The iPhone 8 may embrace wireless charging, but Apple is reportedly going all-in with developing cable-free solutions, with claims that five different teams at the company are all working on the technology. The absence of wireless charging has long been a point of criticism about the iPhone, forcing owners who want to be free of wires to either jump ship … Continue reading
This week we’re having a peek at 3 ways in which a trainer would have to up their game to catch em all in Pokemon GO. Thanks to the helpful efforts of OKTimeForplanB at The Silph Road on Reddit, we have all the regional Pokemon on a map. We also have the several ways in which Pokemon must be caught … Continue reading
The Apollo 11 space capsule was displayed around the country in 1970 and 1971, shortly after it safely brought Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins back from their iconic 1969 moon trip. Since then, the command module has lived in the Smit…
The Federal Communications Commission today voted to remove reporting requirements for internet providers with fewer than 250,000 subscribers, a move that chips away at the foundation of net neutrality. Today’s vote means these smaller carriers no lo…
We’re bringing you the weird news every single day.
1. President Trump has revoked the right for trans teens to use whichever bathroom they choose. Revoking this law literally makes no one safer and puts millions at risk. Thanks President Trump. More here.
2. President Trump wants to deport all undocumented immigrants to Mexico, regardless of their country of origin. Mexico is obviously not on board. More here.
3. Noah Dyer, who is running for governor of Arizona in 2018, is airing his own dirty laundry. Weird, looks like he’s using the Trump method of campaigning. Let’s hope it doesn’t work twice. More here.
4. The Pope is cool with atheists. Suggesting that they’re better than hypocritical Catholics. Wait, what? More here.
5. Jay Z is the first rapper to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Congrats, HOV. More here.
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An undocumented woman from El Salvador awaiting brain surgery to remove a tumor was taken from a Texas hospital and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Wednesday night, her legal team says.
Sara Beltran-Hernandez, 26, had been in immigration detention since November 2015 because she did not have proper documentation when she tried to migrate to New York City, according to the New York Daily News.
The mother of two had been held at Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, while her New York-based family members actively tried to petition for her asylum. But she collapsed at the facility this month after experiencing severe headaches, nosebleeds and memory loss. She was taken to the nearby Texas Health Huguley Hospital in Fort Worth, where doctors diagnosed her with a brain tumor that required surgery.
Around 8pm Wednesday, ICE agents took her from the hospital to a detention facility that the department says has 24 hour care available.
Beltran-Hernandez’s legal team criticized her treatment.
“They had her tied up from hands and ankles,” said Melissa Zuniga, a paralegal on her case, in a statement. “She was brought in a wheelchair and is not being given treatment even though her nose continues to bleed and she has told them her head is exploding.”
Beltran-Hernandez had been on a surgery waitlist as of this past weekend. But after her relatives called Wednesday night, everything was put on hold, according to the Daily News.
During that call, Beltran-Hernandez’s lawyers say she couldn’t remember their names, despite them working with her for the past 13 months on her asylum case.
“It was clear that she had deteriorated in that time,” Zuniga told ABC News. “She sounded groggy and she wasn’t remembering things. We became even more concerned.”
The Department of Homeland Security had issued a statement late Tuesday saying that ICE officials had contacted the Beltran-Hernandez family’s attorneys to explain the proper procedure to get in touch with her.
“Requests by family members to visit ICE detainees who have been hospitalized are permitted but must be approved in advance with ICE and the appropriate consulate,” the agency wrote in the statement.
Shortly after she spoke to her family, Beltran-Hernandez was back in the detention center.
Zuniga told The Huffington Post that Beltran-Hernandez was to be released and sent back to the hospital in Texas “soon” as of Thursday morning.
ICE said that Beltran-Hernandez had been discharged from the hospital on Wednesday and was still in their custody at the Prairieland Detention Center.
“Ms. Beltran will continue to have access to 24 hour emergency medical care and to any required specialized treatment at an outside facility,” they told HuffPost.
Zuniga told HuffPost that she and the rest of the legal team, along with medical professionals, would fly to Dallas Thursday morning to help “provide Sara with options regarding her mother and stepfather’s travel to her bedside in Texas” from New York City.
