Game of Thrones is ending. But there's still plenty to talk about — and that's what we're going to highlight every Sunday until the final episode airs.
Season 8 is now one week old, with the April 14 premiere — titled "Winterfell" — focusing most of its attention on the Stark stronghold in the north. Paths from all across Westeros are crossing as most of your faves prepare to stage a last-ditch effort to push back the White Walker threat.
"Most" is the operative word there. Way down south in King's Landing, fresh plots are a-brewing as Cersei Lannister prepares to double-cross her would-be allies in the White Walker fight, with Euron Greyjoy and his Iron Fleet at her side. Read more...
We debuted a bingo card for the Game of Thrones premiere episode last week, and now we're giving it another shot, taking into account what we now know from the first episode. (Read: It's not looking good for Jaime.)
If you'd prefer, you can play again with our episode one card, embedded at the bottom of this post, but for those who want to start fresh, this round grapples with some big questions: Will Brienne get a big reunion? Will someone become a wight before our very eyes? Will Sansa keep sassing everyone who crosses her path? Definitely.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon experienced an "anomaly" during ground tests that manifested as a column of smoke rising from the spacecraft's thrusters. The Crew Dragons were expected to fly with astronauts aboard later in the year, and it is currently unclear whether recent tests could delay that.
Though few details are available, SpaceX did release a statement to SpaceNews confirming the incident.
“Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida,” a spokesperson told SpaceNews. “The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand.” Read more...
Sometimes your mind wants to leave but your scroller finger won't let you.
There are a gazillion reasons to close an app, exit out of your browser, or simply kill the power. Perhaps you matched with a jerk on a dating app, maybe the sun has set while you watched one too many YouTube videos of random items being squished by large pistons.
At a point, there's little left to do but vacate the feeds and interact with the physical realm for a bit. I know, I knowSounds scary.
If you've been clicking around for so long that your eyes are dry and watery at the same time, here are some inspiring reasons to slow your scroll. Read more...
Streaming on a laptop or tablet is a convenient way to catch up on all the shows you been meaning to watch or to avoid spoilers from friends. But doing so, you miss out on a lot of benefits from watching TV in your living room, such as movie night experience, optimized positioning, better viewing distance, and many more.
Lucky for you, Walmart is offering the Samsung UN65NU7200 65-inch 4K HDR smart TV for $599.00 (listed at $998), or you can get the Samsung UN55NU7200 55-inch model for only $399.00 (listed at $648). Saving you up to 40% off. To top it off, it comes with a $20 VUDU credit as well. Read more...
The reality show Shark Tank doesn't paint a complete picture of all of the intricacies of running a business but it does give you an idea of what project managers do in real life.
Appointed PMs are in charge of overseeing the entire production cycle, and it's their neck that's usually on the line if something goes haywire. They're also often the first people to get the boot since they fail to propel their teams to success.
The sheer amount of responsibility put on the shoulders of project managers is what makes them in-demand in the real world. Companies pay top dollar to professionals who are adept at producing deliverables accurately, on time, and within the budget. Read more...
Once relegated to the mystical lairs of hippies and far-out health nuts, CBD products are now everywhere. Even Kim Kardashian recently espoused a desire for a CBD-themed baby shower, which officially marks the entrance of CBD into the mainstream, y'all.
If you haven't jumped on the bandwagon already, here's a quick primer. CBD products are sought after for their purported abilities to induce calm, relieve stress, reduce pain, and more. And while the research isn't quite there to support those claims, there have been a flood of products ranging from balms to chocolates to the ever-popular gummy. Read more...
What exactly could Max be thinking? It's like he landed on the emotional jackpot of a dog's life — complete and total tail entrapment — and now he doesn't know what to do with his riches.
Does he bite his tail? Squeeze his tail? Nuzzle his tail? What was the point of capturing his tail? Perhaps the whole tail-chasing thing was about the journey, not the end destination. Read more...
It sure looks like Apple is moving closer and closer to its goal of merging its iOS and macOS ecosystems.
Apple has plans to bring more iOS features, including Screen Time and Siri Shortcuts, to macOS later in 2019, according a new report from 9to5Mac. The update will likely be shown off at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June as part of macOS 10.15, according to the report.
With the update, Apple's Screen Time features, which lets you set limits on how long you use certain apps, would be accessible from System Preferences on macOS. The feature is reported to work the same way on the Mac as it does on iOS — when you've reached your predetermined time limit, you'll get a notification and the option to close the app. Read more...
