Yolanda Renee King: Have You Heard? We Are Going To Be A Great Generation!

Yolanda Renee King: Have You Heard? We Are Going To Be A Great Generation!

“My name is Yolanda Renee King, granddaughter of Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King,” said the 9-year-old girl addressing an enraptured crowd gathered in Washington, DC on March 24.  “My grandfather had a dream that his four little children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

“I have a dream that enough is enough! And that this should be a gun-free world, period!” Yolanda proclaimed, standing next to Parkland survivor Jaclyn Corin at the 'March for Our Lives' rally.

King wore an orange gun violence awareness ribbon pinned to her coat, inspiring marchers and an international TV audience with her vision.  She stood not far away from the site of her grandfather's famous 'I Have A Dream Speech', delivered 55 years ago at the March on Washington.

It's doubtful that America will achieve Yolanda King's dream of a gun-free world, given an accepted right enshrined in the US Constitution to own guns to hunt or protect oneself. Many of us imagine victory as getting assault weapons off American streets and instituting universal background checks, no exceptions.

For me, Yolanda Renee King left us with an even greater gift: HOPE. 

As Donald Trump and his wrecking crew try to take America back to the 1950s, where white men ruled, activism needs HOPE and that hope can only come from our young people, who will lead a new wave of demands for racial, gender-based and economic justice in America, free from the stereotypes deeply embedded in the American psyche.

From Drones to Disney, Smart Minds Are Saving Africa's Elephants, Tapping Into Their Acestral Fear Of Honeybees

From Drones to Disney, Smart Minds Are Saving Africa's Elephants, Tapping Into Their Acestral Fear Of Honeybees

Send in the Drones

Today's news is focused on a different form of innovation in the struggle to save African elephants from extinction.

In 2016, researchers from Duke University went to Gabon to monitor the country's declining elephant herds. The team took along three drones for the purpose of counting the elephants, following their herds and mapping their migration patterns. 

Describing the project, The Atlantic wrote: "The elephants noticed the drones, which hovered anywhere from 25 feet to 300 feet above them. And it wasn’t just that the elephants noticed them; in many cases, the elephants were clearly agitated. Some of them took off running. In at least one case, an elephant used her trunk to hurl mud in the drone’s direction. “She had her baby with her,” said Missy Cummings, the director of Duke’s Robotics Lab."

Initially confused, the researchers soon made the connection between the reactions of the elephants and the fact that the drones sounded like bees. 

Air Shepherd, a program launched by the Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation, is also simulating the threat of bee stings in a successful effort to trigger the same response among elephants as the real-deal experience.

The program launched in Malawi, where researchers discovered that the noise of quadcopters could spook elephants. “They sound like bees,” explains Otto Werdmuller Von Elgg, the program's head of drone operations. In addition to its anti-poaching efforts, Air Shepherd now also flies the buzzing quadcopters along crop fences and around Liwonde National Park as an elephant deterrent. Drones are not yet legal in every African country, but Von Elgg thinks the idea will eventually fly in more locations. “One drone is enough to move a herd of 100 elephants,” he says.

This 2017 PBS segment shot in Tanzania showcases the effective intersection of drones and elephants in that country. The researchers remark that while elephants frequently become wise to efforts to manage them, so far they are not hip to the reality that the drones are not real bees. This may be due to the ancestral memories that elephants possess. Since bees have been a problem for elephants for thousands of years -- or longer -- it may take a very long time to eliminate this fearful memory.  When there is a mix of drones and real honeybees in an area, the elephants may never learn to ignore drones while fleeing from honeybees. 

As We 'March for Our Lives' Edward Enninful Covers British Vogue May 2018 With A Different Fashion Army

As We 'March for Our Lives' Edward Enninful Covers British Vogue May 2018 With A Different Fashion Army

Vogue UK editor-in-chief Edward Enninful shares his thoughts about the 9 trailblazing models who cover the May 2017 issue. Whether you like it or not, Enninful hopes that the cover shot by long-time collaborator Craig McDean "defines everything we stand for as a magazine in 2018.

