4 US Sports Leagues Could Reap $4.2 Billion a Year from Legal Betting

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - The four major U.S. professional sports leagues could reap a combined $4.2 billion annually as a result of legal sports betting, most of it indirectly from increased fan engagement, according to a casino industry survey released on Thursday.

The findings could fuel a long-simmering feud between the gaming industry and American sports leagues, who want a share of the gambling revenue as U.S. states begin to legalize sports betting.

The survey showed leagues stand to benefit even without taking a cut of wagers. The National Football League is likely to make the most, with a projected $2.33 billion of additional annual revenue, according to the study seen by Reuters. The rest would go to Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League.

The Nielsen Sports survey was commissioned by the American Gaming Association (AGA), which represents the casino industry. The NBA and MLB declined to comment. The NFL and NHL did not reply to requests for comment.

For years, the leagues fought states' efforts to legalize sports betting, arguing it would lead to game fixing.

Supreme Court ruling a game-changer

But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out a federal ban against sports betting, paving the way for any state to legalize, regulate and tax the activity.

Since then, the leagues have sought to glean a portion of the coming windfall to help them fund additional integrity measures. They also have argued that they deserve a portion of wagers because there would be nothing to bet on without their players, stadiums and games.

Major League Baseball has said it wants 1 percent of the total amount of money bet as an "integrity fee."

Lawmakers in New Jersey, the first major state outside of Nevada to roll out sports betting, flatly rejected that idea.

Heated exchange

At last week's annual Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, tensions flared when Kenny Gersh, an MLB executive vice president, told a panel the integrity fee should be called a "royalty" and that leagues had lowered their request to 0.25 percent.

"You want a cut of the revenue without any of the risk," shot back fellow panelist Sara Slane, the AGA's senior vice president of public affairs.

"We have to go through a regulatory process. We invest billions of dollars in buildings and our licenses," she said. "You want us to take that risk, pay you, and then you're going to benefit on the back end as well."

The AGA study found that $596 million of leagues' total increased annual revenue would come from gaming services spending on television advertising, $267 million from sponsorship deals with the sports betting industry and $89 million from data and video revenue.

But the study projected that the bulk of the projected windfall would come if more fans, attracted by betting, attend games or watch them. Nearly $3.3 billion is tied to those indirect revenues, including media rights and more merchandise and ticket sales.

Over 13% increase in revenue for NFL

For the NFL alone, indirect revenues could grow 13.4 percent to $14.8 billion of annual revenue, the report said.

The study has a margin of error of 3 percentage points and surveyed more than 1,000 adult sports fans and self-identified bettors nationwide, asking how a national legal market would affect sports consumption habits.

The national market would need to include at least 100 million people for the leagues to fully benefit, Nielsen estimated. (VOA)

Economics to Take Center Stage as Japan’s Shinzo Abe Arrives in China

BEIJING, LELEMUKU.COM - China is Japan’s largest trading partner and despite meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of numerous international events, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had yet to travel to Beijing for a bilateral summit. All that changed Thursday, when the Japanese leader arrived in the Chinese capital to mark the 40th anniversary of the Treaty of Japan-China Peace and Friendship.

It’s Abe’s first trip to Beijing since assuming Japan’s premiership six years ago.

Three days in China

During the three-day visit, economic issues are expected to rise to the top of discussions, although regional security issues related to the East China Sea and North Korea will most likely also get some attention.

The Japanese leader will sit down with Premier Li Keqiang Thursday and attend a reception to mark the 40th anniversary of the treaty. He then meets Xi on Friday, which will be the first Sino-Japanese summit since 2011.

Government officials and analysts expect the three-day summit will lay the groundwork for future meetings and a potential trip to Tokyo by Xi.

In a policy speech Wednesday, Abe said, “Tomorrow I will visit China. As we unflaggingly exchange summit diplomacy, I will also deepen the exchanges between the two peoples in all levels of activities from business cooperation to sports.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the bilateral summit was important and hoped that Beijing and Tokyo could move beyond the past to forge a new future.

“[We] will reconfirm that we are partners, not rivals; and reconfirm the consensus that we take each other as opportunities, not challenges; so that we could further improve and develop our ties, and at the same time deepen our mutually beneficial cooperation in all fields,” she said.

East China Sea and North Korea

When it comes to regional security issues, two of the most prominent topics for Tokyo and Beijing to discuss are competing territorial claims in the East China Sea and security concerns regarding North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Jonathan Berkshire Miller, a senior fellow at the EastWest Institute, expects that Xi and Abe will “agree to disagree” when it comes to the issue surrounding ownership of islands Japan calls Senkaku and referred to as Diaoyu by Beijing.

A senior research fellow with the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies in Tokyo, Grant Newsham, also doesn’t see “any resolution, or movement towards resolution of the territorial issues in the East China Sea.”

