- CelebrityHuffPost
Kelly Ripa Says Mark Consuelos' Bulge In Halloween Pic Is No Trick, All Treat
The morning show host and her "Riverdale" husband go there in a funny exchange after fans noticed something about the photo.
- EntertainmentThe Daily Beast
Fox News COVID Infection Sends Election Plans Into ‘Chaos’
Fox News has been planning its election night coverage for weeks, prepping staff and on-air talent for the biggest news night of the year. But now Fox faces uncertainty after the network’s president and many of its key on-air stars may have been exposed to COVID-19.“Everyone is in a panic about election night,” said one current Fox News staffer.On Sunday, The New York Times reported that top Fox News executives and talent will quarantine and get tested after flying on a network-chartered flight from Nashville to New York—following Thursday night’s presidential debate—with a staffer who later tested positive for the coronavirus. Passengers included network president Jay Wallace and on-air political hosts and analysts like Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, Dana Perino, and Juan Williams. (A Fox News spokesperson would not confirm the Times story or the exposure, citing employee confidentiality.)All four of those stars were expected to play key in-studio roles for Fox’s election-night coverage. But now it’s unclear how the network plans to proceed with its top talent potentially unable to gather in the same room.“I believe it will put election night-plans into chaos,” another current Fox staffer told The Daily Beast under condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “It will be like starting from scratch... It’s not good for anyone.” The employee added: “It’s insane that there’s a possibility the anchors will have to host the biggest night of 2020 from their homes.”“We have multiple contingency plans in place and always have back-up plans for all kinds of scenarios, even without a pandemic,” a Fox News spokesperson told The Daily Beast. In a Monday internal memo obtained by The Daily Beast, Wallace and CEO Suzanne Scott acknowledged that some staffers had tested positive for COVID-19, and said that the network would reduce staff in buildings and implement “enhanced testing procedures.” The executives said that the network will further pare down its in-person election night coverage, and that “only those employees who are critical to that night’s production will be permitted to work from [Fox’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters].”Fox News Host Wonders When Masks Got ‘Political.’ He Should Watch His Own Network.The plane debacle isn’t the only reminder of the danger of the pandemic for the network’s employees in recent days. Last week, an internal memo was sent to Fox News staffers noting that web video producer Rob Brown, who had been with the network since 1999, had died. While the memo did not specify a cause of death, several sources, including a family member, confirmed to The Daily Beast that Brown—who had not been in the office since March—died from coronavirus complications.“Rob was a wonderful employee and a bright light to those of us who were blessed to have worked alongside him,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”The news of last week’s debate-night flight exposure has alarmed Fox News staff, many of whom have felt relatively safe because of the network’s fairly robust testing protocols and skeleton in-person staffing at the Washington and New York City offices.Still, some employees were not surprised by the exposure of leadership and talent, noting how Fox execs have sent large groups of staffers to travel for the debates—even when the network had no primary role in the events.“Last week in Nashville, [NBC reporter Kristen] Welker was the moderator. But NBC had almost no footprint. ABC had almost no footprint,” one source familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast. “But [Fox News] had a huge, huge footprint? Why is that?” (In addition to Wallace, MacCallum, Baier, Williams, and Perino, the network separately flew in pundits Karl Rove, Katie Pavlich, and Donna Brazile.)Williams and Perino, who co-host late-afternoon talk show The Five, both showed up at the offices on Friday after the flight in which they were potentially exposed to the virus, raising alarms among staffers after the Times report, per network insiders. And several of the show’s unabashedly pro-Trump hosts, Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters, meanwhile, have taken an ambivalent stance towards large-scale anti-coronavirus measures like a national mask mandate, which experts say could save tens of thousands of lives.