At my college, 4/20 was marijuana Christmas. Every year at that time, people would go outside, put on their worst possible pants, turn up the jam band radio stations (String Cheese Incident, baby!!!), and smoke up.
As much as I loved seeing my fellow classmates roll down grassy hills, the 4/20 of 2019 has become more than a traditional stoner's holiday. It's also an incredible opportunity to advocate on behalf of legal marijuana, whether for medical or recreational purposes.
With multiple Democratic presidential candidates now pushing for the full or partial legalization of marijuana, 2019 has already been a banner year for the legal weed movement. Read more...
If you're one of the millions of people in America who don't own a car and have to rely on terrible public transportation (points to self), SiriusXM is out-of-reach.
Recently, however, the company released a new plan called SiriusEssential that would give people access to SiriusXM on mobile or for listening at home. At just $8 a month, the plan gives people access to over 200 channels.
Unfortunately for some listeners, the plan will not include premium channels including the NBA, the NHL, the NCAA, and Howard Stern. Listeners who want access to those channels would have to sign up for their Premium Subscription plan, which goes for $13 a month. Read more...
Amazon is now using facial recognition to verify its delivery drivers' identities.
Specifically, the change applies to people who drive for Amazon Flex, the retail giant's program that allows contract workers to deliver Amazon packages using their own cars. Now, Amazon will start verifying their identities using a combination of selfies and facial recognition.
The new development was reported by The Verge after the Amazon Flex app began notifying drivers they needed to start taking selfies in the app. Amazon has said the change is meant to reduce fraud and ensure only people authorized to deliver packages are able to access Amazon Flex. Read more...
This is peak joy. I'm not sure it's possible for any animal, including humans, to be happier than this. I just downed five absolutely incredible fresh-out-of-the-box Krispy Kremes and still — not this happy.
People on Twitter agree.
We want daily updates on their relationship progress
Sony Santa Monica's critically and commercially acclaimed 2018 hit God of War is going to be the subject of a "making of" documentary.
It's a Sony production, so it's reasonable to expect the rosiest possible picture. But this trailer for Raising Kratos hypes a feature-length documentary look at the intricate development process that fuels a modern-day video game blockbuster.
Best of all: it's a no-cost deep dive into that process. There isn't a release date, but Sony promises a PlayStation YouTube channel debut for Raising Kratos "soon." Read more...
Uber's self-driving cars still aren't very reliable, apparently.
Business Insider reports that Uber's self-driving tech is still far behind competitors like Waymo. The report, which cites interviews with employees in Uber's Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), compares the self-driving cars project to a "science experiment," and says that the cars "perform reliably only on limited well-mapped routes, and aren't making much progress on handling more."
That may sound like a harsh assessment, but as BI points out, Uber has had other priorities besides autonomous driving alone. Since the company resumed testing its self-driving cars in December following a fatal accident in Arizona, Uber has been progressing much more slowly. It's possible the cautious approach is frustrating to some employees, who may want to see more rapid improvements in the underlying technology rather than safety-related updates alone. Read more...
The plant, which is also known as "Wood's hau kuahiwi" and was thought to be extinct, is apparently still around and possibly even flourishing in its native Hawaii. Researchers for the National Tropical Botanical Garden on the island of Kauai made the discovery with a little help from a drone.
Three of the plants were spotted in footage captured by a drone that was sent out to explore Kalalau Valley. The remote region of Kauai is known for its biodiversity, thanks to cliffs that make the region inaccessible to the humans and goats that pose a threat to local plant life. Read more...
West Coast hip-hop legends Cypress Hill finally made it to the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday — two days too early, in the minds of some.
The plaque was formally presented on Thursday, April 18, 2019. But everyone knows that Cypress Hill is synonymous with marijuana. Couldn't whoever constructed the plaque have waited two days to present it on 4/20, the biggest marijuana holiday of the year?
A right-wing militia group operating in southern New Mexico has begun stopping groups of migrant families and detaining them at gunpoint before handing them over to Border Patrol agents, raising tension over the tactics of armed vigilantes along the border between the United States and Mexico.
A series of coordinated bombings ripped across Sri Lanka on Sunday, striking hotels and churches, killing more than 200 people and shattering the relative calm that the war-torn nation had enjoyed in recent years.
There's a law of economics that says more urban highways mean more traffic. We looked at a real-world examples in Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle to see if that's the case.
