Actor Harrison Ford was photographed peeking at his wife, Calista Flockhart, as she posed for pictures ahead of the premiere of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at the Cannes Film Festival. The picture of the couple, who have been married for 13 years, circulated on Twitter, with one user calling it "one of the best pictures of Harrison Ford". Ford has been married three times and has four biological children, with Flockhart having one adopted son, Liam.
New data from a Nanos tracking survey shows that Donald Trump, China, and the war in Ukraine are all shaping how Canadians feel about their place in the world, with shifting public opinion. Before the defeat of US President Trump, Canada was seen as being caught in between two economic, political and military superpowers, the US and China. This relationship was further strained when a Huawei executive was detained, and Canadian citizens Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were jailed in China. The war in Ukraine has also prompted a rethink about commitments to allies and security needs. Public opinion matters because it signals the scope of public policy license: if Canadians have negative opinions about a foreign country, policy license is limited; if they feel positively, it is a signal for political leaders to engage. Canada’s relationships with other countries in 2023 are predicted in the graph provided in the article.
Sharon Toney-Finch, the CEO of the Yerik Israel Toney Foundation, has been accused of fabricating a story that New York's homeless military veterans were evicted from a local hotel to make way for migrants, sparking outrage from various cable news networks. Toney-Finch's story was picked up by several news organisations and she even made arrangements to place the veterans in alternative lodging. However, an investigation from a local newspaper revealed that the story was false and several homeless individuals had been recruited to pretend that they were among the veterans evicted from the hotel.
The increasingly uncontrollable issue of immigration is affecting almost every aspect of governance in developed countries, including education, crime, housing, foreign policy, and national identity. Millions of migrants are flooding across the southern US border each year, with President Biden claiming to be trying to stop it while at the same time increasing its flow. Similarly, the Conservative government in Britain said it would cut both legal and illegal migration while overseeing a historic surge in the latter, dispersing illegal immigrants around the country and housing them in expensive hotels. Governments in both countries seem to have lost control of both immigration and the arguments around the issue. The problem is increasingly fuelled by technological advances and the ease of movement and communication they bring. Modern politicians have been too hesitant to address who is needed and who is not, leading to accusations of heartlessness for restricting immigration and reputational damage from doing so. However, neither America nor Britain can save the rest of the world by taking in even a modest percentage of the global population, leading to increasingly disenchanted voters.
More migrants were released into the U.S. over the past week than deported or sent back home, according to unpublished data obtained by The Washington Post. While the DHS said that it sent more than 11,000 migrants, including families with children, to more than 30 countries during the past week, which was accompanied by daily news releases describing increased deportations, US border authorities were also making efforts to stem crowding inside detention cells and ease pressure on agents and overcrowded holding facilities, by releasing thousands of migrants while their immigration claims are pending in courts. In the week since the Biden administration lifted pandemic restrictions at the southern border, the number of migrants crossing illegally has dropped significantly. However, migrants are now being released into the country, to await a court date, as the average time someone spends in Border Patrol custody is three to four days at busy crossing points.
Available for lessons from $125, 46-year-old club pro Michael Block is making waves at the PGA Championship
CNN
23-05-19 20:25
Michael Block, a 46-year-old PGA Head Professional who teaches golf lessons at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in California, has taken the golfing world by surprise by shooting his second consecutive even-par 70 at the 105th PGA Championship in Rochester, New York. Block is currently four shots off the lead and looking to make the cut in his eighth major outing. Coming into the tournament, Block was priced at +50000 odds to win, and he plans to stick around for the weekend: “To be honest my game’s actually pretty good right now where I think I can compete and have a nice finish and make my wife happy.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced that four people have died and a further 14 have lost their vision due to contaminated eye drops in the US. The illness, which has affected 81 people so far, has been linked to the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is impervious to standard antibiotics. Of the patients, the majority had used certain specific brands of the drugs, many of which were subsequently recalled. Following the recall, the US Food and Drug Administration visited the Indian plant at which the drugs were manufactured and discovered issues with production and testing measures.
