Brands sometimes go too hard during Pride season. Every once in a while, however, they get it right.
The year 2019 has already brought us one *actually good* example. Converse recently introduced its LGBTQ Pride sneaker line, which now includes sneakers modeled after the Transgender Pride flag.
This is the first time Converse has ever had a trans-specific sneaker.
The trans-specific sneakers currently retail for $80. Customers can also customize their own rainbow Pride shoes and add Trans Pride flair.
Regardless of how you feel about corporate participation during gay Pride, this is a huge symbolic step forward. Advocates for the trans community have long complained that gay and lesbian people dominate the LGBTQ movement. Read more...
Pleasant • botanical smell • Easy to use • Immediate glow-y results
The Bad
Expensive • Curls at the sides during use
The Bottom Line
This CBD mask is fun as a luxurious one-off, but its high price makes it difficult to incorporate into a regular skincare routine.
👑 Mashable Score3.25
✨Aesthetic4.0
💅Easy to use4.0
🎯Delivers on promise3.0
💵 Bang for the Buck2.0
The internet is so full of CBD content these days that Lord Jones peppermint tincture is practically oozing from its pores. Now, the (non-psychoactive) cannabinoid is increasingly showing up in beauty products, including mascara, serums, and body soaps. Read more...
Have you been holding out on getting an Apple iPad Pro? Lucky for you, Amazon has dropped the price of it by another $74, saving you 15% off the listed price, making this an excellent Mother's Day gift.
Like most older generation parents, technophobe is a thing and what makes Apple products so great, is that it's so clean and straightforward to use, even a toddler will understand it. Plus with a ton of features that help you on a day to day basis, simply looking at the screen can unlock the device, log in to apps, and even pay with Face ID.
Impressive feature lineup for the price • Easy setup • comfortable to wear • Mobile app integration works seamlessly
The Bad
Serious lack of extra features • Mobile notifications on the watch screen are useless • Step counter a bit generous at times
The Bottom Line
It's easily the best value in Fitbit's product line, but don't expect a lot of bells and whistles.
⚡ Mashable Score3.5
😎 Cool Factor2.0
📘Learning Curve2.5
💪Performance4.0
💵 Bang for the Buck4.5
I’ve never particularly liked wearing things on my wrists. Watches, wristbands and the like tend to be more distracting than not, and the fact that I have a phone on me at all times negates the time-keeping aspect of watch ownership. Read more...
It's 4/20 baby!!! It's Saturday, you're lit, brain perfectly calibrated to toasted, sparking your joy, blowing smoke rings so on point it feels criminal not to share on your Instagram story.
But something stops you from posting. And it probably sounds like the voice of your D.A.R.E. teacher yelling about how posting pictures of pot online can get you arrested and ruin your career.
"Even if you just post one picture, it comes back," said Anjela, who is very much not a D.A.R.E. teacher. Preferring to keep her full name separate from her online weed-sona, she's better known as Koala Puffs, a weedfluencer with over half a million Instagram followers. Read more...
We're not about to make assumptions here, but we'd wager that the starving artist myth is partially perpetuated by the fact that design programs are so darn expensive. A subscription to a single app alone can sometimes require you to fork out hundreds of dollars you don't have. We don't know about you, but that's plain robbery.
You don't have to put yourself in the red just to score apps that will help you perform a variety of design jobs. The Corel Creative Mac Bundle includes an entire creative design app suite from one of the leading software makers with a few surprise bonuses. And you only have to pay $40 to get the whole set. Read more...
Editor's note: Mashable and PCMag are both owned by Ziff Davis.
We’re lucky to live in such technologically-advanced times, but there are moments when it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. Because we tend to scoop up the latest and greatest in tech as soon as the products drop, we ultimately overload ourselves and end up with tons of devices — more than we could even attempt to use in one day.
Do yourself a favor and simplify your life by having most of your necessary tech in one place. The Google Home Hub, which is on sale right now for just about the cheapest we've ever seen it, makes this possible. Read more...
The million-dollar question: why hasn't Apple made a PDF editor available as a fallback app on new MacBooks?
If you don't have a third-party editor installed on your computer, then editing and modifying PDFs is a recurring exercise in torture. The act of manually editing a doc often unfolds as such: convert PDF into Word doc, do editing, take a water break, fix messed-up formatting, eat a cookie, initiate file conversion back into PDF, read Avengers: Endgame plot theories, yell at frozen conversion screen, cry a little...
But Powerbeats are fairly pricey, especially for folks unaccustomed to the jacked-up pricing of wireless listening tech. No wonder, because one look at Apple's official store reveals that the now vintage EarPods are $29.99 — in comparison to the average $200 at which the Powerbeats currently retail.
If you're a penny-pinching tech lover, that price difference is a steep premium to pay for a few moments as part of the tech "it" crowd. Read more...
Not since Mario's nipples has the video game world been rocked this hard by a revelation about anatomy: Goombas have arms and hands!
The discovery of these appendages comes courtesy of photos of a Goomba keshi rubber figure (an eraser) shared to Twitter by user Joe Piconi, which shows the Goomba with his arms and hands folded behind his back, thus giving him the armless appearance.
This is a potentially stunning revelation given that, for decades, the Goombas have been able to do all kinds of activities, like baseball and bowling, without using these hidden arms. Read more...
The image shows Headey, Peter Dinklage, and their new life coach Elmo hanging out with Cersei and Tyrion's Sesame Street doppelgängers. Look how happy they all look — Muppets will do that to even a blood-thirsty, brother-loving queen.
