Hasta La Gadget!

Former “Vampire Diaries” star Nina Dobrev recently teamed up with Funny or Die for a skit about Los Angeles, and the result is surprisingly entertaining. 

The video, aptly titled “Overheard LA with Nina Dobrev,” features Dobrev as an ignorant, snooty La La Land native talking to a friend in a café. Her comments are hilariously obnoxious and basic. It starts out with her questioning, “Why would they schedule Easter during Coachella?”

Other golden comedy moments include, “You can’t be vegan in jail,” and “It sucks that Van Gogh died before his paintings went viral.” Another laugh-out-loud moment happened when she said, “We only dated for 11 Instagrams!”

Check out the full video below. 

Sign up here for The Tea to read exclusive celebrity interviews with stars like Jacob Sartorius, Maddie Ziegler, and Willow Shields!

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UNITED NATIONS/MOSCOW/BEIRUT, April 7 (Reuters) – Russia warned on Friday that U.S. cruise missile strikes on a Syrian air base could have “extremely serious” consequences, as President Donald Trump’s first major foray into a foreign conflict opened up a rift between Moscow and Washington.

The warships USS Porter and USS Ross in the Mediterranean Sea launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles that hit the airstrip, aircraft and fuel stations of Shayrat air base, which the Pentagon says was involved in a chemical weapons attack this week.

It was Trump’s biggest foreign policy decision since taking office in January and the kind of direct intervention in Syria’s six-year-old civil war his predecessor Barack Obama avoided.

The strikes were in reaction to what Washington says was a poison gas attack by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that killed at least 70 people in rebel-held territory.

The U.S. action catapulted Washington into confrontation with Russia, which has military advisers on the ground aiding its close ally Assad.

“We strongly condemn the illegitimate actions by the U.S. The consequences of this for regional and international stability could be extremely serious,” Russia’s deputy U.N. envoy, Vladimir Safronkov, told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Friday.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev charged that the U.S. strikes were one step away from clashing with Russia’s military.

U.S. officials informed Russian forces ahead of the missile strikes, and avoided hitting Russian personnel.

Satellite imagery suggests the base houses Russian special forces and helicopters, part of the Kremlin’s effort to help Assad fight Islamic State and other militant groups.

Trump has frequently urged improved relations with Russia, strained under Obama over Syria, Ukraine and other issues, but he said action had to be taken against Assad.

“Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all failed and failed very dramatically,” Trump said as he announced the attack on Thursday night from his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, where he was meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping.

FURTHER STEPS?

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Friday the Trump administration was ready to take further steps if needed.

“We are prepared to do more, but we hope that will not be necessary,” she told the U.N. Security Council. “The United States will not stand by when chemical weapons are used. It is in our vital national security interest to prevent the spread and use of chemical weapons.”

U.S. allies from Asia, Europe and the Middle East expressed support, if sometimes cautiously.

U.S. officials said the intervention was a “one-off” intended to deter future chemical weapons attacks, and not an expansion of the U.S. role in the Syrian war.

The action is likely to be interpreted as a signal to Russia, as well as countries such as North Korea, China and Iran where Trump has faced foreign policy tests early in his presidency, that he is willing to use force.

Senior U.S. military officials said the missiles destroyed up to 20 Syrian aircraft and damaged fuel sites and a surface-to-air missile system.

Assad’s office said Syria would strike its enemies harder. 

Damascus and Moscow denied Syrian forces were behind the gas attack but Western countries dismissed their explanation that chemicals leaked from a rebel weapons depot after an air strike.

The Syrian army said the U.S. attack killed six people and called it “blatant aggression” which made the United States a partner of “terrorist groups” including Islamic State. There was no independent confirmation of civilian casualties.

U.S. lawmakers from both parties on Friday backed Trump’s action but demanded he spell out a broader strategy for dealing with the conflict and consult with Congress on any further action.

The U.N. Security Council had been negotiating a resolution, proposed by the United States, France and Britain on Tuesday, to condemn the gas attack and push the Syrian government to cooperate with international investigators.

Russia said the text was unacceptable and after the council failed to bridge the gap in closed-door negotiations on Thursday diplomats said it was unlikely to be put to a vote.

Russia expects U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to explain Washington’s stance in light of the missile strikes when he visits Moscow in the coming week, Interfax news agency cited a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman as saying.

Washington has long backed rebels fighting Assad in a multi-sided civil war that has killed more than 400,000 people and driven half of Syrians from their homes since 2011.

