Month: December 2020

Categories
World News

Russian Hackers Broke Into Federal Companies, U.S. Officers Suspect

Russian Hackers Broke Into Federal Agencies, U.S. Officials Suspect

According to investigators, the global campaign included the hackers who put their code into regular updates to software used by a company called SolarWinds to manage networks. Its products are widely used on corporate and federal networks, and the malware has been carefully minimized to avoid detection.

The Austin, Texas-based company says it has more than 300,000 customers, including most of the country’s Fortune 500 companies. However, it is unclear how many of them are using the Orion platform that the Russian hackers infiltrated or if they were all targets.

If the Russia connection is confirmed, it will be the subtlest known theft of American government data by Moscow since a two-year rampage in 2014 and 2015 that gave Russian intelligence agencies access to the unclassified email systems at the White House State Department and the joint chiefs of staff. It took years to undo the damage, but President Barack Obama decided at the time not to name the Russians as the perpetrators – a move many in his administration now see as a mistake.

Encouraged, the same group of hackers penetrated the systems of the Democratic National Committee and top officials in Hillary Clinton’s campaign, sparking investigations and fears that permeated both the 2016 and 2020 competitions. Another, more disruptive Russian intelligence agency, the GRU, is believed to be responsible for posting the hacked emails to the DNC

“There seems to be a lot of casualties to this campaign, both in government and in the private sector,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator, a geopolitical think tank that co-founded CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company four years ago that helped Find Russians in the systems of the Democratic National Committee. “No different from what we saw from this actor in 2014-2015 when he ran a massive campaign and successfully compromised numerous victims.”

Russia was one of several countries that also hacked American research institutions and pharmaceutical companies. That summer, Symantec Corporation warned that a Russian ransomware group was taking advantage of the sudden change in American work habits caused by the pandemic and injecting code into corporate networks at unprecedented speeds and breadth.

According to private sector investigators, the attacks on FireEye resulted in a wider hunt to find out where else the Russian hackers would have been able to infiltrate both federal and private networks. According to official sources, FireEye provided the NSA and Microsoft with some critical pieces of computer code that were looking for similar attacks on federal systems. That led to the emergency warning last week.

Categories
Health

Trump Administration Plans a Rushed Effort to Encourage People to Be Vaccinated

Trump Administration Plans a Rushed Effort to Encourage Americans to Be Vaccinated

“There’s a whip effect,” said Joel White, a Republican strategist focused on health policy. “If Trump makes a big stink out there about people getting the vaccine and needing it, I could see Democrats being turned off – and blacks and Latinos in particular. But if he doesn’t do anything, Trump supporters may not be vaccinated because they would see that as a sign. “

Since the president had Covid-19 he should technically be at the back of the line of people waiting to be shot, but the sight of him being injected could be useful. At the White House, officials said it “certainly will be considered” for Mr Trump to take the vaccine publicly, although they stated that it might not affect public opinion as people know he has recovered. (Experts say those who survived Covid-19 may be at risk of re-infection and could benefit from vaccination.)

Dr. For his part, Fauci intends to “be publicly vaccinated,” he said on Friday, “as soon as the vaccine is available to me” in order to increase public support. Vice President Mike Pence’s advisors are considering when and how he will be vaccinated, and whether he would do so publicly.

Mr Trump’s three presidential predecessors – Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton – have all announced that they are ready to be vaccinated on camera. In 2009, Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, put on a public show getting vaccinated against the H1N1 influenza virus and waiting for their turn to wait for the children to get the vaccine.

“People need to understand that this vaccine is safe,” Obama said at the time. A photo was posted on the White House website of him rolling up his sleeve to be shot.

Mr. Biden is already using his platform to encourage Americans to get vaccinated.

“I want to make it clear to the public: This is what you should trust,” he said Friday at an event in Wilmington, Del. “There is no political influence. These are top notch scientists who take the time to look at all of the elements that need to be considered. Scientific integrity has led us to this point. “

Dr. David A. Kessler, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner who advises the president-elect on the pandemic, said in an interview that the Biden team is working with medical organizations and other groups to find “the most creative.” transparent and effective ways to educate the public, including using a number of respected voices – both local and national.

Categories
Business

Apple TV Was Making a Present About Gawker. Then Tim Cook dinner Discovered Out.

Apple TV Was Making a Show About Gawker. Then Tim Cook Found Out.

