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Dozens Killed as Syrian Government Accused of Chemical Attack

Jessie
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Dozens Killed as Syrian Government Accused of Chemical Attack

The attack was carried out on the city of Douma, a rebel-held enclave 10-km east of Damascus, with at least 70 people losing their lives.

Numerous news as well as aid-agencies have accused the Syrian Government of carrying out a nerve agent attack against its citizens in the garb of attacking rebels.

The focus of the attack was a particular area in Douma, a city which many believe is one of the last strongholds of rebels in Syria after the government-led coalition routed them from their former stronghold in Eastern Ghouta.

Rescue workers reported that at least 42 people lost their lives directly as the result of the attack, with hundreds injured. They further said that dozens of patients with breathing problems and burning eyes were admitted to the nearby clinics.

Videos and images allegedly of the victims of the attack, as well as their family members, show some foaming at the mouth, an indication that a nerve agent was indeed used in the attack.

Responding to the news, Syrian state media claimed that the Government did not use any chemical agent in the attack and that the rebels who are holding the area are spreading false news.

One of the paramedics treating the victims told media outlets that the attack was carried out near a bomb shelter where people were residing thinking they were safe.

Rescuers said that they were unable to remove the dead bodies of the victims from the areas where they died because of further attacks, the suffocating odor of the toxic gas, and the shortage of protective gear.

This attack has come at a time when negotiations were ongoing regarding the transfer of rebels from Douma to another area in Syria’s north which is currently outside of the Government’s control.

Some observers take the attack as a sign that all is not going well with the ceasefire talks, and that the attack is a warning by the Syrian Government to the rebels to agree to the terms being offered to them, or face the risk of further attacks.

If proved true, the chemical attack would pose a new challenge for President Trump. For, while he ordered a missile attack on the Syrian airbase after a missile attack, the U.S. President has recently declared that he wants the United States out of Syria.

Mr. Trump took to Twitter on Sunday to not only condemn the attack but also point fingers at Iran and Russian President Vladimir Putin for supporting Syrian President Assad, who Mr. Trump addressed as an ‘’animal’’ in his Twitter post.

Responding to the attack, the US Government claimed it was working to verify whether any chemical weapons were used in the attack. White House officials refused to rule out a military response.

Woman Films Man Apparently Spiking Her Drink On Party

Jessie
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Woman Films Man Apparently Spiking Her Drink On Party

Apparently, the real focus of the video was not the man but the woman herself who was filming a selfie video with the man allegedly spiking her drink clearly visible in the background.

A chilling video has appeared on Twitter in which a reveler has been shown putting a mystery item in the drink of a woman as she was partying with a friend.

The focus of the video was the woman herself as well as the party scene, however, little did the woman know that she would be able to catch red-handed the person spiking her own drink.

The video clearly shows a man appearing from nowhere, and as the cup moves away from the woman, the mystery person secretly drops something into her drink.

Before performing the act, the person motions to someone who isn’t in the video, in a sign as to waive them away, before moving out of the camera’s view himself.

Dressed in black shirt and sunglasses, the man appears a few seconds later on the screen, and it is here that he could be clearly seen dropping some unknown item into her drink.

The clip, which was tweeted with the warning: “Ladies watch your drinks!’’, has elicited shock and disgust among social media users. Though some are also labeling it as fake as well.

The video which is just over 15 seconds long has become so popular that Twitter users have viewed it more than 10 million times on the platform. It has also attracted over 96,000 retweets.

While the majority of people expressed their shock after seeing the video, some also seem to have the background on this. For instance, one Twitter user tweeted that the scene in question was from Brazil, and both the lady as well as the person who spiked her drink were friends.

https://twitter.com/jess_isss/status/981893640133005312

She further said that the lady knew that ‘’he was being silly’’, and that ‘’she is fine’’. She ended her comment with the warning that it’s still ‘’good to be aware’’ of such incidents.

