Taraji P Henson Is Lensed By Sam Taylor Johnson In 'What Women Need' For Porter Edit January 18, 2019

Taraji P Henson Is Lensed By Sam Taylor Johnson In 'What Women Need' For Porter Edit January 18, 2019

American talent Taraji Penda Henson covers the January 18, 2019 issue of Porter Edit. Tracy Taylor styles Henson in Alexander Wang, Iro, Stella McCartney, Maison Margiela, Proenza Schouler and more for ‘What Women Need’, lensed by Sam Taylor Johnson.

Eve Barlow conducts the brisk interview, opening with Henson’s role as Cookie Lyon in Fox’s ‘Empire’.

Despite the instant lovability of Cookie, the actress was initially reluctant to take the character on. On paper, she read like someone the audience would hate – a brash ex-convict – but then Henson saw an opportunity to change minds, including her own. “I stopped judging her,” she says. “We see somebody we don’t identify with and the first thing we do is judge, but all we’re put here to do is empathize. It’s my job as the actor to make the audience understand.” She references Charlize Theron in Monster: “We should’ve hated her. But she gave that woman humanity. An actor is supposed to conflict you. You’re supposed to be confused.” There’s a part of Cookie in Henson, too: she’s both a charmer and hustler. 

Scientists Call for Drastic Drop in Emissions. U.S. Appears to Have Gone the Other Way.

Photo by Jaromír Kavan on Unsplash

Scientists Call for Drastic Drop in Emissions. U.S. Appears to Have Gone the Other Way.

By Abraham Lustgarten , ProPublica. This story was originally published by ProPublica.

The signals are blaring: Dramatic changes to our climate are well upon us. These changes — we know thanks to a steady drumbeat of alarming official reports over the past 12 months — could cripple the U.S. economy, threaten to make vast stretches of our coastlines uninhabitable, make basic food supplies scarce and push millions of the planet’s poorest people into cities and across borders as they flee environmental perils.

All is not yet lost, we are told, but the demands of the moment are great. The resounding consensus of scientists, economists and analysts tells us that the solution lies in an unprecedented global effort to immediately and drastically drop carbon emissions levels. That drop is possible, but it will need to happen so fast that it will demand extraordinary commitment, resolve, innovation and, yes, sacrifice. The time we’ve got to work with, according to the United Nations, is a tad more than 10 years.

And so it stings particularly badly to learn from a new report released this weekby the Rhodium Group, a private research company, that U.S. emissions — which amount to one-sixth of the planet’s — didn’t drop in 2018 but instead skyrocketed. The 3.4 percent jump in CO2 for 2018, projected by the Rhodium Group, would be second-largest surge in greenhouse gas emissions from the United States since 1996, when Bill Clinton was president.

Tiffany Commits To Sourcing Transparency For Diamonds .18 Carats and Larger

Tiffany & Co appears on AOC frequently, given their significant contributions to wildlife conservation, frequently working with superhuman Doutzen Kroes. Tiffany & Co understands that younger customers have different values from their parents and grandparents, when the topic is inclusivity and responding to our global climate crisis. These younger customers are also concerned about the sourcing of their products in an industry known for some heartless business practices around the world.

The Fifth Avenue jeweler has now committed to full transparency around the origins and ultimately the journey from mining to a sale at Tiffany & Co of all of its diamonds (0.18 and larger.

The diamond’s provenance will be listed directly next to the stone in stores, and a unique serial number, invisible to the naked eye, will be laser-etched on the gem’s surface. By 2020, the jewelry house vows to share the entire craftsmanship journey of each diamond, including cutting and polishing workshops in addition to the mine’s location.

The Fifth Avenue jeweler has now committed to full transparency around the origins and ultimately the journey from mining to a sale at Tiffany & Co of all of its diamonds (0.18 and larger.)

“Through transparency in sourcing and craftsmanship, we hope that people will further understand the important journey of a Tiffany diamond, and its positive impacts around the world,” said Anisa Kamadoli Costa, chief sustainability officer at Tiffany & Co.