“They think mask-wearers are punks,” the source said of Watters and Gutfeld, noting how the pair have repeatedly echoed Trump’s dismissive suggestions that we are “turning the corner” on the pandemic that has now killed more than 225,000 people in the United States, with no end in sight. A recent Instagram post from The Five’s official account shows Watters standing in the greenroom without a mask.In light of their colleagues’ at-times cavalier attitude towards the coronavirus—both on- and off-air—some Fox staffers have begun to re-examine in-office behavior and expressed concerns that some colleagues aren’t taking the crisis seriously enough.“In the elevators, everyone’s good about masks,” one source said. “But in the offices, nope.”Since the pandemic began, the network has been operating with a skeleton crew from its hubs in New York City and Washington, D.C., and have taken some precautions to ensure that staff are tested. Some network talent take regular weekly saliva tests facilitated by the network, and the traveling cohort to major events including debates and conventions receive rapid tests. Fox News also installed plexiglass in the control rooms between seats and the building is routinely sanitized.Still, some employees have been hesitant about returning back to in-studio programming amid the pandemic, including Williams himself. The Five returned to the studio in recent weeks and has featured the hosts sitting in socially-distant high chairs. Prior to the pandemic, the set featured all five hosts crammed together around a small table.While on-air talent is subject to the network's rigorous testing protocols, they appear to be sending a message to viewers that social-distancing isn't that important. Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, for instance, were seated nearly shoulder-to-shoulder throughout Thursday evening’s coverage of the presidential debate. Both Bret & Martha were tested by the Commission on Presidential Debates before entering the debate hall which is why they sat without being distance. Baier, meanwhile, further noted on Monday that he has since tested negative.Thursday’s debate coverage wasn’t the only time that lack of social distancing was noticed on-air. Following the first presidential debate last month in Cleveland, Ohio, pro-Trump Fox News host Sean Hannity interviewed presidential son Donald Trump, Jr.—who refused to follow mask-wearing requirements during the debate—inside the debate hall as the two sat right next to each other. (They even joked about being so close together without masks.) Fox News commentator Donna Brazile, who also traveled to Nashville, was in Salt Lake City for the vice-presidential debate and was within arm’s length of anchor Bill Hemmer on set.> No social distancing happening on the Fox News set this morning. pic.twitter.com/EPhZNHtgN0> > — Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) October 7, 2020Besides the network sending big teams to cover these political events, Fox News stars have also individually placed themselves in harm’s way.For instance, Laura Ingraham and Pete Hegseth—both Trump loyalists and informal presidential advisers—were present at the Rose Garden ceremony last month announcing Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination that turned into a super-spreader event. This even resulted in one especially awkward on-air moment, in which Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner mistakenly believed that Hegesth had confessed to testing positive for the coronavirus.—Lachlan Cartwright contributed reporting. Diana Falzone was an on-camera reporter for Fox News from 2012 to 2018. In May 2017, she filed a gender discrimination and disability lawsuit against the network and settled, and left the company in March 2018. She was represented by attorney Nancy Erika Smith.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
- CelebrityYahoo Celebrity
Matthew McConaughey on raising his children to embrace being affluent: 'Don't feel guilty about that. Own it.'
Matthew McConaughey is opening up about raising his three children: Levi, 12, Vida, 10 and Livingston, 7
- NewsFrance 24 Videos
Video RIGHT TO BLASPHEME? MUSLIM NATIONS LAUNCH BOYCOTT FRANCE MOVEMENT
From Morocco to Pakistan, leaders have called out Emmanuel Macron for his defense of the right to blaspheme, Gulf States even launching a boycott of French products. They say the president unfairly stigmatized Islam after two recent terrors attacks. Macron who used blunt words last week at the national tribute for Samuel Paty, the French middle school teacher beheaded after a civics lesson on free speech that included cartoons of the prophet. It spiraled into a social media campaign calling for his sacking, supported by a Paris area mosque which has since been shut.
- PoliticsBusiness Insider
'60 Minutes' says the huge book Trump's press secretary presented to Lesley Stahl as his 'healthcare plan' was largely filled with existing legislation
The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, delivered the huge book to Stahl after Trump cut short an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes."
- PoliticsRefinery29
Is Fake Melania Trump The Greatest Unsolved Mystery Of Our Time?