The FBI is currently investigating a "malicious software attack" that interrupted the Weather Channel’s non-stop 24-hour-a-day coverage.
The Weather Channel suddenly went dark for more than an hour on Thursday during its live morning broadcast. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, an FBI spokesperson said the outage was the result of a ransomware attack.
"We experienced issues with this morning's live broadcast following a malicious software attack on the network," the Weather Channel said in a statement. "We were able to restore live programming quickly through backup mechanisms. Federal law enforcement is actively investigating the issue. We apologize for any inconvenience to viewers as we work to resolve the matter." Read more...
The federal government wants to hold Mark Zuckerberg personally accountable for Facebook’s privacy woes.
According to a report in the Washington Post, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is currently investigating Facebook and looking into whether the Facebook’s founder and CEO should be held liable for the company’s data mishandling and privacy issues.
Facebook and the FTC have been in discussions for more than a year over the agency’s probe into the company. Sources familiar with these discussions say that the FTC is mulling over an unusual decision to hold Zuckerberg himself accountable for the company’s data leaks and breaches. Read more...
"And we have lift off the guitarist G 11 mission." Huh?
The closed captions on Facebook might need a bit of tweaking after a NASA video displayed some peculiar subtitles.
The video in question is the Wednesday launch of Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket, carrying a Cygnus cargo freighter destined for the International Space Station, done in conjunction with NASA. As Ars Technica pointed out, the captions leave a lot to be desired.
Watch the original video below with the captions turned on.
In case you missed it, here are a few of the more choice errors made in the captions.
In this case, the caption should have read, "and we have lift off of the Antares NG-11 mission." Read more...
YouTube wants its paying subscribers to share the wealth with their favorite creators.
The video giant is currently giving out free Super Chat credits to YouTube Premium subscribers, according to AndroidPolice. Super Chats allow viewers to give a monetary "tip" to YouTube creators during a livestream in exchange for a highlighted comment in the chat.
It’s a beta test we are running — glad you like it! :)
YouTube’s Head of Gaming Ryan Wyatt has confirmed that the free Super Chat credits are part of an ongoing beta test.
Premium subscribers currently pay $11.99 per month for an ad-free experience on the YouTube platform. As part of the beta test, Premium users are being given either one $2 Super Chat credit or two 99 cent credits. The latter can be split up between two separate YouTube livestreamers. Read more...
Netflix has released the official trailer for When They See Us, the four-part miniseries from Ava DuVernay that tells the story of the Central Park Five, five young black men wrongly convicted of rape in New York City in 1989.
According to Netflix, the series will cover the entire 25 years between the April 19, 1989 assault of Trisha Meili and the 2014 settlement between New York City and the five men — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise — who spent years in jail for crimes they didn't commit.
Netflix is testing out a "random" viewing option, giving viewers the opportunity to jump into a random episode of certain "popular" TV shows in an effort to give you a spicier viewing experience.
First reported by the site Android Police and later confirmed by Netflix to Mashable, the option lets you jump into into a random episode of popular shows on the streaming service, like hitting shuffle on The Office or Arrested Development.
Doing that Netflix Shuffle
Image: Android Police
According to the site, the above option for getting a random episode appeared on an Android user's app, "specifically v7.6.0 build 19 34157." Read more...
The Pentagon needs to hold suppliers responsible for security lapses.
In a connected world, no government or company can perfectly protect all its data from hackers and rival states. Even so, it's astonishing that, from January 2016 to February 2018, nearly 6 percent of U.S. military and aerospace contractors reported data breaches. And experts feel this is just the tip of the iceberg: The vast majority of security incidents are never uncovered. The Pentagon needs to tighten cybersecurity across its vast contracting operations and hold contractors responsible for breaches. If policy makers can contemplate jailing executives who lie about safeguarding personal data, then similarly harsh measures should be considered for those who put our national security at risk.
VIDEO: Thousands of Catholics celebrate Good Friday by taking part in the "Way of the Cross" procession through Jerusalem's Old City pic.twitter.com/kWd7PAx9Se
General view of opposition supporters taking part in a rally to commemorate the Day of the Youth and to protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela February 12, 2019. REUTERS/Adriana Loureiro
CARACAS, April 19 (Reuters) - Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Friday called on supporters to take to the streets on May 1 for what he called "the largest march in the history" of the South American country to keep the pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to leave power.
Guaido, the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly who in January invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency on the basis that Maduro's 2018 re-election was illegitimate, reiterated his call for the country's armed forces to take his side in the three-month power struggle.
"They will need to listen to the people saying: enough," Guaido told a crowd gathered at a plaza in eastern Caracas, setting the date for the march for May 1, International Workers' Day.
This photo was taken opposite the French Embassy after the shooting had stopped and is Neveu's first image of the Khmer Rouge, unexpectedly smiling. Photo: Roland Neveu
When the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, photographer Roland Neveu captured the start of what became a genocide.
Forty-four years ago – on April 17, 1975 – a nightmare started for Cambodia and its entire population. On that day, after a brief battle on the outskirts of the city, Khmer Rouge fighters marched into the capital Phnom Penh and took control of the country.
The radical communist movement led by Pol Pol controlled the Southeast Asian nation until 1979, but in that brief period, a quarter of the population perished, with estimates of the dead ranging between 1.7 million and 3 million.
