text:
The First Lady tweets to say she is "looking forward to the memories" she will make in her new home.
Joe Satriani and his guitar-playing style is a spectacle to watch. He is the guitar virtuoso responsible for tutoring some of the famous guitarists in the world today. There seems to be an eternal bond between musicians and the instruments they play. Every musician has an ideal instrument built for him/her to produce their desired sound. Joe is no different and Being a tech savvy person for most of my lifetime, there came a time when I was looking around for good Botox treatment in and around Georgia. has been his long time collaborator. .
How women are changing champagne
A new generation of women are making their mark on the champagne industry. Are they more attuned to the delicate flavours?
Works of art like poetry are a good source of entertainmentI urgently need a Restylane laser hair removal treatment to get rid of my gross body hair from any spa in Georgia. but this can only be achieved fully if the narrator has a great sense of humour, angelic voice, facial expressions and amazing body language. The importance of those qualities is the ability to make the audience a part of the poetry such that they sympathise and empathise with the narrator.
Michael Jordan Converse shoes sell for record $190K at auction
A pair of game-worn Michael Jordan sneakers sold at auction for $190,373 on Sunday, setting a record for game-used shoes.
Diabetes-sniffing cat Charlie is 'lifeline' for owner
Meet Charlie, a remarkable rescue cat who can "smell" when his diabetic owner's blood glucose levels drop.
Notre-Dame attack: Farid Ikken appears in Paris court
He is charged with attempted murder of law enforcement officials and association with terrorists.
Rob Rogers Fired By Pittsburg Post-Gazette's Pro-Trump Bosses Last Month
Rob Rogers was fired from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last month by the paper's pro-Trump bosses.
Mother bear cuts off Dracula's Poenari Castle in Romania
A protective Romanian bear is officially more scary than Dracula – at least for tourists.
Adam West, 'Batman' Star, Dead At 88
Longtime actor Adam West died Friday night, June 9, at the age of 88. He famously played the title role in the 1960s television series ?Batman.?
A rep confirmed to Variety that the actor died after being treated briefly for leukemia.
?Our dad always saw himself as The Bright Knight, and aspired to make a positive impact on his fans? lives. He was and always will be our hero,? said his family in a statement.
The West family also tweeted from his account:
West remained a working actor until his death, notably with recurring voice work for animated projects such as ?Family Guy? and ?Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders.?
On ?Family Guy,? the actor voiced a character with his own name. ?Adam West? seemed to be immortal no matter what medical catastrophe came his way. A memorable moment from the show involved a doctor telling West he had lymphoma ? ?Probably from rolling around in that toxic waste.? The doctor goes on to ask, ?What in God?s name were you trying to prove??
West?s response, ?I was trying to gain super powers.?
The actor also made cameos as himself on shows like ?30 Rock? and ?The Big Bang Theory.?
Over the past 50 years, he never fully retired his role as Batman, voicing the character as late as 2017 in the upcoming video ?Batman vs. Two-Face.? Since the original show, West also appeared in various non-lead roles in the ?Batman? series.
West?s ?Batman? is now remembered as being comically over-the-top, as he was in relatively low-budget action sequences and often uttered cringe-inducing dialogue. Perhaps the most famous line from the series was when West yelled, ?Quick! To the Batmobile!?
The actor embraced the humor of his take on the Dark Knight throughout the rest of his life. In 2006, West appeared on the game show ?I?ve Got A Secret? and revealed that he even got a ?tattoo? of the Batman logo on one of his teeth.
West graduated from Whitman College as a literature major. After being drafted into the United States Army, he got a gig as the announcer for an internal television service for the military called the American Forces Network. It wasn?t until 1959 ? when West moved his then wife and two children to Hollywood, California ? that he took the stage name Adam West, adapted from his given name, William West Anderson.
After moving to Hollywood, West secured small roles in numerous shows and movies, many of which were Westerns. But when he landed the role as Batman about a decade into his career, West became extremely famous.
Once the original run of ?Batman? ended in 1968, West had a bit of a lull in his career, with serious work being hard to come by. To support his family, he had to do ?things that I wasn?t very comfortable doing,? the actor explained in the 2013 documentary ?Starring Adam West.? He had exploit his fame for money with celebrity event appearances and risky ventures, such as a daredevil stunt where he drove a car through a truck.
West?s persistence eventually started earning him more comedic roles, though, as he embraced the love fans had for his zany Batman.
In April 2012, West was finally awarded with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. To begin his acceptance speech, West addressed the crowd as ?citizens of Gotham.?
The actor is survived by his wife, Marcelle Tagand Lear, who he married in 1970. West has four children over three marriages ? Hunter Anderson and Jonelle S. Anderson with his second wife, Nga Frisbie Dawson, and Nina West and Perrin West with Lear. West also has two stepchildren from the Lear marriage, Moya and Jill.
The Robin to his original Batman, Burt Ward, is now 71.
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Tim Cook 'Reveals' Who Is Really Behind Donald Trump's Late Night Tweets
Tim Cook used part of his address to graduating students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday to poke fun at President Donald Trump.
The Apple CEO began by saying he?d never figured out how students at the university in Cambridge pulled off their spectacular course-end pranks ? such as the placing of a propeller atop the campus? Great Dome.
?Or how you?ve obviously taken over the president?s Twitter account,? Cook added. ?I can tell college students are behind it because most of the tweets happen at 3 a.m.?
Cook went on to deliver some serious advice to the class of 2017, and the effect that the online world may have on their lives.
?The internet has enabled so much and empowered so many. But it can also be a place where the basic rules of decency are suspended and pettiness and negativity thrive,? Cook said.
He encouraged students not to let ?the noise knock you off course? or to ?get caught up on the trivial aspects of life.?
?Don?t listen to the trolls, and for God?s sake don?t become one,? Cook added. ?Measure your impact on humanity not in likes, but in the lives you touch. Not in popularity, but in the people you serve.?
Watch Cook?s full speech in the clip below:
type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related Coverage articlesList=593a6813e4b0240268782296,593ba5f4e4b0c5a35c9fd86d,5937bf2be4b01fc18d3ed093
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Tim Cook 'Reveals' Who Is Really Behind Donald Trump's Late Night Tweets
Tim Cook used part of his address to graduating students at MIT on Friday to poke fun at President Donald Trump.
The Apple CEO began by claiming he?d never figured out how students at the university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, pulled off their spectacular course-end pranks ? such as the placing of a propeller atop the campus? Great Dome.
?Or how you?ve obviously taken over the president?s Twitter account,? Cook added. ?I can tell college students are behind it because most of the tweets happen at 3 a.m.?
Cook went on to deliver some serious advice to the Class of 2017, and the effect that the online world may have on their lives.
?The internet has enabled so much and empowered so many. But it can also be a place where the basic rules of decency are suspended and pettiness and negativity thrive,? said Cook.
He encouraged students not to let ?the noise knock you off course? or to ?get caught up on the trivial aspects of life.?
?Don?t listen to the trolls, and for God?s sake don?t become one,? Cook added. ?Measure your impact on humanity not in likes, but in the lives you touch. Not in popularity, but in the people you serve.?
Watch Cook?s full speech in the clip below:
type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related Coverage articlesList=593a6813e4b0240268782296,5937b840e4b0ce1e7408f977,5937bf2be4b01fc18d3ed093
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Chris Collins Is A Good Example Of Why Americans Think Congress Is Corrupt
Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) has an extremely exciting opportunity for you.
Collins is the largest shareholder in Innate Immunotherapeutics, a small Australian biotech company, and a member of the company?s board. And he?s been happily talking up the stock to his congressional colleagues, The Hill reported Thursday.
The old image of congressional corruption was a machine politician who funneled government spending to his allies back home. But Congress doesn?t really do earmarks anymore, thanks to a 2010 reform.
Collins, an early and vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, represents the new face of lawmaker self-dealing: a rich man using the stature of his office to become richer, and telling colleagues to come along for the ride. ?If you get in early, you?ll make a big profit,? he told colleagues, according to other six Republican members.
Collins told The Hill he never discussed Innate Immunotherapeutics with his colleagues. He did, however, admit to telling some constituents about the stock. ?I?ve presented opportunities in Buffalo,? he told the paper. ?I?ve said, ?Here?s an opportunity. Listen. Read. Study. Make a decision.? That?s the only thing I ever did, and that was in Buffalo.?
Collins? office denies any wrongdoing. ?Congressman Collins has followed all ethics rules and laws when it comes to his investments,? spokeswoman Sarah Minkel told HuffPost in a statement.
?As he would about the success of his children, he has never been shy about talking about the work of Innate Immunotherapeutics,? Minkel said. The statement went on to promote the potential of the company?s drug treating multiple sclerosis, and to point out that without congressional funding, it might never have been developed.
Among those who heeded Collins? tips about Innate Immunotherapeutics is Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, a former GOP congressman from Georgia whose purchase of shares at a discounted price not available to the public became a controversy in his Senate confirmation hearing.
Democrats have filed complaints against Collins and Price with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), who sponsored the law against members of Congress insider stock trading, was among four people who filed complaints against Collins with the Office of Congressional Ethics, The Buffalo News reported last month. A spokeswoman for the ethics office wouldn?t confirm the existence of an investigation.
Collins sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee?s health subcommittee (a detail helpfully included in his bio on Innate Immunotherapeutic?s website). Until 2012, there was no law against members of Congress trading on inside information they learned as a result of their legislative work. For the last five years, however, the law sponsored by Slaughter, called the STOCK Act, has prohibited such trades.
It?s unclear whether Collins did anything that qualifies as insider trading, bad as it may look. Strictly speaking, insider trading only applies to trading securities like stocks using material, non-public information. In this case, Collins has a duty to Innate Immunotheapeutics shareholders not to divulge non-public, material information about the company. But he?s not necessarily restricted from promoting the company with public information that?s true.
Collins? spokeswoman would not answer HuffPost?s questions about whether the congressman had confidential information about Innate Immunotherapeutics. But the job of a board member is to oversee the financial health and strategic direction of the company. Board members routinely have access to inside information to do their jobs.
?It just reeks of insider trading,? Craig Holman, of the watchdog group Public Citizen, told HuffPost of Collins? promotion of the stock. Holman said he is among those who have filed complaints against Collins with the SEC and the Office of Congressional Ethics.
Collins takes no salary as a member of the Innate Immunotherapeutics board. He owns 4 million shares, according to congressional financial disclosure forms, now worth a little over $2 million.
For Collins personally, the best outcome would clearly be that he is cleared of any wrongdoing.
For the reputation of Congress, that would be the worst-case scenario ? a judgement that there?s nothing wrong with the director of a public company moonlighting as a congressman and using his perch to sell stock to his colleagues and constituents.
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Watch Camila Cabello Sing 'Despacito' Like a Boss
Camila Cabello is giving us life with her cover of ?Despacito.?
The former Fifth Harmony member appeared on Capital FM Wednesday, where she was asked by host Roman Kemp to sing a portion of Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee?s hit song. The 20-year-old Cuban-born singer absolutely nailed it, flawlessly singing the chorus and pretty much giving us chills.
Cabello?s short and sweet performance comes a few weeks after Justin Bieber butchered the chart-topping remix of the track, replacing Spanish lyrics with gibberish. It was bad. Really bad. But Cabello?s rendition is so good, it almost made us forget about Bieber?s disastrous performance. Almost.
Watch Cabello?s performance in the clip above and bask in her incredible talent.
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North Carolina Tar Heels' Luke Maye flips car, but is uninjured
North Carolina forward Luke Maye, one of the heroes of the Tar Heels' 2017 NCAA tournament men's basketball championship, was uninjured after his car flipped several times and came to rest upside down on a North Carolina Interstate.
UN Warns, ISIS Using 100,000 Girls and Boys as Human Shields in Mosul
ISIS is slaughtering people as they flee the besieged city of Mosul, Iraq. According to a United Nations report, at least some 231 civilians have been killed since May 26.
Tyler Chatwood's one mistake no issue as Colorado Rockies top Chicago Cubs
CHICAGO — Tyler Chatwood made just one mistake on Thursday, but by the next inning, it hardly seemed to matter.
British PM May reaches deal with Northern Ireland party
Northern Ireland's Democratic Union Party said it reached a deal with Britain's Conservative Party to keep Prime Minister Theresa May in power.
Newcastle Jobcentre hostages released by knifeman
The armed man was alone in the building but might be in possession of explosive devices, police said.
'Fresh breeze'
What kind of man is Crown Prince Naruhito, the 57-year-old who will be Japan's next emperor?
It's Simple: Either Trump Or Comey Is Lying. Who Is More Credible?
President Donald Trump and former FBI Director James Comey have given very different public accounts of the handful of times the two spoke before Trump abruptly fired Comey in May.
Comey laid out his version of events before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, detailing comments the president had made to him about the FBI?s investigation into links between Russia and the Trump campaign and its probe of Trump?s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Comey?s account suggests that the president attempted to interfere with the bureau?s investigations, pressed the then-FBI director to pledge Trump his loyalty and asked him to ?get out? the word that the president wasn?t personally under investigation.
Trump, his personal lawyer and his staff have denied this account.
When it comes to finding out what exactly transpired during those private meetings and phone calls (assuming there are no secret recordings), it?s Comey?s word against Trump?s. Who, then, is more credible?
There are several key points on which Trump and Comey differ:
Comey said that during a Jan. 27 meal, Trump told him, ?I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.? Trump?s private attorney, Marc Kasowitz, said the president ?never? asked for loyalty ?in form or substance.?
In a May interview with NBC News? Lester Holt, Trump claimed the January meeting took place because Comey ?wanted to have dinner? with the president. On Thursday, Comey said it was actually Trump who invited him to dine at the White House.
Comey, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other officials attended a briefing at the White House on Feb. 14. According to Comey, Trump asked to speak to him alone after the briefing and, during the ensuing conversation, said he hoped ?you can let this go,? in reference to the FBI?s investigation of Flynn. Trump has denied this.
After Trump fired Comey on May 9, Trump administration officials claimed the FBI rank and file had lost faith in their director. Comey testified Thursday that ?those were lies, plain and simple.?
Trump has repeatedly denied that Russia interfered in any way in the 2016 election, dismissing the story as ?fake news.? During Thursday?s hearing, Comey said he has ?no doubt? that interference did happen. ?That?s about as unfake as you can possibly get,? he said.
As Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) put it during Thursday?s hearing, ?a lot of this comes down to who we should believe.?
Comey, who was confirmed as FBI director in 2013, has spent much of his career at the Justice Department. While he was registered as a Republican for most of his adult life, he has served presidents in both parties (including Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) and is known as nonpartisan.
By most accounts, Comey was well respected within the FBI and has a reputation as a person of integrity ? a reputation that was solidified back in 2007, when he offered damning testimony about warrantless domestic spying during oversight investigations of the Justice Department under then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Senators in both parties praised Comey while questioning him on Thursday, with many remarking on his candor and honesty.
Perhaps the largest stain on his record involves his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton?s use of a private email server as secretary of state. Comey drew intense criticism from Republicans when he said that no charges would be pursued against Clinton, then running for president. But the greatest outcry came when Comey publicly announced that the FBI might re-open the investigation just days before the presidential election. Many Democrats, including Clinton herself, have partially blamed Trump?s victory on that announcement.
Comey himself has said that decision caused him personal anguish, but that it arose from a desire to preserve the reputation and credibility of the Justice Department.
?Look, this was terrible. It makes me mildly nauseous to think that we might have had some impact on the election, but honestly, it wouldn?t change the decision,? he said at a congressional hearing in May.
Trump?s credibility, meanwhile, is debatable at best. The president and his team have repeatedly lied to the public, by HuffPost?s count perpetuating 100 notable falsehoods within just the first 36 days of his administration. And polls show that a strong majority of Americans do not have much faith in Trump?s remarks on the Russia probe. (A much smaller majority do not trust Comey?s statements on the matter.)
The president?s lies have ranged from the inconsequential, such as his insistence that his inauguration crowds were much larger than they actually were, to the potentially dangerous, like his unsubstantiated comments that millions of non-citizens voted illegally in the 2016 election.
Trump has claimed that he saw footage of ?thousands? of Muslims in the U.S. celebrating after the 9/11 attacks. (That?s been debunked.) He?s suggested that President Barack Obama ordered wiretapping on Trump Tower. (There?s no evidence this happened.) And he repeatedly perpetuated the myth that Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen. (Obama was born in Hawaii.)
It?s now up to Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who was appointed as special prosecutor to oversee the Russia investigation after Comey?s firing, to determine which version of events he believes. Mueller, too, served under presidents from both parties and is known for his independence.
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General election 2017: Exit poll predicts SNP to lose 22 seats
SNP predicted to win 34 seats with the Conservatives falling short of an overall majority across the UK.
Watch The Moment This Teen Receives A Birthday Surprise From His Late Father
A late father?s love for his young son is resonating around the world thanks to a viral video that captures a remarkable birthday surprise.
On Wednesday, just two months after his father?s unexpected death, Johnny Crow?s older sister drove him to a Port Huron, Michigan music store for his 16th birthday where he was filmed being handed a sealed card signed by ?dad.?
?Johnny getting a 16th birthday surprise,? his sister, Chandler Mae Crow, begins to narrate her video that shows him opening the card and then reading it out loud.
?Ready to see your present?? she then asks, prompting staff to carry a rectangular box up to Johnny, which they open to expose a glistening electric guitar.
?It?s for you, man,? a store employee tells him as Johnny stares down it, frozen in place.
?Dad bought it for you before he passed away, for your birthday,? his sister tells him, prompting a rush of emotion from the teen.
As his sister told HuffPost on Thursday, this gift had been one in the making for some time by their father.
?Johnny has been wanting this guitar for a while. He would joke with my dad about getting it in the future,? she said by email. ?He was a HUGE supporter of Johnny?s music dream and lived for his family. My dad would tell everyone that he knew Johnny was going to be famous one day and worked hard to get him there.?
?He was a HUGE supporter of Johnny?s music dream and lived for his family."
Chandler Mae Crow
Their father, John B. Crow, passed away unexpectedly on April 1st, but not before taking measures to help encourage Johnny?s dream, his daughter shared.
Though the family celebrates several birthdays in June, Crow said her father set money aside to afford the guitar for his son.
?Paid every penny off and everything,? she boasted.
In less than 24 hours, the family?s video had been viewed on Facebook more than 4.4 million times, earning the teen birthday wishes from around the world.
Responding to the messages, his sister told HuffPost: ?Johnny is overwhelmed with happiness with all the birthday messages and inspirational words from amazing strangers!?
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U.S. escalates airstrikes against Syrian government
The U.S.-led coalition to fight the Islamic State struck pro-government forces in Syria for the third time in recent weeks.
European Central Bank Meeting Focuses on 'Forward Guidance'
While the bank made no changes to monetary policy, it offered a few clues about how quickly it will ease economic stimulus to the eurozone.
The Babadook Is Apparently Now A Gay Icon And The Internet Is Losing Its Mind Over It
We?re babashook!
The titular bad guy from the 2014 horror movie ?The Babadook? has suddenly become a gay icon and the internet can?t get enough of his delightfully evil homosexual ways.