Rising Ballet Star Precious Adams Pushes Racial Boundaries With Rigorous Talent + Eloquence

Rising Ballet Star Precious Adams Pushes Racial Boundaries With Rigorous Talent + Eloquence

NOWNESS introduces us to English National Ballet rising star Precious Adams, appearing in a short film by Irish director Leonn Ward. Her film affords the Canton, Michigan-born Adams the visual and audio platform for a “youthful take on the rule-bound etiquette of ballet.”

"When Nowness and the English National Ballet approached me asking if I would like to create a film with Precious Adams, one of the few black rising stars in the world of ballet, I was honoured," explains Ward. "I wanted to create a piece of work that pushes beyond the traditional limitations of ballet. I loved that Precious was a tap dancer before she went onto ballet, so I really wanted to incorporate that into the film and sound. I wanted the film to feel real and honest and reveal Precious in her truest form."

Nancy Pelosi Victorious – Why The California Democrat Was Reelected Speaker of the House

Nancy Pelosi Ready to Be Sworn In Again As Speaker of the House, Jan. 3, 2019

Nancy Pelosi Victorious – Why The California Democrat Was Reelected Speaker of the House

By Kathryn L. Pearson, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Minnesota . First published on The Conversation.

Despite some brash and not insignificant opposition, California’s Nancy Pelosi is returning to her previous role as speaker of the House.

She will preside over a chamber that is 77 percent male and a Democratic Caucus that is 62 percent male.

When the Democratic Caucus held their leadership election on Nov. 28, Pelosi won the nomination on a 203 to 32 vote, falling 15 votes shy of the 218 she would later need to win the speakership with all members voting.

When a vote was taken on the House floor on Jan. 3, she won by a vote of 220 to 192, with 15 Democrats voting for someone else or voting “present.” The close vote illustrated, once again, Pelosi’s skill in coalition-building and counting votes, but also that some Democrats – particularly new members and those in swing districts – are dissatisfied with her as the party’s standard bearer.

As a political scientist who focuses on gender and party discipline in the House of Representatives, I have studied Pelosi’s leadership and how she was able to hold it for so long.

It’s important to realize that Pelosi’s battle to win over wavering Democrats didn’t begin in November 2018. Rather, it stretches back to when she was first elected to leadership in 2001. Her ongoing ability to rally members of her own party illustrates why she has been among the most successful U.S. House speakers. It also suggests her leadership will help Democrats in Congress as they negotiate with President Trump and Senate Republicans, even if Pelosi remains unpopular in some Democratic members’ districts.

Rising to power

Sarah Stephens Roars Into Private Fantasies For Honey Birdette's 2019 #NOTYOURVALENTIN Campaign

Sarah Stephens Roars Into Private Fantasies For Honey Birdett's 2019 #NOTYOURVALENTIN Campaign

Honey Birdette’s 2019 #NOTYOURVALENTINE campaign says “forget flowers, ditch the diamonds and abandon candlelight dinners”. Australian bombshell Sarah Stephens promises the ride of your Valentine’s Day life — presumably for the guys, but then again — with an intoxicatingly sexy woman, bound in a lot of leather and a little bit of lace. And she knows how to use lingerie to her advantage.

Photographer Florian Semanaz flashes Stephens on location at a vintage motorbike gallery in LA, where she plunges deep into lust and fantasy. Ashleigh Carter styles Sarah in this roaring testosterone celebration of strong women embracing their sexuality. And that could be YOU. Honey Birdette’s #NOTYOURVALENTINE collection launches on the 10 January 2019 and will be available exclusively at Honey Birdette Boutiques in Australia, the UK and the USA, as well as via their online boutique https://www.honeybirdette.com

Samar Badawi + Brother Raif Badawi Remain In Saudi Arabia Dhahban Central Prison, As Saudi Arabia Disallows Any Dissent

Samar Badawi + Brother Raif Badawi Remain In Saudi Arabia Dhahban Central Prison, As Saudi Arabia Disallows Any Dissent

Coming to grips with the horrors of Saudi Arabia’s torture of women’s activists at the same time Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud — or MbS — lifted the ban on women driving in the kingdom is no more complicated than following the daily mental machinations of Donald Trump.

