It figures that in the midst of the longest government shutdown in American history, the earth would literally open up a block from the grounds of White House.
Yet another sinkhole — a depression in the ground caused by a collapse of land — has opened up in Washington D.C., this time just a block from the presidential residence.
Opening up on Tuesday afternoon, the “large” sinkhole was reported by D.C. Police as being the reason for road closures on 17th Street NW between C Street and E Street NW.
Update Street Bridge/Maintenance and DDOT ROP crews are en route for repairs and traffic control Motorists can utilize 18th St, 15th St, K St, Virginia Ave, Constitution Ave as alternative pic.twitter.com/VRno3fTBjR
Sergio Gor, staffer for Sen. Rand Paul, tweeted a pretty neat image of the sinkhole.
And yeah, that cone is in the sinkhole.
It’s the second sinkhole to open up near the White House within the last 12 months, following the hell portal depression that showed up in the White House’s North Lawn in May 2018.
And that followed the sinkhole that appeared right outside Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida exactly a year before in May 2017.
Of course, everyone couldn’t help but joke about our newest Washington sinkhole.
Unfortunately the Metaphor Department is furloughed.
WASHINGTON — A spokesperson for Satan says Hell will be filing suit against sinkhole contractors, Abandon All Hope LLC, who failed to construct a high-priority portal to Hell within the residence of “a top client,” as instructed. https://t.co/pv2TUGZYv9
New Orleans Pelicans center Anthony Davis could miss two to four weeks with a left index finger injury.
Davis’ agent, Rich Paul, provided an update to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium on Tuesday:
Shams Charania @ShamsCharania
New Orleans Pelicans star Anthony Davis will see a hand specialist with fear of a volar plate avulsion fracture in his left index finger, agent Rich Paul tells @TheAthleticNBA. If confirmed, Davis will likely miss 2-to-4 weeks.
The 25-year-old Davis is averaging 29.3 points, 13.3 rebounds and 2.6 blocks for the Pels.
While he’s sidelined, center Jahlil Okafor should stay in New Orleans’ starting five. In Davis’ absence, Okafor posted 20 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks in a 105-85 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday.
The Pels are 2-4 this season with Davis out of the lineup.
They’re also in a disadvantageous spot in the Western Conference standings. Heading into Tuesday, the 22-25 Pels were 12th in the West and were 3.5 games behind the Utah Jazz for the eighth and final playoff spot.
With 35 regular-season games left, the Pels have time to make up that ground and jump a few teams. However, their schedule over the next two weeks offers little reprieve.
New Orleans is set to play six straight games against teams currently in the top eight of their respective conferences, including the 31-14 Denver Nuggets and 31-15 Indiana Pacers. A losing skid could make reaching the playoffs next to impossible by the time Davis returns.
However, Okafor’s performance Monday was encouraging. The Philadelphia 76ers spent the No. 3 overall pick on him in 2015, but the 23-year-old lasted only two-plus seasons with them. A quick stop with the Brooklyn Nets preceded his run with New Orleans.
Okafor hasn’t played much in 2018-19, but he’s been productive when given the chance. He had 17 points in 13 minutes against the Milwaukee Bucks in mid-December and grabbed 10 boards in 18 minutes versus the Sacramento Kings a few days later.
Okafor’s potential resurgence could keep the Pels afloat sans Davis. If he becomes a nightly 20-10 threat, New Orleans might stay alive in the playoff race until Davis returns.
Instagram is once again trying to reassure users that its algorithm isn’t actively “hiding” posts from people.
The company issued a rare rebuttal to criticism of its algorithm in response to a viral meme claiming that said algorithm only surfaces posts to 7 percent of an account’s followers.
“We’ve noticed an uptick in posts about Instagram limiting the reach of your photos to 7% of your followers, and would love to clear this up,” the company wrote on Twitter.
“What shows up first in your feed is determined by what posts and accounts you engage with the most, as well as other contributing factors such as the timeliness of posts, how often you use Instagram, how many people you follow, etc.
What shows up first in your feed is determined by what posts and accounts you engage with the most, as well as other contributing factors such as the timeliness of posts, how often you use Instagram, how many people you follow, etc.
“We have not made any recent changes to feed ranking, and we never hide posts from people you’re following – if you keep scrolling, you will see them all. Again, your feed is personalized to you and evolves over time based on how you use Instagram.”
