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Creatively Blocked? These 20 Founders Share Their Most Effective Strategies.

5/31/2017

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Creatively Blocked? These 20 Founders Share Their Most Effective Strategies.

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Here's how to get your mind moving again.



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May 31, 2017 at 03:08AM
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America's largest group of unions thinks it knows why US wages arent rising

5/31/2017

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America's largest group of unions thinks it knows why US wages aren’t rising

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american flagBrian Snyder/Reuters

Economists and top Federal Reserve officials often admit to being puzzled by low inflation and stagnant US incomes, even in the face of a rapidly falling unemployment rate that, at 4.4% in April, is close to its historic lows.

Here’s Fed Board Governor Lael Brainard in a May 30 speech: "There is little indication of an outbreak of inflation — rather, the latest data on inflation have been lower than expected. If anything, the puzzle today is why inflation appears to be slowing at a time when most forecasters place the economy at or near full employment." 

But William Spriggs, economist at the AFL-CIO and a professor at Howard University, isn’t surprised one bit.

"Economists seem puzzled that the unemployment rate is what appears to be a very low number and wage pressures are very low," he said during a recent panel at a conference sponsored by the Minneapolis Fed. "I think is less puzzling to labor economists than it is to macroeconomists — we think macroeconomists have not been reading our literature."

Spriggs’ theory, which bares out in practice, speaks to the age-old labor market adage: it’s not about what you know but who you know. Specifically, Spriggs argues that macroeconomic theory, which focuses on the relationship between inflation and unemployment and informs the Federal Reserve’s thinking on interest rate policy, disregards the importance of job networks in helping young workers direct their careers, and older ones to maintain them.

Moreover, he says, race and geography play a huge role in setting, and in some cases limiting, people’s opportunities.

“For most of the Great Recession, the unemployment rate for a white high school drop out was lower than for all blacks unless you had a college degree. That’s the extent of this gap,” he said.

Spriggs said the trend is especially acute among African-Americans but also applies to areas like Appalachia and inland California, which are plagued by low-wage labor and disconnected from larger companies and economic networks.

There’s still lots of slack in the labor market," he said.

As unemployment keeps falling, "this is the region where those who have ineffective job markets kick in. We don’t get wage pressures. So in fact the black unemployment rate can continue to fall."

From the audience, Dennis Lockhart, former president of the Atlanta Fed, had a question for Spriggs about the effects of outsourcing on wages:

"There’s an argument out there that relationship between wages and unemployment is driven by global effects of capacity around the world and therefore the reason wages have not responded is that in many industries, employers have options in sourcing, they can source offshore. What’s your thinking on that?"

"I definitely agree that is a huge source of pressures," Spriggs responded. "In the unionized sector it is a real threat and it dampens collective bargaining. So models that envision forward-looking labor contracts that will get you escalating wage pressures? Not going to happen. That’s part of the reason I just don’t think it’s quite possible to replicate the stagflation of the late 1970s, early 1980s. I don’t think that’s possible. Because 6% of the private sector is unionized and that 6% is highly constrained by this phenomenon. And it’s real."

So when the economy gets closer to full employment, Spriggs says, "you’re not going to see wage pressures you’re just going to see the deepening of these job networks and regions and groups that have been left out will just get better job networks. And it doesn’t produce wage pressures it’s just that these networks will be more effective."

That’s an unusually hopeful note given so many economists and officials appear to have given up on the very notion of stronger growth and a more prosperous job market.

NOW WATCH: 9 phrases on your résumé that make hiring managers cringe

See Also:

  • 50 must-have tech accessories under $50
  • The first thing to cut out of your diet if you're trying to lose weight, according to a nutritionist
  • There's one thing that can stop the deepest recession in Brazil's history

SEE ALSO: Economists are puzzled about why incomes aren’t rising — but workers have a good hunch





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May 31, 2017 at 03:06AM
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Legacy banks don't have the IT to fight financial crime

5/31/2017

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Legacy banks don't have the IT to fight financial crime

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Technology vs Financial CrimeBI Intelligence

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "Fintech Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here.

