(Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
Cardi B can really do it all. While sitting at the 61st Grammy Awards waiting to see if she’ll take home any trophies in the categories that she’s nominated in, she also brought the performance smackdown to the stage with her tour de force live rendition of “Money.” We can only imagine what it felt like live; we can feel fresh waves of adrenaline radiating from our television sets.
Lester Cohen/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Cardi’s majestic performance of “Money” featured a flurry of women clad in black bodysuits while another pounded the piano as if her life depended on it. The rapper was the centerpiece and main attraction with her retro hairdo, demanding eyes be glued to her alluring figure and mesmerizing performance. The entire number felt like being in a jazz den in the 1940s, the viewer starring as a nameless detective who has been enchanted by a stunning femme fatale.
Cardi gracefully moved around the stage with her sensual moves and bouncing body parts, eventually becoming encased in a black flower. At this moment, the camera cut to Offset, her estranged husband, in the audience clearly feeling the performance, staring at Cardi on stage with his tongue out. That could mean a lot of things! Cardi exclaimed, “Welcome to the Grammys!” in her performance, and now it looks like the festivities can truly begin.
Cardi was nominated for not one, two, or three awards this year; she was up for five. This year, she could possibly still take home the trophies for Record of the Year (“I Like It“), Album of the Year (Invasion of Privacy), and Best Rap Album (Invasion of Privacy). It’s a major step up from last year when she received only two nominations for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for her breakout single “Bodak Yellow.” And it feels right. The night’s still young, after all.
Millions of people across Iran on Monday are expected to hit the streets to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1979 revolution, renewing their allegiance to the country’s Islamic principles at a time of rising economic and political pressure amid the resumption of punishing US sanctions.
Iran organises the nationwide rally every February 11 to highlight the size of grassroots support of the revolt, which replaced Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s government with an Islamic Republic under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Domestically, the event is also known as Ten-Day Dawn to commemorate the period of violent protests following the February 1, 1979 return of Khomeini from exile. It also marks the official end of the 2,500 years of the Persian Empire.
In Tehran, marchers are set to gather at Azadi Square, one of the capital’s most iconic monuments built by the United States-backed shah and renamed after the victory of the forces loyal to Khomeini.
Security has been tightened across Iran in the lead-up to Monday’s events. Last year, gunmen dressed in fatigues opened fireat a military march in Ahvaz marking the 30th anniversary of the end of the Iran-Iraq war, killing at least 29 people and wounding scores.
Iran’s foreign relations in spotlight 40 years after revolution (2:52)
Since the revolution, which united the country against the shah, the country appears today to be more divided between the hardliners, who believe in the strict implementation of laws from 40 years ago, and the reformists, who are pushing for more economic transparency and more freedoms among its population.
In 2017, President Hassan Rouhani was reelected in a vote seen a litmus test for his signature move – a landmark nuclear deal signed with world powers in 2015 and the subsequent lifting of tough economic sanctions that had long strangled the country’s economy.
But last year, the United States unilaterally abandoned the United Nations-backed multilateral nuclear pact, reimposed sanctions and adopted a “maximum pressure” policy towards Iran.
US President Donald Trump’s stance aims to force Iran to negotiate the development of its missiles as well as its military presence across the Middle East. Iran rules out any such negotiations.
Trump says he has placed “the toughest sanctions ever imposed” by the US on a country. Embargoes target key sectors such as oil, banking and shipping industries to cut Iran’s oil revenues – its main source of hard currency.
How Iran’s role in Middle East boomed since 1979 revolution (3:01)
Washington also wants to impact the livelihood of ordinary Iranians who have been embattled by skyrocketing consumer prices following a dramatic drop in the value of the Iranian currency, the rial, due largely to US sanctions that keep Iran’s access to hard currency in check.
The persisting severe economic hardship has angered low-income Iranians, igniting sporadic protests and strikes over the past year.