Thanks to the ongoing efforts of a president that decries facts as “fake news” while peddling conspiracy theories and lying more than 20,000 times since he took office, it has become increasingly more difficult to decipher the realities of the Trump administration from their carefully-curated-but-ultimately-shallow facade. And nothing embodies that difficulty like the mystery of “Fake Melania,” who some theorized re-surfaced after the First Lady (or someone meant to look like her) was pictured traveling to Nashville, TN with her husband (or fake-husband) to attend the last presidential debate of the 2020 election. On Thursday, a Melania Trump was photographed boarding Marine One wearing a black sleeveless dress and oversized black glasses. In the now-highly scrutinized photograph, “Melania” is seen smiling and waving. (Theorists call this a dead giveaway that this person was not, in fact, the real First Lady because she was…smiling.) The person in the photo (above) arguably looks quite different than the Melania Trump we’ve come to know and tolerate. And just as quickly as Melania typically recoils from her husband’s touch, the internet began theorizing about Fake Melania. “Good luck finding any photos of Melania smiling like that,” George Conway, husband of former counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway and avid never-Trumper, tweeted. “Not even anywhere close to being convincing Melania doubles,” user Daniel Noriega tweeted, along with pictures of so-called past Melania body doubles. Not even anywhere close to being convincing Melania doubles 🤥 #FakeMelania pic.twitter.com/nky3shCckx— Daniel Noriega (@danoriegaa) October 25, 2020 On the scale of conspiracy theories shadowing this administration — be it the president promoting a doctor who believes sex with “tormenting spirits” causes gynecological problems, or Trump suggesting that ingesting common household cleaning products could treat COVID-19 — the possible existence of Fake Melania traveling the country with the president is relatively innocuous. It’s also not all that far-fetched: Melania Trump notoriously postponed moving into the White House after her husband won the 2016 election, citing Barron’s education as a reason to stay in New York City longer than what would have been considered normal. She was also noticeably missing from the campaign trail, both in 2016 and 2020, and has gone weeks without making a single public appearance — many times throughout her husband’s presidency. But it’s Melania’s apparent disdain for her husband that gives this conspiracy theory legs. The First Lady has frequently been captured shooing her husband away multiple times throughout his four-year presidency. Most recently, Melania was caught pulling her hand away from her husband’s after his last presidential debate performance. But the idea that Mrs. Trump would rather spend her time renegotiating her prenuptial agreement and color-coordinating her “I really don’t care, do you?” jackets from the safety and security of the White House residence while some poor Melania look-alike handles her public engagements is, at the very least, possible. Yes, Melania Trump questioned the citizenship of the first Black president of the United States right along with her husband. And yes, she encouraged her husband to run for president, and stood proudly by him when he announced his candidacy by calling Mexicans rapists and criminals. But it has appeared, more than once, that the first lady doesn’t actually like her husband very much — she just likes the quality of life he has been able to provide her. Apparently. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?Is Lara Trump Auditioning To Be The New Ivanka?Trump Scraps Plan For Santa Clause To Get VaccineTiffany Trump Thinks Trump Supports LGBTQ+ People
- NewsCBC
RCMP officer who arrested Meng Wanzhou says he knew case was 'high-profile'
The RCMP officer who arrested Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018 said he knew immediately that her extradition case was "high-profile."Const. Winston Yep testified in B.C. Supreme Court Monday about the hours leading up to the Huawei chief financial officer's arrest on Dec. 1, 2018.He said he was handed the file the day before and even though he didn't know who exactly Meng was — he knew she was important."I didn't know too much about it. All I know is that Huawei was the largest telecommunications company in the world," Yep said."She's the CFO of Huawei and a high-profile person."Ten witnesses expectedYep is the first of 10 witnesses expected to take the stand over two weeks of testimony from the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency officers who were involved in Meng's arrest for extradition to the U.S.The testimony will be broken into two weeks — one now, and one at the end of November. The