Amid increased security breaches and financial crime at incumbent banks, security has become a paramount concern for these organizations. However, it's rapidly becoming clear that banks won't be able to shore up their defenses until they tackle the vulnerabilities caused by outdated technology.

Ever-evolving financial crime methods are the single biggest concern for UK banks, at 44%, according to a new survey of 168 UK banking members by LexisNexis and the British Banking Association (BBA). At the same time, the study found, 92% of respondents are concerned that their organizations' legacy technology will become an obstacle to combating financial crime in the next one to two years. This means that only 39% of banks feel ready to protect themselves against criminal threats specific to cybercrime.

Respondents cited specific technological obstacles to fighting financial crime caused by legacy systems:

  • 41% of respondents said they're worried their legacy systems can't respond in a timely manner to new forms of financial crime as they arise. This is probably because most banking systems in the UK were installed between 25 and 40 years ago, and are highly inefficient at processing data in real time. In addition, these systems were designed to deal with much smaller data volumes.
  • Moreover, 53% of respondents said they were frustrated by the difficulty of transferring data between their multiple, disconnected systems. This is likely down to the siloed nature of current systems, which segregate data according to specific banking divisions, making it hard to derive a higher-level picture of many factors including the bank's own risk profile.

An inability to fight financial crime is just one side effect of a more fundamental problem for banks. In a digital economy increasingly centered on data handling, dealing effectively with financial crime means being able to analyze data accurately, and in real time, to garner actionable insights. However, even in the face of such high concern about inadequate financial crime defenses, only a small number of banks have begun the process of replacing their legacy technology with new systems designed for a modern banking environment. Most banks have been deterred due to the expense, duration, and operational risk such overhauls entail. As cybercrime becomes more sophisticated, banks will have to make a call about whether continuity or the security of their systems is a higher priority in the long term.

Open banking is the democratization of access to data previously exclusively owned by legacy financial institutions. 

The open banking trend is being driven by a number of factors and will ultimately become the norm. That means retail banks need to rethink their business and operational models if they want to maintain the positions of dominance in the financial ecosystem. 

Sarah Kocianski, senior research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on open banking that explores the drivers behind open banking in detail, outlines the options for banks as they look to update their business and operational models, and explains the likely potential winners and losers of open banking.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

  • Open banking is most often facilitated by a technology known as Application Program Interfaces (APIs) which have enabled the business models and success of some of the most well known startups of recent times. 
  • There are a number of drivers behind the open banking trend, the most obvious of which is regulation that forces banks to give customers access to their data, or enable permissioned third parties to access their data. 
  • Banks adopting open banking are taking a number of different approaches, from just taking the necessary steps to comply with regulation, to actively embracing the concept in an effort to maintain their retail banking dominance.
  • Banks are using different models of open banking, including app stores and sandboxes. Which model, or combination of models, a bank adopts depends on its priorities and the drivers it finds most imperative. 
  • Open banking will have a significant impact on fintechs. With access to banks' systems and vast data stores, fintechs will be able to provide more personalized products, while operating with greater autonomy. However, open banking will also increase fintechs' regulatory and cybersecurity burdens. 

 In full, the report:

  • Explains the concept and mechanics of open banking. 
  • Outlines the drivers behind its increasing adoption by global retail banks. 
  • Highlights the different approaches banks are taking to open banking, and explores the advantages and disadvantages of each.
  • Explores the future of open banking, including its impact on fintechs. 