Jailing the Saudi women activists behind the women driving campaign seems irrational, but only if one fails to understand that machinations are not rational thought processes. Perhaps this is why MbS and Donald Trump have such a lovefest. It takes a self-absorbed schemer to know one, which is precisely why they end up so often hanging out together as the world’s leading autocrats.

Updating AOC two days ago about the jailed women’s activists, I zeroed in on the name Samar Badawi, knowing her to be the sister of jailed liberal blogger Raif Badawi. In 2015 Raif was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1000 lashes for his writings. After receiving the first 50 lashes — which nearly killed him in front of the entire world — Raif Badawi has languished in Saudi prison.

Women activists arrested in Saudi Arabia include Loujain al-Hathloul, who I considered to be a major face behind the driving ban. Samar Badawi has campaigned for years against the most discriminatory of all the Saudi laws against women’s rights — as if it’s possible to enumerate them in order. Badawi opposes against the male guardianship system, under which women require the permission of a male relative to travel, marry, or work in certain jobs. In this article ‘Saudi Arabia: Where Fathers Rule and Courts Oblige’, Human Rights Watch details the mutual litigation of Badawi and her father against each other.

It was for this work that Samar Badawi received the US State Department International Women of Courage Award in 2012, when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. Note that Waleed Abu-al-Khair, Samar’s former husband and Raif Badawi’s lawyer, is also jailed for 15 years.

Israel Proposes Protecting Woolly Mammoth Ivory To Save Commingled Poached Elephant Ivory

Israel Proposes Protecting Woolly Mammoth Ivory To Save Commingled Poached Elephant Ivory

Woolly mammoths are long extinct for a minimum of 10,000 years in most global locations. Initially, many conservationists hoped that the discovery of long-frozen mammoth remains — including their tusks — would take pressure off the poaching of African elephants for their ivory.

It appears that those hopes are now dashed, with an acknowledement that the legal transport of mammoth ivory often moves with its cousin’s ivory as part of the shipment. As a result, Israel has proposed that mammoths become protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, (CITES) closing a loophole in which freshly-slaughtered tusks are transported as legal mammoth ivory. Such a decision would mark the first time an extinct species is listed as protected under Cities.

“They are often intermingled in shipment and retail displays, and are fashioned in a similar style. To the untrained eye it’s very difficult to distinguish between them,” said Iris Ho, senior specialist in wildlife programmes and policy at Humane Society International (HSI). “There is currently no international regulatory regime to track and monitor the commercial trade in mammoth ivory.”

A Move To Make Extinct Woolly Mammoths A Protected Species

Kitty Block, the president of HSI, said in The Guardian: “With ivory traffickers exploiting the long-extinct mammoth so they can further exploit imperilled elephants, nations must unite to end the poaching epidemic and ensure all ivory markets are closed. The time to act is now, before we lose them forever.”

As Saudi Women Activists Suffer Horrific Torture, Kingdom Puts Women In Cockpits + Main Cabin

YASMINE AL-MAYMANY IS AMONG THE CERTIFIED SAUDI WOMEN PILOTS WHO TOLD ALARABIA IN AUGUST 2018 THAT SHE HOPED TO SOON BE IN THE COCKPIT WITH A JOB SANCTIONED BY THE SAUDI GENERAL AUTHORITY OF CIVIL AVIATION.

As Saudi Women Activists Suffer Horrific Torture, Kingdom Puts Women In Cockpits + Main Cabin

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is promising to not only put women in the cockpit as co-pilots but to train them as flight attendants as well. In January, 2018 Eqbal Darandari, a member of the Saudi Shura Council, called on national airlines to empower women by creating jobs. “We’ve seen Saudi women piloting aircraft outside the kingdom. Now it’s time for [Saudi Arabia’s aviation authority] to take the initiative. Saudi women deserve to find work in their own country,” he said at the time. 

Soon Saudi Arabia’s Oxford Aviation Academy opened it doors to women to train them as pilots. Six months later, Flynas, a domestic airline in Saudi Arabia, announced that it would be hiring female flight attendants after proper training. In the new year, a Saudi air hostess will fly this month, in another move forward for the severely-limited in rights Saudi women, writes Vogue Arabia.