Revealed: Why Lucy Hale Waited Years to Tell About the Inspiration of ‘’Lie a Little Better’’

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Revealed: Why Lucy Hale Waited Years to Tell About the Inspiration of ‘’Lie a Little Better’’

The ‘’Life Sentence’’ star waited four years before revealing that her 2014 song, ‘’Lie a Little Better’’, was inspired by Drew Van Acker, her co-star from ‘’Pretty Little Liars’’.

It took Lucy Hale four years to confirm that yes, the lyrics of her 2014 song, Lie a Little Better, were dedicated to her former co-star Drew Van Acker.

In a strange turn of events, once she made the announcement, it seemed as if Lucy wasn’t so sure, as she later deleted that Tweet from her account.

However, as Hale confirmed in her interview to ET online, she owns that Tweet and that she had a ‘’crush’’ on Van Acker back from the days when both of them acted together in the ‘’Pretty Little Liars’’.

‘Yeah, this song is about Drew,’ the 28-year-old told ET Online. ‘’ “I had a crush on Drew. It was years ago,” said Hale with a sweet smile on her face.

When the interviewer asked Hale whether she had told Van Acker about her crush on him, Hale quickly joked that ‘’he knows now’’, before claiming that ‘’it’s all done with’’ and that Van Acker is happy with someone else in his life now.

While it may be hard to believe, this isn’t the first time that Hale had a crush on one of her on-screen co-stars.

She admitted in the same interview that when both of them were acting in “Pretty Little Liars”, she started to take a love interest in Ian Harding.

To explain why she was so easy to give her heart away, Hale blames her age as she was 20 at the time she was working in ‘’Pretty Little Liars’’. Hale also has a word for on-set romances, which she calls as ‘’shomances’’.

Finally, she told in the interview that when she was young, she had lots of shomances going on. But those episodes of love stopped the moment she stopped working with the co-star, Hale further adds.

How Facebook Privacy Crisis Could Change Big Data Forever

Jessie
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How Facebook Privacy Crisis Could Change Big Data Forever

While Facebook initially shrugged off the Cambridge Analytica Scandal, the continuing revelations relating to it has the potential to change Big Data forever.

Ever since its founding in 2004, Facebook has relied on big data to lure more users to the platform, entice them to spend more time on it, and make more profits via user-targeted advertising.

That could soon change, though, given the fallout which the Cambridge Analytica Scandal has left in its wake. In case you don’t know about it, that scandal revolves around the leaking of data of over 50m users to a British firm, which then used the data for various purposes, including influencing elections.

In the wake of these revelations, all hell broke loose for the giant social media platform. With users angry over the breach of their privacy and investors panicked to sell their stock, Facebook has lost over $90 billion in market shares over the past one month.

Still, while they look bad on paper, these are mortal blows Facebook knows it could withstand.

There is, however, one final storm which Facebook won’t be able to get through without bruising itself: that of regulation. And if Facebook is regulated, the costs to it, in both reputation as well as financial terms, would be huge.

For instance, the Federal Trade Commission is already investigating Facebook as to whether it broke a 2011 agreement, which requires organizations to get user agreement before sharing data. If proved guilty, Facebook might have to pay up to $40,000 per violation in this regard.

Then there is the question of complying with intergovernmental privacy protection laws.

Last year, the European Union enacted a General Data Protection Regulation in its member states. Going into effect from May 25, this regulation requires companies like Facebook to obtain user consent before collecting their data.

The same regulation gives consumers the right to ask platforms like Facebook what they know about them. Worse, for Facebook, the residents of EU could also ask it to delete any photos or data it may have of them.

But what if Facebook decides to non-comply? Well, it would be expensive. The regulation has set the maximum fine for non-compliance at up to 4% of the company’s global revenue, which, in Facebook’s case, would amount to $1.6billion.

Finally, there is the ‘’small’’ matter of Congressional oversight.

Facebook’s name has been already been hauled through the mud before Congress when the question about Russian meddling in American elections arose last year.

What would make the upcoming congressional hearings – as Zuckerberg has decided to testify in front of Senate Judiciary Committee on April 10 – different is the absence of public support for Facebook.