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

  1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
  2. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now

See Also:

  • THE FINTECH PROFITABILITY REPORT: Why fintechs are struggling to turn a profit, and the hurdles they must overcome to see success
  • Fintech could be bigger than ATMs, PayPal, and Bitcoin combined
  • The fintech ecosystem explained




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May 31, 2017 at 03:06AM
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4 Lessons from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"

5/31/2017

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4 Lessons from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"

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The famous lyrics from "The Time Warp," the dance ditty from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," include a neat trick for unleashing innovation: by getting out of your everyday habits you can spur diversity in your business, and that can lead to innovation.

Most companies understand the critical link between diversity and innovation, but too often when they work to increase diversity, they focus solely on the makeup of their workforce.

But there is also a lot of untapped potential in expanding the diversity of a creative teams' experiences.

Here are a few practical steps for revving up all aspects of your team's diversity:

1. Search laterally for inspiration (jump to the left)

In the Olympics, when athletic apparel makers were looking to help American swimmers become faster, they took inspiration from some of the best swimmers there are--sharks. A shark's skin has V-shaped scales, called dermal denticles. These cut drag and turbulence, allowing the shark to swim faster. That the shark-inspired suits were promptly banned from international competition only demonstrates how smart the apparel scientists were to do some lateral searching.

This notion of searching for inspiration in a field outside of where you commonly look is powerful. Edward deBono, a doctor and consultant, is famous for promoting the idea of lateral thinking, of training yourself to consider many alternative approaches to a challenge rather than searching for the "right" one.

The jolt of discovery happens to all of us. If you take the same way to work every day, lulled by the routine, you don't look around. But the moment you explore a different road, the novelty makes you think slightly differently.

2. Expose your teams to new thinking (and then a step to the right)

At AARP, one team created a program called Creative Mayhem. It's all about going out and experiencing really new stuff for a couple of days to get your brain thinking creatively. Employees bring back those new insights to see how they might apply them internally.

For instance, a group of AARP employees recently met with curators at the American Portrait Gallery. Their goal was to see how the museum curates art and how the experts bring exhibits to life for their patrons. Our employees, who put together research studies and policy papers, knew they could learn how to better package their materials to drive understanding and action from our members by using some of these methods.

3. Reconsider the everyday for inspiration (with your hands on your hips)

Once you adopt a little lateral thinking, the everyday becomes inspirational. You probably know the story about the invention of Velcro. After a hike one day with his dog, a Swiss scientist removing the burrs that always got stuck to his jacket took a moment and stopped to think about what it was that made them so sticky.

A new baby bassinette from Ford is a modern day version of taking a second look. As many of us know, most babies love cars. Driving through neighborhoods for hours to get a fussy newborn to sleep is almost a right of passage as a parent. But maybe not forever. Ford's sleek bassinette, a prototype dubbed the Max Motor Dreams, is designed to simulate the sounds and motions of a moving car. It's even lined with lights that blink on and off, mimicking the effect of passing under streetlights.

4. Invite in outsiders (you bring your knees in tight)

I never tackle an innovation project at AARP without bringing in a cross-matrix team of people from our foundation, our for-profit, and our non-profit groups of our organization. In fact, I'd prefer that some of the people I bring in have nothing to do with the issue I'm trying to solve. You need different minds to help prompt new approaches.

Practically, that means having one or two people who are experts about what you're trying to hunt around, one or two people who can design the platforms you're trying to create, and then one or two wildcards who have nothing to do with what you are trying to solve, they just bring their life experiences to the table.

So while it's important for organizations to diversify the people within their organizations, it's just as essential to diversify the experiences of that workforce in order to make innovation work. You can't really have one without the other.





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via Inc.com https://www.inc.com/

May 31, 2017 at 03:00AM
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This Is One Life-Saving Advantage Self-Driving Cars Have Over Humans

5/31/2017

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This Is One Life-Saving Advantage Self-Driving Cars Have Over Humans

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When I was 15 and on the verge of obtaining my driver's license, my mother enrolled me and my 13-year-old brother in a defensive driving course.

It was a course that young traffic offenders had to take to fulfill the requirements of their sentence.

