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☆ On King’s holiday, daughter calls for bold action over words
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Bernice King, who leads The King Center in Atlanta, said leaders — especially politicians — too often cheapen her father’s legacy into a “comfortable and convenient King” offering easy platitudes. The service, organized by the center and held at Ebenezer annually, headlined observances of the 38th federal King holiday. ... A prophetic word calls for an inconvenience because it challenges us to change our hearts, our minds and our behavior,” Bernice King said. At Ebenezer, Warnock, who has led the congregation for 17 years, hailed his predecessor’s role in securing ballot access for Black Americans. But, like Bernice King, the senator warned against a reductive understanding of King.

☆ Biden: Americans should ‘pay attention’ to MLK’s legacy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

But with the election behind him and a full six-year term ahead, Warnock fully embraced Biden at the service. “That, my friends, is God’s work,” said Warnock, adding that Biden “had a little something to do with it.”As Biden begins to turn his attention toward an expected 2024 reelection effort, Georgia is going to get plenty of his attention. “But at this inflection point, we know a lot of work that has to continue on economic justice civil rights, voting rights, protecting our democracy. … Are we a people who will choose democracy over autocracy? "I’ve spoken before parliaments, kings, queens, leaders of the world ... but this is intimidating,” Biden said in opening his sermon.

☆ Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ‘Dune’ Was Never Made, but With A.I., We Get a Glimpse of His ‘Tron’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Frank Pavich | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +12 min

I was recently shown some frames from a film that I had never heard of: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1976 version of “Tron.” The sets were incredible. However, Mr. Jodorowsky, the visionary Chilean filmmaker, never tried to make “Tron.” I’m not even sure he knows what “Tron” is. caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption Generation Text prompt The A.I. caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption Generation Text prompt The A.I. If A.I.s were eligible for the Academy Awards, I’d vote for “Jodorowsky’s Tron” for best A.I.

☆ Tesla isn't Apple, Elon Musk isn't Steve Jobs, and its cars aren't the next iPhone
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Asia Martin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Analysts and industry observers have compared Tesla and CEO Elon Musk to Apple and Steve Jobs. Tesla isn't the next AppleBoth Apple and Tesla had a first-mover advantage, another reason so many analysts like to draw parallels between the two brands. When Tesla emerged with top-selling electric cars, the Tesla Model Y and Tesla Model 3, held a commanding market share in North America. A shrinking market share isn't disastrous for Tesla — part of the reason Tesla's market share will shrink is that every auto maker will be selling a lot more EVs. The world's largest automaker, Toyota, had a market share of just 10.5% in 2021 — nowhere near the 55% market share Apple holds in the US.

This year brought a fascinating and eclectic number of books by Latino authors to store shelves and online selections, spanning different genres and earning high praise from readers and reviewers alike. Below is our list of 10 very distinctive works by U.S. Latino authors. The compelling novel has been recognized as one of the top 10 books of 2022 by The New York Times and The Washington Post and as one of the best books of 2022 by Time, NPR, Vogue, Oprah Daily and others. Although Villanueva's life took a different turn, many of his followers and their children, known as "Inca Jews," are still in Israel. She writes about how an abortion saved her life and candidly details her experiences dealing with suicidal thoughts and depression.

PARIS — At least three people were killed in a shooting in central Paris, the Paris prosecutor said Friday, adding that the suspected attacker was known to authorities. Laure Beccuau told reporters that the suspect was injured during his arrest and had been taken to hospital. Earlier a judicial source close to the investigation told NBC News that two people had been killed and four people wounded in the attack. The shooting occurred in a Kurdish cultural center and a restaurant and hairdresser nearby, the mayor for the 10th arrondissement, Alexandra Cordebard, told reporters at the scene. Paris' Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire tweeted his thanks to security forces for their “swift action.”“Thoughts for the victims and those who witnessed this drama,” he added.

