Elon Musk reveals SpaceX ‘top priority’ as he pushes forward with Mars plan

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Elon Musk reveals SpaceX ‘top priority’ as he pushes forward with Mars plan


Elon Musk is pushing humans towards Mars (Rex/Getty)

Following the successful launch of the Crew Dragon capsule to the ISS, SpaceX boss Elon Musk has laid out the company’s strategy.

The billionaire has said that Starship is now SpaceX’s ‘top priority’ and reinforced his ultimate aim to see humans settle on Mars.

Musk confirmed on Twitter that he plans to stick to his ambitious launch schedule of firing the first ships towards Mars by 2022. These missions will haul cargo designed to support future manned missions to the Red Planet.

Starship is central to this overarching goal. The gigantic spacecraft is currently under construction at SpaceX’s facility in Texas and can transport 150 tonnes or 100 people into space on each trip.

Eventually, SpaceX wants to produce 1,000 Starships.


BOCA CHICA, TX - SEPTEMBER 28: A prototype of SpaceX's Starship spacecraft is seen at the company's Texas launch facility on September 28, 2019 in Boca Chica near Brownsville, Texas. The Starship spacecraft is a massive vehicle meant to take people to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. (Photo by Loren Elliott/Getty Images)
A prototype of SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft is seen at the company’s Texas launch facility (Photo by Loren Elliott/Getty Images)

According to Musk, time is against us. He responded to a tweet suggesting that in a few billion years the sun will explode and Earth will be decimated. Of course, so will Mars, but that’s beside the point.

Musk estimates it will take about a dozen Starship missions to Mars to deliver enough material to build a self-sustaining colony there.

Earth and Mars align favourably about every 26 months so depending on how many Starships the company can build and launch, we could conceivably have enough gear on Mars for a human settlement by 2050.

According to CNBC, Musk sent an email to SpaceX staff saying Starship was now the ‘top SpaceX priority’ and urging them to ‘dramatically and immediately’ speed up the progress on it.

The only other priority is to ‘reduce Dragon return risk’ according to the email.

Starship will eventually become SpaceX’s standard rocket. And now that the company can bank on repeated checks from the US government to ferry astronauts back and forth to the ISS, completing it could be much more achievable.


An artist's impression of what a Starship launch may look like (SpaceX)
An artist’s impression of what a Starship launch may look like (SpaceX)

In 2018, Musk insisted the Mars colony won’t just be an ‘escape hatch for rich people’.

Speaking at SXSW, the billionaire hinted that people whose bank balance is in the red will also be allowed to live on the Red Planet. It’s unclear whether they would actually want to do this because life on Mars is likely to be pretty rubbish at first.

Musk said it would only house ‘the most elementary infrastructure’ with ‘just a base to create propellant, a power station, blast domes in which to grow crops, all the sort of fundamentals without which you could not survive,’ he said.

So that means no nice old pubs, Greggs bakeries or any of the other nice things at first.

‘There will be an explosion of entrepreneurial opportunity because Mars will need everything from iron foundries to pizza joints to nightclubs,’ he added.

Residents could expect a fairer form of government called direct democracy in which ‘everyone votes on every issue’, Musk said.



Source link

Houston To Hold 6-Hour Public Viewing Of George Floyd’s Casket

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Houston To Hold 6-Hour Public Viewing Of George Floyd’s Casket

HOUSTON (AP) — Mourners will be able to view George Floyd’s casket Monday in his hometown of Houston, the final stop of a series of memorials in his honor.

A six-hour viewing will be held at The Fountain of Praise church in southwest Houston. The viewing is open to the public, though visitors will be required to wear a mask and gloves to comply with coronavirus-related guidelines.

Floyd’s funeral will be Tuesday, followed by burial at the Houston Memorial Gardens cemetery in suburban Pearland, where he will be laid to rest next to his mother, Larcenia Floyd.

George Floyd died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped responding. His death has inspired international protests and drawn new attention to the treatment of African Americans by police and the criminal justice system.

Former Vice President Joe Biden plans to travel to Houston to meet with Floyd’s family and will provide a video message for Floyd’s funeral service. A Biden aide on Sunday described the plans of the Democratic presidential candidate. They did not include attending the service.



