Keeping Up With The Kardashians is STILL filming despite rumours production has halted - Daily Mail

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Keeping Up With the Kardashians has not stopped filming.

On Tuesday E! revealed to Variety that production on the long-running show has not halted. Cameras continue to roll for next season, it was insisted.

Earlier in the day TMZ claimed work on the reality series had stopped after Kim Kardashian's robbery. It was also alleged that the family agreed to extend the break after Kanye West's hospitalization last week.

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Still going! Keeping Up With The Kardashians continues to film despite Kim Kardashian's October 3 robbery and Kanye West's hospitalization last week, according to E! Here Kim and Kanye are seen in LA in June

TMZ wrote that production on the show, which also stars Kim's mother Kris Jenner and her siblings Khloe, Kourtney, Kendall and Kylie, has been shut down for at least the rest of 2016, but possibly longer.

Sources connected with the production told the site that 'producers have enough footage for the series commitment, but the plan was to film through the holidays, and that won't happen.' 

A source has claimed the mother of two is 'rethinking everything'.

It has also been claimed by Variety that Kim did shoot some footage after her Paris robbery. And at West's LA concert at The Forum last month she could be seen with E! cameras in her face.

So it appears she will address the robbery on camera on next season's KUWTK. 

Hospital: Kim's husband West has been in the hospital for over a week. Here he is seen on November 15 in LA

According to the latest reports, Kanye is 'still not stable' and is not ready to be released from the medical facility just yet.

It was originally reported that the producer would be discharged into the care of his personal doctor on Monday but TMZ is now reporting that that won't happen.  

Kanye was admitted to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on November 21 after an incident at his personal trainer's home in Los Angeles.  

Sources say that ahead of his mental health emergency last week the rapper was having bad dreams about wife Kim's robbery ordeal.

Family affair: TMZ write that production on the show, which also stars Kim's mother Kris Jenner, her siblings Khloe, Kourtney, Kendall and Kylie, as well as Caitlyn Jenner and Scott Disick has been shut down for at least the rest of 2016, but possibly longer

'He's been shaken up ever since the robbery in Paris. It did a number on him as much as Kim,' an insider told Us Weekly.  

'The mere thought that anything could happen to her sent him in a tailspin. He wasn't sleeping and he was having nightmares about it.'

Kim was holed up and recovering at her mother Kris Jenner's home in Calabasas since she was robbed at gunpoint in Paris on October 3.

'The robbery triggered everything,' the source said. 

'Kim is his family and the only family he really has now. They took him in and embraced him. So seeing Kim traumatized did a major number on him.' 

According to TMZ the 39-year-old star was reportedly acting erratically and handcuffed to a gurney to be transported to hospital.

Recovering: The Fade hitmaker is reportedly not ready to be released from hospital even though he was supposed to be discharged on Monday

The Fade hitmaker cancelled the remainder of his Saint Pablo tour, which was due to conclude on New Year's Eve in New York, just before he was admitted and placed under psychiatric hold. 

'He really couldn't do his shows without her around,' a source told Us Weekly.

'That's what made him worse. He didn't want to be away from her … [The robbery] was just as hard for him, but he tried to keep going. He would never have canceled the tour unless things were bad.'

Meanwhile it's been reported that Kim has been putting aside the issues stemming from her horrific Paris robbery ordeal to focus on helping husband recover from his breakdown, according to reports.  

His rock: Kim has put her own emotional issues stemming from her horrific Paris robbery ordeal aside to focus on helping Kanye recover from his breakdown

According to TMZ, the reality superstar, 36, has kept a 'constant vigil' by his bedside, helping to feed him.

The insider claims that Kim has found it 'excruciating' to see her husband battling severe paranoia about outsiders trying to ruin their marriage.

The source adds: 'She has been an unbelievably devoted spouse. He's a lucky man.'

Meanwhile, the star is said to have total focus on nursing the father of her two children back to health. 

Devoted: Kim has been by her husband's side for the whole week Kanye has been at the medical facility 

Standing by her man: Kim is said to have been at the side of Kanye West and has been helping feed him, according to a Sunday report from Us Weekly

An insider for the publication said: 'Kim has been amazing. She knew he couldn't keep going the way he was. 

'She has been by his side through all of this, helping to feed him and laying by his side.'

The helping hand somewhat parallels Khloe Kardashian aiding ex Lamar Odom after his overdose last year.

The source added: 'All the Kardashian women stick by their men.' 

Breakdown: The 39-year-old rapper is reportedly 'depressed and paranoid' after being taken to hospital on Monday in Los Angeles

Security: One of the Kardashian family bodyguards was seen leaving the UCLA medical center

This comes just days after a TMZ report that Kanye was 'profoundly depressed and paranoid' and that he has been 'dealing with these issues for a long time.' 

After he was rushed to the Los Angeles hospital earlier this week the star was allegedly 'convinced people were out to get him.'

This suspicion even apparently extended to the medical staff looking after him, and he briefly 'wouldn't even let the doctors touch him,' according to the U.S. website.    

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star has been at the side of the Fade rapper for most of the week.

Following one visit on Thanksgiving morning, Kim then headed to her sister Kylie Jenner's home in Calabasas, where her family were celebrating the holiday on Thursday, according to People.

Earlier this week TMZ reported his condition was  worse than first feared.

By his side: Kim visited Kanye at hospital on Thanksgiving morning, as he continues to recover from a reported breakdown, according to a new report (the couple pictured in September in New York)

Although he was initially reported to be suffering from a temporary psychosis brought on by sleep deprivation and extreme dehydration, TMZ suggested that the rapper's problems 'go deeper'.

The website reported that Kanye is in such a 'bad mental state' that his insurance policy for his 21 cancelled U.S. concerts is likely to cover him for lost profits due to illness. 

Kanye, was at trainer Harley Pasternak's home on Monday when he started 'acting erratically,' according to People.