It's diverse in all ways: "race, size, socio-economic background, religion, sexuality". That's the statement with this cover. You can call it fashion light, a bland sandwich, or a 2018 vision of Mao's army -- one not looking at all like Olivier Rousteing's Balmain army. 

For an American, the timing is interesting because it comes against the backdrop of Florida's Parkland school shooting and last weekend's 'March for Our Lives' in DC and across America. The students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida have a lot on their minds and it's not fashion's current "it" bag.

The soul and spirit expressed by the Parkland students has something in common with two of Enninful's new cover girls: Halima Aden and Adut Akech, born in the same refugee camp in Kenya. Enninful writes that they are now standing at the top of their profession, an assertion that is rushing things a bit. Still, let that sink in. Two of these global beauties were born in the same refugee camp. The Parkland students, who just six weeks ago were diving under their desks as a former students decimated the ground beneath their feet with an automatic assault rifle, can relate to the reality of Halima and Adut. Not word for word. They have not laid their heads down to sleep in a refugee camp. But their world views encompasses peers who have.

Edward Enninful is asking us to view his British Vogue cover through this lens, adding Radhika Nair, Yoon Young Bae, Faretta, Fran Summers, Vittoria Ceretti, Paloma Elsesser and Selena Forrest to his May 2018 cover. 

Arizona Muse Joins Julianne Moore In Celebrating Chopard's Move To 100% Ethical Gold

Arizona Muse Joins Julianne Moore In Celebrating Chopard's Move To 100% Ethical Gold

Chopard made a landmark announcement on March 22 that by July 22, the Swiss maison will only use ethical gold in all its jewelry and watch creations. Long-time friends of Chopard including Colin and Livia Firth, Julianne Moore and Arizona Muse joined Chopard's Caroline Scheufele and Karl Friedrich Scheufele in making the announcement. 

The commitment to sustainability is a long one. More than 30 years ago Chopard brought all its jewelry-making processes in-house in order to guarantee control of every aspect of their relationship with miners as well as promises made to Chopard clients. 

In 2013 the Maison made the decision to invest directly in artisanal gold, to increase its availability to the larger market. The company has a long-standing relationship with Olivia and Colin Firth, who champion sustainability through their Green Carpet Collections. Chopard defines “ethical gold” as gold acquired from responsible sources that have been verified to meet international best practices. From July 2018 Chopard gold will be responsibly sourced from either artisanal small-scale mines in the Swiss Better Gold Association (SBGA), Fairmined and Fairtrade schemes, or from the RJC Chain of Custody gold through Chopard’s partnership with RJC-certified refineries.

Malala Yousafzai Makes Emotional 4-Day Return To Pakistan, Will Travel To Swat Valley→

Malala Yousafzai Makes Emotional 4-Day Return To Pakistan, Will Travel To Swat Valley

My heart just dropped a bit, reading that Malala Yousafzai is in Pakistan. In her Netflix David Letterman interview, the world's youngest Nobel Laureate talks about how she misses "the rivers and mountains" of her home in Swat Valley and all she wanted was for her "feet to touch the ground of home."

Malala is now home for the first time since she was attacked on her school bus, shot at close range with a bullet to her head. Now 20 and studying at Oxford, Malala is expected to stay primarily in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, during her four-day visit. 

“I still can’t believe that it is actually happening,” the global activist for girls education said in a visibly emotional speech at the office of Pakistan's Prime Minister Shadid Khaqan Abbasi on Thursday. “In the last five years, I have always dreamed of coming back to my country.”

As the audience erupted into moved and emotional applause, Malala broke into tears and for a moment cupped her hands to cover her face.

“I am just 20 years old, but I have seen a lot in life,” she continued with a choked voice, recalling how she grew up in the picturesque Swat region only to watch it slide into extremism and terrorism. “I never wanted to leave my country.”

