Hasta La Gadget!

It’s always best to search the web for the best price when you’re thinking of buying something online. Chances are, you are likely going to find a better price than the first place you looked at. Customers are often provided a price guarantee by online platforms which lets them know that they’re getting the best price. eBay has announced its very own Price Match Guarantee for more than 50,000 items.

eBay is promising that it’s going to offer this Price Match Guarantee on more than 50,000 items on its website. It says that its customers will get the best deal online and if they don’t, it promises to match the lowest price of a competitor, be that Amazon or Walmart.

This is a big step that eBay is taking to prevent its customers from going to another online marketplace like Amazon when they don’t see a price advantage on its website. This allows eBay to keep those customers from jumping ship, so to speak.

In order for an item to qualify for this guarantee, it should be new, unopened, and sold daily via eBay Deals. The Deals section includes major consumer brands and small sellers both. Tens of thousands of items are offered through Deals every single day.

eBay also points out that this price guarantee is provided to all customers without requiring them to sign up for a membership, a subtle jab to Amazon Prime, and that it’s going to be only available to customers in the United States.

eBay Announces New Price Match Guarantee For 50,000+ Items , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Volvo is turning its tuned car division into an electrified performance car company, with Polestar set to create its own range of unique EVs. The decision will see Polestar operated as a completely separately-branded company, rather than sharing Volvo badging as is the case on current vehicles. In the future, its line-up will include both its own cars and performance … Continue reading

New York has joined a growing list of U.S. states that have restricted child marriage. But a new law leaves room for young people to wed ― and to face the risks that come with children becoming married.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation Tuesday that prohibits all marriages before age 17. But 17-year-olds can wed if they get a judge’s permission, according to Human Rights Watch. Human rights advocates who helped draft the law say they were disappointed that New York failed to become the first U.S. state to raise the legal age for marriage to 18, with no exceptions. As it stands, minors are still vulnerable to many of the negative consequences linked to child marriage.

Human rights groups say that every year a girl is able to push off marriage is crucial. (Child marriage affects boys, but to a much lesser degree than it affects girls.)

Delaying marriage reduces the risks associated with the practice, which include being sexually or physically abused, suffering health problems and being forced to drop out of school. Additionally, girls younger than 18 often do not have access to protections such as domestic violence shelters. 

“It was a political compromise,” Heather Barr, senior researcher on women’s rights at Human Rights Watch, told HuffPost of the new law. “It’s a step in right direction. It’s not reaching the finish line.”

The minimum age for marriage technically was 18 in New York, according to the previous law. But there were loopholes. Sixteen- and 17-year-olds could marry with parental permission. And 14- and 15-year-olds could wed with permission from both a judge and their parents. Forced or arranged marriages in the U.S. are often the result of religious beliefs, familial traditions or pregnancy. 

In 2016, the New York State Assembly proposed a bill to ban child marriage for minors entirely. But the bill’s sponsors faced opposition, and a revised law was re-introduced this year. Child marriage laws in New Jersey, Virginia and Texas were also unable to outright ban the practice recently. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed an age 18 limit in New Jersey. Emancipated 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds can still wed in Virginia and Texas.

Barr noted that the difference between marrying at 18 or 17 might seem “arbitrary,” but it could mean the difference between life and death for girls.

Young people face the highest risk of forced marriage at 17, said Fraidy Reiss, founder and executive director of Unchained at Last, a nonprofit group that helps girls avoid marriage or escape forced unions.

Girls who marry before 18 are three times more likely to be beaten by a spouse than women who marry at 21 or older, according to the World Policy Analysis Center. 

This is of particular concern to those who combat child marriage since accessing services in the U.S. is such a challenge for young domestic abuse victims. Shelters for these victims, for example, typically turn away anyone younger than 18.

Reiss told HuffPost she’s seen how this scenario plays out far too often. Her group will bring a married child to a shelter and the people there will say, “If she’s turning 18 tomorrow, bring her back tomorrow.” Otherwise the shelter has no choice but to shut the door.

Youth shelters can’t offer confidentiality. Child Protective Services will say the marriage is legal and it can’t intervene. If a group like Unchained at Last helps a young girl leave home, she will be considered a runaway, and the organization can face criminal charges.

It was a political compromise.
Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch, on New York’s child marriage law

“What happens magically the day a girl turns 18 is that she becomes a legal adult,” Reiss said. “There’s a significant difference: One is trapped, and one has options.”

The new marriage law in New York did manage to add an important protection for girls who marry at 17. It mandates that they can also divorce, which wasn’t the case before.

To be sure, New York doesn’t have one of the highest rates of child marriages, but it’s considered an influential state, which is why human rights advocates were keen on banning child marriage there.

From 2000 to 2010, 3,853 children got married in New York, according to Unchained at Last. Of the states that provided data, Idaho had the highest instance of child marriage per capita, according to The New York Times. There, 4,083 girls got married from 2000 to 2010. 

When Reiss discusses the risks and harms associated with marrying young, she speaks from a place of experience.

