Joan Blades and John Gable want you to make friends with people who vote differently than you do.A pair of political opposites, the two longtime pals know the value of engaging in honest conversations with people you don’t immediately agree with. Join them as they explain how to bridge the gaps in understanding between people on opposite sides of the political spectrum — and create opportunities for mutual listening and consideration (and, maybe, lasting friendships.)
Here are some gems you may have missed in your quest to be an informed citizen during this head-spinning news week. It’s the weekend, so put the kettle on, grab a blanket, get comfy and learn how to solve the Times crossword (you ARE smart enough), plan a trip to Nicaragua (even if only in your dreams), get ready for the supermoon (it’s coming Sunday) or find out a little more about Jay-Z (and karmic debts, his mom and Kanye).
According to the documents, it appears that Mr. Paddock relied on the internet to buy many of the items used in the attack, including guns and ammunition, during the 12 months before the attacks.
He spent “significant time and expense prior to the attack purchasing and caching weapons” and other items such as glass cutters and suitcases. Authorities have said he used the glass cutters so he could fire out of his hotel window into the crowd below attending a music concert.
Much of what investigators found in the hotel room is known, but the search warrants add additional details. The F.B.I. said there were hundreds of rounds of spent ammunition as well “preloaded high-capacity magazines” found in suitcases that Mr. Paddock had brought to room. There was also body armor, range finders and a homemade gas mask.
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The shots began at 10:05. Twelve bursts of gunfire later, the police broke down Stephen Paddock’s door at the Mandalay Bay. The Times mapped 30 videos to draw perhaps the most complete picture to date of what happened.Published On
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Click link below for article and 30 mapped videos:
The men packing the boat with rice, cigarettes and medicine had fled war and persecution in their home countries.
Now, at 1 a.m., off the coast of a remote island in Papua New Guinea, they were speeding back to the detention camp they hated.
Why, I asked, would they return to the prisonlike “refugee processing center” where they had been trapped for nearly five years?
“We have brothers to feed,” said Behnam Satah, 31, a Kurdish asylum seeker, as we cruised over moon-silvered waves on a hot November night. “We have brothers who need help.”
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Some holdouts struggle with anxiety and depression.
Less than a week into his term, President Trump has validated the concerns of #NeverTrumpers. His narcissistic temperament, impulsivity, reliance on family and ignorant cronies and own deliberate ignorance make governance an ordeal. The nuts and bolts of governance and early failures of his senior team in the West Wing, who lack any governing experience, deserve more attention. Let’s look at two missteps (aside from the bald-faced lies about crowd size and the millions Trump says voted illegally — assertions that leave us wondering whether he is mentally stable).
First, apparently after watching Bill O’Reilly on Fox, the leader of the free world tweeted out some statistics referenced by the gadfly and notorious purveyor of false information (here, here, here and here). The facts were wrong, and Trump added his own, bizarre vow: “If Chicago doesn’t fix the horrible ‘carnage’ going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!” The actual number is 37 killings — far too much — and the shootings, while too high, are on par with the previous year. (The Post reports: “According to a police department spokesman, there have been 38 killings through Tuesday night, up from 33 at the same point last year. Shootings were even, with 182 shootings through this date both years.”)
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Police detectives investigate at the scene of a fatal shooting last year in Chicago. (Joshua Lott/Getty Images)
Hillary Clinton on Friday called President Donald Trump’s reported remarks racist as she added her voice to the uproar after the president allegedly derided Haitians and referred to African nations as “shithole” countries in a discussion on immigration.
Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga, went further: “I think the words and his actions tend to speak like one who knows something about being a racist. It must be in his DNA, in his makeup.”
He continued: “It’s frightening to have someone in the office of the president in 2018 speaking the way that he’s speaking. We’ve come too far, made too much progress to go back, to fan the flames of racism and bigotry.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Friday that he heard Trump repeatedly refer to African countries as “shitholes” at a meeting they both attended the day before.
Trump said “things which were hate-filled, vile and racist,” Durbin told reporters.
“The most disheartening thing to me is my belief that that was the first time words that hateful had been spoken in the Oval Office of the White House,” Durbin added. “I think back at presidents throughout history and I cannot imagine a moment where a president sunk to that depth. That’s what breaks my heart.”
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Durbin disputes Trump’s ‘shithole’ denial: ‘He said these hate-filled things’
All things considered, Botswana was as diplomatic as it could be.
Its government summoned the United States ambassador on Friday and asked him to “to clarify if Botswana is regarded as a ‘shithole’ country.”
They were not the only ones who were confused or disturbed by reports that President Trump had described Haiti and unspecified African nations as “shithole countries” during a meeting with senators on Thursday about immigration.
Mr. Trump appeared to deny on Friday that he had made the comment, but a senator, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, was among several lawmakers present at the meeting who said that Mr. Trump had done so.
It would hardly be the first time that the president had made remarks about Africa that have come across as ill-informed or worse. In June, he said that Nigerians in the United States would never “go back to their huts” in Africa
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President Trump speaking to African leaders in September. His reported remarks on Thursday about some African countries appeared to put the State Department into damage-control mode.CreditBrendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Azzedine Alaïa, one of the greatest and most uncompromising designers of the 20th and 21st centuries, died on Saturday in Paris. He was 82.
His company said the cause was a heart attack.
Known as a sculptor of the female form, and worn by women from Michelle Obama to Lady Gaga, Mr. Alaïa was equally famous for his rejection of the fashion system and his belief that it had corrupted the creative power of what could be an art form.
He rarely hewed to the official show calendar, preferring to reveal his work when he deemed it ready, as opposed to when retailers or the press demanded it.
Instead he built his own system, and family of collaborators and supporters, and since the turn of the millennium had become an increasingly important voice for the value of striving to perfect and explore a single proprietary aesthetic, and against giving in to the relentless pressure to produce collections.
Fijian singers strumming ukuleles serenade delegates to the United Nations climate talks as they enter the conference hall. A traditional two-hulled sailing craft, or drua, is on display by the entrance to signify that when it comes to rising seas, all nations are in the same boat.
But as two weeks of negotiations on bolstering the Paris agreement draw to a close, island leaders say the décor seems a cruel taunt.
Fiji, a sunny island nation in the South Pacific, is the official host of the climate discussions here in chilly Bonn. But leaders say their hopes that island issues would take center stage have mostly been dashed. Almost none of the measures to help their countries adapt to the impacts of global warming have been resolved, and few delegates say they are hopeful the final hours of talks will bring decisions.
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A backlit photo at the United Nations climate talks in Bonn, Germany. The official host of the conference is Fiji.CreditRonald Wittek/European Pressphoto Agency
Concerned that the missile defense system designed to protect American cities is insufficient by itself to deter a North Korean attack, the Trump administration is expanding its strategy to also try to stop Pyongyang’s missiles before they get far from Korean airspace.
The new approach, hinted at in an emergency request to Congress last week for $4 billion to deal with North Korea, envisions the stepped-up use of cyberweapons to interfere with the North’s control systems before missiles are launched, as well as drones and fighter jets to shoot them down moments after liftoff. The missile defense network on the West Coast would be expanded for use if everything else fails.
In interviews, defense officials, along with top scientists and senior members of Congress, described the accelerated effort as a response to the unexpected progress that North Korea has made in developing intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear bomb to the continental United States.
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A long-range ground-based interceptor missile test at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. These missiles, designed to strike incoming nuclear weapons, are not foolproof, so the Defense Department is looking to other approaches like cyberattacks and drone strikes.Credit U.S. Missile Defense Agency, via Reuters
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.
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