- 23 Deeply Personal Details Matthew Perry Revealed In His Memoir “Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing” BuzzFeed
- Matthew Perry says this actor would play a younger him if his memoir is ever turned into a movie: ‘He’s done it once’ Yahoo Entertainment
- Matthew Perry: “How Can You Not Have a Crush on Jennifer Aniston?” SiriusXM
- Matthew Perry Says He Spent Years Thinking His ‘Penis Didn’t Work’ Due To Alcohol ETCanada.com
- What Happened To Matthew Perry’s Voice? The ‘Friends’ Star Just Confirmed Why He Has Speech Issues On Diane Sawyer Special Yahoo Life
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: deeply
Barr: Justice Department should appeal ‘deeply flawed’ ruling approving special master in Trump documents case
Washington
CNN
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Former Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday said the decision by a Florida judge to grant former President Donald Trump’s request for a special master to review the documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago is “deeply flawed” and urged the Justice Department to appeal it.
“The opinion, I think, was wrong, and I think the government should appeal it. It’s deeply flawed in a number of ways,” Barr said during a Fox interview Tuesday.
“I don’t think the appointment of a special master is going to hold up – but even if it does, I don’t see it fundamentally changing the trajectory. In other words, I don’t think it changes the ball game so much as maybe we’ll have a rain delay for a couple of innings.”
Trump-appointed District Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday ordered that a third-party attorney be brought in to review the materials that were taken from Trump’s home and resort in Florida. The order also halts the Justice Department from continuing its review of the materials seized from Mar-a-Lago “pending completion of the special master’s review or further Court order.”
The classification review and intelligence assessments being conducted by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, however, will be allowed to continue.
The Justice Department strongly opposed a special master and has said that its own “filter team” already finished its review of the Mar-a-Lago documents. A DOJ spokesman said Monday that officials are “examining the opinion” and considering “appropriate next steps.”
Cannon’s decision was a significant victory for the former President, who has railed against the Biden administration and Justice Department since the search of his Palm Beach property. Trump’s lawyers had argued that a special master was needed because they don’t trust the Justice Department to fairly identify privileged materials that would need to be excluded from the ongoing criminal probe.
All about the judge who granted Trump’s ‘special master’ request
Though Barr was a Trump loyalist during his time as attorney general, he has at times criticized the former President since leaving the administration and hasn’t held back in recent days when asked about Trump’s special master effort.
Barr, in a separate appearance on Fox last week, called the special master request a “red herring” and a “waste of time.” He doubled down on those comments in a phone interview with The New York Times, saying that he didn’t think a special master was “called for.”
Weighing in on the prospect of a DOJ appeal, he told Fox: “I think if DOJ appeals, eventually it will be overturned. I hope they expedite it, but it could take several months to get that straightened out.”
‘Deeply Problematic’: Experts Question Judge’s Intervention in Trump Inquiry – The New York Times
- ‘Deeply Problematic’: Experts Question Judge’s Intervention in Trump Inquiry The New York Times
- Federal Judge to appoint special master to review items FBI took during Mar-a-Lago search CBS Philly
- Federal judge orders appointment of special master to review seized Trump records Fox News
- Judge authorizes special master to review Trump Mar-a-Lago raid documents, temporarily blocks DOJ using records for probe CNBC
- Takeaways from the ruling granting Trump’s request for a special master in Mar-a-Lago probe CNN
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tiffany Haddish Says She Deeply Regrets Acting in “Through A Pedophile’s Eyes” Sketch – The Hollywood Reporter
Tiffany Haddish says she deeply regrets acting in an old sketch with Aries Spears that has sparked a wave of criticism following a lawsuit from an anonymous woman who accused the comedians of exploiting her and her brother in sexually charged video skits when they were children.
“I know people have a bunch of questions. I get it. I’m right there with you. Unfortunately, because there is an ongoing legal case, there’s very little that I can say right now,” she posted on social media. “But, clearly, while this sketch was intended to be comedic, it wasn’t funny at all – and I deeply regret having agreed to act in it. I really look forward to being able to share a lot more about this situation as soon as I can.”