Nevertheless, Newsham notes some positive advancements in bilateral security. He cites a recent naval exchange program agreed to by the two governments as one step forward. But when it comes to North Korea, Newsham expects nothing more than a general statement to work together to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

According to Miller, China’s role of implementing and maintaining sanctions on Pyongyang has traditionally been a concern for the Japanese leadership.

“I think Japan is so focused now on the U.S. and South Korea, and seeing what the Trump administration[’s approach is]” that Tokyo’s has now expanded its attention on North Korea and sanctions beyond Beijing, Miller said.

He said there’s concern in Japan about the prospect of sanction relief for North Korea without significant progress on denuclearization and the weakening of deterrence, leading Japan to stress the need to continue to maintain a united line on North Korea.

Economics to overshadow security issues

While issues related to the competing claims in the East China Sea and North Korea will be discussed, Miller expects most of the focus will be on economic cooperation initiatives, “because that is the area for good news.”

One area Miller said is worth watching is what Abe says about China’s Belt and Road initiative, especially since the establishment of a bilateral council.

“Japan has showed on a case-by-case basis that it’s willing to endorse working with the Belt and Road, but it hasn’t fully gone on board and said, ‘OK, this is a great initiative, and Japan is fully behind it,’” Miller said.

Aside from the Belt and Road initiative discussions, Newsham said the planned implementation of a $25 billion currency swap agreement between the two nations will likely be discussed.

Although Newsham doesn’t expect much in terms of concrete agreements resulting from this “feel good” meeting.

He expects a probable end result will be a “shaking of the hands and [a] vague sense that they agreed on something,” but without specific details.

However, Newsham added whatever ultimately is discussed, the outcomes won’t “lead the Chinese to change their adversarial position towards the Japanese, who they see as, the one Asian obstacle to Chinese domination of the region.” (VOA)

NY Police Seize ‘Suspicious Package’ Sent to De Niro Restaurant

NEW YORK, LELEMUKU.COM - New York police seized early Thursday what they called a suspicious package in a lower Manhattan neighborhood.

Media reports quoted police officials as saying a package similar to one sent to prominent Democrats earlier this week was sent to the address of a restaurant owned by actor Robert De Niro. The package was carried away in a containment vehicle for examination.

The latest development came as U.S. investigators worked Thursday to figure out who is responsible for mailing explosive devices to a number of current and former high-ranking government officials and the news network CNN.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray called the probe the FBI’s highest priority after authorities discovered someone sent pipe bombs to former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democrats.

"We have committed the full strength of the FBI's resources and, together with our partners on our Joint Terrorism Task Forces, we will continue to work to identify and arrest whoever is responsible for sending these packages," Wray said in a statement.

President Donald Trump said at a rally late Wednesday that targeting government officials "is an attack on our democracy itself." On Thursday morning, he contended that a "very big part of the anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News."

Throughout the day Wednesday, leaders from both the major parties called for a return to civility in the political arena, a theme Trump picked up on at the rally.

"No one should carelessly compare political opponents to historical villains, which is done often and all the time. It's got to stop," said the president. "We should not mob people in public spaces or destroy public property. There is one way to settle our disagreements -- it's called peacefully, at the ballot box. That's what we want."

"The media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative, and, often times, false attacks," he said.

CNN President Jeff Zucker issued a statement saying members of the Trump administration have a "complete lack of understanding" about the seriousness of their frequent attacks against the media.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded on Twitter, accusing Zucker of being divisive.

Package targets 

Packages were also sent to a former attorney general, a Democratic Party member of Congress and a former director of the CIA, all of whom are prominent critics of Trump's presidency.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the top two Democrats in Congress, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon, accusing Trump of fanning the flames of political unrest.

Within hours of the U.S. Secret Service announcing it had intercepted a package sent to Clinton in New York and one to Obama in Washington, the Time Warner Center in New York, where CNN has studios, was evacuated Wednesday morning after a suspicious package addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan was found in the mail room there.

A device that was contained in an envelope was safely transported from the site in a special truck by the city's police department bomb squad. The addressee, Brennan, is a commentator on MSNBC, a rival cable news broadcaster.

New York police officials said it appeared to be a live explosive device and the package it came in also contained a white powder.

All of the other suspicious packages also contained a printed label with the congresswoman's name and address as the sender.

The Secret Service says the package addressed to Clinton was discovered late Tuesday, intercepted at a mail screening facility near her home in a New York suburb where she lives with her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Speaking on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton thanked the Secret Service for intercepting the package that was addressed to her.

"It is a troubling time, isn't it? It's a time of deep divisions and we have to do everything we can to bring our country together," said the former secretary of state at an event in Florida.