My brother and I hadn't committed any traffic offenses (not yet, at least). We couldn't even drive then. My mother just wanted to drill the basics of safe driving into our young brains (and give us a good scare as well -- our instructor showed us several graphic photographs of horrible accidents to drive her points home).

Besides learning the importance of wearing my seatbelt at all times, and practical tactics for making me a safer driver, the most powerful lesson I took from that course was how alcohol can impair your ability to drive, and the potentially tragic consequences of driving while under the influence. This was the early 1980s, a time when the US was experiencing a severe epidemic of injuries and deaths due to drunk driving accidents.

While it remains the cause of too many casualties on our roads today, drunk driving has been replaced by an equally vexing and tragic trend: texting and driving.

The National Safety Council estimates that in 2013, at least 341,000 crashes (and possibly up to 910,000 crashes) were attributable to drivers who were texting. A staggering 49% of drivers admit to texting and driving even though they know the practice is unsafe.

The issue became a personal one when, a few years ago, my father had a close call with a teen who appeared to have been texting and driving. He rammed into the trailer that was carrying my dad's boat. If the teen had been driving just a split-second faster --or my father had been driving a split-second slower --the teen would probably have hit the driver's side of the truck where my father sat.

My father was fortunately unharmed in the accident. But far too many people have not been as lucky as a result of irresponsible drivers who decided to steal a quick glance at the latest incoming messages on their phone, or their social media notifications, rather than pay attention to the road.

It's partly due to this incident that I've been closely following developments in self-driving cars. I've watched how the fledgling industry has taken off in the past year, with advances in technology and major moves by industry players announced on a nearly weekly basis.

There are still enormous technological and regulatory hurdles that Tesla, Google, Apple, and other prospective makers of self-driving cars need to tackle in the coming years.

But while it's still hard for me to imagine trusting my life to a computer, there is one advantage that self-driving cars will have over human-operated vehicles: they won't text and drive.

A version of this article also appeared on LinkedIn.





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May 31, 2017 at 03:00AM
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Marc Andreessen: America Is Moving Too Slowly

5/31/2017

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Marc Andreessen: America Is Moving Too Slowly

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The world needs to change faster, Marc Andreessen said at the Code Conference Tuesday, in a conversation with LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman and journalist Kara Swisher. Andreessen said that most people's worries about the future, stoked by media coverage, have U.S. economic problems backward. People shouldn't be worried about robots taking all the jobs; instead, they should be looking to accelerate that switch so that society can quickly attain the next phase of growth.

Andreessen said that he divides the economy into fast sectors and slow sectors. Fast sectors are the ones being "eaten" by software, per his famous quote. Media and retail, for example, have been remade by the internet, and prices for consumers have plummeted. Andreessen sees transportation as another candidate, given the effects of ridesharing and soon self-driving cars. Slow sectors are trending in the opposite direction -- for example, health-care and construction costs are both going up.

"The price of all those things is rising super fast," he explained, referring to eldercare, childcare, healthcare, education, construction, and government. "Those are also the sectors that have almost no productivity growth, right, as measured by economists. And left unchecked, those sectors are basically just going to eat the economy."

VIDEO

Nevertheless, Andreessen sounded quite optimistic, as befits a venture capitalist who constantly makes bets on a transformed future. "I think the opportunity and the challenge is for the tech industry and Silicon Valley and all of us to go figure out how to have a much bigger impact in the slow-growth sectors of the economy."

Kara Swisher brought up the effect that automation may have on the number of jobs available to average people. "It's the lump-of-labor fallacy," Andreessen rejoined. "It's the Luddite fallacy. It's a recurring panic. This happens every 25, 50 years -- people get all amped up about 'machines are going to take all the jobs' and it never happens."

He gave the example of cars. When the automobile first debuted, it worried people whose livelihoods depending on caring for horses. But it turned out that manufacturing and maintaining cars created more jobs than it took away, while remaking American cities. Over time, "The car industry became such a huge employer that we had to bail out all the car companies to keep people working," Andreessen pointed out.