The United States has conducted air strikes against Islamic State, which controls territory in eastern and northern Syria, and a small number of U.S. troops are helping militias fighting its militants.

Asked whether the strikes set back any efforts to work with Russia to defeat Islamic State, sometimes known as ISIS, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said:

“There can be a shared commitment to defeat ISIS and also agree that you can’t gas your own people.”

Russia’s Defence Ministry notified the Pentagon it would close down on Friday communications used to avoid accidental clashes in Syria, Interfax new agency said. Russia joined the war on Assad’s behalf in 2015, turning the momentum of the conflict in his favor. Although they support opposing sides in the war between Assad and rebels, Washington and Moscow say they share a single main enemy, Islamic State.

Tuesday’s attack was the first time since 2013 that Syria was accused of using sarin, a banned nerve agent it was meant to have given up under a Russian-brokered, U.N.-enforced deal that persuaded Obama to call off air strikes four years ago.

Video depicted limp bodies and children choking while rescuers tried to wash off the poison gas. Russian state television blamed rebels and did not show footage of victims.

The U.S. strikes cheered Assad’s enemies, after months when Western powers appeared to grow increasingly resigned to his staying in power. But opposition figures said an isolated assault was far from the decisive intervention they seek.

Neither the Trump administration nor its predecessor has laid out a policy aimed at ending theSyrian conflict.

“The big question for all those who are engaged in military action in Syria is what is their plan to stop the killing and bring a durable peace that can deliver a modicum of hope to the people ofSyria?” David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee humanitarian agency, told Reuters Television.

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Roberta Rampton and Patricia Zengerle in Washington, Steve Holland in Florida, Roselle Chen in New York and Denis Pinchuk in Moscow; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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Let’s hear it for highly sensitive people.

These individuals typically feel more deeply, worry over making decisions and are averse to criticism. They’re also notorious for crying, whether they’re happy, sad, angry or excited.

Experts say the highly sensitive trait affects about 20 percent of the population. And just like any other personality trait, “highly sensitive” is merely a label that further informs how a person interacts with the world. And there’s nothing wrong with it ― in fact, experts say extra sensitivity brings a lot of great qualities to the table, such as better leadership and more empathy.

We rounded up some funny tweets that ― perhaps hyperbolically ― capture the everyday plight of what it’s like to be a super sensitive person. Take a look:

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Shout out to all the sensitive souls out there. Embrace it.

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The U.S. airstrikes on a Syrian regime air base Thursday night have yielded widespread praise from America’s Western allies, but reaction in the Middle East has been mixed, with both condemnation of the attack and approval from the major players.

President Donald Trump approved the strike as a response to a chemical attack in Idlib province by the Syrian government against civilians. Turkey’s health ministry confirmed that the attack used sarin gas, a nerve agent that was banned in the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. The Pentagon is investigating the extent of Russia’s role in the attack, according to CNN.  

America’s escalated role in the Syrian crisis will directly affect members of the Arab world, and the stakes are high. Many countries there are deeply invested in working to resolve Syria’s six-year war, from funding and arming different parties to sheltering displaced refugees.

Here’s how leaders and civilians in several Arab nations have responded to the strikes.

Lebanon

In Lebanon, there has been a wide spectrum of reactions. The country is currently hosting more than 1.5 million refugees from Syria ― a group about one-third the size of Lebanon’s own population.

A report from The Daily Star, an English-language newspaper based in Beirut, shows a few different responses from displaced Syrians there. Abudulkareem Raslan lives in a village near Sidon, a city in the southern region.

“The American attack was an act of aggression against an Arab country that refuses to be under American tutelage,” Raslan told The Daily Star. “All [200] of us in this camp are with the Syrian regime.”

“God curse everyone who took up arms and fought us. Why did Trump order to attack us?” he asked.

Others, who are opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, feel excited at the prospect of American intervention in Syria.

“Let the American warplanes attack the regime forces, and send Bashar [Assad] to hell,” said Abu Hafez, a refugee who lives south of Beirut in Ouzai.

Lebanese politicians, who are much more skeptical of the situation, offered little praise for the airstrikes. Samir Jisr, a member of Lebanon’s Parliament, had harsh words for the strikes and blamed Russia for the escalation, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

“Americans and Europeans intervene indirectly and disregard crimes committed by the regime,” Jisr said. “They pretend that they are combating terrorism while they created it and are paying the price.”

Lebanese President Michel Aoun responded by condemning the use of weapons of mass destruction during a meeting with the World Health Organization’s Middle East region director on Friday, according to NNA. Aoun took the opportunity to urge international leaders to push Israel to sign treaties restricting the use of these types of weapons.