Vulture believes the hilariously puzzling phenomenon can originally be traced back to a Tumblr post from October 2016:
Buzzfeed reported that the craze began in the summer of 2016 when the film was mistakenly listed in the LGBT section of Netflix:
Teen Vogue claims that the image was actually edited and notes that while the newly out boogeyman-like character first became a sensation months ago on Tumblr, it wasn?t until earlier this month that it really began to take off in tandem with LGBTQ Pride celebrations.
No matter what the real backstory is, one thing is certain: people just can?t get enough of gay Babadook.
We?re still not really sure how or why this happened but we don?t really care. We?re just happy to have The Babadook as part of the family.
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A boy reunites with family in Land of the Dead in new 'Coco' trailer
A young boy visits the Land of the Dead in the new trailer for Disney/Pixar's animated film "Coco."
'Monster' rocket 'selfie' delights India
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House Votes To Let Some Border Officer Applicants Skip The Polygraph
WASHINGTON ? President Donald Trump wants to hire thousands more Customs and Border Protection agents, and the House wants to help him, in part by loosening some of the screening requirements for hiring.
The House voted 282-137 on Wednesday to exempt some applicants from a polygraph that a 2010 anti-corruption law currently demands of all applicants to CBP. The new bill would allow the agency, which includes the Border Patrol, to waive the requirement for certain individuals who served in law enforcement or the military.
Supporters of the bill argue it?s a matter of common sense: Why put people through a polygraph test if they were already approved for another law enforcement agency or the military? But CBP has struggled for years with corruption, abuse and misconduct in its ranks, including by veterans and former police officers. With the agency set for a massive expansion, some Democrats warned that loosening standards could undermine safety.
?We cannot give up on the need to fully vet these people,? Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said on the House floor ahead of the vote.
CBP is facing a staffing shortage that could increase under Trump. There are about 1,800 unfilled positions currently, and the president wants to add 5,000 more employees, which has led officials to consider changes to speed up hiring.
Polygraphs have been one major obstacle in bringing on new employees: Government officials say 60 percent of CBP applicants don?t pass them. The agency is already testing shorter polygraph exams and supports a legislative change that would allow it to exempt some applicants entirely, although officials told The Wall Street Journal that the agency would not compromise on its standards.
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Wednesday that he would ?support anything that would speed up the process, so long as we don?t skimp on the quality and the vetting, to put more men and women to work.? He was responding to a question from Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), the sponsor of the polygraph waiver bill, who?d asked him about her measure during a hearing.
After the House vote, McSally said in a statement that her bill would give CBP ?discretionary ability to hire qualified, vetted individuals who already have earned public trust? and to ?increase the security of our nation and facilitate cross-border commerce and tourism.? The congresswoman is an Air Force veteran.
Democratic opponents warned the bill could make it easier for corrupt individuals to join CBP. Polygraphs have helped detect serious problems in the past, including attempts by organized crime to infiltrate the agency, the Center for Investigative Reporting found in 2013. Some applicants admitted to engaging in or having relatives who engaged in drug or human smuggling; one woman said she had smuggled marijuana into the U.S. about 800 times. Others admitted to taking money to kill people or possessing child pornography. Some of those applicants were veterans, according to the report.
CBP has struggled with employees? bad behavior, even if those wrongdoers represent only a small percentage of its workforce. There were 2,170 reported arrests for misconduct such as driving under the influence or domestic violence for fiscal years 2005 through 2012, according to the Government Accountability Office. During the same period, 144 current or former CBP employees were indicted or arrested for activities related to corruption.
The veterans and law enforcement officers that McSally?s bill could exempt from polygraphs don?t currently pass the tests at a higher rate than other applicants, James Tomsheck, who served as CBP?s assistant commissioner for internal affairs from 2006 to 2014, wrote in a column for The Hill.
?Nor do these groups present a lesser risk of integrity violations: they have been involved in some of the most serious CBP corruption activity and excessive force incidents,? Tomsheck wrote in opposing the legislation. ?Importantly, very few members of the military take polygraphs or have comprehensive background checks, and the quality of state or local law enforcement polygraphs varies widely. Past service in these capacities is by no means a proxy for proper, thorough vetting by CBP.?
Homeland Security Inspector General John Roth told The New York Times that loosening polygraph requirements ?could put CBP at significant risk.?
?While it may sound reasonable to say you could waive requirements from former military personnel because they have passed a polygraph, Border Patrol agents work in a different environment that is not as controlled as the military,? Roth said.
Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) proposed an amendment that would delay implementation of the CBP hiring bill until the Department of Homeland Security?s inspector general determined that it would not endanger national security and until CBP completed its pilot program of an alternative polygraph test. That amendment was voted down.
?We shouldn?t blindly experiment with our nation?s security,? Lujan Grisham said on the House floor ahead of the vote, ?given that drugs, weapons and human trafficking, as well as terrorism, are all threats we are facing at the border.?
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U.S. Pays Farmers Billions To Save The Soil. But It's Blowing Away
Right now, the government rents farmland to help protect soil and water. But once the land is farmed again, the benefits disappear. Environmentalists want to change that.
MLB's Scooter Gennett Calls 4-Homer Game 'Surreal,' And Others Agree
Cincinnati Reds utility player Scooter Gennett was responsible for more runs than 24 of the 30 MLB teams that played Tuesday night, ESPN reports.
Miami Dolphins KR Jakeem Grant says he can be trusted in year two
Miami Dolphins return man Jakeem Grant, who mishandled five punts and kickoff returns last season, admitted he got rattled after the first mishandled ball.
Michigan city rejects man's attempt to pay $270 fine in pennies
A Michigan man attempted to make a statement by paying his $270 fine in pennies, but the coins were rejected by officials.
Cape Town storm: Eight killed as drought ends
Among the dead is a family of four killed in a fire started by lightning, as storms end a drought.
Stephen Colbert Makes Plea To Donald Trump To Stop Tweeting
Nation, we have a bigly problem on our hands.
Donald Trump has the power to start a new national outrage in 140 characters or less. His tweets aren?t only concerning to the country, but also his own staff, whom he consistently contradicts.
For example, the White House kept saying Trump?s travel ban wasn?t an actual ?travel ban,? only to be met by tweets like this:
Stephen Colbert thinks everyone?s had enough. He?s already held a Twitter-vention for the president. Now, he?s just making a desperate plea.
?First of all, thanks for watching, sir,? said Colbert in a message to Trump on his Tuesday show.
He continued, ?Second, as an honorary member of the media, please stop tweeting, especially early in the morning so we have to write about it all day long ?cause that?s a lot of material for us to have on our show. Some days we come up with too many jokes, and we have some left over for the next day, and I have to start drinking early. So please, no tweeting. None. I demand it.?
Colbert even had ?Cartoon Donald Trump? on the show to confront him about the tweets, and apparently not even a fake Donald Trump can stop himself.
?The Late Show? airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS.
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Best of Late Night: Reality Winner, Accused of Leaks, Becomes a Late-Night Sensation
?So it?s official: The Trump administration is at war with Reality,? Stephen Colbert said.
Indonesia counts its islands to protect territory and resources
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Being married 'protects your health'
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Margaret Atwood Has Some Fixes For A Crisis That's Slowly 'Killing Us'
This story is part of a series on ocean plastics.
Margaret Atwood, the author behind hit Hulu series ?The Handmaid?s Tale,? is well versed in the types of hot-button issues that polarize societies. In a new op-ed, the dystopian author says she?s also keen on tackling a devastating problem that much of the world is barely talking about: plastic waste.
Atwood writes in her piece, published in The Guardian on Saturday, that she considers plastics the ?modern equivalent of a universal religion.?
?We worship them, whether we admit it or not,? she explains. ?Their centre is whatever you happen to be doing, their circumference is everywhere; they?re as essential to our modern lives as the air we breathe, and they?re killing us. They must be stopped.?
In Atwood?s lifetime, the world went from barely using any plastic to being unable to live without it. Plastic is cheap, and can be found in pretty much everything we use ? from clothing to diapers to shopping bags. We just as readily discard these products without thinking twice, which leads to the dumping of billions of pounds of plastic waste in oceans. While the scope of the issue ? and its effect on living beings ? is difficult to calculate, environmentalists are gravely concerned.
If we don?t change our consumption habits, by 2050 there will be more plastics in the ocean than fish by weight, according to a report from the from the World Economic Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Animals are mistaking plastic for food, and are getting seriously injured ? or dying ? after becoming entangled in discarded trash.
Human health risks associated with plastics may be enormous. Scientists haven?t settled on exactly how these substances affect humans, but numerous studies suggest that chemicals in plastics may be linked to birth defects, diabetes, cancer and infertility.
Microfibers ? which shed from synthetic clothing ? make their way from washing machines, to natural bodies of water and into the tissues of marine life. How this will affect fish, and the people who consume them, is still unknown.
Microplastic particles are affecting marine algae, which is the ?basic building block of oceanic life,? Atwood adds. Marine algae are responsible for making about 70 percent of the oxygen we breathe. Destroying them could mean killing ourselves.
Atwood outlines a three-point plan to address the issue, calling for reforms that advocacy groups and environmentalists have long promoted.
She wants organic and biodegradable replacements for plastic products. That?s a critical one, considering how long it takes for plastic items to decompose. A plastic bag, for example, often used for one shopping trip and then immediately thrown out, takes 10 to 20 years to decompose.
Atwood wants the industry to devise methods to collect plastics before they reach the oceans and filter plastics out of seawater. Such robust systems exist in developed nations like the U.S., but not as much in developing nations.
Finally, plastic products need to be broken down into their basic parts. This is crucial, especially considering how much plastic packaging can?t be recycled. They?re often made from multiple layers of materials, and the recyclable components can?t be separated out.
A number of activists and environmental groups are already working on some of the action items Atwood raised.
Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Røkke, who made his fortune in offshore drilling, is donating most of his wealth to cleaning up the oceans. In 2020, in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund Norway, he?ll be launching a massive yacht, which will collect 5 tons of plastic a day. The researchers on board will work to identify plastic alternatives and develop ways to keep plastics from entering the ocean.
These are the types of reforms that give Atwood hope.
?We may yet save ourselves from being plasticised to death,? she writes.
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Paris Police Shoot, Wound Hammer-Wielding Assailant Outside Notre Dame
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Quinoa Salad Recipes For When You're Feeling Extra Healthy
Of all the great ways to make quinoa ? the nutritional powerhouse seed that grows plentifully on the other side of the equator ? the quinoa salad is perhaps the most perfect. Yes, we?re saying it?s better than quinoa breakfast hash. And even better than quinoa nachos. Why? Because it?s so easy to make.
Cook up a batch of quinoa ? but make sure you give it a good rinse first ? and mix it with a handful of ingredients. Just like that, you made a delicious, healthy meal you can eat for lunch or serve as a side for dinner. Boom.
Here are some recipes to get you started:
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Let Trump Be Trump, Kellyanne
Kellyanne Conway is right ? the media obsesses over presidential tweets from Donald Trump. What she fails to understand, though, is that there?s a very good reason for this obsession. Trump tweets make news because they are newsworthy. If Trump tweets were bland and boring repetitions of White House policy, pre-vetted by the communications team, then it?s likely nobody would pay any attention to them. But they?re not. They are, as one interviewer pointed out to Kellyanne this morning, Trump?s preferred method of communication to the American public. And what he?s got to say makes news because nobody else in the administration can speak for Trump.
The media obsesses over presidential tweets from Donald Trump. What Conway fails to understand, though, is that there?s a very good reason for this obsession.
Trump was supposed to morph, somehow, into a more presidential figure after being sworn in. That didn?t happen, obviously. Trump is still Trump. Part of being Trump is his id-fueled communications to his supporters, often via Twitter. Nobody knows what Trump?ll tweet next, which is part of the obsession Kellyanne complains about, but is also due to how many times Trump has previously made news for himself and his administration ? good or bad ? by tweeting. If there wasn?t the potential for breaking news, then there would be no media obsession (or, at the very least, Kellyanne?s disapproval of it would then be justified).
The problem stems from the inherent nature of the Trump White House. In normal times, the press can talk to any number of sources ? press secretaries, presidential advisors, cabinet members, administration experts ? and they know that these sources are speaking with the full authority of the president. They speak for the president or even with the voice of the president, which means whatever they say will be treated as the official policy emanating from the Oval Office on down. In such normal times, it would be highly abnormal for the president to ever contradict one of these aides or advisors, because any administration wants to clearly speak ?with one voice.? So a story about a president contradicting or overruling a spokesman would be big news, in normal times.
Trump?s administration is anything but normal, however. There are competing factions within the White House, making it nothing more than a glorified group of high school cliques clawing at each other for prominence. It actually matters whether a media source belongs to the Jared Kushner faction or the Steve Bannon faction, in other words. Other White Houses have experienced such power struggles, but this is usually seen as a bad thing by them. Trump, though, revels in the competition among his subordinates. It?s a feature, not a bug. Because of this, the duelling cliques can fight right out in the open, which has given the media an absolute goldmine of leaks, which are solely designed to undermine one faction or another. Contradictions abound, even within the highest ranks of the White House staff.
But it?s even worse that that, because Trump himself feels free to chart his own course on just about anything, in his early-morning Twitter sessions. This means that no media source ? no matter how prominent or official or on-the-record ? can hope to ?speak with the voice of the president.? Nothing any White House source says can be trusted in the slightest. Kellyanne says something on the morning news shows, and hours later the press office completely contradicts her, and nobody even notices any more, because that?s just how things roll in the Trump White House. The media has some sport explaining the egg on the face of whichever Trump spokesperson has just been undercut, but by now it?s a regular occurrence. Sometimes other advisors will contradict White House spokespeople, and sometimes Trump himself will shoot them down with a single tweet.
Either way, there is exactly zero trust from both the public and the media of anything anyone (other than Trump) says in the Trump administration anymore. Nobody can guarantee that Trump will wind up agreeing with them, their policy, their stance on an issue, or even the basic facts of the case. Statements by the vice president, by cabinet members, by close advisors, and by any number of underlings have been proven to be completely false later on. Nobody can be trusted to speak for Trump but Trump. Sure, it?s soothing to hear people like Nikki Haley and Rex Tillerson professing a sober and sane outlook towards the rest of the world, but it?s become impossible to believe either one of them even knows what Donald Trump actually thinks about basic foreign policy at all. Just look at the answers to whether Trump believes in man-made global warming (which have been all over the map this weekend) for proof of this. But no matter what someone like Haley says, everyone still waits to see what Trump will tweet about it ? because nobody knows whether he?ll back up his spokespeople or totally undercut their stance.
This is why Trump tweets matter. Because he never holds back in them, and says what he truly believes. To put this another way: you can trust a Trump tweet, because it comes straight from the presidential fingers. You know that?s what he really thinks, no matter how many aides or secretaries contradict him or try to spin it later on.
This is all exacerbated by how little Trump actually talks to the press. Trump has always had a love/hate relationship with the media, in that he loves seeing his name in the news but he hates it when the news makes him look bad. A key point is that Trump thinks he himself does a perfectly wonderful job of talking to the media. But he seems to be chafing against the restrictions his own team is putting on his press access. By my count, we?ve had one single solo Trump press conference and one single major television sit-down interview from Trump in his over four months in office. That?s not a lot, by Trumpian standards. He used to enjoy sparring with the press on the campaign trail on an almost daily basis, and he even threatened a few weeks ago to abolish the daily White House press briefing entirely and instead directly give a press conference every couple of weeks.
This is what gives the lie to Kellyanne Conway complaining about the media?s obsession with Trump?s tweets. The question should be posed directly to her: ?Well, if you don?t want us paying so much attention to Trump?s Twitter account, then why doesn?t the White House staff just ?let Trump be Trump? and allow him to hold a full press conference every couple of weeks?? If the press could get direct quotes from Trump on any and all issues, his tweets would be pretty irrelevant. If Trump was breaking news in the White House press room instead of on Twitter, then there?d be no reason to obsess over his tweets. So let Trump be Trump ? he loves matching wits with reporters, so why now allow him to do so on a regular basis?
The Republican Party has reportedly hit upon a strategy for the 2018 midterm campaign ? paint the press as the enemy. It?s the press that is making Trump and the Republican agenda look bad, in other words, so vote for me because I hate the press! The press needs to push back against this by pointing out the White House is so scared of what he?ll say that they are the ones restricting the flow of information from Donald Trump to the people. In fact, it is people like Kellyanne herself who are allowing the press to obsess over tweets when they should be talking directly with Trump himself. Free Trump from his Twitter cage, and let him speak directly instead ? and the problem Kellyanne is upset about will completely go away. If Trump was making news on a regular basis with his direct quotes, then his tweets would be nothing more than an afterthought, barely worth a footnote in the reporting.
Kellyanne Conway is right. The press does obsess over Trump?s tweets. But that?s only because he makes so much news in them. When nobody can trust that a statement by a White House official won?t get contradicted by a Trump tweet hours later, then this obsession will continue. But the ones responsible for this situation are the people in the White House who are terrified to let Trump channel his inner Trump in direct contact with reporters, not the reporters themselves. Since Trump thinks he does such a great job in press conferences, why not let him do more of them, Kellyanne? Let Trump be Trump!
Chris Weigant blogs at:
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
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The Arab American Left And Palestine: The Untold Story
President Donald Trump has twice tried to institute a travel ban on all refugees from six or seven Muslim-majority countries. During the presidential campaign, Trump called for a ?total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,? slated to last ?until our country?s representatives can figure out what is going on.? His Muslim ban has been struck down by two courts of appeals and may be headed to the Supreme Court.
With his mean-spirited bans, Trump aimed to capitalize on fear of Muslims fueled by the 9/11 terrorist attacks and exacerbated since by the U.S. government and the corporate media.
Long-standing prejudice against Arabs
This anti-Muslim sentiment is a continuation of long-standing prejudice against Arabs that reached its zenith during the last third of the 20th century. In her provocative book, The Rise of the Arab American Left: Activists, Allies, and Their Fight Against Imperialism and Racism, 1960s-1980s, Pamela Pennock traces the trajectory of Arab American leftist activism in the United States over a series of key decades.
Pennock writes about the enduring portrayal of ?Arabs as variously exotic, erotic, savage, uncivilized, and incapable of autonomy.?
Indeed, media critic Jack Shaheen?s book and 2007 film, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, document negative stereotypes of Arabs depicted in American movies. ?All aspects of our culture project the Arab as villain,? Shaheen says in the film.
He includes lyrics from the opening music of the Disney film ?Aladdin?: ?Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place, where the caravan camels grow, where they cut off your ear if they don?t like your face. It?s barbaric, but hey, it?s home.? ?Aladdin? has been seen by millions of children around the world.
Anti-Arab prejudice has also been fueled by Hollywood?s depictions of Arab women as ?highly sexualized belly dancer[s] ? inspired by early images of the Orient as the place of exoticism, intrigue and passion,? Shaheen notes. More recently, however, ?this image has dramatically changed: The Arab woman is now projected as a bomber, a terrorist.?