For, when it last appeared before Congress to answer questions about Russian bots using the platform to meddle in American elections, Facebook had the implied support of U.S. President, who believed that the trail was part of a vindictive agenda to sully Mr. Trump’s presidency.

Not anymore. With Facebook handing over data of 50m users to Cambridge Analytica, everyone – Republican and Democrat – is affected. Nobody knows whether his name was on the list of 50m people, but everyone suspects that it might well be the case.

Therefore, with no public support in its tow, Facebook would be well-prepared if it expects a harsh grilling in front of the US Senate. And if Mark Zuckerberg isn’t able to satisfy the Congresspersons, a new wave of legislation targeting big data could ensue.

Winnie Mandela, Anti-Apartheid Activist, Dies at 81

Jessie
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Winnie Mandela, Anti-Apartheid Activist, Dies at 81

She was a highly respected figure in a country which lauded her efforts for fighting against the tyranny of white minority rule back in the 20th century.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of Nelson Mandela and anti-apartheid activist in South Africa, has died. She was 81.

According to a  statement released by her family,  she passed away in Johannesburg, at the Netcare Milpark Hospital, South Africa after battling a long illness which had seen her getting in and out of the hospital since January this year.

Known as the “Mother of the Nation’’, it was Winnie Mandela who stood alongside Nelson Mandela in the duo’s struggle against the tyranny of white rule in a black majority South Africa.

She remained married to Nelson Mandela for 37 years, with Mandela spending 28 of those years behind bars on an Island next to Cape Town.

Born in a village near Eastern Cape on September 26, 1936, Winnie moved to Johannesburg in 1953 to study social work. It was there, in 1958, that she met Mandela.

The pair married the same year, with their marriage lasting 28-year-period between 1962 and 1990, the time Nelson Mandela spent behind bars.

Due to her fierce struggle against and her vocal criticism of apartheid, Winnie was arrested in the year 1969.

Her role in Soweto Uprising

Soweto Uprising took place in South Africa in 1976 when scores of black students came out on the street protesting a government decree which forced all the colored schools to use English and Afrikaans as languages of instruction.

It was during this struggle that Winnie Mandela made her name. She was at the forefront of this struggle, often taking the stage to voice her views against the Government and its apartheid policies

That said, her reputation suffered a dent in 1991 when she was arrested and convicted of a 1991 kidnapping and killing of a 14-year-old suspected spy by her bodyguards.

She was handed a six-year imprisonment sentence at the conclusion of the case, though it was later reduced to a fine.

Shrugging off the controversy, Madikizela-Mandela was elected president of the women league of ANC in 1993. In 1994, as Nelson Mandela became President, Winnie became a member of the parliament and was later promoted to become the deputy arts and science minister of South Africa.

Even during her days in the cabinet, she didn’t hold back from attacking the government on policies which she thought were against the goodwill of common man.

So furious were her attacks that only a year after she became a minister in the first-ever multi-racial government of South Africa, Nelson Mandela expelled her from his cabinet.

In 1999, she was elected for another parliamentary term. However, she had to resign in 2003 after being again convicted by a court of law for fraudulently taking bank loans – though she used the loans to help poor people.

The conviction was overturned a year later after it was proved that she had not used the loans for any personal gain.

Fake Weed Causes 2 Deaths in Illinois

Jessie
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Fake Weed Causes 2 Deaths in Illinois

The Illinois Department of Public Health further confirmed that at least nine of the cases were tested positive for rat poison.

Synthetic cannabinoids – also known as fake weed – have been linked to two deaths and 56 cases of profuse bleeding across the areas in central Illinois as well as in Chicago.

After ingesting the drug, patients displayed worrying symptoms including blood in the urine, bleeding gums, bloody nose, and coughing up blood. All the patients were hospitalized.

In yet another worrying aspect of this story, the Illinois Department of Public Health stated on Monday that of all the people who were hospitalized – nine of them tested positive for rat poison.