Haddish and Spears were sued on Aug. 30 by a self-represented Jane Doe. The complaint alleges the woman and her younger brother were duped into participating in the skits as kids. The video featuring the brother, who according to the complaint was 7 at the time and was filmed in his underwear, was called “Through a Pedophile’s Eyes.” The clip showed Spears’ character lusting after the boy to the soundtrack of R. Kelly’s “Bump and Grind,” and ends with the boy showing an interest in the man and the warning “watch who you leave your kids with.” Haddish is featured as the mom who repeatedly leaves her son alone with Spears for various reasons. Funny or Die, where the comedians’ video had been posted, said it was removed in 2018 and called it “absolutely disgusting.”
In response to the suit, Haddish’s attorney Andrew Brettler called the claims “bogus” and said Doe’s mother had been trying to bring them for years.
“Every attorney who has initially taken on her case — and there were several — ultimately dropped the matter once it became clear that the claims were meritless and Ms. Haddish would not be shaken down,” Brettler said. “Now, [her] adult daughter representing herself in this lawsuit. The two of them will together face the consequences of pursuing this frivolous action.”
The news comes as Haddish, a longtime comic whose career exploded with the 2017 release of Girls Trip, continues to be an in-demand star. She is a lead of Apple’s The Afterparty, which has been renewed for a second season, and the animated series Tuca & Bertie for Adult Swim. Her next film project is Haunted Mansion for family-friendly Disney; she’s expected to promote it at the company’s upcoming D23 fan expo. If and how Haddish’s current and future projects will be impacted remains to be seen.
Why the rental housing market is so deeply broken
America’s housing market is broken, but the deep and structural problems can’t be fixed with technology.
Why it matters: The U.S. is in desperate need of more high-quality rental housing. Homeownership works for many — and doesn’t work at all for many others, who might not be ready to settle down or might not have the financial means.
The big picture: Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has invested $350 million, his largest check ever, into Adam Neumann’s new company, Flow.
- Andreessen’s blog post lays out his investment thesis, that renting a home is “a soulless experience.”
- The details of how Flow will work are still vague, but they’re likely to include amenitization — bells and whistles for apartment renters — as well as some kind of financial upside.
What they’re saying: “Someone who is bought in to where he lives cares more about where he lives,” writes Andreessen. “Without this, apartments don’t generate any bond between person and place and without community, no bond between person to person.”
- In New York, I’ve lived in both owned and rented apartments, and the community in my rental building was just as vibrant and tight-knit as anywhere I’ve owned.
- Neighborhoods characterized by very low home-ownership rates — think Harlem, in New York, or Hialeah, in Miami — often boast deep and lasting communities stretching across generations and decades.
Reality check: “Ownership per se doesn’t make you more invested in your community,” Sam Chandan, the director of the NYU Stern Center for Real Estate Finance Research, tells Axios. “It makes you more invested in decisions in the community that impact the value of your asset.”
- Andreessen, for instance, opposed multifamily development in his home town of Atherton, California, on the grounds that such development “will MASSIVELY decrease our home values.”
Between the lines: As a VC, Andreessen believes that technology and entrepreneurship can solve the problems of the rental market. (Naturally, this being Andreessen Horowitz, blockchain seems to be involved, somehow.)
- Where rental housing is most successful, however — Germany is Exhibit A — it’s not because renters “receive the benefits of owners,” in Andreessen’s formulation. Rather, it’s because they have housing security and affordability.
- German renters build strong community bonds the way we all do — just by getting to know our neighbors. They — we — don’t need whiz-bang amenities like those offered by your local WeWork.
Where it stands: Private-sector solutions like Flow, by their nature, cannot address the deepest obstacles to successful rental housing.
- It’s entirely possible that Neumann will be successful at marketing buzzy properties to upwardly-mobile renters in fast-growing cities like Nashville.
- But that’s not going to make a dent in the structural obstacles militating against America becoming more of a nation of renters.
Why it’s so hard to fix the rental market
A lot of the reason for the lack of affordable housing in America is to be found at the local or even individual level.
- Zoning is the biggest issue: NIMBYs like those found in Atherton are the rule, not the exception. Getting permission to build new multifamily housing is ludicrously expensive and difficult.
- Education finance runs a close second. So long as schools are funded by local property taxes, parents will prefer high property values to affordable housing, which often increases the number of children in local schools without raising tax revenues correspondingly.
- The American dream also gets in the way. After looking at the behavior of older millennials, says NYU’s Chandan, “the data suggests that homeownership as a natural and expected evolution is deeply ingrained in the American psyche.”
Federal policies that favored homeownership are already a lot weaker than they used to be.
- Former President Trump’s tax reforms massively reduced the number of people claiming the mortgage interest tax deduction, and government-subsidized 30-year mortgages are widely available on multifamily buildings.