Events that politicized Arab Americans
These stereotypes are racist, sexist and patently false. Many Arabs came to the United States to study. Once here, they were moved to activism primarily by Israel?s treatment of the Palestinians.
As Pennock observes, the single biggest factor that galvanized Arab Americans was the dispossession of Palestinian Arabs occasioned by the creation of the state of Israel and its occupation of Palestinian territories.
In order to establish Israel as a Jewish state in 1948, nearly 700,000 Palestinian Arabs were expelled from their homes and their land. They call it the Nakba, which means ?catastrophe? in Arabic.
A second catalyzing event occurred in June 1967, 50 years ago this month. Israel, with help from the United States, invaded Egypt, Jordan and Syria and seized the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula.
Later that year, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 242, which refers to ?the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war? and calls for ?withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.? Nevertheless, Israel continues to occupy Palestinian territories it acquired in 1967.
In addition, the 1967 war stoked anti-Arab sentiment in the United States. ?While anti-Arab prejudice became especially pervasive and damaging after September 11, 2001, the stigmatization heightened in the aftermath of the 1967 war when many Americans increasingly grouped people of Arab heritage together, regardless of their citizenship or whether they resided in Arab nations or in the United States, and viewed them as threatening and suspicious,? Pennock writes.
The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
One event intensified anti-Arab prejudice in the United States and made it difficult for Arab Americans to ?dissociate from stereotypes of terrorists,? according to Pennock: the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy by Palestinian American Sirhan Sirhan.
Sirhan was 4 years old when he and his family were forced by the Israeli military to flee their home in Jerusalem. That trauma informed his perception of Israel. Sirhan was disturbed by U.S. support for Israeli policies. During the presidential campaign, Kennedy vociferously backed Israel. For the 24-year-old Sirhan, who suffered from mental illness, Kennedy?s words intensified his pain.
Attorney Abdeen Jabara, a member of Sirhan?s defense team, told Pennock that this confluence of events supported a diminished-capacity defense to the murder charge. Sirhan ultimately was convicted of murdering Kennedy and condemned to death. His sentence was later converted to life without possibility of parole when the law changed in California.
The Munich Olympics murders
Four years later, in an attempt to free Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, the Black September faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization murdered Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.
As a result of the 1972 massacre, the Nixon administration increased surveillance and investigation of Arab Americans, in a program called ?Operation Boulder.?
?Operation Boulder?
?[B]ecause the Arab visa checks and investigations of Arab Americans were publicized in the American media as constituting the U.S. government?s reaction to the Munich massacre,? Pennock observes, ?the government had in effect stigmatized all Arabs as suspect in the public?s mind.?
But the investigations ?never detected a single case of terrorist or espionage activity among Arabs living in the United States,? she reports. Operation Boulder, which officially ended in 1975, lasted only two years. But the U.S. government continued to monitor Arab Americans for many years thereafter.
Many leaders in the Arab American community thought the real aim of Operation Boulder was ?to suppress Arab Americans? legal political expression, particularly their pro-Palestinian activism ? it was a program of political intimidation? that ?also sought to ?divide and conquer? Arab American communities by making them suspicious of one another,? Pennock writes.
Jabara, one of those investigated during Operation Boulder, later wrote that the program could ?only be understood against the background of the definite pressure that [has] been brought to bear by Israel and its supporters in the U.S.?
Jabara told Truthdig, ?The matrix of the prejudice was part and parcel of the ?unswerving commitment? by the U.S. and its allies to Israel despite its gross violation of Palestinian rights. In short, there was an organic connection between the prejudice that was promoted in American popular culture as a support mechanism to a foreign policy that enabled Israeli aggression and colonization. Both the Americans and Israelis wanted to crush any resistance, regardless of what forms it took.?
In the wake of 9/11, in another racist operation, the Bush administration rounded up and incarcerated hundreds of Arab Americans who had committed no crime. Bush also instituted his Terrorist Surveillance Program to spy on people without judicial review. That program was codified by Congress and continued during the Obama administration.
In 2011, Wired uncovered FBI training materials that described how agents were taught to consider ?mainstream? Muslims as supporters of terrorism.
The Intercept reported in 2014 that documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the FBI and the National Security Agency covertly read emails of prominent Muslim Americans, including lawyers, academics, civil rights activists and a political candidate.
Arab American activism
Jabara was a founder and past president of the Association of Arab American University Graduates (AAUG), the first national organization of Arab American peace and civil rights activists. Founded in 1967, AAUG was the most visible and active Arab American organization in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It had chapters in most U.S. cities and universities.
AAUG was ?a select group of Arab Americans [college graduates] who formulated a sense of ethnic identity, fostered community solidarity, and practiced progressive and transnational politics,? Pennock writes.
This group was committed ?to an anti-racist, anti-imperialist analysis of Arab world problems? and was ideologically aligned with the global left. It aimed to demonstrate to Americans that ?Zionism was a form of colonialism rather than a legitimate expression of Jewish nationalism.?
Significantly, AAUG ?helped elevate the Palestinian struggle to the status of a premier universal human rights issue,? AAUG member Ghada Hasem Talhami later observed.
AAUG?s scholarly analysis, published in the Arab Studies Quarterly and other papers and monographs, ?was usually critical not only of Israel and U.S. policy in the Middle East but also of conservative Arab states,? Pennock notes. Following the 1967 war, Egypt and Syria had ?demonstrably retreated from their commitment to pan-Arabism and Palestinian independence,? she adds.
Thus, Jabara notes, AAUG provided a forum for Arab intellectuals, artists, activists and political figures who may not have had such opportunities to meet in their home countries.
Jabara saw a natural alliance between the issues facing Arab Americans and the struggles of ?Black Americans, Chicanos, Oriental Americans, young people and civil libertarians,? all of whom were ?excluded from any meaningful participation in the American decision process.?
Most in the African-American community had traditionally formed alliances with Jews. But by the 1980s, many became increasingly critical of Israel?s treatment of the Palestinians, which they equated with South African apartheid.
The most significant factor driving U.S. foreign policy, according to Jabara, was not the Zionist lobby, but rather ?America?s definition and pursuit of its economic interests in the region.?
Arab students, many of them members of the Organization of Arab Students (OAS), likened the struggle of the Palestinians to the Vietnamese fight for self-determination.
By the 1980s, the Muslim Student Organization supplanted OAS as the leading organization of Arab American students, who were increasingly becoming Muslims.
In 1980, Jabara helped form the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) with former Sen. James Abourezk and Arab American Institute founder James Zogby. Jabara also served as president of ADC, which is still a significant organization.
Jabara told Truthdig that the 1973 oil embargo by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries led to an ?uptick? in prejudice against Arab Americans. ?That led to the creation of the ADC in 1980,? he added.
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG), the nation?s oldest and largest progressive bar association, was the first in the United States to be racially integrated. From the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, Jabara played the central role in convincing NLG to take up the issue of Palestine and the rights of Palestinians to self-determination. No issue has ever been as divisive in NLG. Some Jewish members left the organization, but it continues to oppose the Israeli occupation.
In 1977, Jabara led the first NLG delegation to Israel, Palestine, Syria and Jordan, and contributed to the delegation?s groundbreaking 1977 report on conditions in the occupied territories. That report was widely circulated within the then-young human rights network and is largely credited with paving the way for other organizations to break with the pro-Israeli orthodoxy and issue their own reports critical of Israeli human rights abuses.
Jabara was also a key participant in the lawsuit filed by NLG and the Center for Constitutional Rights against the FBI and the Anti-Defamation League of the B?nai B?rith for spying on NLG and other Arab American and progressive groups.
Anti-Zionism vs. anti-Semitism
In 1975, the U.N. General Assembly, by a 2-to-1 margin, passed a resolution equating Zionism with racism. It drew parallels between Israeli Zionism and apartheid South Africa. The United States voted against the resolution.
Beginning in the mid-to-late 1960s, people critical of Israel?s policies were accused of anti-Semitism, a characterization that persists to this day. Indeed, those who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement are often labeled anti-Semitic.
Following in the tradition of the Arab American call for the United Auto Workers to divest its Israeli bonds in the early 1970s, the BDS movement was launched by representatives of Palestinian civil society in 2005. They appealed to ?international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era ? [including] embargoes and sanctions against Israel.?
This call for BDS specified that ?these nonviolent punitive measures? should last until Israel fully complies with international law by 1) ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the barrier wall; 2) recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and 3) respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their land as stipulated in General Assembly Resolution 194.
Students for Justice in Palestine, which focuses predominantly on the BDS movement, has been tarred as anti-Semitic by Zionist groups on campuses throughout the country.
But Rafeef Ziadah, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, says, ?The BDS movement is opposed, as a matter of principle, to all forms of discrimination, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.?
In 2014, Palestinian human rights activist Omar Barghouti wrote in The New York Times, ?Arguing that boycotting Israel is intrinsically anti-Semitic is not only false, but it also presumes that Israel and ?the Jews? are one and the same. This is as absurd and bigoted as claiming that a boycott of a self-defined Islamic state like Saudi Arabia, say, because of its horrific human rights record, would of necessity be Islamophobic.?
Any criticism of Israeli policy is labeled anti-Semitism, even though many Jews?including members of Jewish Voice for Peace, Jewish Center for Nonviolence and IfNotNow?oppose the occupation.
Israel has invaded Gaza three times in the last seven years, killing thousands of Palestinians, including large numbers of women and children. The Black Lives Matter movement sees similarities between the police killings of African-Americans in the U.S. and Israel?s oppression of Palestinians, particularly in Gaza.
As the struggle against the Israeli occupation continues, Pennock?s compelling book is a must-read for progressives and all interested in a comprehensive history of Arab American activism. The parallels it draws with current events will inform today?s activists in our struggles for freedom and equality.
This article first appeared on Truthdig.
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Political unrest causes which is a major setback to the economydomainname. Hate is stirred among communities, financial markets crash while trade and development come to a standstill. It is the worst form of problem that any state or country can face thus the leaders should be smart enough to make sure they unite people despite the differences they may have between them.
Trump Will Not Block Comey From Testifying, White House Says
The former F.B.I. director is scheduled to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday.
Australia v Bangladesh: Mitchell Starc's magic over
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Under-20 World Cup: England's Dominic Solanke scores as England reach semi-finals
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Has your dog been acting differently recently? A trip to Vet Ranch could help solve those problems The mechanical properties of our metals are excellent thanks to the detailed centrifugal casting process. Through their experienced team, they have delivered the best healthcare available for pets. Therefore, you can trust them with your pet; either a dog or cat.
Trump opponents and supporters in Portland face off
Pro- and anti-Trump marchers are kept apart by police amid tension over fatal train stabbings.
You can chip into Vet Ranch's efforts of reducing the number of stray dogs and cats from the streets. Just contribute to their project, and Feel free to check out their site There is some serious problem with nitpickers lice in Highlands.. Keep in mind that you not only help the dogs get the health care they deserve, but you also keep the environment safe for your children; you don't want dogs with rabies rooming the same streets as your children.
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Four countries cut links with Qatar
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Buffalo Bills in 'talks' with WR Jeremy Maclin
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London attack: Corbyn criticises Tories in terror speech
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Bill Maher apologizes for using racial slur in 'Real Time' joke
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Thank god for Dry Cleaners. My brother spilled some cranberry juice on the only suit he owns and we had no clue how to get that thing off in time for his interview the next day Parents are requested to take their children for lice treatment as soon as they appear.. Fortunately, there's the cleaners right around the corner. Friendly and generous people too.
So, Ronda Rousey finally debuted on Monday Night Raw last night. The woman single-handedly got me interested in MMA. A lot of people tend to run down an "outsider" breaking into wrestling My younger sister waited for the mobile lice removal unit last summer in Delaware.. I, for one, hope she makes it big and gets the WWE some mainstream coverage.
Explosions Rock Funeral in Kabul, Killing at Least 7 and Injuring Dozens
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Kabul blast: Deadly explosions at protest victim's funeral
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Bloomberg Pledges $15M For Climate, Says We Can Hit Goals Without Washington
Former New York City Mayor and publisher Michael Bloomberg has pledged up to $15 million to cover America?s financial commitment in the Paris climate accord, and insisted that the U.S. can meet its carbon-reduction goals without the cooperation of the federal government.
The money ? to be paid by Bloomberg Philanthropies ? will help cover a funding gap left by Donald Trump?s decision to yank America out of the climate pact and slash payments for the nation?s share of administration of the agreement.
?Americans are not walking away from the Paris climate agreement,? Bloomberg said in a statement. ?Just the opposite ? we are forging ahead. Mayors, governors, and business leaders from both political parties are signing onto a statement of support that we will submit to the UN, and together, we will reach the emission reduction goals the U.S. made in Paris in 2015.?
Bloomberg, who?s a United Nations envoy on climate, added: ?Americans will honor and fulfill the Paris Agreement by leading from the bottom up ? and there isn?t anything Washington can do to stop us.?
The money will go to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ? the UN?s climate negotiating body ? and will be used to help countries implement their Paris accord commitments, according to Bloomberg?s statement.
Governors, along with scores of mayors, university presidents and business representatives are currently preparing a plan pledging to meet the goals of the Paris accord, and will lobby the UN to accept the document just as it would from a national government. Local and state governments can have a major impact on reducing pollution from outright caps on emissions to building transit systems.
?We?re going to do everything America would have done if it had stayed committed,? Bloomberg told The New York Times.
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Husband of Kellyanne Conway Steps Back From Possible Justice Dept. Post
George T. Conway III had been President Trump?s choice to lead the Justice Department?s civil division. He withdrew, citing family concerns.
Maria hits the puck. She plays air hockey very well. Her little sister hits the puck in Our experts will perform a Joint mobilization on your spine to help detect any movement of a skeletal joint.. They are both good players.
Gabrielle Union Lands Leading Role In New Drama 'Breaking In'
Gabrielle Union has no intentions on stalling her career as an executive producer.
Union is reuniting with ?Being Mary Jane? producer, Will Packer, to executive produce the drama-thriller, ?Breaking In.? Directed by ?V for Vendetta? filmmaker, James McTeigue, and starring Union, the motion picture will chronicle a woman fighting to protect her family during a home-invasion, according to Variety.
The actress has previously produced the series, ?Being Mary Jane,? TV movie, ?With This Ring,? and the motion picture ?Almost Christmas.?
In 2016, Union told Forbes why she became interested in producing.
?There is something to be said for having talent as producers,? the actress explained. ?No one knows what it?s like to be us, so sometimes the experience that is created for talent is not always the most conducive for creating the best work environment.?
?From deciding who is hired in the hair and make-up department, to choosing who?s hired for the camera and lighting department ? there?s really something to be said about the power of creating a better experience for talent. It in turn benefits everybody, because it really just benefits the bottom line. That?s where my interest came in,? she said.
Production for ?Breaking In? begins in July in Los Angeles.
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This Is Why A Hot Drink Will Actually Cool You Down
The last thing you probably want to do on a sweltering day is sit down with a mug of hot tea, but science tells us that this in fact is the best way to cool down. It seems counter-intuitive, we know, but the explanation makes sense.
It all has to do with sweat.
Drinking a hot drink increases the body?s heat load and the body responds to that by sweating. The output of sweat is greater than the internal heat gain, and this is where it all starts to make sense ? when the sweat evaporates from the skin, it cools us down.
The sweat increases heat loss and reduces body heat storage. Good info to know, and it?s all thanks to Ollie Jay ? a researcher at University of Ottawa?s School of Human Kinetic ? and the research he published in 2012.
Our bodies sweat when we drink something hot because of nerve receptors on our tongue. When our tongue receives the information that a hot beverage is being consumed, it sends that info along to the brain, which then sets about to cool down the body by sweating.
But, there?s a little caveat you should know about. If you?re drinking a hot drink in an environment where the sweat won?t evaporate ? like somewhere hot and humid ? that hot drink probably won?t do the trick. You might want to stick to a cold beverage if that?s the case.
?The hot drink still does add a little heat to the body, so if the sweat?s not going to assist in evaporation, go for a cold drink,? Jay told Smithsonian.com.
We recommend iced coffee, of course.
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US travel ban goes to Supreme Court
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I just wanted to ask you about your visit to The Hawii . How was it? . Can please tell me Joint mobilization can alter misalignment of the joints. about the places to visit there.
Why are we so interested in a stranger's holiday?
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Studies shows that people who sleep in a particular position have a particular type of personality trait? I?m not really sure on how far it is true. http://caprimg.com But I will surely give it a try.
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Nowadays, the LGBT community has had extraordinary strides towards equality. However, this does not make proposing to the person you care about any easier. Learning the right way can, of course, lead to a life time of happiness. You can learn to do this at In a company, carpets should be vacuumed and employees should also avoid sharing clothes or in this case uniforms as contact is the most efficient way of lice infestation.. After all, proposing to the person you love, gay or not is always important, so you don't want to screw it up.
What President Trump Should Know About The Asian American Community
This week marks the end of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. First designated in 1978, this annual commemoration is a time to celebrate the proud legacy of the Asian American community and as importantly, to reflect on the important challenges ahead.
For the Trump administration, this month has passed with little fanfare.
The White House issued a bland proclamation to ?recognize the achievements and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders that enrich our Nation.? However, Donald Trump opted against a public event to mark the month. That?s not a bad thing. After all, at a February roundtable for African American History Month, Trump extolled the virtues of Frederick Douglass as if the abolitionist were still alive.
To fill the gap, Mike Pence spoke to a gathering of AAPI community leaders. Oddly, Pence was unable to express much personal connection to the community despite the 120,000 AAPIs in his state of Indiana. Instead, Pence recounted his recent trip to Asia and recited a series of platitudes about Asian Americans ?contributing every day to everything that makes America thrive.?
Trump and Pence are right to appreciate the accomplishments of the Asian American community. These accomplishments are countless and worthy of celebration. However, by focusing only on the positive, the Trump administration ignores the serious challenges facing the AAPI community ? and the federal role in addressing these challenges.
In contrast, the eight Heritage Month proclamations issued by Barack Obama acknowledged the discrimination and hardships faced by AAPIs. For instance, Obama recognized the ?long history of injustice,? ?persistent inequality and bigotry,? and ?disparities in health care, education, and employment that keep [AAPIs] from getting ahead.?
On balance, it is true that Asian Americans are wealthier, more educated, more stable and more established than other groups. Yet, the AAPI community is not a monolithic one, and there continue to be great disparities among its subgroups. Consider just a few examples:
The unemployment rate for Pacific Islanders is more than double the rate for Japanese Americans. As a group, AAPIs have one of the highest rates of long-term unemployment, with 41 percent of all unemployed Vietnamese Americans out of work for more than 27 weeks.
Southeast Asian Americans have some of the highest poverty rates in the country ? 38 percent of Hmong and 30 percent of Cambodians. In New York City, the overall Asian American poverty rate is the highest of any racial group.
In the area of education, Chinese American have a higher percentage of high school dropouts than white Americans. Among Southeast Asian Americans, the high school dropout rate is staggering: 34 percent of Laotians, 39 percent of Hmong, and 39 percent of Cambodians.
