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CNN —House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy took to Fox News primetime last week and dinged his counterpart across the Capitol: Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell. In the new Congress, McConnell will lead a 49-seat Senate minority while McCarthy will have 222 Republican seats in the House. That’s because McCarthy, like many other House Republicans, doesn’t want to deal with the threat of a government shutdown immediately upon entering their new majority. One Republican lawmaker pointed out that McConnell and McCarthy are dealing with different conferences and political dynamics, which explains their sometimes conflicting approaches. “Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy are gonna be just fine.”

☆ Canada adds sanctions on Russia, Iran, Myanmar over human rights
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Kanishka Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 9 (Reuters) - Canada on Friday imposed fresh sanctions on Russia, Iran and Myanmar, citing alleged human rights violations by their governments. Since Russia's invasion on Feb. 24, Canada has imposed sanctions on more than 1,500 individuals and entities from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. "There is more work to be done, but Canada will never stop standing up for human rights," Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said. In addition to Iran and Russia, Canada also imposed sanctions on 12 individuals and three entities in Myanmar that perform key functions on behalf of the Myanmar military, facilitate arms flows to the military and enable the military's violence, Canada said. More than 16,500 people have been arrested and more than 13,000 of them remain in detention since the coup, according to a human rights organization that documents violations by the Myanmar military.

“I’ll get 218,” McCarthy told CNN, referring to the votes he’d need to become House speaker. Video Ad Feedback Bash asks Pelosi if McCarthy has what it takes to be House Speaker. “I’m not going to talk about hypotheticals,” said Biggs, who lost his conference’s nomination to become speaker last month after securing 31 votes. But McCarthy’s detractors said it’s an issue very much still on the table and think he may end up needing to embrace it if he still doesn’t have the speaker votes by January 3. But he refused to rule out a scenario where his caucus would help elect the next speaker if McCarthy couldn’t get the votes.

☆ Dozens of Washington Commanders employees hurt by ‘toxic work culture’ over 2 decades, House Oversight Committee finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Antonio Planas | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Dozens of employees of the Washington Commanders were harmed for more than two decades because of a “toxic work culture” in which sexual harassment and bullying were pervasive, according to a scathing report released Thursday by the House Oversight Committee. The NFL and Washington Commanders were not immediately reached for comment Thursday afternoon. "Rather than address issues of workplace misconduct head on, the NFL has deferred responsibility to its clubs. The allegations were made by six former employees of the Washington, D.C., NFL franchise during a House Oversight Committee roundtable on toxic workplace culture. Representatives for the team, renamed the Commanders released a statement from Snyder on Thursday denying the allegations from the hearing.

Participants who were offered cash incentives for either pounds lost or for completing certain activities were more likely to lose weight compared with those who were simply offered tools, such as diet books, fitness trackers and access to a weight loss program, the study found. On average, participants in the goal-directed group earned $440.44, as compared to $303.56 in the outcome-based group. “Even if less weight is lost, adopting lifelong physical activity or better eating habits may be more important,” she said. Kushner, who was not involved with the new study, agreed that low-income people face extra challenges when it comes to weight loss. What’s not clear, however, is how the strategy of offering cash for weight loss could be implemented in a real-world setting, outside of academia.

☆ Demand for hospital-grade cribs on the rise as viral illnesses continue to surge
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Carma Hassan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Pediatric hospital beds have been more full than usual for months. Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital has brought out both specialized and non-specialized cribs from storage to meet the demand of pediatric patients. Demand at Hard Manufacturing, which makes cribs, bassinets and youth beds for hospitals, has shot up, President Marjorie Bryen said. “At Nemours Children’s Health, these supply challenges are magnified due to pediatric populations needing more specialized equipment to accommodate different stages of growth. “The Administration has exercised regulatory flexibilities to help health care providers and suppliers continue to respond to COVID-19.

When Covid-19 struck, the U.S. government gave hospitals tens of billions of dollars to help them cope with the strains of the pandemic. Many of the hospitals didn’t need it.