Currently, the state officials are trying to determine the source from where all the victims obtained the drug, while also looking to find a common cannabinoid related to these cases.

Since the investigation is still ongoing, many questions remain unaddressed; the most important of which is the contaminant which poisoned the drug.

Also, while 17 of the recent patients belonged to Chicago, the Department of Public Health has warned that the contaminated products could be spread across the state.

There also were twelve cases in Tazewell County, 14 in Peoria Country, five in Cook Country, 2 in Kankakee County, and one each in the Kane, Will, McLean, and DuPage Counties. The origin of two cases is yet to be confirmed.

What is Fake Weed?

Also known as synthetic cannabinoid, fake weed is a synthetic chemical which can be consumed via an e-cigarette in the form of vaporized liquids, or can be smoked after sprinkling on shredded, dried plant material.

These chemicals are known as cannabinoids because they have similar properties to those chemicals which are found in marijuana.

That said, the synthetic cannabinoids are 85 times as potent as the chemical found in marijuana. Their adverse effects include rapid heart rate, hallucinations, agitation, and vomiting.

Not the First Time

While current events have proved to be deadly, America has, in the past, also faced similar health problems which owed their origin to synthetic cannabinoids.

For example, in 2017, 102 cases were reported in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who overdosed on synthetic marijuana. Fortunately, none of those cases were fatal.

A similar scenario happened in 2016 when 33 people in Brooklyn fell ill after what the doctors suspected to be an overdose of synthetic pot.

People Born In September Are Usually Smarter, Study Claims

Jessie
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People Born In September Are Usually Smarter, Study Claims

In addition to making the claim, the study further reveals the reason as to why it is that September-born babies are smarter than their counterparts who are born in other months of the year.

According to a study which your September-born friend would surely love, babies who are born in September are smarter than everyone else.

In case you are wondering, the reason has to do with the school year which begins in September and concluded in the mid of August.

As a result, when children born in September enroll in school, they are one year older than their non-September classmates, hence the reason why they are on the sharper side.

All of this is claimed in a study published in the National Bureau of Economic Research, which further found that being on the elder side does give the children a head start in school.

The researchers were able to draw this conclusion after studying the cognitive development patterns of over 1.2million school students. Belonging to Florida, the ages of these school students ranged between six and fifteen.

To fortify their study, the researchers – in addition to cataloging the data of September born children, compared it with children who were born in other months as well.

Furthermore, the researchers also concluded that the increase in scores was not a one-off pattern, instead, it built over time. So much so that if a child is born in September, he stands a very good chance of getting admission into a good university.

In addition to their birth month, the study also took other socio-economic factors of the children into its stride. These factors included the ethnicity of the child’s parents, their affluence, as well as their education.

In yet another important finding of the story, if you are born in September, chances are very dim that you’d spend time behind bars. The study concluded this visiting youth detention centers in Florida to look and analyze the data of their residents.

A separate study, which was carried out by IFL science, further notes that if you are born in September – and are left-handed – you have a more developed right brain hemisphere, which means you’re above average at spatial reasoning.

London Overtakes New York In Murder Rate

Jessie
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London Overtakes New York In Murder Rate

According to a report published in an English newspaper, this is the first time in history that the city of Big Ben has overtaken its American counterpart in bloodshed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YH95ql-Ugg

There is at least one area in which London leads New York; however that is not something the Londoners could be proud of.

British daily Sunday Times reports that in February, 15 people were murdered in London, while 14 were murdered in New York.

Both the cities share an iconic status on the world stage and consist of diverse populations. As a result, while New York has just over 8.5 million residents, London is just ahead with its 8.7 million residents.

In addition to February, March also perched London above New York in terms of murder rate; with 22 murders in London versus 21 killings in New York.

Over the years, the crime rate has massively declined in the American city. For instance, while 2250 people were murdered in the year 1990, the number dropped by a massive 90% in 2017.

As for London, while its killing rate has fluctuated over the decades, it has seen a 38% rise in its killing rate since 2014.