“Both need special humanitarian parole for them to travel without fear of ICE detention,” Zuniga said.
Beltran-Hernandez’s medical records have still not been made available, she added. Zuniga urged the Salvadorian government and United States government to discuss the matter as soon as possible.
The legal team is concerned that Beltran-Hernandez’s children in El Salvadore “may become immediate targets because Sara’s asylum claims have not become public record for all to see.” She’d like them to see their mother before her surgery, if possible, in case she dies, Zuniga added.
This is a developing story. Please check back for details.
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Jackie Cruz isn’t satisfied with the roles Hollywood deems fit for Latina actresses.
The “Orange Is The New Black” star recently spoke to Refinery29, as part of their “Beyond the Hashtag” initiative, which focuses on Hollywood’s diversity issues. The Dominican-born actress addressed how few roles there are in the industry for Latinas and explained why her goal is get cast in a “white girl role.”
“I have another friend who’s Latina and tall like me — she’s from Cuba, and because there are so few roles for Latinas in Hollywood, we always find ourselves auditioning for the same thing,” Cruz told Refinery29. “The other night on the phone she said, ‘You know what? We just need to get that white girl role.’ And I’m like ‘Yeah, that’s what we need to get, that white girl role!’ It sounds funny, but it’s like, the fact is that the white girl is always the lead, right? So the goal is to get that gig.”
Cruz highlighted how few roles there truly are for flourishing Latina actresses by pointing out that she often finds the “entire Latina cast from OITNB auditioning for one role,” and that it’s certainly difficult to have to always compete against your friends.
“Like, why, can’t we have more than one Latin girl, one Black girl, one white girl? I try not to feel competitive, but of course I’m human,” she said. “It’s sad, but you just don’t see eight different Latinas in one show. I just want to shake Hollywood and say hey, anyone can play anyone; there’s no reason they have to fit into a stereotype.”
Still, there are Latina-designated roles Cruz says she doesn’t get because she not the “glamorous ‘Hollywood Latina type.’” And in a 2015 interview with Complex, the actress explained the importance of her “OITNB” character’s diverse layers.
“Just like me, Flaca’s an Americanized Latin girl who speaks Spanish and was born in the States,” Cruz said. “It’s important to me that Hollywood is showing that… Because—even to this day—I’m auditioning for characters who can’t speak English. It’s like, ‘Oh my god. Still?!’”
Read Jackie Cruz’s full piece on Refinery29 here.
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Toby Smith is 7 years old ― “almost 8,” as he tells it ― and even he can see that President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall has some issues, especially when it comes to funding.
Toby voiced his concerns on Wednesday at a town hall with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), asking the last question of the night in front of a boisterous, at times unruly, crowd of about 2,000 people.
“Donald Trump thinks a wall is more important than kids’ games and stuff … Donald Trump makes Mexicans not important to people who are in Arkansas who like Mexicans, like me,” Toby said, speaking into a microphone on the venue’s upper level. “He’s deleting all the parks and PBS Kids just to make a wall.”
As the crowd erupted in standing applause, Toby summarized his argument: “He’s shouldn’t do that. He shouldn’t. He shouldn’t do all that stuff for just a wall.”
Cotton ignored the boy’s specific concerns about public funding for PBS (which is indeed in jeopardy) and the National Park Service, focusing instead on the perceived dangers of Mexico.
“We want Mexico to be a healthy strong partner,” Cotton said, after first launching into a diversion about America being a melting pot. “We want to help them to deal with their problems that they’ve got drug cartels and crime, and to grow their economy.”
People like parks! People like PBS Kids! And the Mexican wall? People like Mexicans!
Toby Smith, age 7
Loud boos and jeers interrupted Cotton multiple times.
Toby made his case again later during an interview with Little Rock’s KATV:
“I asked [Sen. Cotton] about the wall and all the stuff that he was deleting,” Toby said. “That Donald Trump was deleting PBS Kids just to build a wall because he doesn’t like Mexicans, and he’s taking down parks.”