"We don't have enough change. We don't have enough creation of new jobs," he went on to say. "The reason our politics is going sideways is not 'cause there's too much change. It's 'cause there's not enough change...The way through that is not to slow down, the way through that is to speed up. The way through that is more change, more growth, more opportunity."





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May 31, 2017 at 03:00AM
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White House Official Says President Trump Is Expected to Pull Out of Paris Climate Accord

5/31/2017

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White House Official Says President Trump Is Expected to Pull Out of Paris Climate Accord

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President Donald Trump is expected to pull the United States from a landmark global climate agreement, a White House official said Wednesday, though there could be "caveats in the language" announcing a withdrawal, leaving open the possibility that his decision isn't final.

Exiting the deal would fulfill a central campaign pledge from the president, but would be certain to anger allies that spent years negotiating the accord to reduce carbon emissions.

The official insisted on anonymity in order to discuss the decision before the official announcement.

Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning: "I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

While Trump currently favors an exit, he has been known to change his thinking on major decisions and tends to seek counsel from a range of inside and outside advisers, many with differing agendas, until the last minute.

Trump's top aides have been divided on the accord. On Wednesday afternoon, Trump was to meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has favored remaining in the deal. Chief strategist Steve Bannon supports an exit, while senior adviser Jared Kushner generally thinks the deal is bad, but would like to find a way to see if the U.S. emissions targets can be changed.

Nearly 200 nations, including the United States under President Barack Obama's administration, agreed in 2015 to voluntarily reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to combat climate change. Withdrawing would leave the United States aligned only with Russia among the world's industrialized economies in rejecting action to combat climate change.

Trump pledged during his presidential campaign to withdraw the U.S. from the pact immediately after taking office, but had wavered on the issue since winning the election.

During Trump's overseas trip last week, European leaders pressed him to keep the U.S. in the pact. French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Trump at length about the issue during a meeting in Brussels, and even at the Vatican, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin made his own pro-Paris pitch to Trump and his advisers.

News of Trump's expected decision drew swift reaction from the United Nations. The organization's main Twitter page quoted Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as saying, "Climate change is undeniable. Climate change is unstoppable. Climate solutions provide opportunities that are unmatchable."

The Sierra Club's executive director, Michael Brune, called the expected move a "historic mistake which our grandchildren will look back on with stunned dismay at how a world leader could be so divorced from reality and morality."

Trump claimed before taking office that climate change was a "hoax" created by the Chinese to hurt the U.S. economy. Such an assertion stands in defiance of broad scientific consensus.

But Trump's chief White House economic adviser, Gary Cohn, told reporters during the trip abroad that Trump's views on climate change were "evolving" following the president's discussions with European leaders.

Word of Trump's expected decision comes a day after the president met with Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Like his boss, Pruitt has questioned the consensus of climate scientists that the Earth is warming and that man-made climate emissions are to blame.

Once in power, Trump and Pruitt have moved to delay or roll back federal regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions while pledging to revive the long-struggling U.S. coal mines.

What is not yet clear is whether Trump plans to initiate a formal withdrawal from the Paris accord, which under the terms of the agreement could take three years, or exit the underlying U.N. climate change treaty on which the accord was based.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and 21 other Republican sent Trump a letter last week urging him to follow through on his campaign pledge to pull out of the climate accord. Most of the senators who signed are from states that depend on the continued burning of coal, oil and gas.

There have been influential voices urging Trump not to ditch the Paris accord. Forty Democratic senators sent Trump a letter urging him to stay in, saying a withdrawal would hurt America's credibility and influence on the world stage.

Hundreds of high-profile businesses have spoken out in favor of the deal, including Apple, Google and Walmart. Even fossil fuel companies such as Exxon Mobil, BP and Shell say the United States should abide by the deal.