Hezbollah, Lebanon’s paramilitary party, has been fighting for the Syrian regime and Assad since 2013. Hezbollah issued a statement Friday calling the U.S. airstrike an “idiotic step” that would lead to “great and dangerous tensions” in the Middle East, according to Reuters. The statement also said the attack was a “service to Israel,” but did not go into detail.

“This foolish step by Trump’s administration will lead to great and dangerous tensions in the region, and will also complicate the situation in the world,” the statement says, according to NNA.

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader and public face of Hezbollah, has yet to respond to the situation.

Iran

Leaders in Iran, an ally to Assad and Hezbollah’s largest sponsor, have expressed disgust at the recent U.S. military action.

“Iran condemns use of all [weapons of mass destruction] by anyone against anyone,” Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted Friday morning. “Not even two decades after 9/11, US military fighting on same side as al-Qaida & ISIS in Yemen & Syria. Time to stop hype and cover-ups.”

Iran was one of the seven Muslim-majority countries targeted in Trump’s collapsed travel bans, and has been strongly critical of his administration. Tehran responded to the “hostile policies of the U.S. government” in January with reciprocal measures, barring American citizens from entering Iran.

Some in the Arab world started referring to Trump as “Abu Ivanka” in the wake of the military attacks, referring to his elder daughter, Ivanka Trump. Some Western media outlets have framed the nickname as a form of praise.

But calling the president “Abu Ivanka” could also be a form of mockery, since in the Arab world, “Abu” must be followed by the name of the eldest son, not a daughter. (Donald Trump Jr., not Ivanka, is Trump’s eldest child.) Therefore, using “Ivanka” could be a way to imply that his daughter is a more powerful or influential figure than the president himself.

Saudi Arabia

In sharp contrast to Iran, Saudi Arabia declared that it “fully supports” Trump’s military intervention, calling it a “courageous decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to respond to the regime’s crimes against its people.”

“A responsible source at the foreign ministry expressed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s full support for the American military operations on military targets in Syria, which came as a response to the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons against innocent civilians,” state media reported.

Along with other Persian Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia has quietly supplied arms to rebel groups working to take out Assad.

The Financial Times reports that “America strikes the regime of Bashar” has been a popular hashtag among Saudi social media users.

Syria

Several Western media outlets have reported that in Syria, social media users are changing their avatars to show messages of adoration pasted atop photos of Trump.

“Syrians are changing their profile pictures to Donald Trump in order to ‘thank’ him,” reported Indy100.

But Rami Jarrah, a British-born Syrian analyst now based in Gaziantep, Turkey, says this gesture is being widely misinterpreted.

“In Syria, there used to be a slogan that means ‘We love you,’ and it’s basically the slogan that was used by the Syrian regime with pictures of Assad everywhere, because during his so-called ‘presidential campaign,’ that was his slogan,” Jarrah explained to The WorldPost.

“The idea is that [Syrians] are mocking it,” he went on. “They’re happy that Trump made the hit, but they’re mocking the idea of saying they love Trump.”

Syrians are generally pleased that the Trump administration is targeting Assad, especially after former President Barack Obama’s failure to enforce his “red line” against the regime’s atrocities, Jarrah said. But “there are mixed feelings.”

“Each person has mixed feelings, basically because it is an intervention, and Syrians generally have been opposed to interventions,” he said.

Obama earned a strong reputation in the Arab world following the inspirational messages he gave when he came into power and during the Arab Spring, Jarrah said. But “his statements were much more powerful than what actually happened,” which led to disappointment in Syria.

In contrast, Trump’s quick, retaliatory action has generally been well-received in the war-torn country, according to Jarrah.

“There’s a lot of dispute there right now, and Syrians are not proud of the intervention, but they do feel it’s necessary to place down that ‘red line,’” he said. “The worry is that this ‘red line’ [will be enforced] only after the use of deadly chemical weapons like sarin gas.” 

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If you’d heard nothing about “Big Little Lies” beyond blurbs and snippets singing its praises, you might be aware that the HBO show (adapted from a book by Liane Moriarty) poignantly portrays the nuances of domestic abuse. You might know that it’s a smart meditation on school bullying, on the group-think of parenting communities, on relationships between adult women. You might know that it centers on first-world problems, but does so in a way that’s full of feeling.

What you might not know about “Big Little Lies,” unless you’ve seen it or read about it at length, is that the central event that weaves these stories together is a murder, and a police investigation into who committed it. After its satisfying conclusion, the whodunnit aspect of the show is seldom commented on; it’s the quieter, more personal storylines that seem to resonate.

