Britain is making known its hopes to one day join the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP, a free trade agreement currently being negotiated by eleven countries bordering the Pacific and the South China Sea.

The British government hopes trade with fast-growing economies will make up for losses that may occur after it leaves the European Union as scheduled in 2019.

On a recent trip to China, Britain Trade Minister Liam Fox tentatively suggested his country could one day join the TPP.

“We don’t know what the success of the TPP is going to yet look like, because it isn’t yet negotiated. So, it would be a little bit premature for us to be wanting to sign up to something that we’re not sure what the final details will look like. However, we have said that we want to be an open, outward-looking country, and therefore it would be foolish for us to rule out any particular outcomes for the future,” Fox told reporters during the trip last week.

London sits some 7,000 kilometers from any Pacific coastline. So, does geography no longer matter in 21st century trade? Not so, said Jonathan Portes, an economist and professor at Kings College London.

“There has been an argument put forward that particularly as trade in services expands, and as a result of technology, it will matter considerably less in the future, and that seems to make a lot of sense. However, unfortunately, so far at least, the actual data and evidence don’t really support this contention. For whatever reason, geography at the moment seems to matter as much as it ever did,” he said.

By leaving the European Union’s Single Market and Customs Union on its doorstep, Britain will abandon a free trade agreement that accounts for about half of its global trade. In contrast, all eleven countries currently negotiating the TPP combined accounted for less than 8 percent of British goods exported last year.

Portes said it will take decades for other trade deals to make up ground.

“Our companies are in many cases very closely integrated with the European Union, meaning that there will be substantial disruption as a result of the likely implications of Brexit.”

The countries negotiating the TPP include Chile, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

During his tenure, U.S. President Barack Obama was a driving force behind TPP, but his successor, Donald Trump, pulled the United States out of the deal, claiming it would be bad for America. Negotiations between the eleven remaining countries are progressing slowly.

“The TPP, already as a consequence of the U.S. withdrawal, has its own internal problems. And they’re going to have to work out how to get that back on track,” said Portes.

But Britain’s interest in the TPP has been welcomed by some of the parties involved, particularly Australia.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to visit Asia later this year in an attempt to boost ties ahead of Brexit.
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From: MeNeedIt

Venezuela’s opposition-run parliament on Tuesday outlawed a “petro” cryptocurrency promoted by socialist President Nicolas Maduro, calling it an effort to illegally mortgage the cash-strapped country’s oil reserves.

Maduro on Friday said his government would issue nearly $6 billion of petros as a way to raise hard currency and to evade financial sanctions imposed by Washington.

Cryptocurrency experts say Venezuela’s mismanagement of its own economy, combined with the ruling Socialist Party’s historic lack of respect for private property rights, will likely leave investors uninterested in acquiring petros.

“This is not a cryptocurrency, this is a forward sale of Venezuelan oil,” said legislator Jorge Millan. “It is tailor-made for corruption.”

Legislators warned investors that the petro would be seen as null and void once Maduro, who is up for re-election this year, is no longer in office. They added that the petro issue violates constitutional requirements that the legislature approve borrowing.

The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Maduro has routinely ignored the legislature since his party lost control of it in 2016, and the pro-government Supreme Court has shot down nearly every measure passed since then.

In July, the country elected an all-powerful legislative body called the Constituent Assembly, a vote that was boycotted by the opposition.

The government of U.S. President Donald Trump described the new Constituent Assembly as the consolidation of a dictatorship, and issued sanctions barring U.S. financial institutions from acquiring any debt issued by Venezuela after mid-2017.

That has effectively blocked Maduro’s government from refinancing its hefty debt burden, and would likely add to investor concern about the petro, although it was not specifically mentioned in the sanctions measure.

Maduro hopes it will serve as a payment mechanism for foreign suppliers and avoid the payments delays that have grown more acute since the sanctions went into place.

The government plans in the coming weeks to issue 100 million petros, backed by 100 million barrels of oil reserves.

The petro’s price is initially to be pegged to the value of Venezuela’s basket of oil and fuel exports, which last week closed at $59.07.
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From: MeNeedIt

Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos is now the richest person of all time, with a fortune of $105.1 billion, according to financial news outlet Bloomberg.