In 2016, a 22-year old college student reported for a physical exam to determine his eligibility for mandatory military service in the South Korean armed forces. This week, the Incheon District Court ruled that he was not guilty of breaking conscription law, after prosecutors alleged he gorged himself on fried chicken and booze before showing up in order to avoid service.
Munchies directs us to this story from the Korea Herald, which says that at the time of the student's test, he weighed 106 kilograms (approximately 234 lbs.) and was around 170 centimeters tall (5 ft., approximately 5 in.), for a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 36.8. Per the Herald, those with a BMI of 33 and above are eligible for exemption from full-time military service, and can instead take a public service job. If you're a male between the ages of 18-28 in South Korea, you are required to enlist in military service. (Click here for an interesting Quartz piece about whether K-Pop stars—like BTS—should be required to serve.)
From Youtube: In 1776, less than six months after the Declaraton of Independence, the Continental Army, under the command of General George Washington, was on the brink of utter defeat. Low on men, cannons and supplies, Washington decides to risk everything on one last desperately daring attack on the town of Trenton where over 1000 of the feared Hessian mercenaries are garrisoned. However to do that, the army must cross the Delaware to a seemingly hopeless battle that would turn out to be more successful than Washington ever dreamed of.
* Analysts say Kim Jong-un wanted to send a message to China and the US that it will not succumb to the pressure of economic sanctions * Choice of weapon also suggests Pyongyang was keen not to cause too much upset ahead of important meetings next week in Beijing and Vladivostok
North Korea's firing of a new "tactical guided weapon on Wednesday was intended as a warning to China and the United States that it is running out of patience with the UN sanctions imposed against it, analysts say.
According to a report published on Thursday by the Korean Central News Agency, the leader of the hermit state, Kim Jong-un, "supervised and guided the test firing of a new type of tactical guided weapon by the Academy of Defence Science".
"The development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People's Army," he was quoted as saying.
Just a month after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unequivocally stated her opposition to impeachment proceedings against President Trump, the Robert Mueller report has reignited the debate inside her caucus.
"Mueller's report is clear in pointing to Congress' responsibility in investigating obstruction of justice by the President," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., tweeted, announcing she'll sign onto Rep. Rashida Tlaib's, D-Mich., resolution urging the House Judiciary Committee to probe whether Trump committed impeachment-level offenses.
That's a rough analogy to today. Fortress China is festooned with airfields and mobile antiship weaponry able to strike hundreds of miles out to sea. Yes, the U.S. Navy remains stronger than the PLA Navy in open-sea battle. A fleet-on-fleet engagement isolated from shore-based reinforcements would probably go America's way. But that hypothetical result may not make much difference since the two navies are more likely to join battle in confined Asian waters than on the open ocean.
Ah, yes, the "carrier-killer." China is forever touting the array of guided missiles its weaponeers have devised to pummel U.S. Navy nuclear-powered aircraft carriers (CVNs). Most prominent among them are its DF-21D and DF-26 antiship ballistic missiles (ASBMs), which the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has made a mainstay of China's anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) defenses.
(CNN)President Donald Trump spoke with Libyan general Khalifa Haftar Monday, praising his role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's vast oil resources even as Haftar's troops continue their offensive against the UN and US-backed government in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
Trump "recognized Field Marshal Haftar's significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's oil resources, and the two discussed a shared vision for Libya's transition to a stable, democratic political system," the White House said Friday in its official readout of the call.
The statement made no mention of Haftar's offensive on Tripoli, and Trump's praise for the rogue Libyan general signals a departure from previous administration statements condemning Haftar's march on the capital.
Hundreds of thousands converge on defence ministry demanding military hand over power
Huge crowds formed outside Sudan's defence ministry to demand the country's transitional military council hand over power to civilians.
Hundreds of thousands packed the streets by early evening on Thursday – the largest crowds to gather in the centre of the capital since last week, when the former president Omar al-Bashir was ousted and the military council took over.
Protesters chanted, "Freedom and revolution are the choice of the people" and "Civilian rule, civilian rule", and waved national flags. Giant screens showed a film documenting apparent abuses by the security services.
ALGIERS (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators returned to Algeria's streets on Friday to press demands for sweeping democratic change well beyond former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's resignation, chanting "we do what we want", witnesses said.
The march was peaceful, like most of the demonstrations in the country over the last two months.
But an 18-year old who was injured during last week's protest in Algiers, when clashes broke out, died on Friday of injuries to the head, Ennahar TV said. It said police were investigating the death, adding that he could have been beaten or fallen from a truck.
Parliament named an interim president and a July 4 election date was set in a transition endorsed by Algeria's powerful military. But Bouteflika's exit on April 2 failed to satisfy many Algerians who want to topple the entire elite that has dominated the country since independence from France in 1962.
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's new president could regain control over the separatist-controlled east of his country within months and get cheap gas and major investment from Russia if he repairs ties with Moscow, the Kremlin's closest ally in Ukraine said.
Viktor Medvedchuk, a prominent figure in Ukraine's Russia-leaning opposition, outlined the prospect in an interview before a presidential election runoff in Ukraine on Sunday which polls show political novice Volodymyr Zelenskiy should easily win.
He said the Kremlin was keen to know more about Zelenskiy, a 41-year-old Russian-speaking TV comedian who has no political experience, to understand if he is someone it could do a deal with, something it failed to do with incumbent Petro Poroshenko who polls show will be soundly defeated by Zelenskiy.