“People like parks! People like PBS Kids,” he concluded. “And the Mexican wall? People like Mexicans.”
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
For HuffPost’s #LoveTakesAction series, we’re telling stories of how people are standing up to hate and supporting those most threatened. What will you stand up for? Tell us with #LoveTakesAction.
Since the November presidential election, waves of people have taken to the streets in protest ― and young people are leading the charge.
Millennials ages 18 to 30 are more likely to have gone to a protest since the election than any other age group, according to a HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted from Feb. 1 to Feb. 3. Millennials are also more likely than older groups to think protesting is an effective form of political action.
“If there are more, younger people taking to the streets, it may indicate that young people have less trust in how institutions would respond to their demands,” said Dr. Guobin Yang, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of the school’s Media Activism Research Collective.
“I see this as a sign that the younger generation does not seem to trust the institutional channels of participation as much as their parents or older generations do,” Yang added.
Among people who have taken any form of political action in their lifetime, 24 percent of 18- to 30-year-olds say they’ve gone to a rally or demonstration since the election, compared to only around 10 percent of people ages 30 to 44; 45 to 64; or 65 and older.
Young people also rank protest as one of the two most effective political actions one can take, alongside calling or writing their representatives. Older age groups rank protests’ effectiveness below other forms of political actions that rely on more traditional, institutional channels, such as calling representatives or signing petitions.
It’s worth noting that younger people are more likely to vote Democrat, and the HuffPost/YouGov poll found Democrats are generally more likely to think protest is effective and to have protested in their lifetime. The poll showed young people who took political actions did so 62 percent in opposition to Trump, versus 18 percent in support of Trump.
So far, it remains to be seen how effective mass protests will be in pushing back on the Trump administration agenda.
Experts provide a wide range of suggestions on what kinds of political actions are most effective: Some suggest calling representatives over emailing or writing; others say in-person meetings with legislators are best; still others note that disruption through protest has achieved a lot historically.
“Each can be effective in their own way, and the key factor is to see how American political institutions respond to these forms of expressing demands,” Yang said.
“I think the recent wave of protests has worked.
Dr. Guobin Yang, director of the Media Activism Research Collective
“I think the recent wave of protests has worked,” Yang said. “Think of the Women’s March. It happened all over, with huge numbers, and it was about expressing solidarity.”
“Among many voters after the election, there was a great sense of disillusionment,” Yang added. “The Women’s March brought out people to show: You are not alone, and you can work together for social justice. [At the march], you felt a kind of strength you wouldn’t have as an individual in your own home. I would see this as a major achievement.”
Yang also pointed to the success of the nationwide airport protests in response to Trump’s executive order limiting refugees and immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries.
“The opposition to the executive order had more concrete goals,” Yang said. “Yes, it was to express outrage ― how can our country have such an order that goes against our values ― but it also had a concrete goal to resist the order, and to ensure it would be invalidated. In that sense, it was a successful mobilization.”
Trump’s executive order has been mired in political and legal challenges. Trump said last week that his administration would issue a new order on immigration to bypass previous judicial blocks.
Recent protests recall the radical movements of the 1960s and early 1970s, according to Yang, when street demonstrations were a common and powerful tool for change. But those radical movements also eventually ran out of steam.
“American political culture underwent a deep transformation,” Yang said. “More and more, citizens’ expressed opposition has become less radical, much more reliant on institutional forms of participation, like calling reps or [volunteering] through nonprofits ― partly reflecting the exhaustion of radical politics.”
Nonviolent forms of protest are always more effective.
Dr. Guobin Yang, director of the Media Activism Research Collective
For today’s movement to be successful, according to Yang, activists need to use a combination of tactics, and remember some key lessons from the 1960s.
“People should use different forms of action in combination: Some are calling reps, some are joining rallies, and that’s important,” Yang said. “Historically [looking] in the 1960s, when mass-scale protests keep happening, there are occasions where violence will happen, and this is something protesters want to watch out for. Nonviolent forms of protest are always more effective.”