Bryan Smart plants American flags along Hillcroft Ave. as he walks toward The Fountain of Praise church on June 7, 2020, in Houston.

Biden expects to give the family his condolences, said the aide, who discussed Biden’s plans on condition of anonymity.

Previous memorials have taken place in Minneapolis and Raeford, North Carolina, near where Floyd was born. At the Minneapolis tribute Thursday, those in attendance stood in silence for 8 minutes, 46 seconds, the length of time prosecutors say Floyd was pinned to the ground under the officer’s knee before he died.

Floyd was raised in Houston’s Third Ward and was a well-known former high school football player who rapped with local legend DJ Screw. He moved to Minneapolis several years ago to seek work and a fresh start. His face now appears on a mural in his old neighborhood, and his name was chanted by tens of thousands last week at a protest and march in downtown Houston.

Associated Press reporter Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.



Source by [author_name]

CrossFit CEO’s George Floyd Tweets Prompt Sponsor, Gym Exodus

PressNewsAgency
-
0
CrossFit CEO’s George Floyd Tweets Prompt Sponsor, Gym Exodus

Reebok and other fitness companies are cutting ties with CrossFit after its CEO, Greg Glassman, mocked the police killing of George Floyd and the coronavirus pandemic in tweets over the weekend.

Glassman, responding to an Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation tweet calling racism a public health issue, tweeted back: “It’s Floyd-19.”

Glassman’s follow-up tweet on Sunday didn’t help matters. “Your failed model quarantined us and now you’re going to model a solution to racism?” he wrote in his second reply.

The fitness group CEO’s tweets sparked immediate backlash on social media and caught the attention of businesses that have affiliations with CrossFit.

Reebok, owned by Adidas, announced it would terminate its partnership as a main sponsor and licensee of CrossFit apparel. “Recently, we have been in discussions regarding a new agreement, however, in light of recent events, we have made the decision to end our partnership with CrossFit HQ,” the sports apparel brand told Business Insider. “We will fulfill our remaining contractual obligations in 2020. We owe this to the CrossFit Games competitors, fans and the community.”

Gyms such as CrossFit Magnus and Petworth Fitness announced they would end affiliations with the workout brand.

Athletes also condemned Glassman’s comments. Four-time CrossFit Games champion Rich Froning Jr. said on Instagram it was “impossible to stay loyal to leadership who make callous statements that alienate and divide in a time when unity is needed.”

Three-time champion Tia-Clair Toomey said she was “disappointed and frustrated,” adding that her future with the workout brand “is unclear and depends on the direction of HQ.”



Source by [author_name]

Big Brother’s Laura Says Housemates ‘Quickly Shut Down’ Her Conversations About Race

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Big Brother’s Laura Says Housemates ‘Quickly Shut Down’ Her Conversations About Race

Big Brother’s first evicted contestant for 2020, Laura Coriakula, has said cultural differences played a part in her struggle to connect with other housemates.

The 25-year-old dancer, who is proud of her Fijian heritage, said she was taken aback when others on the reality show “quickly shut down” any discussions around race on more than one occasion. 

“It’s a bit hard when you’re being filmed 24/7, everyone’s very PC [politically correct],” Laura told HuffPost Australia.

“I think twice I tried to bring up a race conversation and it was very quickly shut down by everybody except for Allan because he was like ‘Yeah, when did you find out you were coloured?’ Like, it’s a thing.” 

In her very short time in the house, Laura forged strong connections with Angela who was born and raised in Kenya, and Chinese-Australian Allan Liang. 

“Think about a workplace, the ethnics immediately draw together as a team. Inside the house, obviously Angela and Allan were the only two people I thought I could relate to,” she said.

“There’s this kind of unspoken language where we will immediately band and respect each other knowing when you’re in the presence of a lot of white people.” 

Laura explained she could “instantly” be relate to her fellow culturally diverse housemates, however “it’s a bit more of a slow burn when it comes to creating a connection with a white person because I’m trying to filter out, ‘Okay are you racist or do you get it?’” 

On Monday night viewers were not only introduced to the ‘Big Brother’ housemates for 2020 and the new house, but also witnessed the first eviction. 

After winning the first challenge, Talia was asked to nominate three housemates for eviction. She chose Laura, Zoe and Kieran. Ultimately, Laura got the most votes from fellow contestants and was sent packing after just a day in the house.