A New York Times review of the recently wrapped-up drama argues that “the show’s empathy was its strength.” Another review on Vox praises the story, writing that its “most riveting moments are the silent ones between women.” HuffPost’s Emma Gray wrote that “at its core, ‘Big Little Lies’ is about the deep, complex and protective connections that can form between women in the face of buried trauma.”

Members of the show’s cast seem to agree. In an interview with Vogue, Nicole Kidman spoke at length about her character’s domestic abuse, and the emotional difficulty of filming those scenes. When asked about the show’s appeal, Kidman complemented the author’s ability to write moving, fully realized characters. “She writes these novels and then she threads in these deeply painful and topical and real emotions and relationships that you get pulled into,” Kidman said.

Again, in an interview with Vulture, Kidman described the complexity of her relationship with Alexander Skarsgård’s character, his “dominance” and “fragility.”

While the conversations around the show ― by viewers and critics and the actors themselves ― have been remarkably nuanced and functioned as jumping-off points for broader conversations about abuse and the stereotype of female pettiness, these themes rarely appear on so-called prestige television. It’s the other, more superficially central aspects of “Big Little Lies” ― the murder, the suspense, the sun-lapped gun in the opening sequence ― that align it with other widely praised shows. And, while those elements of the story are arguably the least interesting, it seems unlikely that the show would’ve been embraced without them.

It’s not accurate to say all prestige TV is the same; you wouldn’t recommend “Westworld” to a “Transparent” fan. But there are tenants to the genre that reappear more than others. In a recent list poking fun at the concept of prestige TV, Vulture lists out the signs you know you’re watching a highly regarded show, including “Darkness,” “What the hell is even happening right now?” “Breasts,” and “The sad man.” A mash-up of these qualities appear in “Game of Thrones,” “True Detective,” “Better Call Saul,” “House of Cards,” and the original prestige show, “The Sopranos.”

So, if a production company were to take a gamble on a show that could be an awards season contender, a brooding and violent male protagonist would be a safe bet. But recently, a woman-centered riff on that storyline ― a vengeful woman with a plan, and a gun ― has emerged. In the last year, two films about women seeking revenge for sexual violence or emotional manipulation committed against them ― “Elle” and “The Girl on the Train” ― predicted audiences’ interest in “Big Little Lies.”

There is, it seems, an interest in stories about sexual abuse. But, perhaps due to the proven success of more clamorous approaches to storytelling, these stories are being stuffed into the revenge genre arc, the character’s abuse a jumping-off point for outward action. In “Elle” and “The Girl on the Train,” abuse itself isn’t the dramatic focal point ― the identity of the abuser is. But, as with “Big Little Lies,” critics seem less impressed with the deftly written mystery plot than they are with the portrayals of issues such as gaslighting.

Because it’s a miniseries, and afforded more space than a movie, “Big Little Lies” manages to achieve both things ― to comment on abuse as it unfolds, and to satisfy the apparent commercial need for a noir-like overtone. That audiences and critics both found Celeste’s personal struggles more resonant than Jane’s thoughts of revenge bodes well for the future of these stories; perhaps now production companies will be more likely to take a risk on complex depictions of abuse, rather than coming at the issue slantwise.

Imagine, for a moment, the plot of “Big Little Lies” sans murder. A woman, overcome with listless feelings, cheats on her caring second husband; another struggles to parse out her feelings for her husband from his abusive actions; another moves to a new town, and, due in part to class differences, struggles to defend her son against bullying accusations; another feels spurned for balancing work with parenting, and behaves defensively as a result; another is trying to gingerly encourage her stepdaughter’s activism, while remaining cordial with her husband’s overbearing ex.

There are ample opportunities for tension, for high stakes, for the things that make stories interesting. But, in the past, this type of story ― one centered on the earnest dramas and ennui of parenthood and domesticity ― has been written off as “Hallmark”-worthy, as unimportant.

Maybe we needed to simultaneously experience both ― a gun-slinging mystery and an all-too-real commentary on the dramas women experience daily ― to appreciate the value of the latter.

Fortunately, HBO ― the gatekeeper of must-watch smart shows ― seems to have recognized the salience of these stories. The network recently announced that it will adapt Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, which, like “Big Little Lies,” focuses more on its friendships, and its domestic tragedies, than on the violence that surrounds them.

You can be highbrow. You can be lowbrow. But can you ever just be brow? Welcome to Middlebrow, a weekly examination of pop culture. Read more here.

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