Watch Live: White House Correspondents’ Dinner – featuring Daily Show’s Hasan Minhaj

Watch Live: White House Correspondents' Dinner - featuring Daily Show's Hasan Minhaj

Watch a consummate display of wit, the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Today  (Saturday, April 29 at 7 pm ET.) The sitting President is usually roasted by top shelf comedians, sometimes mercilessly, and traditionally bears this indignity with good humor. This year Hasan Minhaj of the Daily Show delivers a much anticipated speech.

President Obama mastered the medium, but this year President Trump opted out of the popular and time-honored event.

The red carpet event kicks off at 5 pm, the dinner at 7 pm, and the awards and speeches by 9:30 pm.

Photo: By DoD News photo by EJ Hersom – https://www.dvidshub.net/image/2573392/obamas-and-bidens-open-uso-show#.Vy-qefmLTIU, Public Domain, Link

Breaking World News

Breaking World News (Pope-Francis in Africa)

Pope lifts spirits of Egypt’s persecuted Christians
“…Despite fears of another jihadist attack, thousands of Catholics waited for hours on Saturday to enter a heavily guarded stadium in the Egyptian capital to pray with Pope Francis…” (Middle East Online)

Turkish authorities block access to Wikipedia
“ANKARA – Turkey on Saturday blocked all access inside the country to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, an internet monitoring group said, but it was not clear why the ban had been imposed…” (Middle East Online)

Nurses will see their pay ‘cut by 12% over a decade’
“NHS workers will have had their pay cut by 12% by the end of the decade because of a government-imposed wage restraint that is now exacerbating chronic understaffing, new research reveals…” (The Guardian)

Plans for British spaceports ‘in danger of being grounded by poor legislation’
“Ambitious plans to launch satellites from spaceports in Britain are in danger of being grounded by poor legislation that leaves operators open to crippling insurance costs, MPs have warned…” (The Guardian)

South Africa: Zuma and Guptas Top Alleged Assassination Plot List
“A highly-placed source has confirmed to News24 that President Jacob Zuma and members of the Gupta family are among a list of senior government officials that were the targets of an alleged assassination plot by Elvis Ramosebudi…” (AllAfrica / News24WIRE)

Kenya: Ex-Street Boy Wins Jubilee Ticket for Bulla Pesa Ward
“Residents of Bulla Pesa ward in Isiolo town have nominated a former street urchin to contest for the seat in the concluded Jubilee primaries.

Despite all odds, Abdi Kasanya, 26 emerged winner after battling out with his three opponents…” (AllAfrica)

Protest over climate change, and Trump’s rejection of issue, stokes rallies
“Tens of thousands of demonstrators converged around the White House and in other cities Saturday to protest what they said was the Trump administration’s rejection of scientific claims on climate change and other environmental issues…”
(The Los Angeles Times)

‘It looks bad. It’s dangerous.’ Vacant lots dotting South L.A. a painful reminder of L.A. riots
“…But when riots engulfed South Los Angeles, spurred by the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King, the Western Avenue site went up in flames. Burned beyond repair, the building was torn down. And nothing has arisen since…” (The Los Angeles Times)

Cassini Just Sent Back Images From Its First-Ever Dive Through Saturn’s Rings, and They’re Incredible
“Scientists just got their first glimpse into the space between Saturn and its rings. And it’s pretty stunning.

On Wednesday, the NASA space probe Cassini performed the first of 22 planned dives through the rings around the planet…” (Science Alert)

US Yellow Fever Vaccine Supply Will Be Gone by This Summer, but the CDC Has a Plan”
US health officials on Friday warned of a new complication in the fight to contain mosquito-borne viruses spreading around the world: The country’s supply of yellow fever vaccine is dwindling and will likely be completely gone by this summer – with no way to make more because of a manufacturing problem…” (Science Alert)

 

Photo: By Korea.net / Korean Culture and Information Service (Photographer name), CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

Southern Fried Rabbit, an animated short featuring Bugs Bunny, 1953

Southern Fried Rabbit, an animated short featuring Bugs Bunny, 1953

Southern Fried Rabbit, 1953

An animated short by Friz Freleng (as I. Freleng)

“Bugs heads toward the record carrot crop in Alabama but runs into Colonel (Yosemite) Sam who is under orders to let no Yankee cross the Mason-Dixon line…” (IMDB)

(Browse our Movie Archive)

Breaking World News

Breaking World News

Wildlife movie coproduction shows Americans another side of China
“Born in China, a Chinese-American wildlife documentary coproduction, has been offering US moviegoers a feast for the eyes and food for thought since opening in US theaters a day before Earth Day, April 22…” (China Daily)

China’s nuclear power technology goes global
“A recent cooperation deal between China and Kenya has become an important step for China’s nuclear power technology to go global…” (China Daily)