- Once they get married and start a family, buying a house — and voting against further new construction — is just what Americans do, whether it makes financial sense or not.
It’s time to build
The Great Recession following the financial crisis of 2008 caused new-home construction — both single-family and multifamily — to fall off a cliff, and fail to keep up with U.S. population growth. But now it’s rebounded, and more homes are being built than households are being created.
There’s still a housing deficit we need to build our way out of. But Andreessen is wrong when he asserts that “our country is creating households faster than we’re building houses.”
- The household formation rate is equal to the annual increase in U.S. adults, multiplied by the headship rate, which is always around 50%. Household formation plunged when the pandemic hit, but even pre-pandemic, in 2019, it was running at only about 900,000 new households per year.
- New residential construction, on the other hand, is steadily increasing. Houses are being started at an annual rate of about 1.6 million units per year, well above the rate of household formation even after you account for older units being demolished.
Peter Boockvar, the chief investment officer at Bleakley Financial Group, tells Axios that multifamily homebuilders are responding to ultra-low vacancy rates by building fast.
- Within a year or two, he says, if we continue to build at current levels, rents might even start to come down.
“Deeply Remorseful” For Oscar Slap – Deadline
UPDATED throughout: In a just posted video that is 5 minutes, 44 seconds long, Will Smith has broken his silence about the regrettable “slap heard around the world,” in which he struck Oscar presenter Chris Rock after he made fun of Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith. This before Smith was awarded Best Actor Oscar honors.
The apology was expected, and Smith has done it in the form of answering questions that were raised on the internet. While there was expectation Smith might choose a high profile TV interview for his apology with Oprah Winfrey on a late-night talk show, he instead chose to sit and calmly answer questions on social media.
The first was directed to Rock, the standup comic who made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s close cropped hair, perhaps not knowing she suffers from alopecia. Answering the question of why he didn’t apologize to Rock in his acceptance speech, Smith said:
“I was fogged out by that point. It is all fuzzy. I’ve reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that, he’s not ready to talk. When he is, he will reach out. I will say to you, Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable and I am here whenever you are ready to talk. I want to apologize to Chris’s mother. I saw an interview [she] did, and that was one of the things I just didn’t realize. I wasn’t thinking, but how many people got hurt in that moment. I want to apologize to Chris’ mother, I want to apologize to Chris’s family, specifically Tony Rock. We had a great relationship. Tony Rock was my man. This is probably irreparable. I spent the last three months replaying and understanding the nuance and complexity of what happened in that moment. I’m not going to try to unpack all of that right now, but I can say to all of you, there is no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment. No part of me that thinks that is the optimal way to handle a feeling of disrespect or insult.”
Smith addressed whether his wife prompted his decision to run up to the stage from his front row seat, to strike a stunned Rock in the middle of his presentation of the Best Documentary award that was won by Questlove for Summer of Soul. Rock handled it in as stoic a fashion as could be imagined, carrying on after saying, ‘Will Smith just slapped the shit out of me,’ as the actor took his seat and yelled for Rock to keep his wife’s name out of his mouth. Smith answered the question as follows:
“No. I made a choice on my own, from my own experience, and my history with Chris. Jada had nothing to do with it. I’m sorry, babe, and I want to say sorry to my kids and my family for the heat that I brought on all of us.”
He also apologized to the nominees whose Oscars went unnoticed, because viewers were so stunned by the slap. That included Jessica Chastain, who won Best Actress, and the cast of CODA, which won Best Picture.
“To all my fellow nominees, this is a community. I won because you voted for me and it really breaks my heart to have stolen and tarnished your moment. I can still see Questlove’s eyes – it happened on Questlove’s award – and I am sorry isn’t really sufficient.”
Finally, Smith finished with this:
“Two things. One, disappointing people is my central trauma. I hate when I let people down, so it hurts me psychologically and emotionally that I didn’t live up to peoples’ image and impression of me. The work I am trying to do is, I am deeply remorseful and I’m trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself. I’m human and I made a mistake and I’m trying not to think of myself as a piece of shit so I would say to those people, I know it was confusing, I know it was shocking, but I promise you I am deeply devoted and committed to putting light and love and joy into the world. If you hang on, I promise we will be able to be friends again.”
It will be interesting to see the reaction. Many felt that despite an action which earned him a ten-year ban from the Academy, Smith has always been a man worthy of admiration, who had a terrible moment in the worst possible place to do it.