The U.S. is the world's second largest emitter of carbon, following only China. Beijing, however, has reaffirmed its commitment to meeting its targets under the Paris accord, recently canceling construction of about 100 coal-fired power plants and investing billions in massive wind and solar projects.

--The Associated Press





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May 31, 2017 at 03:00AM
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A JetBlue plane's emergency landing exposes a great danger caused by Trump's laptop ban (JBLU)

5/31/2017

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A JetBlue plane's emergency landing exposes a great danger caused by Trump's laptop ban (JBLU)

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On Tuesday, JetBlue Flight 915 from New York's JFK International Airport to San Francisco was forced to make an emergency landing after experiencing a lithium fire.

It's an occurrence that exposes one of the major dangers experts have associated with the Trump administration's ban on large electronics in the cabin of airliners.

The Airbus A320, with 158 passengers and crew on board, landed safely at Gerald Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan around 8:00 pm local time.

According to the airline, the decision to divert was made after "reports of smoke emitting from a carry-on bag holding an electronic device."

However, airport authorities report that the fire onboard the aircraft had been extinguished by the time the plane landed.

"On May 30 JetBlue Flight 915 from New York's JFK to San Francisco diverted to Grand Rapids, Mich., following reports of smoke emitting from a carry-on bag holding an electronic device," JetBlue said in a statement. "The flight landed safely and the aircraft was inspected by maintenance crews before customers continued on to San Francisco."

There have been persistent concerns over the increased risk of cargo fires caused by large numbers of lithium batteries in the belly of commercial airliners.

"Lithium-ion batteries are inherently volatile. It's statistics. It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when one of these things blow," KULR Technologies co-founder and CEO Michael Mo told Business Insider in an interview earlier this year.

According to Mo, who specializes in thermal management systems for batteries, it's better for the batteries to be in the cabin as opposed to the cargo hold.

"So when (a fire) happens, it's better to have humans nearby to react and put out the fire," Mo added.

This is exactly what seems to have happened on board Flight 915. 

Fortunately for the JetBlue flight, no injuries have been reported and the flight was able to carry on to San Francisco after the aircraft was cleared by the airport's fire department.

The Trump administration's laptop ban has been in place since March and covers non-stop flights to the US from 10 airports located in eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The Department of Homeland Security is evaluating an expanded ban that would include non-stop flights from Europe. However, no formal decision on an expanded ban has been made.

NOW WATCH: Banning laptops from plane cabins could make flying more dangerous — here's why

See Also:

  • JetBlue will soon accept selfies as boarding passes
  • Trump's new laptop ban is 'still on the table', but we don't know when it's coming
  • Here's how much room you get on each of America's airlines

SEE ALSO: Here's how much room you get on each of America's airlines





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May 31, 2017 at 03:00AM
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'None of it makes much sense': Experts are baffled by Comey's use of a fake Russian document to skirt the DOJ

5/31/2017

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'None of it makes much sense': Experts are baffled by Comey's use of a fake Russian document to skirt the DOJ

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James ComeyCliff Owen/AP

Former FBI, CIA, and DOJ officials said they are baffled by reports that a fake Russian document affected former FBI James Comey's handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server.

CNN reported Friday that Comey knew the document, a memo purporting to show collusion between then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the Clinton campaign, was fake. That has raised questions about why he used it as justification to skirt the Department of Justice and hold a press conference last summer in which he skewered Clinton for her "careless" use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

"In cases where there is intelligence suspected of being false, the correct procedure is to investigate," said Scott Olson, a recently retired FBI agent who ran the agency's counterintelligence operations and spent more than 20 years at the bureau.

"In this case, the parties referenced should have been interviewed as part of the investigation," Olson said. "Then, if the document was used as feared, the results of the investigation could be used to effectively rebut."