We have not made any recent changes to feed ranking, and we never hide posts from people you’re following – if you keep scrolling, you will see them all. Again, your feed is personalized to you and evolves over time based on how you use Instagram.
The tweets are a response to a series of memes claiming most Instagram posts are only seen by around 7 percent of an account’s followers. The exact language of these posts varies, but almost all of them reference “small businesses like ourselves,” and ask followers to like and comment in order to improve their ranking in Instagram’s algorithm.
It’s not clear where this particular meme originated, though it appears to be popular among small business owners who have a vested interest in keeping their engagement up. But the posts have been popular enough that Instagram felt the need to weigh in directly.
It’s not the first time Instagram has publicly explained its algorithm in an effort to assuage users. The company has previously provided in-depth explanations about how its algorithmic feed works, and repeatedly defended its decision to move away from a strictly chronological feed more than two years ago. The app even added a “you’re all caught up” message in an effort to mitigate anxiety about “missing” posts.
But many Instagram users still feel aggrieved by the company’s decision to embrace algorithms and rumors about its feed have persisted. (Spoiler: the chronological feed probably won’t ever come back.)
These latest memes are just the latest example of how quickly rumors and misinformation can go viral on the platform (ironically, these posts are likely given a boost by the very algorithm they claim is hurting them).
That Instagram would have to publicly reassure users it’s not intentionally hiding posts or messing with users’ feeds speaks to just how controversial its feed still is.
Hong Kong is set to introduce a controversial bill to legislators that makes mocking the Chinese national anthem a criminal offence, with punishments of hefty fines and up to three years in jail.
The proposal, which will be tabled in Hong Kong’s legislative council on Wednesday, has angered critics in the global financial hub who fear the measure could be used to undermine freedom of expression in the city.
China’s Communist Party leaders have striven to instill greater patriotism in the former British colony at a time of heightened tension between democracy activists and forces loyal to Beijing, with some in Hong Kong even advocating independence from China.
The anthem proposal is expected to pass easily when it comes to a vote – expected to take place around mid-2019 – as the opposition does not have enough seats to block routine legislation.
Besides imprisonment, the measure would prescribe a maximum fine of HK$50,000 ($6,373) for those who publicly and intentionally disrespect the anthem, the “March of the Volunteers”.
It also extends to schoolchildren, including pupils of international schools, who would be legally required to learn the song.
“I think teachers would feel worried about this proposal, because if we allow this government to pass a law to instruct the teachers what to teach, well, this time it is for the national anthem, maybe next time it could be other things,” Simon Hung, a 36-year-old secondary school teacher, told Reuters news agency.
Football protest
Booing the anthem at football matches in the Chinese-ruled territory has emerged as a form of political protest in recent years, seized upon by young people keen to demonstrate their frustration at Beijing’s perceived creeping influence.
“I don’t think we are disrespecting the country, because if the government or the country aren’t some kind of representation of us, how can booing the national anthem be disrespectful? It’s not representative of our voice,” student Kin Wa Chung, one of the people booing at football matches, told Al Jazeera in 2017.
Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a so-called “one country, two systems” formula that promises the city a high degree of autonomy, including freedom of expression.
Calls for outright independence are a red line for China’s Communist Party leaders, who deem Hong Kong an inalienable part of the nation.
But many young people in Hong Kong have become increasingly angered by what they see as China’s encroachment of the city’s culture and autonomy, with some advocating “localism”, or a Hong Kong identity, rather than a Chinese one.
“We have no sense of belonging to China at all,” one football supporter told Reuters. “Even people I know who are born since 1997, they still think they are HongKongers, but not Chinese.”
Hong Kong has already outlawed the desecration of national flags and emblems, which can attract jail terms of three years.
In 2017, mainland China adopted a law banning disrespect for the anthem. A similar measure is being reviewed in Macau, also designated a Chinese special administrative region.
Opponents and press freedom advocates in the world’s largest gambling hub have criticised a provision for authorities to seek media assistance in anthem promotion campaigns.
It’s a good thing Nikola Jokic is good at his job, otherwise the Denver Nuggets star might draw the ire of his head coach for picking up ticky-tack fouls late in games.
Per Sean Keeler of the Denver Post, Jokic joked on Monday there’s a reason he will get whistled for fouls late in games.
“Yeah, sometimes I do that just to (expletive) Coach (Malone off),” he said.
