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Rev. Al Sharpton claimed this weekend that former National Security Advisor Susan Rice is just the latest victim of a Republican campaign of calumny against influential African-American females—an effort the black activist argued has already targeted California Congressman Maxine Waters and journalist April Ryan. Sharpton declared during his weekly rally on Saturday that the allegations are part of a pattern of conservative attacks on black women. “Same time we saw that they want to jump on Susan Rice. Now, how many black women are ya’ll gonna try to demonize?” Sharpton told an applauding crowd at the Harlem headquarters of his...

Michelle Obama will make a highly anticipated return to public life later this month. But first, there’s paddleboarding to do in the South Pacific. Since leaving the White House, the Obamas have appeared to be moving on just fine from their breakup with America. There was the vacation with Richard Branson, the kitesurfing challenge, the power lunch with Bono and now, an envy-inducing visit to the French Polynesian island of Mo’orea. As much as we’d look at photos of these two enjoying water sports all day, we’re also ready for them to come home already. The vacation envy is killing...

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White House counselor Kellyanne Conway urged Democrats to come to the bargaining table with President Trump on legislative issues and thinks they may be key to getting Trump's legislative agenda passed. On Fox News Tuesday, Conway said bipartisan work on tax reform and infrastructure will be key to getting the administration's proposal through Congress. She said working with Trump could be key to some Senate Democrats' re-election chances. "A number of them may want to listen to their constituents … that are saying we want some type of tax relief to allow us to spur this growth, this 3 to...

Every Saturday, the Civic Center Park in downtown Berkeley is home to the Ecology Center’s farmers market, where families, students, and organically inclined food shoppers mingle with growers and vendors. But this weekend, on April 15, the market is canceled — because of an Alt-Right rally. Instead of white-tents and free fruit samples, visitors may instead find themselves caught in the crossfire between two opposing protests that — if anything like the violent Milo Yiannopoulos clash earlier this year in Berkeley — could end in violence. A so-called “Patriots Day” rally is attracting far-right Trump supporters and white-nationalist activists from...

Rice University has agreed to officially change its title for the heads of its residential colleges from “master” to “magister,” saying “master” had to go because of its “negative historical connotation,” according to campus officials. Despite the fact that the term “master” may have originated as an abbreviation of “headmaster” or “schoolmaster,” many are reportedly upset by the term because it’s a reminder of slavery. “‘Magister’ is a classical Latin word meaning ‘teacher’ and has been used historically as an academic title for a scholar,” states John Hutchinson, dean of undergraduates, in an April 6 memo announcing the change. “It...

The risk of mass starvation in four countries - northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen - is rising rapidly due to drought and conflict, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday. About 20 million people live in hard-hit areas where harvests have failed and acute malnutrition rates are increasing, particularly among children, it said. In South Sudan, where the United Nations declared famine in some areas in February, "a further 1 million people are now on the brink of famine", UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said. "We are raising our alarm level further by today warning that the risk of...

2017 could be a record year for ticks and tick-borne illnesses according to one researcher who studies the arachnids in Alabama. "I would say this is going to be a very bad tick year because it was a very mild winter," said Tim Sellati, chair of Southern Research's Infectious Diseases Department. In addition, Sellati said a warming climate has let certain species of ticks expand their range and those changes are reflected in tick surveys in Alabama and other parts of the United States. "The winters are warmer and the ticks recognize this, they sense this change in their environment,"...

Not far from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, one expert after another warned Monday about the dangers that rising sea levels pose to Florida's coast. Not that surprising, except this was a Senate committee field hearing challenging the position shared by President Donald Trump and many Republicans in Congress that climate change isn't real. The site of the hearing -- just four miles from Trump's weekend getaway in Palm Beach -- was clearly intended to send a signal: Much of Florida's coastline could one day be underwater, including some of the President's own prized properties. "Today we sit at ground zero of...