"They don't have any expectations in Moscow," he said. "They want to see what happens afterwards, who will be in his (Zelenskiy's) entourage, and what he will do and with whom."
A Ukrainian citizen, Medvedchuk does not represent Russia, but his words carry weight due to his close friendship with President Vladimir Putin and track record as a go-between between the two nations.
WNU Editor: The top issues in this Ukraine Presidential election are (1) ending the war, (2) the economy, (3) corruption, and (4) reconciling with Russia. I would also add finding some common ground with Ukraine's large Russian speaking population in this mix. Viktor Medvedchuk has made a promise to focus and solve these issues, and he has convinced many that he will not break his promise. I hope he does not, because Ukraine does not need another 5 years of war and turmoil.
The former vice president has finally decided he's in, and he's announcing in less than a week. Now he just has to finish putting a campaign together.
Joe Biden is running. The former vice president will make his candidacy official with a video announcement next Wednesday, according to people familiar with the discussions who have been told about them by top aides.
Seriously, he's actually made a decision. It's taken two years of back-and-forth, it'll be his third (or, depending on how you count, seventh) try for the White House, and many people thought he wouldn't do it, but the biggest factor reshaping the 2020 Democratic-primary field is locking into place.
The latest attempt to brand Trump a Nazi has two American artists rolling over in their graves.
On Thursday, a New York Post reporter tweeted that President Donald Trump played the song "Edelweiss" at the White House. The New York Times's White House correspondent, Maggie Haberman, suggested the song was a Nazi anthem, inspiring rightful backlash on Twitter. She seemed to stick with this false view, even after she was called out on it.
WNU Editor: This New York Times reporter probably never saw Sound of Music (talk about living in a bubble). She is probably thinking of this Nazi-themed show on TV where the song is used in the opening credits (see link here). On a side note .... I love the movie.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree banning Russian exports of coal, crude oil and oil products to Ukraine, he told government officials in televised comments on Thursday.
Starting June 1, the export of products listed in the decree will require a special permit, Interfax reported.
The decree will also ban the import into Russia of Ukrainian "engineering, light and metalworking products, which in the past year amounted to almost $250 million," Medvedev said.
The move comes in response to Ukraine's recent actions to embargo Russian products such as glassware and electrical equipment, he added.
WNU Editor: Both Russia and Ukraine have been imposing bans on each others goods since last year. But these new measures escalates tensions. As to why now? Ukrainians go to the polls on Sunday with opposition candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy expected to win. This is the Kremlin's way of testing him right now.
China is the first foreign buyer of the Russian-made Su-35 fighter jet.
Russia has completed the delivery of 24 Sukhoi Su-35S (NATO reporting name: Flanker-E) multirole fighter aircraft destined for service in the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSVTS) told local media on April 16.
"In compliance with the contract, all the Su-35 planes have been delivered to the foreign customer," FSVTS was quoted as saying by TASS news agency. A FSVTS official also confirmed the delivery of the fighter aircraft to China in a statement to IHS Jane's on April 16. The official did not reveal when the last batch of aircraft was delivered.
In August 2018, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) stated that all Su-35 aircraft would be delivered by year's end. A first batch of four Su-35 fighter jets arrived at a flight training center of the PLAAF in Cangzhou City in Hebei province in northern China in December 2016. A second batch of 10 Su-35 fighter jets was delivered in December 2017.
ATHENS (Reuters) - The Greek parliament voted on Wednesday to launch a diplomatic campaign to press Germany to cough up billions of euros in damages for the Nazi occupation of the country in World War Two, an issue Berlin says was settled long ago.
Greece suffered hugely under Nazi German rule and a parliamentary commission in 2016 put the cost at more than 300 billion euros, though Wednesday's proposal - backed by both ruling coalition and opposition lawmakers - mentioned no figure.
The vote, the first official decision by parliament on the emotive reparations issue, is likely to further strain ties with Germany, blamed by many Greeks for painful austerity measures imposed in return for bailout loans during its financial crisis.
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Nicolás Maduro has had a tumultuous 2019.
He's been locked in a power struggle with 35-year-old Juan Guaidó since January, when the young opposition leader declared himself Venezuela's rightful interim president with the backing of 50 countries, including the U.S. He's faced several rounds of sanctions that have crippled the country's oil sector and sharply exacerbated an already disastrous crisis, making an economic recovery all but impossible any time soon. He's overseen one massive power outage after another, leaving entire neighborhoods without running water for days or even weeks at a time.
WNU Editor: The regime of Nicolas Maduro is still in power because of the following reasons:
- loyalty among the upper military establishment who are primarily Maduro political appointees. - keeping a military force of about 10,000 soldiers who are properly paid and taken care of in the event of a military uprising. - an intelligence network that roots out opposition leaders. An intelligence network that has a strong Cuban presence and now a Russian one. - the 'colectivos' keep order in the barrios by controlling who gets aid, and who does not. - control of the media and the dissemination of information. - financial support (until recently) from China, and financial/military support from Russia (paid for by future oil sales). - a government bureaucracy that is sill loyal to Maduro.