TikTok said in a statement it was "disappointed that Congress has moved to ban TikTok on government devices - a political gesture that will do nothing to advance national security interests - rather than encouraging the Administration to conclude its national security review." The bill gives the White House Office of Management and Budget 60 days "to develop standards and guidelines for executive agencies requiring the removal" of TikTok from federal devices. Many federal agencies, including the White House and the Defense, Homeland Security and State departments, already banned TikTok from government-owned devices. "The ban is minimal, extraordinarily minimal on the overall TikTok user base," said Matthew Quint, a brand expert at Columbia Business School. "The question is more, 'will this action get the ball rolling to create a bipartisan movement to fully ban the service because of a potential threat to national security?'"

☆ ‘Christmas Mubarak’: For many South Asian Americans, the holiday is a cultural celebration
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Zoya Wazir | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

For the Hazrati family, Christmas Day typically includes a lit-up tree, gifts and a dal lunch. While 69% of Americans identify as Christian, as much as 93% of Americans reported celebrating Christmas as of 2019. In an America that celebrates both a religious and secular Christmas, South Asian Americans from other faiths are finding ways to make the holiday their own. Despite Iqbal’s festive decor, her family still abstained from celebrating on Christmas Day because it wasn’t part of their religious traditions. But for some South Asian Americans, celebrating a holiday that isn’t part of their religious identity can feel disingenuous, especially when their own faith is filled with rich celebrations.

Fawaz Ould Ahmed was taken into custody by the United States and brought to New York on Friday, the Justice Department said in a statement. Ahmed received a death penalty in Mali after pleading guilty to planning and executing the deadly attacks targeting Westerners. The Justice Department said a total of 38 people had died in the three incidents. "The defendant's alleged actions — inhumanely plotting and carrying out ruthless terrorist attacks — were not forgotten and will not be forgiven," said FBI assistant director-in-charge Michael Driscoll. Ahmed told the Malian court that he did not regret the attacks and that he had been seeking revenge for cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad printed in Charlie Hebdo.

☆ Polygamous leader in Arizona had more than 20 ‘wives,’ including children, feds say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Antonio Planas | Antonio Planas Is A Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Bateman was the leader of a branch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the affidavit said. The girls had escaped from their group homes in Arizona, the affidavit said. On Sept. 14, nine girls were taken into custody with the Arizona Department of Child Services, according to the affidavit. A defendant named in the affidavit became one of Bateman’s wives when she was under 18. The woman left Bateman and that's when he began accumulating wives, the affidavit said.

☆ Fans pause action for Friday prayers during first World Cup in a Muslim country
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Andrew Mills | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DOHA, Nov 25 (Reuters) - As noon approached, muezzins across Qatar called Muslim soccer players, fans and officials to the first Friday prayers of the first World Cup to take place in a Muslim country. Unusually for soccer, Muslim fans say Qatar's World Cup has accommodated them like never before - with stadium prayer rooms, concessions selling halal food and no beer-swilling supporters to contend with in the stands following a stadium alcohol ban. For now, Muslim fans are just enjoying an event that caters to their needs. Ridwaan Goolam Hoosen, an avid South African soccer fan, is used to having to leave the grounds to find a prayer space, including at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. "It feels as if this World Cup is for me, it works for me, it fits for me...This is the first of its kind like this," Goolam Hoosen said.

☆ Venice kept dry as dam system wards off exceptional high tide
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] A view of St. Mark's Square during exceptional high tide as the flood barriers known as Mose are raised, in Venice, Italy, November 22, 2022. REUTERS/Manuel SilvestriVENICE, Italy, Nov 22 (Reuters) - A dam system built to protect Venice and its famous Piazza San Marco from flooding withstood the challenge of an exceptionally high tide on Tuesday as heavy rains swept across Italy. However, the Mose, a system of 78 flood gates rising from the Venetian lagoon floor, was activated in advance overnight, shielding the city from the high waters seen at sea. "If the Mose barriers had not been there, Venice would have been catastrophically under water," Italy's Transport Minister Matteo Salvini said. High tides are expected to last well into Wednesday and Thursday, with a tide of up to 140 cm forecast for both days.