To help save the nuclear deal, Britain, France and Germany recently launched the Instrument In Support Of Trade Exchanges, a mechanism to carry out non-dollar trade with Iran and bypass Washington’s sanctions.
But while Iran and Europe work to save the nuclear pact, both the European Union and the UN have shown signs of discord over Iran’s ballistic missile activity and the accusations of assassination plots allegedly carried out by Iran on European soil. Tehran, which says its ballistic missiles will solely be used for defence purposes, denies the allegations.
On Friday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed skepticism about Europe’s will to act in Iran’s interest.
“I recommend that one should not trust the Europeans, just as the Americans,” he was quoted as saying. “We don’t say, don’t have contacts with them, but it’s an issue of trust.”
Khamenei said the Iranian nation “will not abandon ‘Death to America’” slogan as long as the US continues its “wickedness”.
The chant, which has been a signature slogan in Iran since the beginning of the revolution and still echoes during the annual commemoration of the 1979 event, means “death to American rulers”, Khamenei said, referring by name to Trump; National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Iran’s post-revolution generation struggles to find its voice (3:16)
This year’s commemoration also comes just before a summit organised by the US in Poland’s capital, Warsaw, which is seen as an anti-Iran gathering.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as leaders from regional rival Saudi Arabia and its allies, are scheduled to attend the meeting on February 13 and 14which is reported to be aimed at promoting “a future of peace and security in the Middle East”.
The announcement last month that the summit was “focused on Iran” was met with anger in Tehran and dismay in Brussels where EU officials struggle to keep the nuclear deal alive.
On Sunday, commenting on recent statements that the Warsaw meeting will not focus on Iran, Iranian Foreign Mohammad Javad Zarif said “the summit is doomed to failure from the start” as the US retreated from its initial stance.
During one of the biggest nights in music, Camilizers had a MAJOR reason to celebrate: their queen Camila Cabello had the historic honor of opening the 2019 Grammy Awards. She wasn’t alone, either: her electrifying squad consisted of Ricky Martin, J Balvin, Young Thug, Arturo Sandoval and her own family members as she riffed, danced and powered through “Havana.” Not bad for her first year being nominated, right?!
“The performance is based off my grandma’s childhood,” she told E!’s Ryan Seacrest before the show. “She grew up in … a house full of rooms, and everybody shared a common patio, and there would just be jam sessions and stuff, and the whole thing is based off of my family, and I have my family in the performance. So I feel very protected!”
After legendary musician Sandoval kicked off “Havana” with his trumpet, Camila popped up in one of four colorful rooms based off her grandmother’s childhood. As she sang and danced from room to room, her father Alejandro and sister Sofi appeared in the apartment below, “complaining” about the volume of her singing – but we certainly weren’t complaining about her on-point vocals.
Bringing her grandmother’s childhood jam sessions to life, Camila quite literally didn’t stop dancing after leaving the stage’s apartment setup. Before long, Young Thug joined Camila to slay his own verse on the Grammy-nominated song, and dozens of dancers (in outfits as colorful as the apartment rooms themselves) joined to bring the record’s Latin-infused instrumental to life. And to end her portion of “Havana,” Camila perfectly executed every ad-libbed riff and run we could’ve asked for.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Adding more star power to the stage, Camila welcomed Ricky Martin as he performed his 2006 hit “Pégate” in Spanish, proving he’s still got what it takes to slay a performance 28 years after dropping his first album. Camila and Ricky danced together, too, in a moment that brought together an original trailblazer in Latin music with the first Latina woman to open the Grammys.
Hiding behind Camila and Ricky – and holding a newspaper with a headline that read “Build Bridges Not Walls” – was J Balvin, who brought his 2017 hit “Mi Gente” to the Grammy stage and confirmed, yes, it’s still a bop. And with Arturo closing with more of his trumpet skills, the opening performance of Latin powerhouses came to end, but set an electrifying mood for the rest of the night.
While Camila unfortunately didn’t go home with either of the gramophones she was nominated for, her collaborative performance meant it was night was obviously still a resounding success. “This night is about celebrating,” she told E! before the show. “I really just wanna enjoy it!”