At 19, Reiss’ family arranged for her to marry a man who became physically violent with her. At 27, Reiss defied her husband and her community and enrolled at Rutgers University. She eventually divorced her husband, won custody of her kids and went on to become a journalist and to found Unchained at Last.

But Reiss understands that most girls who grow up in families that support forced marriages aren’t as strong-willed or as fortunate as she had been.

Girls who marry before 19 are 50 percent less likely to finish high school and four times less likely to graduate from college, according to the Tahirih Justice Center, which supported the marriage bill. Without a degree, women who married as minors are also at a higher risk of living in poverty. There are mental and physical health risks, too. Women in the U.S. who married as children have higher rates of psychiatric disorders ― as much as three times higher than women who married as adults.

While the new law requires 17-year-olds to appear before a judge before getting married, judicial review is essentially meaningless in these cases, especially when mom and dad take their daughters to the courthouse.

“How much freedom do you really have in that one moment in front of the judge to say, ‘Help. Rescue me,’ or, ‘I’m not sure I want to do this,’” Barr said. “Do you really have that space?”

What’s surprising, experts say, is that a number of developing countries, which often look to the U.S. for guidance, have a better understanding as to why the legal age to wed needs to be at least 18.

For example, the southeast African country of Malawi, where 1.7 million people don’t have access to safe drinking water, raised the marriage age to 18 in 2015. In Nepal, it was considered discriminatory that girls could legally wed at 18 but men had to wait until 20. So the legal age was raised to 20 for everyone.

Countries that are reluctant to raise the legal aid to wed often justify it by looking at Western practices. 

When Barr pressed government officials in Kathmandu and Bangladesh to put an end to child marriage, she heard a common refrain: “If it’s legal in the U.K. and it’s legal in the U.S., why can’t we do it?” Hearing such reasoning is what inspired Barr to work to change the marriage laws in the U.S. while conducting research in other countries.

What a lot of people don’t realize, Barr noted, is that girls who marry young in the U.S. actually face the same risks girls in developing countries do.

“This has to be a global effort,” Barr said. “We can’t say to the prime minister of Bangladesh, ‘You must end this human rights abuse’ and then not pay attention if it’s happening in Plattsburgh, N.Y.”

— 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.

President Donald Trump knocked Democrats on Wednesday for obstructing his agenda, one day after a fellow Republican won a congressional race in Georgia that was widely seen as a referendum on his young, turbulent presidency.

Former Georgia secretary of state Karen Handel on Tuesday defeated political newcomer Democrat Jon Ossoff, 52 percent to 48 percent. The 4-point win in the most expensive congressional race in history was a blow to Democrats, who sought to wrest control of a suburban Atlanta district that Republicans have held since the 1970s.

The election will not significantly change the balance of power in Washington, where Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress.

Democrats on Tuesday also lost a special election in neighboring South Carolina, where Republican Ralph Norman easily prevailed over Democrat Archie Parnell in a seat formerly held by Republican Mick Mulvaney, who is now Trump’s budget director.

The victories could boost Republicans’ confidence as they struggle to advance health and tax legislation that has been bogged down by infighting and investigations into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in last year’s presidential election.

“Democrats would do much better as a party if they got together with Republicans on Healthcare,Tax Cuts,Security,” Trump said on Wednesday morning in a tweet after the election. “Obstruction doesn’t work!”

Republicans can also now breathe a sigh of relief with the knowledge that they can still win in the kind of affluent, educated districts that often favor Democrats – even with a president who has divided voters in their own party.

After Tuesday’s win, Handel thanked Trump at her victory rally.

“Tonight I stand before you, extraordinarily humbled and honored at the tremendous privilege and high responsibility that you … have given me,” Handel told a boisterous crowd that chanted Trump’s name.

Ossoff initially campaigned on a promise to “make Trump furious” but more recently refrained from taking on the president as he tried to win over centrist voters. He had enlisted few prominent Democrats to campaign on his behalf.

Both candidates tried to focus on local issues and avoided mentioning Trump, whose approval rating sits at 37 percent, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.

That did not stop Trump from weighing in on Twitter, urging voters to support Handel before the election and celebrating her victory afterward.

“Fantastic job, we are all very proud of you!” he posted Tuesday night.

Spending on the race reached at least $57 million, nearly twice the previous record, according to the Center for Responsive Politics watchdog group. The special election was held to fill the seat vacated by Tom Price after Trump appointed him as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Democrats said they had turned a conservative stronghold into a competitive district.

“We showed the world that in places where no one thought it was even possible we could fight (that) we could fight,” Ossoff told supporters.

Still, the defeat was sure to prompt soul-searching in a party that is shut out of power in Washington and has steadily lost influence at the state level in recent years. Despite spending more than $30 million, Ossoff lost the district by a wider margin than Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Democrats are 0 for 4 in congressional elections this year, having earlier lost races in Kansas and Montana.

“All the Fake News, all the money spent = 0,” Trump wrote on Twitter overnight.

— 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.

The General Election has been and gone, but questions remain regarding the suitability of Theresa May as Britain’s premier. Nonetheless, as part of traditional ritual, MPs have once again descended upon the House of Lords for the reading of the Queen…