With regard to health disparities, AAPIs make up less than 5 percent of the U.S. population but account for more than 50 percent of Americans living with chronic hepatitis B. AAPIs also have the highest rate of undiagnosed HIV of any racial group.
When Mike Pence addressed AAPI leaders, he said: ?[This President wants you and every American, no matter the background, to accomplish more, to climb higher, to make tomorrow even better than today.?
To the contrary, the Trump administration has advocated policies over the past four months that would exacerbate the problems affecting the Asian American community.
The administration has released a budget that drastically cuts critical programs ? such as student loan forgiveness, disability benefits, affordable housing, and nursing home care ? that benefit poor and working class AAPIs. By decreasing funding for food assistance programs, the Trump administration cuts an essential lifeline that feeds 1.3 million Asian Americans. The budget also slashes funding for job training programs that help AAPIs gain access to fast-growing, high-paying careers.
Asian American-owned businesses, which now number 1.9 million, also would suffer from the Trump budget. Programs to educate and counsel entrepreneurs are cut by 21 percent. And the Trump budget eliminates the Minority Business Development Agency, which last year helped AAPI businesses secure almost $900 million in contracts and capital, thus creating or retaining 2,800 jobs.
The administration?s attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) endangers over 2 million AAPIs who have obtained health care in recent years. Also impacted are 4.3 million other AAPIs who have greater access to preventive care, including cancer screenings, because of the ACA.
With regard to immigration, Trump?s divisive policies harken back to an era of discriminatory actions like the Chinese Exclusion Act and Japanese American internment. Trump?s deportation agenda has created fear and anxiety among the 1.5 million undocumented Asian Americans, while his budget cuts to civil rights enforcement would leave the community vulnerable to discriminatory practices.
As troubling as the immigration policies is Trump?s inflammatory rhetoric that has contributed to a rise in hate crimes against Muslim and South Asian Americans. As ten AAPI civic leaders explained in their resignation from a White House commission in February: ?[W]e object to your portrayal of immigrants, refugees, people of color and people of various faiths as untrustworthy, threatening, and a drain on our nation.?
In its successes and struggles, the Asian American community is a microcosm of the nation. Instead of recognizing the diversity of AAPI experiences, the Trump administration chooses to perpetuate the model minority stereotype and obscure the destructive nature of its policies.
Chris Lu served in the Obama administration as Deputy Secretary of Labor, White House Cabinet Secretary, and Co-Chair of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. He is a senior fellow at the University of Virginia Miller Center. You can follow him on Twitter at: @ChrisLu44.
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The Madness And Science Behind The Donald Trump Handshake
Had French President Emmanuel Macron been playing close attention, he would have recognized quickly just how fraught his coming exchange with Donald Trump was to be.
The two leaders had met briefly earlier that day, exchanging a firm, prolonged, ?not innocent? handshake that drew attention for its unbound intensity. Now, hours later, as Macron approached Trump and other world leaders at the opening of NATO?s new headquarters in Brussels last week, the U.S. president offered several non-verbal cues indicating his desire to re-establish the global pecking order.
The first came well before he and Macron were face-to-face. Walking toward each other, Trump reached out to King Philippe of Belgium, who stood directly to his right, to offer an impromptu handshake. The King seemed caught off-guard. For good reason. No one in their group was making any such gesture.
Trump?s offer seemed out of place. But Florin Dolcos, a University of Illinois associate psychology professor and faculty member at the Beckman Institute?s Cognitive Neuroscience Group, suggested it was a deliberate. And the intended audience wasn?t Philippe but Macron.
?That?s a signal Trump was sending: ?This is where you should come first because I?m the alpha here,?? Dolcos said. ??Iinitiated with the other guy.??
Moments later, another cue. With the two still walking towards each other, Trump looked up at Macron and opened his arms ? a signal typically reserved for family and friends, not two world leaders who?d just met. Once again, Dolcos suspected Trump was making a nonverbal signal to his French counterpart.
?I think it is a learned behavior. Because typically you don?t do that. You do it with people very close to you in natural circumstances. Not people you don?t really know,? he said. ?In a way it could be seen as a trap.?
Macron didn?t fall for it. Instead, he greeted a few others before making his way to Trump. When he did finally arrive, Trump pounced, taking Macron?s hand and pulling it violently away from his body with enough force to turn Macron roughly 50 degrees.
Dolcos again saw a tactical play. Unable to torque his arm, Macron was rendered powerless. He attempted to pull away and Trump refused to let him go.
Macron put his other hand on Trump to pry himself loose. And when he finally freed himself, Trump gave him a pat on the shoulder, ending the exchange squarely on his terms.
Another bizarre, dramatic, uncomfortable handshake with a world leader was in the books, bouncing its way across the Internet to the wonderment of all.
?It goes down to asserting dominance,? said Dolcos. ?Why he wants to do that? I don?t know. It looks, to me, like he is trying too hard?. It looks ridiculous?
If you want to better understand Donald Trump ? his presidency, his approach personal diplomacy, even his psyche ? simply follow his hands.
Those hands, and their unexceptional digits, have been the source of immense insecurity, prompting him to lash out at critics and boast about his genitalia. They give insights into his marriage for the way they search ? ever so subtly and often unsuccessfully ? for his wife?s embrace. They tell us about his comfort in office as he attempts to find his footing on the world stage. And they illustrate his preoccupation with imagery and the role it plays in advancing his agenda.
?I just think the president is very cognizant of the optics of what it looks like at these multilateral meetings with world leaders,? said Sam Nunberg, a former Trump aide, ?and I even think [the handshake] is symbolic to the America First theme of his presidency and campaign.?
The Trump handshake has become most unique greeting in all of politics. Before he nearly tore off Emmanuel Macron?s arm, Trump crushed the fingers of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
When he unveiled his Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch during a East Wing ceremony, he followed suit by yanking the Justice?s entire body three times in his direction.
Trump memorably refused to shake hands with German Chancellor Angela Merkel when she visited him in a testy Oval Office exchange.
And he went grip-to-grip for an uncomfortable length of time with an obviously prepared Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada.
In a short time, the Trump handshake has become so legendary that world leaders have been compelled to prepare in advance. Trudeau seemed to have done his homework and so had Macron during his first interaction with Trump. Hillary Clinton prepared for a variety of over-the-top Trump gestures in the lead-up to their debates. But her aide, Philippe Reines, who played Trump in debate prep, said the handshake never came up in practice sessions.
?I never tried to rip her arm out of its socket,? he told HuffPost.
Trump?s approach to the handshake is a combination of brute force and strategic discomfort. He doesn?t so much shake the hand as he consumes the very arm of the person he?s embracing. The goal, it appears, is to establish a geographic zone and bring his counterpart into it.
Trump almost always initiates, with a semi-open palm thrust at his counterpart. Often, his eyes dart not to the person across from him but down at his hand itself ? an early hint at where the drama will be. When the gesture is joined, Trump clasps firmly and tugs violently inward. Sometimes, he motions up and down but frequently he will use a lumberjack approach (back and forth). Occasionally, he?ll twist his counterpart?s hand in odd directions or use his free hand fortify the clasp. Rarely does he let go first.
Unexpected recipients often seem stunned. Some, like Abe, show visible relief when it ends. And those who prepare in advance recognize it for what it is: an overt power play.
?It?s an intimidation tactic. There are self-preservation strategies and intimidation is one of the main ones,? said Frank Bernieri, an associate professor in the psychology department at Oregon State University, who has written on the influence of the handshake. ?This is perfectly consistent with Trump. He pretty much says that?s what I do to make a deal.?
This is perfectly consistent with Trump. He pretty much says that?s what I do to make a deal.
Frank Bernieri, associate professor, psychology department at Oregon State University.
Handshakes were not invented as vehicles to exhibit dominance. In their earliest depictions, they were seen as means of sealing alliances and exhibiting intimacy. Research says that handshakes can leave lasting impressions about a person?s conscientiousness and that different variables can affect the efficacy of the handshake. What is less agreed upon is the ability of handshakes to assert authority.
The handshake as a power move has been mythologized in film and popularized in the world of business. But some researchers say that as a practical matter, it doesn?t actually work.
?Such attempts would usually be ineffective because the main point of a handshake is to establish a sense of mutuality and mutual respect,? emailed Howard Friedman, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior and a professor in the psychology department at the University of California, Riverside.
?[S]omeone who uses or attempts to use such a power or intimidation handshake either 1) already has the power and would also simultaneously be employing other status signals like elevated height, invasive touching, higher-status clothing, and other dominance cues from face, voice, gaze, and posture; or 2) is misjudging the likely reactions of the other person and/or the audience,? Friedman said.
Trump doesn?t abide by this theory. His handshakes are clear attempts to assert alpha dominance.
Take when Trump greeted Tajikistan president Emomali Rahmon. In this incident, Rahmon played the role of the aggressor, grabbing and shaking Trump?s hand in the same manner as Trump did with Macron. What impressed Dolcos is what came next. Instead of pulling away ? which is the natural inclination ? Trump stepped closer in. Doing so allowed his arm to once again be torqued, which, in turn, allowed him to re-establish physical control and affirm his stature within Rahmon?s own orbit. It was a ?rebalance of the power play,? as Dolcos put it. ?It is a little bit of body rotation so it looks natural.?
Those close to Trump say they don?t believe he rehearses these moments. But Dolcos suspects that he does. The patterns are so apparent and the gestures so demonstrable that it seems only natural that Trump has thought them through. That?s true even in instances where there is no handshake at all.
At an earlier stop in his trip abroad, Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. After the two sat for the camera, Netanyahu stood up first and offered his hand. Trump ignored the gesture, walking the other way.
Observers assumed that Trump either didn?t notice his counterpart or got lost in the moment. Dolcos had a different theory.
?It is another way of establishing rank, which is that he is the one initiating,? he said. ??I?m not going in when you initiate. I?m probably ignoring it and then I?ll come back. This is now when we are doing this. Not when you initiate it.??
The most curious part of Trump?s handshake is that he reportedly hates shaking hands. He has called such greetings ?barbaric? and ?one of the curses of American society.? He is a rumored germaphobe who dispenses Purell sanitizer.
And yet, despite those hesitations, Trump entered a field where the handshake is even more fundamental than in the world of business. Politics is built on handshakes.
Neil Makhija was a body man for Joe Sestak when the Democrat ran unsuccessfully in 2010 for the Senate in Pennsylvania. He recalled how his boss would weave back-and-forth, side to side during July 4th parades instead of walking down the middle of the street. He wanted to shake every hand he could touch.
?There is a tendency among politicians that if you reach a voter they will kind of see the light,? Makhija said. ?You think the more people you touch, the more likely you will win.?
Makhija went on to become an advance man for Vice President Joe Biden and, once again, handshaking found its way into his portfolio. Whenever Biden would meet a politician or dignitary, his aides would game plan the meeting, including that initial greeting.
?There is no question that when you have an advance team for the White House, every single detail is discussed in terms of where the shake is going to happen, what is the backdrop and what?s behind you and all these things,? said Makhija.
Unlike Biden or Sestak, Trump doesn?t see the handshake as a means of establishing cordiality or mutuality with his counterpart. He doesn?t conceive of it as means of winning votes or facilitating diplomacy. He imagines it as a display of alpha-ness. This makes him unique among U.S. presidents and a marvel for the YouTube age. Then again, what else would one expect from Donald Trump?
?If we are talking about his handshake, it is kind of analogous to us talking about him when he takes his finger and says, ?You?re fired,?? said Nunberg. ?There is nobody who is a better showman and more cognizant of the optics than I?ve ever worked with than him.?
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New Orleans Principal Fired After Video Captures Him Wearing Nazi-Associated Rings
A charter school principal in New Orleans has lost his job after video surfaced of him appearing to wear Nazi-associated rings.
The video, which appeared Thursday, shows then-Principal Nicholas Dean of Crescent Leadership Academy holding an American flag and a shield as he discusses talking to six journalists who ?appeared to me completely soulless.?
Dean, who identifies himself in the video as Nick Andrews, is also seen wearing a helmet, goggles, and two rings closely associated with Nazism. One appears to be of the German Iron Cross and another a skull ring that was awarded to leading members of the Nazi party, according to the local Times-Picayune.
?If foreigners come here with Marxist ideas and Marxist tactics … it?s my duty to be here,? Dean can be heard saying in the video.
Crescent Leadership Academy said Dean was terminated Thursday.
?Educators are role models, and they should prioritize this sacred role above all else,? Superintendent Kunjan Narechania said in a statement. ?While the circumstances surrounding this decision are regrettable and damaging, I appreciate the board making a swift decision so that school can move forward and so that our community can continue to heal.?
Dean?s firing came as he was already being investigated after photos emerged of the principal standing next to a Confederate flag and a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee prior to its removal earlier this month.
?I didn?t go to protest for either side,? Dean told the Times-Picayune at the time. ?I went because I am a historian, educator and New Orleans resident who wanted to observe this monumental event,? he said. ?People who know me know that I am a crusader for children and I fight tirelessly on their behalf.?
But an investigation by the Times-Picayune also turned up a podcast that Dean was featured on ? under the alias Nick Andrews ? where he discusses his work in predominantly black schools.
?I started seeing how the black community looked at each other and how race and tribe is so powerful for them, and I really respected that,? Dean says in the podcast. ?Even though they fight a lot, kind of tribally, there?s a sense of unity among blacks that?s just understood. That was when I began my own kind of identity, if you will, quest.?
In the podcast, Dean refers to Take ?Em Down NOLA ? a group that has advocated for removing Confederate monuments ? as a ?black supremacy movement.?
Dean says in the podcast that he is not a white supremacist, but that by other people?s definition of one, he ?most certainly? is. He adds that going to graduate school with ?radical leftists? changed his worldview.
?If these people get their way, I don?t exist,? Dean says.
New Orleans has recently made a massive push to remove Confederate monuments in the city. After Robert E. Lee?s statue was taken down, Mayor Mitch Landrieu made an impassioned speech celebrating the removal.
?These statues are not just stone and metal,? Landrieu told a crowd at Gallier Hall. ?They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy, ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement and the terror that it actually stood for.?
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Yeti is a mythical animal who is in the local folklore of Nepali. The Abominable snowman ,Snowman Abominable is larger than average human and is completely covered with fur. The chiropractic business in South Hill is vibrant and lucrative. Said to be inhabiting the Himalayas for centuries this rare sight of an yeti must be terrifying. . Yeti is also mentioned in some holy book in many religions.
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Hillary Clinton Questions Media Trying To 'Appease' Conservatives After Election
Some news organizations have beefed up their ranks with conservative voices since the 2016 presidential election, a response Hillary Clinton said is misguided.
?The cable networks seem to me to be folding into a posture of, ?Oh, we want to try to get some of those people on the right, so maybe we better be more, quote, evenhanded,?? Clinton said in an interview with New York magazine published Friday.
Author Rebecca Traister described how Clinton?s ?brow furrows? upon mention of climate change skeptics Bret Stephens and George Will recently joining The New York Times and MSNBC, respectively.
?Why ? would ? you ? do ? that? Sixty-six million people voted for me, plus, you know, the crazy third-party people,? said Clinton, who won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes. ?So there?s a lot of people who would actually appreciate stronger arguments on behalf of the most existential challenges facing our country and the world, climate change being one of them! It?s clearly a commercial decision. But I don?t think it will work. I mean, they?re laughing on the right at these puny efforts to try to appease people on the right.?
Clinton also jabbed at The New York Times for recently launching a feature encouraging people to ?Say Something Nice? about President Donald Trump: ?I never saw them do that for me.?
Looking back on the 2016 race, Clinton said she ?underestimated? the impact of WikiLeaks publishing unflattering emails from members of the Democratic Party. The U.S. intelligence community has since concluded that Russian hackers stole the messages.
Emails dripped out daily in October in a fashion that was ?innocuous, boring, inconsequential,? Clinton said ? yet people ?played like it was some breathless flash.? She said conservative media outlets amplified the contents of the emails, but added that the mainstream press played its own role in giving the documents outsize attention.
?Look, we have an advocacy press on the right that has done a really good job for the last 25 years,? Clinton said. ?They have a mission. They use the rights given to them under the First Amendment to advocate a set of policies that are in their interests, their commercial, corporate, religious interests. Because the advocacy media occupies the right, and the center needs to be focused on providing as accurate information as possible. Not both-sides-ism and not false equivalency.?
Read Traister?s full piece here.
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World Leaders Increase Pressure on Trump to Stay in the Paris Accord
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A dog or Cat not only makes our life more happening We are serve the greater Cary community, and have treatment options for adults and children alike. but also helps us to be more human. My pet which is a cat unconditionally changed me to a better person.
The best thing that a professional can learn is proper time management . A professional must be able to track his time and utilize each opportunity that comes his wayMy mother has called many head lice removal companies in Edison, but none of them have fit her criteria.. A personal calendar is one of the important things that a professional can have in order to schedule his/her work.
A Man Is Serving 10 Years In Prison Because Of The Crime He Was Acquitted Of
Ramad Chatman, a black man from Rome Georgia, is serving a 10-year prison sentence after an entire jury found him not guilty of a crime he says he did not commit.
On May 24, Georgia news station 11 Alive published a report on Chatman?s interactions with the justice system, which began with a first-time offender probation and ends with Chatman serving 10 years in prison ? despite a jury finding him not guilty of a crime he was accused of in between.
The outlet recounts the story, speaking with family members and legal experts in the video above.
In July 2014, Chatman was accused of a crime in connection to an armed robbery at a corner store in Georgia. Police say the store was too dirty to collect fingerprints from, and four witnesses who were there that night say all they saw was a ?black man in dark clothes,? according to 11 Alive. Camera footage also captured an unidentifiable black man.
However, it wasn?t until months after the night of the robbery, when the store clerk was scrolling through her Facebook, that she randomly came across a photo of Chatman on her feed.
?It triggered something in me, and it just made me freak out,? she testified, according to 11 Alive.
The clerk reported Chatman to the police. He went to the police ? he?d heard they were looking for him.
?He turned himself in because he knew he was not guilty,? his grandmother Janice Chatman told 11 Alive.
After Chatman came forward to police in 2015 to rule himself out as a suspect in the corner store robbery, he was arrested for it.
Chatman had been in trouble with the law once before. He was sentenced to first-offender probation of five years at the age of 19, when he entered a guilty plea for stealing a $120 television. His grandmother said he paid his fines and completed community service. He faced a probation hearing, where Superior Court Judge Jack Niedrach decided Chatman did likely rob the store. Chatman?s probation was revoked, and per rules surrounding
When police arrested Chatman in connection with the 2014 corner store robbery, he was still on probation. He faced a hearing to reconsider the terms of the probation, where Superior Court Judge Jack Niedrach decided Chatman did likely rob the store, which legally, was enough for the judge to revoke his original probation.
Per rules surrounding the first offender status, this meant Chatman was re-sentenced for his original crime. He was ordered to serve 10 years in prison, backdated to his first brush with the law.
Six months later, a jury found Chatman not guilty of the corner store robbery. They acquitted him of armed robbery and aggravated assault. Despite the verdict, the judge chose not reinstate Chatman?s probation, according to 11 Alive.