The Bears trailed by five with less than 10 seconds left, but Josh Webster kept the game alive with an and-1. A loose ball on the ensuing inbound created the opportunity for Dixon to knock down the deep shot for the 66-65 win.
It seemed like nearly every player on the court hit the ground at some point during the play, but it was the last man back on defense who ended up with the ball.
Missouri State improved to 13-12 on the year with the win, including 7-5 in the Missouri Valley Conference. Regardless of how the rest of the season goes, however, this play will likely be the highlight of the year.
Kendrick Lamar (Scott Dudelson/Getty Images for Coachella)/ Jay Rock (Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)/ Anderson .Paak (Jim Spellman/WireImage)
So far, if you’re keeping count, this is the second tie of the night. The Grammy for Best Traditional R & B Performance went to both “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand” by Leon Bridges and “How Deep Is Your Love” by PJ Morton and Yebba earlier tonight. Since 1959, there have been 21 ties. Seeing as there have already been two and the night is still young, it’ll be interesting to see just how many awards end up deadlocked in stalemates.
Kendrick’s “King’s Dead” is also up for Best Rap Song. His collaboration with SZA, “All The Stars,” is also up for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
The inaugural week of the Alliance of American Football continued Sunday with the Memphis Express visiting the Birmingham Iron and the Arizona Hotshots hosting the Salt Lake Stallions.
The league already scored its first victory Saturday when CBS coverage averaged 2.9 million viewers from 9 to 11 p.m. ET, which SportsTVRatings noted beat ABC’s coverage of the NBA game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets.
Notable players such as Trent Richardson (Birmingham), Christian Hackenberg (Memphis) and Zac Stacy (Memphis) took the field Sunday and looked to keep the league’s momentum rolling with entertaining games.
Sunday Results
Birmingham Iron 26, Memphis Express 0
Salt Lake Stallions at Arizona Hotshots, 8 p.m. ET
Birmingham 26, Memphis 0
Hackenberg never played a down in the NFL after the New York Jets selected him in the second round of the 2016 draft, and he made it clear why on Sunday.
Birmingham’s stout defense set the tone, intercepting the Penn State product in the first quarter and holding him to a mere three completions in a scoreless first half. The Iron delivered hits, created havoc in the backfield and held Stacy, who played for the St. Louis Rams and Jets in his NFL career, in relative check.
CBS Sports Network @CBSSportsNet
IRON FOOTBALL
Christian Hackenberg is picked off, and the @aafiron get great field position. https://t.co/Lt3xfA96BO
CBS Sports Network @CBSSportsNet
Hackenberg takes a SHOT, and Memphis will punt it away on its first possession. https://t.co/OFQlHJsPps
That defense passed its stiffest test after Richardson lost a fumble on the first drive of the second half, stopping a 4th-and-1 from its own 6-yard line to preserve the shutout and keep the momentum.
The Iron’s defense wasn’t the only one to pick up Richardson, as Birmingham kicker Nick Novak drilled three field goals in the first half. Perhaps the Chicago Bears should give him a call, as the former member of the Arizona Cardinals, Washington, Kansas City Chiefs, San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers and Houston Texans looked the part as the lone source of first-half scoring.
It was just a matter of time before Richardson and Birmingham broke through with more than field goals, and the former Alabama Crimson Tide great found the end zone twice in the fourth quarter to bust things open after quarterback Luis Perez found Quinton Patton for a long completion to set up the first score.
Perez threw for 252 yards and established a rapport with Patton, who finished with 107 yards.
Patton played for the San Francisco 49ers, while Perez was a member of the Rams practice squad at times this past season. Ben Kercheval of CBS Sports noted Perez was nearly a professional bowler who learned to play football from YouTube.
On the other side, it was fitting that Memphis’ lone touchdown on a trick play was called back for a penalty, as head coach Mike Singletary was never able to draw something up to crack Birmingham’s defense.
