All posts tagged: draws

Florida 19th District race draws candidates from other states : NPR

Florida 19th District race draws candidates from other states : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

John Strand speaks during an event at the U.S. Capitol on June 13, 2023. A convicted and pardoned Jan. 6 rioter, Strand is now running for the Republican nomination in Florida’s 19th Congressional District. Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP hide caption toggle caption Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP FORT MYERS, Fla. — The race to replace Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, who’s running for governor, has drawn a unique cast of characters. The cast includes former members of Congress and pardon recipients from President Trump. And many of them have only recent ties to the district, which includes parts of Cape Coral, Naples and Fort Myers, and the state. One of the candidates running for this southwest Florida U.S. House seat is John Strand, a former model and actor, and a convicted and pardoned Jan. 6 rioter, who grew up in Beverly Hills, Calif. But Strand is not the only candidate running for the strongly Republican 19th Congressional District without deep roots in Florida. In this crowded GOP primary, where almost all 10 candidates are Trump loyalists, a tension has developed between …

Bill Maher Draws The Line: American Values Are Not Negotiable

Bill Maher Draws The Line: American Values Are Not Negotiable

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News, Even Bill Maher has finally had enough. The longtime left-leaning comedian used his HBO platform to deliver a blunt message that cuts through years of open-borders ideology: if you want the American dream, you take American values with it. No exceptions. No special pleading. And no, it’s not “racist” to say so. On a recent episode of Real Time, Maher laid out a straightforward standard that should never have become controversial. Immigrants are not free to reject the foundation of the country they chose to enter. “If you want the American dream, you have to take the American values,” he said. “But you have to answer one question: Do you like Western civilization? Because that’s what we are. And that’s not negotiable.” ? BILL MAHER: THE AMERICAN DREAM COMES WITH AMERICAN VALUES Maher says immigrants are welcome to bring their food, language, religion and traditions — but America’s fundamental values aren’t up for negotiation. “If you want the American dream, you have to take the American… pic.twitter.com/bt9jopmFur — …

Vladimir Putin’s first visit to disputed Pacific islands draws Tokyo protest : NPR

Vladimir Putin’s first visit to disputed Pacific islands draws Tokyo protest : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, listens to Sakhalin Region Governor Valery Limarenko in Kurilsk on the Iturup Island, the largest of the Kuril Islands of Russia’s fareast, on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. Gavriil Grigorov/Pool Sputnik Kremlin hide caption toggle caption Gavriil Grigorov/Pool Sputnik Kremlin MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday made his first visit to the Kuril Islands, a Moscow-controlled Pacific archipelago that also is claimed by Japan, which voiced a diplomatic protest over the trip. Putin visited a fish plant, a hospital and a school on Iturup, one of the volcanic chain’s southern islands. He also briefly spoke to local residents and met with the governor of Russia’s Sakhalin region, Valery Limarenko. Japan asserts territorial rights to the four southernmost islands of the chain, which it calls the Northern Territories. The Soviet Union took them from Japan in the final days of World War II, and the dispute kept the countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their hostilities. Decades of diplomatic efforts to negotiate a settlement haven’t produced any visible …

Green Day’s new comedy movie Nimrods draws inspiration from the band’s early years

Green Day’s new comedy movie Nimrods draws inspiration from the band’s early years

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Global punk rock sensation Green Day is branching out into filmmaking with “Nimrods,” a coming-of-age comedy drawing partial inspiration from their early years performing as musicians. Written and directed by Lee Kirk, the narrative follows three adolescents pursuing their shared musical dreams, a journey the band notes reflects key elements of its own rise. “The first dream we ever had was to play a gig and we finally got a chance to play a gig,” lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong said. Armstrong explained that Green Day’s ambitions expanded alongside their achievements, evolving from landing small gigs to filling stadiums and eventually producing a movie. Armstrong explained that Green Day’s ambitions expanded alongside their achievements, evolving from landing small gigs to filling stadiums and eventually producing a movie (Getty Images) Within the movie, Tommy, played by Mason Thames, aspires to open for …

Major royal ‘draws line in the sand’ over Prince Harry – sparking rift | Royal | News

Major royal ‘draws line in the sand’ over Prince Harry – sparking rift | Royal | News