A call was made at about 1:20pm for a disturbance.

He was later escorted to UCLA Medical Center and admitted 'at will' but under the advice of a physician.  

Hospitalised: The rapper was admitted to UCLA Medical Center, pictured, earlier this week

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The biggest challenge to diversifying tech talent - CNET

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Diversity in tech will be a long-term issue.

Photo by The Washington Post/Getty Images

In five years, what will the push for diversity in tech look like?

Though the conversation seems louder than ever before, this issue is one the industry will be confronting for some time to come. The challenge is how to achieve meaningful progress and keep people caring after years of incremental change.

"People shouldn't have the expectation that next year it's going to be parity," said Elizabeth Ames, vice president of strategic marketing and alliances for the Anita Borg Institute, an organization focused on the advancement of women in technology.

Over the last few years, the subject of diversity in tech has gotten a good deal of attention -- and not always in the rosiest light. Sometimes, it's been a high-profile conflict, as when former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao lost her sexual discrimination lawsuit against VC firm Kleiner Perkins in March 2015. Other times, it's been jokes about the difference between the lines for the men's and women's restrooms at tech events. Then there was the Department of Labor's lawsuit against Palantir in September for discriminating against Asian job applicants.

There are myriad reasons why it all matters, but one of the most striking is economic opportunity.

The White House regularly hammers the point that there are a half million open jobs in IT, an industry that generally pays well. A recent report from consulting firm Accenture projected that if more serious measures aren't taken, women alone will be missing out on possibly $299 billion by 2025. In 2014, the American Institute for Economic Research found that when it comes to skilled jobs in tech, Asian, black and Hispanic workers make less than their white counterparts.

High stakes, low action. But doom and gloom can be dangerous.

How to read diversity reports

One step Silicon Valley has taken is to start releasing diversity reports. In 2013, then-Pinterest coder Tracy Chou challenged tech companies to start reporting their demographics.

While diversity reports are often released in the name of transparency, that doesn't mean they're easy reads, especially when the most obvious takeaway is something like 1 percentage point of change from year to year.

There are a few key metrics Ames looks for as signals of progress. The first is the breakdown for new hires. That's where companies making good efforts in the recruitment and hiring process display change.

"What I worry about is people are going to lose interest because the narrative is going to be that it's just too hard or that nobody's making progress."

Danielle Brown, Intel's chief diversity officer

The second metric is retention.

"The concern becomes if you're just hiring them in and the environment is so negative that they then just turn around and leave, you really haven't made any gains," Ames said.

Finally, there's the percentage of women and minorities in leadership positions. Are they moving up? Beyond the basic idea of whether they're being given the chance for advancement, women and minorities in leadership positions tend to attract others. They're a sign that it's possible to get ahead at a given company, Ames said.

What does 1 percent mean?

The change isn't much to look at.

"Whenever I look at these numbers that go up from 16 percent to 17 percent, or 13 percent to 14 percent, what that tells me is they're not really serious," said Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe.

One percent change can look like no change at all. And it's often accompanied by head-hanging from companies as they acknowledge there's still work to do.

The repetition can be demoralizing.

"Especially for those who are advocates for diversity and care deeply about it, the feeling is that tech companies and leaders simply don't care about solving the problem," Chou said.

But there are times when 1 percent is a big difference. For a company like Intel, it represents about 10,000 people.

"We've increased the representation of women in our workforce by 2 percent in a year," Intel Chief Diversity Officer Danielle Brown said. "But 2 percent is really significant when you've got a huge installed base workforce and you're not not a startup doubling in size every year."

Beating the perception game

Either way, it's not an inspiring rally cry.

"What I worry about is people are going to lose interest because the narrative is going to be that it's just too hard or that nobody's making progress," Brown said.

Will there come a point when tech company leaders throw up their hands and say women and minorities must not want to work in tech?

"That's always the danger because that could be an excuse," said Catherine Ashcraft, senior research scientist with the National Center for Women and Information Technology. The key to beating this, she said, is strategic planning.

That means having funding, support from the top levels of the company and the ability to measure progress toward goals and adjust as necessary.

For instance, Intel started tracking its diversity numbers a decade ago. But Brown said nothing changed until the company set a goal and CEO Brian Krzanich pledged $300 million to the cause, regularly looked at the reports and supported the effort.

Upon realizing that its percentage of women fell a full percentage point and that increases among minorities were slim, Microsoft announced in November that it will tie its diversity goals to executives' compensation.

During Klawe's 10 years at Harvey Mudd, the school has raised the number of women and minorities in computer science. Harvey Mudd is about half women, 20 percent Hispanic and 10 percent black. This year's computer science graduating class was more than 50 percent women.

In education, people like Klawe and Black Girls Code founder Kimberly Bryant are trying to equip students with both the skills and the confidence to survive in companies that are works in progress.

"It's about how do we build even more complex solutions that really get to the root cause of so many of these issues," Bryant said.

The long play

Change isn't just about getting people in. It's also about keeping them.

"You're going to have a very expensive zero-sum game if people are leaving out the backdoor," Brown said.

Retention is tricky because it's so tied into culture -- it's not just whether the pay is equal, but whether the environment is conducive to career growth and how far a company will go to help employees stay.

Ellyn Shook, Accenture's chief leadership and human resources officer, gave an example of an initiative that started as a request from a new mom and increased the retention of new parents by 30 percent. As many Accenture employees travel for work, the woman asked about the company paying to ship breast milk home. Shook initially agreed.

But was pump, dump and ship really the best way to help a mom with a baby?

"I didn't feel good about enabling what she asked for, but not really getting to the root cause," Shook said.

Instead, Accenture instituted a policy where all new parents, including in cases of adoption, don't have to travel for a year -- no strings or stigma attached.

Part of what this speaks to is focusing on the right initiatives. The Harvard Business Review ran a story recently about why mandatory diversity training often doesn't work. A measure designed to stave off lawsuits won't create a healthier working environment.