The Sunday Times report further noted that since the year 1800, London’s murder rate per person fluctuated between half and a 20th of the same in New York.

That said, not all is doom and gloom for the Londoners, with the report further noting that overall in 2018, the English City has witnessed few killings – 45 versus 55 – to that of New York.

When asked to comment on the matter, the Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick partially blamed websites and mobile phone apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube for the killings, as per the Evening Standard.

London City Hall, meanwhile, insists that despite the recent increase in bloodshed, the English capital still remains one of the safest cities in the world.

The increase in murder rate is a huge challenge for London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who is already grappling to make sure that the exit from the European Union doesn’t translate into a loss of jobs for the residents of the City.

‘Roseanne’s’ pro-Trump reboot draws massive audience

Jessie
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‘Roseanne’s’ pro-Trump reboot draws massive audience

For a network sitcom, the 18.2million audience that Roseanne drew for its opening two episodes is the biggest in over three years.

A Pro-Trump ‘’Roseanne’’ TV sitcom which is currently airing on ABC is making ratings great again for the TV channel.

Over 18.2million viewers tuned in to watch the sitcom, making it the second-most-hit scripted TV show of the current season.

On Tuesday night, ABC aired the reboot of Roseanne, in which the matriarch of the house is shown as a Trump supporter.

The only scripted show which has managed to bag a bigger audience that Roseanne is NBC’s ‘’This Is Us.’’ The show was aired post Super-Bowl and managed to garner an audience of just under 27 million viewers.

While the success of the episode also owes it to its popularity, critics are also pointing towards the uncertain times the US is facing as a probable reason.

With shocks coming consistently from the White House almost on a daily basis, TV viewership is finding solace in familiar TV friends.

As for ABC, the strong show which the premiere of ‘’Roseanne’’ managed couldn’t have come at a better time. For, just like its rivals, ABC is finding it hard to compete with streaming services like Netflix and Hulu.

So difficult has the competition become for ABC that last summer, Shonda Rhimes, one of the most prolific producers of ABC, departed for Netflix.

As for ‘’Roseanne’’, it revolves around Conners, an upper-middle-class family which lives in Lanford, a fictional Illinois Town.

Unlike other TV drams of the recent past – which have eschewed politics in fear of a backlash from the opposing ideology – the first two episodes of Roseanne were full of politics and current affairs.

So much so that, Roseanne Barr, the protagonist of the drama, revealed in the first episode that she was a pro-Trump supporter.

However, to balance things out, her sister Jackie Harris, whose role is played by Laurie Metcalf, is shown as a Hillary Clinton supporter.

Dawson’s Creek Reunion: Cast Reunites for the 20th Anniversary

Jessie
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Dawson’s Creek Reunion: Cast Reunites for the 20th Anniversary

20 years after the airing of the first episode of the iconic teen show Dawson’s Creek, its cast reunited for a cover shoot for Entertainment Weekly.

Posing for the cover of Entertainment Weekly, the cast of Dawson’s Creek have reunited. It is the first time that the audiences will see all of them together since the ending of the show.

In the show, the main character of Dawson Leery was played by James Van Der Beek.  Katie Holmes starred alongside him as Joey Potter, Joshua Jackson played the role of Pacey Witter, and Michelle Williams starred as Jen Lindley.

A number of other stars also made their name on the show, like John Wesley Shipp, who played the role of Mitch Leery, Nina Repeta as Bessie Porter, Kerr Smith as Jack McPhee, Monica Keena as Abby Morgan, and Meredith Monroe as Andie Phee.

The final episode of Dawson’s Creek, which was televised in 2003, was divided into two parts. It was titled ‘’All Good Things …Must Come to an End, Part one and two’’.

The finale was an effort to combine parts of the future with the present, so as to conclude the storylines which had then been evolving for nearly half a decade.

In the final episode, Dawson was shown working as a producer and TV writer in Los Angeles, where he lived permanently. His mind often diverted to Joey, who lives in New York City and works as a book publisher.