But the biggest reason why Maduro is still in power is because a good segment of the population believe in Chavismo, and have trust that Maduro will still carry on this legacy. My one contact in Caracas tells me that he believes about 30% of the population are still loyal to the revolution, even though they are suffering terribly right now. I can understand this reasoning. When the Soviet Union was falling apart and everyone was suffering economically, support for Lenin/the Revolution/Communism/etc. was still strong among a third of the population. It was only when the other two thirds finally got fed up, that these dinosaurs were thrown out. Will the same fate happen in Venezuela? I give it another year or two. On a side note. This loyalty to a political party and/or ideology is universal. Case in point .... I live in Canada and there was an election in the province of Alberta this week. The Socialist government that was in power for the past four years produced a legacy of high unemployment, the collapse of the oil industry (even though the oil industry is booming worldwide), record deficits, high and confiscatory taxes to small and medium businesses, the highest minimum wage in Canada that has put many small businesses out of business, and a social policy that many Albertans are in disagreement with. They lost the election but they still received the support and vote of 1/3 of the province. In a normal situation, these people should have received zero support for the harm they did to the population, and the divisiveness of their rule. But they got this 1/3 support because the cause is more important than its impact and the harm that it will cause. The same can be said about Venezuela.
Russia has dismissed new U.S. sanctions imposed on Venezuela and Cuba this week, vowing to stand by the embattled regime headed by President Nicolás Maduro.
The RIA news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who said Thursday the new sanctions—announced by national security adviser John Bolton on Wednesday—are illegal, Reuters reported.
Ryabkov added that the Kremlin plans to do everything to support its allies in Caracas and Havana, despite continued American efforts to undermine both regimes.
Cuba is among the nations supporting Maduro, who is locked in a power struggle with Juan Guaidó, the self-declared interim president and leader of the opposition-controlled National Assembly. Russia, China and Iran are also backing Maduro, who won a presidential election last year that opponents and international observers dismissed as illegitimate.
Moscow regrets that the documents of this sort are causing direct influence on the development of Russian-US relations, the Kremlin spokesman said.
MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov believes that US taxpayers have solid reasons to start asking questions why budget money was wasted on special counsel Robert Mueller's probe.
"We regret the documents of this sort are causing direct influence on the development of Russian-US relations, whose condition leaves much to be desired," Peskov said.
"Speaking less seriously I should say that in a similar situation our Audit Chamber would've certainly probed into what the taxpayers' money has been wasted on. Anyway, it's up to the US taxpayers to ask such questions."
Russia sent the United States a draft joint declaration on how to prevent nuclear war, only to never hear back from Washington, the Kommersant business daily reported on Friday.
The U.S. and Russia are suspending the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty this summer. The only U.S.-Russia arms control pact limiting deployed nuclear weapons — the New START — expires in February 2021.
"Nuclear war cannot be won and it must never be unleashed," Kommersant quoted Russia's draft joint declaration, which was sent to the U.S. in October 2018, as stating.
WNU Editor: This lack of at least talking to each other is disturbing. Even during the height of the Cold War both sides were talking on how to prevent nuclear war. Today .... both sides are only talking to themselves.
It's time to cut a leg off America's Cold War vintage nuclear triad and dramatically strengthen the far more relevant two that remain.
We hear a lot about "tough decisions" from Pentagon officials when it comes to procurement, even in a time of a significant defense spending boom, to the point that many of those statements seem eye-roll worthy and completely out of touch with just how much the U.S. spends on its massive national security apparatus. One of the biggest ticket initiatives currently on the Pentagon's books is the revitalization of America's nuclear deterrent, and for good reason. Selective modernization is needed, but instead of finding an efficient strategic balance that better suits the age in which we live, the Pentagon has gone with a 'kitchen sink approach,' which is wasteful, and above all else, a massive handout to defense contractors.
WNU Editor: A debate on maintaining the U.S. nuclear triad is long overdue. But even with the high costs of modernizing its nuclear force, I predict nothing is going to change. And with the very real possibility of a nuclear arms race occurring with the end of the U.S. - Russia nuclear missile treaties, a probable boost in spending.
The US does not believe North Korea successfully launched a fully operational new weapon after Pyongyang claimed it had conducted a "new tactical guided weapons firing test" on Wednesday, according to a US official directly familiar with the latest assessment.
The initial US intelligence assessment is North Korea tested components for an anti-tank weapon, rather than a fully operational new weapon, the official told CNN on Thursday.
The assessment is based on a review of information gathered from satellites and aircraft that did not register any indication of a launch of any type of short-range tactical weapon or a ballistic missile, the official said.
North Korea's state media agency reported that the country's leader Kim Jong Un inspected and directed the test.
MOSCOW scrambled warplanes to force down a small aircraft believed to have flouted its airspace from a NATO country - only to find the "trespasser" was Russian.
TRAGEDY has struck at an Easter service being held at a Pentecostal church in South Africa, with 13 people killed and many injured after a wall collapsed in South Africa.
EMMANUEL Macron's approval ratings have risen to never-before-seen levels as the French President is praised for his handling of the Notre Dame inferno.
EMMANUEL Macron is deploying tanks and hundreds of troops to Estonia to boost NATO's defences along the Russian border in a move which is certain to raise already heightened tensions with Moscow.
AN AUSTRALIAN man was stabbed 12 times after trying to defend a woman from a man who attacked her in a bar in Thailand where he was drinking with friends.
ITALY's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced he will run for the upcoming European elections to fight populism and "profoundly reform" the European Union.
(ANKARA, Turkey) — Turkish authorities on Friday formally arrested two men on charges of spying for the United Arab Emirates, Turkey’s state-run news agency said.
Authorities were also investigating the possibility that the men could have been involved in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last year, a security official told The Associated Press.
The two men were detained Monday following a joint operation by Turkey’s police and its intelligence agency, according to the security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations.