Malala wil be traveling to the Swat Valley in her four-day visit, Earlier this month, a new girls’ school built with her Nobel prize money opened in Shangla, near her home district of Swat. Malala will inaugurate the official opening of the school.

Ascia AKF Talks Modest Fashion, Navigating Islam As A Top Influencer In Global World

Ascia AKF Talks Modest Fashion, Navigating Islam As A Top Influencer In Global World

Ascia Al Faraj,  also known as Ascia AKF, is a leader of the pack of influencers promoting modest fashion with a streetwear edge. Writing for Fashionista, Whitney Bauck talks frankly with Ascia about redefining Muslim fashion, how K-beauty changed her life and what the West doesn't understand about Arab women.

With 2.3 million followers on Instagram, Faraj strikes "the coveted perfect balance between aspirational and relatable" writes Bauck. She is a true global citizen, raised by a Kuwaiti father and American mother. Signing on to her original blog 'The Hybrids', we meet the message 'Let's talk eating disorders', confirming that Faraj is willing to deal with complex topics head-on.

In what is an excellent interview and not a hits-generating puff piece, Bauck and Faraj explore serious questions, including a common one about covering your head as a Muslim woman.  AOC has written about modest fashion, hijabs and burqas for years, and we learned some new facts in their exchange.

How did you start covering your head, and when? I noticed your mom doesn't cover hers.

Two-Thirds Of Americans Believe Women's Stories Of Trump Affairs

Two-Thirds Of Americans Believe Women's Stories Of Trump Affairs

Sixty-three percent of people surveyed in a new CNN poll believe the women alleging affairs over Trump's quiet denials that they happened at all. In an interest Twist, Trump's overall approval rating rose significantly, even as people said they believe his women accusers and also that Trump's Cabinet and team of top advisers are "generally less qualified and less in touch than previous presidential appointees."

Lena Waithe Covers Vanity Fair April 2018, Expanding White Culture's Exposure To Black Brilliance

Lena Waithe Covers Vanity Fair April 2018, Expanding White Culture's Exposure To Black Brilliance

Emmy Award-winner Lena Waithe takes the cover of  American Vanity Fair‘s April 2018 edition captured by fashion and celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, with styling from Jessica Diehl. Waithe is the first black woman to win a Primetime Emmy award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for 'Master of None'.

After garnering accolades for her work on 'The Chi' as well, and appearing in Steven Spielberg's new film 'Ready Player One', Lena Waithe talks to Jacqueline Woodson about her influences from the Harlem Renaissance to 'Time's Up'. Talking in the world of current 'Black Panther' and 'A Wrinkle In Time's' success, Lena Waithe is anchored in the world of Black Brilliance. Not only has this moment arrived in Hollywood, writes Woodson, it "has not come to play."

Meeting her at the Four Seasons restaurant in Beverly Hills, Woodson begins to see Lena "as a woman coming at the world from many different places, quick-moving and fast-talking yet soft-spoken and thoughtful, cursing a mile a minute while bringing a new vibrancy to language. . . . On the butch side of queer but with delicate edges. Star power with kindness. "

Stormy Daniels Hits Trump Hard, Denying Him The White Glove Treatment He Doesn't Deserve

Stormy Daniels Hits Trump Hard, Denying Him The White Glove Treatment He Doesn't Deserve

There's no way that Stormy Daniels could have lived up to the media hype around her Sunday night '60 Minutes' interview. When her brilliant attorney Michael Avenatti intimated that there would be major revelations around the Trump presidency in the '60 Minutes' segment, a decade-record audience of 22 million people gathered in watch parties. Dark and Stormy cocktails were served.

If you've followed the story closely, there were few new details. This general audience conclusion does not confirm an overall lack of brilliance in Stormy's interview strategy. As an aside, writes New York Magazine, Stormy gave us a lesson in taking the hot air out of Donald Trump. 

Daniels took down Donald Trump's boundless ego, if only for one moment. Stormy broke through Trump's delusional self-importance, "literally slapping him into awareness of another person."