Pacey had become the owner of Ice House, however, just like Dawson, she was unable to erase from her mind the thoughts of Joey.

As for Jen, she was a single mother who was living in New York with her grandmother. She was shown managing an art gallery in the final episode.

Jack, meanwhile, was teaching at Capeside High, the same school where the entire gang of Dawson’s Creek studied at their prime.

Court: Emolument Lawsuit Against President Trump May Proceed

Jessie
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Court: Emolument Lawsuit Against President Trump May Proceed

This lawsuit, which alleges that the President is violating the constitution by refusing to distance himself from his businesses, would add to the woes of President Trump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIrUhsSsGO4

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a lawsuit, which alleges that the payments or gifts from domestic and foreign governments made to President Trump could be illegal, may proceed.

That said, the scope of the ruling is not universal in nature, which means that the judge asked the Maryland and District of Columbia attorney general, who brought the lawsuit, to focus on the operations of the Trump Organization in Washington.

In other words, it means that going forward, the case would only focus on the payments made by foreign and local dignitaries at the Trump International Hotel.

However, the likes of Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida or any other Trump properties throughout the U.S. would remain untouched.

While filing the lawsuit, DC and Maryland alleged that the operations of the Trump International Hotel in Washington put other entertainment properties and nearby hotels at a competitive disadvantage.

They further alleged that the International Hotel has got special tax concessions during the Trump administration.

Judge Messitte, who was presiding over the case in US District Court of Maryland, refused to make any ruling on the allegations leveled at President Trump in the case.

The allegations accuse President Trump of using his family business to take illicit gifts from foreign governments, hence violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

Still, the judge hinted at how he thinks about the Trump International Hotel. For example, throughout his ruling, the judge has, for multiple times, referred the Trump International Hotel as the ‘’President’s Hotel.’’

During the case, attorneys for President Trump made the argument that the power of barring or approving the President from getting emoluments rests solely with Congress. In response, the judge called this argument as ‘’particularly concerning.’’

It is not the first time that the dealings of the Trump family’s business have raised question marks regarding the conduct of President Trump.

For instance, after he won the 2016 election, President Trump broke with the tradition set by former US Presidents when he simply refused to divest in his businesses.

Instead, he decided to move his assets in a trust, which was controlled by none other than his two sons.

Will Ferrell the latest Celebrity to #DeleteFacebook

Jessie
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Will Ferrell the latest Celebrity to #DeleteFacebook

The decision by the veteran comedian to join the #DeleteFacebook movement is another blow to the besieged Social Media giant.

Will Ferrell has announced that he has had enough of Facebook.

In a post on the same platform, he has announced his decision to delete his Facebook account by Friday. Currently, his page has over 10.1 million fans.

Just like Playboy magazine before him, it was the mishandling of user’s data by Facebook which forced Ferrell to pull the plug on Facebook.

Due to the lax privacy policies of Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, a U.K. based data analytics firm, was able to gain unauthorized access to data of over 50 million users with the latter’s knowledge or access.

While Facebook initially remained adamant that it had done nothing wrong, stories in NY Times, Guardian, and the Observer Newspapers have forced it to take notice.

The social media giant has pledged that it would make changes to how users control their privacy settings at the platform and restrict the use of data by apps on the same.

However, as is evident by the decision of Ferrell, those measures weren’t able to quite satisfy the American actor.

Ferrell is not alone to #DeleteFacebook

While he might be the latest celebrity to join the #DeleteFacebook movement, Ferrell is not alone in piling misery on the social media platform.

For, it was only days ago that Elon Musk, billionaire tech entrepreneur and founder of SpaceX and Tesla, announced in a series of tweets that neither he nor any of his companies have ever advertised on Facebook.

Before Musk, Cher, the 71-year-old singer, and actress, also announced on Twitter that she deleted her Facebook account after the coming up of the Cambridge Analytica story.

In addition to celebrities, publications like Playboy are also joining the #DeleteFacebook movement. Cooper Hefner, the chief creative officer of Playboy, announced on his Twitter account his company’s decision to leave Facebook.