What’s Next?
Week 2 of the AAF schedule features two Saturday games and two Sunday games. Salt Lake plays Birmingham and Arizona plays Memphis on Saturday, while the Orlando Apollos play the San Antonio Commanders and the Atlanta Legends face the San Diego Fleet on Sunday.
Her absence was even more pronounced when, right before the telecast, the Recording Academy announced her previous album, Sweetener, had taken the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album. Though it might be hard to believe, it’s her first one ever, which is huge! But Ari didn’t miss a beat, addressing the good news (and the elephant in the room) on social media.
“i know i’m not there tonight (trust, i tried and still truly wished it had worked out tbh) and i know i said i try not to put too much weight into these things,” she said. “this is wild and beautiful. thank you so much.”
She bested fellow nominees Camila Cabello, Kelly Clarkson, Shawn Mendes, P!nk, and Taylor Swift in the category. Ari continued online, also shouting out all the folks on her team who made the win possible, including her manager Scooter Braun, Grammy-winning Producer of the Year (Non-Classical) Pharrell, Max Martin, and even the Recording Academy itself. Oh, and naturally, the fans.
She punctuated her thoughts, of course, with the very meme that swept the web this weekend — with an important tweak. Congrats to Ari. Pharrell, call her already!
The Los Angeles Lakers slipped back to .500 following a 143-120 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
Playing in his second game with the Sixers following his trade from the Los Angeles Clippers, Tobias Harris scored 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. Joel Embiid had a big game (37 points, 14 rebounds) in the win.
LeBron James finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists in his fourth game back since recovering from a groin strain. Kyle Kuzma had a game-high 39 points.
Loss to 76ers a Cold Reality Check for Lakers After Emotional Win
In their first game after failing to land Anthony Davis by the trade deadline, the Lakers overcame an 18-point deficit to beat the Boston Celtics on a buzzer-beater by Rajon Rondo.
The result looked like it could be a turning point for Los Angeles, with the young players, in particular, playing with a chip on their shoulders after theLos Angeles Times‘Broderick Turnerreported the team was willing to trade anything under the sun for Davis.
However, this is the same Lakers squad that struggled mightily in James’ absence and has clear issues when he is on the court.
In particular, Los Angeles is a mess when Luke Walton has to turn to his reserves. Tyson Chandler and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope both finished with a minus-23 net rating, while Lance Stephenson was minus-24.
Chris Fedor @ChrisFedor
LeBron and the starters have been fine. The bench has been decimated. Are these last years Cavs in Lakers jerseys?
A better head coach might have found a way to mask the Lakers’ lack of depth somewhat, beyond playing their starters more. Walton, on the other hand, appears to have a blind spot when it comes to his optimal rotations.
Robin Lundberg @robinlundberg
LeBron is +6 in a game the Lakers trail by 16. Walton cost them a chance at the game with his rotations.
Laker Film Room @LakerFilmRoom
The Lakers have been outscored 18-4 in the 4:33 they’ve played today without LeBron, Ingram, or Kuzma on the floor.
Why they’ve played any minutes without any of those guys on the court is beyond me, especially when you have to integrate new guys.
Anthony F. Irwin @AnthonyIrwinLA
Luke has a very principled stance on rotations. He wants a 10-plus man lineup and he wants distinct looks for each group.
The thing is: The best coaches adjust to their roster. He never has. This, plus his ineptitude as an offensive coach, is enough to look elsewhere.
When it became clear the New Orleans Pelicans weren’t going to trade Davis to the Lakers, Los Angeles’ front office was smart not to panic and do something foolish just to give the impression of being active at the deadline.
The prudent approach isn’t without consequences, though. The Lakers effectively remain in a holding pattern until the offseason, when they can either make another run at Davis or shift their focus toward free agents.
Before then, fans will have to expect more of the same from a team that will have a hard time pushing for a top-four seed in the Western Conference.
What’s Next?