A separate package addressed to Obama, according to the Secret Service, was intercepted at a screening facility at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, a 365-hectare military facility in Washington.

California Congresswoman Maxine Waters was sent two suspect packages, one intended for her office in the nation's capital and the other for her home district office. The first was intercepted at a congressional mail sorting center in the state of Maryland, and the second discovered by postal inspectors at the Los Angeles Central Mail Sorting Facility.

The first in the series of explosive devices was found Monday in a mailbox outside the New York home of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, a major donor to Democratic candidates.

The Secret Service said the packages addressed to Obama and Hillary Clinton "were immediately identified during routine mail screening procedures as potential explosive devices and were appropriately handled as such. The protectees [Obama and the Clintons] did not receive the packages nor were they at risk of receiving them." (VOA)

Inpex Donate to Relief Efforts For Earthquake and Tsunami in Central Sulawesi

JAKARTA, LELEMUKU.COM - Inpex Corporation would like to express its deepest sympathies to all who have been affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Palu and surrounding areas, Central Sulawesi province.

Inpex and its employees have decided to making more than Rp 1 billion contribution to help and support the province and its people recover from the disaster.

Inpex and its employees’ donation will be channelled through the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), which will further allocate it to provide logistics for the earthquake and tsunami affected people. Among the logistics are blankets, tents, sarongs, maskers, buckets, hygiene kits, baby kits, gloves, body bag, mosquito net, water tank, etc.

Several times in the past, Inpex has channelled its donation through PMI to assist casualties in major disasters in Indonesia such as the earthquakes in Aceh (2004), in Padang (2009) and in Mentawai (2010).

Besides donation through PMI, Inpex, together with other Production Sharing Contract (PSC) Contractors in Indonesia and the Indonesian Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas Business Activities (SKK Migas), will jointly provide relief aid for victims of Central Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami. SKK Migas is now coordinating the relief aid to be distributed in the disaster location.

Inpex is the largest Oil and Gas Company in Japan with more than 70 projects across over 20 countries including Indonesia, Australia, Kazakhstan, United Arab Emirates, and Brazil. In Indonesia, it has been operating since 1966.

Currently in Indonesia, Inpex has been involved in several oil and gas blocks in exploration, development and production period including Masela Block, in Arafuru Sea, in which Inpex Masela, Ltd., one of Inpex Corporation subsidiaries, is the operator. INPEX Masela, operating under the Masela PSC, is being supervised by SKK Migas. (Inpex)

Scientists Create ‘Social Network’ of Brains to Share Thoughts

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - There have been many books written and movies made describing the ability of people to communicate through thoughts. While this idea has not been demonstrated in reality, physicists and neuroscientists have reported some progress in recent years.

Now, scientists say they successfully connected the brains of three people who were able to send thoughts to each other. A group of researchers reported their new findings in a scientific paper posted on the internet.

The scientists – from the University of Washington and Carnegie Mellon University - say they believe their experiment is the very first of its kind. The team used electronic tools to complete the test of brain-to-brain communication.

It was not the first time this same group of researchers connected different human brains, MIT Technology Review reports. In 2015, they used similar equipment to link up the brains of two people. Part of that experiment involved the two test subjects playing a simple word game, the publication said.

The group calls its new project BrainNet. It described the system as the first “direct brain-to-brain interface” designed to help people cooperate in problem solving.

In the experiment, the scientists said only brain-to-brain communication was used as the three individuals played a video game together. The game was a simplified version of the video game Tetris, which became hugely popular in the 1980s. In the game, players try to match colored blocks falling onto a puzzle.

How it works

Two kinds of electronic devices were worn by people taking part in the experiment. Electroencephalograms, or EEGswere used to record electrical brain activity of subjects. The other, called transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, is a process that magnetically stimulates a part of the brain. This was used to send information to others involved in the experiment.

During the game, two players were chosen as “senders” and a third as a “receiver.” The senders had brain signals “decoded” using real-time EEG information. The decoding process recorded each sender’s decisions about suggested moves in the game. The sending and receiving of information was carried out by the subjects looking at different forms of light.

The decisions were then transmitted through the internet to the brain of the receiver, who could not see the video game. The receiver then uses the information from the senders to decide on what game moves to make. An additional part of the game provided a second chance for senders to examine the receiver’s decision and send feedback to the receiver’s brain.

The researchers said experiments were carried out with five different groups, each with three human subjects. They reported all the groups were able to use BrainNet to perform the game moves with a success rate of 81 percent.

The scientists added noise to one sender’s signal to test whether that would affect the receiver’s responses. They reported that the receivers learned to recognize the most reliable senders by using only the information transmitted to their brains.

The researchers wrote that the results “raise the possibility of future brain-to-brain interfaces that enable cooperative problem solving by humans using a ‘social network’ of connected brains.” (VOA)