The FBI reportedly uncovered the memo last year as it was examining a trove of documents believed to have been hacked by Russia. The document, first disclosed by The New York Times in late April and described in more detail by The Washington Post last week, described an email supposedly sent by Debbie Wasserman Schultz, then the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, to an official at the billionaire George Soros' Open Society Foundations.

Wasserman Schultz supposedly described in the message how Lynch, the attorney general, had privately assured a Clinton staffer during the campaign that the Justice Department wouldn't take the email probe too far. Comey reportedly knew the information in the memo wasn't real. But he feared that the memo would cast doubt on the credibility of the FBI's investigation if it leaked after Lynch closed the probe, CNN reported.

The sequence played a part in his decision to circumvent the DOJ and hold a press conference, defending the bureau's decision not to recommend criminal charges against Clinton for using a private server while she was secretary of state. He also called Clinton "extremely careless" for using the server, issuing a blistering assessment of the then-candidate's recklessness that many believe damaged her reputation among voters.

'None of it makes much sense'

Comey briefed lawmakers after the press conference on his decision not to recommend charges against Clinton. He told them that he had had no choice but to go around the DOJ and answer directly to reporters out of fear that the document might leak. But he did not tell lawmakers that the document was probably fake, according to CNN.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told CNN on Sunday that Comey "never once told a member of the House or the Senate that he thought the email was fake," and would have been "incredibly incompetent" to act on a document he knew to be fraudulent.

"I can't imagine a scenario where it's OK for the FBI director to jump in the middle of an election based on a fake email generated by the Russians and not tell the Congress," Graham said.

Olson said that Comey's decision to circumvent his DOJ superiors based on the document was even more bizarre.

"The notion that the FBI needs to circumvent DOJ procedure and officials because a known false document might be used publicly to forward some political agenda makes no sense," Olson said, "and the notion that DOJ is somehow incapable of defending itself against false publicity does not withstand scrutiny."

FBI officials briefed Lynch on the existence of the document one month after Comey announced the end of the email investigation during the unprecedented press conference. Lynch said she "never communicated" with the Clinton campaign staffer in question and offered to be formally interviewed by the FBI about the matter, according to the Post.

Loretta LynchChip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Amanda Renteria, the Clinton staffer with whom the false document said Lynch communicated, also told the Post that she had never spoken to Lynch. And Wasserman-Schultz said she had never heard of the Open Society Foundations official, Leonard Benardo, whom the document said she had emailed to discuss Lynch's communications with Renteria.

"The FBI is in the business of ascertaining the true facts through investigation," Olson said. "That is what should have been done. I'd love to know why it was not done."

Matthew Miller, a former Department of Justice spokesman under President Obama, agreed that Comey "absolutely should have briefed" his superiors on the existence of the document before holding the press conference, especially if he thought it was fake.

"If he already knew the document was fake, then he in no way should have relied on it to make decisions about how to handle the case, and he had an obligation to brief his superiors," Miller said on Tuesday.

"Even if it was a real document, it wouldn’t excuse him acting on his own," Miller added. "There are procedures set up for handling sensitive information like this when someone is potentially compromised, which is the best-case interpretation of his thinking. He could have briefed his direct boss, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and the two of them could have decided how to proceed."

"The bottom line is this document seems to have been an excuse to do what he always wanted to do," Miller said, "rather than an actual factor in any decision-making."

Months after ending the email investigation, Comey said he felt compelled to tell Congress that the bureau had discovered new emails that were possibly relevant to the investigation because he had already gone public with the details of the case — and given congressional testimony about it — three months earlier. Clinton has said the disclosure, which dominated media coverage in the days leading up to the election, factored heavily into her loss. 

A 'wildly successful' Russian operation 

The revelation that a tainted document — believed to have been planted by the Russians in the trove of hacked documents obtained by the FBI — influenced Comey's decisionmaking is evidence of the extent to which Russian disinformation was able to penetrate the highest levels of American law enforcement during the presidential campaign.