With the stock market soaring to new heights in the first few days of 2018, Bezos’ fortune rocketed upward, growing $6.1 billion in just five trading days.

That happened because most of Bezos’ wealth is contained in shares of Amazon.com, the online retail giant. Shares of Amazon rose 56 percent in 2017 and more than 6 percent since the start of this year.

Financial news trackers differ on whether Bezos is the richest man in history, or if his nearest rival, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, holds that record.

Bezos surpassed Gates briefly last year before taking the lead for good in October and crossing the $100-billion mark by November, buoyed by the holiday shopping season.

Gates is worth more than $90 billion, but financial experts say he would be worth far more if he had not given away so much in cash and shares of Microsoft to charity. Bloomberg reports that if Gates had not given away some $36 billion of stock to charity, his fortune would be worth more than $150 billion.

In addition to Amazon, Bezos’ holdings include The Washington Post and the space exploration company, Blue Origin.
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From: MeNeedIt

They’re the friendly face of North Korea, and it looks like they’re coming south to the Olympics.

With sparkling costumes and winning smiles, figure skaters Ryom Tae Ok and Kim Ju Sik could lead the North Korean team in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next month after their government said Tuesday it would send athletes to the Winter Games.

Ryom and Kim are the only North Korean athletes who have qualified for the Feb. 9-25 Olympics in Pyeongchang so far. However, the International Olympic Committee could potentially hold extra invitational spots open to symbolize togetherness between the two Koreas.

Ryom and Kim almost certainly won’t win a medal in the fiercely competitive world of pairs skating, but they’ve already won friends against a backdrop of political tension.

On their world championship debut last year in Finland, Ryom and Kim put in two spirited skates to enthusiastic applause from the crowd as they finished 15th, above one of the two U.S. pairs and a string of more experienced European competitors.

They weren’t afraid to show their feelings, either. The 18-year-old Ryom punched the air with joy on finishing the short program to a Jeff Beck cover of The Beatles classic A Day in the Life.

Ryom and her partner, Kim, embraced in their matching silver-and-black costumes before soaking up the crowd’s cheers and skating off to celebrate with their coaches.

Rarely seen abroad, they have given little away about their lives, other than that they train in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. At the world championships, Kim said he was keen to take part in “a big competition” when asked about the Olympics through a translator from his team. They wouldn’t talk about visiting South Korea and walked away when asked about their choice of music.

Previous boycott

North Korea was far from certain to compete in Pyeongchang. It boycotted the only other Olympics hosted in South Korea, the Seoul Games of 1988, and often has skipped the Winter Olympics entirely.

It hasn’t won a winter medal since 1992 and its last team, in 2010, consisted of just one figure skater and one speed skater, neither of whom came close to the podium.

By contrast, North Korea punches above its weight in the Summer Olympics. It won seven medals across weightlifting, gymnastics, shooting and table tennis in 2016.

Even with a deal for North Korea to compete in Pyeongchang, the two Koreas and the IOC face some thorny issues of protocol.

Flags, anthems and the opening ceremony all will require delicate negotiation.

At the games themselves, any slip-up could spark a diplomatic incident. The North Korean women’s soccer team walked off the field at the 2012 Olympics when the South Korean flag was mistakenly shown in a pre-game video package.

North and South Korean athletes have marched together at some previous Olympics during periods of warmer relations between the two governments, and South Korea has suggested a repeat in Pyeongchang. If they march separately, the South Korean team would massively outnumber the North Koreans.
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From: MeNeedIt

Oil prices surged to a three-year high Tuesday on rising expectations that OPEC member countries will comply with oil production cuts to the end of 2018.

Brent Crude prices are headed toward $70 a barrel, West Texas Crude settled at $62.96 bbl, the highest since December 2014. But other factors could derail OPEC member agreement on production quotas, including continued expansion of U.S. shale production and the likelihood of stronger global demand. 

Analysts say rapid changes in supply and demand could trigger an early exit or prompt member countries to cheat on production quotas, especially when prices start to rise.