Chatman will remain in prison until 2022 for getting arrested for a crime a journey acquitted him of but a judge thinks he ?likely? committed while on probation for an earlier charge.
The jury?s verdict is unsurprising. There was no certified evidence that Chatman robbed the convenient store. Transcripts from court proceedings, reviewed by 11 Alive, showed that her description of the suspect changed each time she testified. She reportedly misremembered the color of her attacker?s weapon and the clothes he wore, among other things.
?What would bother most people about this is when people tell stories over and over again, they?re supposed to remain consistent,? Mark Issa, Chatman?s attorney, told the site.
While Issa expressed sympathy for the emotional trauma the clerk experienced, he said Chatman is not the man responsible for the crime and that her anger was misdirected. In fact, Chatman tried to enter an Alford plea ? which is a guilty plea where the defendant also maintains his innocence ? before the trial began, but it was dismissed and his case went before a jury.
Ultimately, Chatman is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for his initial crime of stealing a $120 TV.
Retired Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher told the Rome News-Tribune last year that Chatman?s case reflects a failing in the legal system that continues to feed into America?s gross issue of incarceration.
?The law does not always lead to a wise and just conclusion, in my opinion,? Fletcher said. ?We can?t afford to continue to lock up more and more people.?
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Worried That Grilling Will Give You Cancer? Here Are Some Safeguards You Can Take
With most of the country ready to fire up their grills for Memorial Day, you might be worrying about all those cancer claims surrounding grilled foods. Before we partake in a weekend of charred burgers, seared steaks and other grilled meals, let?s look into this a little more closely.
Why is there cancer risk associated with grilled foods?
The reason there is concern revolving around grilled food, mostly meat, has to do with two compounds that are both known carcinogens: heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). HCAs form in protein-rich foods when cooked at very high heat, and PAHs form when fat burns on the grill, creating smoke.
According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), studies have found that a diet rich in HCAs has been linked to an increased risk of breast, colon, liver, skin, lung, prostate and other cancers. Diets high in PAH have been linked to leukemia.
But Colleen Doyle ?MS, RD, the director of nutrition and physical activity for the American Cancer Society (ACS) ? says that there isn?t enough evidence to suggest that you stay away from the grill entirely. Instead, take some steps to minimize the risk of these compounds.
What can I do to minimize the cancer-related risks?
– Clean your grill. You want to keep the grill pristine because char can build up on the grates, and it?s the char that you want to minimize. There are a couple of different ways you can do that. You can scrub it with baking soda, or you can use a wad of tin foil to scrub it off.
– Cook lean meats. Cooking lean meats means there will be less fat that drips and creates smoke, which means less potential for the presence of PAHs. Consider opting for grilled chicken (skinless is best, because it has less fat) and fish instead of red meat, as they naturally contain lower levels of the amino acids that lead to HCA production. Fish gets bonus points because it typically doesn?t have to cook as long as meat ? and the shorter the cooking time at high heat, the better.
– Finish on the grill. If you can, start by cooking the meat partly off the grill, either in the oven or on the stove. Many great rib recipes are made this way. Then pop it on the grill at the end of the cooking process just to get that nice sear and smoky flavor. Or, if you are really committed to the grill, use it to cook low and slow. HCAs begin to form at and above 325 degrees Fahrenheit, so if you keep the temperature below that, you?re golden. Just be sure to check the meat with a thermometer to cook it to the proper, safe temperature. Undercooked meat and the risk for foodborne illness could be just as dangerous as potential carcinogens you get from grilling.
– Marinate your meat. There?s mounting evidence that the way you prepare your meat can make a difference, says Doyle. Marinating meat even just for 30 minutes seems to limit carcinogen formation. A number of spices, in addition to adding fun flavor, seem to offer particular protection, including red pepper, thyme, sage, garlic and especially rosemary, Health.com reported.
– Cut off any charred parts. According to the NCI, removing charred portions of meat before eating them can reduce HCA and PAH exposure.
Remember, at the end of the day, not enough research has been done to indicate that you should stop eating grilled meats, so you can still grill steaks and burgers. But if you want to be on the safe side, follow the steps we?ve just listed.
And then consider these awesome grilled chicken recipes below.
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Appeals Court Slaps Down Donald Trump's Travel Ban Yet Again
In yet another setback for the Trump administration, a federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, on Thursday refused to lift a nationwide injunction that halted a key provision of President Donald Trump?s revised travel ban on six predominantly Muslim nations.
The ruling is the most bruising the White House has suffered in its attempts to defend the ban, as it was rendered by 13 judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ? which deemed the case important enough to skip the usual three-judge process that the vast majority of cases go through.
?Congress granted the President broad power to deny entry to aliens, but that power is not absolute,? wrote U.S. Chief Circuit Judge Roger Gregory in a ruling that largely upheld the original block on the travel ban.
The decision clears the way for Trump to appeal to the Supreme Court, a move he promised when the first version of the travel ban was shot down. The appeal never materialized ? the administration chose instead to start from scratch and reissue a tamer version of the executive order.
The watered-down version ? which removed Iraq from the list of barred countries and eliminated the ban on Syrian refugees ? no longer applied to permanent residents and had a delayed rollout, all in hopes of avoiding the detentions, chaos and protests unleashed by the first order.
These tweaks were intended to make the travel ban more palatable to the courts. But Trump?s campaign promises and anti-Muslim sentiment kept dogging the administration, and federal judges in Hawaii and Maryland couldn?t help but take that history into account in assessing the travel ban?s legality. Both courts concluded that Trump?s own words, and those of his surrogates, tainted the executive order with unconstitutional animus against a religious group.
?The president has never repudiated the statements he made on a Muslim ban,? said U.S. Circuit Judge Robert King earlier this month when the 4th Circuit heard the case. King and other judges specifically pointed to Trump?s own campaign website, which once called for a ?total and complete shutdown? of Muslims entering the United States, as relevant evidence for the purpose behind the executive order.
The Trump administration, for its part, has insisted that the president?s words shouldn?t be used against him, and that courts should be careful not to look behind the chief executive?s motives or second-guess his broad authority to set immigration policy.
?The order before this court has been the subject of a heated and passionate political debate,? a Department of Justice lawyer said during oral arguments before the 4th Circuit. ?But the precedent set by this case for this court?s role in reviewing the president?s power at the borders will long transcend this debate and this order and this constitutional moment.?
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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AARP Health Care Ads To Target Key Republican Senators
AARP, the nation?s largest seniors group, is launching a seven-figure television advertisement buy asking Republican senators in key states to vote against the Obamacare repeal legislation the House of Representatives passed earlier this month.
The ads are due to begin this week in the home states of Sens. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Cory Gardner (Colo.), Dean Heller (Nev.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Dan Sullivan (Alaska). AARP plans to spend at least six figures on the ads in each of the four states where they air.
The senators AARP is targeting are all either moderate, or ? in the cases of Flake and Heller ? up for re-election in 2018.
?Older Americans are very worried about the cost of their health insurance,? AARP executive vice president Nancy LeaMond said in a statement announcing the ad buy. ?AARP is taking a strong stand against the American Health Care Act for one simple reason: it is a bad bill.?
AARP, which represents 38 million Americans age 50 or older, is ?urging Senators to scrap the AHCA and start over,? LeaMond added.
AARP?s 30-second ad focuses on two of the House bill?s most controversial features: a waiver allowing states to opt out of federal regulations protecting people with pre-existing conditions, and an increase in the age rating that would allow people over 50 to be charged five times more than younger individuals. AARP has dubbed the latter provision an ?age tax.? Obamacare, by contrast, allowed insurers to charge people over 50 a maximum of three times more than younger people.
In the ad, an older couple named the Hutchinses learns how much these aspects of the law will cost them during a visit with their accountant at an office not too subtly named Ryan and Associates Financial & Tax Services.
Mr. Hutchins has asthma, which the accountant tells him is a pre-existing condition. ?Insurers can charge thousands more for that,? the accountant says. ?This is going to be a big bill.?
The ad concludes with a narrator telling viewers to call one of the five senators and tell them to vote ?no on the health care bill.?
Along with the advertising campaign, AARP is also asking its members to call their senators to voice their opposition to the House bill.
AARP played an important role in making the Republican health care bill that passed the House politically radioactive. It launched internet ads featuring a talking squirrel that denounced the bill?s provision permitting insurers to charge older Americans more.
The campaign AARP announced Wednesday, however, is the organization?s first foray into paid television advertising over the Obamacare replacement bill, suggesting the influential group is increasingly worried that the legislation has a chance of passing into law.
Hours after AARP announced the ad campaign, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released an updated estimate of the Republican bill?s impact on health insurance coverage. The bill would result in 23 million fewer Americans having insurance, according to CBO.
Like most political advertisements, AARP?s video elides some policy nuances. The House health care bill partially offsets the 5-to-1 age rating with tax credits to buy insurance on the exchanges; those credits increase as customers age. But AARP has argued the credits are inadequate to defray the potential cost increase for older Americans, since the credits max out at twice as large as those younger individuals receive.
In addition, the law would allow states to opt out of Obamacare?s community rating regulations that obligate insurers to set premiums based on regional costs, rather than charge exorbitant amounts for pre-existing conditions. House Republicans tried to address these concerns by requiring states that waive these rules to set up high-risk pools to cover people with pre-existing conditions at rates they can afford. But conservative and liberal experts alike believe the funding in the bill is far too low to accommodate the cost of covering those people.
There are some early signs that AARP could get its wish that the Senate start from scratch. Almost immediately after the House passed its version of the law earlier this month, several Republican senators declared their intention to craft an entirely different law.
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Evan Pricco Curates 'What In The World' At Urban Nation In Berlin
A new exhibition in Berlin?s neighborhood of Schöneberg epitomizes one of the central schisms that has vibrated through Street Art and graffiti for years: the question of where to draw boundaries between these two scenes.
Each may have been born in the margins of society but are now evermore commingled. Debates aside, everyone agrees that once in the gallery space, street become fine art after all. ?The graffiti and Street Art movements ? they have all these tentacles and they can be non-linear,? Evan says as we walk down a subterranean parking ramp to see a low, long outdoor mural by Sweden?s EKTA; an abstract series of roughly square patches that closely emulate the sewn panels he has suspended from the ceiling inside the gallery.
As Editor-in-Chief of the San Francisco based art magazine Juxtapoz and curator of this ?What in the World? show at Urban Nation?s project space, Evan Pricco is well aware of the landmines that can explode when one is negotiating the terminologies and practices of sundry sub-cultural art manifestations that have bubbled to the surface in the last decades and which now often melt with one another inextricably.
?The graffiti and Street Art movements ? they have all these tentacles and they can be non-linear,? Evan says as we walk down a subterranean parking ramp to see a low, long outdoor mural by Sweden?s EKTA; an abstract series of roughly square patches that closely emulate the sewn panels he has suspended from the ceiling inside the gallery.
Speaking of the tentacles, he continues, ?It can be starting points to end points ? it can be end points to starting points. There are all of these different cultures that grew out of that 1970s-80s set of counter-culture art movements.
?I think the people that I really wanted in this show are kind of on the periphery of that. They clearly dip their toe into those movements, are clearly influenced by them. Their practice doesn?t necessarily fit in with what is going on in Street Art and graffiti but also its informed by it.?
To introduce a new crop of artists to Urban Nation that haven?t been shown here yet, Pricco choses some of Europes street/mural/conceptual artists who emphasize color and mood, an expansionist approach that he welcomes at the magazine as well. Not surprisingly, the range reflects some of the same interests you?ll find flipping through the influential art publication; old school graffiti, commercial illustration, comic book history, abstract fine art, political art, some lowbrow, some conceptual. There is even Grotesk?s newsstand, the actual one that he designed and constructed with Juxtapoz that sat in Times Square in October 2015.
Primarily from Europe and raised in the hothouse of the 1990s epic graffiti scenes that enthralled youth in many EU big cities, this group of 7 artists each has moved their practice forward ? which may lose them some street cred and gather new audiences.
Included are Berlin?s Daan Botlek, Sweden?s EKTA, Ermsy from France, Erosie from the Netherlands, Hyuro from Spain, Serge Lowrider from Switzerland and Zio Ziegler from the US. If you speak to any of them, you may find the commonality is the freedom they actively give themselves to pursue an autonomous artistic route not easily categorized.
Lowrider is clearly in love with the letter-form, as is the graffiti tradition, but he steers sharply toward the calligraphic practices of crisp sign-painting and inverting the pleasantly banal messaging of advertising from an earlier era. Perhaps the tight line work overlaps with tattoo and skater culture, two creative brethren frequently in the mix in graffiti and Street Art scenes.
Hyuro uses a figurative symbolism heavy with metaphor and a color palette that is too understated for the flashy graphics that many associate with today?s mural festivals, yet she?s built a dedicated following among Street Art fans who admire her poke-you-in-the-eye activist streak. Daan Botleks? figures wander and cavort amidst an abstractedly shaped world calling to mind the shading of early graffiti and the volumizing pointillism of Seurat after some wine.
Painter Jeroen Erosie emphatically will tell you that he was in love with graffiti when he first did it on the streets as a teenager ? and for many years afterwards. But he says he ultimately bristled at a scene that had once symbolized freedom to him but had become too rigid and even oppressive in its rules about how aesthetics should be practiced by people ? if they were to earn respect within the clan.
At Saturday nights opening along Bülowstrasse with the front doors open to the busy street and with the sound of the elevated train swooshing by overhead, Erosie explained with a gleeful certainty his process of deconstruction that led him to this point. ?I removed one of the pillars of graffiti from my work and I liked the result, the change. So I started to remove more pillars, one by one,? he says, describing the evolution that transformed his letter forms and colors into these simplified and bold bi-color icons that may call to mind Matisse?s cut outs more than graffiti bubble-tags, but you?ll easily draw the correlation if you try.
The Project M series of exhibitions over the past three years with Urban Nation, of which this is the 12th, have featured curators and artists from many backgrounds, disciplines, and geographies as well. The myriad styles shown have included sculpture, stencil, wheat paste, collage, calligraphy, illustration, screen-printing, decoupage, aerosol, oil painting, and even acrylic brush. It has been a carefully guided selection of graffiti/Street Art/urban art/fine art across the 12 shows; all presented respectfully cheek to jowl, side by side ? happily for some, uncomfortably for others.
The ultimate success of the Project M series, initiated by UN Artistic Director Yasha Young, is evident in just how far open it has flung the doors of expectation to the museum itself. When the house opens in four months it will be a reflection to some extent 140 or so artists who pushed open those doors with variety of styles emblematic of this moment – converging into something called Urban Contemporary.
?What in the World? indeed: this show is in perfect alignment with the others in its wanton plumbing of the genres.
?I was trying to find people that are not part of the regular circuit ? and I don?t mean that in a negative way but I mean there is kind of a regular circuit of muralism and Street Art right now ? but I was looking for people who are really sort of on that periphery,? Pricco says. ?Also because they are coming from these different parts of Europe, which to me sort of represents Juxtpoz? reach, and they all kind of know each other but they?ve never really met ? they all kind of bounce off of each other.?
Brooklyn Street Art: This grouping sounds anathema to the loyalty that is often demanded by these scenes ? particularly the various graffiti scenes in cities around the world. You are describing an artistic practice that has a sort of casual relationship to that scene.
Evan Pricco: Right. And I think all of these artists have these graffiti histories but they weren?t completely satisfied with that kind of moniker or label. So it is slightly expanding out now. And then there?s something about them that makes me think of crafts, especially with Serge who is more of a sign-painter. I felt that all of these people approached their work in a way that felt very craft-oriented to me, and I really appreciated that. That?s kind of what I wanted to show too.
Brooklyn Street Art: Each of these artists appears to have a certain familiarity with the art world that is outside a more strict definition of street culture ? graffiti and Street Art and their tributaries. Would you say that you could see a certain development of personal style in this collection of primarily European artists that might be due to exposure to formal art history or other cultural influences?
Evan Pricco: Good question, and that could be the case for a few of the artists in the show, but I think the characteristics of each artist in the show is more of a result of the world getting smaller and influences and boundaries just blurring. You can see it Ermsy?s pop-culture mash-ups, or Erosie?s exploration of lettering and color; it?s not really about one place anymore but a larger dialogue of how far the work reaches now than ever before.
Erosie and I were having this conversation this morning about this, this idea of access and influences being so widespread. And that is exactly what I wanted to do. ?What In the World? is sort of a nod to not really having to have boundaries, or a proper definition, but a feeling that something is happening. Its not Street Art, its not graffiti, but its this new wave that is looking out, looking in, and finding new avenues to share and make work.
Brooklyn Street Art: From comic books to politics to activism to abstract to sign painting, this show spans the Hi-Low terrain that Juxtapoz often seeks to embrace in many ways. Is it difficult to find common threads or narratives when countenancing such variety?
Evan Pricco: We have been so fortunate with the magazine that we have been able to expand the content in the last few years, and the threads are starting to connect solely based on the idea that the creative life is what you make of it. There may not be a direct connection between Serge Lowrider and Mark Ryden, but there is a connection in the idea of craftsmanship and skill and how one goes about applying that skill in the art world. That is always wanted I wanted to help bring to Juxtapoz ? this idea that variety in the art world is healthy and finds its own connections just in the fact that it exists and is being made.
Brooklyn Street Art: Many of these names are not household names, though some have ardent fans within more narrow channels of influence. What role does a curator play by introducing these artworks/artists to a new audience and what connections would you like a viewer to make?
Evan Pricco: First and foremost, these are some of my absolute favorite artists making work right now. I do have the advantage of traveling a lot and meeting different people and seeing their process, but I really wanted to bring together a group that I hadn?t personally met but admired and communicated with from afar.
I was thinking about this when I walked by Hyuro?s wall this morning. Her work is incredibly strong, and it has this really fascinating way of being a story and narrative from wall to wall while remaining fresh and really site-specific. Her work here just blew me away; its so subtle, has this really unique almost anonymous quality to it, but has a ton of thought and heart in it.
Really it would be great if the audience sees this and finds her other work, and starts seeing this really beautiful story emerging, these powerful political, social and economic commentaries. So really, I want that. I want this to be a gateway of looking at work and artists and then jumping into their really fantastically complex careers.
Brooklyn Street Art: Urban Nation has invited curators from around the world and Berlin during these 12 ?Project M? shows, each with a take on what ?art in the streets? is, how it has evolved, and how it is affecting contemporary art. What makes this show stand out?
Evan Pricco: I really do think what makes it stand out is that it represents all the things Juxtapoz stands for; Opening up an audience to something new and different. I think there is an aesthetic that the Project M shows have had, which I like, but I didn?t want to repeat what everyone had done before.
This is most definitely a Juxtapoz show; I mean our damned Newsstand that Grotesk designed is right in the middle of the space. But that is like this ?representation? of the print mag, and all the walls around it are the avenues the magazine can take you; sign painting, textiles, graffiti, abstraction, conceptual art, murals, comics, politics. ? So maybe in that way, the fact that the magazine is 23 years old and has covered such a big history of Lowbrow, Graffiti and other forms of art, this is a nice encapsulation of the next wave and generation.