“It’s something that gave me a break and thought about, but I would do it the same way again,” he said. “It is more general to know more about the private lives of the people who run this society. If writing about Apple’s CEO isn’t limited, who would it be? “(An Apple spokesperson didn’t answer questions about how Mr. Cook felt about the coverage at the time.)

Apple, a company whose corporate culture is tightly controlled by the same small group of men who have led it for two decades and whose consumer value is about protecting their privacy, doesn’t quite see the world that way.

Now “Scraper” is returning to the market and could still see daylight from another manufacturer. Another company, Anonymous Content, bought the option to develop a New York article on Gawker, said a person familiar with the deal. (The New York article was written by Jeffrey Toobin, a frequent target of Gawker.)

Apple TV +, which launched a year ago, is struggling to find its way in a climate where top creative managers Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg are apparently constantly trying to guess what Mr. Cook and Mr. Cue might like . or might object. That has largely ruled out the kind of prestige drama that defined other breakout streaming services. The service is currently enjoying modest success with a show that would be home on television, cute and funny “Ted Lasso”. (The branding can be a bit noticeable: some “Ted Lasso” scenes include up to three Apple devices, and Siri makes a cameo.)

The company is in no hurry, however, and their strategy on other media projects has been to lead them from failure to success, if not a success strong enough for you to sign up when the thing is on your phone is preinstalled – Apple’s real economic advantage in the media business. This also applies to Apple Music, the second largest streaming service in the world. and from Apple News, a well-curated, if not exciting, app that reportedly gives President-elect Joe Biden his information. Apple’s biggest streaming coup in the pandemic was to include the film “Greyhound,” the drama of World War II with – who else? – Tom Hanks.

And Apple’s willingness to sacrifice creative freedom for corporate risk management is still an outlier. None of my reports suggest that Mr. Bezos is reaching into the Amazon studio (or the Washington Post) to kill negative portrayals of e-commerce or the police, or that Mr. Stankey demonstrates AT&T routers in “Lovecraft Country ”. The question, of course, is how long, even in these companies, the old law will be overridden – that whoever pays the piper calls the tune.

However, it’s worth noting that the men who run these companies have made their priorities clear at a time when more and more American viewers are turning to streaming to understand culture, history, and even reality. At Netflix, Mr Hastings cleared the Saudi monarchy and streamed an episode of Hasan Minhaj’s comedy talk show Patriot Act after the show criticized the role of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of the journalist had Jamal Khashoggi.

“We’re not trying to bring the truth to power,” Hastings said last year. “We’re trying to entertain.”

Categories
Politics

Senate passes $740 billion protection invoice as Trump veto menace looms

Senate passes $740 billion defense bill as Trump veto threat looms

An F-35B Lightning II fighter aircraft with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 265 (Reinforced), 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), prepares for takeoff from the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) prior to a strike exercise inflatable maritime target.

Lance Cpl. Joshua Brittenham | US Marine Corps | FlickrCC

WASHINGTON – The Senate passed a colossal defense policy bill on Friday despite multiple threats from President Donald Trump to veto the measure.

At least 75 members of the Republican-led Senate voted for the massive annual defense bill of $ 740 billion, a number larger than the two-thirds majority it would take to defeat Trump’s promised veto.

With the weight of the House and Senate behind the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the bill hits Trump’s desk with overwhelming support from Congress.

The NDAA, which is usually passed with strong support from both parties and veto-proof majorities, approves spending totaling 740 billion US dollars and outlines Pentagon policies.

Earlier this month, Trump threatened to veto the must-pass defense law if lawmakers fail to remove legal protections for social media companies.

Trump is calling for the repeal of a federal law known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects tech giants like Facebook and Twitter from legal liability for what is posted on their platforms.

Last week, Trump described the provision as a “liability protection gift” for “Big Tech” and called for it to be “terminated entirely”, otherwise he would not use this year’s NDAA.

The president also said the move posed a serious threat to US national security and electoral integrity, but did not provide any further explanation. Trump has also said that Twitter, his favorite social media platform, wrongly censored him.

The President’s problem with Section 230 came to light this summer after Twitter added warnings to several of its tweets that alleged mail-in polls were fraudulent. Trump has still not allowed Democrat Joe Biden to hold the US presidential election.

US President Donald Trump speaks after the swearing-in ceremony of James Mattis as Secretary of Defense on January 27, 2017 at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.