From podcasts to your favorite playlists, you can listen for longer with these True Wireless Fitness Bluetooth Headphones — they're lightweight and feature Bluetooth 4.2 technology for crisp audio. Plus, you can use them as a set or a single headpiece for 8 hours straight.
Lead author of NASA's "Twins Study" Dr. Francine Garrett-Bakelman reveals the major takeaways from the experiment and what their implications might be for the future of humans in space.
Given the affordable housing crisis, California cities should encourage single-family homeowners to convert garages into apartments and accessory dwelling units.
HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines helped convert a sleepy Texas town into a tourist mecca. But not everyone agrees on what Waco's "restoration" should look like.
Women at the Salk Institute say they faced a culture of marginalization and hostility. The numbers from other elite scientific institutions suggest they're not alone.
There is a digital shadow-realm of intriguingly bland blogs about motherhood, written by women who aspire to make big money from home. But are their hopes in vain?
There are plenty of voices willing to "debate" their ideological foes, among them Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, writers at Quillette, and the ragtag Intellectual Dark Web crew. But rarely in good faith. And to what end?
French police said they arrested more than 200 "yellow vest" demonstrators in Paris as clashes broke out with demonstrators turning out for a 23rd week of anti-government protests https://t.co/NwyvciDXPe
Explosion rocks Afghanistan's capital city during a gun battle with security forces, hitting the government's central district, a security official says. https://t.co/Zwh0iZLwbA
* As the Defence Department shifts its focus to competing with Russia and China, the coastguard 'brings some authorities below the threshold of war' * 'Realities in the South China Sea' and the loss of two Navy destroyers in 2017 are helping to drive the shift
As a US coastguard cutter sailed through the East China Sea last month, Chinese vessels shadowed it on the high seas, service officials said. It was a reminder to the Americans of where they were: in a strategic area a couple hundred miles from China's shores.
The situation underscored the evolving US response to the rise of China and the coastguard's role operating missions typically closer to home. The coastguard is increasingly orienting itself toward China, senior officials said, by deploying new cutters, repositioning older ones and dispatching service members to countries such as Vietnam and Sri Lanka to help train those nations' coastguards.
Admiral Karl Schultz, the coastguard commandant, said that as the Defence Department shifts its focus to competing with Russia and China, the Navy is "oversubscribed".
China's navy will mark 70 years since its founding next week, in a parade that will show off new warships including nuclear submarines and destroyers, giving the emergent superpower the chance to flaunt its wealth and new-found military muscle.
While China's involvement in naval technology stretches back to 549 BC, China's modern navy was founded on April 23, 1949, which has remained under Chinese Communist Party control.
President Xi Jinping is overseeing a sweeping plan to refurbish the People's Liberation Army (PLA) by developing everything from stealth jets to aircraft carriers as China ramps up its presence in the South China Sea and around Taiwan, which Beijing considers a rogue Chinese territory.
The Islamic State has claimed its first official attack in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in a statement released by Amaq News earlier today.
"[Members of] The Congolese Army were killed and wounded in an attack in the village of Kamango near the borders of the Congo and Uganda," the Islamic State said in its statement. While it is not immediately clear an attack took place today in Kamango, local media has reported that Islamist forces targeted civilians near the town in recent days.
In the battle between Washington and Huawei, there has long been the taunt from Shenzhen that U.S. officials have failed to produce any evidence of actual collusion between the telecom equipment giant and the Chinese state. Has that now changed?
On Saturday, the Times reported that such evidence exists, it has just not been openly published. According to the newspaper's U.K. source, Huawei "has received funding from branches of Beijing's state security apparatus... American intelligence shown to Britain says that Huawei has taken money from the People's Liberation Army, China's National Security Commission and a third branch of the Chinese state intelligence network."
Earlier this month, Joy Tan, Huawei's chief global communicator, told me that "the assumption that the Chinese government can potentially interfere in Huawei's business operation is completely not true. Huawei is a private company. The Chinese government does not have any ownership or any interference in our business operations."
French Yellow Vest protesters set fires Saturday along a march through Paris to drive home their message to a government they believe is ignoring the poor: rebuilding the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral isn't the only problem France needs to solve.
* The Paris police headquarters said authorities detained 227 people carried out more than 20,500 spot checks.