The subject came up when a reporter informed Jokic his foul rate in the second half of games has dropped from 9.3 minutes in 2016-17 to 11.2 minutes this season.
Jokic has only fouled out of one game so far in 2018-19, on Dec. 28 against the San Antonio Spurs. By comparison, he fouled out of three games as a rookie during the 2015-16 campaign.
It’s perhaps not a coincidence Jokic’s decrease in soft fouls has occurred during the best season of his career. The 23-year-old is averaging 19.6 points, 7.7 assists and 10 rebounds per game to lead the Nuggets to the second-best record in the Western Conference entering Tuesday (31-14).
Given how important Jokic is to Denver’s success, Malone will happily give his star center a lot of leeway to foul whomever he wants as long as it doesn’t cost the team any games.
President Donald Trump, seen here as president-elect in 2016, and his allies have raised questions about the effectiveness of Rudy Giuliani, now Trump’s personal attorney, before. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
After the president’s freewheeling lawyer cleans up yet another set of public comments, the West Wing’s patience is wearing thin.
Rudy Giuliani has a growing list of enemies in the White House — which now includes his boss, President Donald Trump.
Trump was apoplectic after a pair of weekend media interviews by his personal lawyer, in which Giuliani said that the president had been involved in discussions to build a Trump Tower Moscow through the end of the 2016 campaign — a statement that enraged Trump because it contradicted his own public position, according to two sources close to the president.
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Giuliani’s statement was the latest in a series of remarks over several months that have required walk-backs or reversals, and Trump spent much of Sunday and Monday fuming to aides and friends about his lawyer’s missteps. Most of those people share Trump’s frustration, noting that the former New York City mayor often appears to lack a mastery of the facts of Trump’s legal headaches.
Giuliani’s public remarks — typically made in sporadic clusters of freewheeling media interviews — have long exasperated White House aides, including the president’s in-house lawyer handling the Russia investigation, Emmet Flood. The latest fracas comes at a time of maximum vulnerability for the president and his legal team. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has no deadline for finishing his work, but many outside observers see him as nearing the end of his probe into 2016 Russian election meddling and whether it was coordinated with Trump or his campaign.
Asked who in the White House is responsible for handling Giuliani’s missteps, a White House aide said, “Handling Rudy’s fuck ups takes more than one man.”
Giuliani, who represents the president pro bono, pushed back on the notion that Trump is frustrated with him. “We’ve known each other for 30 years. And I haven’t heard him complain,” he told POLITICO in a Tuesday interview. “And nobody in the White House would complain to me. They just do it behind my back.”
He also dismissed talk that he doesn’t have a firm grasp of the facts. “I do have a mastery of the facts which is why I can spin them, honestly, argue them several different ways,” Giuliani said.
Giuliani cast blame for the confusion back at the media, saying that reporters are confused by his reliance on hypothetical arguments and take them literally.
“The problem is people don’t understand, or people don’t want to understand alternative arguing, which is what you do in court all the time. People who want to understand it, do,” he said.
Arguing in the alternative is a basic legal concept involving the use of hypotheticals, although the New York Times gave no indication that is what Giuliani was doing when it reported on Saturday that he said Trump told him discussions about Trump Tower Moscow were “going on from the day I announced to the day I won.”
It’s not clear what Trump’s anger might mean for Giuliani’s long-term standing. The mercurial president frequently cycles through highs and lows with his advisers, banishing them only to seek their counsel again after a cooling-off period.
And Trump has more in common with Giuliani than with many of his other advisers. Both men are wealthy, media-savvy Manhattanites in their seventies who came to prominence during the 1980s and long captivated the New York tabloids.
But Trump has also abruptly fired numerous senior aides, and has parted ways with several senior lawyers who have advised and represented him on the Russia investigation.
Despite his frustrations with Giuliani, however, Trump associates say the president understands his value as an attack dog against Mueller. Because legal advisers have told the president that he cannot be indicted while in office, Trump has put a greater emphasis on the politics of the Mueller probe and fending off a potential impeachment by Congress rather than on contesting specific allegations the special counsel seems to be pursuing.
“I think that the president has been persuaded that he needs to treat this as a political matter and so this is primarily going to be a messaging battle, and Rudy much of the time has been a very effective messenger,” said a former White House aide.
And even in cases where Giuliani has seemed to reveal damaging facts about his client — including his May acknowledgment that a $130,000 Trump payment to Cohen was reimbursement for hush money to the porn actress Stormy Daniels — some have seen a calculated effort to dump bad news in order to dampen its potential impact if disclosed by investigators or news leaks.