Meanwhile, the United States is increasingly less dependent on foreign oil, thanks in part to the shale boom and the influx of cheap natural gas. U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts U.S. crude oil production will climb to more than 10 million barrels per day by the first quarter of 2018, exceeding 11 million bpd in 2019.  

The American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. trade group that represents the oil and natural gas industry, boasted Tuesday about helping to create “U.S. energy abundance” but said the industry was focused on minimizing the harmful effects of greenhouse gases associated with fossil fuels.

In his 2018 State of American Energy address, API president and CEO Jack Girard said it was time to move beyond the debate over climate change.

“I think we’re at the point where we need to get over the conversation of who believes and who doesn’t, and move to a conversation about solutions,” he said.

The U.S. is now the world’s biggest natural gas producer. Despite a 30 percent increase in domestic natural gas production since 2008, Girard says CO2 emissions in the U.S. are near 25-year lows, and key air pollutants have declined 73 percent since 1970.
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From: MeNeedIt

Failure to rein in global temperature rises could cause the marine food web to collapse, devastating the livelihoods of tens of millions of people who rely on fisheries for food and income, scientists have warned.

Warming oceans restrict vital energy flows between different species in the marine ecosystem, reducing the amount of food available for bigger animals — mostly fish — at the top of the marine food web, according to a study in the journal PLOS Biology published Tuesday.

This could have “serious implications” for fish stocks, said Ivan Nagelkerken, a professor of marine ecology at Australia’s University of Adelaide and one of the study’s authors.

Globally, about 56.5 million people were engaged in fisheries and aquaculture in 2015, according to the latest data from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In addition, almost a fifth of animal protein consumed by 3.2 billion people in 2015 comes from fish, FAO said.

The Adelaide scientists set up 12 large tanks, each holding 1,800 liters of water, in a temperature-controlled room to replicate complex marine food webs, and test the effects of ocean acidification and warming over six months.

Plant productivity increased under warmer temperatures but this was mainly due to an expansion of bacteria which fish do not eat, Nagelkerken said in a phone interview.

The findings show that the 2015 Paris agreement on curbing global warming must be met “to safeguard our oceans from collapse, loss of biodiversity and less fishery productivity.”

Under the landmark agreement, world leaders agreed to limit the rise in average global temperatures to 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.

The United Nations, however, has warned the world is heading toward a 3-degree increase by 2100.

Recent studies have sounded alarm bells for oceans and its inhabitants as the Earth continues to experience record-breaking heat.

A Jan. 4 paper published in the journal Science said “dead zones” — where oxygen is too low to support most marine life — more than quadrupled in the past 50 years due to human activities.

Another said high ocean temperatures are harming tropical corals, which are nurseries for fish, almost five times more often than in the 1980s.
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From: MeNeedIt

Ecuador’s comptroller’s office on Monday announced it will open an audit of debt contracted in the last five years of the government of former President Rafael Correa to determine the legality of the operations and the use of the funds.

The move follows a report by the comptroller’s office revealing that some documentation relating to debt operations had been declared secret and that official reports on public debt had excluded some of the operations.

President Lenin Moreno, a former Correa protege, since his election last year been has criticized the ex-president’s handling of the economy and is seeking to unwind some Correa-era reforms. Correa says such efforts constitute a “coup” by Moreno.

A team of economists, lawyers and businessmen will analyze debt operations carried out between January 2012 and May 2017 and will present recommendations in April.

Comptroller Pablo Celi said Correa and former Finance Ministry officials had been notified about investigation.

Shortly after taking office last May, Moreno said that total public debt was $42 billion dollars, plus additional liabilities including some associated with payments to oil services companies.

I have just learned of a supposed preliminary report on the audit of the debt and a commission that includes several haters of the (Citizen’s Revolution),” Correa said via Twitter, referring to his political movement.

During a later speech in the city of Guayaquil he described the probe as “persecution.”

The former president is leading a campaign for the “No” vote in a Feb. 4 referendum on constitutional reforms include a measure to prohibit indefinite re-election, a measure Correa created that allowed him to run for a second term.

Correa himself in 2008 commissioned a team of experts to study the country’s prior debt operations. The experts concluded that several debt operations were “illegitimate,” leading his government to declare a default.
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From: MeNeedIt

From gritty neighborhoods in New York and Los Angeles to clinics in Kenya and Brazil, health workers are trying to popularize a pill that has proven highly effective in preventing HIV but which – in their view – remains woefully underused.

