Absent A Terrorist Attack, Marine Le Pen Is Poised To Lose French Presidency

Absent A Terrorist Attack, Marine Le Pen Is Poised To Lose French Presidency

Writing for The Daily Beast, Christopher Dickey says definitively that "barring an act of God or ISIS, or a massive vote for the mysterious Monsiur Blanc", it is near certain that France will dodge a right-wing bullet, electing 39-year-old centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and not far-right, nationalist-socialistic candidate Marine Le Pen as France's next president. 

The two candidates faced off in their one and only debate on Wednesday night, in which instant polls declared Macron the winner 60%-40%. If Macron is elected on Sunday, his victory represents a huge roadblock in what threatened to be a wave of nativism and populism sweeping Europe after Britain's Brexit vote.  

Morning Joe Hosts Joe Scarborough & Mika Brzezinski Confirm Engagement

Morning Joe Hosts Joe Scarborough & Mika Brzezinski Confirm Engagement

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are engaged to be married, cementing their relationship at a weekend proposal at the scenic Bar Bellini at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes. Brzezinski celebrated her 50th birthday on the romantic trip to the south of France and Monaco. 

Scarborough remarked to The Hollywood Reporter last month that he and Brzezinski "have a crackling on-air chemistry, and a crackling off-air chemistry, too." Scarborough divorced his second wife in 2013 and Brzezinski divorced her husband in 2016. In the same interview, Scarborough made it clear that even their pets were co-mingling. 

Hillary Clinton Slams Trump Administration's Assault On Women's Reproductive Health

Hillary Clinton Slams Trump Administration's Assault On Women's Reproductive Health

Hillary Clinton, speaking at the 100th anniversary gala honoring Planned Parenthood on Tuesday, slammed "groups of men" in Washington, DC who are deciding the future of women's health protections. Everyone in the room knew she was talking about the men of the Trump administration and now the anti-women lieutenants like Teresa Manning and Charmaine Yoest, hired to rollback women's health advancements over the last 50 years. 

Chloe Sevigny Is Lensed By Yelena Yemchuk For The Edit April 20, 2017

Chloe Sevigny Is Lensed By Yelena Yemchuk For The Edit April 20, 2017

Actor Chloe Sevigny covers the April 20th, 2017 cover story of 'The Edit', styled by Tracy Taylor in printed femininity from Gucci, Balenciaga, Isabel Marant and more for images by Yelena Yemchuk

Trumps Launch Full Assault On International Programs That Benefit Women & Girls

Trumps Launch Full Assault On International Programs That Benefit Women & Girls

The Trump family double teamed their lies about women's rights with the proposed elimination of Hillary Clinton's Global Women's Issues Office, a State Department office that fights for the rights of women all over the world, with a special focus on defending those who are in the most precarious and vulnerable situations in impoverished countries.

Angela Merkel Meets With Vladimir Putin, Armed With Her 5-Point Plan For Dealing With Autocratic Strongmen

Angela Merkel Meets With Vladimir Putin, Armed With Her 5-Point Plan For Dealing With Autocratic Strongmen

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is at Russian President Vladimir Putin's summer residence in Sochi for talks on a variety of complex issues. No one is expecting any major breakthroughs in Sochi, writes the BBC. 

In January 2017, Foreign Policy wrote a fascinating piece on how Angela Merkel deals with bullies, noting that Vladimir Putin considers her to be a "dangerous person," according to Russian dissident and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The chancellor’s astounding record in outfoxing, outlasting, and outmaneuvering full-of-themselves male rivals, however, began before Putin appeared on the scene. Her track record offers the outlines of a go-to plan for dealing with bullies — and, not coincidentally, it dovetails tightly with her top foreign-policy advisor’s five-point plan for taking on Trump.

Chi-chi Nwanoku's Chineke's All Black Orchestra Soars In Classical Music World

Chi-chi Nwanoku's Chineke's All Black Orchestra Soars In Classical Music World

Chi-chi Nwanoku is a double bass player and professor of Historical Double Bass Studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She was a founder member and principal bassist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, a position she held for 30 years. The New York Times profiles Nwanoku, whose Chineke! Foundation has formed Europe's first professional all-black orchestra. 

These Women Playwrights Are Giving Theater A Moral Compass

These Women Playwrights Are Giving Theater A Moral Compass

Vanity Fair profiles three, award-winning women playwrights -- Paula Vogel, Anna Deavere Smith, and Lynn Nottage -- who are giving voice to some of America's greatest challenges in a global world.

World's Leading Women Look At Ivanka With Incredulous Silence As She Extols Dad's Support For Women

World's Leading Women Look At Ivanka With Incredulous Silence! A Few Booed!

One unplanned development from the meeting was Chancellor Merkel's accidental revelation of a new global investment  fund for female entrepreneurs that is connected to the Trump administration and the World Bank. 