Public approval of Mueller’s handling of the investigation has slipped since Giuliani joined the president’s legal team last summer, dropping to 43 percent approval in December from 48 percent in October, according to a CNN poll. Some Trump allies credit the drop, in part, to Giuliani’s aggressive criticism of the special counsel.
Democrats have attacked Giuliani for giving cover to Trump’s alleged lies about suspected collusion with Russia. But in a Monday interview with The New Yorker, the president’s lawyer sounded untroubled by such talk.
“I am afraid it will be on my gravestone. ‘Rudy Giuliani: He lied for Trump,’” he said. “Somehow, I don’t think that will be it. But, if it is, so what do I care? I’ll be dead. I figure I can explain it to St. Peter.” (Giuliani added that the Apostle “will be on my side.”)
Trump and his allies have raised questions about Giuliani’s effectiveness before. They were revived over the weekend when Giuliani told NBC’s “Meet the Press” and the New York Times that Trump told him he may have spoken to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, about a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow as late as October or November of 2016 — months later than Trump or Cohen had previously admitted. Giuliani also said that Trump may have spoken to Cohen before his former lawyer gave what he has since confessed was false testimony to Congress.
On Monday, Giuliani issued a statement saying his remarks were merely hypothetical. “My recent statements about discussions during the 2016 campaign between Michael Cohen and then-candidate Donald Trump about a potential Trump Moscow ‘project’ were hypothetical and not based on conversations I had with the president,” Giuliani said.
The flap came just days after Giuliani raised hackles by telling CNN he could not definitely say that no members of Trump’s campaign had colluded with Russia — a statement he was forced to clean up the following day.
“I have no knowledge of any collusion by any of the thousands of people who worked on the campaign,” Giuliani explained.
Trump attorney Jay Sekulow told POLITICO that Giuliani “continues to be an important part of the president’s legal team.”
Since the start of the Mueller probe, the president’s team of lawyers has been in a state of near constant tumult. Trump has already cycled through two other lead personal attorneys: Marc Kasowitz, who spent just a couple months working for the president on the Russia probe before stepping down in July 2017, and John Dowd, who resigned last May amid differences with the president over legal strategy. Trump has maintained contact with both lawyers even though they no longer directly represent him.
Inside the White House, Trump is now onto his second set of lawyers helping manage the official response to the Russia investigation following the departure of Don McGahn and Ty Cobb. Now running the operation are White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Flood, the associate counsel with primary responsibility handling the Mueller investigation.
Britain’s parliament is buzzing with frenzied campaigning as MPs build support for rival plans to end the deadlock over Theresa May’s Brexit deal.
In a statement on Monday, the prime minister dashed hopes that she would unveil a “Plan B” that modifies a deal she forged with Brussels which parliament rejected last week. Critics have said it was a case of “plan A all over again”.
May stuck to her script, doggedly signalling that she will not change course as the March 29 deadline for Britain to leave looms – deal or no deal.
What did May say?
May’s statement set out three “changes” to her Brexit strategy.
First, she threw an olive branch to parliament, promising to be more “flexible, open and inclusive”.
Second, she promised to embed protections on workers’ rights and the environment in any deal – in a sop to the main opposition Labour Party.
Third, she pledged to win concessions that will overcome the main hurdle to her plans – the divisive “backstop” demanded by the EU to avoid creating a customs border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
In short, the prime minister offered nothing new – while restating her opposition to a second Brexit referendum and rubbishing talk of extending “Article 50”, the EU mechanism setting the March deadline.
Many MPs believe extending Article 50 is the only way to avoid leaving without a deal – which economists warn would be disastrous.
What happens now?
In a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt reportedly questioned May’s approach, suggesting EU concessions on the backstop will not win over sceptical Conservatives.
Meanwhile, May’s lukewarm efforts to consult opposition parties have floundered.
A formal vote on the strategy outlined in her statement will take place on January 29 – giving MPs a week in which to thrash out game-changing amendments to alter the Brexit outcome.
How many amendments are being tabled?
MPs have until Monday night to table amendments, making it too soon to say how many there will be.
These could be merged by the powerful Speaker of the Commons, John Bercow, who will select which go forward.
Diverse options are now taking shape and their champions are parading them in a parliamentary beauty contest before next week.