An Open Letter to Student Marchers At 'March For Our Lives': 'You Are Revolutionaries

An Open Letter to Student Marchers At 'March For Our Lives': 'You Are Revolutionaries

To the students marching in Washington D.C, and across the country tomorrow: an open letter from Reshma Saujani, CEO and founder of Girls Who Code, a nonprofit organization that aims to boost the number of women in computer science fields. 

If there’s any generation that sets us free, it will be yours. If there’s any generation that achieves real lasting change for our country, it will be yours. You are change-makers. You are revolutionaries. You are patriots.

You are the most diverse generation in American history–and that diversity is reflected in your movements, in your insistence that they include the experiences of all people no matter their race, sexuality, gender, ability, or economic status. You are also the most digitally savvy generation in American history. To you, tech is not just about convenience or distraction–it’s a tool to complement community and create change (or the ultimate clapback!).

You have the ideals and you have the tactics necessary to transform our world. Combine these with your poise, endurance and anger–and you are a force to be reckoned with.

Michelle Obama Artist Amy Sherald Joins Hauser & Wirth Global Gallery

Michelle Obama Artist Amy Sherald Joins Hauser & Wirth Global Gallery

Amy Sherald, the painter behind the official portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama, has joined Hauser & Wirth, a mega-gallery with worldwide outposts. 

The announcement comes days after Sherald unveiled her official portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. In May, Sherald will debut her first solo museum exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. 2018 has been quite a year for Amy Sherald, who had her first solo gallery show in 2016. 

To date, Sherald has rejected the tendency of star artists to overproduce. ArtNews writes that her output is only 30 portraits, 10 to 12 paintings a year. As of December 2017, the waiting list for her paintings had grown to about 50 people. 

Sara Sampaio Talks Her Nipple Showdown With Lui & Why Victoria's Secret Is A Feminist Brand

Sara Sampaio Talks Her Nipple Showdown With Lui & Why Victoria's Secret Is A Feminist Brand

Top model and Victoria's Secret Angel Sara Sampaio is fired up and ready to roll, interviewed for the March 23, 2018 issue of Porter Edit. Sampaio is well on the way to establishing herself as an activist voice for a new generation of models. 

“Models are expected to show up on set, just be pretty, do our job and not say a word,” the Portugese beauty explains. “When we do open our mouths, we’re branded as difficult, opinionated, troublemakers; we are told that we don’t know what we are talking about.” Pointing out that women out earn men in modeling, Sara insists that "we are still not respected. We are still exploited. And it’s such a disposable industry that girls feel like they can’t say anything, because there will be some other girl out there who will just do it.”

Sampaio regularly leverages her more than 10 million followers on social media to use her voice and “hold people accountable”. In 2017, the firebrand used Instagram to call out French magazine Lui after it published revealing pictures of her. AOC wrote about this situation, and we were honestly confused. Sampaio uses her Porter Edit interview to clarify her view of what happened.

Sara Sampaio Wears Sexy, Sporty Looks Lensed By Hanna Tveite For Porter Edit March 23, 2018

Sara Sampaio Wears Sexy, Sporty Looks Lensed By Hanna Tveite For Porter Edit March 23, 2018

Top model and Victoria's Secret Angel Sara Sampaio shows some moves, as form meets fashion in sexy sports looks styled by Helen Broadfoot. Photographer Hanna Tveite flashes 'Strong Points' for Porter Edit March 23, 2018./ Hair by Franco Gobbi; makeup by Virginia Young

Related: read Sampaio's Porter Edit interview:

Cynthia Nixon Announced New York State Governor Run With Zero Experience, Not Even School Board

Cynthia Nixon Announced New York State Governor Run With Zero Experience, Not Even School Board

After the epic problems associated with Donald Trump, I don't know if an activist with no experience serving in office is qualified to be governor of New York. But Cynthia Nixon of 'Sex and the City' fame is undaunted, announcing on Monday that she's running for New York governor, declaring herself as a progressive alternative to incumbent governor Andrew Cuomo. 