Along those lines, when figuring out how to get minorities into leadership positions, it's not about sticking them in a leadership class.

"We don't need to fix [them]. They're fine," Ames said, "We need to be looking at the systems and the processes that often embody a certain amount of bias."

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Fidel Castro's ashes begin final journey across Cuba to the cradle of his revolution

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The normal clatter and music of its streets quieted, Havana came together on Wednesday morning to give Fidel Castro a final send-off as his ashes began their long, symbolic journey eastwards across the island nation back to Santiago de Cuba, the cradle if his revolution.

Thier last chance to see the departed comrade, residents of the delapidated capital formed a solid and hushed line along both sides of the seafront Malecon – a curving boulevard of once-gracious, now mostly crumbling homes facing the Caribbean sea – as his cedar-wood coffin passed slowly by, borne by a simple flat-bed trailer fringed with white flowers, drawn by a green, military jeep.

Earlier, after sunrise, the simple caravan had emerged from the Ministry of Defence, to start the symbolic journey that will take the remains of Cuba’s legendary leader for five decades almost the full length of the island nation from the capital to its eastern tip. 

Set to cover 550 miles and take three days, it will be the reverse of the same journey Mr Castro and his bearded band of fellow revolutionaries took when they marched in victory to Havana in 1959. It will not be lonely with Cubans expected to turn out to line the route for all of its length, many from rural parts, newly impoverished by the collapse of its once mighty sugar industry. 

After his death late on Friday at 90 years of age, Mr Castro, known simply as El Commandante, was cremated on Saturday. Following nine days of official mourning during which everything from loud music to the sale of alcohol has been banned, his ashes will be interred on Sunday.  

Crowds on the Malecon wait for a glimpse of Castro's coffin beneath the iconic National Hotel (AP)

Meanwhile, on Tuesday evening the people of Havana had their moment to pay tribute to a figure who still divides emotions on the island and around the world. He was an icon of the left who stood up to the United States for fifty years, withstanding economic bullying and even assassination attempts, and a dictator who trampled human rights and freedoms.

At Revolution Square, hundreds of thousands joined long lines to lay flowers and hear foreign allies of the left pay tribute to Mr Castro and watch grainy, black-and-white film clips dating from the birth of his reign. Those were the first days when Che Guevara was at his side and they had seized the Havana Hilton as their makeshift headquarters, a hotel once again, filling its rooms with the new surge of foreign tourists unleashed in part by the new thaw with the United States.

“He more than fulfilled his mission on this earth,” declared Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose government supports Cuba's ailing economy with oil sold at a steep discount, a policy of socialist solidarity introduced by the late Hugo Chavez and a crutch for Cuba that was all the more vital as it struggled to survive the loss of patronage from the collapsed Soviet Union. “Few lives have been so complete, so bright,” President Maduro added. “He has left unconquered.”

The simple cortege on the Malecon, the flatbed trailer fringed with flowers (AP)

Left behind is a Cuba where the average wage is $25 a month and where even basic internet connections are mostly unavailable to its still isolated population. But standing on the main dais, President Jacob Zuma of South African praised the other legacy Mr Castro left behind: a record on education and healthcare mostly unmatched in many of the hemisphere’s other poorer nations. 

Fidel Castro, President Zuma told the massive crowd, will be remembered as “a great fighter for the idea that the poor have a right to live with dignity”.

While the world is invited to attend a final memorial service on 4 December in Havana, few other leaders will attend, a reflection of the ambiguity felt for Mr Castro’s mixed record of benign populism and unbending authoritarianism. The United States – which under President Barack Obama this year began a slow process of diplomatic and economic normalisation that may or may not be continued by President-elect Donald Trump – is to be represented only by a top foreign policy aide in the White House, Ben Rhodes. Neither Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain nor Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn are expected to attend. 

When the interment has taken place, Cuba finally will be without a figure whose stature has not been matched by the brother who took over the reins in 2008, Raul Castro, or by the man who is expected to succeed him in just 15 months’ time, Miguel Diaz-Canel, who has been first Vice President since 2013. What will remain, at least for the foreseeable future, is the Communist apparatus that has kept Cuba apart from its neighbours, including the US, for so long.

That, at least, was the promise the government made with giant banners strung up in Revolution Square on Tuedsay night. They read: “The Cuban Communist Party is the only legitimate heir of the legacy and authority of the commander in chief of the Cuban Revolution, comrade Fidel Castro.”

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Bella Thorne, Post Tyler Posey Breakup, Takes to Healthy Lifestyle, Seen Cycling around LA - Foods4BetterHealth

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If you think a breakup with Tyler Posey is going to keep Bella Thorne from living a healthy lifestyle, you’re crazy. The 19-year-old star was spotted cycling around Los Angeles the other day looking super hipster! And the Daily Mail was there to capture her casual Sunday ride.

Now she might not have been out showcasing her aerobic conditioning—the bike and clothing choices made her appear like someone out for a joyride—but you can believe she puts in her work at the gym.

All Over That ‘Gram

If there’s one thing fitness provides, it’s a great opportunity to post scantily-clad pics of yourself on the ‘gram to show off your progress. Bet that. I’ve seen celebrities and others do it so many times and asked myself, “Why? Do I need to know how many planks you can do, how many exercises are in your lower body workout, or why you think your circuit training program needs to be shared with the world? You’re not a fitness professional!” But I realize I might be in the minority here, so I digress.

The truth is that anyone who puts in the work to stay in shape, improve their health, and construct a nice physique deserves some credit—it’s very hard to do.

What You Can Do to Make Your ‘Gram Posts Better

Aside from filters, lighting, and perfectly timing the moment you snap your photo, there are some other things you can do to prime your body for IG. One of them is to get your muscles pumped a bit so they pop for the camera. If you notice in some posts shared by Thorne on IG—and featured on the Women’s Health web site—she’s contorting her body slightly to put the muscles in a flexed position—great strategy.