They appeared before court officials after four days of police questioning, which ordered them arrested on charges of “political, military and international espionage,” the official Anadolu Agency reported, citing court officials.
Officials in the UAE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Turkish state broadcaster TRT showed what appeared to be surveillance camera images of the two as well as photographs of the pair taken under police custody.
The official did not identify the suspects but said the two confessed during their interrogation that they had been spying on Arab dissidents based in Turkey on behalf of the UAE, which is Saudi Arabia’s closest Arab ally.
The official said one of the two men had arrived in Istanbul shortly after the killing of Khashoggi.
Security officials had been monitoring their moves for the past six months, the official said.
Khashoggi wrote critically about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in columns for The Washington Post before he was brutally killed and dismembered by Saudi agents, including some members from the prince’s entourage.
The kingdom denies that the crown prince had any involvement. Saudi Arabia has indicted 11 suspects over the killing and is seeking the death penalty against five of them.
Ukrainians head to the polls this weekend to choose between a comedian who plays a Ukrainian president on TV and a chocolate baron who plays a Ukrainian president in real life. No joke.
Why It Matters:
Because it’s Ukraine. For better or worse, Ukraine is the bridge that unites—or divides, depending on your perspective—Russia with the West. A decade ago, Ukraine was making moves toward joining the EU without sacrificing its substantial trade and interpersonal ties to Russia. Then Moscow’s 2014 landgrab of Crimea and sponsorship of a war in the Donbas valley resulted in a frozen conflict that remains in place to this day. Unsurprisingly, both candidates have been fiercely critical of Moscow on the campaign trail, though not exactly in the same way (see below).
But before Russia, there’s domestic politics to consider—Ukraine’s politicians never cleaned up the systemic corruption that fueled the 2014 Maidan Revolution that ousted Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych. His eventual successor (and current presidential candidate) Petro Poroshenko came to power promising to navigate the country through what was then a rising conflict in the east and revive the country’s economic fortunes. He’s had difficulty convincing Ukraine’s voters he’s been successful on all those fronts—Russia remains a direct security threat (even if the conflict has cooled and now is largely stuck in place), Ukraine’s economy is struggling, and no top-tier government officials have been convicted on corruption charges. In the eyes of many Ukrainians, the billionaire Poroshenko is a remnant of the very system the 2014 Revolution was meant to break.
Enter: Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a true political outsider whose political experience comes from his TV show “Servant of the People,” in which he plays a school teacher whose outburst against corruption becomes an internet sensation and thrusts him into the country’s presidency. Zelenskiy named his political party after the show and he hit the campaign trail, where his charisma and media experience have made him a political force to be reckoned with. Zelenskiy has also opted to go heavy on the anti-corruption rhetoric while going light on specific policy proposals, allowing him to be many things to many Ukrainians fed up with the country’s politics. That does not mean he is without controversy—his political opponents accuse him of being financially-backed by a Ukrainian oligarch at odds with Poroshenko, and who happens to own the TV station that Zelenskiy’s show runs on. He also says he will end Ukraine’s conflict with Russia through direct dialogue (“I am ready to do a deal with the devil so that not one more person dies”); critics are skeptical on that count. Nevertheless, Zelenskiy won the first round of Ukrainian presidential elections decisively, taking 30.2 percent of the vote to Poroshenko’s 15.9 percent. The last three weeks have been filled with personal attacks between the two men as the campaign approaches the finish line.
What Happens Next:
Ukraine is set to elect Zelenskiy as Ukraine’s next president this weekend; a poll released last week had Zelenskiy at 61 percent, while Poroshenko clocked in at 24 percent. Zelenskiy has been stocking his team with genuine economic and political reformers, a sign that he has ambitious plans to follow through with his headline promise of “change.” But here’s the thing—Ukraine has parliamentary elections scheduled for this fall, and any genuine reforms will require legislative backing. So the success of Zelenskiy’s reform drive will depend in large part on the outcome of those elections. Speaking of…
The One Major Misconception About It:
Given Russia’s proclivity for interfering in foreign elections—in addition to the outsized interest that Russia takes in Ukrainian affairs—one would assume that Moscow is working overtime to swing this election. Problem is that the only candidate who the Kremlin clearly wanted to back (Yuriy Boyko) didn’t stand a chance of winning given broad anti-Russian sentiment throughout the parts of Ukraine still under the Ukrainian government’s control. Instead, the Kremlin’s efforts have focused on delegitimizing the electoral process in general. For active meddling and preferred candidates, tune in for parliamentary elections this fall, where there is much more space to influence outcomes given the number and variety of politicians likely to stand.
The Key Fact That Explains It:
91% of Ukrainians believe their government is corrupt. Pretty hard to win reelection when you’re the president presiding over that government.
The One Thing to Read About It:
For more color on the Ukrainian elections, read this piece in Time.
The One Thing to Say About It at a Drinks Party:
Voting in Ukraine tends to fall along the traditional fault lines of ethnicity and language. Zelenskiy’s first round victory crashed through those barriers as he picked up votes from a broad swath of the electorate. Let’s see if he keeps it up this weekend; if he does, we may be looking at a new era of Ukrainian politics.
The One Thing to Avoid Saying About It:
Populism is the talk of the town in Western politics. It’s probably not the best framework to apply to understand what’s happening in Ukraine; Zelenskiy is clearly against the establishment, but it’s not clear what policies he will oversee once in office. So be cautious describing him as a “populist.”