On Tuesday, former Manhattan City Council speaker and one-time mayoral candidate Christine Quinn slammed Nixon as an "unqualified lesbian." Ouch!

“Cynthia Nixon was opposed to having a qualified lesbian become mayor of New York City,” Quinn told the New York Post. “Now she wants to be an unqualified lesbian to be the governor of New York. You have to be qualified and have experience. She isn’t qualified to be the governor.” (Quinn is a lesbian and Nixon is bisexual and currently married to a woman.)

The comment was generally perceived as payback for Nixon choosing to back current New York mayor Bill de Blasio when Quinn was leading de Blasio in the polls. Quinn lost the election and in 2015, she was hired by Cuomo as a special adviser. Note that Cuomo and de Blasio have a particularly difficult relationship. 

Adwoa Aboah Covers Allure Magazine's April 2018 Skin Issue, Lensed By Daniel Jackson

Adwoa Aboah Covers Allure Magazine's April 2018 Skin Issue, Lensed By Daniel Jackson

Model of the moment Adwoa Aboah is styled by Beth Fenton in modern minimalism lingerie for 'Age of Adwoa'. Photographer Daniel Jackson is behind the lens for Allure Magazine's April 2018 'Skin' issue./ Hair by Esther Langham; makeup by Hannah Murray

Adwoa is interviewed by Brennan Kilbane about her nonprofit, Gurls Talk, an initiative that is the product of her own story -- one of healing, trauma, crazy success, and manic nosedives. Without a doubt, Adwoa Aboah is the star of a new era type of supermodel, a beautiful womanly color mix of brains and bravura who is in high demand as a model with beauty, heart and individuality.

As a teenager, Adwoa experimented heavily with drugs. Her addictions intensified as her career hit high-gear with her Italian Vogue cover. A few months earlier, the 'it girl' had attempted suicide.

Kilbane describes her subject as an "engaged, thoughtful, powerful woman" who makes her understand that solidarity is the antidote for the world we live in today. Adoah points to a tattoo on her wrists, a line from the poet Nayyirah Waheed’s book Nejma: “All the women. in me. are tired.” “I’m made up of many different women — my mum, sister, friends — who have all made me who I am. It reminds me that whatever I’m going through, there are lots of other women going through the same thing.”

Holt Renfrew Supports Doutzen Kroes' Knot On My Planet Campaign, Lensed By Chris Colls

Holt Renfrew Supports Doutzen Kroes' Knot On My Planet Campaign, Lensed By Chris Colls

The beautiful, inspiring supermodel Doutzen Kroes teams up with Canada's Holt Renfrew to support Doutzen's 'Knot On My Planet' activism. Chris Colls is behind the lens, capturing the Holt Renfrew x Knot On My Planet‘s Spring 2018 campaign to support the Elephant Crisis Fund./ Makeup by Sil Bruinsma; hair by Panos Papandrianos

“If we educate people about the crisis, if we share more stories and make this bigger, I feel positive that African elephants will be here for our children to see in the wild. We have to stay hopeful for the future, always.” – Doutzen Kroes

US Supreme Court: Does Regulating 'Fake' Women's Health Centers Confine Religious Freedom?

US Supreme Court: Does Regulating 'Fake' Women's Health Centers Confine Religious Freedom?

Given all the regulations that Republican state governments have put on Planned Parenthood -- including the width of their hallways and the size of closets (restrictions that render existing facilities not qualifying to operate) -- it's mind-boggling to see them go before the Supreme Court and argue that fake pregnancy counseling centers are legit and cannot be subject to state laws because they are run by Christians. Any attempt to govern them by laws is an illegal attack on their religious freedoms. 

The test of these perceived freedoms is now before the US Supreme Court, in the first abortion-related case of the Trump administration. 

Any Woman Can is part of a nationwide network of over 3,000 “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) established by evangelical Christians to dissuade women from having abortions.  Presenting themselves as women's health centers that support women when Planned Parenthood closes down, unable to meet state laws, these so-called clients typically have no licensed medical professionals on staff. 

