Former President Obama took a side in the ongoing rap beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake long before it began, predicting in a 2016 interview that Lamar was his pick in a theoretical battle between the industry giants. The topic came up in an interview with YouTube personality Swoozie, when he asked Obama who he...
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz urged his successors to get back to basics as the company sees falling sales. Schultz said in a LinkedIn post that leaders should focus on spending time in stores and on providing good coffee rather than other management strategies. “At any company that misses badly, there must be contrition and...
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft on Sunday called out Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling the leader to give him his “f---ing ring back,” in reference to a long-running allegation that Putin stole one of his Super Bowl rings during a 2005 meeting. The remark came during Sunday night’s live “roast" of former Patriots quarterback...
The White House on Monday said that South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) should "stop digging herself into a hole" after she suggested that President Biden’s dog, Commander, should haven been shot after biting Secret Service agents. Noem has been criticized recently for revealing in her soon-to-be-released memoir that she shot her 14-month-old dog, Cricket,...
TikTok CEO Shou Chew, who has been put under the spotlight by American lawmakers, is one of the honorary chairs of Monday's Met Gala. In addition to Chew serving as honorary chair of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Costume Institute Benefit, TikTok is also a sponsor of the event. The Met said the...
The White House on Monday called it "unfortunate" that protests on campus at Columbia University over the war in Gaza prompted the school to cancel its main commencement ceremony this year. "It is unfortunate that a small group of people went too far and cost their classmates this important event," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told...
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pushing back on an investigation by the House Ways and Means Committee into donations it received from a left-leaning nonproft and reporting by a right-wing outlet that prompted the inquiry. The chair of the chief tax-writing committee, Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), sent a letter Monday to Chamber President and...
Will the U.S. administration stand up for freedom of the press? And will we, as journalists, keep writing and demanding that news is vital and cannot be cut off simply because its reporting offends a government? I will.
The woman who holds the title of Miss USA says she's giving up her crown, citing her "physical and mental well-being" in an announcement about her resignation. Noelia Voigt, who last September became the first Venezuelan-American to win the Miss USA competition, acknowledged in an Instagram post on Monday that news that she was stepping down "may...
Former President Trump will make his first visit of the 2024 campaign to Minnesota later this month to speak at a major dinner hosted by the state GOP as his campaign weighs trying to flip the state red in November. The Minnesota GOP announced Monday that Trump will address the party's Lincoln Reagan Dinner. KNSI...
To the writers who would flatten Pen America for the offense of insufficient demonization of Israel: Where will you find a champion, should the zeitgeist turn ‘round on you?
Fewer Americans today see climate change as a “very serious” problem than they did three years ago, according to a new survey released Monday. The Monmouth University poll, conducted on April 18-22 shows a 10-point decline in Americans who says climate change is a “very serious” problem, falling from 56 percent in September 2021 to...
The Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver the eulogy this week for Frank Tyson, a Black man who died after telling Ohio police officers “I can’t breathe” as they attempted to arrest him. Sharpton announced that Tyson’s family has asked him and civil rights attorney Ben Crump to be at the funeral on Wednesday. Crump is...
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey praised the platform he founded, now known as X, as “freedom technology” on Saturday, shortly after revealing he was no longer serving on the board of directors for Bluesky. Dorsey confirmed that he had left Bluesky — a decentralized microblogging site created through an initiative he launched while at Twitter in...
The Japanese and Indian governments pushed back Saturday against President Biden’s description of the nations as “xenophobic” last week, after he said at a campaign event the countries and others do not welcome immigrants. Biden grouped Japan and India alongside China and Russia as “xenophobic countries,” claiming being less open to immigrants has caused the...
Antisemitism surged worldwide in 2023, especially in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to a new report. The new report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Tel Aviv University found that there was an increase in antisemitic incidents in Western countries in 2023 when compared to the previous year, including a...
President Biden on Monday spoke with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reiterating his concerns during the conversation about an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah, even as Israel appeared poise to move forward with such an operation. Biden "updated the Prime Minister on efforts to secure a hostage deal, including through ongoing talks today in Doha,...
A pair of campaign managers for former Presidents Trump and Obama are teaming up for an across-the-aisle podcast that promises to "engage rather than enrage" while diving into the 2024 White House race. Kellyanne Conway, who headed up Trump's 2016 campaign, and David Plouffe, who steered Obama's 2008 White House bid, will join forces for "The...
The Biden administration will grant roughly $285 million in funding from the CHIPS for America Program for development and research of digital twins in the semiconductor industry, the Commerce Department and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced Monday. The latest announcement for the notice of funding opportunity is part of the push from...
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent out a statement Monday blasting Columbia University for canceling its main graduation ceremony. “President Shafik and Columbia University administrators have displayed a shocking unwillingness to control their campus. They’ve allowed outside agitators and terrorist-sympathizing students and faculty to rewrite campus rules and spew vile, anti-Jewish aggression. Now, thousands of students...
A toxic agricultural insecticide banned four decades ago is still contaminating deep-sea fish and sediments off California's southern coast, a new study has found. While the U.S. banned the compound dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) in 1972, the study authors believe the substance is continuing to invade marine food webs. The contamination remains persistent in an environment about...
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is running for a fourth term in the Senate, he announced Monday, likely cementing the longtime progressive for the coming years in the upper chamber. Sanders, 82, is the second-oldest member of the upper chamber behind only Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.), who is 90. "This is the most important national election...
People will credit (or blame) the pandemic for this, but there's actually a much simpler reason.
Former President Trump took a shot at ABC News after Kim Godwin, the outgoing president of the network, announced she was leaving Sunday. "Happy to report that Kim Godwin, Head of ABC, has resigned," Trump wrote on his Truth Social website just minutes after the news was announced. "Could it be the unfair reporting on...
Fewer Black Americans are certain they will vote in this year’s election than in the 2020 election, according to a new Washington Post/Ipsos survey. Only 62 percent of Black voters said they are “absolutely certain” they will vote in November's election, a 12-point decrease from June 2020. The drop in voter interest could spell trouble for...