Trump scrambles to show progress as the 100-day mark approaches
“The final frenzy at the White House began Monday, with a private reception for conservative news publications, a tariff on softwood lumber imports from Canada and the late-night debut of a website highlighting President Trump’s “First 100 Days” achievements…” (The Washington Post)

House Freedom Caucus leaders back new health-care plan
“White House officials and several Republican lawmakers claimed Tuesday they were nearing a deal on health-care legislation with the House Freedom Caucus, with at least three leading figures in the hard-line group ready to support an overhaul after the dramatic collapse of talks last month…” (The Washington Post)

King meets Australian defence minister over military cooperation
“AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah and Australian Minister for Defence Marise Payne on Tuesday discussed means to enhance bilateral relations between Jordan and Australia, especially at the military and defence levels…” (The Jordan Times)

ANZAC Day commemorated at Amman Citadel
“AMMAN — The Australian Embassy on Tuesday hosted a dawn service at the Amman Citadel to commemorate the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during World War I, known as ANZAC Day…” (The Jordan Times)

ECB confirms review of child safety procedures
“The England and Wales Cricket Board has confirmed that it undertook a review of its child safeguarding procedures in the wake of the revelation that a child sex offender had worked at a children’s cricket association with the ECB’s written permission…”
(The Guardian)

MPs condemn free schools policy as incoherent and wasteful
“The government’s funding of its free schools programme has been denounced as “incoherent and too often poor value for money” in a hard-hitting report by a cross-party committee of senior MPs…” (The Guardian)

Climate change as genocide – Inaction equals annihilation
“Not since World War II have more human beings been at risk from disease and starvation than at this very moment. On March 10th, Stephen O’Brien, under secretary-general of the United Nations for humanitarian affairs, informed the Security Council that 20 million people in three African countries — Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan — as well as in Yemen were likely to die if not provided with emergency food and medical aid…”
(Le Monde diplomatique)

RT, Russia’s voice to the world
“The international television news channel RT was an attempt to promote Russian influence in the world. How far has it succeeded?” (Le Monde diplomatique)

 

Origins of Indonesian Hobbits finally revealed

Origins of Indonesian Hobbits finally revealed

Origins of Indonesian Hobbits finally revealed
“The most comprehensive study on the bones of Homo floresiensis, a species of tiny human discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, has found that they most likely evolved from an ancestor in Africa and not from Homo erectus as has been widely believed…” (Science Daily)

Environmental ‘memories’ passed on for 14 generations
“The impact of environmental change can be passed on in the genes of tiny nematode worms for at least 14 generations — the most that has ever been seen in animals — scientists have discovered…” (Science Daily)

Erin Moran, ‘Happy Days’ actress, dead at 56
“Popular actress Erin Moran, a mainstay on TV from the late ’60s to the mid-’80s and best known for her kid-sister role in the sitcom “Happy Days,” has died. She was 56…” (CNN)

Bill Nye: Science made America great
“I was proud to join thousands of concerned citizens, scientists and engineers in Saturday’s March for Science. With more than 600 marches taking place around the world, we conveyed that science is political, not partisan, and science should shape our policies…” (CNN)

Cynically led, and out of electricity, Gaza is close to breaking point again
“Hamas is funneling all available resources into its military infrastructure to fight Israel, complaining that Abbas won’t pay for its fuel, and milking everything it can from Gazans. It won’t end well…”
(The Times of Israel)

Clashes erupt after settlers said to attack Palestinian homes in West Bank
Security forces break up skirmish in Nablus-area village; 4 Palestinians reportedly injured by rubber bullets…” (The Times of Israel)

Battle for the French presidency
“Decades of practice at tactical voting may keep the far right out, but at the price of a business as usual neoliberal for president…” (Le Monde diplomatique)

No more playing policeman in Africa
“France’s military is underfunded, overstretched abroad and at home, connected with a massive arms industry and its exports; it doesn’t suit a changed world.”
(Le Monde diplomatique)

Farron’s pledge to voters: Lib Dems won’t make coalition deals
“The Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has ruled out any form of coalition with the Tories or Labour after the general election as he sets out a bold ambition to attract enough Remain voters to form the main opposition party in parliament…” (The Guardian)

Nearly 40 million people live in UK areas with illegal air pollution
“Nearly 40 million people in the UK are living in areas where illegal levels of air pollution from diesel vehicles risk damaging their health, according to analysis commissioned by the Labour party…” (The Guardian)

 

Former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez Commits Suicide (brain donated to science)

Former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez Commits Suicide (brain donated to science)

Former New England Patriots star, and convicted murderer, Aaron Hernandez, committed suicide this week in his Massachusetts prison cell, by hanging. His brain has been donated to science. He left notes, and jammed his cell door with cardboard to impede rescue.