‘Big Brother Australia’ continues at 7:30pm on Channel 7. 



Source by [author_name]

Belgian rail boss warns over free ticket plan

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Belgian rail boss warns over free ticket plan

A train at Brussels’ central station in May | Laurie Dieffembacq/AFP via Getty Images

Government plans to give every resident 10 free train trips this year.

The boss of Belgium’s state railway, SNCB/NMBS, wants urgent talks with the government over a plan to offer free train rides to stimulate the tourism industry, fearing it will spur the spread of the coronavirus.

The plan is for the state to hand out 10 free rides, with a bike place included, to every Belgian resident for use across the national network between July and December, according to a government announcement over the weekend.

“The free distribution of tourism train passes to all Belgian residents raises the question of the sanitary safety of travelers and staff,” said SNCB CEO Sophie Dutordoir in a tweeted response Sunday. She said the company “won’t under any circumstance jeopardize the safety for which it’s worked extremely hard” and called for urgent consultation on how the program will work in practice.

While the Greens are among those that back the plan, others warn of overcrowding fears on services running to coastal hotspots such as Ostend and Knokke.

“By promoting working remotely, we’re trying to relieve public transport, and therefore make it safer,” said Marc Van Ranst, a virologist. “Then free train tickets are at this time a risk of overcrowding of the trains.”

During peak summer months, SNCB regularly has to put on special weekend services to shuttle residents from Brussels to the coast.

“That the [government] wants to promote the use of public transport again as a sustainable mode of transport with the population is a good thing,” said Dutordoir in a tweet. “However, the way the decision was taken … without any consultation, raises very serious questions.”



Source by [author_name]

Championship restart: Kick-offs and Sky Sports matches announced

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Championship restart: Kick-offs and Sky Sports matches announced


Championship football will return to Sky Sports with a double-header on June 20 – and a further nine games broadcast live in the following 10 days.

  • Coverage will provisionally resume on June 20 with Fulham vs Brentford and West Brom vs Birmingham
  • Further nine games in the following 10 days – including Leeds vs Fulham
  • Sky Sports will show 30 matches, a live goals show for every matchday, plus exclusive coverage of all 15 EFL play-off games across the three divisions

The west London derby between Fulham and Brentford takes centre stage as the first live fixture of the restart on Saturday, June 20 (12.30pm kick-off), closely followed by the Midlands derby between West Brom and Birmingham at 3pm.

On Sunday, June 21, table-topping Leeds travel to south Wales to take on Cardiff, with Brentford and West Brom then facing off in front of the cameras at Griffin Park on Friday, June 26 in a potentially pivotal clash in the race for promotion.

That kicks off a bumper weekend, with double-headers scheduled on both Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28; Preston take on Cardiff (Sat, 12.30pm) and Leeds host Fulham (Sat, 3pm), with Bristol City vs Sheffield Wednesday (Sun, 12pm) and Nottingham Forest vs Huddersfield (Sun, 2.15pm) the following day.

There are three further scheduled fixtures the following week, including the clash between Hull and Middlesbrough at the bottom of the table.

Sky Sports managing director Robert Webster said: “The partnership between Sky Sports and the EFL supports clubs and their communities across the country. We are pleased to have reached a solution which works for them; and appreciate the positive and collaborative spirit of the negotiations.

“The availability for existing season ticket holders to stream matches from their club platform will complement Sky Sports in telling the complete story of the climax to the season.”