Due to such strong headwinds – and questions relating to the security of the platform, Facebook has lost over $80 billion USD in stock value since the Cambridge Analytica story broke.

H&M have a Concern: Unsold Clothes Worth $5.6 billion

Jessie
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H&M have a Concern: Unsold Clothes Worth $5.6 billion

The Swedish fashion retailer is facing this problem as more and more people are turning online to satiate their shopping needs.

In the world of shopping, fashion retail is fast moving online, so much so that a large chunk of world’s population now prefers buying over the internet.

This trend is a double-edged sword for fashion retailers. For, where at one end they could sell more products than ever, they also have to keep a large inventory, on the other.

And guess what, the Swedish Fashion retailer H&M is facing a similar problem these days. Reports quote that the company has an unsold inventory of $5.6 billion in the pipeline.

Apart from including shirts, the products which are available in the pipeline of H&M includes dresses, house decorating items, and other accessories.

H&M outlined the unsold clothes problem that it is facing in a recent quarterly report, which was released to its shareholders on March 27.

The report prompted questions as to whether the Swedish fashion retailer is able to acclimatize itself with the changing customer demands, not to mention that its mounting inventory could also jeopardize its competitiveness with other fashion retail brands around the world.

H&M cannot complain that they didn’t see this problem coming. For, it was in one of its quarterly reports last year that H&M announced a huge drop in sales.

While the decline was unexpected – as it was the company’s first in the last two decades – it should still have prepared them to deal with the storm coming ahead.

A major reason why their sales have dropped is that customers are shying away from crowded shop floors, and going in favor of online shopping.

Another major reason is the expansion in the operations of the retailer – as it is opening 220 new stores worldwide and is turning to e-commerce operations in the future.

The scale of the problem – as H&M states that its unsold stock had grown by 7% in one year – also illustrates the vast size of the company.

For example, the Swedish town of Vasteras, where the first-ever store of H&M is founded, had many power plants which produce electricity only by burning the defective products which the retailer cannot sell in the open market.

Apart from the decrease in sales, another worrying aspect for H&M is the gloomy outlooks that analysts share about the retailer’s future. Rahul Sharma, one of the world’s premier market analysts, call the situation at H&M as a ‘’slow-motion wreck’’ soon after the first quarter results were released.

Disneyland to Turn Toy Story Pizza Planet Into Reality

Jessie
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Disneyland to Turn Toy Story Pizza Planet Into Reality

For the Toy Story fans out there (which means basically everyone, then), the story that Disneyland would turn the Pizza Planet into reality is a brilliant news.

In what is a great news for the inner-child in all of us, Disneyland is turning our dreams into reality by opening a real-life Pizza Planet from Toy Story.

If you haven’t rewatched the Toy Story at least once this year, turn to the clip above to refresh your memory on what the Pizza Planet was in Pixar’s Toy Story.

In news reported by Disney News Today, the Pizza Planet would replace the Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port in Tomorrowland at Disneyland.The report further states that the overhaul of the place would be complete just in time for this year’s PIXAR Fest.

Quoting internal documents, the report suggests that the Pizza Planet would open on April 13th, the same date on which the PIXAR Fest would start.

Currently, the overhaul of the place is planned to be temporary, though, looking at the history of past overhauls in Disneyland, we could hope that the Pizza Planet is here to stay.

For example, Pinocchio Village Haus ‘’temporarily’’ turned into Red Rose Taverne last year. However, as we now know, the Taverne is still standing even after a year, and there are no plans that it would be restored to Pinocchio restaurant anytime soon.

Another reason why the Pizza Planet might be here to stay is the widespread popularity of the Toy Story Franchise. The fourth film of the series, Toy Story 4, is set to hit cinemas on June 21, next year.

Consequently, if not for anything else, Disney could use the Pizza Planet for the promotion of the upcoming film.

It means that, if not for long, we should expect the Pizza Planet to stand at least till 2019 when the fourth Toy Story movie would be released.