Almond Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

This year’s legislation includes a 3% pay increase for US troops, a plan to rename military facilities with the names of Confederate leaders, and a number of other provisions.

The NDAA, in its current form, does not contain any action related to Section 230.

This is not the first time the president has targeted the NDAA. Earlier this year, Trump said he would veto the measure if it included language for changing U.S. military facilities named after Confederate generals.

Categories
Business

AstraZeneca to Purchase Alexion for $39 Billion

AstraZeneca to Buy Alexion for $39 Billion

LONDON – Drug maker AstraZeneca on Saturday agreed to buy Alexion, a biopharmaceutical company, for $ 39 billion in cash and stock as corporate giants return to making large acquisitions even during the pandemic.

The deal comes as AstraZeneca is in the final stages of testing a Covid-19 vaccine it is developing with Oxford University, one of the best-known candidates – but which also had questions about its effectiveness.

With the deal for Alexion, the largest of a healthcare company this year, AstraZeneca will enhance its offering in rare diseases such as blood disorders. It is because the company’s boards of directors continued to regain confidence after the hatches were closed in the early stages of the pandemic.

Since the stock markets have risen sharply and debt financing continues to be cheap due to central bank policy, companies have resumed their pursuit of growth and scalability – also through acquisitions.

Under the terms of the contract, AstraZeneca will pay $ 60 in cash and 2.1243 of its US depository receipts for each Alexion share. That’s $ 175 per share, a premium of nearly 45 percent over Alexion’s closing price on Friday.

Headquartered in Cambridge, England, AstraZeneca has focused on cancer treatments for the past several years after losing patent protection for its best-selling drugs, such as the Crestor cholesterol treatment. In July, the company agreed to pay up to $ 6 billion to partner with Japanese drug maker Daiichi Sankyo for a possible treatment for lung and breast cancer.

But AstraZeneca has been best known in the last few months for its work in another area: Covid-19 vaccines, where it works with researchers from Oxford.

The two announced in late November that their coronavirus vaccine appears to be 90 percent effective. Unlike some other leading vaccine candidates, including those from Pfizer and Moderna, the AstraZeneca range can be manufactured in large quantities quickly, would cost only a few dollars per dose, and is easy to store for long periods of time.

However, scientists and industry experts asked questions almost immediately after AstraZeneca admitted a material error in the vaccine dosing of some study participants. The question now arises whether the effectiveness of the vaccine will be maintained with additional tests.

The deal for Alexion will help AstraZeneca expand into another sector: immunology, where treatments can be very lucrative for their manufacturers. Boston-based Alexion is known for its focus on fighting rare diseases: top medications include Soliris and Ultomiris, which treat blood disorders.

Each costs several hundred thousand dollars a year. This underpins AstraZeneca’s expectation that the deal will result in double-digit sales increases and a higher dividend payout by 2025.

“Alexion has established itself as a leader in complement biology bringing life-changing benefits to rare disease patients,” said Pascal Soriot, managing director of AstraZeneca, in a statement.

The company has been put under pressure in recent years by Elliott Management, the $ 41 billion investment firm owned by financier Paul E. Singer. The hedge fund has repeatedly criticized Alexion for its business strategy, including multi-billion dollar corporate acquisitions that have proven disappointing. (The stock fell sharply on the day Alexion announced the acquisition of Portola Pharmaceuticals in May, indicating investor dissatisfaction with the deal.)

Shortly thereafter, Elliott asked the drug maker to sell itself. A spokeswoman for the hedge fund declined to comment on Saturday.

Alexion’s shareholders are expected to own approximately 15 percent of the combined company upon completion of the transaction, which is expected by next September, subject to regulatory approvals and investors in both companies.

Categories
Health

Grief Movies For Kids – The New York Occasions

Grief Films For Children - The New York Times

There’s no way to gloss it over: the pandemic has plunged the world into a crisis of grief. It caused the deaths of over 290,000 people in the United States, including many grandparents and parents. According to a study by the United Hospital Fund, 4,200 children in New York state alone lost a parent or caregiver to Covid-19 between March and July. (These were the latest available numbers on the death of the parents from Covid.)

For every family who lost a loved one this year, regardless of the cause of death, the pandemic has prevented them from properly mourning their loss. And now the holiday season has arrived, which can be a cause of grief, especially for children.