Marketed in the United States as Truvada, and sometimes available abroad in generic versions, the pill has been shown to reduce the risk of getting HIV from sex by more than 90 percent if taken daily. Yet worldwide, only about a dozen countries have aggressive, government-backed programs to promote the pill. In the U.S., there are problems related to Truvada’s high cost, lingering skepticism among some doctors and low usage rates among black gays and bisexuals who have the highest rates of HIV infection.

“Truvada works,” said James Krellenstein, a New York-based activist. “We have to start thinking of it not as a luxury but as an essential public health component of this nation’s response to HIV.”

A few large U.S. cities are promoting Truvada, often with sexually charged ads. In New York, “Bare It All” was among the slogans urging gay men to consult their doctors. The Los Angeles LGBT Center – using what it called “raw, real language” – launched a campaign to increase use among young Latino and black gay men and transgender women.

“We’ve got the tools to not only end the fear of HIV, but to end it as an epidemic,” said the center’s chief of staff, Darrel Cummings. “Those at risk have to know about the tools, though, and they need honest information about them.”

Truvada in the U.S.

In New York, roughly 30 percent of gay and bisexual men are using Truvada now, up dramatically from a few years ago, according to Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, a deputy commissioner of the city’s health department.

However, Daskalakis said use among young black and Hispanic men – who account for a majority of new HIV diagnoses – lags behind. To address that, the city is making Truvada readily available in some clinics in or near heavily black and Hispanic neighborhoods.

“We like to go to the root of the problem,” said Daskalakis, who personally posed for the “Bare It All” campaign.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , Truvada would be appropriate for about 1.2 million people in the U.S. – including sex workers and roughly 25 percent of gay men. Gilead Scientific, Truvada’s California-based manufacturer, says there are only about 145,000 active prescriptions for HIV prevention use.

Under federal guidelines, prime candidates for preventive use of Truvada include some gay and bisexual men with multiple sexual partners, and anyone who does not have HIV but has an ongoing sexual relationship with someone who has the virus.

An international approach 

Abroad, a few government health agencies – including those in France, Norway, Belgium, Kenya, South Africa, Brazil and some Canadian provinces – have launched major efforts to promote preventive use of Truvada or generic alternatives, providing it for free or a nominal charge. In Britain, health officials in Scotland and England recently took steps to provide the medication directly through government-funded programs, though in England it’s in the form of a trial limited to 10,000 people.

Truvada was launched in 2004, initially used in combination with other drugs as the basic treatment for people who have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. It is primarily spread through sex.

Controversy arose in 2012 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Truvada to reduce the risk of getting HIV in the first place, for what’s called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. It blocks the virus from making copies and taking hold. Critics warned that many gay men wouldn’t heed Truvada’s once-a-day schedule and complained of its high cost – roughly $1,500 a month.

Gilead offers a payment assistance plan to people without insurance that covers the full cost. Some cities and a few states – including Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington – also help cover costs. Activists have pressed Gilead to make its copay program more generous in light of its profits from Truvada.

“There’s no reason it has to cost so much,” said Krellenstein.

Gilead spokesman Ryan McKeel, in an email, said the company is reviewing the copay program.

“Like those in the advocacy community, we are committed to expanding access to Truvada for PrEP to as many people as possible,” he wrote.

In June, the FDA approved a generic version of Truvada, which is likely to push the price down, but it won’t be available in the U.S. for a few years.

The Truvada debate has taken many twists, as exemplified by the varying stances of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation – a leading HIV/AIDS service provider. In 2012, the group unsuccessfully petitioned the FDA to delay or deny approval of Truvada for preventive use. The foundation’s president, Michael Weinstein, belittled Truvada as “a party drug” and warned it would increase the spread of sexually transmitted infections by encouraging men to engage in sex without condoms.

But last year, the foundation, while still skeptical about some Truvada-related policies, urged Gilead to cut its price to make it more available.