Dina Powell, President Trump's deputy national security adviser for strategy and senior counselor for economic initiatives, who was in attendance, said that the announcement was unplanned. 

Speaking at a Thursday evening dinner in Washington, DC, welcoming the 2017 class of the Fortune US State Department Global Women's Mentoring Parntership, Powell explained that the announcement was premature, and the details will be forthcoming.  

One wonders if Powell mentioned that the Trump administration's intention is not only to cut off all global funds for contraception and other forms of health assistance for poor women and families, but also to abolish the State Department's  Global Women's Issues Office, a State Department office that fights for the rights of women all over the world and was created by Hillary Clinton in the earliest days of her tenure as Secretary of State. The Trump administration is on the record saying they have no interest in soft power. Note that many Republicans in the Senate support the office as a deterrent to terrorism, and it may well have its defenders.

Ivanka Preaches 'Eat Organic' While Dad Reverses Ban On Pesticide Chlorpyrifos

Ivanka Preaches 'Eat Organic' While Dad Reverses Ban On Pesticide Chlorpyrifos

As a progressive independent, Ivanka Trump talked a good game -- advocating on countless opinions that differ with the core beliefs of the mostly white men who occupy positions of power in the Trump administration.  One can track Ivanka Trump's silence on a daily basis as her father decimates countless programs and safeguards for American families. 

Ivanka's latest silence mode -- as a key adviser to her father -- fell over the president's decision to give a reprieve to Dow Chemical's pesticide chlorpyrifos. Dow CEO Andrew Liveris is the head of President Trump's new American Manufacturing Council. Oh, and he also donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration. Before his election as president, Trump called activities like this "pay to play" and he promised to end them as he cleaned up the DC swamp. What a hoot!!!

Spanish Women Face Hate Crime Charges Over Plastic Vagina Protest

Spanish Women Face Hate Crime Charges Over Plastic Vagina Protest

Three women who staged a 2014 May Day protest are facing charges of "crimes against religious sentiment" for parading "a plastic vagina a couple of metres high in the style of the Virgin Mary", according to court papers. 

The protest was designed to highlight issues of discrimination against women in the workplace and also restrictions on women's reproductive health as part of the national Workers’ Day march in Seville by the Spanish union the General Workers' Confederation (CGT).

The legal case was already dismissed in Spain's judicial system but the Association of Christian Lawyers appealed the decision and the previous judge's ruling that "not believing in the dogmas of a religion and manifesting it publicly falls under the freedom of expression". The new case claims to contain 'new evidence' that the protest was a deliberate insult to "religious sentiments of Cathlics' with "a mockery of the Easter procession."

Meet Emily Steel, Dedicated New York Times Reporter Who Is Bill O'Reilly Enemy #1

Meet Emily Steel, Dedicated New York Times Reporter Who Is Bill O'Reilly Enemy #1

Marie Claire interviews New York Times reporter Emily Steel, who insists "I'm not the story" when talking about Bill O'Reilly's epic fall at Fox News. Perhaps not, but the investigative research approach that she took, together with her Times colleague Michael S. Schmidt, was absolutely awesome, inventive, meticulous and truly original. 

Three weeks ago, Steel and Schmidt dropped their explosive Times article, documenting settlements with at least five accusers over the last 15 years, to the hefty sum of $13 million. Within two days of their report, over 50 advertisers had fled O'Reilly's show. And now he's gone from his perch as the biggest anchor on cable TV.

Beyoncé Launches Formation Scholars With Four Full 2017/2018 Scholarships For Young Women

Beyoncé Launches Formation Scholars With Four Full 2017/2018 Scholarships For Young Women

Beyoncé used the first anniversary of 'Lemonade', the world's best-selling album in 2016, to launch Formation Scholars -- full college scholarships for four young women -- one for each of the participating institutions: Berklee College of Music, Howard University, Parsons School of Design and Spelman College, her site explains. 

Peter Lindbergh Captures Emma Watson For Interview Magazine May 2017

Peter Lindbergh Captures Emma Watson For Interview Magazine May 2017

'Beauty and the Beast' star Emma Watson covers the May 2017 issue of Interview Magazine. Emma is styled by Elin Svahn in noble origins looks from Louis Vuitton, Carven, Balenciaga, Paco Rabanne, Celine, Stella McCartney and more for images by Peter Lindbergh.

Watson is interviewed by close friend Jessica Chastain, while soaking in a Parisian bathtub. About shooting with Peter Lindbergh, she says:

Will The Berlin Girls Club Confront Ivanka Trump About Her Father's Anti-Contraception Drive In Poor Countries?

Will The Berlin Girls Club Confront Ivanka Trump About Her Father's Anti-Contraception Drive In Poor Countries?

The coverage of Ivanka Trump in the German press in the days leading up to her speech was similar to that at home, where she has been criticized on late night programs like “Saturday Night Live” for being “complicit” in her father’s agenda. The front page of one daily newspaper, Berliner Zeitung, featured a photograph of Ivanka Trump under the headline “First Flusterin,” or “the first whisperer.” 