Latest EFL odds

Check out the latest EFL odds and more from Sky Bet…

Championship live on Sky Sports – confirmed games so far

Sat June 20: Fulham vs Brentford – 12.30pm, Sky Sports

Sat June 20: West Brom vs Birmingham – 3pm, Sky Sports

Sun June 21: Cardiff vs Leeds – 12pm, Sky Sports

Fri June 26: Brentford vs West Brom – 7.45pm, Sky Sports

Sat June 27: Preston vs Cardiff – 12.30pm, Sky Sports

Sun June 28: Bristol City vs Sheffield Wednesday – 12pm, Sky Sports

Sun June 28: Nottingham Forest vs Huddersfield – 2.15pm, Sky Sports

Tues June 30: Millwall vs Swansea – 5pm, Sky Sports

Wed July 1: Preston vs Derby – 5pm, Sky Sports

Thurs July 2: Hull vs Middlesbrough – 5pm, Sky Sports

Championship fixtures and times – all the confirmed games so far

KO times TBC from July 4

Saturday, June 20

Fulham vs Brentford – 12.30pm, Sky Sports
Blackburn Rovers vs Bristol City – 3pm
Huddersfield Town vs Wigan Athletic – 3pm
Hull City vs Charlton Athletic – 3pm
Luton Town vs Preston North End – 3pm
Middlesbrough vs Swansea City – 3pm
Millwall vs Derby County – 3pm
Queens Park Rangers vs Barnsley – 3pm
Reading vs Stoke City – 3pm
Sheffield Wednesday vs Nottingham Forest – 3pm
West Bromwich Albion vs Birmingham City – 3pm, Sky Sports

Sunday, June 21

Cardiff City vs Leeds United – 12pm, Sky Sports

Friday, June 26

Brentford v West Bromwich Albion – 7.45pm, Sky Sports

Saturday, June 27

Preston North End vs Cardiff City – 12.30pm, Sky Sports
Barnsley vs Millwall – 3pm
Birmingham City vs Hull City – 3pm
Charlton Athletic vs Queens Park Rangers – 3pm
Derby County vs Reading – 3pm
Leeds United vs Fulham – 12.30pm, Sky Sports
Stoke City vs Middlesbrough – 3pm
Swansea City vs Luton Town – 3pm
Wigan Athletic vS Blackburn Rovers – 3pm

Sunday, June 28

Bristol City vs Sheffield Wednesday – 12pm, Sky Sports
Nottingham Forest vs Huddersfield Town – 2.15pm, Sky Sports

Tuesday, June 30

Millwall vs Swansea City – 5pm, Sky Sports
Barnsley vs Blackburn Rovers – 7.45pm
Cardiff City vs Charlton Athletic – 7.45pm
Leeds United vs Luton Town – 7.4pm
Queens Park Rangers vs Fulham – 7.45pm
Wigan Athletic vs Stoke City – 7.45pm
Reading v Brentford – 8pm

Wednesday, July 1

Preston North End vs Derby County – 5pm, Sky Sports
Birmingham City vs Huddersfield Town – 7.45pm
Nottingham Forest vs Bristol City – 7.45pm
Sheffield Wednesday vs West Bromwich Albion – 7.45pm

Thursday, July 2

Hull City vs Middlesbrough – 5pm, Sky Sports

Saturday, July 4

Blackburn Rovers vs Leeds United – 3pm
Brentford vs Wigan Athletic – 3pm
Bristol City vs Cardiff City – 3pm
Charlton Athletic vs Millwall – 3pm
Derby County vs Nottingham Forest – 3pm
Fulham vs Birmingham City – 3pm
Huddersfield Town vs Preston North End – 3pm
Luton Town vs Reading – 3pm
Stoke City vs Barnsley – 3pm
Swansea City vs Sheffield Wednesday – 3pm

Sunday, July 5

Middlesbrough vs Queens Park Rangers – 3pm
West Bromwich Albion vs Hull City – 3pm

Tuesday, July 7

Birmingham City vs Swansea City – 7.45pm
Brentford vs Charlton Athletic – 7.45pm
Cardiff City vs Blackburn Rovers – 7.45pm
Leeds United vs Stoke City 7.45pm
Luton Town vs Barnsley – 7.45pm
Nottingham Forest vs Fulham – 7.45pm
Reading vs Huddersfield Town – 7.45pm
Sheffield Wednesday vs Preston North End – 7.45pm

Wednesday, July 8

Bristol City vs Hull City – 7.45pm
Millwall v Middlesbrough – 7.45pm
Wigan Athletic vs Queens Park Rangers – 7.45pm
West Bromwich Albion vs Derby County – 8pm

Saturday, July 11

Barnsley vs Wigan Athletic – 3pm
Blackburn Rovers vs West Bromwich Albion – 3pm
Charlton Athletic vs Reading – 3pm
Derby County vs Brentford – 3pm
Fulham vs Cardiff City – 3pm
Huddersfield Town vs Luton Town – 3pm
Hull City vs Millwall – 3pm
Middlesbrough vs Bristol City – 3pm
Preston North End vs Nottingham Forest – 3pm
Queens Park Rangers vs Sheffield Wednesday – 3pm
Stoke City vs Birmingham City – 3pm
Swansea City v Leeds United – 3pm