☆ ‘I believe movement is life,’ says Didier Drogba, the winner of inaugural CNN ‘Off the Pitch’ prize at Dubai Globe Soccer Awards
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Eoin Mcsweeney | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNNTo recognize the foundation’s achievements, Drogba has been awarded the inaugural CNN “Off the Pitch” prize, in partnership with Dubai Globe Soccer Awards. Now in its 13th edition, this year’s ceremony on November 17, comes just three days before the beginning of the 2022 Qatar World Cup. “It means a lot to me and to the people working at the foundation,” Drogba told CNN’s Becky Anderson. So, the more you move, the more you are active, the more you are healthy,” Drogba told CNN. So that’s the impact, a message like this one from a football player can achieve [that],” Drogba told CNN.

☆ Read the 11-page pitch deck a sports-betting startup that has raised $100 million used to get the NFL Players Association to invest
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Ashley Rodriguez | Colin Salao | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Mojo is an app that lets users bet on an NFL player's performance like it's a stock. See the pitch deck that helped get the NFL Players Association to invest. It also announced in September an additional $25 million in equity and venture debt, with big-name investors including the NFL Players Association. MojoMojo isn't the first startup to bring elements of the stock market to gambling, as the US market grows. "Mojo's sports stock market is really the first of its kind, and we're incredibly excited to join as an investor," Steve Scebelo, president of NFL Players, Inc., said in a statement.

☆ Republican Sen. Mike Lee faces off against independent Evan McMullin in the Utah Senate race
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee is running for a 3rd term against independent candidate Evan McMullin. In the Senate, Lee serves on the Judiciary Committee, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the Joint Economic Committee, and the Special Committee on Aging. Utah independent Senate candidate Evan McMullin. Republicans have won every presidential race in the state since 1968, often with landslide margins, and the last Democrat to win a Senate race in the state was Frank Moss in 1970. In the 2020 presidential election, Trump defeated now-President Joe Biden in Utah by 20 points (58%-38%), a significant drop from Romney's sweeping victory (73%-25%) over Obama in 2012.

☆ Christian monastery possibly pre-dating Islam found in UAE
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

An ancient Christian monastery possibly dating as far back as the years before Islam spread across the Arabian Peninsula has been discovered on an island off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, officials announced Thursday. The monastery on Siniyah Island, part of the sand-dune sheikhdom of Umm al-Quwain, sheds new light on the history of early Christianity along the shores of the Persian Gulf. On one, to the island’s northeast, archaeologists discovered the monastery. Viewed from above, the monastery on Siniyah Island’s floor plan suggests early Christian worshippers prayed within a single-aisle church at the monastery. Power said that development spurred the archaeological work that discovered the monastery.

☆ Airbnb Says Its Focus on Brand Marketing Instead of Search Is Working
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Megan Graham | Ceo Brian Chesky | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Airbnb Inc. said its strategy of slashing advertising spending, investing in brand marketing and lessening its reliance on search-engine marketing is continuing to pay off. Its marketing spending is now low enough that it doesn’t anticipate drastic reductions even if economic headwinds worsen next year, it said. It has also made deep cuts to its overall marketing spending. “Our brand marketing results are delivering excellent results overall with a strong rate of return, and it’s been so successful that we’re actually expanding to more countries,” he said. But the brand could be tested if its competitors ratchet up spending in a downturn, Mr. Zucker said.

☆ U.S. imposes sanctions on Iran-based foundation over Salman Rushdie bounty
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Daphne Psaledakis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Oct 28 (Reuters) - The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on an Iranian foundation it accused of issuing a multi-million dollar bounty for the killing of novelist Salman Rushdie, who was attacked at an event in August. Rushdie, 75, lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand following an attack on stage at a literary event in western New York in August, his agent said. Friday's action freezes any U.S. assets belonging to the foundation and generally bars Americans from dealing with it. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran's supreme leader, 33 years ago issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling on Muslims to assassinate Rushdie a few months after his novel "The Satanic Verses" was published. Rushdie, who was born in India to a Kashmiri Muslim family, has lived with a bounty on his head, and spent nine years in hiding under British police protection.