Toyota has suspended shipments of its Toyota Raize hybrid vehicles produced by Daihatsu Motor after finding improper crash tests for the model. A total of 56,111 vehicles in Japan have been affected by the faulty safety checks, in which results for a pole used to measure impact on the left side were used for the right when both sides needed to be tested. This is the latest in a series of issues that have hit Toyota, after it acknowledged a data breach at its Connected service a week ago and Daihatsu disclosed separate crash test problems affecting 88,123 vehicles sold abroad last month.
Mexico’s government has used marines to occupy a section of railroad managed by a private conglomerate. The seizure has been deemed “temporary” and in the “public interest,” as the government works to update a rail-to-sea network on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a narrow area of land separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. The Inter-Oceanic Corridor intends to enable Mexico to bolster its economy and compete with the Panama Canal, which is seen as a major channel for regional trade. Transportation firm Grupo Mexico Transportes is to be compensated by the government for the seizure which took place on 8 October.
Apple got rich in China. Other Asian markets offer the next ‘golden opportunity’
CNN
23-05-20 00:21
Apple has launched an online store in Vietnam, enabling consumers in the country to directly buy its products for the first time. This comes after Apple opened its first physical stores in India and is part of a growing emphasis on emerging markets. CEO Tim Cook has recently described the company's prospects in these economies as “bright spots” and Ives predicts that “over the coming years, Indonesia, Malaysia and India will comprise a bigger piece of the pie for Apple”. In these countries, Apple will be hoping to repeat its success in China.
Navajo leaders plan to send help to hundreds of tribal members who are waiting to get services after allegedly being recruited to illegitimate sober living homes in Arizona over recent years. The crackdown on Medicaid fraud in the state has caused the affected Native Americans to lose access to Medicaid funding or face eviction from the fraudulent sober living homes. As part of the Rainbow Bridge operation, a Phoenix operations center has been equipped with staff to assist community members who have been impacted to find treatment programs and help them reconnect with their families.
The Satanic Temple is holding a massive gathering in a Marriott hotel in downtown Boston which it has named SatanCon. More than 830 members bought tickets for the its late April convention and local Christian protesters have gathered outside the hotel, carrying signs warning of damnation. The Temple believes in religion being separate from the state, says Satan is a metaphor for questioning authority, and grounds its beliefs in science, rejecting the existence of a literal Lucifer or Hell. The Temple uses the symbols of Satan for rituals, for example when getting married or adopting a new name. Members are vocal advocates of abortion rights.
Mexico is temporarily keeping migrants from the US border and transferring people from its boundary with Guatemala to relieve the pressure at its border cities, following the US’s decision to drop restrictions on seeking asylum at its Mexican border last week. Efforts to move people away from the country’s horizon with the US reportedly left shelters in northern border cities below capacity, while facilities were full or overstretched in southern Mexico. Although migrants face transportation problems with “lateral movements to other parts of the country” in some cases, transfers are being made “to relieve local shelter saturation”, according to an internal government presentation that was obtained by Reuters. Some migrants reported that new measures reduced their options to seek international protection, however, and the UN Refugee Agency expressed concern last week about the impact on facilities in Mexico City and southern Mexico.
Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) is leading the debt ceiling negotiations for House Republicans and is considered by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to be the obvious pick. Graves is respected by many who have worked with him due to his calm demeanor and attentiveness, and his knowledge and experience of the legislative process. However, some more conservative colleagues are concerned his openness to striking a deal with Democrats could misrepresent or ignore their attempts to cut spending. Some commenters suspect McCarthy may be positioning Graves as a “fall guy” to blame if negotiations fail to appease the far-right flank of the conference.