The Any Woman Can website says it offers a comprehensive overview of health care options open to women. This is a blatant lie. Other members of this network are Pregnancy Care Clinics and Informed Choices, also arguing before the Supreme Court On Tuesday.

Is BBC's Massive Pay Gap Between Wimbledon Pundits Martina Navratilova & John McEnroe Justified

Is BBC's Massive Pay Gap Between Wimbledon Pundits Martina Navratilova & John McEnroe Justified

Tennis champion Martina Navratilova, winner of nine Wimbledon Ladies' championship trophies shares her furor over discovering the full extent of BBC pay discrimination in an interview airing Monday night, writes The Guardian.  In an interview for Panorama: Britain's Equal Pay Scandal, Navratilova reveals her shock when she discovered that John McEnroe is paid 10 times as much as she is for covering Wimbledon for the BBC. 

Navratilova tells Panorama that she was paid about £15,000, while McEnroe's published salary revealed last summer is between £150,000 and £199,999. 

Navratilova said she was told she was getting paid a comparable amount to men doing the same job as her, adding: “We were not told the truth, that’s for sure.” “It’s still the good old boys’ network ... The bottom line is that male voices are valued more than women’s voices,” she said, adding that her agent will ask for more money in the future.

BBC Sport defended the discrepancy, saying McEnroe’s role was of “a different scale, scope and time commitment”, to Navratilova, adding: “They are simply not comparable.”

Karlie Kloss' Kode With Klossy Expands To 50 Tech Camps In 25 Cities For 1000 Girls Wanting To Code

Karlie Kloss' Kode With Klossy Expands To 50 Tech Camps In 25 Cities For 1000 Girls Wanting To Code

“Beyond just wanting to hang out with you guys, I want you to be a part of our big announcement,” supermodel Karlie Kloss told the four young alumnae of her Kode With Klossy coding camp. “You’re the reason we want to keep growing this.”

Karlie was referring to the coding camp she launched in a simple way in 2015 to inspire girls to learn to code and consider careers in tech. Before shooting a 45-second video, Kloss went around the room asking what her four young protégées had been up to since last summer. The New York Times was on hand to record the answers. 

Valeria Torres-Olivares, 18, from Princeton, N.J., was first to speak. She was accepted to Princeton University, where she’ll major in computer science. The room erupted into cheers. She also talked about the coding class she started at the Princeton Public Library with her younger sister Kyara, 14, a fellow camper.

“We made it girls-only so our students would have an environment they feel safe in,” Ms. Torres-Olivares said. “When boys are in the classroom, it’s harder.”

Agyness Deyn Plays Elaine Renko In BBC Drama 'Hard Sun' 5 Years Before End Of The World

Agyness Deyn Plays Elaine Renko In BBC Drama 'Hard Sun' 5 Years Before End Of The World

 “You start something as a teenager and you become a woman,” she says now. “It was a very clear moment when I thought I have to figure out what else I’m going to do.” There were panicky moments in the trans­ition. “You think, ‘Who am I if I don’t have that?’” But also pure joy at the liberation. “I wasn’t severely unhappy but I did feel, what’s over that wall?“ she says. “It’s like when you have your first boyfriend and you can’t think of ever being with anyone else and then all of a sudden you get a bit older and you realise, there are other boys, and then, there are other men.”

Agyness Deyn has stayed true to her thicker than honey childhood relationship with also Manchester-born close friend designer Henry Holland. And she married hedgefund manager Joel McAndrew in New York, August 2016.

After precious small parts in indy films for several years, Agyness Deyn plays detective Elaine Renko in the new BBC drama 'Hard Sun'. Marie Claire UK's Lucy Pavia interviewed the actorin January 2018 about her role in the "new pre-apocalyptic series by Luther creator Neil Cross that opens in modern-day London five years before the end of the world."

Richard Phibbs Eyes Agyness Deyn In 'Keys To The Kingdom' For Town & Country Spring 2018