Hasta La Gadget!

The sky’s the limit for a baby boy born on an Indian airline over the weekend, earning him free plane tickets for life.

Jet Airways announced the generous birthday present after its future jet-setter was delivered on one of their flights from Saudi Arabia to India on Sunday, CNN reported.

The baby boy’s mother was reportedly flying to the southwest Indian city of Kochi when she went into labor prematurely.

The flight was diverted to Mumbai where the mother and baby were transferred to a hospital. There, they are said to be doing well, the airline told the BBC in a statement.

“Jet Airways commends its crew for their response and promptness that saw them successfully translate their training into life-saving action,” the airline said.

In a social media post celebrating the baby’s arrival, Jet Airways shared a mock Father’s Day letter written by their newest passenger to his father. In it, the airline confirmed their gift of “a lifetime of free travel.”

“This means more travel is on the cards, more fun outings with you and mom, and more of exploring this beautiful world,” the letter reads.

This was the first time a baby was born on one of their planes, Jet said in a statement. But of course, it has happened before on other carriers: Earlier this year, a woman gave birth on a Turkish Airlines flight.

Although airlines gifting free travel to babies born on flights is known to happen ― as it has for this lucky Jet Airways baby ― there’s no truth to the rumor that such gifts are a general rule, as Snopes reports. Instead, it’s entirely up to an airline to make such a call.

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J.K. Rowling wrote the (children’s fantasy) book about the damage caused by sowing hate toward outsiders and division, so it’s no surprise she’s disgusted by anti-Muslim rhetoric.

In a horrific van attack on a crowd leaving a mosque in London’s Finsbury Park neighborhood late Sunday night, several people were injured and one man, who had reportedly become ill before the attack began, was left dead. Witnesses said a white, middle-aged man steered the van into a group of people who had been attending Ramadan services at the mosque. The man reportedly exited the van and shouted “I want to kill all Muslims” before being detained by bystanders.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has already described the event as an act of terrorism that targeted the Muslim community. In a statement, she urged British citizens to turn to unity.

But recent months have seen a rise in anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric across Western nations, including the U.K. Rowling was quick to comment on the vitriol toward Islam that preceded the attack ― and the framing of the Finsbury Park incident in The Daily Mail.

“The Mail has misspelled ‘terrorist’ as ‘white van driver.’ Now let’s discuss how he was radicalised,” she wrote alongside a screenshot.

Rowling noted that certain outlets continued to direct blame at the mosque, which had just seen its worshippers targeted in a violent terrorist attack despite its well-documented work in combating extremism.

“Victim blaming in the usual newspapers is disgusting,” she wrote. 

But she didn’t stop there: Rowling hasn’t forgotten the anti-Muslim rhetoric that many prominent political figures in the U.K. have recently spread. She used messaging from conservative British politician Nigel Farage, shown in one image standing next to a pro-Brexit ad accused of sowing racial hatred, to illustrate her point. 

Challenged by British radio journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer, Rowling masterfully smacked down the hypocrisy of fixating on Islamist clerics who demonize Western values while deflecting any responsibility for demonizing Muslims, pointing out the subtle yet influential ways anti-immigration politicos gin up fear and hatred toward refugees and immigrants from the Middle East.

What’s bad for the goose is bad for the gander, Rowling suggested ― if Britons fear the influence of clerics who preach hatred toward white, secular societies, then it must also follow that politicians preaching fear and resentment toward Muslims, refugees and immigrants might also have the power to incite violence.

”Those who dehumanise & stereotype muslims have no moral high ground from which to deplore demonisation of secular westerners by Islamists,” the author stated.

She certainly has a point.

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This story is part of a series on ocean plastics.

Imagine unwrapping a frosty popsicle on a hot, sticky day and finding a brick of polluted ice, complete with bits of frozen trash stinking of sewage.

Three students from the National Taiwan University of Arts recently created a batch of such popsicles from dirty water. But their gross treats aren’t meant to be eaten ― instead, they aim to raise awareness for Taiwan’s overwhelming pollution issue. 

Hung I-chen, Guo Yi-hui, and Cheng Yu-ti collected waste from 100 locations and froze the samples into ice pops, which were preserved with polyester resin to keep them from melting.

These Polluted Water Popsicles come wrapped in flashy packaging meant to contrast the filth found inside, and each “flavor” bears the name of the source from which its water was collected. Many contain sewage and particles of trash, reflecting the fact that nearly 60 percent of Taiwan’s 50 main rivers are polluted to some degree. 

Plastic accounted for about 90 percent of the garbage that the design team came across, according to Mashable. Wrappers, bottle caps, plastic bags, plastic bottles and other detritus can be seen inside many of the frozen desserts.

All this trash eventually flows into the sea, and the issue of water pollution is hardly unique to Taiwan. Environmentalists are growing increasingly concerned about the amount of plastic getting dumped in our oceans.