☆ I design sex rooms for a Netflix show. Some clients spend nearly $200,000 on a room but they aren't all as raunchy as 'Fifty Shades of Grey'.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Netflix's "How to Build a Sex Room" brings to light the business of sex rooms. Clients can spend about $200,000 on a sex room, but secondhand stores provide cheaper options. One day, a client turned around and asked her whether she had ever designed a sex room. Sex rooms aren't cheapConverting rooms into sex rooms can be an expensive project depending on the size and complexity of the space, Rose said. At the end of the day, Rose pointed out that sex rooms needn't always revolve around sex.

☆ How to avoid winter sports injuries
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Melanie Radzicki Mcmanus | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Sprains, strains, dislocations and fractures were common but also concussions and other head injuries. In fact, head injuries make up 20% of the roughly 600,000 ski- and snowboarding-related injuries that occur annually across North America, according to a study published in The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. “Certainly, we worry the most about head injuries,” said Dr. Brian Cole, an orthopedic surgeon at Chicago’s Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush. “You’re less likely to have a catastrophic ligament tear or fracture this way.”Common injuries by age and sexSome winter sports injuries are more common in people of a certain sex or age. Cole sees a lot of sledding injuries in his younger patients, snowmobiling injuries in middle-aged men and downhill skiing injuries in women, especially torn ACLs in the knee.

☆ Australian battery metal players key to South Korea's EV ambition
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SYDNEY, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Australia will play a big role in South Korea's ambition to lead the electric vehicle batteries market and diversify from China for its battery metals needs, a top South Korean executive said on Wednesday. In recent years, U.S. allies have moved to reduce their dependence on China amid heightened concern about Beijing's control over the critical minerals sector. South Korea needs critical mineral supplies, having pledged to become a battery manufacturing powerhouse by 2030 as part of a plan to be carbon-neutral by 2050. POSCO last year entered into a joint venture deal with Pilbara Minerals Ltd (PLS.AX) to build a 43,000 tonne lithium hydroxide chemical facility in Gwangyang, South Korea. The Australian government should offer similar incentives so the country can be a leader in global hydrogen exports, he said.

☆ Texas woman kidnapped as a baby 51 years ago reunites with family thanks to home DNA testing kit
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Minyvonne Burke | Minyvonne Burke Is A Senior Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

A Texas woman kidnapped as a baby 51 years ago was reunited with her family after they used a home DNA test kit to track her down. Melissa Highsmith was 22 months old when she was allegedly abducted in August 1971 by a babysitter from her family's Fort Worth apartment, according to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth. Sister Victoria Highsmith told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth that the DNA matched samples from Melissa Highsmith's children. Within three weeks, the family had found Melissa Highsmith. "It was like, ‘Boom, boom, boom,’ we found her," Victoria Highsmith said.

☆ Australia's Fortescue taps Woodside veteran as CEO amid green energy push
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] The logo of Australia's Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) can be seen on a bulk carrier as it is loaded with iron ore at the coastal town of Port Hedland in Western Australia, November 29, 2018. REUTERS/Melanie Burton/File PhotoNov 29 (Reuters) - Australia's Fortescue Metals Group (FMG.AX) on Tuesday appointed former Woodside Energy (WDS.AX) executive Fiona Hick as its chief executive officer, effective February 2023, as Elizabeth Gaines made way for a new boss in August. Hick joins Fortescue at a time when the iron ore giant is delving into mining of critical minerals and rare-earths and is also striving to transition into a green energy firm through its unit Fortescue Future Industries (FFI). She will lead Fortescue Metals' mining arm, culminating a year-long search by the company's billionaire-founder and chairman Andrew Forrest. Gaines, who oversaw a tripling in the share price of one of the world's biggest iron ore miners in the past four years, remains on Fortescue's board as a non-executive director.