Paris Attack Survivor: Gun Control Marchers Are ‘’Exploiting’’ Victims

Jessie
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Paris Attack Survivor: Gun Control Marchers Are ‘’Exploiting’’ Victims

The lead singer of Eagles of Death Metal – a band which was performing during a 2015 shooting in a Paris nightclub – has called the marchers of ‘’March for Our Lives’’ as ‘’disgusting vile abusers of the dead’’.

Jesse Hughes, the lead singer of Eagles of Death Metal, took to his Instagram account on Monday to call out the participants of the “March for Our Lives’’ protest.

Penning his tirade in the caption of his Instagram post – which has now been deleted – Hughes not only mocked the marchers but also ridiculed their efforts for stricter gun control laws.

“Obviously … The best thing to do to combat chronic abusers and disregarders of the law (like the law against Murder) is to … pass another Law,” Hughes wrote.

“But before we pass this law we’re going to denigrate the memory and curse ourselves by exploiting the death of 16 of our fellow students for a few Facebook likes and some media attention.”

Finally, he told his followers to “look how well civil rights abuses as it concerns firearms helped to protect me and my friends in Paris.”

Eagles of Death Metal was the band which was onstage during a 2015 shooting in Bataclan, Paris. The shooting, which took place on November 13th’s night, resulted in the deaths of 89 people, including the merchandise manager of the brand.

It is not the first time that Hughes has criticized the efforts for stricter gun-control laws. Last year, he made a ridiculous claim that the Bataclan shooting was ‘’an inside job’’ and that it occurred due to the lapse in security of the venue.

Afterward, he criticized the French Government as well for its effort to impose greater gun-control laws in the country.

Due to the ire that his comments drew that time, Hughes apologized later on – claiming that his comments were ‘’baseless’’. However, that didn’t deter numerous French music festivals from dropping Eagles of Death Metal from their lineup.

Pro-Gun Control Parkland Student Opts Out of Debate with Kashuv

Jessie
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Pro-Gun Control Parkland Student Opts Out of Debate with Kashuv

Cameron Kasky, the student of Marjory Douglas High School who had earlier agree to go on a live debate with fellow Parkland student Kyle Kashuv, has opted out of the deal.

A Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school student, who had earlier accepted the invitation of a live debate with fellow Parkland student Kyle Kashuv, has now announced that he has pulled out of the deal.

Cameron Kasky, an American activist who has repeatedly made calls to control gun violence in America, announced on his Twitter account on Monday night that he won’t live debate with Kashuv, who speaks in favor of the Second Amendment.

Kasky made the announcement on Twitter on Tuesday morning in response to a tweet by Kashuv which the former seemingly disapproved of.

“Kyle, I’ve enjoyed my discussion about gun laws with you so far, but after seeing this, I think I’m out. For personal reasons,” before adding that he ‘’ “disagree[s] on certain policies with some family members of some victims,” but that he would “never go after them, especially not like this. This is low.”

https://twitter.com/cameron_kasky/status/978423385360302081

The tweet of Kashuv came in response to Jesse Guttenberg. Guttenberg is a student at Marjory Douglas whose sister Jaime was fatally shot in the Parkland shooting last month.

Responding to no one in particular, Guttenberg had stated on his Twitter account that ‘’ “Clear backpacks are not the answer,” He further said that “anyone can sneak a knife into school by putting it into a folder or a gun by hiding it in their pants.”

In response, Kashuv tweeted: “Instead, let’s violate our Constitution?”

To the credit of Kashuv, he has apologized in a series of tweets afterward. In one such tweet, Kashuv said that the ‘’tweet was a mistake’’ and that he was ‘’regretful of it’’.

In another tweet, Kashuv was more unequivocal: “It was awful of me and I am wrong. Period. I am so sorry.”

Both Kasky and Kashuv had earlier agreed on a live debate after the former, while appearing on Fox News Sunday, claimed that since the ‘’NRA can’t attack our argument, so they’re attacking us personally’’.

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