(PARIS) — Architects and construction workers have now stabilized the damaged structure of Notre Dame cathedral, four days after a fast-spreading fire ravaged the iconic Paris building, and firefighters will leave the site Friday night, a fire brigade spokesman said.
“There is no more risk the edifice’s walls could fall down,” Lt. Col. Gabriel Plus told The Associated Press, adding that firefighters have been able to cool down the walls and debris from the roof inside the cathedral.
“It’s a miracle that the cathedral is still standing, and that all the relics were saved,” he said.
Earlier, the cathedral’s rector said a “computer glitch” may have been behind the rapidly spreading blaze that devastated the 850-year-old architectural masterpiece.
Rector Patrick Chauvet did not elaborate on the exact nature of the glitch. “We may find out what happened in two or three months,” he told a meeting of local business leaders.
The fire burned through the network of enormous centuries-old oak beams supporting the monument’s vaulted stone ceiling, dangerously weakening the building. The surrounding neighborhood was blocked off as stones continued to tumble off the sides of the cathedral after Monday evening’s devastating blaze.
On Thursday, Paris police investigators said they believe an electrical short-circuit most likely caused the fire.
The Parisien newspaper has reported that a computer glitch might have misdirected firefighters responding to the initial fire alarm. The unsourced report said investigators are also looking into whether the fire was linked to temporary elevators being used in a renovation that was underway at the time the cathedral caught fire. Chauvet said there were fire alarms throughout the building, which he described as “well protected.”
Charlotte Hubert, president of a group of French architects who specialize in historic monuments, told BFM television that experts plan to spread a custom-made peaked tarpaulin across the cathedral’s roof, with enough space to also shield workers rebuilding the frame.
As Catholics carried out the Way of the Cross ritual near the cathedral to mark Good Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron met with officials from the United Nations’ cultural agency, UNESCO. UNESCO representatives have offered their technical expertise to help with the reconstruction.
Macron is moving quickly on the fire-ravaged monument’s reconstruction, which is being viewed both as a push to make it part of his legacy and a way to move past the divisive yellow vest protests over social inequality in France.
Notre Dame’s reconstruction is prompting widespread debate across France, with differing views over whether it should involve new technologies and designs. Macron’s office has, for example, said the president wants a “contemporary architectural gesture to be considered” for the collapsed 19th-century spire, which wasn’t part of the original cathedral.
Macron hasn’t offered any specifics on his vision for the roof or whether the frame should be wood, metal or concrete, according to his cultural heritage envoy, Stephane Bern. He has named a general, Jean-Louis Georgelin, former chief of staff of the armed forces, to lead the reconstruction effort.
Over $1 billion has already poured in from people from all walks of life around the world to restore Notre Dame.
Judith Kagan, a conservation official at France’s Culture Ministry, said the artworks inside Notre Dame had suffered no major damage from the fire and the pieces were being removed from the building for their protection.
The Notre Dame fire delayed Macron’s long-awaited plans to quell anti-government protests that have marred his presidency. The French leader abandoned a planned TV address to the nation on the evening of the fire, heading to the scene instead and declaring: “We will rebuild Notre Dame.”
According to an opinion poll by BVA institute published Friday — the first carried out since the fire — Macron has gained three points in popularity in the past month with an approval rating of 32%. That puts him back at the support level of September, before the yellow vest crisis, BVA said.
Although all French polls show that Macron’s popularity has remain depressed since a tax increase on retirees last year, they suggest his party may be ahead in France’s May 26 European Parliament election, with Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, the National Rally, close behind.
Macron is now expected to detail his new measures next week. Macron earlier was planning to respond to demonstrators’ concerns over their loss of purchasing power with tax cuts for lower-income households and measures to boost pensions and help single parents.
Despite the destruction of Notre Dame dominating the news in France, a new round of yellow vest protests is planned on Saturday across the country, including in Paris. Interior minister Christophe Castaner said 60,000 police officers will be mobilized and demonstrations near Notre Dame will be banned as he expects some protests to turn violent.
In a hopeful development Friday, 180,000 bees being kept in in hives on Notre Dame’s lead roofing were discovered alive.
“I am so relieved. I saw satellite photos that showed the three hives didn’t burn. I thought they had gone with the cathedral,” Nicolas Geant, the monument’s beekeeper, told the AP.
Geant has looked after the bees since 2013, when they were installed as part of a city-wide initiative to boost declining bee numbers.
Since the insects have no lungs, Geant said the carbon dioxide in the fire’s heavy smoke put the bees into a sedated state instead of killing them. He said when bees sense fire they “gorge themselves on honey” and protect their queen. He said European bees never abandon their hives.
(LONDON) — Climate protesters are once again trying to shut down parts of London to urge residents to do more to protect the Earth from rising temperatures.
Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson joined a rally by the Extinction Rebellion protesters in central London on Friday. She told the demonstrators in Oxford Circus “it makes me so happy to be able to join you all and to add my voice to the young people here who have inspired a whole new movement.”
The protesters managed to keep Waterloo Bridge over the River Thames in London closed to vehicles, although a demonstration at London’s Heathrow Airport drew only a small number of people and did not affect the busy facility.
London police say more than 570 climate protesters have been arrested since the protests began four days ago.
(DHAKA, Bangladesh) — Dozens of protesters gathered in Bangladesh’s capital on Friday to demand justice for an 18-year-old woman who died after being set on fire for refusing to drop sexual harassment charges against her Islamic school’s principal.