The Sixers welcome the Boston Celtics on Tuesday. The Celtics most recently threw away a 28-point lead in a 123-112 defeat to the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday. The Lakers hit the road Tuesday to play the Atlanta Hawks, which is their final game before the NBA All-Star break.
A Border Patrol agent takes Central American immigrants into custody in El Paso. Border Patrol’s struggles to recruit agents have impeded the president’s efforts to lock down the border. | John Moore/Getty Images
‘You’re down in really harsh conditions and you got some migrants throwing rocks at you,’ said Rep. Michael McCaul.
When President Donald Trump visits the Texas border town of El Paso on Monday, he’ll celebrate the work done by a law enforcement agency whose employees venture to desolate landscapes, receive lackluster overtime pay, and encounter potentially dangerous situations every day.
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Border Patrol’s struggles to recruit and keep agents present a seldom-discussed impediment to President Donald Trump’s efforts to lock down the U.S.-Mexico border — one that the Trump White House is reluctant to acknowledge.
“It’s a tough job,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican whose district stretches from outside Houston to the Austin area and is a former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. “You’re down in really harsh conditions and you got some migrants throwing rocks at you.”
Shortly after taking office, the president signed an executive order that called for the hiring of 5,000 additional agents. More recently, his administration pushed a proposal that calls for 2,750 additional agents, law enforcement officers and staff. But Border Patrol can’t hire enough people even to fill jobs that were available before. Even as Congress provides funding to hire 21,370 agents, the patrol is more than 1,800 agents short of that mark.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said the agency’s inability to spend its current allotment undercuts the Trump administration’s demand for more agents. “You make a better argument when you say, ‘Look, we could use 5,000 more because we’re at our cap,’” he said in an interview. “But you’re not there.”
The struggle to recruit and retain Border Patrol agents predates the Trump administration. The number of agents peaked at 21,444 in fiscal year 2011, and since then has mostly trended downward. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency to Border Patrol, consistently ranks near the bottom of an annual federal survey of employee satisfaction.
The agency made some strides in the past year. Border Patrol counted 19,544 agents in mid-January, a hard-won 107-agent increase over the number in fiscal year 2017.
“For the first time in many, many, many years, we are hiring at a rate that outpaces the rate at which we are losing,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen crowed to lawmakers during a Senate committee hearing in October.
A CBP spokeswoman told POLITICO that the agency has worked in recent years to improve its hiring process “without affecting the quality of candidate,” a key concern given its national security mission.
A defense spending bill passed by Congress in December 2016 gave CBP the authority to waive the required polygraph examination for certain veterans. The agency also made changes to the polygraph testing process itself. CBP’s lie-detector tests have presented a serious bottleneck to hiring in the past, with the lowest pass rate of any step in the agency’s hiring process, according to a June report by the Government Accountability Office.
The reform efforts have made a few missteps. CBP awarded the consulting firm Accenture a $297 million contract in late 2017 to hire 7,500 agents over five years — a total that would exceed the demand in Trump’s executive order. Ten months into the contract, CBP had paid Accenture $13.6 million to process precisely two accepted job offers, according to an internal audit by the Homeland Security Department inspector general’s office. (CBP argued in a response to the report that Accenture had create a hiring structure and “recruited thousands of new applicants.”)
Overall, Border Patrol remains well below its funded staffing level, which lawmakers and experts suggest could stem from many factors, from work environment to pay and benefits.
As with many law enforcement careers, Border Patrol agents face potentially dangerous situations. Donna Doss, a 49-year-old Border Patrol agent based in Abilene, Texas, died earlier this month after she was struck by a passing vehicle while assisting state law enforcement with a traffic stop. An analysis by the libertarian Cato Institute found 33 agents had been killed on duty since 2003, not including Doss.
The remote nature of patrol work can be off-putting for some people, according to Victor Manjarrez, a former Border Patrol agent and current associate director of the Center for Law and Human Behavior at the University of Texas at El Paso.