He had just won an acquittal in a double murder, and was reported to be in high spirits. Corrections officials, friends, family, and his legal defense team are shocked by his suicide, and maintain it was out of character. Hernandez, serving a life sentence for killing his friend, semi professional football player Odin Lloyd, was known in prison for being in control.

A motive for the unexpected suicide isn’t clear. He’d just won a significant legal victory, and appeared to have adjusted well to prison life. He leaves behind a grieving fiance and four-year-old daughter.

Hernandez was once a rising star in the football world, who had earned a 40 million dollar four year contract extension, before his murder conviction destroyed his career, and his freedom. In an odd legal twist, due to an obscure Massachusetts law, his conviction will be vacated, since he died before he had exhausted the appeals process.

His family donated his brain to Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center, researching the role sports-related concussions play in serious brain disease, which has plagued many football players and other athletes in contact sports. The Hernandez story has been one of great sadness, tragedy, and wasted potential, but perhaps something positive will ultimately derive from this medical research.

Learn more about the Aaron Hernandez suicide (ESPN)

 

Photo: By Jeffrey Beall (Own work) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Happy Passover 2017

Happy Passover 2017

It’s been Passover all week, and the team at Face Activities wishes our members a very Happy time with family and friends. Every year Jewish families celebrate this important holiday. We hope they enjoy themselves, and find following these ancient traditions both beneficial and inspiring. 

 

This year the 8-day-long Passover celebration starts on April 10th and ends on April 18th (the 15th through the 22nd of the Hebrew month of Nissan.) The ancient holiday celebrates the Exodus of the Jewish People from slavery in Egypt, under the leadership of Moses, with intervention from God, as told in the Torah.

The term “Passover” itself refers to the final 10th plague visited by God upon Pharaoh and the Egyptian People, during which the first born male children of both Egyptian men and beasts were killed, while the plague passed over the first born Hebrew male children without harming them.

This final plague, according to the story, softened Pharaoh’s heart, and he finally freed the Hebrew slaves and let them leave Egypt. The meal-time Seder celebration practiced by jewish families throughout the world commemorates this Exodus story.

By Wikimedia Commons – Center for Jewish History, NYChttps://www.flickr.com/photos/center_for_jewish_history/3560756375/, No restrictions, Link

Pope’s Easter Message of Peace: Urbi et Orbi

Pope's Easter Message of Peace: Urbi et Orbi

The management team of Face Activities would like to wish all our members who celebrate Easter, and to their friends and family as well, a very Happy Holiday! Easter is the most important holiday in Christianity. It is also a great time for people of all faiths to revisit our committments to universal values shared across many belief systems, including peace, kindness, tolerance, cooperation, and love. In that spirit, please enjoy the this Easter Message from Pope Francis. (Watch a video of the Pope’s remarks.)

 

“Dear Brothers and Sisters, a Happy and Holy Easter!

The Church throughout the world echoes the angel’s message to the women: “Do not be afraid! I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised… Come, see the place where he lay” ( Mt 28:5-6).

This is the culmination of the Gospel, it is the Good News par excellence: Jesus, who was crucified, is risen! This event is the basis of our faith and our hope. If Christ were not raised, Christianity would lose its very meaning; the whole mission of the Church would lose its impulse, for this is the point from which it first set out and continues to set out ever anew. The message which Christians bring to the world is this: Jesus, Love incarnate, died on the cross for our sins, but God the Father raised him and made him the Lord of life and death. In Jesus, love has triumphed over hatred, mercy over sinfulness, goodness over evil, truth over falsehood, life over death.

That is why we tell everyone: “Come and see!” In every human situation, marked by frailty, sin and death, the Good News is no mere matter of words, but a testimony to unconditional and faithful love: it is about leaving ourselves behind and encountering others, being close to those crushed by life’s troubles, sharing with the needy, standing at the side of the sick, elderly and the outcast… “Come and see!”: Love is more powerful, love gives life, love makes hope blossom in the wilderness.

With this joyful certainty in our hearts, today we turn to you, risen Lord!

Help us to seek you and to find you, to realize that we have a Father and are not orphans; that we can love and adore you.

Help us to overcome the scourge of hunger, aggravated by conflicts and by the immense wastefulness for which we are often responsible.

Enable us to protect the vulnerable, especially children, women and the elderly, who are at times exploited and abandoned.

Enable us to care for our brothers and sisters struck by the Ebola epidemic in Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and to care for those suffering from so many other diseases which are also spread through neglect and dire poverty.

Comfort all those who cannot celebrate this Easter with their loved ones because they have been unjustly torn from their affections, like the many persons, priests and laity, who in various parts of the world have been kidnapped.

Comfort those who have left their own lands to migrate to places offering hope for a better future and the possibility of living their lives in dignity and, not infrequently, of freely professing their faith.