Apple will test the global audience’s willingness to welcome Smith back when it releases Emancipation in December. While it was reported that the film would delay release a year – those reports were just wrong speculation – Apple will lean into the movie, especially after its other major Oscar season release, Killers of the Flower Moon, will instead launch at next Cannes.
Emancipation is complete, and sources said it has been tested numerous times and gotten very high scores. In the Antoine Fuqua-directed William N. Collage-scripted drama, Smith plays Peter. He is an enslaved man and the film is an Apocalypto-style thriller about his harrowing escapes to freedom through the swamps of Louisiana. When Peter reaches the North, he joined the Union Army. During his physical, doctors were shocked when he removed his shirt and bore the scars from a near fatal beating on his back. They took photographs and those ran in newspapers across the world. They provided a gruesome testament to the barbarity and cruelty of slavery in the antebellum South. So indelible that those images could be considered a forerunner to the publication of photos of Emmett Till and video of the murder of George Floyd.
Smith is the film’s star, and also producer, which would put him in two major categories. Some have said had the slap not happened, he would be a favorite to win back to back Best Actor Oscars. I’ve also heard that Emancipation is the best film director Antoine Fuqua has made since Training Day. We’ll see how the film fares, but Smith’s apology is certainly a first step in his return to the positive side of the Hollywood ledger.
Watch the video of Smith’s remarks below.
“I’m so deeply sorry”: Wife of shooter who killed 2 El Monte officers speaks out
A man police say shot and killed two El Monte police officers before dying himself in the gun battle had previously served time for vehicle theft and burglary.
CDCR
Justin Flores, 35, was taken away in a body bag Wednesday, several hours after the shooting at Siesta Inn Motel. A man who said he was Flores’ stepfather confirmed a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation photo to be that of Flores.
The two officers, Corporal Michael Paredes and Officer Joseph Santana, were responding to the report of a stabbing at the motel, at 10327 Garvey Ave., just off the 10 Freeway. They came under immediate gunfire as they tried to make contact with the suspect inside the room, and the suspect was fatally shot after running from the motel into the parking lot.
His wife, Diana Flores, spoke with CBSLA Wednesday. She said the 911 call was made when she was with her husband at the motel.
“I’m so deeply sorry. My condolences for saving me,” said Flores. “I’m so sorry. They didn’t deserve that. They were trying to help me.”
Evidence of a stabbing was not found at the scene, and it’s not clear if anyone else was inside the room when the emergency call went out.
Flores had been sentenced to prison time at least twice before Tuesday night’s shootout, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was sentenced to one year and four months in 2009 for vehicle theft, but served less than two months of that sentence and was ultimately discharged from parole supervision on Nov. 21, 2010. He was convicted again of first-degree burglary in 2011 and was sentenced to serve two years in, CDCR officials said. In that case, he served about nine month of his sentence, and was discharged from parole supervision on Aug. 7, 2016.
China is ‘deeply’ worried about Ukraine crisis, Premier Li Keqiang says
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang speaks during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on September 18, 2019.
Pavel Golovkin | Afp | Getty Images
BEIJING — China is “deeply” worried about the crisis in Ukraine, Premier Li Keqiang said Friday, warning that sanctions will hurt global growth.
“On Ukraine, indeed the current situation there is grave, and China is deeply concerned and grieved,” Li said in Mandarin, according to an official translation.
The premier was responding to two questions about the Ukraine war at the beginning of an annual press briefing. Since Russia’s attack on Ukraine about two weeks ago, Beijing has refused to call it an invasion and said China would maintain normal trade with both countries, without joining in on U.S., EU and other countries’ sanctions on Russia.
On Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said relations with Russia were “rock solid.” He pointed to a joint statement with Russia issued after a high-level meeting in early February between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During the Friday briefing, Li maintained that China has “followed an independent policy of peace” and repeated Beijing’s line of encouraging Russia and Ukraine to negotiate. “The pressing task now is preventing tensions from escalating or even getting out of control.”
Li did not specifically say whether China would economically support Russia, but noted China supports “all efforts that are conducive to a peaceful resolution of the crisis.”
He added that the sanctions would only shock a world economy already struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
Over the weekend, the International Monetary Fund said the economic consequences of the war are “already very serious” with “adverse” shocks to inflation and business activity in many countries.
Last week, Oxford Economics estimated the war would reduce global GDP by 0.2%, with a decline of 0.6% this year if the fighting persists through 2023.