☆ Rio Tinto reaches historic agreement with Juukan Gorge group
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Courtesy Gabrielle Timmins/Kimberley Land Council/Handout via REUTERS/File PhotoMELBOURNE, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Global miner Rio Tinto Ltd (RIO.AX) has reached a restitution agreement with an Aboriginal group whose rock shelters in Western Australia it destroyed two years ago for an iron ore mine, the groups said on Monday. "Nothing can compensate for or replace the loss suffered at Juukan Gorge, so this is an outcome orientated legacy to ensure something positive will come from it for years to come," PKKP Aboriginal Corp Chairperson Burchell Hayes said. The two groups are in advanced talks about a co-management of mining agreement, the PKKP added. "We fell far short of our values as a company and breached the trust placed in us by the PKKP people by allowing the destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters," Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said. As well as the legacy foundation, remedy discussions have centred on ongoing rehabilitation of the rock shelters and their surrounds at Juukan Gorge, Rio said.

☆ How much a TikToker with 500K followers earns in a year and what she charges for a sponsored video
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Shriya Bhattacharya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Pivoting to TikTok helped her gain a larger audience and land five-figure deals with brands. For some creators, money doesn't roll in immediately — they have to spend years building their brands before landing lucrative paid partnerships. Still, it took Leanage years to gain enough followers to attract brands and earn a sizable income. Leanage now has 87,000 subscribers on YouTube, 10,000 followers on Instagram, and 506,000 followers on TikTok. She also regularly chats with other creators to make sure that her rates are up to industry standard.

☆ Try this interval workout to avoid HIIT burnout or injuries
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Melanie Radzicki Mcmanus | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Yet HIIT workouts require maximum exertion, which means they aren’t for every day — or necessarily for everyone. “But that might not be what you’re really doing.”You can perform HIIT workouts using body weight via circuits of exercises such as lunges. undrey/Adobe StockFull-body workout: Variable-intensity interval trainingA VIIT workout is the sweet spot between HIIT and HVIT sessions, Brock said, featuring intervals of hard, medium and low intensity. “Variable intensity workouts are great because they use the entire gauntlet,” Brock said, offering a more complete, full-body workout. If losing weight is your aim and you don’t have much time, the shorter, calorie-busting HIIT workouts may be the way to go.

☆ Aaron Carter's toddler turns 1 weeks after dad's death
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Lisa Respers France | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

CNN —Melanie Martin celebrated her son Prince’s first birthday, while also honoring her child’s late father, singer Aaron Carter. The boy celebrated his first birthday just three weeks after his dad was found dead in the bathtub at his Lancaster, California home. Martin, who had been engaged to Carter, shared a video compilation on her verified Instagram account of their time as a family. “Happy birthday to my baby boy Prince Lyric Carter,” the caption read. !”The LA County Coroner is still working to determine the cause of Carter’s death.

☆ Australia to become 'more assertive' on foreign investment in critical minerals
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Australia, a major supplier of minerals key to the energy transition like rare earths, has more to gain by encouraging investment from allies to build up its minerals processing industry, Chalmers said at a conference in Sydney. "Foreign investment is a good thing when it’s in our national interest," Chalmers said. "But as investment interest grows, and as the sources of that investment interest grow, we’ll need to be more assertive about encouraging investment that clearly aligns with our national interest in the longer term." The Labor government which took power in May is buttressing Australia's policy to build out a critical minerals processing supply chain. Australia is revising its critical minerals strategy and has been positioning itself as a green superpower, backed by its mineral endowments.

☆ Superyacht chef shows life at sea serving the world's richest is far from glamorous — from grueling 18-hour days to a guest who asked to 'heat the Adriatic'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Former yacht chef Melanie White revealed what it's like to work at sea in her new tell-all book. Melanie White working on a superyacht. Courtesy of Melanie WhiteIn the book, White details the often grueling experience, which included working 18-hour days cleaning bathrooms and guest quarters. In the book, White compared her role to that of a fairy, magically and nearly invisibly doing tasks to please guests. Courtesy of Melanie White"The success of a business or boat lives and dies with the compatibility of the employees," White wrote.