?What In the World: The Juxtapoz Edition? presented by Urban Nation will be on display through June 2017.
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San Antonio Spurs' Kawhi Leonard misses practice again, remains questionable for Game 3
The San Antonio Spurs officially listed star forward Kawhi Leonard as questionable because of his ankle injury for Saturday night's Game 3 vs. the Warriors.
Amandla Stenberg Is Here For Nuanced Portrayals Of Black Womanhood On-Screen
?Everything, Everything? tells the story of 18-year-old Maddy Whittier (Amandla Stenberg), a young woman who?s confined to her house due to severe combined immunodeficiency. But when handsome, charming Olly (Nick Robinson) moves in next door, Maddy begins to question whether her health is worth her isolation from the real world. As it turns out, Maddy will risk anything ? and quite possibly everything ? for love.
We spoke with Nick and Amandla about their characters, their on-screen chemistry and their least favorite words.
Amandla: I see the film less as a story based in reality and more as a kind of fable or fantasy, like a modern-day fairytale. When it comes to Maddy, I think the things she?s experiencing are these grandiose, kind of fantastical things, but they?re actually metaphors for things that are much more based in reality. I think her being trapped inside of this house is more like her being trapped by limitations that she?s placing on herself and that her mother is placing on her. I think that?s why it might feel relatable to people.
What were the easiest and most difficult parts about taking on your roles?
Nick: I think one of the more difficult parts was trying to make some of the more fantastical elements still seem grounded. I think that some of the easier parts were just the moments between Olly and Maddy, like the quieter times when they meet for the first time and when they start to have a more comfortable relationship.
A: I agree. I think the movie has a very specific tone in that the circumstances are obviously kind of ridiculous, but the characters themselves are very real and grounded and act like nothing?s weird. I think that?s what?s kind of clever about it.
Did you read the book before filming?
N: It?s a really beautifully written book. The simplicity of it is very beautiful and sparse, which makes it a lot easier to connect to.
A: I hadn?t read the book before I heard about the film, and when I received the material I was really intrigued by the book because it?s written by Nicola Yoon, who is a black woman, and she wrote the book for her daughter, who is biracial. Maddy is specifically written to be a biracial character falling in love with a boy who is white. That?s never a conversation in the book, it?s never a conversation in the movie, and I think that?s really refreshing. That?s what drew me to the book and to the project as a whole.
What did you most want to get right as you translated the book to screen?
N: Like Amandla said, I wanted to have this relationship between these two people, but not highlight the fact that it?s an interracial relationship. It?s not really explicit at all ? it doesn?t really amount to a conversation, which I think is a great thing. I also wanted to capture the element of whimsy and fantasy that I think the book does really well.
A: The book is really lyrical, so I think that was important to capture in creating the movie ? that it feels light and airy and fun and joyous, even though it all happens within one house, pretty much.
You two have such palpable chemistry on-screen. What was your favorite scene to shoot together?
N: For me, it was all of the sequences once Maddy left the house.
A: Yeah, we literally got to go on vacation for part of the shoot, so that was probably our favorite.
Nick: It was cool, too, because for Maddy?s character, she?s experiencing all these things for the first time. It?s cool for Olly, because he gets to go and experience some of that with her, where he sees everything for the first time again.
Both of your characters have complex relationships with their parents. What does this movie have to say about family?
N: Hmm … run away?
A: [Laughs] I think Maddy?s relationship with her mom is one of the most startling and compelling parts of the movie. It says a lot of interesting things about grief, and how we as women deal with grief, and how oftentimes we aren?t able to deal with it because we have to be strong, we have to take care of the kids and move on. In terms of their relationship, there are negative aspects to it, of course, but it?s really cool to see a nuanced mother-daughter relationship being portrayed by a black mother and black daughter. That?s not how we?re often portrayed on film. I feel like black families are portrayed in a very specific way, when black mothers and daughters have really nuanced relationships. My mom is one of my best friends, and also my mom, and there?s a sense of sisterhood between us as black women. I don?t think we see that often in movies about black people. It?s relentless love.
What?s your favorite food?
A: Pasta.
N: I was gonna say pasta! Sushi.
What?s one book you read that truly moved you?
A: Beloved by Toni Morrison.
N: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.
Least favorite word:
A: ?Moist.?
N: ?Crusty.?
?Everything, Everything? hits theaters Friday, May 19.
Catch up on more HuffPost exclusive interviews with Normani Kordei, Daya, Maddie Ziegler, Vanessa Hudgens, Willow Shields and Rio Mangini!
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Scientists kill invasive ants with seaweed
Scientists in California have developed an eco-friendly way to battle invasive ants. The new ant bait is made from a seaweed-based hydrogel.
Japanese Cabinet approves bill to let Emperor Akihito give up throne
Japan's Cabinet announced Friday it approved a bill allowing Emperor Akihito to abdicate, opening a path for his son to succeed him.
London City first in UK to get remote air traffic control
London City Airport flights will be directed by controllers using a remote system 80 miles away.
A Basquiat Sells for 'Mind-Blowing' $110.5 Million at Auction
Basquiat?s vibrant painting of a face in the shape of a skull set an auction record for a work by any American artist, beating Andy Warhol.
Thousands of police on the beat without current background checks
Around 14,000 police officers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have not had up-to-date background checks.
'Dummy caterpillars' reveal global predation patterns
New research suggests predator-prey interactions are more common near the equator than near the poles.
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Antarctica's high elevations explains the continent's slower rate of warming
A new study suggests the Antarctica's high elevations explain its slower rate of warming.
Netflix orders 10 episodes of 'Dark Crystal' series
Netflix says it plans to air 10 episodes of The Jim Henson Company's "The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance" series.
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China's Dog Meat Festival May Have to Cancel the Dog, Activists Say
Animal rights advocates say the city of Yulin agreed to ban sales of dog meat in the week before the event, although no officials contacted could confirm the reports.
'Worst' products for recycling named
Much of the packaging we put in the recycling bin ends up in landfills, but a design competition backed by Prince Charles is aiming to tackle the issue.
Google Expedition brings 3D objects to classrooms
Google Expedition brings 3D objects to classrooms with augmented reality. The technology was shown off at Google I/O, the company's annual developers' conference in Silicon Valley.
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The U.S. needs friends to fight terrorism, writes former CIA analyst Aki Peritz, and President Trump's actions are making it harder for the intelligence community to do its job.
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The government promises a reunion with their families on Friday. But there is uncertainty about what will happen after that.
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Ducklings use ramp to waddle into Capitol Reflecting Pool
A family of ducks in Washington D.C. used a newly constructed ramp to waddle their way into the U.S. Capitol Reflecting Pool.
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U.S. household debt surpasses pre-2008 recession levels
Household debt in the United States has surpassed the level it was at just prior to the 2008 financial crisis, a sign of economic health.
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Study shows southern Mediterranean shares genetic heritage
A genomic study has revealed a shared genetic heritage throughout the southern Mediterranean, extending geographic and national borders, from Italy to Cyprus.
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Japanese Princess's Engagement Revives Debate on Women in Royal Family
Princess Mako, Emperor Akihito?s grandchild, is getting married, and, by law, leaving the royal family. Her departure is highlighting a looming succession crisis.
Ivory Coast, Soldiers Reach Deal To End Days-Long Mutiny
The former rebels who once brought President Alassane Ouattara to power had taken to the streets against his government last week, protesting delayed bonus payments. Their demands were met Tuesday.
Hundreds of Thousands Strike in Greece as Cuts Near Approval
Workers joined a one-day walkout to protest a further round of austerity measures agreed with international creditors.
Battling taboos to sell sex toys in India
Strict laws and a conservative society make selling adult products a delicate matter.
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2017 NHL Eastern Conference Finals: Pittsburgh Penguins-Ottawa Senators Game 3 preview, update
OTTAWA — The injuries keep piling up for the Pittsburgh Penguins, turning their defensive corps into a black and blue line.
Trump Finds It Harder To Recruit Talent As Scandals Pile Up
WASHINGTON ? A White House in a ?downward spiral,? as a key Republican senator called it, is making an already daunting task even harder: persuading qualified candidates to take important administration jobs.
Hundreds of key posts at the Department of Defense and the State Department remain unfilled heading into the fifth month of Donald Trump?s presidency because of his insistence on personally approving all top hires. And the hiring crunch started before the most recent stretch of controversy that began with Trump firing the FBI director while the bureau was investigating the Trump campaign?s possible collusion with Russia and was followed by an Oval Office meeting last week with Russian officials during which Trump reportedly revealed highly classified information. Then Tuesday came the multiple reports that Trump had asked FBI Director James Comey to end his investigation of Michael Flynn, Trump?s first national security adviser.
?Up to now, many experienced national security hands had been barred from serving in this administration because they opposed candidate Trump,? said Richard Haas, president of the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations. ?The danger now for the country is that many of these same people will opt to stay out because they oppose President Trump.?
The onslaught of unflattering revelations has even some Republican lawmakers calling for changes. Tennessee Republican and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Corker, a Trump ally, said Monday that the White House has to find a way to reverse this ?downward spiral.?
In short order, Trump has sparked a drain brain from within the government ranks ? dissuading those inclined to serve from submitting their résumés and prompting those already in place to consider leaving.
One long-serving former FBI official told HuffPost that morale at the agency has cratered since Comey?s dismissal, with case agents and administrators petrified that the president is politicizing their work. ?If it is political, it?s a problem,? the official said, predicting that few applicants would find the agency appealing if Trump chooses a politician to replace Comey.
Right, wrong or indifferent, an administration has to have its voice at the lowest echelons of agencies, and that?s just not happening.
Todd A. Weiler, assistant secretary of defense in the Obama administration
A similar dynamic is shaping up in the national security agencies, where Trump has faced profound and sustained difficulties recruiting staff. A Republican foreign policy hand who turned down a spot in the administration during the presidential transition over concerns about the Trump team?s ties to Russia said the situation actually looked much rosier just two weeks ago. ?People were coming to the view that they could buckle down and work in this administration because they could make the administration better,? the would-be appointee said on the condition of anonymity out of fear of angering the Trump administration.
That outlook has dimmed considerably. Trump publicly contradicted top aides on why he had fired Comey and then, less than a week later, put National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster before the press to knock down a critical Washington Post report Monday that Trump gave sensitive information to the Russians ? before admitting it Tuesday morning on Twitter.
?To have McMaster out there shilling on this is not sitting well with foreign policy professionals,? the GOP foreign policy expert said. ?They?re concerned that they are dragging his reputation through the mud, and they look and say: ?If H.R. had this sterling reputation and may not survive this, how could I???
Unfilled political appointments have two consequences on a new administration?s effectiveness. While some of those jobs are largely ceremonial ? glamorous ambassadorships, for example ? others entail nuts-and-bolts work. And those tasks either go undone or are passed down to lower-level employees, which in turn affects their ability to do their own jobs.
At another level, though, the failure to install management-level political appointees means the career service employees who do the majority of the work are likely to continue carrying out policies laid out by the previous administration.
?What we are seeing right now in the Pentagon for example ? my old world ? is careerists either trying to interpret what they think a team would want or in some cases going it on their own and for their own personal agendas taking action on certain items,? said Todd A. Weiler, assistant secretary of defense in the Obama administration and deputy assistant secretary under President Bill Clinton. ?And that?s a dangerous way to do business. Right, wrong or indifferent, an administration has to have its voice at the lowest echelons of agencies, and that?s just not happening.?
Republican political consultant and longtime Trump critic Rick Wilson said some delay in filling jobs is to be expected, particularly at relatively lower levels. As a young political appointee of President George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s, Wilson stayed in his job a full 14 months into Democrat Bill Clinton?s presidency until leaving in March 1994.
Yet Trump?s challenge is even more difficult, Wilson said, because of his insistence on loyalty. In past administrations, the president has drawn not only from backers of his own campaign but also from those who had supported other candidates, even other party members. Trump, while he put former GOP rivals Ben Carson and Rick Perry on his Cabinet, has been less willing to hire supporters of other GOP presidential candidates.
?Unless you were a loyal Trump suck-up for the entire campaign, they?re not even going to consider you,? said Wilson, who added that that criterion left just a small group of prospects. ?And they?re lunatics.?
Some of Trump?s problem, of course, stems from Republicans who remain absolutely unwilling to work for Trump.
?I don?t know anyone who worked for the governor who would work for President Trump,? said John Weaver, who ran the Republican primary campaign of Ohio Gov. John Kasich. ?Especially me.?
And the more the Trump scandals pile up, Wilson said, the harder it will be to find good people.
?There?s a talent gap already, and it?s going to be an even worse talent gap,? he said. ?People aren?t going to volunteer for a mission that?s political suicide, that?s career suicide.?
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Diamond earrings sell for world record $57.4m
The pair of flawless diamonds are described by Sotheby's auctioneers as show stoppers.
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Trump Defends Sharing Information on ISIS Threat With Russia
His national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, also offered a defense as the White House struggled to reconcile seemingly conflicting accounts of the president?s actions.
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Southern Italy volcano closer to erupting than previously thought
New analysis of fracturing in Campi Flegrei, an active volcano in southern Italy, suggests an eruption could happen sooner than previously predicted.
Woman on phone walks down middle of Houston freeway
A freeway traveler in Houston captured video of a young woman slowing traffic by walking down the middle of the roadway while talking on her phone.
Pittsburgh Penguins even series with 1-0 win on Phil Kessel's goal
PITTSBURGH — Phil Kessel, sniper by reputation, had gone three games with no points, and he had just one point, a goal, in his previous five games.
A-29 chosen for USAF assessment
The A-29 light attack aircraft from the Sierra Nevada Corporation and Embraer is participating in a U.S. Air Force capability assessment.
US teen died after drinking caffeine too quickly, coroner says
A coroner says the healthy 16-year-old drank several highly-caffeinated drinks too quickly.
Roger Federer Decides to Skip the French Open
Federer, who has won a major among three titles this year at 35, is bypassing the clay-court season entirely to prepare for Wimbledon.
Chicago Tribune Owner Plans To Acquire Rival Sun-Times
Chicago Tribune parent company Tronc announced plans Monday to purchase the Chicago Sun-Times, a deal which would bring the two biggest newspapers in the third-largest U.S. city under a single owner.
Tronc ? formerly Tribune Publishing ? promised in a statement that it would preserve the Sun-Times? ?independent voice? if it completes an acquisition of Wrapports Holdings, which owns the Sun-Times and other media assets, such as The Chicago Reader, an alternative weekly. Tronc, which also owns several major newspapers outside Chicago, including the Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun, sent a letter of intent to buy Wrapports if no other bidder comes forward by June 1. Tronc?s chairman, Michael Ferro, was the majority shareholder of Wrapports before he took control of Tribune Publishing a year ago.
A deal that would have been unthinkable when newspapers were huge profit generators is emblematic of the industry?s sagging fortunes. Some major U.S. cities have long been left with a single daily newspaper, and others, like Chicago, could see two longtime rivals join together in an attempt to stay afloat.
Tim Knight, president of the TroncX division of Tronc, said in a statement that the acquisition would be the ?latest in almost a decade of transactions between the owners of the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times,? adding that the rivals have previously forged agreements over distribution and printing operations. The Sun-Times newsroom would remain independent if a deal goes through, the Tronc announcement said.
Still, the potential sale raises antitrust concerns, and the Justice Department announced Monday it will investigate the plan and monitor ?whether any other viable buyer expresses interest.?
The possibility of Tronc expanding its portfolio comes several months after giant newspaper chain Gannett dropped its long-running bid to buy the publishing company last year.
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'Bachelor' Stars Ben Higgins And Lauren Bushnell Split After Over A Year Together
Sadly, another ?Bachelor? couple has ended their engagement.
Ben Higgins, who starred on Season 20 of the ABC franchise, has officially called it quits with his fiancée, Lauren Bushnell, according to People. The two shared a statement on their split:
It is with heavy hearts that we announce our decision to go our separate ways. We feel fortunate for the time we had together, and will remain friends with much love and respect for one another. We wish nothing but the best for each other, and ask for your support and understanding at this time.
Cue lots of tears.
Higgins and Bushnell got engaged ahead of the season premiere of ?The Bachelor? Season 20 in January 2016. Although they had to keep their relationship a secret while the season played out on the air, it was pretty clear that Higgins had a special bond with Bushnell right from the beginning. She beat out runner-up ? and future Bachelorette ? JoJo Fletcher for his heart and a Neil Lane diamond ring.
Rumors of a split have been floating around for months, but Higgins shot down any speculation with an Instagram post in February.
In October 2016, the couple revealed they were in couples therapy, with Higgins telling People at the time, ?We?re not the perfect couple. Far from it! But we are trying really hard, and we love each other a lot … ?Bachelor? or not, our life is not easy to navigate. We have our struggles. But we won?t give up. And for every argument, we?re stronger for it.?
The pair, who debuted their own reality series, ?Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever After?,? on Freeform in October, moved in together last April in Denver, Colorado. (Clearly, the show won?t be back for a Season 2, but at least we still have the Ferguson twins!)
Bushnell, who?s now a lifestyle blogger, hasn?t posted a photo of Higgins in a month. The former Bachelor, however, just shared a picture of his former love last week, writing, ?Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. -Martin Luther King Jr.? @laurenbushnell continues to spread love while some feel it is their responsibility to spread hate, she is a light in this world. Proud of my gal, @laurenbushnell got me .?
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Syria's Saydnaya prison crematorium hid killings, says US
The US says the prison was modified in 2013 in an effort to cover up the mass killings of inmates.
101-Year-Old Sets Record As World's Oldest Skydiver
A 101-year-old thrill seeker in the United Kingdom landed in the record books on Saturday when he became the world?s oldest tandem skydiver.
Verdun Hayes completed his jump from an airplane 15,000 feet above the ground in Devon, England, at the age of 101 years and 37 days young.
?Beautiful,? he told the BBC. ?I?d do it again tomorrow. I would, truthfully. It?s lovely.?
Canadian Armand Gendreau previously held the record with his June 2013 jump from 10,000 feet in the Quebec area. He was 101 and three days old at the time, according to CNN.
Hayes said he got the idea to skydive around the time he turned 90 years old, but his wife wouldn?t let him. She has since died, according to The Guardian.
Hayes, a World War II veteran, took his first jump last year to celebrate his centenarian birthday.
?A lot of people ask me how I?ve lived so long,? he told The Telegraph. ?I?d say, ?Just keep breathing!??
Hayes made this year?s jump to raise money for the Royal British Legion, a veterans support group. Ten members of his family also made leaps as part of the event.
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There's A Nursery That Takes Care Of Hundreds Of Adorable Kittens
Newborn felines are some of the cuddliest members of the animal kingdom. But their diminutive stature?and the level of TLC they need to survive?makes them extra vulnerable, too. That's why the San Diego Humane Society (SDHS) Kitten Nursery, the first of its kind in the U.S., cares exclusively for fragile fuzz balls.