Published by Sam Flores

Prince William is said to have “drawn a line in the sand” following the publication of Prince Harry’s explosive memoir, with royal commentators claiming the Prince of Wales is increasingly frustrated that King Charles has not publicly stood behind him in the family feud. The relationship between the brothers reached a new low after Spare was published in January 2023. In the memoir, Harry detailed an alleged physical confrontation with William at Nottingham Cottage in 2019 over Meghan Markle. The book sold 1.43 million copies across the UK, the US and Canada on its first day, making it the fastest-selling non-fiction title on record, according to publisher Penguin Random House. Speaking to an outlet, royal author Christopher Andersen said William remains disappointed that his father has not defended him publicly. According to Andersen, William accepts that he and Catherine, Princess of Wales, represent the future of the monarchy, but believes the King should be building a stronger legacy rather than becoming distracted by personal family matters. Royal commentators say the disagreement reflects a wider difference …

BBC’s new video campaign draws mixed reaction from Radio Times readers

BBC’s new video campaign draws mixed reaction from Radio Times readers

Published by Daniella Wilson

A new BBC campaign which makes the case for its licence fee has drawn a mixed reaction from Radio Times readers. The new three-minute film from BBC Creative, which was released on Sunday (19 July), stars Romesh Ranganathan as a disgruntled licence fee payer, who asks: “What has the BBC ever done for me?”. The advert is a new musical version of a previous BBC campaign from 1986 led by John Cleese, and takes viewers on a whistle-stop tour of hit BBC shows including Doctor Who, EastEnders and Casualty. Alongside Ranganathan, nearly 100 other household names star in the film including Alan Carr, Mary Berry and Ruth Jones. There’s also an appearance from Louis Theroux at the end of the advert, who puts his hand on a giant on/off switch marked ‘BBC’ as he tells Ranganathan: “You know, none of this has to exist, if we don’t want it to”. The campaign reboot comes at an important time for the BBC, as the broadcaster’s current royal charter that allows it to operate is set to …

Labour Draws Level With Reform UK In A Poll For The First Time In More Than A Year

Labour Draws Level With Reform UK In A Poll For The First Time In More Than A Year

Published by Sam Flores

Nigel Farage and Andy Burnham Labour is in joint first place with Reform UK in a new poll of Westminster voting intentions for the first time in more than a year. The Survation survey puts both at 24% as Nigel Farage’s party loses its consistent lead in the polls and drops three percentage points. Labour has also enjoyed a small boost as it gained five percentage points in the last month following Keir Starmer’s decision to step down as leader and prime minister. His successor Andy Burnham – the most popular Labour politician in the country – was confirmed as the new party leader today and will get the keys to No.10 on Monday.  This five-point surge from Labour is their largest single upward movement since the 2024 general election, while Reform are now on the lowest vote share since the May 2025 local elections. Labour has not been on 24% in a Survation poll since November 20, 2025. According to the pollsters, Starmer is leaving office “with the worst ratings of any leader we test”, …

Rare, stinky double corpse flower bloom draws people to the Huntington

Rare, stinky double corpse flower bloom draws people to the Huntington

Published by Sam Flores

The Huntington’s long-awaited stink has arrived. Two corpse flowers nicknamed Odora and Odorysseus have bloomed at the San Marino conservatory, drawing thousands for the rare occasion and quickly surpassing last year’s numbers. Corpse flowers have been a staple of the Huntington since 1999, when the garden exhibited its first corpse flower. Native to Sumatra, Indonesia, these plants are endangered in the wild and only bloom for 24 to 48 hours every few years. Once bloomed, they reek of rotting flesh. As the day goes on, these smelly specimens will close back up and collapse, losing their infamously rotten odor. The double bloom this summer was “definitely a surprise,” said Brandon Tam, the Huntington’s associate curator of orchids. The last time multiple corpse flowers bloomed on the same day at the Huntington was in 2018. Share via Close extra sharing options “We knew that Odorysseus was going to bloom probably Sunday,” Tam said. “But what surprised us was that we saw that Odora was opening just a few hours after.” As an “inflorescence” — a plant …

As Israel divides Jewish communities, Yiddish draws a new generation

As Israel divides Jewish communities, Yiddish draws a new generation

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS and NPR) — Lindsey Bloom, a senior at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, grew up going to Hebrew school and attending a synagogue with an Israeli flag hanging near the front of the sanctuary. However, as she has sought to distance herself from Israel’s government in recent years, she said she didn’t know of other ways to engage with Jewish culture — until she learned about Yiddish. “I’ve definitely talked to quite a few people that just stopped engaging with their Judaism because they didn’t know where to go,” Bloom told RNS and NPR. “That was the case for me. And then I got into Yiddish, and I was, like, oh, this is actually a lot better. I actually align with this a lot more.”   Bloom isn’t alone. The language app Duolingo reported that as of this year, roughly 296,000 people around the world are studying the language with 10th-century European roots. An estimated 60% of them are under 25 years old.   Mindl Cohen, the academic director of the Yiddish Book Center, …