Tuesday, July 14

Birmingham City vs Charlton Athletic – 7.45pm
Brentford vs Preston North End – 7.45pm
Bristol City vs Stoke City – 7.45pm
Cardiff City vs Derby County – 7.45pm
Leeds United vs Barnsley – 7.45pm
Luton Town vs Queens Park Rangers – 7.45pm
Millwall vs Blackburn Rovers – 7.45pm
Nottingham Forest vs Swansea City – 7.45pm
Sheffield Wednesday vs Huddersfield Town – 7.45pm
Wigan Athletic vs Hull City – 7.45pm
Reading vs Middlesbrough – 8pm
West Bromwich Albion vs Fulham – 8pm

Saturday, July 18

Barnsley vs Nottingham Forest – 3pm
Blackburn Rovers vs Reading – 3pm
Charlton Athletic vs Wigan Athletic – 3pm
Derby County vs Leeds United – 3pm
Fulham vs Sheffield Wednesday – 3pm
Huddersfield Town vs West Bromwich Albion – 3pm
Hull City vs Luton Town – 3pm
Middlesbrough vs Cardiff City – 3pm
Preston North End vs Birmingham City – 3pm
Queens Park Rangers vs Millwall – 3pm
Stoke City vs Brentford – 3pm
Swansea City vs Bristol City – 3pm

Wednesday, July 22

Birmingham City vs Derby County
Brentford vs Barnsley
Bristol City vs Preston North End
Cardiff City vs Hull City
Leeds United vs Charlton Athletic
Luton Town vs Blackburn Rovers
Millwall vs Huddersfield Town
Nottingham Forest vs Stoke City
Reading vs Swansea City
Sheffield Wednesday vs Middlesbrough
West Bromwich Albion vs Queens Park Rangers
Wigan Athletic vs Fulham

EFL Future Stars

Sky Sports assess some of the future stars of English football currently playing in the EFL.

At home with… Championship stars

Sky Sports joins some of the biggest names in the Championship at home… including Leeds, Nottingham Forest and Derby.

Watch the Championship live on Sky Sports

Sky Sports will show 30 Sky Bet Championship games as well as exclusive broadcasting of all 15 EFL play-off games, when the season restarts on June 20.

  • 30 live games will be broadcast on Sky Sports across the rest of the Sky Bet Championship season
  • Club season ticket holders will be given access to all Sky Sports live games involving their team through the iFollow online platform
  • Sky Sports will broadcast the 15 EFL play-off games across the Championship, League One and League Two

The Sky Bet Championship will provisionally restart on June 20 with Sky Sports showing 30 games, and the first round of broadcast selections to be announced next week.

Season ticket holders will be able to watch any live game involving their club via the EFL’s iFollow online platform. They will also be given access to their teams’ non-broadcast games, while non-season ticket holders will be able to purchase non-broadcast games for £10. Access to the games will be determined by the club where the supporter holds a season ticket and may be in lieu of a refund or part of a wider package as determined by each individual club.

Fans can also make sure they are across all the action by tuning into a new a Sky Sports’ ‘goals as they go in’ show for non-broadcast fixtures.

Sky Sports will also broadcast the 15 games from the semi-finals and finals of the EFL play-offs across the three divisions.

Where could Championship teams finish?

With the Sky Bet Championship set to return on June 20, how high or low could your club finish in the league this season?

Data guru Ben Mayhew has simulated every possible result from the remaining games and calculated each club’s range of possible final league positions – in addition to probabilities for each standing.

The results reveal it’s all to play for in the race for promotion and the battle for survival…

Read more here

Super 6: Bayern to sail past Gladbach?

Do not miss your chance to land the £50,000 jackpot on Saturday. Play for free, entries by 2:30pm.



Source link

Sonam Kapoor flies back home to Mumbai ahead of birthday

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Sonam Kapoor flies back home to Mumbai ahead of birthday

Image Source : SONAM KAPOOR/ INSTAGRAM

A day before, Sonam Kapoor hinted that she will be flying out soon.