Children who lose a parent are at greater risk of permanent mental health problems, including anxiety and depression. To support a grieving child, one needs to normalize their feelings and give them tools to cope with – but talking about death can sometimes feel overwhelming. Parents and children may both be reluctant to have conversations that create difficult emotions, but it is important that parents provide opportunities to recognize their child’s feelings.

Film can be a gift in these times. Often times, a film about death can provide just enough space for productive discussion. Providing examples of the loss of others can help children feel less isolated in their own bereavement. Watching a character in a movie can make the child think about their own journey of grief and the tools they may be able to cope with.

The films below, suitable for children ages 6 and up, provide helpful ways to explore death and the emotions associated with it, as well as a chance for parents to talk about loss. Contents that could be disruptive to young children are noted.

109 minutes; Rated PG; available on Disney +

Based on the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), this colorful, Oscar-winning Pixar film follows 12-year-old Miguel’s journey to the land of the dead. There he reveals family secrets and learns that the dead continue to exist in the memory of the living.

118 minutes; Rated G; available from Amazon.

After a young boy named Alec and a horse were washed up on a desert island by a shipwreck that killed Alec’s father, the orphaned boy and the animal soon form an inseparable bond. The couple is rescued, and Alec is determined to turn “The Black” into a racehorse with the help of an old trainer. Alec’s connection with the horse brings him comfort and helps him deal with his grief for his father.

107 minutes; Rated PG; available from Amazon.

After her mother dies in a car accident, 13-year-old Amy (played by a young Anna Paquin) is sent from New Zealand to Canada to live with her father. She adopts a nest of abandoned goose eggs, and when they hatch she is responsible for teaching the goslings’ survival skills – including flying south for the winter. While Amy takes on the role of mother for the goslings, she can mourn her own mother. Please note: the car accident is shown in the opening sequence of the film.

100 minutes (subtitles); available from Amazon.

After her mother dies, 6-year-old Frida has to move from Barcelona to the countryside to live with her aunt, uncle and younger cousin. The young girl soon struggles with grief and her place in this new family. The film is often presented from Frida’s point of view, with overheard conversations and waist-high camera angles, and is based on the director’s personal experiences with loss.

128 minutes; Rated PG-13; available from Amazon.

Conor’s mother is seriously ill and the 13-year-old struggles with anger, sadness, guilt, and expectant grief. To deal with all the overwhelming emotions, Conor (Lewis MacDougall) conjures up a monster who offers three fables and then demands one of him – it has to be his ultimate truth. MacDougall gives an authentic performance as a boy who learns to face the truth even though it is contradicting and complex. Please Note: There is some property demolition, physical bullying, and verbal abuse.

103 minutes; Rated PG; available on HBO max.

In this feature of the Japanese animation powerhouse Studio Ghibli, Anna is sent by her foster mother to bring relatives at the seaside into the fresh air after an asthma attack. There she ventures into an abandoned mansion and discovers a new friend, Marnie, who may or may not be her grandmother’s ghost. Anna is then forced to grapple with feelings that she has avoided because of the loss of her family.

98 minutes (subtitles); Rated PG; available from Amazon.

The matriarch of a family in China is diagnosed with terminal cancer, but no one told her. The family gets together one last time under the guise of a grand wedding, but it really is a goodbye. The film is based on the personal story of the writer and director Lula Wang and shows profound cultural differences in attitudes towards death and grief.

Categories
Entertainment

Evaluation: Discovering Hope in an Unfinished Pam Tanowitz Premiere

Review: Finding Hope in an Unfinished Pam Tanowitz Premiere

On Saturday, the Joyce Theater broadcast a premiere by choreographer Pam Tanowitz, who started the program with the words: “It’s not really finished yet.”

This wasn’t a confession of negligence or an excuse for over-planning, though Ms. Tanowitz, who was one of New York’s most sought-after choreographers before the pandemic, has been remarkably busy lately, doing video dancing for both the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater.

Rather, Ms. Tanowitz’s words were self-explanatory in the manner of an artistic statement. The title of the new work is “Finally unfinished: Part 1”. This was the second half of the 35-minute event, which was available on request through December 26th, coupled with another recently published work, “Gustave Le Gray, No. 2”. ”

What we have here are parts, parts, versions, recycled matter. A program note shows that “Finally unfinished” is based on choreographic material from works that Ms. Tanowitz previously presented at Joyce. “Gustave Le Gray, No. 2” is related to “Gustave Le Gray, No. 1” which was created for the Miami City Ballet and the Dance Theater of Harlem last year (and slated for the City Ballet 2022 schedule) .