* The violence contrasted sharply with the peaceful atmosphere at another march through Paris, where demonstrators mourned the Notre-Dame blaze while also keeping up the pressure on President Emmanuel Macron, who is expected to unveil new policies aimed at appeasing the Yellow Vests in a speech on Thursday.
U.S. President Donald Trump (L) listens next to Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan during a Cabinet meeting on day 12 of the partial U.S. government shutdown at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 2, 2019. REUTERS/Jim Young
President Trump is expected to formally nominate Patrick M. Shanahan to be his permanent defense secretary as soon as next week, two administration officials tell Fox News. This, after an internal Pentagon investigation concluded that the acting defense secretary did not show any bias in favor of his former employer, aerospace giant Boeing.
Shanahan worked at Boeing for over 30 years before coming to the Pentagon as then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis's deputy at the start of the Trump administration.
Shanahan's nomination had been held up by the White House since the Pentagon inspector general opened an investigation into Shanahan's conduct following a report in Politico days after taking over for Mattis alleging Shanahan called Boeing-rival Lockheed Martin's advanced F-35 program "f—ed up" and said the company didn't know how to run a defense program following years of cost overruns and delays to the fifth-generation fighter jet.
Ukraine's rival presidential candidates have held a long-awaited head-to-head televised debate at Kiev's giant Olympic stadium.
Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky and incumbent president Petro Poroshenko shook hands before launching scathing attacks on one another.
Mr Zelensky is the clear favourite for Sunday's second-round vote, polls say.
But Mr Poroshenko argues that he is a political novice unfit for such a demanding job.
Mr Zelensky has relied on a slick social media campaign to tap into the frustration of many younger Ukrainians with establishment politicians, cronyism and corruption.
WNU Editor: Candidate Volodymyr Zelensky handled himself better than I imagine. Incumbent President Petro Poroshenko was also OK. Will this debate change the outcome of Sundays election .... in my opinion no. Volodymyr Zelensky will win with a large margin and will be the next President of Ukraine. People want change, and they do not even care about issues like this one .... 'He finds laughter in the tragedy': Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky set to become first Jewish president of Ukraine (The Independent).
EXPLOSIONS have been reported at three churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka killing 185 people and injuring more than 400, according to local police.
SPAIN is likely headed for further instability, as the latest polls indicate neither a left-wing coalition or a right-ring coalition will win a parliamentary majority on April 28.
YELLOW VEST protesters set Paris alight yesterday, forcing police to make over 120 arrests, after France saw a resurgence in violence following the fire at Notre Dame cathedral.
SRI LANKA has been rocked by a series of targetted explosions at churches and high-end hotels, killing at least 156 people. Where is Sri Lanka, where is Shangri La? What religion is Sri Lanka?
PRIME Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has called upon the country to stay united and strong, following a series of explosions that have left more than 150 dead in Sri Lanka.
SRI LANKA has been hit with a series of explosions on Easter Sunday which have been reported at three churches and four hotels – shocking dash cam video footage captures the moment the blast ripped through St. Anthony's church in Colombo.
Scores of people have been killed and hundreds wounded in a series of blasts that rocked Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. Explosions occurred in the capital Colombo, as well as in a town north of the capital and a town on the east coast. Churches and hotels were targeted. Nobody has claimed responsibility so far.
What are the casualty figures?
State media in Sri Lanka says 129 people have been killed, while an official told the Associated Press that the death told had reached 138. News reports say that around 500 people have been injured.
The BBC reports that several foreign nationals are among the dead. According to AFP, as many as 35 foreigners may have died.
Where did the explosions take place?
Four explosions took place in Colombo, one at St. Anthony’s Shrine and three at hotels, reported by the BBC to be the Shangri La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury hotels. The Cinnamon Grand is near the official residence of Sri Lanka’s prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
AP reports that explosions also occurred in at St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a north of Colombo that is home to many Catholics, and in the eastern town of Batticaloa at the Zion Church.
What has the response been?
AP reports that Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has convened Sri Lanka’s top military officials for an emergency meeting.
In a tweet, the prime minister said “I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.”
Mangala Samaraweera, Sri Lanka’s finance minister, tweeted that the blasts were “a well coordinated attempt to create murder, mayhem & anarchy.” He called for “All those who cherish democracy, freedom & economic prosperity” to “unite now with nerves of steel to defeat this heinous attempt.”
According to CNN, citing local media, Sri Lankan law enforcement have told the public to stay indoors and not to gather at the explosion sites or at the hospitals where the injured are being treated.