Sonam Kapoor has finally reunited with her family in Mumbai. After spending two months of lockdown at her in-laws’ place in Delhi, Sonam made sure to fly back home to Mumbai as domestic flights operations resumed. She is back to home before her birthday on June 9 and now the actress will be celebrating the day with father Anil Kapoor, mother Sunita Kapoor, sister Rhea and brother Harshvardhan. The actress took to Instagram stories to share a few pictures and videos showing how happy she is after reuniting with her family.  

“Back with my main. Thank you my incredible husband,” Sonam captioned the picture, in which she can be seen posing for a selfie with Rhea. She even shared a video in which both of them can be seen busy with their phones.

A day before, the actress hinted that she will be flying out soon. “All my bags are packed and I’m ready to go….. somewhere.. anywhere .. I miss travelling,” Sonam wrote.

Sonam has been isolating with her husband Anand Ahuja at their Delhi residence after returning from UK. During the lockdown, besides giving a glimpse of her lavish Delhi home, Sonam also shared pictures depicting that she is getting bored at home. Have a look:

Sonam will next feature in Bollywood remake of Korean film Blind, which will be reportedly directed by Shome Makhija with Sujoy Ghosh serving as the creative producer.

Fight against Coronavirus: Full coverage



Source link

Prince Harry’s Aunt Sophie Talks Trying to ‘Help’ Meghan Markle

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Prince Harry’s Aunt Sophie Talks Trying to ‘Help’ Meghan Markle


Prince Harry’s Aunt Sophie, Countess of Wessex, Talks Trying to Help Meghan Markle | Entertainment Tonight


































Source link

Protesters, Everywhere (Including … Mitt Romney?)

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Protesters, Everywhere (Including … Mitt Romney?)

Protests spread into the heartland, newsrooms grapple with how to cover them and prominent Republicans consider ditching Trump. It’s Monday, and this is your politics tip sheet.

  • Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered this weekend across the country — and around the globe — in two of the most widespread days of protest since the death of George Floyd two weeks ago. In Washington alone, over 10,000 people assembled just north of the White House, which had been newly fortified with a high fence and a retinue of security forces wearing unmarked uniforms.

  • The Dallas Morning News confirmed late last week that many of those unidentified enforcers in Washington were in fact guards from federal prisons; they had been shipped to the capital from other parts of the country. Observers noticed that underneath their body armor, many of the riot forces were wearing shirts and jackets bearing the insignia of the federal prison in Beaumont, Texas. That facility, like many prisons, has been hit hard by the coronavirus; at least five guards there have tested positive for it, The Morning News reported.

  • Outside Beaumont, in nearby Vidor — a small Texas town known for its long history of Ku Klux Klan violence — over 100 protesters gathered on Saturday for an anti-racism protest. It was one of many examples of protests this weekend stretching into smaller towns and rural areas. All told, anti-racism demonstrations occurred in every state in America, and in countries around the world.

  • Mitt Romney, the Republican senator from Utah, joined a group of roughly 1,000 Christian protesters yesterday in the march on Washington. He is the most prominent Republican politician to have joined the marchers, and his appearance further bolstered the ties between the current movement and the civil rights struggles of the 1960s: Romney has often spoken of the fact that his father, the former governor of Michigan, participated in a march in the late ’60s. “We need to stand up and say that black lives matter,” Romney told a reporter as he walked yesterday.

  • Romney is one of a growing number of prominent Republicans who have started to publicly break with President Trump before the November election. The senator has said he won’t vote to re-elect Trump, though he hasn’t committed to backing Joe Biden either.

  • People close to George W. Bush and Jeb Bush say they’re also considering voting against the president. Colin Powell, who served as secretary of state in George Bush’s administration, has said that he will vote for Biden. And some former Republican leaders — including Paul Ryan and John Boehner, both onetime speakers of the House — have refused to say publicly how they’ll vote.

  • In Minneapolis, a majority of the City Council pledged on Sunday to entirely disband the city’s police force. It would be the first example of a major city replacing its police department, presumably with a new and fundamentally different system of public safety.

  • The announcement came just a day after the city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, was shouted down and chanted out of an enormous protest in downtown Minneapolis when he refused to commit to dismantling the police force. The nine council members who now say they will support the move represent a veto-proof majority, effectively rendering Frey’s opposition moot.