And there is already a “Finally Unfinished: Part 2”. It is a website, a “digital box of curiosities” (funnily designed by Jeremy Jacob like a cut-and-paste scrapbook with stop-motion animation) that brings together some of Ms. Tanowitz’s inspirations for dance.

The livestream event is also a kind of scrapbook. It’s an event in the Merce Cunningham sense of combining old pieces in a new order for a new occasion and space.

The “unfinished” deal with titles and texts is a view of the continuity of a choreographer’s life. For Ms. Tanowitz, the distinction between works is possibly less important than their common origin as filament that she and her employees keep turning. “It’s never finished for me,” she says, referring to each piece, but also the process and practice of dancing. At the moment, the humility of testifying is a sign of hope.

But if their work is one piece to them, that doesn’t mean the pieces are all the same. The first, “Gray, No. 2”, which is set on a Caroline Shaw score, which is itself a revision of a Chopin mazurka, is a highly ordered composition for four people that quietly absorbs in its changing configurations, with a dancer often swings to a new position The whole group moves. The work resists the buoyancy, a feeling of weight or fatigue, which the dancers eventually no longer resist and sink to the ground.

However, this is not the end of the program. Because the much wilder and fragmented “Finally unfinished” begins when a camera follows Melissa Toogood’s cool fire into the wings. Soon enough the dancers – seven of them now – will be walking into the aisles, seats and the balcony. And this theater, which was dark and empty for most of this year, is enlivened by elegant, eccentric, brilliant dance.

This is Joyce’s second experiment in live streaming. (The first, in which seven dancers at a time recorded Molissa Fenley’s grueling solo “State of Darkness,” was in October, and recordings are available until January 10th.) Not everything that distinguishes itself as cinematography is less of a work for the camera as a substitute for being in the theater. In fact, it is a love letter to what Joyce was and should become again.

In the score for “Endlich unfinished”, which lies between confusing and loud contributions by Dan Siegler and Ted Hearne, there is a recording of the stage manager’s instructions (“Go, Victor!”) And announcements during a Pam Tanowitz dance performance in 2014 at Joyce . (“Please turn off your electronic devices” is poignant when you hear about an electronic device that gives you the only access to the factory.)

The costumes that Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung designed for previous Tanowitz plays at Joyce are also related to the theater, reproducing the red curtain, chair upholstery, and less stylish carpeting. It’s all loving mockery that pokes fun at the Joyce’s frumpiness while respecting her story as an essential home for dance: the tactile, personal experience for which this digital version is a placeholder.

At the end of the performance, the dancers look out onto the stage from their seats to represent the missing audience. This captures in a picture what “Finally unfinished, Part 2” says in words: “This is not the end. Return to learn more. “

Pam Tanowitz dance

Available until December 26th, joyce.org.

Categories
Business

Ladies’s soccer set viewership data in 2020, paves approach for growth

Women's soccer set viewership records in 2020, paves way for expansion

Orlando Pride midfielder Bridget Callahan (22) shoots the ball during the NWSL soccer game between the Orlando Pride and the Washington Spirit on October 5, 2019 at Explorer Stadium in Orlando, FL.

Andrew Bershaw | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

Women’s football had a great 2020 even in the middle of a pandemic, thanks to broadcast and streaming deals that brought the sport to more viewers than ever before.

Finding viewers outside of a dedicated core fan base and delivering games on a handful of consistent platforms will be key to further growth in 2021. Women’s sport is a feel-good story, but the next phase is about hitting the hard numbers, attracting new broadcast partners and corporate sponsors.

In the summer of 2020, the National Women’s Soccer League was the first U.S. professional sports league to return to activity, breaking its attendance records by nearly 300%. The first and last games of the Challenge Cup, which were the only ones to be shown on CBS and not on the subscription service CBS All Access, drew 572,000 and 653,000 viewers, respectively, on par with an English Premier League game that week and Major League Baseball Game on TBS broadcast in the same time slot. Last year’s NWSL final, which aired on ESPN, only drew 166,000 viewers.

Company sponsors also got on board. The NWSL signed contracts with Verizon, Google and Procter & Gamble before the Challenge Cup.

