In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Refugee crisis; war] "At least 15,000 Syrian refugees fleeing fighting in northern Aleppo province have gathered at a border crossing with Turkey, UN and Turkish officials said. The frontier is shut but Turkey has said it is prepared to feed and shelter the refugees. In the past few days, the Syrian army backed by Russian air power has made a series of gains in Aleppo province. ...Nato has accused Russia of 'undermining' Syrian peace efforts through its strikes, which it says is mainly aimed at opposition groups. But Russia insists it only targets what it calls terrorists. According to the UN, up to 20,000 Syrians have gathered at the Bab al-Salam border crossing. 'Humanitarian organisations are responding to the needs of those displaced, but ongoing military conflict is making access to populations in need increasingly difficult,' the UN's Linda Tom told the AFP news agency. She said another 5,000-10,000 displaced people had gathered at Azaz, a north-western Syrian city close to the Turkish frontier." Goddamn.

[CN: Misogyny] Hillary Sexism Watch Part One Zillion, care of Fox News anchor Heather Nauert: "I wonder how her remark about, oh, I'm certainly not an establishment candidate, I'm the first woman running for president. I wonder how that bra-burning is going to play this year." Bra-burning. Jesus Jones.

[CN: Racism; police brutality] Judge Vonda Evans, a black woman, let loose while sentencing former Inkster, Michigan, police officer William Melendez, who "was convicted in November on charges of misconduct in office and assault with intent to do great bodily harm for the January 28, 2015, beating of Floyd Dent," a black man. In a nearly 30-minute speech, she made plain her feelings about this shit: "The one image [from this trial] that stuck out to the court was looking at Mr. Dent in his cell, shaking his head in disbelief of what had occurred to him. If his conduct was indicative of what he was thinking, I would have thought this: 'What crime did I commit, being a Black man in a Cadillac, stopped for a minor traffic offense by a group of racist police officers looking to do a n----r?'" Damn. Good for her.

[CN: Misogyny; privacy violations] Fucking hell: Not only is U.S. Soccer U.S. suing the U.S. Women's National Team Player's Association "less than a year after the national team won the Women's World Cup in front of an American television audience of 23 million" in a dispute over the validity of the terms of their contract, but "the lawsuit itself—which has been released publicly—included the home addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of many of the U.S. Women's National Team players. 'We're public figures. There have been issues of privacy and hacking and stalkers,' USWNT midfielder Megan Rapinoe said. 'We're upset. To know that someone could show up at your door? That's extremely unsettling, and it's something that you can't get back.' U.S. Soccer has said that the release of the information was unintentional, and it has already been redacted. However, it was public for almost half of a day." What a bunch of fucks.

RIP Maurice White, founder of Earth, Wind & Fire. Shit, 2016 is really trying to break my heart.

[CN: Racism] Joel and Ethan Coen are the latest white people to show their asses on the issue of diversity in filmmaking. Joel: "Why would there be [more diversity in our films]? I don't understand the question. No—I understand that you're asking the question, I don't understand where the question comes from. Not why people want more diversity—why they would single out a particular movie and say, 'Why aren't there black or Chinese or Martians in this movie? What's going on?' That's the question I don't understand. The person who asks that question has to come in the room and explain it to me." Just the fact that Joel Coen equates black and Asian people with "Martians" is very telling. He also said: "You don't sit down and write a story and say, 'I'm going to write a story that involves four black people, three Jews, and a dog,'—right? That's not how stories get written." Indeed. They get written by white men who think that equating people of color with aliens and dogs is an acceptable thing to do.

Yes, please! "An apocryphal tale of a night Princess Diana spent at a gay bar with Freddie Mercury as a drag king is the subject of a new musical." Will watch.

Woot! "Paul Feig's Ghostbusters Getting Their Own LEGO Set." Awesome.

And finally! This is the sweetest story of a mama dog without her puppies and some puppies without their mama. "The puppies needed her and she needed them. It was pretty perfect." Oh dogs. ♥