“We have no dispute about its ability to prevent HIV transmission,” said spokesman Ged Kenslea. He noted that the organization’s 40 pharmacies across the U.S. handle many Truvada prescriptions.
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From: MeNeedIt

One person was killed Monday during clashes between security forces and protesters in a Tunisian town, a security official and residents said, as demonstrations over rising prices and tax increases spread in the North African country.

A man was killed during a demonstration against government austerity measures in Tebourba, 40 km (25 miles) west of Tunis, the security official said, without giving details.

The protest had turned violent when security forces tried stopping some youths from burning down a government building, witnesses said. Five people were wounded and taken to a hospital, state news agency TAP said.

Tunisia, widely seen in the West as the only democratic success among nations where Arab Spring revolts took place in 2011, is suffering increasing economic hardship.

Anger has been building up since the government said that from Jan. 1, it would increase the price of gasoil, some goods and taxes on cars, phone calls, the internet, hotel accommodations and other items, part of austerity measures agreed with its foreign lenders.

The 2018 budget also raises customs taxes on some products imported from abroad, such as cosmetics, and some agricultural products.

The economy has been in crisis since a 2011 uprising unseated the government and two major militant attacks in 2015 damaged tourism, which comprises 8 percent of GDP. Tunisia is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund to speed up policy changes and help the economy recover from the attacks.

Violent protests spread in the evening to at least 10 towns with police and crowds clashing in Fernaneh, Bouhajla, Ouslatia, Moulouche, Sabitla, Gtar and Kef.

There was also a protest turning violent in Ettadamen district in the capital, residents said. Security forces had already dispersed small protests in Tunis late Sunday.

On Monday, about 300 people also took to the streets in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, cradle of the country’s Arab Spring revolution, carrying banners aloft with slogans denouncing high prices.

A lack of tourists and new foreign investors pushed the trade deficit up by 23.5 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2017 to a record high $5.8 billion, official data showed at the end of December.

Weakened dinar

Concerns about the rising deficit have hurt the dinar, sending it to 3.011 versus the euro Monday, breaking the psychologically important 3 dinar mark for the first time, traders said.

The currency is likely to weaken further, said Tunisian financial risk expert Mourad Hattab.

“The sharp decline of the dinar threatens to deepen the trade deficit and make debt service payments tighter, which will increase Tunisia’s financial difficulties,” he said.

Hattab said the dinar may fall to 3.3 versus the euro in the coming months because of high demand for foreign currency and little expectation of intervention from the authorities.

Last year, former Finance Minister Lamia Zribi said the central bank would reduce its interventions so that the dinar steadily declined in value, but it would prevent any dramatic slide.

The central bank has denied any plans to liberalize the currency, but Hattab said Monday’s decline showed there was an “undeclared float” of the dinar.

A weaker currency could further drive up the cost of imported food after the annual inflation rate rose to 6.4 percent in December, its highest rate since July 2014, from 6.3 percent in November, data showed Monday.
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From: MeNeedIt

Oprah Winfrey’s moving speech at the Golden Globes has some fans and fellow celebrities calling for her presidential run.

The actress accepted the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award at Sunday’s ceremony, and it didn’t take long for Twitter to start lighting up with the hashtag #Oprah2020.

Comedian Sarah Silverman tweeted  “Oprah/Michelle 2020.” 

Leslie Odom, Jr., who played Aaron Burr in the Broadway musical “Hamilton” tweeted “She’s running. A new day is on the way.”

Winfrey brought the typically rowdy crowd to silence and tears with her speech.

She spoke of seeing Sidney Poitier win an Academy Award when she was a girl, and weaved it into the #MeToo movement.

She says “speaking your truth is the most powerful tool you all have.”

 
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From: MeNeedIt

What president?

A year after politics – and the newly elected occupant of the White House – dominated the conversation and tone of the Golden Globes, there was barely a mention of such things at Sunday’s ceremony. This year, it was all gender politics, and of course the (hash)MeToo movement that has engulfed Hollywood and spread into the culture at large with astonishing speed. From the sea of glittering black gowns worn in solidarity on the usually multi-colored red carpet, to sly references to unequal pay and recognition for women, to Frances McDormand’s salute to “a tectonic shift” in the Hollywood power structure, it was a night for reckoning – crowned by Oprah Winfrey’s barn-raiser of a speech proclaiming “Their time is UP!”