Of course, even without properly positioning your body, you still need to have some muscle to show off. Women’s Health reports Thorne works on her body with circuit training, yoga, and workouts that focus on both muscle building and aerobic conditioning. Circuits are great for this because they provide high-intensity weight lifting with little rest, keep the heart pumping, calories burning and muscles working.

At only 19, Thorne doesn’t have to worry too much about keeping her diet on point, but that will change—as we age, some of us have a harder time keeping slim if we don’t put in plenty of effort in the kitchen.

Sticking to lean proteins to help build muscle and improve fat loss, while eating plenty of nutritious greens like spinach, kale and broccoli and making sure you’re getting good quality fats from nuts, fish and vegetable oils can all make sure you’re eating things that are highly nutritious and relatively low calorie. The cleaner your diet, the less likely you are to use tricks to get the most from your ‘gram pics. Plus, you can IG your clean meals, too, which is even cooler.

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Sources:
Chaves, P., “Pedal power! Bella Thorne keeps it casual in ripped skinny jeans and hoodie while riding bike in Los Angeles,” Daily Mail web site, November 28, 2016; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3977634/Pedal-power-Bella-Thorne-keeps-casual-ripped-skinny-jeans-hoodie-riding-bike-Los-Angeles.html, last accessed November 28, 2016.
Menato, F., “Bella Throne reveals the workout that ‘fnally got her results,” Women’s Health web site, February 1, 2016; http://www.womenshealthmag.co.uk/fitness/celebrity-body/4451/bella-thorne-reveals-the-workout-that-finally-got-her-results/, last accessed November 28, 2016.

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The Depressing Toyota Of The Future May Suggest Annoying Health Tips - Jalopnik

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You may already use some sort of fitness tracker app or wearable which you swore, at the time, would be the thing to get you back in shape. You probably lost all motivation shortly after. Well, the Toyota of the future is here to remind you, so that’s a problem now.

In a patent filing published last week, Toyota has revealed potential plans to introduce fitness tracking and health goals into your vehicle’s infotainment center. How fun!

The filing describes an application in the car that connects with something like your phone to receive whatever fitness goals you’ve set out to achieve. Based on the goal, the car will consider your location and make a suggestion to help you reach said goal.

The example given in the filing has your car reminding you how out of shape you are by suggesting you park around the corner from your 800 calorie coffee shop to get some extra steps in:

Screenshot via Toyota’s patent filing

One can imagine it could make other suggestions, like nearby parks or trails, gyms, and possibly even integrate location-based ads through your fitness app based on the health stores you commonly commute around.

Perhaps the best way to stick to your goal is something like this. Something you can yell at for reminding you how uncomfortable you are, which doesn’t have any reaction or emotion. It’s just you, shouting at your car about it unknowingly pressuring you into not walking into that Dunkin Donuts.

For now it’s just a patent filing, and it’s not even a bad idea! I just hate that I’ve now had to confront my health again.

Via Roadshow

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Tech Under Trump - WNYC

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For Hillary Clinton, that private email server was an Achilles heel. For Donald Trump, late night tweet-storms and the echo chamber of the so-called alt-right were rocket fuel. For American voters, the power of technology was inescapable.

We've seen the good, bad and ugly of tech this election cycle. And we all have big feelings about it. So Manoush hosted a good old-fashioned call-in, for listeners to share their thoughts and fears about our digital lives under a Trump administration. 

Joining Manoush was Farhad Manjoo, New York Times technology columnist, and Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.  They looked back at how social media shaped the Presidential race, and forward at privacy in the Trump era. We wish we could tell you it's uplifting. But we don't like to lie. 

The call-in show was part of the United States of Anxiety, a series from WNYC Studios. If you're having big feelings about what the new administration means for the arts, women, the economy or just in general, they've got you covered. 

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Eight months pregnant woman and unborn daughter killed in three car horror smash on motorway

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A mum-to-be and her unborn daughter were both killed in a three car horror smash on the M4 motorway.

A two-year-old toddler boy was also injured in the horrific accident and was raced to hospital where he is still be treated.

Tragic Rebecca Evans, 27, was eight months pregnant when the smash happened yesterday morning at around 8.20am near the junction of Margam.

According to Wales Online a 50-year-old man, who was arrested at the scene, has been bailed pending further enquiries.

The accident happened on the M4
(Photo: South Wales Echo)

The collision which involved a BMW, Peugeot and Audi vehicle happened on the westbound carriageway.

South Wales Police are continuing to investigate the incident.

Any witnesses of the incident are asked to contact police on 101 or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555111, quoting reference 1600461041

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'Ronnie O'Sullivan should know better': World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn hits back after star labels the sport a 'car boot sale'

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Barry Hearn has told Ronnie O'Sullivan he 'should know better' after snooker's biggest star compared the sport to a car boot sale.

World Snooker chairman Hearn also rebuked the five-time world champion for suggesting the sport had lost respect in the public eye. And he told the 40-year-old to focus on entertaining crowds, rather than aiming barbs that could offend snooker's valuable stakeholders.

Speaking after reaching the fourth round of the Betway UK Championship, O'Sullivan said on Monday: 'Snooker is becoming a nothing-type sport - it's kind of like a car boot sale but with the other sports it's like shopping at Harrods.'

Ronnie O'Sullivan said: 'Snooker is becoming a nothing-type sport - like a car boot sale'

World Snooker chair Barry Hearn hit back at the sport's biggest star: 'He should know better'

He labelled it 'cheap TV' and questioned its image, saying: 'You look at Formula One and see beautiful-looking people and you look at snooker and think, "God".'

The tournament is being televised in the UK by the BBC and Eurosport, with O'Sullivan a regular pundit on the latter channel.

