Marissa DuBois in Slow Motion Full Fashion Week 2023, Fashion Channel Vlog,

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Kamala Harris moves into Naval Observatory residence following renovations

A Biden administration official confirmed the transfer to the Washington Examiner on Tuesday, and Opal Vadhan, who is a personal aide to the vice president, tweeted a photo of Harris boarding Marine Two.

"What a historic moment," she said. "The first time in our nation’s history, a daughter of immigrants, Kamala Devi Harris takes Marine 2 for the first time to her new home, the Vice President’s Residence."

Repairs to the residence included maintenance to its heating and air system, replacement of the liners in the chimneys, and the refurbishing of some of the hardwood floors, the administration official said.

IMF upgrades forecast for 2021 global growth to a record 6%

WASHINGTON (AP) — The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and vast sums of government aid will accelerate global economic growth to a record high this year in a powerful rebound from the pandemic recession, the International Monetary Fund says in its latest forecasts. 

Thee 190-country lending agency said Tuesday that it expects the world economy to expand 6% for 2021, up from the 5.5% it had forecast in January. It would be the fastest expansion for the global economy in IMF records dating to 1980. 

In 2022, the IMF predicts, international economic growth will decelerate to a still strong 4.4%, up from its January forecast of 4.2%. The agency’s economists now estimate that the global economy shrank 3.3% in 2020 after the devastating recession that followed the coronavirus’ eruption across the world early last spring. 

That is the worst annual figure in the IMF’s database, though not as severe as the 3.5% drop it had estimated three months ago. Without heavy government aid that helped sustain companies and consumers during COVID-19 lockdowns, IMF forecasters say, last year’s downturn could have been three times worse.

As states expand COVID-19 vaccines, prisoners still lack access

WASHINGTON — This week, Florida expanded eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines to all residents 16 and older. But across the state, more than 70,000 people still don’t have access to the vaccine. Those men and women are state prisoners.

More than half the country has opened up vaccine eligibility, vastly expanding the ability for most Americans to get the shots, whatever their age or medical conditions. But inside prisons, it’s a different story: Prisoners, not free to seek out vaccines, still lack access on the whole.


Nationwide, fewer than 20% of state and federal prisoners have been vaccinated, according to data collected by The Marshall Project and The Associated Press. In some states, prisoners and advocates have resorted to lawsuits to get access. And even when they are eligible, they aren’t receiving important education about the vaccine.

And it’s not just the prisoners. Public health experts widely agree that people who live and work in correctional facilities face an increased risk of contracting and dying from the coronavirus. Since the pandemic first reached prisons in March 2020, about 3 in 10 prisoners have tested positive and 2,500 have died. Prisons are often overcrowded, with limited access to health care and protective gear, and populations inside are more likely to have preexisting medical conditions.

Monday, April 5, 2021

Police chief: Fired cop broke policy in pinning Floyd

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minneapolis police chief who called George Floyd’s death “murder” soon after it happened testified that Officer Derek Chauvin had clearly violated department policy when he pinned Floyd’s neck beneath his knee for more than 9 minutes.

Continuing to kneel on Floyd’sneck once he was handcuffed behind his back and lying on his stomach was “in no way, shape or form” part of department policy or training, “and it is certainly not part of our ethics or our values,” Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said Monday on Day Six of Chauvin’s murder trial.

Arradondo,the city’s first Black chief, fired Chauvin and three other officers the day after Floyd’s death last May, and in June called it “murder.”

While police have long been accused of closing ranks to protect fellow members of the force charged with wrongdoing — the “blue wall of silence,” as it’s known — some of the most experienced officersin the Minneapolis department have taken the stand to openly condemn Chauvin’s treatment of Floyd.

Forecasting Biden’s Foreign Policy in Southeast Asia


The day before John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961, he met with an outgoing President Eisenhower. According to the Pentagon Papers, “Eisenhower said with considerable emotion that Laos was the key to the entire area of Southeast Asia, that we should make every effort to persuade member nations of SEATO … to defend the freedom of Laos. President-elect Kennedy … asked if the situation seemed to be approaching a climax. Eisenhower stated that the entire proceeding was extremely confused.”

If, two months ago, a similar briefing had been given to a President-elect Biden by an outgoing President Trump, the details 60 years on would have been different, but the tone, tenor, and message strikingly similar. The main difference would have been a shift in focus from Laos—and by extension, Indochina—in 1961 to Thailand on the mainland and to the Philippines in maritime Southeast Asia. 

That is, a shift from countries six decades ago whose governments the U.S. was propping up to those today with which it has increasingly uncertain relations. And, of course, two weeks after that recent imaginary briefing, Myanmar would have been added to the list overnight.

LG Becomes First Major Smartphone Brand to Withdraw From Market Due to Losses

South Korea's LG Electronics said on Monday it will wind down its loss-making mobile division - a move that is set to make it the first major smartphone brand to completely withdraw from the market.

Its decision to pull out will leave its 10 percent share in North America, where it is the No. 3 brand, to be gobbled up by smartphone titans Apple and Samsung Electronics.

The division has logged nearly six years of losses totalling some $4.5 billion (roughly Rs. 33,010 crore), and dropping out of the fiercely competitive sector would allow LG to focus on growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices and smart homes, it said in a statement.

In better times, LG was early to market with a number of cell phone innovations including ultra-wide angle cameras and was once in 2013 the world's third-largest smartphone manufacturer behind Samsung and Apple.

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The Best Top Ten Smart Phone to Buy Right Now


In this year 2021, buying the best smart phone means looking for something special that should last you a few past years. Smart phone's upgrade cycles are slowing down for a some reasons below. 

For example cost of mobile and purchasing power, it’s getting harder and harder to buy an expensive device. In other words, you don’t have to spend a huge amount to get something big or great, as a bunch of great smart phones are available for round about $800. 

It is harder than ever to decide between everything in that range, but for most people, decide to pick for the best phone as the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, 256GB, Space Gray, Fully Unlocked (Renewed).

Luckily, if you are looking for a no-compromise smart phone at any price, the choices over a thousand dollars and More higher are much clearer. If you like Android phone, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G | Factory Unlocked Android Cell Phone Ultra is incredibly good.



Amazon Top Selling Products

Russia in the Arctic—A Critical Examination

Russia’s Arctic ambitions have attracted increasing attention in the West over the past decade as climate change opens up new opportunities in the region for navigation and exploration of its riches. For its part, Moscow casts a wary eye on what it sees as a challenge from the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to its position and ambitions there. The Kremlin’s rhetoric about Western encroachment has become more strident, in sync with its enhanced military posture and ambitious economic and infrastructure projects.

Russian interest in the Arctic has deep historic roots that extend all the way to the sixteenth century and the conquest of Siberia driven by the never-ending quest for more resources and secure trading routes. Modern-day Russian posture in the Arctic is integral to its overall confrontation with the West, in which Europe is the principal theater. 

The saber-rattling in the Arctic and threatening rhetoric are driven by several factors: preparations for the unlikely, but potentially catastrophic contingency of war in Europe, the need to secure its second-strike nuclear capabilities (the bulk of which is based around the Kola Peninsula), and the quest for resources to pay for the proverbial guns and butter as the competition with the West shows no sign of abating. Great-power ambitions and the interests of powerful bureaucratic elites and business interests also play a role.