“The league has done strangely well,” said Lindsay Barenz, VP of Business Development for the NWSL, during the pandemic.

Multi-year partnerships with CBS Sports and Amazon Twitch were “game changers,” added Barenz. For regular playing time, CBS showed some games on its main network, 14 on the CBS Sports Network and the majority on CBS All Access. Twitch would stream all of the games internationally and a handful of free games domestically.

Even as more sports leagues returned to competition in the fall, the NWSL averaged 383,000 viewers for its fall series games, which aired on CBS. According to the league, the games, which were also streamed globally on Twitch, averaged just over 732,000 live views, and the most watched hit hit 1,000,000.

These deals came after the U.S. women’s national team won the 2019 Women’s World Cup and sparked new interest in the sport. In previous seasons, most games could only be streamed online, be it on Google’s YouTube, on teams’ websites or on Verizon’s go90. TV coverage for a handful of major games jumped between Fox Sports’ secondary channels and Disney subsidiary ESPN in various years. And NWSL’s multi-year contract with A&E Networks to broadcast games for life failed when A&E left in 2019, one season earlier. The NWSL only reached another TV deal after the World Cup when ESPN recorded 14 remaining games between ESPNews and ESPN2.

The NWSL was difficult to follow for avid fans and difficult to stumble upon for potential fans. The new rights contracts should ensure consistency and high quality production for the coming seasons.

Then the pandemic hit.

It was far from clear that women’s football could save the year, but it probably helped to be the first to come back with little athletic competition. The NWSL’s month-long Challenge Cup, played in a “bubble” in Utah, began June 27, two weeks before the men’s Major League Soccer returned and a month before the National Basketball Association launched its bubble at Disney World.

When it comes to growth, there is a tradeoff between maximizing sales and reaching the widest possible audience. Under the current contract, most NWSL games are only available through CBS Sports Network or CBS All Access, which are paid subscription services.

But the choice was “part of maturing as a league,” said Barenz. “Part of the maturity of our fans is that there is an economic exchange of values ​​to get access to our games.”

In order to get access to all games in other leagues like the Women’s National Basketball Association and male colleagues, a paid subscription is also required, Barenz emphasized. The NWSL, the longest running professional women’s soccer league in the United States, is now entering its ninth season (as the WNBA will hit its big 25).

Alyssa Naeher # 1 of Chicago Red Stars hits a loose ball during an NWSL soccer game between the Chicago Red Stars and the Orlando Pride at Orlando City Stadium on September 11, 2019 in Orlando, Florida.

Alex Menendez | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images

Go international

A new business model could help increase more broadcasters’ interest in women’s football. This is where the startup Atalanta Media comes in.

Atalanta acquires media rights for smaller women’s sports leagues and offers them to broadcasters free of charge, along with fully produced games. In return, the company retains sponsorship opportunities so that it can also make money. This fall, Atalanta partnered with NBC Sports to bring the FA Women’s Super League, England’s premier women’s league, to a US audience for the first time.

Atalanta aims to break the frustrating stalemate between skeptical investors and leagues in dire need of more investment.

Broadcasters want “more evidence” before buying the rights themselves, said Esmeralda Negron, co-founder of the company and former professional footballer. “But there is no proof of that [women’s soccer has] has never been available week after week on premium channels. “

“If we don’t do that,” Negron said of buying the rights to leagues like WSL, “it wouldn’t be available.”

With the Atalanta partnership, NBC Sports will broadcast 50 WSL season games from September 2020 through Spring 2021, either on the NBC Sports Network channel, the NBC Sports app, or the NBC Sports website.

The first eight WSL games on NBC Sports Network had an average of 63,000 viewers, and the most viewed game reached 100,000 viewers, according to the network. A network manager told CNBC how important it is to tie women’s football to Premier League coverage in order to raise awareness. Given that the US games usually air weekend mornings (given the time difference) and are in an unknown league, this is a good place to start.

NWSL match ball during the 2020 NWSL College Draft at the Baltimore Convention Center on January 16, 2020 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Jose Argueta | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images

Next year

2021 will bring new tests and possibilities. As more sporting leagues prepare to return for the full season and people get more outdoors to do, women’s sports can become more difficult to interest. However, if the Tokyo Olympics go as planned, a strong performance from the U.S. women’s team could also raise awareness of football at the club level.

Next year the NWSL plans to host the Challenge Cup again, followed by a full season. What was originally conceived as a means of saving the year has become valuable property.