Leaders of Sri Lanka’s regional neighbors have condemned the attacks. “There is no place for such barbarism in our region,” Indian prime minister Narendra Modi tweeted. Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan tweeted that “Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief.”
The Shangri-la hotel in Colombo, where one of the blasts took place, issued a statement saying it was “deeply saddened and shocked by the incident and our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the casualties and those who have been affected.”
What is known about the perpetrators?
An official told AP that two of the blasts were suspected to have been carried out by suicide bombers. Nobody has stepped forward to claim responsibility.
News agency AFP says it has seen documents that show that Sri Lankan police have been on the alert for several days, fearing that suicide bombers from a local radical Muslim group, the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) were targeting “prominent churches.”
What about sectarian tensions on the island?
While the majority (70%) of Sri Lankans are Buddhists, just under 10% are Muslims and about 7.5% are Christian. Hindus make up about 12.5% of the population.
A number of Sri Lankan Muslims were known to have joined ISIS in Syria, according to Reuters.
Sri Lanka declared a state of emergency in March 2018 after Buddhist mobs attacked Muslim businesses, homes and a mosque in the central city of Kandy. The BBC reported that a Muslim man was found dead in a burned-out building. The attacks were reportedly in retaliation for the earlier beating of a Buddhist by Muslim men.
In recent years, hardline Buddhist groups such as Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), otherwise known as Buddhist Power Force, have been accused of stirring sectarian hatred in Sri Lanka. The BBS accuses Sri Lanka’s Muslims of threatening the nation’s Buddhist identity, and enjoys support at high levels of the political establishment.
In a 2014 interview with TIME, Jehan Perera, executive director of the National Peace Council NGO, said “Prejudices are growing because there is a small but influential group of extremist Buddhists who are having a relatively free run and are able to articulate very national sentiments and highlight the insecurity of the [ethnically dominant] Sinhalese.”
Hinduism is dominant in the north and east of Sri Lanka. In 2009, Tamil insurgents who fought to create an independent state in the north were defeated after a 26-year-long campaign.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka —Sri Lanka’s state-run newspaper has reported that 129 people have died in a series of Easter Sunday blasts targeting three churches and three hotels. Daily News says more than 500 others have been hospitalized with injuries caused by the blasts. A senior official told The Associated Press that the death toll has reached 138 people.The blasts caused fatalities among worshippers and hotel guests, a security official said. Two of the blasts were suspected to have been carried out by suicide bombers, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with reporters.St. Anthony’s Shrine and the three hotels where the blasts took place are in Colombo, and are frequented by foreign tourists. Alex Agieleson, who was near the shrine, said buildings shook with the blast, and that a number of injured people were carried away in ambulances.Local TV showed damage at the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels.Other blasts were reported at St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa. St. Sebastian’s appealed for help on its Facebook page.
The explosion ripped off the roof and knocked out doors and windows at St. Sebastian’s, where people carried the wounded away from blood-stained pews, local TV footage showed.
Sri Lankan security officials said they were investigating. Police immediately sealed off the areas.
LONDON (AP) — London police say more than 710 people have been arrested and some 28 have been charged since climate change protests began earlier this week in the British capital.
The Extinction Rebellion protests started Monday and have at times paralyzed parts of London, with peaceful demonstrations at Waterloo Bridge, Oxford Circus and other key landmarks.
Protesters were out again Saturday, urging the British government to make fighting climate change its top priority.
London police have taken a cautious approach rather than a massive show of force to remove the demonstrators, saying they respect the right to peaceful protest.
They still had to ask neighboring forces for some 200 additional officers to help cope with the situation, and many officers had their weekend leaves cancelled.
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Saturday issued a relatively mild criticism of White House national security adviser John Bolton for calling on North Korea to show more evidence of its disarmament commitment before a possible third leaders’ summit.
North Korea’s criticism appears to be a continuation of its frustration at deadlocked nuclear negotiations with the United States. Earlier in the week, the North tested a new weapon and demanded that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo be removed from the nuclear negotiations. But the country is still avoiding directing harsh rhetoric toward the U.S. and directly criticizing President Donald Trump in an apparent effort to keep diplomacy alive.
On Saturday, state media cited First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui as criticizing Bolton over his recent interview with Bloomberg News. In the interview, Bolton said the U.S. would need more evidence that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is ready to give up his nuclear weapons before Trump would meet with him for a third summit.