We ask you, Lord Jesus, to put an end to all war and every conflict, whether great or small, ancient or recent.

We pray in a particular way for Syria, beloved Syria, that all those suffering the effects of the conflict can receive needed humanitarian aid and that neither side will again use deadly force, especially against the defenseless civil population, but instead boldly negotiate the peace long awaited and long overdue!

Jesus, Lord of glory, we ask you to comfort the victims of fratricidal acts of violence in Iraq and to sustain the hopes raised by the resumption of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

We beg for an end to the conflicts in the Central African Republic and a halt to the brutal terrorist attacks in parts of Nigeria and the acts of violence in South Sudan.

We ask that hearts be turned to reconciliation and fraternal concord in Venezuela.

By your resurrection, which this year we celebrate together with the Churches that follow the Julian calendar, we ask you to enlighten and inspire the initiatives that promote peace in Ukraine so that all those involved, with the support of the international community, will make every effort to prevent violence and, in a spirit of unity and dialogue, chart a path for the country’s future. On this day, may they be able to proclaim, as brothers and sisters, that Christ is risen, Khrystos voskres!

Lord, we pray to you for all the peoples of the earth: you who have conquered death, grant us your life, grant us your peace!

Dear brothers and sisters, Happy Easter!” (News.va)
Photo: news.va (screen capture)

Breaking World News

Breaking World News

U.S. hits ISIS targets in Afghanistan with largest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat
“The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said the bomb was “the right munition” to use against the Islamic State because of the group’s use of roadside bombs, bunkers and tunnels…” (The Washington Post)

U.S.-led coalition accidentally bombs Syrian allies, killing 18
“Aircraft from a U.S.-led coalition accidentally bombed friendly Syrian forces fighting the Islamic State in northern Syria on Tuesday, killing 18, the Pentagon said Thursday. The bombing marks the worst confirmed friendly-fire incident in the nearly three-year-old war against the terrorist group…” (The Washington Post)

Turkey set for historic poll over presidential powers
“The proposed constitutional amendments seek to transform Turkey’s political system into an executive presidential one…” (Al Jazeera)

Turmus Aya’s Palestinians threatened by settlement plan
“Around 4000 Palestinians live in fear over recent encroachment from Israeli settlements…” (Al Jazeera)

Xi and Trump discuss Korean Peninsula, Syria over phone
“BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday held a telephone conversation with his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, and discussed the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Syria…” (XinhuaNet)

China, Japan, ROK hold 12th round of free trade talks
“TOKYO, April 13 (Xinhua) — Top negotiators from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) met here Thursday on pushing forward trade in goods and services as well as investment at the 12th round of talks on a trilateral free trade agreement (FTA)…” (XinhuaNet)

Small Saturn moon has most conditions needed to sustain life, Nasa says
“A tiny moon of Saturn has most of the conditions necessary for life, Nasa announced on Thursday, unveiling a discovery from an underground ocean that makes the world a leading candidate for organisms as humans know them…” (The Guardian)

Westminster attack: Masood did act alone, police conclude
“Investigators now believe that the man responsible for the Westminster attack in March acted wholly alone in the planning and preparation for the first mass casualty terrorist atrocity to hit Britain in more than 10 years…” (The Guardian)

Hollande warns against ‘peril’ of leftist presidential candidate Mélenchon
“Hollande broke weeks of silence over France’s fast-approaching election during an interview published on Wednesday, telling conservative French magazine Le Point that Mélenchon was dangerous for the country, and pledging to reveal which candidate he would vote for before the second round ballot on May 7…” (France24.com)

Coppola, Haneke among filmmakers vying for top Cannes prize
“A Civil War film by Sofia Coppola, a Ukrainian road movie and a drama about AIDS activism are among 18 films competing for prizes at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which organizers hope can help counter nationalist sentiment…” (France24.com)

These Are the First Images of the Web of Ghostly Dark Matter That Holds Galaxies Together
“Picture the Universe, and you might imagine a dark emptiness speckled with maybe trillions of galaxies, each containing many billions of stars.

The truth is a little weirder, with apparently separate galaxies connected into vast intergalactic webs by invisible filaments of dark matter. If you find it hard to imagine, at least now we can actually see some of those threads thanks to some clever use of gravitational lensing…” (Science Alert)

Scientists Have Created a Device That Sucks Water Out of Thin Air, Even in the Desert
“When it comes to future challenges, one of the biggest will be water scarcity – on a warming planet we’re going to have plenty of seawater, but not enough fresh, clean water in the right places for everybody to drink.

And while a lot of research has focussed on desalination, a team of scientists have now come up with another possible solution – a device that pulls fresh water out of thin air, even in places with humidity as low as 20 percent. All it needs is sunlight…”
(Science Alert)

 

Photo: By US. Army (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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