Hearn said: 'We mustn't be disrespectful to those people who are involved, sponsors and television companies, and the paying fans, to say "this is a car boot sale of sport".

'I deal with lots and lots of different sports because there are lots of different sports who'd cut their arm off to be in the position snooker is in.'

Hearn said O'Sullivan's comment were disrespectful to the sport's stakeholders

When asked about O'Sullivan comparing the sport to Formula One, Hearn told BBC Radio 5 Live: 'As a famous man once said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

'I like normal people, I like working-class people who want to get value for money and want to be entertained by sportsmen who know their job is to entertain.

'Ronnie's an entertainer and he should know better than that.'

Veteran promoter Hearn accepts snooker cannot compete with sports such as tennis, golf and Formula One when it comes to financial rewards, but pointed to the trebling of prize-money available on tour under his chairmanship as proof of its growth.

He said it was 'a total nonsense' to suggest snooker had lost respect, and pointed to 'an awful lot of ticks' in the sport's favour.

'It doesn't mean we've finished the journey,' Hearn added. 'But we need people to be a bit more positive and a bit more helpful to make sure we achieve that journey.

'Because if you talk yourself down in this world you'll never get respect in the first place.'

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At least five dead after tornadoes rip through South - Reuters

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At least five people were killed and dozens more were injured after tornadoes tore through Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi overnight and into Wednesday morning, forecasters and local media reported.

Three people were killed in the night in Rosalie, a small community in northeastern Alabama, where at least one tornado was reported by a weather spotter, the National Weather Service said on its website.

"Nighttime tornadoes can be particularly dangerous since they are difficult to see and can be quick-moving, all while many people are asleep," the National Weather Service said in a statement.

A couple was killed in Tennessee's Polk County, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported, citing a law enforcement official. Several dozen others were injured in the state, including at least 20 people in McMinn County, ABC affiliate WATE reported.

In Ider, Alabama, four children and several adults were injured when a tornado flattened a daycare center, the National Weather Service said. It said the group was seeking refuge inside the daycare center, which was closed at the time.

The National Weather Service fielded more than two dozen reports of tornados as the storm system, packing hail and heavy downpours, moved through eastern Texas, northern Mississippi and Alabama and into southeast Tennessee late on Tuesday and early on Wednesday morning.

The system also destroyed homes and businesses, downed power lines and snapped trees, according to the weather service and local media.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Catherine Evans and Will Dunham)

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Deep tech ascent: Europe's emerging digital industries - Financial Times

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Europe’s tech sector is regularly criticised for lacking ambition but growth in so-called “deep tech” start-ups operating in less glamorous segments of the industry has raised hopes for the future of the region’s digital hubs.

European industrial tech applications and technical platforms that underpin more consumer-focused services — from artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality to big data analytics and chip design — are attracting record levels of activity and investment, according to Atomico, the venture capital fund.

The region’s strong science base through its universities and research centres has in the past rarely fed into creating equally powerful technology groups able to match rivals in the US and Asia.

However, venture capital investors are now betting that the need to power more technically complicated consumer and industrial apps using the internet of things and data analytics means that Europe’s tech hubs can gain an advantage.

More than $2.3bn has been invested in the “deep tech” sector since the start of 2015, according to a study by Atomico, with executives in the industry pointing to the emergence of expertise in particular in robotics, chips and AI. These are feeding into other start-ups aiming to disrupt industries such as retail and finance.

This year, deep tech start-ups are on track to raise almost $1bn, which is four times the capital invested in 2011, with fund raisings in the past few months from companies such as France’s internet of things group Sigfox, Italy’s fintech start-up Euklid and Helsinki-based cloud computing company UpCloud.

“I like to use the word ‘renaissance’ because scientific invention, creativity and entrepreneurialism are all coming together in Europe right now,” says Mattias Ljungman, a partner at Atomico, which interviewed 1,500 European tech experts as part of its study.

“Take artificial intelligence — European companies are using it creatively for everything from fashion design and music creation to healthcare.”

US tech giants have also sought to tap into European expertise, either through investing in their own operations or acquiring and retaining businesses in the region.

For instance, Amazon’s voice-activated speaker assistant, Alexa, was partly built by its team of engineers in Cambridge, acquired through its purchase of Evi Technologies. Facebook’s Aquila drone initiative is being driven in Somerset, where it acquired Ascenta, and Google has built an engineering centre in Zurich.

Asian companies such as Huawei and SoftBank are also investing heavily in R&D in the region.

On Tuesday, Microsoft said that would invest $14m in an internet of things “incubator” based in Espoo, Finland, where Nokia’s headquarters are based.

“Historically the US has a deeper tech record, a deeper tech ecosystem and that’s why most of the big companies have come out of Silicon Valley,” says Kathryn Mayne, managing director of Horsley Bridge, a fund-of-funds that invests in US and European venture capital firms.

“What’s different since 2010 is that Europe has been able to generate some of these big outcomes. It feels like we’re entering a time when the power of things like artificial intelligence will really drive fundamental change faster than has been the case in the past.”

With much of the innovation being driven by research institutions, the talent pool is moving from Europe’s traditional tech hubs such as London and Berlin. Instead, start-up formation and, by consequence, funding is now flowing to locations tied to institutions.

“In the UK, that means Cambridge, but it also means places like Munich and Grenoble which are increasingly attracting huge investment,” said Tom Wehmeier, head of research at Atomico, whose two most recent investments are based in Malmo, Sweden, and Klagenfort, Austria.

“Zurich has definitely built a strong position in AI, VR and big data, on the academia and research side thanks to ETH Zurich,” says Georg Polzer, chief executive of Zurich-based data analytics start-up Teralytics.

“In the last few years this has started to translate into a number of new companies being started, mostly by alumni.”

Artificial intelligence in particular has been a powerful driver of growth. “Europe, and the UK in particular, is arguably the best place in the world for AI given DeepMind is here and is clearly the world leader in the area. Plus, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter have all acquired UK AI businesses,” says Saul Klein, founder and seed-stage investor at London-based Localglobe.