The league is also adding teams, including a Louisville club that will play in 2021 and a Los Angeles team that will join the following year. LA club Angel City FC will be majority-owned by women and will be supported by all-star investors like Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and actress Natalie Portman.

There are also growth opportunities in existing deals. The goal of women’s football is likely to be to show more games on flagship networks like CBS and NBC, not just their sports networks or apps.

“Premium broadcasting plays an important role in enhancing the visibility and profile of leagues and players at the club level,” said Negron. “That never really happened on the women’s side.”

Women’s football needs to benefit from its increased visibility this year or else it risks losing its hard-won momentum. As Negron said, “Audience is what drives everything in this sport.”

Categories
World News

Tesla to switch Condominium Funding and Administration within the S&P 500

Tesla to replace Apartment Investment and Management in the S&P 500

Tesla will replace Apartment Investment and Management Co. in the S&P 500 if the electric vehicle company joins the index before trading begins December 21, S&P told Dow Jones Indices on Friday.

Tesla is also included in the S&P 100, replacing Occidental Petroleum in that index.

S&P Dow Jones Indices announced on November 16 that Tesla would join the S&P 500. The size of Tesla – the largest company ever to be included in the benchmark index – prompted the index provider to seek feedback from the investment community on whether to add Tesla all at once or in two separate tranches.

S&P Dow Jones Indices eventually chose the former and announced on November 30th that it would add Tesla to its full float-adjusted market capitalization on December 21st.

“In making its decision, S&P DJI took into account the wide range of responses received, including the expected liquidity of Tesla and the market’s ability to absorb significant trading volumes that day,” said the index provider. Tesla’s inclusion in the S&P 500 is based on closing prices on Friday, December 18, which coincides with the expiration of stock options and stock futures, which should make it easy to add due to the high trading volume, S&P said.

S&P Dow Jones Indices has not yet announced the weighting of Tesla in the index.

There are currently over $ 11.2 trillion in net worth compared to the S&P 500, with roughly $ 4.6 trillion of the total indexed funds making up. This means significant portfolio adjustments will have to be made to make room for Tesla.

According to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, $ 80 billion in Tesla stock must be bought by index investors. He pointed out that trading volatility could be exacerbated by Tesla’s not being a member of the S&P 1500, S&P 400 Midcap, or S&P 600 Small Cap indices.

Fund managers who need to buy the index will try to buy Tesla as close to the December 18 closing price as possible. “It will likely be one of the largest tight buy markets ever,” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment strategist at Bleakley Advisory Group.

– CNBC’s Patti Domm contributed to the coverage.

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Categories
Health

Alzheimer’s Researchers Examine a Uncommon Mind

Alzheimer's Researchers Study a Rare Brain

While they waited for Aliria’s body to arrive, Dr. Villegas and the staff each other their demands with: freezers checked, sterile gloves, iodine, cell culture medium, tissue preservative mixed and done. The brain bank frequently sends tissue to its staff overseas, and within a few days samples from Aliria’s brain are being examined in Germany and California, as well as Medellín.

Every brain donation does not begin in a hospital morgue, but in a large and well-stocked funeral home. The arrangement allows researchers to remove the brain and quickly take it one block away to their dissection laboratory, after which the family can proceed with a funeral or cremation.

Aliria’s autopsy began at 11:30 a.m. three hours after her death. The senior team members of Dr. Villegas, Dr. Aguillon and Johana Gómez, a biologist dressed in plastic overalls, masks and face shields, took precautions required by the pandemic while a medical student, Carlos Rueda, took notes.

The team removed the brain relatively easily, though the process is always complicated, with connective tissue that needs to be carefully severed. Dr. Villegas then extracted the pituitary gland and olfactory membrane, structures of interest to Alzheimer’s researchers, from deep within the skull. The group took samples of skin, tumor, and vital organs before leaving the remains of their famous patient, on whom so much research hopes were tied, for cremation.

Within minutes, the group came together again in the Brain Bank Dissection Lab, a room no bigger than a walk-in closet, down the street. It was almost 1 p.m. and Dr. Aguillon put Aliria’s brain on a scale. It weighed 894 grams, just under two pounds – significantly less than a healthy brain. Mr. Rueda started photographing it on a rotating platform, on which a three-dimensional image was created, while Dr. Villegas told and Dr. Aguillon typed.