☆ Salman Rushdie lost sight in one eye following attack, agent says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 23 (Reuters) - Salman Rushdie lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand following an attack on stage at a literary event in western New York in August, his agent said. Wylie described the author's wounds as "profound," and noted the loss of sight of one eye. Khomeini's successor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was suspended from Twitter in 2019 for saying the fatwa against Rushdie was "irrevocable." He is being held without bail in a western New York jail. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Maria Caspani, Editing by Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Pro-Trump rally speaker says that 'angel of death' is coming for Lindsey Graham and Democrats before end of the year
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A pro-Trump rally speaker said the "angel of death" was coming for various politicians before 2023. The speaker showed an image of people including Lindsey Graham, Joe Biden, and the Clintons. "The angel of death is coming to visit these people. The image said, "the Angel of Death is coming for them by year-end," and "treason will be written on them for ALL ETERNITY." The two-day "ReAwaken America" rally also featured speeches by Eric Trump, Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

☆ Protests in Iran over Mahsa Amini's death reflect the stiffling of all women
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Parnaz Foroutan | Parnaz Foroutan S Memoir | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

The year I spent in Iran, young and wild and hopeful, I lived in the shadow of fear. After the death last week of Mahsa Amini while in police custody for violating hijab laws, Brig. The Iranians risking their lives by taking to the streets are there to protest not only Amini’s death, but the threatened death all women face daily. The year I spent in Iran, young and wild and hopeful, I lived in the shadow of fear. A month before Amini’s death, Raisi issued an order to increase the restrictions on and enforcements of women’s hijab and chastity in Iran.

☆ Why the current oil boom for Arab states may be their last
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Nadeen Ebrahim | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

During previous oil booms, Gulf states were seen as squandering their wealth on wasteful and inefficient investments, building sprees and buying weapons, as well as handouts to citizens . Gulf states appear to be working on diversifying. Since the last oil boom that ended in 2014, four of the six Gulf states have introduced value-added tax and the UAE has gone further by starting a corporate income levy . None of the Gulf states have an income tax. Critics counter that it is in the oil exporters' interest to push that narrative, but oil states have pointed to the rise in crude demand that coincided with the removal of Covid-19 restrictions around the world.

☆ A new sports-betting app that lets gamblers trade bets like stocks is launching, as startups race to build the Robinhood of wagering
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( Ashley Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Its app, which lets users to trade sports bets like they would stocks, launches in New Jersey Thursday. On Thursday, its new app that allows users to trade sports bets like they would stocks goes live in New Jersey. Sporttrade, which Insider trialed in its beta version this week, looks more like a trading app than a sportsbook. In the US, there are now various peer-to-peer exchanges from BettorEdge to Prophet that let users bet against each other instead of playing against the house. It's also hoping to build on that with word of mouth as people start to experience the app firsthand.

☆ The surprising backstory of AriZona Iced Tea’s name
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-27 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

So he settled on “Santa Fe” for the name of the drink. “Having a name associated with a lifestyle, which is an environment and climate that made you want to grab a refreshing iced tea. That’s why the name seemed to make sense to me.”AriZona was almost called Santa Fe. The “Snapple Lady” commercials turned the juice and iced tea company into a huge success, as sales boomed throughout the 90s. Having had his own success with a malt liquor business, Vultaggio and his partners pivoted to selling iced tea in the same-sized 23-ounce cans as their malt liquor.

"Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged." Stunned attendees helped wrest the man from Rushdie, who had fallen to the floor. The Iranian government said in 1998 it would no longer back the fatwa, and Rushdie has lived relatively openly in recent years. 1/25 A general view shows UPMC Hamot Surgery Center, where novelist Salman Rushdie is receiving treatment after the attack, in Erie, Pennsylvania, U.S., August 12, 2022. "I felt like we needed to have more protection there because Salman Rushdie is not a usual writer," said Anour Rahmani, an Algerian writer and human rights activist who was in the audience.

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