End of an era
Li was speaking Friday at a press briefing held at the close of an annual parliamentary meeting.
This year marks Li’s final appearance at the briefing as premier, a position he’s held since 2013. The ruling Chinese Communist Party is set in the fall to select a new leadership team, although President Xi Jinping is expected to stay on for an unprecedented third term.
Li closed the roughly two-hour-long briefing with a pledge that China would continue to open up its economy regardless of changes in the international environment.
Foreign businesses have long complained about requirements of forced tech transfers and unequal access to the Chinese market, especially at a local implementation level. In the last few years, China has passed a law for improving the business environment and allowed foreign financial institutions full ownership of their local operations.
“It has been forty years since China has gotten on the journey of opening up,” Li said. “Opening up has brought benefits to the country and its people. We will not and must not close this door of opportunity. Thank you.”
Australian Open: Tennis Australia says it deeply regrets impact that Novak Djokovic saga had on players
Djokovic arrived back in Serbia’s capital Belgrade on Monday after his deportation from Australia ended the world No. 1 tennis player’s hopes of playing in the Australian Open.
The unvaccinated Djokovic was deported after losing his court challenge against the Australian government’s decision to cancel his visa on public health and order grounds.
“We would like to make clear from the outset that we respect the decision of the Immigration Minister and the finding of the Federal Court of Australia over the weekend,” said the Tennis Australia statement, which made no mention of Djokovic’s name.
“Tennis Australia has been working closely with both the Federal and Victorian government for the past year to deliver a COVID safe Australian Open for the players, staff, and fans.
“Embarking on a major international sporting event during a global pandemic that continues to evolve and challenge us all, is profoundly demanding for all stakeholders.”
‘Lessons to learn’
Under current Australian laws, all international arrivals are required to be vaccinated against Covid-19 unless they have a medical exemption.
Djokovic said he was under the impression he could enter because two independent panels associated with Tennis Australia and the Victorian state government had granted him an exemption on the grounds that he had been infected with Covid-19 in December.
The federal government argued that, under its rules, previous infection with Covid-19 is not a valid reason for an exemption.
The Australian Open started on Monday but the tournament’s media day on Saturday was dominated by players being asked about Djokovic.
“As the Australian tennis family, we recognise that recent events have been a significant distraction for everyone, and we deeply regret the impact this had on all players,” added the Tennis Australia statement.
“There are always lessons to learn, and we will review all aspects of our preparation and implementation to inform our planning — as we do every year. That process always starts once the Australian Open champions have lifted their trophies.”
Had Djokovic played and won this year’s Australian Open, he would have secured a record 21st men’s singles grand slam title.
“We, like the players, and all tennis fans here and around the world, are keen for the focus to now be on the game we are all so passionate about,” continued the Tennis Australian statement. “We are looking forward to a brilliant two weeks of tennis ahead.”
The Australian Open ends on January 31.
First Thing: Trump ‘deeply unnerved’ over Capitol attack investigation | US news
Good morning.
Donald Trump is increasingly agitated by the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, according to sources familiar with the matter, and appears anxious that he could be implicated in the sprawling inquiry into the insurrection even as he protests his innocence.
The former president in recent weeks has complained more about the investigation, demanding to know why his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows shared so much material with the select committee and why dozens of other aides have also cooperated.
The portrait that emerges from interviews with multiple sources close to Trump, including current and former aides, suggests a former president unmoored and backed into a corner by the rapid escalation in intensity of the committee’s investigation.
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Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the 6 January committee, said he was not yet ready to declare the former president guilty of a crime, but that the panel was investigating the likelihood that he is.
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The US is “closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe”, a member of a key CIA advisory panel has said. The analysis by Barbara F Walter, a political science professor, is contained in a book due out next year.
Omicron ‘raging through the world’ and travel increases Covid risks
The Omicron variant of Covid-19 has “extraordinary spreading capabilities”, the top US infectious diseases expert said on Sunday, and promises to result in a bleak winter as it continues “raging through the world”.
Dr Anthony Fauci’s warning came before the busy holiday travel period, which he said would elevate the risk of infection even in vaccinated people.
In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser and head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases urged Americans to get booster shots and wear masks.
Fauci also appeared to attempt damage control over Kamala Harris’s contention that the Biden administration “didn’t see” the Omicron or Delta variants coming. Harris’s comments on Friday were “taken out of context”, Fauci insisted, and referred to the “extraordinary number of mutations” of Covid-19 rather than any lack of readiness.