Choe described Bolton’s comments as having “no charm” and being “dim-sighted,” and said the United States has nothing to gain with such remarks. But she stopped short of asking Washington to remove Bolton from the nuclear talks.
Her criticism was much softer than the North’s past fiery rhetoric directed at the U.S. and South Korea in tense times. In 2003, North Korea’s state media called Bolton “human scum” after he described then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the late father of Kim Jong Un, as a “tyrannical dictator.”
Earlier this week, North Korea test-fired what it called a new type of “tactical guided weapon,” but many foreign experts say it wasn’t a prohibited test of a medium- or long-range ballistic missile that could scuttle the nuclear negotiations.
In her Saturday statement, Choe said Bolton “should at least have understood about what kinds of substantive communications are made between the top leaders concerning the third round of summit before he had ever opened his mouth.” South Korean media quickly speculated that there might be some sort communication between the U.S. and North Korea over a third Trump-Kim summit.
Kim and Trump had two summits — the first in Singapore in June last year and the second in Vietnam in February. The second summit collapsed due to disputes over U.S.-led sanctions on the North. Kim is to visit Russia for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this month.
LONDON (AP) — Police in Northern Ireland on Saturday arrested two teenagers in connection with the fatal shooting of a journalist during rioting in the city of Londonderry.
The men, aged 18 and 19, were detained under anti-terrorism legislation and taken to Belfast for questioning, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said.
The men have not been identified or charged. Police had said earlier there was one gunman who pulled the trigger who had been backed by an “organization,” and said they were searching for multiple suspects.
Lyra McKee, 29, a rising star of investigative journalism, was shot and killed, probably by a stray bullet aimed at police, during rioting Thursday night. Police said the New IRA dissident group was most likely responsible and called it a “terrorist act.”
The use of a firearm apparently aimed at police marks a dangerous escalation in sporadic violence that continues to plague Northern Ireland 21 years after the Good Friday peace agreement was signed.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said earlier that a gunman fired a number of shots at police during the unrest. Police on Friday night released closed-circuit TV footage showing the man suspected of firing the shots that killed McKee.
The footage shows the police facing a barrage of gasoline bombs before the shots were fired by someone wearing a balaclava to obscure his face.
Police appealed for help from the community, stating that people knew the shooter and should help police identify him. The rioting started after police moved into the Creggan housing complex to search for weapons.
The killing was condemned by all the major political parties as well as the prime ministers of Britain and Ireland.
The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said the killing was “a reminder of how fragile peace still is in Northern Ireland” and called for work to preserve the Good Friday peace agreement.
Some politicians believe uncertainty over Brexit and the possible re-introduction of a “hard border” between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are stoking tensions in the region.
The victim was mourned by friends, those who had read her work, and by the wider community. She 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.
She also had recently signed a contract to write two books.
Hours before her death, she tweeted a photo of the rioting with the words: “Derry tonight. Absolute madness.”
Her partner, Sara Canning, told a vigil Friday that McKee’s amazing potential had been snuffed out.
Canning said the senseless murder “has left me without the love of my life, the woman I was planning to grow old with.”
“It has left so many friends without their confidante,” she added.
The shooting reveals how difficult it is to snuff out the last bit of violent resistance to the peace agreement.
Catholic priest Joseph Gormley, who administered the last rites to McKee in the hospital, told the BBC the rioting was “clearly orchestrated” by a “small group of people who want to play political games with our lives and want to use our community as a place where they can play their little war games.”
He said he and other community leaders had tried to talk to the dissidents without success.
The New IRA is a small group that rejects 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.
PARIS — French yellow vest protesters set fires along a march route through Paris on Saturday to drive home their message to a government they see as out of touch with the problems of the poor: that rebuilding the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral isn’t the only problem France needs to solve.
Like the high-visibility vests the protesters wear, the scattered small fires in Paris appeared to be a collective plea to the government to “look at me — I need help too!”
Police fired water cannon and sprayed tear gas to try to control radical elements on the margins of the largely peaceful march, one of several actions around Paris and other French cities.
The protesters were marking the 23rd straight weekend of yellow vest actions against economic inequality and President Emmanuel Macron’s government, which they see as favoring the wealthy and big business at the expense of ordinary workers. Protesters see themselves as standing up for beleaguered French workers, students and retirees who have been battered by high unemployment, high taxes and shrinking purchasing power.