The magazine’s website writes that Flynas will also hire women as co-pilots. “The move aims to enable Saudi women to have a greater role in supporting the Kingdom’s economy,” stated Bander Al-Mohanna, CEO of Flynas.

Ashley Graham Covers ELLE US February 2019, Talking A Marriage With Endless Sex + Faith In God

Ashley Graham Covers ELLE US February 2019, Talking A Marriage With Endless Sex + Faith In God

Ashley Graham covers the February 2019 issue of ELLE US, styled by Anna Trevelyan for images by Carin Backoff./ Hair by Ben Skervin; makeup George Sandev

Graham, now 31, has moved light years from her discovery at the Oak View Mall in her hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska. In the years since, Graham is widely known as an advocate for body confidence and inclusive sizing in the fashion industry. Graham blitzed into the 2016 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue as its first curvy model. After all, men notoriously prefer women with curves, right?

In her ELLE interview with Allie Jones, Ashley Graham makes it totally clear that she’s just getting started.

She’s launched her own podcast, "Pretty Big Deal;" has begun filming the feel-good talk show "Fearless," for Ellen DeGeneres’s digital network; and has become the newly minted host as well as an executive producer of American Beauty Star, Lifetime’s reality-competition show that pits top hair and makeup artists against each other in a series of challenges, à la Project Runway. “There was only one person we wanted to host the new season of American Beauty Star, and that was Ashley Graham,” says Gena McCarthy, executive vice president and head of programming for Lifetime Unscripted and FYI. “Her charisma and confidence are unmatched, and her infectious personality is always inspiring.” Graham’s co–executive producer Ross Elliot sums it up thusly: “It’s the Oprah factor.”

Eye: Amber Valletta Wears Agnona's SS 2019 Vicuña Fabric Collection, Lensed By Ezra Petronio

Eye: Amber Valletta Wears Agnona's SS 2019 Vicuña Fabric Collection, Lensed By Ezra Petronio

Supermodel Amber Valletta showcases key looks from Agnona’s Spring/Summer 2019 collection, lensed by Ezra Petronio.

Designer Simon Holloway dedicated the collection to artist American Joan Jonas, 82, previously honored in an exhibition at London’s Tate Modern. In this film, we see Jonas at work in New York.

Peru’s Vicuña Fabric Is Worth Its Weight In Gold

Key items in Agnona’s spring 2019 collection were made in vicuña, one of two wild South American camelids living in the high alpine areas of the Andes. Vicuña, along with the guanaco, is a relative of the llama. It’s believed to be the wild ancestor of domesticated alpacas, and it remains wild today.

Nearly hunted to extinction in the late 1980’s, the vicuña herds made a slow, steady comeback and are expanding today in the wild. Driven largely by their father’s adoration of the wool product, Sergio and Pier Luigi Loro Piana, the co-CEOs of Loro Piana, the Italian mill that was a part of the mid-century ‘Made in Italy’ movement and would eventually grow into one of the world’s largest producers of cashmere — and its biggest supplier of vicuña.

The fibers are collected using the chacu method of the Incas—a half-religious ceremony where the local community forms a human chain around the animals, slowly closing the circumference of their circle for shearing. An adult vicuna produces only about a pound of fiber a year, producing a cloth so fine it was considered to be cloth of gold, writes BofF.

For The Incas, Vicuñas Had Strong, Spiritual Powers

Eye: Dear Helena, Ashley, Chiara, Monica + | In Posing For Dolce & Gabbana Sp 2019 Campaign, Do You Give The Brand Cover?

Eye: Dear Helena, Ashley, Chiara, Monica + | In Posing For Dolce & Gabbana Sp 2019 Campaign, Do You Give The Brand Cover?

Some of AOC’s favorite models and talents led by Helena Christensen, Ashley Graham, Monica Belluci, Eva Herzigova, Karen Elson, Chiara Scelsi and more are supported by photographers including Angelo Pennetta, Luca & Alessandro Morelli, Giuseppe Tornatore, Branislav Simoncik, Franco Pagetti, Bruce Gilden and Alex Majoli in celebrating Dolce & Gabbana’s Spring 2019 ad campaign.