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Doug Ericksen, a staunch conservative Washington state senator and an outspoken critic of Covid-19 pandemic emergency orders, has died aged 52. His death comes weeks after he tested positive for coronavirus, though his cause of death wasn’t immediately released.
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The US senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker have confirmed they have tested positive for Covid-19. Both reported having mild symptoms.
British prime minister under pressure over photo of gathering during lockdown
A photograph of Boris Johnson, his wife and up to 17 staff in the Downing Street garden during the first lockdown shows people “having a drink after a busy set of work meetings” and acting entirely within the rules of the time, the British justice secretary, Dominic Raab, has said.
Raab’s defence of the events of 15 May 2020, shown in a picture shared with the Guardian, appears to differ from the Downing Street version, which stated that the image showed people still taking part in work meetings.
The pictured emerged after a string of reports about similar alleged events in Downing Street and elsewhere during a subsequent lockdown last Christmas, and suggests rules may have been broken over a series of months.
On Friday the Conservative party was dealt a blow when it lost a byelection in a stronghold seat that it had held for all but two of the last 189 years. Johnson has since been put “on notice” by his own party and could be gone within a year unless he cleans up his act, senior aides have said.
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What were the Covid rules in England on 15 May 2020? Two days before the gathering, lockdown restrictions had been eased to allow two people from different households to meet outdoors and at a distance of at least 2 metres.
In other news …
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Gabriel Boric, a leftist former student leader, will become Chile’s youngest president after storming to a resounding victory in a run-off vote against his ultra-conservative far-right opponent, José Antonio Kast. With nearly 97% of the vote counted, the 35-year-old had 55.8% and a lead of 12 percentage points.
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Joe Manchin dealt a huge blow to Joe Biden yesterday, saying “no” to the $1.75tn Build Back Better domestic spending plan. The White House issued a stinging rebuke to the senator, stoking a bitter war of words in a party sharply divided between moderates and progressives.
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A group of attorneys and advocates have pledged to seek clemency for 110 Black soldiers who were convicted in a mutiny and riots at a military camp in Houston in 1917. They plan to ask the secretary of the army to posthumously grant honorable discharges and hope to get the men pardoned by Joe Biden.
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Officers arriving at the scene of a Florida road accident involving an overturned truck were surprised to find that two of the “victims” were large alligators. Officers found them “hanging from the rear window of an SUV lying on its side” The uninjured driver and his passenger, aged 18 and 17, were arrested.
Don’t miss this: the Texas church fighting for abortion rights
In the late 60s, the burgeoning movement to legalize US abortion state by state found an unlikely yet loyal ally – a contingent of women at the First Unitarian Universalist church in Dallas, Texas. In lieu of knitting sessions and bake sales, the church’s women’s alliance advocated for abortion rights and even had a hand in legally supporting Roe v Wade. The trailblazing women laid the groundwork for today’s growing pro-choice faith community movement in Texas.
… or this: behind the outrageous viral obituary that people are calling ‘a masterpiece’
An unusual item appeared recently in a newspaper in North Carolina: “A plus-sized Jewish lady redneck died in El Paso on Saturday,” the article announced, before careening through 1,000 words of one of the more outrageous obituaries ever written. Renay Mandel Corren, a “bawdy, fertile, redheaded matriarch” and “talented and gregarious grifter”, had “kicked it,” the obituary said. The rollicking, manic tribute delighted in subverting the respectful conventions of the small-town obituary.
Climate check: Scientists watch giant ‘doomsday’ glacier in Antarctica with concern
Ice scientists meeting in New Orleans have warned that something alarming is brewing on the West Antarctic ice sheet, a vast basin of ice on the Antarctic peninsula. Years of research by teams of British and American researchers found that great cracks and fissures had opened up on top of and underneath the Thwaites glacier, one of the biggest in the world, and it was feared that parts of it may fracture and collapse, possibly within five years or less.
Last Thing: the weirdest news stories of 2021
In a year that began with the US Capitol attack, continued with the fall of Afghanistan and is ending with the rapid spread of Omicron, the global news cycle has at times felt overwhelming. But while 2021 has been another fraught year, not all the news has been negative. From Shakira’s boar brawl to Nicki Minaj’s testicle fiasco, here are a few of the funniest and weirdest stories and headlines published this year.