Some key moments:

Serious carpet talk:

Usually, red carpet interviews focus on the provenance of designer gowns and jewelry. This year, there was talk of working conditions for farmers and janitors, and demands for equal pay across society. Several actresses, including Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams and Emma Watson, brought social activists with them, to focus on real-life solutions to gritty problems far from Hollywood. “We feel emboldened in this particular moment,” Streep said, “to stand together in a thick black line dividing then from now.”

Laura Dern’s North star:

It was a night of unusually powerful speeches, whether long or short, that touched eloquently on the (hash)MeToo moment. One came from Laura Dern, who won supporting actress for “Big Little Lies,” a TV series that, aptly, depicts not only sexual abuse, but a group of women who only fully discover their power when they unite. Using her character to describe a past culture in which people were afraid to speak out, Dern urged Hollywood to support and employ survivors brave enough to come forward. And she went further: “May we teach our children,” she said, “that speaking out without the fear of retribution is our culture’s new North Star.”

A sly nod to a glaring omission:

One of the most glaring snubs in this year’s movie nominations came in the best director category, where Greta Gerwig was passed over for her much-loved “Lady Bird.” Natalie Portman, presenting the director prize, was not about to let that go unnoticed. “And here are the all MALE nominees,” she quipped, to knowing laughter. (Guillermo del Toro won for “The Shape of Water.”) Barbra Streisand also took a jab at the Globes, noting that she’d been the only woman to have won best director – in 1984. “That was 34 years ago, folks. Time’s up!” she said.

A ‘tectonic’ shift:

A big winner was “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” in which Frances McDormand plays a mother taunting police to solve the rape and murder of her daughter. Winning for best actress, McDormand noted to the crowd that “I keep my politics private. But it was really great to be in this room and to be part of a tectonic shift in our industry power structure.” And she added: “Trust me: The women in this room tonight are not here for the food. We’re here for the work.”

Oprah rules the room:

But with all the eloquent speeches, none roused the room like Winfrey’s, who had the crowd giving her repeated ovations as she issued a warning – not once, but three times – to powerful men who abuse women: “Their time is up!” She ended her barn-storming speech, in which she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award, with a call to young girls. “I want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon!” she said. “And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women … and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say, ‘Me too,’ again.” Director Ava DuVernay later wrote on Twitter that the room was “still vibrating like electricity from that speech.”

Sterling K. Brown makes history:

While most of the talk was about progress in the sphere of gender, actor Sterling K. Brown of TV’s “This Is Us” addressed progress of a different kind: he was the first black actor to win the Globe for best actor in a TV drama. He thanked the show’s creator, Dan Fogelman, for writing a role “for a black man that can only be played by a black man.” What he was grateful for, Brown said, is that “I’m being seen for who I am and being appreciated for who I am, and it makes it that much more difficult to dismiss me or dismiss anybody who looks like me.”

Calling out a network, on equal pay:

There’s been much talk about equal pay lately, but Debra Messing and Eva Longoria got very specific, calling out E! Entertainment Television on the issue while doing interviews with them on the red carpet.

Messing referenced the recent departure from E! of host Catt Sadler, who has said she was making about half the pay of her male counterpart, Jason Kennedy.

“I was so shocked to hear that E! doesn’t believe in paying their female co-hosts the same as their male co-hosts,” she said. “I miss Catt Sadler.”

Longoria also made the point, to Ryan Seacrest. “We support gender equity and equal pay and we hope that E! follows that lead with Catt as well,” she said.

Thelma and Louise return:

On an evening recognizing women in Hollywood, it was certainly apt to have Thelma and Louise, aka Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, present an award. Davis – who is a longtime advocate for gender equality in film – joked cynically that the two had already “fixed everything.” She also noted that the men in the category they were presenting had agreed to give half their salary back “so the women can make more than them.”

She was joking there, too.
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From: MeNeedIt

A group of disabled Egyptians is not letting the lack of having lost a leg get in the way of playing football. They have formed a team they hope will be a part of a soccer league for people with special needs. Faith Lapidus reports.
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From: MeNeedIt