Cook and Merck & Co (MRK.N) CEO Ken Frazier have condemned the president’s actions in public statements.

But Dimon, who often refers to himself as a “patriot,” differs in tone and demeanor, sources said.

The table of contents for his April letter to shareholders includes categories such as “The United States of America is truly an exceptional country,” and devoted more space to public policy prescriptions than in prior years.

After Trump said “both sides” were to blame for the violence between white supremacists and left-wing protesters in Virginia, Dimon offered unsolicited advice on how a president should carry himself.

“It is a leader’s role, in business or government, to bring people together, not tear them apart,” he wrote in an employee memo.

(The story changes headline to clarify Dimon is not leaving his bank)

Reporting by Pete Schroeder in Washington and David Henry in New York; Additional reporting by Patrick Rucker in Washington and Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Tomasz Janowski

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Jamie Dimon ventures beyond Wall Street to have a say in Washington

http://ryanguillory.com/jamie-dimon-ventures-beyond-wall-street-to-have-a-say-in-washington/

Jamie Dimon ventures beyond Wall Street to have a say in Washington

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon is starting to look like Corporate America’s shadow president.

The 61-year-old banker has made more than a dozen trips to Washington so far this year to press a broad agenda with a range of influential policymakers, people who attended the meetings or are familiar with his schedule said. Dimon has already visited the nation’s capital four times as much as he does in a typical year.

His ramped-up presence comes after taking the helm of the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group that represents CEOs of large U.S. companies, in December.

“We couldn’t ask for a more engaged or more effective Business Roundtable chair,” said Joshua Bolten, former chief of staff for President George W. Bush, whom Dimon installed as the organization’s president and CEO.

The frequency of his trips, and the wide range of policies he has been discussing, have started chatter among power brokers in Washington and on Wall Street about how much energy Dimon is devoting to issues beyond JPMorgan.

At times, they said, Dimon carries himself more like someone running the country than someone running a bank.

“If you’re Jamie Dimon, you’ve always had access,” said Tim Pawlenty, CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable, a Wall Street trade group. “The difference is, now he wants it. He wants to play a role in policy more broadly than just representing his company.”

Dimon has said in the past that the only big job he would want would be U.S. president, but also said running for office would be impractical. Associates told Reuters he has abandoned the idea entirely, and only became more active in Washington because he was worried about his bank, the economy and the future of the country.

A JPMorgan spokesman declined to comment or make Dimon available for an interview. Reuters spoke to over a dozen people who have interacted with Dimon in Washington or were briefed on his meetings. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss his activities.

Those who have met Dimon recently include Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown and Mark Warner, Rep. Patrick McHenry, who is a member of House Republican leadership, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

FAMILIAR SIGHT

He was around so much during the summer that Washington regulars said it was no longer surprising to see Dimon pop out of the Capitol Hill subway system or leave a lawmaker’s office. He has joked with staff about getting a condominium in Washington because of how often he travels there, one person said.

Although Dimon’s meetings typically center on topics like tax reform or financial rules, he is not shy about weighing in on issues ranging from immigration to education and criminal justice reform, those familiar with the discussions said.

FILE PHOTO: Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 1, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

In meetings, he has been using an app he asked Business Roundtable staff to build. It allows member CEOs to show how many voters in a district work for their companies, and how many facilities the companies have there, to persuade lawmakers that their priorities are aligned.

During his interactions with lawmakers, Dimon can be brash and expresses annoyance with Congress’s inability to advance legislation, people who attended the meetings said.

Sometimes he would show his lighter side.

One day in July, Dimon spotted his Democratic Senator Richard Durbin, an old foe who championed a rule that slashed debit card fees and which Dimon has called “downright idiotic.”

Durbin was withdrawing money from a non-Chase ATM when Dimon approached from behind and quipped: “We welcome competition.”

A Durbin representative confirmed the interaction, first described by a Politico reporter in a tweet, took place but declined to elaborate.

Those who have followed Dimon through his career are not surprised that the straight-talking New York banker has become even more outspoken during Donald Trump’s presidency.

Associates say he has been shocked by some of Trump’s actions, such as abandoning the Paris climate accord, threats to tear up free trade deals, a call for a ban of transgender people from the military and ending a program that protects people who were brought into the United States illegally as children from deportation.

Dimon is not the only corporate boss venturing outside his usual terrain. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) CEO Lloyd Blankfein has criticized Trump in tweets, while others including Apple Inc CEO (AAPL.O) Tim Cook and Merck & Co (MRK.N) CEO Ken Frazier have condemned the president’s actions in public statements.

But Dimon, who often refers to himself as a “patriot,” differs in tone and demeanor, sources said.

The table of contents for his April letter to shareholders includes categories such as “The United States of America is truly an exceptional country,” and devoted more space to public policy prescriptions than in prior years.

After Trump said “both sides” were to blame for the violence between white supremacists and left-wing protesters in Virginia, Dimon offered unsolicited advice on how a president should carry himself.

“It is a leader’s role, in business or government, to bring people together, not tear them apart,” he wrote in an employee memo.

(The story changes headline to clarify Dimon is not leaving his bank)

Reporting by Pete Schroeder in Washington and David Henry in New York; Additional reporting by Patrick Rucker in Washington and Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Tomasz Janowski

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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