“Of course, in the desert sound is amplified, and you could hear rocks rolling up ahead,” he said. “You know there’s something up there and you don’t know what in the world it is. The hair on your neck goes up. … And some people don’t like that.”
Chris Harris, an agent and former union representative who retired in June, says it’s hard to recruit people from major cities when they may end up in remote towns at or near the Mexican border like Douglas, Ariz., or Lordsburg, N.M.
“Substandard housing, substandard medical, substandard schools, probably not a job for your spouse or significant other,” Harris said. “That’s a hard sell.”
Even people who enjoy the job are often lured away by better salaries elsewhere. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas)last year sponsored a bill to improve the Border Patrol overtime pay process. It passed the House in September, but died in the Senate.
Border Patrol agents receive less lucrative overtime pay when compared with other federal law enforcement agencies, a common gripe for the National Border Patrol Council, a union that represents 14,000 agents.
Prior to 2016, Border Patrol agents had access to “administratively uncontrollable overtime,” which allowed them to receive pay for work at the end of a shift. But the benefit was subject to widespread misuse and eliminated as part of pay reform legislation.
Agents now can receive overtime pay, but the rate of pay doesn’t increase for the extra hours. Officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, meanwhile, can be covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act and can receive “time and a half” for their overtime hours, just like overtime-eligible employees in the private sector.
Brandon Judd, president of the Border Patrol union and a Trump ally, said “pay parity” could help stem the tide of agent departures. “If you don’t address that issue,” he said, “you will never address the attrition problem.”
Border Patrol agents regularly hop to other law enforcement agencies, including ICE and the CBP Office of Field Operations, which handles customs and manages ports of entry, according to the June GAO report.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement presents a particularly appealing option for Border Patrol agents, according to the report. Of 113 agents who left for other agencies in the first half of fiscal year 2018, 64 percent went to ICE.
One reason is that ICE maintains a Homeland Security Investigations unit that offers better earning opportunities to agents with a bachelor’s degree or higher. Border Patrol has no such investigative unit. Another reason, the report said, is that “working a standard day shift at ICE in a controlled indoor environment located in a major metropolitan area” is “an attractive career alternative for Border Patrol agents who often work night shifts in extreme weather in geographically remote locations.”
Some blame President Trump for Border Patrol’s continuing inability to attract and retain workers.
The president’s contentious policies can hurt morale, argues Todd Breasseale, a DHS official under President Barack Obama. Border Patrol agents helped execute Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy last year, which split apart thousands of families and ignited widespread condemnation.
“You have a law enforcement agency that America needs, but it is a tool that needs to be used appropriately,” Breasseale said.
Rep. Joaquín Castro, a Texas Democrat and the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, blames the administration’s quest to build a border wall. “They should be focused on making sure the agency is properly staffed, committing their time and energy to that.”
Castro (D-Texas) and Democratic lawmakers traveled to border areas in New Mexico in December and January following the deaths of two migrant children in Border Patrol custody, and observed conditions.
“The agents were telling us that oftentimes they’re patrolling areas without radio communication or even cell phone communication,” Castro told POLITICO. “It was clear that the agency is not staffed with the medical supplies and training and personnel they need to take care of somebody if they encounter an emergency. … So yeah, it is a tough job in that way.”
Others say Trump’s policies have been a plus for Border Patrol’s rank and file. The president has shown a strong affinity for the Border Patrol union, which endorsed him in 2016. Trump even brought Judd and other union members into the White House during the recent 35-day government shutdown over Trump’s demand of $5.7 billion for a border wall. Judd said that agents have noticed Trump’s commitment to their mission.
“They will 100 percent tell you that they feel appreciated,” he said.
Judd contends Trump’s divisive immigration agenda hasn’t made it harder to retain agents. Those who remain, he said, see the president’s immigration crackdown not as a drawback but as a morale booster. “The ones that stay,” he said, “they tend to believe in the mission.”
Lester Cohen/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
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