Graves was the top Republican in finding consensus among Republicans to elect McCarthy as speaker and bring together the disparate ideals of the conference. He has never served as committee chair or been elected to House leadership so some think he lacks the experience for such a high-stakes mission. In terms of his policy work, Graves has remained a conservative who toes the party line and has a 96 percent conservative score. When serving on the House Climate Crisis Committee, McCarthy appointed Graves as the top Republican to establish an energy, climate, and conservation task force that crafted policy prescription agreements.
Graves is negotiating with two trusted Biden aides: counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti and Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young, who coincidentally is from the southern Louisiana district that Graves represents. Regardless of his background, and beyond party politics, what is clear is Graves’ calibre as a ‘workhorse.’ As Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) observes, while Graves may not be very visible, “if they want to debate Graves on policy, it’s best to come overprepared.”
Monument Valley, a Navajo Tribal Park, is a vast expanse of vibrant red sand and striking sandstone formations that reach up to the sky, some as high as 1,000 feet. Using a tour guide here is essential since tourists can only navigate a 27-kilometre loop of gravel road on their own when exploring Monument Valley. Tsé Bii’ Ndzisgaii (“Valley of the Rocks”), as it’s also called by the Navajo, sits on the Arizona-Utah state border, at the north of Navajo Nation, which encompasses essentially private land covering from 71,000 square kilometres across three states, New Mexico being the third state. Navajo guides make exploring this area far more interesting thanks to their historical and cultural context.
Women in Honduras are accessing pills prescribed by the World Health Organization to terminate pregnancies, in spite of the country’s strict abortion ban and social and religious opposition. Assistance is being provided by anonymous networks with participants using aliases, code words, encrypted messages and burners to maintain concealment. The pills – mifepristone and misoprostol – are usually obtained from Mexico via the networks. While some other Latin American countries are relaxing abortion restrictions, Honduras tightened its ban this year by enshrining it in the Constitution. It also increased the number of lawmakers required to alter the ban.
Despite the national ban against abortions under all circumstances and suffocating social and religious opposition, women in remote mountain villages, urban neighborhoods and along the Caribbean coast are terminating pregnancies across Honduras with the help of clandestine networks seeking to make the procedure as safe as possible. Honduras has one of the world’s strictest abortion bans with a constitutional prohibition on terminating pregnancy in all cases, even rape and neighbouting El Salvador and Nicaragua have similar total bans. Activists in the networks use code words, aliases, encrypted messages, burner phones.
John Podesta, adviser to President Joe Biden and ex-adviser to President Barack Obama, is tasked with unravelling an obstacle to the US's transition to carbon-free electricity – a bureaucratic permitting process for renewable energy projects. Podesta argues that environmentalists will have to accept the need for oil and gas production in the short term, or risk slowing the pace of change. A recent Brookings Institution analysis of federal data found that transmission lines can take up to seven years to be permitted, while natural gas pipelines can take less than half that time. Biden's proposed $1tn infrastructure bill, which has yet to pass through the Senate, includes measures to shorten federal permitting times.
Five foods, including almonds, avocados, beef, rice and wheat, are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, according to Canadian newspaper The Star. Almonds are classed highly at risk as they require a lot of water and need to be irrigated continually, while Mexico is battling with drought, which also places avocados in a vulnerable spot. Meat from cows is highly emissions-intensive, challenging the target for global greenhouse gases, and rice crops growing in deltas near rising sea levels are at risk of suffering a 40% reduction in yield by 2100, according to a report from 2018. Some experts are also concerned increasing carbon dioxide levels are having an effect on the chemistry of plants, meaning crops can become less nutritious, posing health risks to vulnerable regions.
Mexico City's Benito Juarez International Airport has been forced to close due to ash from the Popocatepetl volcano. The volcano has been increasingly active for days which presents a danger for the millions living in its surrounding area on the eastern edge of Mexico City. Earlier this week, several towns closed school classes on account of volcanic ash. All flights had been suspended as of 1515 GMT and the airport had tweeted to say the closure of the airport would be extended for approximately two more hours.