Cities such as Berlin, Zurich and Paris are also noted for AI research. Asian internet giant Rakuten and Facebook both have AI labs in the French capital, working on topics such as image recognition and natural language processing to build into their products.

Atomico’s analysis of LinkedIn data found cities such as The Hague, Antwerp, Birmingham and Copenhagen in the top 10 for having “frontier hardware” skills, including expertise in robotics and drones. Lisbon and Milan were found to be hubs of talent in virtual and augmented reality.

“One indicator [of European tech strength] is that US investors are increasingly coming over here. 158 unique funds invested in Europe this year, not just the top-tier guys. The other is the entry of foreign giants — both in Asia and the US,” Mr Wehmeier says.

This year has also seen a record level of M&A activity in deep tech, much of it led by overseas firms looking to acquire European specialists, with more than $88bn of deals including chip companies Arm Holdings and NXP for $32bn and $47bn respectively. Even discounting these two large acquisitions, transactions crossed $9bn in 2016, almost tripling since 2014.

In the past five years, Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft have acquired 53 European companies. Of these, 30 are from the deep tech category and seven were bought in 2016.

But the level of inbound M&A also underscores worries that Europe has yet to produce its own global tech success story.

Doubts still persist about the level of funding available to entrepreneurs in Europe compared with the US, in a period of economic and political uncertainty in the region. Some of the more promising European start-ups are still eclipsed by well-funded US rivals.

But one welcome sign at least is that global tech groups seem to be more willing to keep the bulk of their acquired businesses in the region, which again has helped foster a wider ecosystem for technology.

“In the past, it would have been fair to say that these companies were swallowed up by their acquirers and all but disappeared, but the trend we see now is the giants are building around them as strategic centres for engineering, product design and service creation,” Mr Wehmeier says.

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Trump to Announce Carrier Plant Will Keep Jobs in US - New York Times

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Photo

The Carrier plant in Indianapolis. The company had previously announced plans to move 2,000 factory jobs from Indiana to Mexico.

Credit
Joshua Lott for The New York Times

From the earliest days of his campaign, Donald J. Trump made keeping manufacturing jobs in the United States his signature economic issue, and the decision by Carrier, the big air-conditioner company, to move over 2,000 of them from Indiana to Mexico was a tailor-made talking point for him on the stump.

On Thursday, Mr. Trump and Mike Pence, Indiana’s governor and the vice president-elect, plan to appear at Carrier’s Indianapolis factory to announce a deal with the company to keep roughly 1,000 jobs in the state, according to officials with the transition team as well as Carrier.

Mr. Trump will be hard-pressed to alter the economic forces that have hammered the Rust Belt for decades, but forcing Carrier and its parent company, United Technologies, to reverse course is a powerful tactical strike that will hearten his followers even before he takes office.

“I’m ready for him to come,” said Robin Maynard, a 24-year veteran of Carrier who builds high-efficiency furnaces and earns almost $24 an hour. “Now I can put my daughter through college without having to look for another job.”

It also signals that Mr. Trump is a different kind of Republican, willing to take on big business, at least in individual cases.

Big day on Thursday for Indiana and the great workers of that wonderful state.We will keep our companies and jobs in the U.S. Thanks Carrier

—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Nov. 30, 2016

And just as only a confirmed anti-Communist like Richard Nixon could go to China, so only a businessman like Mr. Trump could take on corporate America without being called a Bernie Sanders-style socialist. If Barack Obama had tried the same maneuver, he’d probably have drawn criticism for intervening in the free market.

In exchange for keeping the factory running in Indianapolis, Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence are expected to reiterate their campaign pledges to be friendlier to businesses by easing regulations and overhauling the corporate tax code, according to a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump.

Continue reading the main story

The state of Indiana also plans to give economic incentives to Carrier as part of the deal to stay, according to local officials.

The message from Mr. Trump that captivated the Carrier workers — keeping manufacturing jobs in the United States after decades of losses to overseas factories and automation — resonated throughout the Rust Belt. That promise, plus his opposition to pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement, were key reasons he was able to edge out Hillary Clinton in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

We are pleased to have reached a deal with President-elect Trump & VP-elect Pence to keep close to 1,000 jobs in Indy. More details soon.

—
Carrier (@Carrier)
Nov. 30, 2016

Political symbolism aside, saving 1,000 Carrier jobs doesn’t loom so large in an economy that’s created an average of 181,000 jobs a month this year, noted Jared Bernstein, a liberal economist who served as adviser in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2011.

Still, he confessed a grudging admiration for Mr. Trump’s political jujitsu. “If I weren’t so scared of the damage a Trump administration might do, I’d find it refreshing to see an administration fighting for factory jobs like this,” he said. “That said, no one should confuse what Trump is doing here with sustainable economic policy.”

Trump and the Carrier Factory

In February, a video went viral showing furious workers in Indianapolis learning their jobs would be going abroad.

Over the long term, and for less prominent firms, the temptation to move to cheaper locales for manufacturing will stay great, said Robert Reich, a prominent liberal Democrat who served as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration.

“Memories are short but the economic fundamentals remain the same,” he said. “Wall Street is breathing down companies’ necks to cut costs, and the labor savings in Mexico is too great.”

Mr. Trump first announced he was talking to Carrier on Thanksgiving Day via Twitter, which the company quickly confirmed. The discussions have continued this week, and with a tentative deal in hand on Tuesday, transition officials scheduled Mr. Trump’s and Mr. Pence’s visit to Indianapolis.

“I didn’t think it would be this quick,” Mr. Maynard said.

While the standoff loomed large in the lives of its employees in Indiana, for United Technologies the forgone savings is tiny — equivalent to about 2 cents per share in earnings.