The weaponization of stolen documents is increasingly becoming Russian hackers' modus operandi, according to a new report from researchers at the Citizen Lab group at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Public Affairs. Hackers linked to Russia have begun stealing data and tampering with it in order to achieve specific propaganda aims, the report noted, "and to seed mistrust and disinformation."

Glenn Carle, a former CIA operative who spent 23 years at the agency, said Comey's use of the document to justify a decision that may have "changed the course of US history" means Russia's election meddling was more "wildly successful" than anyone had previously imagined.

"It is common to let bogus reports from the [foreign] opposition go forward, and continue unchallenged, so as not to compromise sources and methods," Carle said. "But I dispute that the director should have treated this from the strict sources and methods protection perspective."

"In my view he should in this instance have briefed the attorney general, the president, and the Gang of Eight," Carle said, referring to a select group of lawmakers briefed on sensitive intelligence matters. "This was a policy call, a larger issue than the source and method. Historic errors on his part." 

Mark Kramer, the program director for the Project on Cold War Studies at Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, said that Comey's failure to alert the congressional committees that the document "was almost certainly a fake was "appallingly negligent."  

"He should have emphasized that at the very start," Kramer said. "By having failed to do so, he was disastrously incompetent and irresponsible."

Olson, the former FBI agent, said he believes Comey and his team "forgot that the reputation of the FBI is secondary to the FBI's responsibility."

"At the end of the day, with due respect to notions of transparency, credibility, independence and ensuring there is not even the appearance of improper conduct, what matters most is executing the role the FBI has in government," he said. "Appearances don't matter if reality, if the actual content, is wrong."

The longtime FBI agent said he still believed Comey and his advisers "were trying very hard to do the right thing."

"But they illustrated the old saying," Olson said, "that 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions.'"

NOW WATCH: Yale history professor: Trump's path to tyranny is unfolding

See Also:

  • Spicer dodges questions on why Trump cited anonymous Fox report after decrying anonymous sources
  • Trump defends Jared Kushner by promoting anonymously sourced Fox News story days after blasting anonymous sources as 'made up'
  • Embattled House intelligence chairman: Democrats are using the Russia 'narrative' to justify Clinton's loss

SEE ALSO: Trump to Russian diplomats: Firing 'nut job' James Comey took 'great pressure' off me





Business

via Business Insider http://ift.tt/eKERsB

May 31, 2017 at 03:00AM
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A gorgeous new game just launched that looks like 'Zelda' but its for Xbox and PlayStation too

5/31/2017

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http://ift.tt/2rkeQ7E

A gorgeous new game just launched that looks like 'Zelda' — but it’s for Xbox and PlayStation too

http://ift.tt/2qAMCbG

"The Legend of Zelda" is a third-person action series with a focus on puzzle-solving, light combat, and exploration. It features unique art styles and mysterious lands to discover. Such is the case with 2017's "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild": 

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

It's also the case with 2017's "Rime," a gorgeous new game that just launched.

It's coming to the Nintendo Switch soon, but unlike "Breath of the Wild," it's already available on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. 

Rime

Intriguing, no? Here's the deal.

"Rime" stars a young boy as the playable protagonist. He awakens on a mysterious island, washed ashore.

Tequila Works/Greybox

The island, as you see here, is full of secrets. What are these structures?

Tequila Works/Greybox

It seems that a civilization of some form inhabited the island. There are manicured paths, buildings, and various other structures. But you're seemingly alone.

Tequila Works/Greybox

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

See Also:

  • Xbox is about to launch a Netflix-style game service: Here are its best games
  • Your next gaming laptop could be nearly as thin as a MacBook Air
  • The Golden Gate Bridge just turned 80 years old — take a look at its historic build

SEE ALSO: Forget 'Call of Duty' — this insane new game is going to blow your mind





Business

via Business Insider http://ift.tt/eKERsB

May 31, 2017 at 03:00AM
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