Associated Press reporters saw a car, motorbikes and barricades set ablaze around the Place de la Republique plaza in eastern Paris. The smell of tear gas fired by police mixed with the smoke, choking the air.
Paris firefighters — who struggled earlier this week to prevent the 12th-century Notre Dame from collapsing — quickly responded to extinguish the flames at Saturday’s protest.
One masked protester dressed in black jumped on a Mercedes parked along the march route, smashing its front and back windshields.
Paris police headquarters said authorities detained 137 people by early afternoon and carried out spot checks on more than 14,000 people trying to enter the capital for Saturday’s protests.
The tensions focused on a march of several thousand people that started at the Finance Ministry in eastern Paris to demand lower taxes on workers and retirees and higher taxes on the rich.
Another group of about 200 people tried to march to the president’s Elysee Palace in central Paris, but riot police blocked them at the neo-classical Madeleine Church.
Yet another group tried to demonstrate yellow vest mourning over the Notre Dame blaze while also keeping up the pressure on Macron. They wanted to march to Notre Dame itself, but were banned by police, who set up a large security perimeter around the area.
One protester carried a huge wooden cross resembling those carried in Good Friday processions as he walked on a nearby Paris embankment.
Many protesters were deeply saddened by the fire at a national monument . But at the same time they are angry at the $1 billion in donations for Notre Dame renovations that poured in from French tycoons while their own economic demands remain largely unmet and they struggle to make ends meet.
“I think what happened at Notre Dame is a great tragedy but humans should be more important than stones. And if humans had a little bit more money, they too could help finance the reconstruction work at Notre Dame. I find this disgusting,” said protester Jose Fraile.
Some 60,000 police officers were mobilized for Saturday’s protests across France. The movement is largely peaceful but extremists have attacked treasured monuments, shops and banks and clashed with police.
The heavy police presence meant subway stations and roads around Paris were closed Saturday, thwarting tourists trying to enjoy the French capital on a warm spring day.
“Paris is very difficult right now,” said Paul Harlow, of Kansas City, Missouri, as he looked sadly at the damaged Notre Dame.
He and his wife Susan were in Paris only for a few days and didn’t make it in time to see the cathedral. On Saturday, their efforts to visit museums were derailed by closed subways and barricaded roads.
“I don’t think we’ll be back,” he said.
Other visitors showed solidarity with the yellow vest cause.
“I am not interested in joining them, but I can understand what they’re angry about,” said Antonio Costes, a retiree from the Paris suburb of Montreuil who came Saturday to see the damage to Notre Dame. “There is a lot of injustice.”
Macron had been scheduled to lay out his responses to yellow vest concerns on Monday night — but canceled the speech because the Notre Dame fire broke out. He’s now expected to do so next Thursday.
Some yellow vest critics accuse Macron of trying to exploit the fire for political gain. One protester carried a sign targeting Macron that read: “Pyromaniac – we are going to carbonize you.”
Another huge sign read: “Victor Hugo thanks all the generous donors ready to save Notre Dame and proposes that they do the same thing with Les Miserables,” referring to the famed author’s novels about the cathedral and the struggles of France’s poor.
Some prominent yellow vest figures who had stopped protesting said they were returning to the streets Saturday out of an even greater sense of being overlooked since the Notre Dame tragedy.
Anti-rich messages have flourished on social media in recent days as yellow vest protesters exhorted wealthy donors to be more generous with France’s working class.
___
Chris den Hond, Francisco Seco and Deborah Gouffran in Paris contributed to this report.
You are subscribed to email updates from World – TIME. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.
Email delivery powered by Google
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States
Sudden grounding of Jet Airways has hit budget travellers the most because there is no clarity on when the refund would be processed.Though Jet Airways has said it would refund the full amount, there is no clarity on how long that could take Source: LM
You can earn an interest in the range of 3.5-6% on your savings accounts, depending on the amount and the bank.Kotak Mahindra Bank has lowered rate of interest on savings account deposits of up to ₹1 lakh to 4.5% Source: LM
With higher life expectancy, the way we looked at retirement at 60 years will also need to change, says Paul Smith.People should have tax advantage savings scheme that enable them to build financial cushion for their life. And health insurance should be built into it Source: LM
A money plan in your 20s can have a significant long term impact – right up till your 90s..The first thing to do is discipline yourself to save: whether it is for a holiday, buying something for yourself or planning for retirement Source: LM