Nusrat Jahan Rafi told her family she was lured to the roof of her rural school in the town of Feni on April 6 and asked to withdraw the charges by five people clad in burqas. When she refused, she said her hands were tied and she was doused in kerosene and set alight.
Rafi told the story to her brother in an ambulance on the way to the hospital and he recorded her testimony on his mobile phone. She died four days later in a Dhaka hospital with burns covering 80% of her body.
The violence has shaken Bangladesh, triggering protests and raising concerns over the plight of women and girls in the conservative Muslim-majority nation of 160 million people where sexual harassment and violence are often unreported, victims are intimidated and the legal process is often lengthy. Many avoid reporting to police because of social stigma.
“We want justice. Our girls must grow up safely and with dignity,” Alisha Pradhan, a model and actress, told The Associated Press during Friday’s demonstration. “We protest any forms of violence against women, and authorities must ensure justice.”
Tens of thousands of people attended Rafi’s funeral prayers in Feni, and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised Rafi’s family when they met in Dhaka that those responsible would be punished.
At least 17 people, including students, have been arrested in connection with the case, said Banaj Kumar Majumder, the head of the Police Bureau of Investigation.
In late March, Rafi filed a complaint with police that the principal of her madrasa, or Islamic school, had called her into his office and touched her inappropriately and repeatedly. Her family agreed to help her to file the police complaint, which prompted police to arrest the principal, infuriating him and his supporters. Influential local politicians backed the principal, and ruling party members were also among the arrested.
Police said the arrested suspects told them during interrogations that the attack on Rafi was planned and ordered by the school’s principal from prison when his men went to see him. It was timed for daytime so that it would look like a suicide attempt, Majumder said.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement that Rafi’s family said that they had received death threats before the attack telling them to drop the case.
While Rafi’s case is now being treated with urgency, that wasn’t the case until her death.
A video taken on March 27 while Rafi reported the assault shows the local police chief registering her complaint but telling her that the incident was “not a big deal.” The chief was later removed from the police station for negligence in dealing with the case.
For Bangladeshi women, it is often not easy to file sensitive complaints with police. Victims often fear further harassment and bullying. Police also often show an unwillingness to investigate such cases and are often accused of being influenced by local politics or bribes.
But the call for dealing with violence against women, especially related to sexual harassment and assault, is also getting louder.
“The horrifying murder of a brave woman who sought justice shows how badly the Bangladesh government has failed victims of sexual assault,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Nusrat Jahan Rafi’s death highlights the need for the Bangladesh government to take survivors of sexual assault seriously and ensure that they can safely seek a legal remedy and be protected from retaliation.”
(LONDON) — Police in Northern Ireland said Friday they are searching for multiple suspects in the fatal shooting of a journalist during overnight rioting in the city of Londonderry.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said 29-year-old journalist and author Lyra McKee was shot and killed, probably by a stray bullet, during rioting in the city’s Creggan neighborhood. It said the dissident group, the New IRA, was most likely responsible.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said a gunman fired a number of shots at police during the unrest Thursday evening.
“We believe this to be a terrorist act,” he said. “We believe it has been carried out by violent dissident republicans.”
Hamilton said the force’s assessment “is that the New IRA are most likely to be the ones behind this and that forms our primary line of inquiry.”
McKee was a rising talent who had written eloquently about the challenges of coming out as gay in Northern Ireland. Her partner, Sara Canning, told a vigil that McKee’s amazing potential had been snuffed out.
“It has left so many friends without their confidante,” she said.
Canning said the senseless murder “has left me without the love of my life, the woman I was planning to grow old with.”
A murder investigation has been launched but there have been no arrests yet. Police appealed for calm to prevail over the long Easter holiday weekend.
Speaking in Dublin, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said the people of Ireland and Northern Ireland had chosen peace and cooperation 21 years ago and will not be “dragged into the past” by political violence.
The New IRA is a small group who reject the 1998 Good Friday agreement that marked the Irish Republican Army’s embrace of a political solution to the long-running violence known as “The Troubles” that claimed more than 3,700 lives.
The group is also blamed for a Londonderry car bombing that did not cause any injuries in January. It is regarded as the largest of the splinter dissident groups still operating and has been linked to several other killings in the past decade.
Deputy Chief Constable Stephen Martin said Friday that police believe more than one person was involved in the shooting.
“We certainly believe there was more than one person who was involved in this last night. Obviously only one person pulled the trigger but there was more than one person,” he said.
He said the violence started after police entered the area to search for weapons and that the gunman was aiming at policemen when the rioting intensified.
“The full and total responsibility for Lyra McKee’s death lies with the organization that sent someone out with a gun,” he said.
Londonderry Mayor John Boyle said the city was united in mourning McKee’s death.
“I have known her since she was 16 years old,” he said. “She was bright, she was warm, she was witty. But most of all she was an outstanding individual, a great friend to so, so many people in this city in the short time that she was with us.”
There has been an increase in tensions in Northern Ireland in recent months with sporadic violence, much of it focused in Londonderry, also known as Derry.
McKee rose to prominence in 2014 with a moving blog post — “Letter to my 14 year old self ” — describing the struggle of growing up gay in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland.
In the post, she described the shame she felt at 14 as she kept the “secret” of being gay from her family and friends and the love she eventually received when she was finally able to reveal it.
McKee had recently signed a contract to write two books.
Hours before her death, she tweeted a photo of the riot with the words: “Derry tonight. Absolute madness.”
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