While an exact figure is challenging to nail down, there may be over 150 million tons of plastic in marine waters today, according to a report released last year by the World Economic Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. At this rate, there will be more plastic than fish (by weight) in the ocean by 2050. 

Meanwhile, “Polluted Water Popsicles” has caught the attention of critics in Taiwan. The project was nominated for the Young Pin Design Award, a prestigious honor for budding designers, and the toxic pops were featured in an exhibit at the Taipei World Trade Center last month. 

Take a closer look at the popsicles from this project, below. 

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The family of Charleena Lyles is demanding answers after the 30-year-old black mother was shot and killed by two white Seattle police officers responding to her call for help.

Lyles called police on Sunday, reportedly asking them to investigate a robbery. Two officers arrived and fired their service weapons at Lyles after she allegedly displayed a knife, police said. She died on the scene.

 Lyles was pregnant with her fifth child and had been experiencing mental health issues, according to her family. Three of her children were in the apartment when police opened fire, though it’s unclear if they witnessed the shooting, Seattle Police Department Det. Mark Jamieson told reporters on Sunday. 

“There is no reason for her to be shot in front of her babies,” Monika Williams, Lyles’ sister, said Sunday. “She had mental health issues that nobody is trying to address.”

According to her relatives, Lyles worried that her children were going to be taken away from her. The children at home on the day of the shooting are now being cared for by family members. 

Both officers involved in the shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave, Reuters reports. Typically, the Seattle Police Department would only dispatch one officer to respond to a burglary report, but a recent police encounter with Lyles had prompted a second officer to respond, Jamieson said.

Reuters reports that Lyles was arrested on June 5 after threatening police with “large kitchen scissors” and calling them “devils and also members of the KKK.” Police had drawn their weapons during that incident, though one officer managed to convince Lyles to drop the scissors. She was released from King County jail last week. 

Lyles’ brother, Domico Jones, told The Seattle Times that family members had tried to help Lyles as her mental health deteriorated over the past year. She has a 4-year-old daughter with Down syndrome who requires “round-the-clock attention,” he said.

It’s unclear whether police officers employed any de-escalation tactics during the incident, but Lyles’ relatives want answers.

“Even if my sister had a knife in her hand, she weighs like nothing, even if she’s soaking wet,” Williams said.

“There’s no way you could’ve taken a Taser and taken her down?” she asked. “There’s no way you could’ve taken a baton and knocked the knife out of her hand?”

 Both officers were equipped with less-lethal force options, per department policy, according to a statement issued Monday by the Seattle Police Department. The department also released audio from the officers’ dashboard camera on Monday. In the recording, officers can be heard repeatedly shouting “Get back!” before gunshots ring out.

“While recognizing that the release of information can be source of tension during active, ongoing investigations, SPD also believes that transparency throughout the investigation of deadly force incidents is essential to maintaining public trust,” the department stated.

Lyles’ death marks the latest accusation against the Seattle Police Department of excessive use of force. In 2011, a comprehensive Department of Justice investigation found the department had engaged in a pattern of using excessive force. The report expressed “serious concern” that the department’s practices could result in “unlawful discriminatory policing.”

The Justice Department ordered the Seattle Police Department to implement reforms that would ensure accountability and eliminate unlawful bias.

The department did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment.

On Sunday evening, family, friends and community members gathered outside the apartment complex where Lyles was killed. Members of the crowd held up signs reading “Say Her Name” and “Black Lives Matter.”

“We want justice!” they chanted.

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Pandora, “the world’s most powerful music discovery platform,” is turning up the volume on Pride with a brand new spotlight on queer artists and experiences.

The “Sounds Like Pride” campaign includes a special station, exclusive content from emerging LGBTQ+ musicians and Pandora employees, and a charitable collaboration with The Ally Coalition, according to a press release sent to HuffPost.

The “Sounds Like Pride” station features “personal Pride experiences from Riff Raff and Jonny Pierce from The Drums,” as well other artists throughout June, via Artist Audio Messages. It will also offer listeners music from LGBTQ+ artists including Against Me!, Grizzly Bear, Le Tigré and Perfume Genius, as well as classics from ABBA, Blondie, Culture Club, David Bowie, George Michael, Queen and many more.

Pandora users can donate directly to The Ally Coalition via the “Sounds Like Pride” station to support their LGBTQ+ advocacy. 

In an effort to shine a light on queer employees working for the company, Pandora will also be featuring their personal stories to reveal what “Pride sounds like to them.”

“Now, more than ever, it is important to celebrate and recognize the strength, resilience, courage, creativity, and beauty of the LGBTQ+ community,” Colleen Finnegan, who works for Pandora Employee Experience and Marketing, told HuffPost in an email. “By celebrating Pride at Pandora, we are not only saying ‘I see you, I got you,’ to our employees – we are saying it to LGBTQ+ folks everywhere.”

That’s music to our queer ears.

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