Very young kittens, even healthy ones, require almost round-the-clock attention: They have to be fed roughly every three hours and need help regulating their body temperature. "Not all shelters have the resources, so kittens are euthanized in droves," says Gary Weitzman, SDHS president and CEO. "They're one of the most at-risk animal populations nationwide." The kitten nursery opened in 2009 to help remedy that. In 2016 alone, it cared for?and eventually adopted out?nearly 3,500 very young cats.
During "kitten season"?from March to mid-November, when cats give birth?the nursery, run by 20 staffers and about 200 volunteers, is open 24 hours a day. Though the group's life-saving efforts are Herculean, its tools are anything but. "We brush their backs with toothbrushes," says Weitzman, "because it simulates the roughness of their mother's tongue." Nap time means dozing inside Easter baskets or child-size travel neck pillows. The young felines may be more demanding than other SDHS residents, but staffers don't mind. Says Weitzman, "Nobody complains about working in the nursery."
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'New Girl' Squeezes Out One More Season On Fox
It looks like the ?New Girl? gang will be back at the loft for a few more months.
Variety reports that Fox has renewed the sitcom for a seventh and final season. According to sources, the season will consist of only eight episodes.
The series, which stars Zooey Deschanel, Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield, Lamorne Morris and Hannah Simone, started off strong when it premiered in 2011 but recently experienced a dip in the ratings. And at the end of the sixth season, some fans were wondering if the season finale would be the series finale.
Last month, on the eve of the final episode of Season 6, Johnson told HuffPost that he didn?t know what Fox had planned for ?New Girl,? but that he hoped longtime fans would enjoy the way the series ends, whenever that might be.
?What I really in my heart believe, I just want the core fan base, the people who love the show, I want them to be happy. And I don?t actually know what that ending is,? he said, adding, ?I just want this TV show to end in a way so that the people who have committed six years of their lives to it, who have cared about it ? I don?t want to let them down.?
There are plenty of storylines to explore down the line with (spoiler alert!) CeCe and Schmidt?s baby news and the romantic way things ended for Jess and Nick. We?re also keeping our fingers crossed for one more ?True American? drinking game.
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In the Footsteps of Marcel Proust
The legendary filmmaker William Friedkin recalls his obsession with ?In Search of Lost Time,? and his attempt to see the novel in real life.
Far-right figure should be denied Australian visa, MP says
The nation should take a stand against controversial US podcaster Mike Enoch, an MP says.
JetBlue passengers: Kicked off flight over birthday cake
Family members traveling to a birthday celebration in Las Vegas said they were kicked off a JetBlue flight over where to store a cake.
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Jet Blue passengers: Kicked off flight over birthday cake
Family members traveling to a birthday celebration in Las Vegas said they were kicked off a JetBlue flight over where to store a cake.
Ransomware cyber-attack threat escalating – Europol
The EU police chief warns that more people could find themselves affected on Monday morning.
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Macron's Victory Explodes France's Political Landscape
Emmanuel Macron, who was inaugurated as president on Sunday, must find a way to form a majority in the National Assembly with legislative elections just weeks away.
Chelsea win the Premier League: The numbers behind Blues' unsung heroes
Cesar Azpilicueta, Gary Cahill and Victor Moses might not steal headlines, but their efficiency has helped Chelsea clinch the title.
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Portugal's Sobral wins 2017 Eurovision Song Contest
Singing a song written by his sister, Portugal's Salvador Sobral won the Eurovision 2017 title, besting performers from 42 countries.
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Yellowstone National Park officials said a rare female white wolf had to be euthanized after she was found shot, and the incident is being treated as a crime.
Sean Hannity Wants Trump To Cancel Press Briefings And Just Tweet His 'Accomplishments'
Fox News host Sean Hannity endorsed President Donald Trump?s threat to end daily press briefings during his Friday show, suggesting the commander in chief should simply ?tweet out his accomplishments instead.?
Hannity, a longtime Trump loyalist, highlighted the president?s recent interview with Fox News? Jeanine Pirro, in which Trump said he might cancel the daily meetings with press secretary Sean Spicer in favor of holding a press conference himself every two weeks.
According to The New York Times, Trump has grown increasingly dissatisfied with Spicer?s performance, while the media uproar around the recent firing of FBI Director James Comey has reportedly led Trump to consider canceling the briefings altogether.
Hannity later fumed: ?If the propaganda ?destroy Trump? media, if they?re going to smear and slander him and his administration and his family and lie about facts and what he?s done, why bother??
?Why waste the energy trying to appease people who obviously hate his guts and want to destroy him?? he went on. ?And who twist his words and damage him every single day??
Instead, Hannity said, ?every week? Trump should ?tweet out all of his accomplishments, going back to day one ? update people daily about what he?s doing and what he?s accomplishing.?
?The president can also take to Twitter,? he added. ?He can respond to the barrage of attacks, this ridiculous conspiracy theory about Russia that is being pushed with no evidence.?
Hannity, who acknowledged last year he was more an entertainer than a journalist, has previously called for Trump to ?change the traditional relationship? between the media and the White House.
In November, he raged: ?Until members of the media come clean about colluding with the Clinton campaign and admit that they knowingly broke every ethical standard that they?re supposed to stand and uphold, they should not have the privilege, they should not have the responsibility of covering the president on behalf of you, the American people.?
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Cyberattack strikes 99 countries across Europe, Asia
Experts are continuing to repair computer systems after a global cyberattack using software stolen from the National Security Agency.
Selecting a ceiling fan isn?t just about the right color and style. There are some key elements that you must take into consideration. Airflow and blade shape matter. When you sit for long hours during the day in your Spokane workplace, you may be at risk of experiencing some type of back injury, so you want to schedule a regular chiropractic checkup to make sure your spine is aligned correctly. Higher number of blades means more air movement. However Fans with the most airflow also make the most noise. .
VP Pence: 'America Will Stand by Followers of Christ'
Some say Christians are facing more persecution right now than at any other time in modern history. That's why evangelist Franklin Graham called for the World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians. The presence of Vice President Mike Pence at the summit Thursday showed the attacks are getting attention at the highest levels.
Ransomware Attacks Ravage Computer Networks In Dozens Of Countries
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Internet Comes For Bigot Who Claims Gays 'Stole The Rainbow From God'
Many in the LGBTQ community were saddened by Friday?s news that artist and activist Gilbert Baker, who created the rainbow flag, had died at age 65. Leave it to conservative radio host Bryan Fischer, however, to seize the moment to make a homophobic barb.
On Sunday, the host of American Family Radio?s ?Focal Point? blasted the use of the rainbow as a pro-equality symbol for the LGBTQ community on Twitter.
The Bible verse cited by Fischer details the parable of Noah?s ark. After wiping out all living creatures in a massive flood, God sends ?the bow [that] is seen in the clouds,? promising not to destroy the planet again.
The Internet?s reaction to Fischer?s bonkers claim, of course, was fast and furious. Among those to respond was ?Star Trek? icon George Takei.
Others didn?t hold back, either. Check out some of the best Twitter responses below, then scroll down to keep reading.
Of course, Fischer is no stranger to making outrageous declarations about the LGBTQ community. Last year, the American Family Association?s former director of news analysis likened the one-year anniversary of marriage equality in the U.S. to both the bombing of Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
He?s also rallied against the pro-equality arguments seen in ?Modern Family,? Macklemore and Ryan Lewis?s hit single ?Same Love,? and even a 2014 Burger King campaign.
For more ways to combat bigotry, don?t miss the Queer Voices newsletter.
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Elizabeth Warren-Backed Candidate Looks To Unseat GOP Congresswoman In California
A consumer advocate backed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) will challenge a Republican congresswoman in next year?s election.
Katie Porter, an attorney who teaches consumer law at the University of California, Irvine and is the author of several studies on the subprime loan crisis, announced Monday she will run against Rep. Mimi Walters (R-Calif.) in 2018.
?As a consumer advocate, I?ve spent my career fighting Wall Street banks who cheat consumers and families,? Porter said in a statement announcing her candidacy. ?Now, I?m running for Congress to take that fight to Washington. I?ll take on Donald Trump and the powerful Washington special interests who control Congress.?
Walters represents a portion of Orange County, one of the GOP?s strongholds in largely blue California. Democratic operatives have eyed the area as ripe for House seat pick-ups since the region sided with Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election ? the first time the county voted for a Democratic candidate since 1936 ? and are looking to attract voters who are displeased with President Donald Trump and lawmakers who back his legislative priorities.
Porter?s team has already employed that strategy, pointing to a FiveThirtyEight analysis showing Walters voting in line with Trump?s agenda 100 percent of the time.
Porter?s campaign is also emphasizing her support from Warren and Harris, two progressive favorites and outspoken critics of the president.
Warren, who was Porter?s professor at Harvard Law School, described the attorney as a ?fighter.?
?She?s been in the trenches with me fighting for families for nearly two decades ? and she?s gotten real results,? Warren said in a statement. ?She?s fought relentlessly for important protections that safeguard consumers and force banks to give families a fair shake. There?s no one I trust more to take on Donald Trump and the entrenched special interests in Washington on behalf of working families.?
Harris also has longstanding ties with Porter: As California attorney general, Harris appointed Porter in 2012 to oversee the $25 billion mortgage settlement by Wall Street banks.
?Katie has spent her career battling powerful Wall Street banks who take advantage of consumers and families,? Harris said in a statement. ?She will be just as relentless in Congress fighting against the powerful Washington special interests on behalf of our families.?
Walters has served in the House since 2015. She was re-elected in November with 58.6 percent of the vote.
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Another Reason Not To Give Up On Your Novel: J.K. Rowling Will Be Really Disappointed
There?s a great novel inside of you, just waiting for the moment to burst out. Not sure about that? Take J.K. Rowling?s word for it.
In a series of tweets ? inspired by one from Beauty Jackson, a podcast host and blogger with a sizable Twitter following ? Rowling encouraged creatives to never give up on their passion projects, even if the odds of success seem insurmountable.
Here?s the original tweet, which Rowling quoted:
In a long thread, she extols the value of finishing work even if it never finds an audience, the lessons learned by persevering in creating art, and the importance of remembering that success is not a true measure of quality.
Easy for her to say, right? If every struggling author eventually had a smash-hit debut novel that left them multi-millionaires, if not billionaires, then, well, money would probably cease to have much meaning.
It?s been well-documented how winding, and often difficult, a path Rowling took to superstardom ? a single mother who?d worked for Amnesty International and taught English in Portugal, she found herself scraping by to support her daughter in Edinburgh on state benefits while she toiled on her Harry Potter manuscript and trained to teach. After all that hard work, the book was rejected somewhere between ?loads? and ?12? times by publishers before Bloomsbury took a chance on the magic of Hogwarts.
And, to be clear, Harry Potter and the Philosopher?s Stone wasn?t her first novel. She wrote her first book at 6 years old; it was about a rabbit.
The point is, creating stuff ? whole-cloth, out of your brain ? is difficult, and it can be exhausting. It?s especially exhausting when your work isn?t appreciated, after all the thankless hours you invested in it. But if you?re really determined and you believe in yourself, maybe you just need a solid pep talk to carry you through the tough times ? and J.K. Rowling always serves the good stuff.
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Marvel Exec Suggests Comic Sales Fell Because Readers 'Didn't Want Female Characters'
Over the past few years, the elite club of iconic comic superheroes went from being exclusively white and male ? Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, all the mans ? to incorporating women and people of color into its super-roster.
For example, a Pakistani-American teenager named Kamala Khan became the new Ms. Marvel, and a black science prodigy named Riri Williams made her own Iron Man suit, taking up the Ironheart mantle. Bad Feminist author Roxanne Gay became the first black woman to write for Marvel; her series ?World of Wakanda? revolves around queer heroines in an all-women fighting force, based in a fictional African country.
Unfortunately, these initial, long overdue attempts to broaden the definition of who a hero can be are now being blamed for the decline in comic-book sales in 2016. In an interview with ?geek culture? website ICv2, Marvel?s vice president of sales David Gabriel said he was told by comic retailers that customers ?didn?t want any more diversity.?
Gabriel continued:
They didn?t want female characters out there. That?s what we heard, whether we believe that or not. I don?t know that that?s really true, but that?s what we saw in sales.
We saw the sales of any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up against. That was difficult for us because we had a lot of fresh, new, exciting ideas that we were trying to get out and nothing new really worked.
Many were quick to challenge Gabriel?s hypothesis that diversity was to blame for a lapse in sales, instead of the fact that most comic books tell the same damn stories over and over and over again.
One vocal commenter was the creator of Ms. Marvel herself, G. Willow Wilson.
In a blog post responding to the controversial statements, Wilson discussed the various other factors that turn readers off from new comic protagonists that don?t relate to their race and gender ? like, for example, that they tend to kill off the reigning, beloved hero and assume his or her position, likely to anger devoted fans.
Most notably, Wilson took issue with the framing of non-white male characters as ?diverse,? instead of just realistic. ?Diversity as a form of performative guilt doesn?t work,? she wrote. ?Let?s scrap the word diversity entirely and replace it with authenticity and realism. This is not a new world. This is *the world.*?
Others on Twitter chimed in with similar sentiments, expressing that Marvel?s blatant lag time in expanding its catalog of leading characters likely turned readers off as much if not more than their eventual attempts at inclusion.
However, it?s not all that hard to imagine readers ?turning their noses up,? as Gabriel put it, at the concept of being saved by a teenage girl. Just think of the unfathomable wrath generated by the all-female reboot of ?Ghostbusters? and the December 2015 installment of ?Star Wars,? fronted by a woman and a black man. Sociologists and scholars have studied the propensity for misogyny in stereotypically ?nerdy? communities. Very succinctly put, participants in geek culture, often excluded from traditional displays of masculinity, seek protected communities to experience male privileges of dominance, acceptance and superiority.
The good news, however, is that Gabriel is determined not to let the decline in sales deter Marvel?s path toward representation and widespread visibility. ?Let me be clear,? he wrote in a clarifying statement following his initial remarks, ?our new heroes are not going anywhere! We are proud and excited to keep introducing unique characters that reflect new voices and new experiences into the Marvel universe and pair them with our iconic heroes.?
Comic buffs and feminist nerds, if you?re reading, now is the time to support the comic heroes you?d like to see more of. In real life, it?s often women and people of color who put in work to make the world a brighter, safer place. Let?s have our comics tell truthful stories that reflect the world around us, whether or not they involve flying around cities in tight suits and capes.
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Devon dog sets skipping world record
Jack Russell Jessica clocks up 59 skips in one minute with her owner Rachael Grylls.
One of the most controversial and depressing series that came out recently is 13 Reasons Why It is a show about suicide Navigate through Louisville's heart on the Belle of Louisville. The show is a depressing depiction of reality
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The 21st Century has broken down the traditional workplace into a fluid zone. This fluidity has brought about work from home opportunities that are open to anyone across the globe We went to see Dr Overton today and we are so pleased that we did. People who do these kinds of jobs are freelancers.
The Backstreet Boys Are Apparently A Country Boy Band Now
The 52nd annual Academy of Country Music Awards want it thaaaat way.
Pop music is apparently very 2001, so the Backstreet Boys opted for some country twang on Sunday night with a little help from Florida Georgia Line.
The boy band joined the duo onstage for a ?must-see medley?, featuring their single, ?God, Your Mama, and Me.?
Of course, viewers got their money?s worth when the group closed the performance with a rendition of ?Everybody.?
Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood and the rest of social media was understandably shook.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Mexico newspaper stops printing after reporter shot dead
The editor of a Mexican newspaper says he is not prepared to let any more of his colleagues die.
Boat Races: Oxford triumph in men's race after Cambridge women win
Oxford men claim a narrow victory after a dominant win for the Cambridge women in the 2017 Boat Races.
On College Basketball: Gonzaga Earns Chance to Prove It Belongs Among Basketball's Elite
Playing in a weaker conference and defeating lower-seeded teams in the N.C.A.A. tournament has done it no favors. Now comes a No. 1 seed, and an opportunity to make a statement.
Alexander Radulov's OT goal lifts Montreal Canadiens over Tampa Bay Lightning
TAMPA, Fla. — The Montreal Canadiens took one step closer to clinching another division title. The Lightning took a minor step back in their pursuit of a playoff spot.
Desperate calls
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Business Empire Leaves Trump Family With Web of Conflicts
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Paraguay congress building set ablaze after contenious vote
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Miami Open: Roger Federer beats Nick Kyrgios to set up final against Rafael Nadal
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Mexico Welcomes Possible Shift on Nafta, but Trump Mistrust Persists
A draft letter circulating in Congress appears to propose keeping much of the trade deal in place, but some fear it could be ?toppled over in one tweet.?
The heart is the body?s power house. https://plus.google.com/% 2BLicemagic It is a muscular organ that pumps blood around the circulatory system.
Accused Sexual Predator Proclaims April National Sexual Assault Awareness Month
President Donald Trump, who has been publicly accused of sexual assault by more than 15 women and was caught on tape boasting he could grab women ?by the pussy? without their consent, has officially proclaimed April 2017 to be National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.
In 2009, Barack Obama became the first president to officially proclaim April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month, although activists had recognized the month as a time to boost awareness of sexual violence for several decades. Since 2009, a proclamation has been released each year by the White House. But 2017 brings us the first year that a president who has been accused of committing sexual assault has issued such a proclamation.
?At the heart of our country is the emphatic belief that every person has unique and infinite value,? reads the beginning of Trump?s statement. ?We dedicate each April to raising awareness about sexual abuse and recommitting ourselves to fighting it. Women, children, and men have inherent dignity that should never be violated.?
The statement goes on to affirm a commitment to reducing and ending sexual violence, calling on all Americans ?to support survivors of sexual assault and work together to prevent these crimes in their communities.?
The Trump administration?s first Sexual Assault Awareness Month proclamation hits many of the same general notes that Obama?s statement did in 2016 ? with a few notable changes.
The 2017 proclamation removes any references to military sexual assault and adds a line on the importance of fighting ?against the scourge of child pornography and its pernicious effects.?
Most strikingly, the proclamation removes almost all references to rape culture, though Trump does acknowledge that ?research has demonstrated the effectiveness of changing social norms that accept or allow indifference to sexual violence.?
In its first paragraph, Obama?s 2016 statement called on Americans to ?stand up and speak out to change the culture that questions the actions of victims, rather than those of their attackers,? later ?reaffirm[ing] our commitment to shift the attitudes that allow sexual assault to go unanswered and unpunished.?
There are no such allusions to a culture of victim-blaming in Trump?s 2017 statement.
Trump is currently facing a defamation suit filed by former ?Apprentice? contestant Summer Zervos, who has accused Trump of kissing and groping her without her consent in 2007, a year after she had appeared on his reality TV show.
Read Trump?s full proclamation below:
At the heart of our country is the emphatic belief that every person has unique and infinite value. We dedicate each April to raising awareness about sexual abuse and recommitting ourselves to fighting it. Women, children, and men have inherent dignity that should never be violated.
According to the Department of Justice, on average there are more than 300,000 instances of rape or other sexual assault that afflict our neighbors and loved ones every year. Behind these painful statistics are real people whose lives are profoundly affected, at times shattered, and who are invariably in need of our help, commitment, and protection.