“And large-scale rallies are tiring,” Yang added. “You can’t go for hours every week, people have families ― so it comes down to organizing a sustainable movement, to build communities where even when there aren’t large-scale activities, people still have support and can share ideas.”
Ariel Edwards-Levy contributed reporting.
Know a story from your community of people fighting hate and supporting groups who need it? Send news tips to lovetips@huffingtonpost.com.
The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted Feb. 1 to Feb. 3 among U.S. adults, using a sample selected from YouGov’s opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.
The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls.You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov’s nationally representative opinion polling. Data from all HuffPost/YouGov polls can be found here. More details on the polls’ methodology are available here.
Most surveys report a margin of error that represents some, but not all, potential survey errors. YouGov’s reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample, rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling. If these assumptions are wrong, the model-based margin of error may also be inaccurate. Click here for a more detailed explanation of the model-based margin of error.
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Since 1981, the ragtag organization behind the Golden Raspberry Awards (aka the Razzies) have bestowed awards upon the worst “artists” in the movie industry in any given year. To get a basic sense of what this means, movies such as “Zoolander No. 2” and “Batman v Superman” lead the nominations this time around. The 2017 ceremony kicks off this weekend, ahead of the Oscars.
Back in 1991, Donald Trump won a Razzie for his cameo in “Ghosts Can’t Do It,” earning the raspberry trophy for “Worst Supporting Actor.” The movie also earned the top award, “Worst Picture,” as well as “Worst Director” and “Worst Actress,” after telling the story of a man who kills himself and then tries to convince his wife to commit a murder so he can inhabit the younger man’s body (and presumably “do it” with his wife again).
As might be expected, Trump never picked up this trophy.
But founders John Wilson and Mo Murphy told The Huffington Post that they still have it. And it’s currently crumbling on their mantle.
Their joint statement:
We have it proudly displayed on the mantle at our Los Angeles headquarters. Hoping Trump will pick it up soon before it all falls to pieces.
We’d like to get it out of here and place it with its rightful owner, in the office where he currently displays a very sad performance to a frightened world audience.
A year before Trump’s win, Spy Magazine famously sent checks worth less than a dollar to famous rich Americans to see who was the cheapest. Trump tied for first by signing a $0.13 check. If the Razzies really want Trump to accept the award, maybe they should also attach a check for $1. It’s not like he’s probably doing anything better at the moment.
Over email, Wilson responded to a few more questions from HuffPost about Trump’s win.
How did you and your team arrive on the decision to “award” Donald Trump at the time?
Trump’s role in “Ghosts Can’t Do It” was basically a cameo, playing himself. But even with as little screen time as he had, his performance came across as boastful, full of hot air and all but screamed, “This is exactly the kind of ‘acting’ the Razzies exist to dis-honor!’”
What were your preconceptions of him before this nomination and award process? Obviously, he was already making quite a few cameos and places like Spy were going after him fairly relentlessly, but I’m curious what the conception was in 1991 from your team.
Everybody already knew who he was, and many people already thought he was obnoxious. This cameo (in a film listed among the 100 Worst of All Time on IMDb) simply served to reinforce that impression.
Did Trump ever respond to the nomination and award?
No, but we’d love to send it to him to display on the Oval Office mantle.
It is, after all, the only showbiz award he’s ever “won.”
You’ve said in the past that “the most insulting Razzie is the one you get for playing yourself.” How many Razzie winners have won for similarly playing themselves?
Past Razzie “winners” for playing themselves include George W. Bush (Worst Performance in a Leading Role for “Fahrenheit 9/11”) [and] The Jonas Brothers (jointly “winning” Worst Actor for their 3-D concert film). Others nominated for appearing as themselves, but not “winning” include Madonna (”Truth or Dare”) and Andrew Dice Clay (”Dice Rules”).
Anything else you’d like to add?
We hope it is clear that the Razzies come from a place of humor and a love of good movies, and should be taken as such. But we are proud to have been among the first to recognize Donald Trump’s horrendous performance. Just sad.
Here’s a clip of Trump’s award-winning cameo:
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