Who are the big hitters – and what chance do they have?
Some amendments are turning heads.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was quick off the mark with a call to let MPs vote on different options to avoid a no-deal Brexit – including a second referendum.
The party is divided on this issue and the move marks a step towards accepting it – but is unlikely to win support from sympathetic Conservatives who say it does not get straight to the point.
A cross-party amendment designed to block a no-deal Brexit by the Labour chair of the home affairs select committee Yvette Cooper and former Conservative minister Nick Boles has raised eyebrows.
They want to extend Article 50 if there is no deal by the end of February – and seem to be gathering steam.
Pro-European Conservative Dominic Grieve, a former attorney general, is calling for parliament to wrestle control of the Brexit timetable from the government – enabling MPs to then do whatever they like.
Grieve has form and has already drawn blood against May.
A general view of Parliament after the vote on May’s Brexit deal, in London, January 15, 2019 [Reuters TV via Reuters]
The Labour chair of the Commons Brexit committee, Hilary Benn, is calling for “indicative” votes to gauge support among MPs on a suite of Brexit options – but there are fears this may not end the deadlock.
Labour MPStella Creasy wants Brexit to be delayed for a “citizens’ assembly” to determine what the country at large wants. This has some heavyweight backing – but takes parliament into uncharted water.
Pro-Brexit MPs also want their say.
An amendment by Andrew Murrison, chair of the Northern Ireland affairs committee, to curtail the backstop in 2022 throws down the gauntlet to the EU – but Labour will never back it.
And there is a strong expectation that at least one MP will press the nuclear button – with a no-nonsense motion formally demanding a second referendum or “People’s Vote”.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (left), Rashida Tlaib (right), Ayanna Pressley and Ro Khanna all won spots on the high-profile committee on Tuesday | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
The House Oversight Committee is adding a group of progressive flamethrowers to its ranks.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) all won spots on the high-profile committee on Tuesday, two sources told POLITICO.
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The new members, all of whom are freshmen except for Khanna, have been intensely critical of President Donald Trump, and their addition to the committee comes as Democrats have pledged to launch wide-ranging investigations into the president and his administration.
Tlaib drew swift backlash when she vowed to “impeach the motherf—er.” Republicans previously discussed a possible censure for Tlaib for railing against Trump.
Ocasio-Cortez has also become a favorite target of Republicans for her liberal views and her willingness to take on the president, particularly on social media.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the chairman of the Oversight Committee, dismissed concerns about the outspoken freshman lawmakers.
“If I based the choices going on the committee based on what people said or their reputations or whatever, I probably wouldn’t have a committee,” Cummings told POLITICO. “I am excited — there were a lot of people that wanted to come on our committee.”
The Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which handles the committee rosters, sent a list of the new additions to Cummings, who said he approved it.
Rep. Dan Kildee, a member of the Democratic steering panel, said he was excited about the progressive picks.
“I want people to be aggressive, especially on that committee. It’s good to have people who aren’t afraid,” the Michigan Democrat said in an interview. “They’re going to be dealing with some pretty important stuff.”
For anyone who was skeptical that Ariana Grande is really, actually planning to release her fifth album less than six months (!) after Sweetener, rest assured it’s definitely happening. The 25-year-old has been steadily dropping new tunes — the latest being last week’s flex anthem “7 rings” — and now she’s generously unveiled her new project’s tracklist.
Ari took to her @Sweetener Instagram account on Tuesday evening (January 22) to spell out thank u, next‘s 12 song titles. Of course, the smash title track is accounted for, as are “7 rings,” “imagine,” and the oft-teased “needy.” Besides those, fans have intriguing cuts like “ghostin,” “fake smile,” and “NASA” to look forward to, as well as the curiously titled closing track, “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored.”
Instagram
There’s still no confirmed release date for thank u, next, but Grande heavily suggested to a fan on Twitter that it could be coming on February 8. In the same tweet spree on Monday, the singer revealed that “7 rings” is the album’s final single before its release.
The arrival of thank u, next is just one of many exciting things Arianators have to look forward to in 2019. Sweetener is up for Best Pop Vocal Album at next month’s Grammys, and Ari is embarking on a Sweetener World Tour starting in March. She’ll even squeeze in a festival date at Coachella — and possibly one at Lollapalooza — on the way. Until then, study up on her new tracklist below!
Daily Trends Hunter 