As we recognize National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, we are reminded that we all share the responsibility to reduce and ultimately end sexual violence. As a Nation, we must develop meaningful strategies to eliminate these crimes, including increasing awareness of the problem in our communities, creating systems that protect vulnerable groups, and sharing successful prevention strategies.
My Administration, including the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services, will do everything in its power to protect women, children, and men from sexual violence. This includes supporting victims, preventing future abuse, and prosecuting offenders to the full extent of the law. I have already directed the Attorney General to create a task force on crime reduction and public safety. This task force will develop strategies to reduce crime and propose new legislation to fill gaps in existing laws.
Prevention means reducing the prevalence of sexual violence on our streets, in our homes, and in our schools and institutions. Recent research has demonstrated the effectiveness of changing social norms that accept or allow indifference to sexual violence. This can be done by engaging young people to step in and provide peer leadership against condoning violence, and by mobilizing men and boys as allies in preventing sexual and relationship violence. Our families, schools, and communities must encourage respect for women and children, who are the vast majority of victims, and promote healthy personal relationships. We must never give up the fight against the scourge of child pornography and its pernicious effects on both direct victims and the broader culture. We recommit ourselves this month to establishing a culture of respect and appreciation for the dignity of every human being.
There is tremendous work to be done. Together, we can and must protect our loved ones, families, campuses, and communities from the devastating and pervasive effects of sexual assault. In the face of sexual violence, we must commit to providing meaningful support and services for victims and survivors in the United States and around the world.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2017 as National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. I urge all Americans, families, law enforcement, health care providers, community and faith-based organizations, and private organizations to support survivors of sexual assault and work together to prevent these crimes in their communities.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand seventeen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-first.
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Need help? Visit RAINN?s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center?s website.
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Judge Approves $25 Million Settlement Of Trump University Lawsuit
The deal was reached in November but needed the approval of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. One student had objected to the settlement, which prevented her from suing Trump on her own.
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Fan guilty of trying to punch Crystal Palace bald eagle
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Woody Harrelson recalls doing yoga with prison inmates
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19 Tweets That Show Love Can Be A Radical Act
For HuffPost's #LoveTakesAction series, we're telling stories of how people are standing up to hate and supporting those most threatened. What will you stand up for? Tell us with #LoveTakesAction.
This Valentine's Day, in addition to the usual barrage of couple photos and "single life†memes, another theme emerged on social media: love as a radical, political act.
On Feb. 14, the Women's March and other groups launched the hashtag #RevolutionaryLove, asking followers "to fight for social justice through the ethic of love†and post love letters on social media written to others, to themselves and even to their opponents. On the same day, The Huffington Post launched the hashtag #LoveTakesAction, asking people what issues they'll stand up for.Â
The hashtags seemed to resonate with people online ― #RevolutionaryLove trended on Twitter at various times throughout the day ― at a time when most Americans are stressed about the country's future, and waves of protesters are taking to the streets to oppose everything from President Donald Trump's executive order on refugees and immigrants, to the Dakota Access Pipeline, to recent immigration enforcement raids.
Here are 19Â tweets from people declaring that, in the face of hateful acts and discriminatory policies, love can be a powerful act of resistance.
People showed love means standing up to hate and bigotryÂ
People spread love to those most affected by hate and injustice
People practiced self-love in the face of hate
People showed love of country means pushing America to be better
Know a story from your community of people fighting hate and supporting groups who need it? Send news tips to firstname.lastname@example.com.
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Shetland saw fastest house price rise in 2016, says ONS
Property prices in the Shetland Isles rose by more than quarter last year, official figures show.
African-American GIs of WWII: Fighting for democracy abroad and at home
By Maria Höhn, Vassar College
Until the last decade, the contributions of African-American soldiers in World War II barely registered in America's collective memory of that war.
The "tan soldiers," as the black press affectionately called them, were also for the most part left out of the triumphant narrative of America's "Greatest Generation." In order to tell their story of helping defeat Nazi Germany in my 2010 book, "Breath of Freedom," I had to conduct research in more than 40 different archives in the U.S. and Germany.
When a German TV production company, together with Smithsonian TV, turned that book into a documentary, the filmmakers searched U.S. media and military archives for two years for footage of black GIs in the final push into Germany and during the occupation of post-war Germany.
They watched hundreds of hours of film and discovered less than 10 minutes of footage. This despite the fact that among the 16 million U.S. soldiers who fought in World War II, there were about one million African-American soldiers.
They fought in the Pacific, and they were part of the victorious army that liberated Europe from Nazi rule. Black soldiers were also part of the U.S. Army of occupation in Germany after the war. Still serving in strictly segregated units, they were sent to democratize the Germans and expunge all forms of racism.
It was that experience that convinced many of these veterans to continue their struggle for equality when they returned home to the U.S. They were to become the foot soldiers of the civil rights movement – a movement that changed the face of our nation and inspired millions of repressed people across the globe.
As a scholar of German history and of the more than 70-year U.S. military presence in Germany, I have marveled at the men and women of that generation. They were willing to fight for democracy abroad, while being denied democratic rights at home in the U.S. Because of their belief in America's "democratic promise" and their sacrifices on behalf of those ideals, I was born into a free and democratic West Germany, just 10 years after that horrific war.
Fighting racism at home and abroad
By deploying troops abroad as warriors for and emissaries of American democracy, the military literally exported the African-American freedom struggle.
Beginning in 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power, African-American activists and the black press used white America's condemnation of Nazi racism to expose and indict the abuses of Jim Crow at home. America's entry into the war and the struggle against Nazi Germany allowed civil rights activists to significantly step up their rhetoric.
Langston Hughes' 1943 poem, "From Beaumont to Detroit," addressed to America, eloquently expressed that sentiment:
"You jim crowed me / Before hitler rose to power- / And you are still jim crowing me- / Right now this very hour."
Believing that fighting for American democracy abroad would finally grant African-Americans full citizenship at home, civil rights activists put pressure on the U.S. government to allow African-American soldiers to "fight like men," side by side with white troops.
The military brass, disproportionately dominated by white Southern officers, refused. They argued that such a step would undermine military efficiency and negatively impact the morale of white soldiers. In an integrated military, black officers or NCOs might also end up commanding white troops. Such a challenge to the Jim Crow racial order based on white supremacy was seen as unacceptable.
The manpower of black soldiers was needed in order to win the war, but the military brass got its way; America's Jim Crow order was to be upheld. African-Americans were allowed to train as pilots in the segregated Tuskeegee Airmen. The 92nd Buffalo Soldiers and 93rd Blue Helmets all-black divisions were activated and sent abroad under the command of white officers.
Despite these concessions, 90 percent of black troops were forced to serve in labor and supply units, rather than the more prestigious combat units. Except for a few short weeks during the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944 when commanders were desperate for manpower, all U.S. soldiers served in strictly segregated units. Even the blood banks were segregated.
'A Breath of Freedom'
After the defeat of the Nazi regime, an Army manual instructed U.S. occupation soldiers that America was the "living denial of Hitler's absurd theories of a superior race," and that it was up to them to teach the Germans "that the whole concept of superiority and intolerance of others is evil." There was an obvious, deep gulf between this soaring rhetoric of democracy and racial harmony, and the stark reality of the Jim Crow army of occupation. It was also not lost on the black soldiers.
Post-Nazi Germany was hardly a country free of racism. But for the black soldiers, it was their first experience of a society without a formal Jim Crow color line. Their uniform identified them as victorious warriors and as Americans, rather than "Negroes."
Serving in labor and supply units, they had access to all the goods and provisions starving Germans living in the ruins of their country yearned for. African-American cultural expressions such as jazz, defamed and banned by the Nazis, were another reason so many Germans were drawn to their black liberators. White America was stunned to see how much black GIs enjoyed their time abroad, and how much they dreaded their return home to the U.S.
By 1947, when the Cold War was heating up, the reality of the segregated Jim Crow Army in Germany was becoming a major embarrassment for the U.S. government. The Soviet Union and East German communist propaganda relentlessly attacked the U.S. and challenged its claim to be the leader of the "free world." Again and again, they would point to the segregated military in West Germany, and to Jim Crow segregation in the U.S. to make their case.
Coming 'home'
Newly returned veterans, civil rights advocates and the black press took advantage of that Cold War constellation. They evoked America's mission of democracy in Germany to push for change at home. Responding to that pressure, the first institution of the U.S. to integrate was the U.S. military, made possible by Truman's 1948 Executive Order 9981. That monumental step, in turn, paved the way for the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
The veterans who had been abroad electrified and energized the larger struggle to make America live up to its promise of democracy and justice. They joined the NAACP in record numbers and founded new chapters of that organization in the South, despite a wave of violence against returning veterans. The veterans of World War II and the Korean War became the foot soldiers of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Medgar Evers, Amzie Moore, Hosea Williams and Aaron Henry are some of the better-known names, but countless others helped advance the struggle.
About one-third of the leaders in the civil rights movement were veterans of World War II.
They fought for a better America in the streets of the South, at their workplaces in the North, as leaders in the NAACP, as plaintiffs before the Supreme Court and also within the U.S. military to make it a more inclusive institution. They were also the men of the hour at the 1963 March on Washington, when their military training and expertise was crucial to ensure that the day would not be marred by agitators opposed to civil rights.
"We structured the March on Washington like an army formation," recalled veteran Joe Hairston.
For these veterans, the 2009 and 2013 inaugurations of President Barack Obama were triumphant moments in their long struggle for a better America and a more just world. Many never thought they would live to see the day that an African-American would lead their country.
To learn more about the contributions of African-American GIs, visit "The Civil Rights Struggle, African-American GIs, and Germany" digital archive.
Maria Höhn, Professor and Chair of History, Vassar College
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
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This Artist Absolutely Nailed It With His Comics About Anxiety
Life with anxiety or depression can feel like a constant struggle. And experts recommend drawing or writing as a healing way to express symptoms when talking just doesn't seem to summarize them properly.
Enter these comics from artist Sow Ay, a reminder that no matter how scary anxiety feels, you aren't alone.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
This Artist Absolutely Nailed It With His Comics About Anxiety
Life with anxiety or depression can feel like a constant struggle. And experts recommend drawing or writing as a healing way to express symptoms when talking just doesn't seem to summarize them properly.
Enter these comics from artist Sow Ay, a reminder that no matter how scary anxiety feels, you aren't alone.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
I cannot believe that we are almost at the end of the year already near Hand picking each lice and bug from the head is an effective way of head lice removal.. We have so many good plans for the next year.
When Life Is In The Hands Of Human Traffickers / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez
Terminal 3 in Jose Marti International Airport in Havana (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, 4 February 2017 – The wifi signal barely crosses the glass. The wireless network at José Martà International Airport only covers the boarding area. But a woman presses her whole body against the opaque window that separates the travelers' area to communicate with human traffickers who are holding her daughter in Mexico.
For half any hour the lady reveals her despair. "I don't have that much money, if I had it I would send it right now," she prays through IMO. The videochat is cut several times by the poor quality of the connection On the other side, the voice of a man repeats, without backing off, "Three hundred dollars so she can return on Tuesday."
The woman wipes her tears and unsuccessfully asks for a reduction. Nearby, a maid who cleans the bathroom passes by, idly dragging a cart with cleaning supplies. A customs official walks by, absorbed, and pretends he is not listening to the disturbing request projected from the screen of the phone, "Don't kill her, don't kill her."
The scene happens in a place crowded with people, most of whom are passengers about to board a transatlantic flight, or a new commercial route to the United States, and there are also the family members and friends who have come to see them off. No one shows any sign of hearing the drama developing a few feet away.
A tourist tosses back a beer just as the woman is asking the man for half an hour to "collect the money." She starts the race against the clock. She calls several contacts from her IMO address book, but the first four, at least, don't answer. On the fifth try, a shrill voice on the other end says, "Hello."
"I need a huge favor, you can't say no," the lady stammers. But the head that can be seen on the screen shakes from side to side. "Are you crazy? And if after you pay this money they don't let her go?" asks the voice. The tension makes the hand holding the phone start to tremble and her granddaughter, who has accompanied her, helps her hold on to it.
Several more calls and the money is not forthcoming. Finally a serious voice says yes, he can lend the money if the woman will pay it back "in two installments" to his sister in Havana. The mother agrees, promises she can "repay every cent," although it sounds like a formula to get out of a bind. The man believes her.
Now they must arrange the details. The victim doesn't have a bank account but the mother will send information about "how to send the money." This is how the kidnappers get paid. Only then will they allow her to fly from Cancun to Havana, or at least that is what they promise.
In the middle of last year the Mexican authorities shut down a network trafficking in undocumented people from Cuba that operated in this tourist area in the Mexican state of Qunitana Roo. The end of the "wet foot/dry foot" policy this January has left many migrants in the hands of the coyotes, who don't hesitate to turn to extortion to make up for the reduction in the flow of Cubans and, as a result, their loss of earnings.
The wifi signal is lost altogether, but the mother is feeling relieved. "She was in a large group, about 20 people," she tells her granddaughter. A simple calculation allows us to know how much the captors will earn on "freeing" all those they are holding.
Nothing ends with the delivery of the money. "She is going to want to go again," concludes the mother, the instant she hangs up from the last videochat. "I can't stand it here, I can't" she repeats, while walking toward the escalator filled with smiling and tanned tourists.
14ymedio, Cuba's first independent daily digital news outlet, published directly from the island, is available in Spanish here. Translations of selected articles in English are here.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
a href="http://translatingcuba.com/when-life-is-in-the-hands-of-human-traffickers-14ymedio-yoani-sanchez/terminal-aeropuerto-internacional-marti-habana_cymima20161221_0005_13-2/" rel="attachment wp-att-52010″>
Terminal 3 in Jose Marti International Airport in Havana (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, 4 February 2017 – The wifi signal barely crosses the glass. The wireless network at José Martà International Airport only covers the boarding area. But a woman presses her whole body against the opaque window that separates the travelers' area to communicate with human traffickers who are holding her daughter in Mexico.
For half any hour the lady reveals her despair. "I don't have that much money, if I had it I would send it right now," she prays through IMO. The videochat is cut several times by the poor quality of the connection On the other side, the voice of a man repeats, without backing off, "Three hundred dollars so she can return on Tuesday."
The woman wipes her tears and unsuccessfully asks for a reduction. Nearby, a maid who cleans the bathroom passes by, idly dragging a cart with cleaning supplies. A customs official walks by, absorbed, and pretends he is not listening to the disturbing request projected from the screen of the phone, "Don't kill her, don't kill her."
The scene happens in a place crowded with people, most of whom are passengers about to board a transatlantic flight, or a new commercial route to the United States, and there are also the family members and friends who have come to see them off. No one shows any sign of hearing the drama developing a few feet away.
A tourist tosses back a beer just as the woman is asking the man for half an hour to "collect the money." She starts the race against the clock. She calls several contacts from her IMO address book, but the first four, at least, don't answer. On the fifth try, a shrill voice on the other end says, "Hello."
"I need a huge favor, you can't say no," the lady stammers. But the head that can be seen on the screen shakes from side to side. "Are you crazy? And if after you pay this money they don't let her go?" asks the voice. The tension makes the hand holding the phone start to tremble and her granddaughter, who has accompanied her, helps her hold on to it.
Several more calls and the money is not forthcoming. Finally a serious voice says yes, he can lend the money if the woman will pay it back "in two installments" to his sister in Havana. The mother agrees, promises she can "repay every cent," although it sounds like a formula to get out of a bind. The man believes her.
Now they must arrange the details. The victim doesn't have a bank account but the mother will send information about "how to send the money." This is how the kidnappers get paid. Only then will they allow her to fly from Cancun to Havana, or at least that is what they promise.
In the middle of last year the Mexican authorities shut down a network trafficking in undocumented people from Cuba that operated in this tourist area in the Mexican state of Qunitana Roo. The end of the "wet foot/dry foot" policy this January has left many migrants in the hands of the coyotes, who don't hesitate to turn to extortion to make up for the reduction in the flow of Cubans and, as a result, their loss of earnings.
The wifi signal is lost altogether, but the mother is feeling relieved. "She was in a large group, about 20 people," she tells her granddaughter. A simple calculation allows us to know how much the captors will earn on "freeing" all those they are holding.
Nothing ends with the delivery of the money. "She is going to want to go again," concludes the mother, the instant she hangs up from the last videochat. "I can't stand it here, I can't" she repeats, while walking toward the escalator filled with smiling and tanned tourists.
14ymedio, Cuba's first independent daily digital news outlet, published directly from the island, is available in Spanish here. Translations of selected articles in English are here.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
We are really enjoying the leaves falling and the weather in Fall in Professional lice treatment is easier than doing it myself.. It's so beautiful outside.
Doctors Remove Live Squirming Cockroach From Woman's Skull
A woman in eastern India woke up one day this week to a nightmarish sensation: the feeling that a bug had crawled up her nose.
The 42-year-old woman, a Chennai resident identified only as Selvi, made her son-in-law take her to a medical clinic Tuesday morning so doctors could examine her.
"I could not explain the feeling, but I was sure it was some insect,†she told The New Indian Express. "There was a tingling, crawling sensation. Whenever it moved, it gave me a burning sensation in my eyes.â€
Clinic doctors sent her to Stanley Medical College Hospital, where doctors found a live cockroach nestled against the woman's skull between her eyes. The insect was resting close to the brain, according to the Deccan Chronicle.
Dr. M. N. Shankar said he was amazed by the bugged-out discovery.
"It is rare to find a foreign body in the nose (unlike the ear) and here it's an adult's nose ― and that too, a live cockroach,†Shankar told the paper.
Doctors tried to remove the roach with vacuum suction, but it was too big. They finally snagged it with the aid of a nasal endoscope. The patient is reportedly feeling better.
Doctors said that if Selvi had ignored the scratchy sensation, the insect eventually would have died, causing an infection close to her brain that may have been fatal, according to South West News Service.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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A woman in eastern India woke up one day this week to a nightmarish sensation: the feeling that a bug had crawled up her nose.
The 42-year-old woman, a Chennai resident identified only as Selvi, made her son-in-law take her to a medical clinic Tuesday morning so doctors could examine her.
"I could not explain the feeling, but I was sure it was some insect,†she told The New Indian Express. "There was a tingling, crawling sensation. Whenever it moved, it gave me a burning sensation in my eyes.â€
Clinic doctors sent her to Stanley Medical College Hospital, where doctors found a live cockroach nestled against the woman's skull between her eyes. The insect was resting close to the brain, according to the Deccan Chronicle.
Dr. M. N. Shankar said he was amazed by the bugged-out discovery.
"It is rare to find a foreign body in the nose (unlike the ear) and here it's an adult's nose ― and that too, a live cockroach,†Shankar told the paper.
Doctors tried to remove the roach with vacuum suction, but it was too big. They finally snagged it with the aid of a nasal endoscope. The patient is reportedly feeling better.
Doctors said that if Selvi had ignored the scratchy sensation, the insect eventually would have died, causing an infection close to her brain that may have been fatal, according to South West News Service.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

subset: commoncrawl