witnesses will be questioned and cross-examined as both sides gather evidence for a hearing in February at which Meng's lawyers plan to argue that her rights were violated during her arrest.The 48-year-old sat in court listening through a translator as she watched the man who arrested her, setting off a legal odyssey that has lasted nearly two years.She is charged with fraud and conspiracy for allegedly lying to HSBC about Huawei's control of a subsidiary that was accused of breaching U.S. economic sanctions against Iran.Prosecutors claim that by relying on those alleged lies to continue financing Huawei, the bank put itself at risk of loss and prosecution for violating the same set of sanctions.Much of the questioning is expected to centre around the decision to have CBSA officers detain Meng for three hours before Yep arrested her.They questioned her during that time without a lawyer and seized her electronic devices, compelling her to give the passwords, which the Crown has admitted the CBSA then passed along to the RCMP by mistake.'It's a risky situation'Yep was working in the RCMP's foreign domestic liaison unit when he was asked to get a provisional arrest warrant for Meng. He said he didn't treat Meng's arrest any differently than any of the other arrests he has made as an RCMP officer. But Yep said the case is only the third extradition he has been involved in, and he was in the process of carrying out his second extradition arrest with a partner when his supervisor called him about Meng.It was a Friday. Yep said they were short staffed and his boss said they had an "urgent extradition request" and she couldn't find anyone to go down to the Department of Justice Office to swear an affidavit for the provisional arrest warrant.Yep said the U.S. had also asked for Meng's electronic devices to be seized and provided special bags for that purpose, which prevented them from being remotely accessed."It didn't cause me any concern," he said. "It was part of the execution of the arrest process."Yep said he and his partner went to the airport the same evening in order to ascertain that Meng was actually on the Cathay Pacific flight that was scheduled to arrive from Hong Kong the next day. But he said it hadn't taken off before they left for the evening.In the meantime, he said a supervisor sent a note suggesting they board the plane on landing and arrest Meng then. But Yep said he didn't "think that was a good idea.""We didn't know Ms. Meng," he said. "We didn't know who she was travelling with and what she was capable of. Plus, you have other passengers there. It's a risky situation."'This is your jurisdiction'Yep insisted that the RCMP and CBSA officers had no clear plan for how the arrest would play out when they met on the morning before Meng's flight landed. But he insisted that he always understood that the CBSA was the agency that had jurisdiction."I said, 'this is your jurisdiction, we want to work with you guys,'" Yep said. "What do you suggest we do here?"Yep said the CBSA officers claimed that Meng had outstanding immigration issues involving her ownership of two multimillion dollar homes on Vancouver's west side, so they settled on a plan that would see the CBSA detain her first.But he said, "it was always going to be me who was effecting the arrest. Because I had the warrant and this was an RCMP matter."Yep said the CBSA officers agreed to seize Meng's devices, but he said they were never asked to search the contents.And he insisted that no one asked the CBSA officers to question Meng about anything with regards to the allegations against her."I did not give CBSA any directions on what to ask Ms. Meng," Yep said. "We left it up to them to do their process and when they were done their process I was going to execute the warrant. We let them do their job."Yep described sitting in a room, waiting for the CBSA to deal with Meng before she was finally brought in for he and a fellow officer to arrest. He was in a suit, and his colleague was in full uniform.He said Meng was surprised, but cooperative."It went smooth," Yep said.He said he also made the decision to handcuff Meng with her hands in front of her body, and not behind as is usual."Why handcuff her at all?" asked Crown prosecutor John Gibb-Carsley."That's just the arrest process," Yep answered.Gibb-Carsley asked Yep about the wording of the warrant which commanded him to "immediately" arrest Meng. The defence has accused the CBSA and RCMP of ignoring the judge's directions by having customs officers interrogate her beforehand.Yep said he understood "immediately" to mean "just as soon as practical" taking into account public safety, officer safety and passenger protection."You don't just rush in to arrest somebody without knowing your environment," Yep said.Meng has denied the allegations against her.