☆ Australia approves national plan to safeguard Aboriginal heritage
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The government had accepted all but one recommendation out of the eight from last year's parliamentary inquiry into the destruction of the historically and culturally significant site at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia, Plibersek told parliament. The recommendation of whether the final responsibility for heritage protection should sit with the Indigenous affairs minister or the environment minister is still being assessed, Plibersek said. What's clear from this report is that our system is not working," Plibersek said, adding the destruction of the sacred sites were legal under current laws. The traditional owners said they were angry and disappointed that they had not been consulted about the government's response. "We have tasted the devastation and we know what needs to be done," it said, without elaborating.

☆ Analysis: Trump lesson on U.S. protectionism guides Canadian foreign policy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Steve Scherer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

OTTAWA, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government learned a lesson when former U.S. President Donald Trump forced the renegotiation of the North American trade pact five years ago: never underestimate U.S. protectionism. The next U.S. presidential election is less than two years away and Trump last week said he would run again, suggesting the "America first" trade policy could again be on the ballot. Even without Trump, the United States has shown signs of becoming increasingly leery of free trade in recent years. When America goes America first, they forget Canada's right next door," said a senior source familiar with the Canadian government's thinking on foreign policy. "I don't want to undermine the Indo-Pacific strategy by saying it's entirely about the United States, because it's not, but having a strong Indo-Pacific strategy is also important in our bilateral relationship with the United States," the senior source said.

[1/5] Women from a fishing community attend a protest against the construction of the proposed Vizhinjam Port in the southern state of Kerala, India, November 9, 2022. A $900 million project to build India’s first container transhipment port has been stalled due to protests by the region’s fishing community who believe it will destroy their livelihood. The fishing community erected the shelter after years of failed efforts to get the Kerala government to intervene while watching the coast steadily erode. "This is a matter of providing jobs to the many localities here," said Mukkola G Prabhakaran, a Kerala state council member in Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party. Accusing the Kerala state police of being "mute spectators", the Adani conglomerate has also called for federal police to be brought in.

☆ Brandy is back as Cinderella in new ‘Descendants’ movie for Disney+
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Dan Heching | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Twenty-five years after she first played the role of Cinderella, Brandy is stepping into her glass slippers again. The singer and actress will reprise her role as the fairytale heroine, first seen in the 1997 television movie “Cinderella,” in a new installment of the “Descendants” franchise for Disney+, the Mouse House announced Monday. The first three films, which included “Descendants 2” from 2017, starred Dove Cameron, Booboo Stewart and the late Cameron Boyce. Brandy starred in the Emmy Award-winning late-90s retelling of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella,” opposite Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother, for ABC’s Wonderful World of Disney. Disney also announced Monday that “Descendants” fan favorite Melanie Paxson will reprise her role as the Fairy Godmother from the previous “Descendants” movies for “The Pocketwatch.”A release date for the film has not yet been announced.

Nonprofit hospitals must have financial-assistance policies for needy patients, under federal requirements tied to an estimated $60 billion in annual tax breaks. They often make that aid hard to get. Hospitals put up obstacles, delay checking eligibility and sometimes press for payments that aren’t refunded even if a patient eventually gets qualified for assistance.

☆ Why good balance is key to healthy living
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Melanie Radzicki Mcmanus | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Good balance is an integral part of being physically fit and key to living a long life, according to research. Practice standing next to a chair or something you can grab onto if you become unsteady. Walking up stairs is another easy way to enhance your balance, Baxter said, as part of good balance lies in a strong lower body. “When you have good balance, you move around with less fear and more flexibility,” Landau said, adding that a fear of falling makes you stiff and stressed — and thus more likely to fall. “Good balance improves your general mobility, so you’ll move more and your muscles and bones will get stronger,” Landau said.

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