Ivanka can read the headlines, and anticipating not being taken seriously, having no policy chops, the Trump daughter co-authored an op-ed in The Financial Times, with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, arguing that the estimated 170-year timeline to close the gender pay gap "is unacceptable."

{.. . }

It's ironic to read Ivanka Trump's commentary about empowering women in developing countries, after her father has decimated family-planning budgets in place under the Obama Administration and instituted when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. 

Blake Lively Talks Child Pornography, Not Her 'Power Outfit' At Variety's New York Power of Women Luncheon

Blake Lively Talks Child Pornography, Not Her 'Power Outfit' At Variety's New York Power of Women Luncheon

Actor and supermom Blake Lively was not amused at Variety's recent New York Power of Women luncheon when a reporter posing as a journalist asked her about the designer of her outfit. Lively executed a no-nonsense approach to her smackdown, admonishing the reporter.  

Lively was chosen as an honoree for her 'fierce advocacy against child pornography', joining singer-actress Audra McDonald, television personality Gayle King, Viacom media executive Shari Redstone and Chelsea Clinton, the vice-chair of the board at Clinton Foundation.

Lively's comments were focused on her support of Child Rescue Coalition. Given her award by Selma Hayek, Blake's speech was emotional and deeply personal.

A Joke or Not?? Saudi Arabia Awarded Seat on Commission on the Status of Women

A Joke or Not?? Saudi Arabia Awarded Seat on Commission on the Status of Women

In an appalling act of absurdity, The UN Economic and Social Council voted days ago to award Saudi Arabia a four-year term on the Commission on the Status of Women. beginning in 2018 

“Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “It’s absurd.”

“Every Saudi woman,” said Neuer, “must have a male guardian who makes all critical decisions on her behalf, controlling a woman’s life from her birth until death. Saudi Arabia also bans women from driving cars.”

“I wish I could find the words to express how I feel right know. I’m ‘saudi’ and this feels like betrayal,” tweeted a self-described Saudi woman pursuing a doctorate in international human rights law in Australia.

Saudi Arabia was elected by a secret ballot last week of the U.N.’s 54-nation Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Usually ECOSOC rubber-stamps nominations arranged behind closed doors by regional groups, however this time the US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley  U.S. forced an election, to China’s chagrin.

Filmmaker Erika Lust Brings 'Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On' Pt 2 To Netflix

Filmmaker Erika Lust Brings 'Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On' Pt 2 To Netflix

“Porn today is sex education,” says Erika Lust, a Barcelona-based erotic filmmaker in the first episode of Netflix’s new docuseries, 'Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On'. A spinoff of the 2015 documentary of the same name, this new show explores sex and relationships in the Internet age. 

The six-episode series was produced by Rashida Jones, Jill Bauer, and Ronna Gradus, the team behind the original film. At launch, the project followed a group of teenage girls entering the amateur porn business in Miami. In the new episodes, they expand their content focus from porn into all aspects of human sexuality online. Vogue explains: "One episode revolves around a cam girl and her intimate relationship with one of her customers, whom she’s never met in real life. One chapter explores the question of whether a woman can ever be empowered in the porn industry—the answer is murkier than you might believe. Another centers on a pair of female erotic filmmakers and their efforts to try and challenge the pervasive, and often aggressive, male gaze in pornography."

Givenchy Launches Kids Collection Under Clare Waight Keller

Givenchy Launches Kids Collection Under Clare Waight Keller

Givenchy's new creative director Clare Waight Keller has made an immediate impact on tomorrow's Givenchy brand with the launch of its first children's collection. The line reinterprets the house’s classic designs – from bomber jacket and jogging pants to logo T-shirts -- with two collections per year, each with over 100 pieces. Designed for kids up to age 12, the snaps show a lot of heart in tomorrow's Givenchy under the 21st century woman, motherly eye of Keller. 

Military Issues New Orders Against Using Non-consensual Images As Cyber-bullying & Revenge Porn

Military Issues New Orders Against Using Non-consensual Images As Cyber-bullying & Revenge Porn

The US Navy and Marine Corps took action Wednesday around the recent sharing online of non-consensual photos of military women. Both branches of the military officially barred service members from distributing nude photos without the consent of individuals depicted in the images. 

The change was announced in an all-service message signed by acting Navy Secretary Sean Stackley as an interim update to the official book of Navy regulations. When a new edition of the document is printed, the prohibition against photo distribution will be included.

Prohibited behavior now includes physical electronic sharing of intimate photos without legal justification or cause and without knowledge of consent, writes the Military Times. "These photos cannot be distributed with intent to realize personal gain; with the intent to humiliate, harm, harass, threaten, or coerce the subject; or with "reckless disregard" as to whether sharing the photos would have such an effect, the language of the new regulation states."