America's 1% Has Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%

 Posted on August 19, 2024  |  18 minutes  |  3716 words  |  Martina Birk

Like many of the virus’s hardest hit victims, the United States went into the COVID-19 pandemic wracked by preexisting conditions. A fraying public health infrastructure, inadequate medical supplies, an employer-based health insurance system perversely unsuited to the moment—these and other afflictions are surely contributing to the death toll. But in addressing the causes and consequences of this pandemic—and its cruelly uneven impact—the elephant in the room is extreme income inequality. [Read More]

Another window on a Southwest plane has failed, but airplane windows are stronger than you think (LU

 Posted on August 19, 2024  |  1 minutes  |  205 words  |  Patria Henriques

The incident comes on the heels of Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 which made an emergency landing in Philadelphia after an uncontained engine failure blew out one of the Boeing 737's windows on April 17. The resulting decompression nearly sucked a passenger out of the window. That passenger, Jennifer Riordan, later died from her injuries. Fortunately for Flight 957, the aircraft did not depressurize and no injuries have been reported. [Read More]

Baby2Baby: 2023 TIME100 Most Influential Companies

 Posted on August 19, 2024  |  1 minutes  |  130 words  |  Martina Birk

For millions of families living in poverty, diapers are unaffordable, and most U.S. government programs don’t cover the cost (up to $100 per month per child). Baby2Baby, a national nonprofit led by co-CEOs Kelly Sawyer Patricof and Norah Weinstein, has distributed 150 million diapers to families in need since 2011, working with homeless shelters, domestic-­violence and foster-­care programs, and other organizations. In 2021, it developed its own diaper-­manufacturing system to cut out middlemen and lower costs. [Read More]

BATTLE OF AFRICA: The Scythe and the Ring

 Posted on August 19, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  843 words  |  Patria Henriques

In Tunisia, Axis and Allied troops approached the climactic battle for North Africa. The news last week was fragmentary. Virtually all that General Dwight Eisenhower’s headquarters revealed was that Allied forces were moving steadily eastward from Algeria. The advance was four-pronged —one prong aimed at the Gulf of Gabes in order to cut any communication with Rommel’s troops in Libya, the other prongs designed to make a scythelike sweep against Bizerte and Tunis. [Read More]

BBNaijas Nina reportedly remarries two years after proxy marriage

 Posted on August 19, 2024  |  1 minutes  |  115 words  |  Patria Henriques

According to ThisDay, the reality star married her new sweetheart in a secret court wedding ceremony in the United States months after meeting in 2021. While the star is yet to publicly flaunt her new man, her social media handles currently spots his last name Miller. ADVERTISEMENT The celebrity had in the past months dropped hints that all was not well in her two-year marriage. News of Nina’s new wedding bells comes two years after the mom of one married a US-based Nigerian businessman. [Read More]

Big Brother Naija Pepper Dem Reunion show Day 17: Elozonam talks Diane's ultimate betrayal

 Posted on August 19, 2024  |  2 minutes  |  320 words  |  Billy Koelling

Speculations initiated by show host, Ebuka insinuated that popular actor, Mawuli Gavor might be the reason Diane and Elozonam called their relationship quits. In the latest episode, the former lovebirds each gave bridged and unabridged versions involving the infamous MG and how his presence marred whatever happily ever after potential there was. Catch the highlights: Put the Blame on MG ADVERTISEMENT After a few scathing comments between former housemates, Elozonam and Diane, the former took the reins with an unabridged version of what went down at the show's finale party. [Read More]

Books: That B.B.B.B. Old B.

 Posted on August 19, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  1035 words  |  Billy Koelling

MARLBOROUGH’S DUCHESS (314 pp.)—Louis Kronenberger—Knopf ($5.75). Authors who “understand women” may do so because they have learned first to understand men—and to know what a woman must contend with in her particular time and society. Author Louis Kronenberger, TIME’S theater critic and an authority on 18th century Britain, knows that Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, was one of the toughest, tetchiest, worldliest women of her time—but also that the time itself was one of treachery and double-dealing, an age in which England was “almost plagued with brilliance, and swollen with ambition. [Read More]

Crime: Lock 'Em Up!And Throw Away the Key

 Posted on August 19, 2024  |  9 minutes  |  1781 words  |  Billy Koelling

“WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT these kids (monsters) who kill with guns??? Line them up against the wall and get a firing squad and pull, pull, pull. I am volunteering to pull, pull, pull.” That’s not a rap lyric. It’s from an anonymous letter to a judge in Dade County, Florida — part of the shared unconscious talking. And suddenly we’re all ears. In one of the most startling spikes in the history of polling, large numbers of Americans are abruptly calling crime their greatest concern. [Read More]

Did you know about the Igbo People of Jamaica?

 Posted on August 19, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  519 words  |  Martina Birk

Originating primarily from the Bight of Biafra in West Africa, Igbo people were taken in relatively high numbers to Jamaica as slaves, between 1790 and 1809 during the transatlantic slave trade. Besides Virginia, Jamaica was the second most common disembarkation point for slave ships arriving from Biafra. During this period, the culture and language of the Igbos diffused into the Jamaican culture. One of the major results of this diffusion is the infusion of some Igbo words into the Jamaican Patois. [Read More]