My precise view

https://ift.tt/2SLL7pZ We remember and memorialize those who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. One of the more permanent and public memorializations of our veterans is by naming military bases (aka posts and forts) after them. But what about all of the bases named after Confederate traitors? There are monuments to Confederate soldiers around the nation, from schools to government buildings to public squares. But they have been coming down in recent years as people are forced to grapple with the legacy of slavery. U.S. Army bases named after former enemies long stood firm as perplexing memorials. But this February, the eight members of the “Confederate Base Naming Commission” mandated by Congress , were tasked by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and the House and Senate Armed Services Committee with stripping Civil War enemies’ names from ten U.S. Army posts found across the South. On May 21 st , commission chair and retired admiral Michelle Howard announced the commi

https://ift.tt/3p2ySBG BEIJING — China’s ruling Communist Party will ease birth limits to allow all couples to have three children instead of two to cope with the rapid rise in the average age of its population, a state news agency said Monday. The ruling party has enforced birth limits since 1980 to restrain population growth but worries the number of working-age people is falling too fast while the share over age 65 is rising, adding to strains on the economy and society. A meeting Monday of the party’s Politburo decided “China will introduce major policies and measures to actively deal with the aging population,” the Xinhua News Agency said. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Party leaders “pointed out that further optimizing the fertility policy, implementing the policy of one couple can have three children and supporting measures are conducive to improving China’s population structure,” the report said. It gave no details on when or how the change would be carried out

https://ift.tt/3vHP5yQ CAIRO — Egypt and Israel held high-level talks in both countries Sunday to shore up a fragile truce between Israel and the Hamas militant group and rebuild the Gaza Strip after a punishing 11-day war that left parts of the seaside enclave in ruins. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry received his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi, in Cairo. The meeting is part of an effort to build on an Israel-Hamas cease-fire reached May 21 and to revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which have been dormant for more than a decade, Shukry’s office said. Egypt has not said how it would be able to restart talks. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The hours-long visit was the first public one by an Israeli foreign minister to Egypt since 2008, according to the Israeli Embassy in Cairo. Spokesman Ahmed Hafez said Shukry called for establishing an atmosphere to relaunch “serious and constructive” negotiations between the two sides. He also urged both sides to ref

Bride-to-be allegedly kidnaps sister's cat after argument over engagement party Planning a wedding is stressful, but that doesn't make cat-napping acceptable. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3fBZTca

https://ift.tt/3vCp0Rt B.J. Thomas, the Grammy-winning singer who enjoyed success on the pop, country and gospel charts with such hits as “I Just Can’t Help Believing,” “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” and “Hooked on a Feeling,” has died. He was 78. Thomas, who announced in March that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer, died from complications of the disease Saturday at his home in Arlington, Texas, his publicist Jeremy Westby said in a statement. A Hugo, Oklahoma-native who grew up in Houston, Billy Joe Thomas broke through in 1966 with a gospel-styled cover of Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and went on to sell millions of records and have dozens of hits across genres. He reached No. 1 with pop, adult contemporary and country listeners in 1976 with ″(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song.” The same year, his “Home Where I Belong” became one of the first gospel albums to be certified platinum for selling more than 1 million copies

https://ift.tt/3fyNSnR Naomi Osaka was fined $15,000 by the French Open tournament referee for skipping the post-match news conference after her first-round victory — and threatened with stiffer penalties if she continues to avoid her media obligations. The penalty was announced in a joint statement from the president of the French tennis federation, Gilles Moretton, and the heads of the other three Grand Slam tournaments. The statement also said that Osaka has been “advised” that “should she continue to ignore her media obligations during the tournament, she would be exposing herself to possible further Code of Conduct infringement consequences.” Citing the rule book, the statement notes that “tougher sanctions” from “repeat violations” could include default from the tournament and “the trigger of a major offense investigation that could lead to more substantial fines and future Grand Slam suspensions.” Osaka announced Wednesday in a Twitter post that she would not be takin

https://ift.tt/3c40v8c THIALEAH, Fla. (AP) — Two people died and an estimated 20 to 25 people were injured in a shooting outside a banquet hall in South Florida, police said. The gunfire erupted early Sunday at the El Mula Banquet Hall in northwest Miami-Dade County, near Hialeah, police told news outlets. The banquet hall had been rented out for a concert. Three people got out of an SUV and opened fire into a crowd outside with assault rifles and handguns, police director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez III said. Authorities believe the shooting was targeted. “These are cold blooded murderers that shot indiscriminately into a crowd and we will seek justice,” Ramirez said in a tweet . Two people died at the scene, police said. As many as 25 people went to various hospitals for treatment. No arrests were immediately announced. “This is a despicable act of gun violence, a cowardly act,” Ramirez told the Miami Herald . “This type of gun violence has to stop. Every weekend it’s the

https://ift.tt/3p12AqK In the early days of the pandemic, Susan Castor, a 64-year-old Filipino American nurse, would make her rounds taking care of patients at a transitional care unit at Community Medical Center in Toms River, N.J., wearing only a standard surgical mask, due to a nationwide shortage of PPE . Then, a patient from her unit tested positive for COVID-19. By April 7, 2020, Castor began feeling dizzy and weak. Three days later, she lost her sense of smell and tested positive herself. Fortunately, Castor recovered after contracting the novel coronavirus—but countless other Filipino health care workers have not. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The coronavirus has taken a devastating toll on Filipino nurses battling COVID-19 in the U.S. According to National Nurses United, as of February 2021, 26.4 percent of the nurses they surveyed who died from COVID-19 complications were Filipino; but, Filipinos only make up 4 percent of the total registered nurses in the c

https://ift.tt/3uwmL0J (Miss this week’s Leadership Brief? This interview below was delivered to the inbox of Leadership Brief subscribers on Sunday morning, May 30. To receive weekly emails of conversations with the world’s top CEOs and business decisionmakers, click here .) Memorial Day marks the start of the summer travel season, and AAA forecasts that 34 million Americans will hit the road this weekend, an increase of 52% from last year (although still less than 2019 levels). And an increasing number of those travelers will be hitting the road in their own RVs. RV shipments are expected to hit their highest level on record, well over 500,000, according to the RV Industry Association. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But M arco Greywe is not impressed with the hashtag #vanlife , even though it has nearly 10 million Instagram followers. He thinks a lot of the shots of immaculate interiors and yoga in the morning are staged. “Nobody likes living in a van full time,” he

https://ift.tt/3fA0088 <strong>You are the sky. </strong></p> <p class="quoteText" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Everything else – it’s just the weather.</strong> Well hello! I’m so glad you’re here. A version of this article also appeared in the It’s Not Just You newsletter. Sign up here to receive a new edition every Sunday. As always, you can send comments to me at: Susanna@Time.com . ― Pema Chödrön A slew of beloved friends have been having babies lately. I’m embarrassingly emotional about their arrival, or even just the news that they’re on their way. Knowing that this new crop of young ones will uncover delight in this bruised world just as children always have is sustaining right now. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] It’s been a fractious and scary year, but these pandemic babies will still laugh deliriously at the smallest of forgotten joys, like squeezing mashed potatoes through their fingers or