After around 16 years of navigating through the muck of American politics, Jon Stewart finally wished “The Daily Show” #JonVoyage.
Aside from the episode being extra long–around 50 minutes–not a lot was known about Stewart’s final show heading into Thursday, but the surprises were all the Moments of Zen you’ll ever need.
The show started with out with an emotional reunion of “Daily Show” correspondents, including Samantha Bee, John Hodgman, Larry Wilmore, Lewis Black, Kristen Schaal, Jason Jones, Al Madrigal, Rob Riggle, John Oliver, Darth Vader (because why not) and even Steve Carell. Trevor Noah showed up to measure for his new desk, Craig Kilborn came to gloat that Stewart finally ran the show into the ground and Stephen Colbert brought Stewart to tears during an emotional goodbye, calling the TV host a “great artist and a good man.”
More aircraft debris, including a plane window, has been collected from the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, Malaysia’s transport minister said Thursday.
Liow Tiong Lai’s remarks came after Malaysian authorities said a wing fragment found on the same island came from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. French authorities, however, have been more circumspect about the discovery.
The Malaysian authorities have been criticized for jumping the gun on confirmation and accused of trying to tie a neat bow on an otherwise complicated investigation.
The French town is the site of a makeshift camp called “the Jungle.”
Thousands of migrants are living in a makeshift shanty village in the northern French port town of Calais known as “the Jungle.” Night after night hundreds journey from the Jungle toward the nearby Channel Tunnel. The tunnel is a direct route to England, where migrants believe they can have a better life. Many are arrested, and some have died — just how many make it across successfully is unknown.
Many migrants are from war-torn countries, like Libya and Syria, and their numbers in Calais have peaked in recent weeks as efforts to reach safety have become increasingly desperate. Although Calais has been a site of unauthorized migrant camps for more than 15 years, the governments in France and the U.K. are coming under mounting pressure from policymakers and the public to stem the flow of migration.
Air Force reserves have been drafted in to help thousands of firefighters battling a raging wildfire in California that jumped a highway which had served as a containment line.
Officials said that more than 9,000 firefighters were on the front lines fighting more than 21 active wildfires. Some crews were igniting controlled burns in a bid to contain the blazes.
Two giant C-130 Hercules planes from the Air Force Reserves joined more than a dozen other air tankers and helicopters on Monday battling the flames, according to NBC Bay Area.
The Democratic and Republican parties certainly don’t agree on how to run the country, but they are in sync when it comes to capitalizing on a new law letting them raise eight times as much money from rich donors than before.
The new money technically must be used only for specific purposes, such as legal expenses and improvements to party headquarters. The limits are, however, murkier than they seem, with some lawyers saying the money could legally pay for some election-related costs such as opposition research and data mining.
And the Federal Election Commission, tasked with regulating and enforcing federal campaign finance laws, is at an impasse over whether and how to issue rules governing the new party accounts. As a result, decisions about spending are pretty much up to the parties and their lawyers.
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Many of the donors that have given big to the party committees also have a history of writing big checks to super PACs. YURIKO NAKAO / Reuters, file
A new oligarchic era of American politics came into full view on Friday, as super PACs disclosed fundraising details showing billionaires bankrolling the 2016 presidential race to an unprecedented degree.
The unlimited-money super PACs account for one-third of all federal election funds raised in the first half of 2015 — up from 4 percent at this time in the last presidential election. Three-quarters of all super PAC money came from more than 500 wealthy donors, corporations and unions in contributions above $100,000. More than half the money in the presidential race so far — to super PACs and to campaigns — came from donors who have given at least $100,000.
For the first time in more than a century, the majority of funding for a presidential election is coming in six-figure or larger checks from corporations and the wealthiest Americans. The presidential campaigns, limited to a maximum of $5,400 from a single donor, raised a combined $128 million. Super PACs supporting those candidates pulled in $260 million, with $208 million from those giving $100,000 or more.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
An experimental vaccine tested on thousands of people in Guinea exposed to Ebola seems to work and might help shut down the ongoing epidemic in West Africa, according to interim results from a study published Friday.
There is currently no licensed treatment or vaccine for Ebola, which has so far killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa since the world’s biggest outbreak began in the forest region of Guinea last year.
“If proven effective, this is going to be a game-changer,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, which sponsored the study. “It will change the management of the current outbreak and future outbreaks.”
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Doctor Francis Kateh, right, from Redemption Hospital volunteering to receive a trial vaccine against Ebola at Redemption Hospital on the outskirts of Monrovia. ZOOM DOSSO / AFP – Getty Images file
New research indicates that Washington, D.C., is rapidly sinking into the ocean, news that might not make the rest of the country all that sad.
The research, from the University of Vermont, the U.S. Geological Survey and several other institutions, projects the land beneath the Washington area will drop 6 or more inches in the next 100 years. That’s in addition to rising sea levels due to climate change, which is melting ice sheets and causing thermal expansion of the oceans. Climate change has already caused 8 inches of sea level rise since 1880, and is expected to raise average global sea levels another 1 to 4 feet by the end of this century.
Relative sea level rise in the Chesapeake Bay region is happening faster than any other part of the Atlantic coast, according to tidal records, and twice as fast as global averages.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
A University of Cincinnati officer who shot a motorist during a traffic stop over a missing front license plate has been indicted on murder charges, a prosecutor said Wednesday, adding that the officer “purposely killed him” and “should never have been a police officer.”
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters announced the grand jury indictment at a news conference to discuss developments in the investigation into the July 19 shooting of 43-year-old motorist Samuel DuBose by Officer Ray Tensing.
Tensing has said he was dragged by DuBose’s car and forced to shoot after he pulled over DuBose for a missing front license plate, according to a university police report. Tensing said in his radio call to a dispatcher that the car almost ran over him and he fired one shot, striking DuBose in the head.
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RayTensing (Photo: Provided/University of Cincinnati)
The Boy Scouts of America voted Monday to lift a long-established ban on gay adults as employees and volunteers within the organization.
The BSA’s full executive board voted 45 to 12 in favor of the change, effective immediately. The vote came after the National Executive Committee unanimously approved a resolution earlier this month stating that “no adult applicant for registration as an employee or non-unit-serving volunteer, who otherwise meets the requirements of the Boy Scouts of America, may be denied registration on the basis of sexual orientation.”
BSA President Robert Gates, the former secretary of defense, had called for an end to the ban.
“For far too long, this issue has divided and distracted us,” Gates said in a video released Monday. “Now it’s time to unite behind our shared belief in the extraordinary power of scouting to be a force for good in the community and in the lives of its youth members.”
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Image: Giphy
Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
James' World 2 