Complicity Among Creatives

We don’t have the answers to any key questions around the participation of these creatives in the Dolce & Gabbana campaign — except to say that we wouldn’t participate in the campaign in any way. That’s a tough decision to make in a world that feels increasingly politically correct, a world where disagreement and debate is not tolerated by either demanding progressives or right-wing conservatives. So unlike many voices, AOC won’t criticize talents using their gifts on behalf of the Dolce & Gabbana brand.

Caught in our own concerns about the intolerance of politically-correct, progressive demands, we also acknowledge the reality of a world marching towards intolerance generally. This right-wing intolerance derides women’s rights or even our intelligence, gay rights, protecting the environment and a host of other values that the fashion industry theoretically embraces.

Kim Kardashian Hawks Dolce & Gabbana, Then Pulls Instagram Story As Confused Followers Express Dismay

Kim Kardashian Hawks Dolce & Gabbana, Then Pulls Instagram Story As Confused Followers Express Dismay

Talent mogul Kim Kardashian had the equivalent of a senior moment, rushing to produce an Instagram Story praising Italian luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana’s big box of goodies sent her by the controversial luxury brand. In the short clip, the KKW Beauty mogul pans across several sequinned tuxedo jackets while narrating, “So I come home to these amazing, huge Dolce & Gabbana boxes”.

By now Kardashian knows that her every move is under the microscope, leaving people confused that days after announcing that she and husband Kanye West are expecting a fourth child via IVF, she would use her reputation to advance a brand that advocated against IVF, saying “We oppose gay adoptions. The only family is the traditional one…. No chemical offsprings and rented uterus: life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed.”

Kardashian pulled her Insta Story within hours, but one wonders exactly what she was thinking. AOC doesn’t disparage Kim Kardashian in any way. We’re not KK haters but admirers of her frankly prodigious business talents and ability to live in the limelight 24/7. But surely Kardashian knows that the Dolce & Gabbana brand is newly-toxic, yet again over its controversial antics and subsequent cancellation of their late fall 2018 Shanghai show.

In reality, the Dolce & Gabbana brand is aligned far closer to the Trumplandia values embraced by her husband Kanye West than her own more progressive ones. One wonders if Kanye told the DG boys to send over the loot, so Kim could hawk it. How much $$$ was it worth to all parties involved.

Laetitia Wright Tops 2018 Box Office $$$ | Research Bashes Myth About Women Actors + Film Profits | Lina Iris Viktor Settles W/Kendrick Lamar

Laetitia Wright Tops 2018 Box Office $$$ | Research Bashes Myth About Women Actors + Film Profits | Lina Iris Viktor Settles W/Kendrick Lamar

1) Guyanese actor Laetitia Wright topped the Hollywood $$$ charts in 2018, with Fandango crowning her the Highest Box Office Earning Actor of 2018. The list was compiled based on domestic box office earnings, and Wright ran away with the title with an easy $1.55 billion in revenue. via Marie Claire

Wright’s films tallied by Fandango:

Black Panther ($700,059,566)

Avengers: Infinity War ($678,815,482)

Ready Player One ($137,690,172)

The Commuter ($36,343,858)

2) Movies Starring Women Earn More Than Male-Led Films New York Times

Creative Artists Agency and shift7, a company started by Megan Smith, the 3rd Chief Technology Officer of the US and Assistant to the President in the Obama administration, has blown a hole in the common Hollywood truism that women’led films perform poorly at the box office. Studying  the top movies from 2014 to 2017 , reality is that films starring women earned more than male-led films. Budget was not a determining factor. Whether the budget was $10 million or $100 million, women delivered box office cash.

Only 1 out of 36 Newly Elected Female Representatives In Congress Is Republican – Here’s Why It Matters

Photo by Alondra Olivas on Unsplash

Only 1 out of 36 Newly Elected Female Representatives In Congress Is Republican – Here’s Why It Matters

By Malliga Och, Assistant Professor of Global Studies and Languages, Idaho State University.. First published on The Conversation.