“Every penny counts, but if we step back and I’m looking at earnings of $6.60 per share this year, 2 cents is an easy concession if the president-elect listens to some of the company’s bigger concerns,” said Howard Rubel, a senior equity analyst with Jefferies, an investment banking firm in New York.

Continue reading the main story

When Carrier announced in February that the two Indiana factories would be closing, it did offer benefits to employees facing layoffs, including paying for them to go back to school and retrain for other careers. Even with that, however, once the layoffs were to begin in mid-2017, most of the workers would have had a hard time finding jobs that paid anywhere near the $20 to $25 an hour that veteran line workers earn.

Carrier is best known for its air-conditioners, but it also sells a variety of other heating and cooling equipment for homes and businesses, like the gas furnaces and fan coils for electric furnaces made at the Indianapolis factory. The jobs in Indiana Mr. Trump has referred to are in two separate sites — the Carrier plant in Indianapolis, with 1,400 employees, and a United Technologies factory in Huntington, Ind., with 700.

While Carrier will forfeit some $65 million a year in savings the move was supposed to generate, that’s a small price to pay to avoid the public relations damage from moving the jobs as well as a possible threat to United Technologies’ far-larger military contracting business.

Roughly 10 percent of United Technologies’ $56 billion in revenue comes from the federal government; the Pentagon is its single largest customer. With $4 billion in profit last year, the company has the flexibility to find the savings elsewhere.

Members of Congress have been pressing to punish big military contractors if they move jobs outside the United States.

Many industrial companies face intense pressure from Wall Street to increase profits, even when the economy grows slowly — a major reason United Technologies decided to move.

That won’t change after Mr. Trump takes office — especially when hourly pay in the Indianapolis plant is equivalent to what workers in Mexico make in a day.

“This is a spot solution,” said Mohan Tatikonda, a professor at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. “If it goes through it helps some Carrier employees for a period of time, but it doesn’t address the loss of manufacturing jobs to technological change, which will continue.”

Continue reading the main story

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Miami Neighborhood Gets a High-Tech Makeover

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Nov. 30, 2016 12:00 a.m. ET

A pair of private developers are looking to build a technology and cultural hub in a faded manufacturing neighborhood in Miami.

South Florida-based commercial real-estate brokerage and developer Metro 1 is working with private investment firm Dragon Global to develop a 15-acre mixed-use project, called Magic City, in Miami’s Upper East Side.

The goal is to attract a community of innovators and entrepreneurs to live, work and play in a walkable campuslike neighborhood that attracts technology companies and retailers, said Metro 1 President and Chief Executive Tony Cho.

The project is currently self-funded but over time the developers will look for long-term debt and equity partners, they said.

The $1 billion project, which the developers are dubbing “Innovation District,” will be developed in multiple phases over several years with the initial one focused on repurposing existing dilapidated factory space.

The developers are taking a leaf from Industry City in Brooklyn, a waterfront industrial area that is being revitalized for office and retail offerings. Miami has become a popular location for companies to base their South American operations.

The developers started work on Magic City over the past four years, renovating some of the old warehouse buildings that will open this week, including a sculpture garden and studios that could host concerts.

In all, about 170,000 square feet of industrial space would be repurposed for commercial and retail use, and there are plans to build an office tower that would house an innovation center, an amphitheater and residential units, said Mr. Cho.

In technology hubs such as New York City, San Francisco and Silicon Valley, employers often look for locations that are walkable, said Bob Zangrillo, CEO of Dragon Global, which has focused on internet and technology investments in social networking, e-commerce and entertainment media.

Building smaller apartments without having to build “behemoth garage space” will make the residential units more affordable for workers, Mr. Cho said, noting that ride-hailing apps will help to fill residents’ transportation needs.

Developers face the danger of overbuilding in Miami and other parts of Southeast Florida, which is especially vulnerable to volatility in the global economy because foreign buyers such as South Americans, Canadians, Russians and Europeans make up a significant portion of demand.

While the area has enjoyed population growth, “the multifamily sector is now faced with an elevated number of new units under construction. The Southeast Florida markets will need to see if demand will remain strong enough to absorb new units coming to market,” said nonprofit researcher Urban Land Institute in a recent report.

Write to Esther Fung at esther.fung@wsj.com

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From enemies to potential allies: How the Trump-Romney divide began to heal - Washington Post

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Shortly after Donald Trump won the presidential election, one of Mitt Romney’s closest friends sent him an urgent plea over email: Move past the campaign hostility and, for the “best interests of the country,” consider joining the new president’s team as his secretary of state.

Then the friend, Stephen Pagliuca, who worked with Romney at Bain Capital and has socialized with Trump, urged advisers to the president-elect to press Trump to name Romney for the State Department job.

Pagliuca’s messages, which he sent shortly after he saw that Romney’s name was being floated, are part of the behind-the-scenes effort to heal a seemingly unbridgeable divide between two bitter foes, one a beloved figure of the Republican establishment and the other who upended his party hierarchy and won the White House as an avowed outsider.

During the campaign, Romney called Trump a “phony” and a “fraud,” and Trump said Romney was a “choker” who walked “like a penguin.”

But Pagliuca, a co-owner of the Boston Celtics and a Democrat, said he knew something that others didn’t. When he golfed with Trump at a Boston-area course some years ago, Trump had talked at length about how much he admired Bain Capital, a private equity firm that Romney led until 1999.

Today, as Pagliuca and other Romney backers see it, Trump, 70, and the 69-year-old Romney had far more in common than many realize: Both came to prominence as risk takers and dealmakers, and both have spent much of their lives seeking to emulate and outdo the success of their fathers. Trump’s father, Fred, was a New York City developer, and Romney’s father, George, was a governor of Michigan who unsuccessfully sought the presidency.

This shared background may not be enough to persuade Trump to nominate Romney to be his secretary of state.