  • Democrats in Congress are preparing to unveil sweeping legislation today that would institute nationwide standards for police accountability. The bill does not take up the idea of dismantling or defunding police departments, but it would force states and municipalities to embrace practices like mandatory bias training in order to qualify for federal funds, according to a draft summary obtained by The New York Times.

  • “I don’t believe that you should disband police departments,” Karen Bass, the Democratic chairwoman of the House’s Congressional Black Caucus, said Sunday on CNN. “But I do think that in cities and states, we need to look at how we are spending resources and invest more in our communities.”

  • The unrest sweeping the country has also caused strife in many newsrooms, which have historically skewed white, and have often struggled to fairly address stories involving protesters and the police without privileging the narratives of those in uniform. At The Philadelphia Inquirer, the executive editor, Stan Wischnowski, resigned on Saturday after receiving blowback after his newspaper published an article last week under the headline “Buildings Matter, Too.” In that piece, the paper’s architecture critic bemoaned the defacing of buildings by demonstrators.

  • In nearby Pittsburgh, The Post-Gazette’s newsroom is in an uproar after two black reporters said they were barred from covering the protests because editors thought they had shown bias.

  • And The New York Times’s opinion section was intensely criticized — both publicly and internally — after publishing an incendiary Op-Ed last week by Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who argued for the use of military force against protesters. Many of the newspaper’s own reporters went on Twitter to publicly express their shame and outrage at the decision.

  • Yesterday, The Times’s editorial page editor, James Bennet, resigned. And Jim Dao, the deputy editorial page editor who oversees Op-Eds, is also leaving his position, though he will take a new job in the newsroom.



    • Source link

    K-pop group AB6IX’s member Lim Young Min leaves the group after DUI controversy : Bollywood News – Bollywood Hungama

    PressNewsAgency
    -
    0
    K-pop group AB6IX’s member Lim Young Min leaves the group after DUI controversy : Bollywood News – Bollywood Hungama

    K-pop group AB6IX’s member Lim Young Min has decided to leave the group after DUI controversy. Earlier last week, it was reported that he was involved in a drunk driving incident that led to a scandal. His license was revoked, he halted all his activities and even the group’s comeback album was postponed. In order to not harm the group’s work and activities, he has opted to leave the group.

    The group’s agency Brand New Music released an official statement (reported by Soompi) on June 8, 2020:

    “Hello, this is Brand New Music.

    First of all, we express sincere gratitude to the many fans who give love to AB6IX.

    After thorough discussion with AB6IX member Lim Young Min, Lim Young Min’s departure from AB6IX was decided today with respect for his wish to no longer cause harm to the group.

    We apologize for causing concern to many fans with the sudden news. In addition, we express our deep apologies to the many people involved in these album promotions due to the team’s situation.

    As announced previously, AB6IX will continue promotions reorganized as a four-member group, and we will contribute even further effort to support AB6IX for their future.

    Lastly, we once again sincerely apologize for having to share disappointing news to the fans who always support and cherish AB6IX, and we will put in our full effort for them to return with more mature music and performances.

    We ask for unchanging love and interest for the four members of AB6IX who are working hard on preparing for their comeback even through the difficult situation.

    Thank you.”

    Earlier, Young Min released a handwritten letter to apologise for his actions. He wrote, “I am sincerely sorry for disappointing the many people and fans who have been showing me love and waiting for me. I feel pathetic and pained to have to become a disgraceful older brother to the members, who have been indelibly wounded because of me. Also, I want to sincerely apologize to the agency staff who have suffered great damages because of this. The members and many staff members worked so hard for a long time to prepare for this comeback, but because of my foolish and irresponsible mistake, their efforts were undermined, and so I am deeply ashamed. I am keenly aware of all of my mistakes, and I am deeply regretting and reflecting. I will accept all of the criticism over my irreversible actions and reflect.”

    AB6IX’s comeback was scheduled for June 8. It has been postponed to June 29.

    BOLLYWOOD NEWS

    Catch us for latest Bollywood News, Bollywood Movies update, Box office collection, New Movies Release & upcoming movies info only on Bollywood Hungama.

    Source link

    1...66,94366,94466,945...67,379Page 66,944 of 67,379