(Note from Anne. As a progressive Democrat, these views may not coincide with my own, based on my extensive research on Republican women voters. I share the research from Baylor University because as a Christian University — unlike a liberal media resource like The Atlantic— the conclusions are more difficult to condemn. Also, personal interviews were part of the Baylor study, which concluded that “Value gender traditionalism, feeling that men are better suited for politics and should earn more than women; women should provide primary child care; and working women are deficient as mothers” is a core belief among Trump voters, including Trump’s Republican women voters.“ This article is factually correct in its assertions and Och’s arguments, which is why I’ve published it on AOC. I admit also that I am actively involved in trying to recruit Republican women and registered Independent women to the Democratic party by acting in good faith. )

The 116th Congress will be the most diverse in U.S. history: 126 women will take office, including 43 women of color. Yet, as many have noted, this new diversity is confined to one side of the aisle.

The number of Republican women in Congress is actually dropping from 23 to 13. Only one out of 36 freshman female representatives is a Republican. So while 2018 certainly was the Year of the Woman, Republican women are watching from the sidelines.

Whether you are progressive or conservative, this is bad news. As political scientists, we strongly believe that both democracy and feminism work best when there is a critical mass of women in each major political party. A democracy should reflect the diversity of its society. Considering that women make up over half of the U.S. population but only 23 percent of Congress, American democracy already under represents women. For Republican women, the mismatch is even more pronounced.

Nearly half of all women in this country regularly vote for Republican candidates. For example, Donald Trump won 41 percent of the female vote in 2016 and Mitt Romney won 44 percent in 2012. Yet the overall numbers of Republican women candidates and elected women has stagnated at around 15 percent for the past two decades and is now declining.

This is important for many reasons.

Laura Dern's Big Little Truths Are Revealed, Lensed By Julia Hetta For Vanity Fair February 2019

Laura Dern's Big Little Truths Are Revealed, Lensed By Julia Hetta For Vanity Fair February 2019

Actor Laura Dern, 51, plays the high-strung Monterey mom Renata in ‘Big Little Lies’ , and the slow evolution of her character suits Dern just fine. “I’ve never gravitated towards scripts where there’s profound change,” she told Vanity Fair. “I’m interested in incremental growth…and it’s so obvious to me how vulnerable Renata is because you can feel her being like — ‘You’re. Going. To. Listen. To. Me.’ — Nobody has to work that hard if they’re really being listened to.”

The ‘Jurassic Park, ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’, and yes— ‘Blue Velver’ star covers the February 2019 issue of Vanity Fair Magazine, lensed by Julia Hutta with styling by Samira Nasr., choosing Balenciaga, Maison ALAÏA and more. Sloane Crosley conducts the interview.

Like every actor in ‘Big Little Lies’, Dern gushes about the project, saying “I feel such sisterhood with the girls — we deeply love each other, and for Reese [Witherspoon] and Nicole [Kidman] and I particularly, all having done this since we were teenagers and never having acted with so many women, it’s amazing.”

Madonna Kicks Off 50th Anniversary Stonewall Inn LBGTQ Gay Rights Events

Madonna launched her role as an ambassador for the 50th anniversary celebrations commemorating riots at New York’s Greenwich Village Stonewall Inn with a New Years Eve drop-in.

Accompanied by her son David Banda on acoustic guitar, the pop star welcomed 2019 in the iconic bar that jump-started the modern LBGTQ movement. Madonna led the crowd in a sing-along of "Like a Prayer" and covered Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love."

"I stand here proudly at the place where pride began, the legendary Stonewall Inn, on the birth of a new year," she said. "We come together tonight to celebrate 50 years of revolution.”

The singer called for peace and understanding in her speech, saying, “If we truly took the time to get to know one another we would find that we all bleed the same color and we all need to love and be loved. Let’s remember who and what we are fighting for — ourselves, for each other, but truly and most importantly, what are we fighting for? Let’s take a minute to reflect on how we can bring more love and peace into 2019, let’s look at how we can bring random acts of kindness. Maybe we can find an opening to bring the light in. Are you ready to do that?"