Nevertheless, Trump has made clear that Romney is a candidate for the job, and the two met Tuesday night for nearly two hours over dinner at Jean-Georges restaurant in New York, accompanied by the Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, who is slated to be White House chief of staff.

Speaking to reporters, Romney sounded nothing like the man who earlier this year declared Trump a fraud, remarking instead that he was deeply impressed with the president-elect. He did not apologize for his earlier criticism.

Romney said that his conversation with Trump was “enlightening and interesting and engaging” and that he had been “very impressed” by Trump’s victory speech, which called for inclusion. “By the way, it is not easy winning [the presidency]. I know that myself. He did something I tried to do and was unsuccessful,” Romney said.

The former Massachusetts governor said he has been impressed by Trump’s transition operation and by the people selected for other Cabinet posts. Romney said that all of those factors “give me increasing hope that President-elect Trump is the very man who can lead us to” a bright future.

Donald Trump's senior adviser and former campaign manager took to the television airwaves on Nov. 27 to lobby publicly against former Massachusetts gov. Mitt Romney as secretary of state. But Trump is set to meet with Romney again on Nov. 29. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Trump’s consideration of the 2012 Republican presidential nominee has drawn outrage from some, but advocates argue that Romney’s background and intellect would provide a crucial balance for the foreign policy team.

“I think Trump sees that,” Pagliuca said.

Romney, meanwhile, sees the possible job not just as a way to fulfill his desire to serve, but also to salve deep wounds, having lost both the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and the 2012 general election campaign for president.

“Romney’s motivation, I suspect, is that losing twice still stings, so achieving a prominent position like secretary of state would wash away some of the bitterness of losing two presidential elections,” said Rob Gray, who served as a key adviser during Romney’s Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign and governorship.

A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Romney associates said they see him as a person who would make up for Trump’s deficiencies.

“I would describe a potential relationship as complementary,” said Marc Wolpow, who worked with Romney at Bain Capital from 1990 to 1999 and also has met Trump. “I think if you would merge both of them you’d have the perfect president. . . . Mitt could be the good cop to the bad cops that surround Trump.”

Wolpow said the two men probably see qualities in the other that each is missing. Romney, he said, failed to connect with blue-collar voters and made “excuses” for his wealth, but he possesses the diplomatic skills to be secretary of state. Trump hit it off with many average voters and cited his financial fortune as part of his appeal, but his brusque manner could be problematic in handling world affairs.

“Mitt has the brilliance, the analytical mind, the temperament,” Wolpow said. “I think Trump sees in Mitt . . . qualities that Trump doesn’t have, and I think Mitt sees in Trump qualities that Mitt doesn’t have.”

Associates said Romney’s Mormon faith also plays a role. Although they said Romney would not try to use the position of secretary of state to directly influence people to consider converting to his religion, the job would be one of the highest-profile government positions ever held by a Mormon, which could help the church’s effort to gain acceptance around the world.

Trump, for his part, has a history of working with Mormons and has said he values their work ethic. Trump once counted as his closest friend and business associate a Mormon named Stephen Hyde, who oversaw Trump’s Atlantic City casino empire until he died in a 1989 helicopter crash. Trump, in an interview with The Washington Post earlier this year, said he admired the way Hyde devoted himself to his work and his church, recalling that the company deducted Hyde’s tithing directly from his paycheck.

“Every month he would give a big percentage of his salary to the Mormon church, which I always respected a lot,” Trump said.

Romney’s moralistic sense of responsibility couldn’t be more different from Trump’s self-styled playboy lifestyle, which has included two divorces and a high-profile affair. But Trump and Romney share a trait that is important to both men: Trump, whose brother died of symptoms related to alcoholism, and Romney share an aversion to alcohol; both men have said they never drink.

Romney, like Trump, does not have deep experience in foreign affairs. He served as a Mormon missionary in France, did some deals around the world and oversaw the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. During the 2012 campaign, he relied heavily on a group of foreign policy and military advisers, not always successfully. During a visit, he stunned British organizers of the Olympics by saying their efforts at security were “disconcerting.” The Guardian headlined a story about his visit, “Mitt Romney visits London while stumbling on almost every front.”

Romney famously labeled Russia as the No. 1 geopolitical foe of the United States, a view mocked by some at the time but later seen as prescient, given Russia’s annexation of Crimea and other actions. Trump has taken a rosier view, signaling that he wants to reset Russian relations.

Romney, whose father was born in Mexico — where the family had moved to escape anti-polygamy laws in the United States — has urged closer ties between the United States and its southern neighbor. Trump has promised to build a wall between the nations and make Mexico pay for it, and he proposed banning most Muslims from entering the country. That prompted Romney earlier this year to say Trump “creates scapegoats of Muslims and Mexican immigrants.”

The two agree, however, on many other foreign policy issues, such as moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a top priority for Trump. Romney said in 2012 that he would declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office, a pledge duplicated by Trump. When Trump endorsed Romney in 2012, Romney said he was “very pleased” because Trump “shares my concern about China — the fact that China has been able to run roughshod over many industries in this country. Presidents have complained about it, but really haven’t taken action to stop China from taking away our jobs.”

Trump initially mocked Romney’s plan to have 11 million illegal immigrants “self-deport,” calling it “crazy” and “maniacal,” warning that it would cause the Republican Party to lose many Hispanic supporters. But Trump eventually one-upped Romney on his proposal, calling for forced deportation and saying some Mexican immigrants were criminals and “rapists” and “some, I assume, are good people.”

As for Trump’s assertion that Romney walked like a penguin, the president-elect recently looked at Romney and saw a different visage. He said Romney, who is invariably formal, well-coifed and finely dressed, “looks the part” of secretary of state.

Read more:

Trump keeps eye on Romney for State Dept. despite scorn from some loyalists

Romney twisting in the wind offers a preview of Trump’s reality-show governing style

In Trump’s Washington, rival powers and whispers in the president’s ear

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