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8+ min ago (323+ words) Jordan Harrison's sci-fi tale about robots that help people grieve receives its first Broadway production "I'd like to be a machine, wouldn't you?" That Andy Warhol quote kept running through my mind as I watched Jordan Harrison's "Marjorie Prime," which opened Monday at the Helen Hayes Theatre. When it was all over, I much preferred watching the actors impersonate machines in Harrison's sci-fi tale than watching them impersonate human beings. Robots are designed to be pleasant, efficient, clean. People are designed to be difficult, contrary, messy. There's a reason why, in the middle of the 90-minute "Marjorie Prime," the human Marjorie (June Squibb) soils herself. Anne Kauffman directed the 2015 Playwrights Horizons production of Harrison's play, and she also brings this Broadway revival to the stage, complete with a near replica of Lee Jellinek's pretty but sterile living room/kitchen set…...

16+ min ago (342+ words) The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board took issue Monday with the Trump administration's new national security strategy, adding to a bevy of criticism the board has heaped on the president. But the Journal bemoaned that Trump's geographic focus lacks strategic coherence, as the document severely underestimates threats from China and Russia. "By any measure the largest threat to the U.S. is the hostile power across the Pacific that has tripled its nuclear arsenal in five years'China," the Journal noted. "Yet the document describes commerce as 'the ultimate stakes' in the Pacific and treats trade imbalances as a bigger threat to U.S. prosperity than Beijing's military buildup." The editorial added, "The best defense for this weakness on China is that the Administration wants to conciliate to buy time while Beijing holds the whip hand on rare-earth production." The strategy pledges to "build…...

21+ min ago (268+ words) The two-term Texas congresswoman seeks to flip seat held by Republican John Cornyn in the GOP-dominated state Democratic representative Jasmine Crockett launched a bid for US Senate in Texas on Monday, bringing a high-profile official to a race that may be critical to Democrats" bold ambition to reclaim a Senate majority in next year"s midterm elections. Crockett, one of Congress"s most outspoken Democrats and a frequent target of GOP attacks, made the announcement shortly before the state"s 6pm deadline for candidates to file the paperwork to run in the primary, due to be held on 3 March. The two-term representative of Dallas is seeking to flip the seat held by Republican John Cornyn, who is running for re-election in the GOP-dominated state. She will be up against state representative and rising star James Talarico of Austin, whose campaign has…...

24+ min ago (559+ words) US judge orders lifting of Trump-backed limits on Rumeysa Ozturk Salah dropped by Liverpool for Inter Milan clash after outburst Pope Leo gets into Christmas spirit with peace prayer in Rome Yasser Abu Shabab's death: Israel's failed proxy gambit in Gaza One year after Assad's fall, Syrians await transitional justice One year ago, Syria toppled Assad. Is rebuilding the hard part? One year of a free Syria The structural ignorance behind declaring Islam 'a death cult' Syria reclaims life: Culture and freedom return post-Assad Syria's dawn: Diaspora families return after 14 years A federal judge on Monday cleared the way for a Tufts University PhD student and pro-Palestinian activist Rumeysa Ozturk to work on campus after ordering the Trump administration to restore her status in a key database used to track foreign students. Chief US District Judge Denise Casper in Boston…...

30+ min ago (292+ words) Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) threw out some praise for her fellow congressional Nancy in an op-ed for The New York Times on Monday, writing that Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) "was a more effective Speaker than any Republican this century." Both Nancys are leaving Congress. Mace is joining a crowded GOP primary to become South Carolina's next governor, and Pelosi announced last month that she would not seek re-election. In an op-ed headlined "What's the Point of Congress?", Mace wrote how she "came to Congress five years ago believing I could make a difference for my constituents, for South Carolina and for a country I love deeply," but she had "learned that the system in the House promotes control by party leaders over accountability and achievement." "No one can be held responsible for inaction, so far too little gets done,…...

35+ min ago (403+ words) Feminists expressed outrage today after footage circulated of France's first lady Brigitte Macron using a slur against activists who disrupted the show of an actor-comedian who had once been accused of rape. The first lady's team said she had intended to criticise their "radical method" of protest. Activists at the weekend interrupted the stand-up show of 51-year-old Ary Abittan, wearing masks of the actor bearing the word "rapist" and shouting "Abittan rapist". A woman in 2021 accused the actor of rape but in 2023 investigators dropped the case, citing lack of evidence. Brigitte Macron the next day went to see the show with her daughter Tiphaine Auziere, and spoke to Abittan before he went on stage, according to a video published by local media Public on Monday. "I'm scared," Abittan is heard saying in the clip. The feminist group behind the action,…...

37+ min ago (122+ words) On November 30, six million Hondurans voted in their presidential election. One week later, the outcome of the election has not yet been announced due to credible allegations of fraud and illegal interference by the Trump administration, which includes threats of ending remittances from the United States that account for 25% of Hondura's GDP. Clearing the FOG speaks with Camila Escalante of Press TV and a founder of Kawsachun News who has covered Latin America for nearly ten years. Escalante provides background to the current political crisis and explains what is known so far about the election. She describes similarities to the 2019 coup in Bolivia. The post Another US-Backed Coup Attempt Is Underway In Honduras appeared first on PopularResistance.Org....

38+ min ago (209+ words) A former Fox News host tore into President Donald Trump's latest comments toward a female reporter during an interview on CNN on Monday night. "There's not a person out there that would say, 'Boy, I hope my child grows up and speaks to women like that,'" Carlson railed. "This is reprehensible. He has gotten worse with it, only doing it, apparently, to women in the last couple of weeks. From 'piggy' to 'your obnoxious,' it's despicable." Trump's comments to Scott are not the first time the president has made crass remarks to a female reporter. About a month ago, Trump snapped at Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey on Air Force One after she asked the president about the Jeffrey Epstein files. He responded by calling her a "piggy." Just before Thanksgiving, the president also called New York Times reporter Katie Rogers…...

39+ min ago (655+ words) TheWrap magazine: "Maybe I would have listened, but at that time I didn't listen to a lot of people," says the 16-time Oscar nominee You know the score. We all do. Diane Warren has been nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars 15 times. She's never won, although she does have the only Academy Honorary Award ever given to a songwriter. Still, she really wants to win a competitive award. Every year she has a new song in the running. For the past eight years in a row, that new song has been nominated. She goes to lots of awards-season events, even though she's not the partying type. "It forces me to be social," she said. "I tend to sit in my room and write my songs." We know this, too: If she ever does break through and win that…...

44+ min ago (246+ words) Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, the recut version of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2, is in theaters for the twentieth anniversary. The Mary Sue sent me, intrepid reporter Leah Marilla Thomas, to watch it for the first time in this fashion. One of the things I wanted to track while watching for the first time was what film studies and cultural osmosis/the general zeitgeist had taught me about this film. Here's what I already knew: As for other changes, I obviously didn't know what footage was new, but no chapter felt like it overstayed its welcome. Reading up on which sequences got padding after the fact, I wish that the animated flashback about Lucy Liu's character was even longer, actually. Loved her! Woof. Her dogs really are out. I really wish I didn't see…...