China, Brazil, India and South Africa have urged industrialised countries to honour financial commitments made in Paris in 2015 to help developing countries fight against global climate change. Following a meeting in Beijing, climate change ministers from the "BASIC" bloc of four major emerging economies called on rich countries "to honour their commitments and increase climate finance towards the US$100 billion goal", and said more clarity was needed to "track and account for" those pledges. But the agreement has been plunged into uncertainty after U.S. President Donald Trump, who has questioned the scientific basis of global warming, last month proposed...

oshiba Corp filed twice-delayed business results on Tuesday without an endorsement from its auditor and warned its very survival was in doubt, deepening a prolonged crisis at the Japanese conglomerate. "There are material events and conditions that raise substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern," Toshiba said in announcing bigger than previously estimated losses. The filing carried a disclaimer from auditor Pricewaterhouse Coopers that it was unable to form an opinion of the results, increasing the likelihood that shares in the nuclear-to-TVs company will be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Retired U.S. Sen. Harry Reid has landed a new gig: distinguished fellow in law and policy at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The school announced this month that Reid, a former Senate majority leader who retired in December after 30 years from his Washington post as a lawmaker from Nevada, will lecture in law courses and work directly with students and alumni while also pursuing writing projects in his new campus role.

Temperature 82 degrees with occasional clouds, and lagoon waters, clear as paradise… former President Barack Obama is wrapping up his month-long vacation in French Polynesia – with Michelle by his side. On Sunday, Tahiti television station TNTV revealed photos of Michelle Obama paddleboarding while the Barack swam in a Polynesian lagoon. The pictures were taken on the island of Moorea by fellow vacationers, who spotted the laid-back couple using a small boat for a late morning excursion. They were escorted by two other boats with their security detail, the station says. The former president has been staying out of the...

California cities and counties will see their required contributions to the largest U.S. pension fund almost double in five years, according to an analysis by the California Policy Center. Including the costs paid by cities and counties that run their own systems, the fiscal 2018 tab will be at least $13 billion to meet retirement obligations for public workers, according to the analysis, which is based on actuarial reports and audited financial statements. Barring any changes to pensions, "several California cities and counties will find themselves forced to slash other spending," the group wrote in its report. "The less fortunate...

A study by Mexico’s top university has revealed that at least 800 species of wildlife will be adversely affected by President Trump’s planned 2,000-mile border wall with Mexico. Research published by ecologists from the Mexican National Autonomous University has shown that an impassable physical barrier placed into ecosystems inhabited by jaguars, black bears and bighorn sheep will so disrupt patterns of migration as to cause a “natural catastrophe.” “The U.S.-Mexico border is made up of mountains, jungle, coastline and many other diverse ecosystems,” Professor Gerardo Ceballos, who led the investigation published last week, told Fox News. “Wildlife has populated these...

It seemed like a done deal that Baltimore would make it illegal to work for or offer a job for less than $15 per hour. The city's new mayor, Catherine Pugh, had campaigned as a supporter of raising the minimum wage, and the city council passed the measure to require wages in the city 50 percent higher than those in the rest of Maryland. But on March 31, in what many activists are denouncing as a betrayal, Pugh vetoed the measure. "I want people to earn better wages," Pugh told the Wall Street Journal, which recently took an interesting local...

The Syrian opposition applauded a U.S. cruise missile attack on an airbase near Homs on Friday but said it must not be a one-off and was not enough on its own to stop government warplanes from hitting rebel-held areas. "One airbase is not enough. There are 26 airbases that target civilians," tweeted Mohammad Alloush, a senior rebel official. George Sabra, a prominent opposition politician, told al-Hadath TV. " "We view that the responsibility of the United States is still great, and does not stop with this operation," it added in a statement, warning that the Damascus government and its allies...

Syria’s regime has used sarin nerve gas for the first time since 2013, dropping bombs laden with the chemical agent on Isil fighters outside Damascus, according to a senior Israeli official. This use of sarin would show that Bashar al-Assad has retained the ability to gas his enemies despite an agreement that supposedly disarmed Syria of its chemical arsenal. That deal was reached after the regime used sarin and VX gas to kill as many as 1,400 people in rebel-held areas of Damascus on August 21, 2013. President Barack Obama had declared the use of chemical weapons to be a...

United States secretary of state John Kerry has mocked the notion that Syrian rebels were responsible for last month's chemical weapons attack near Damascus. He has called on all United Nations member nations to "stand up and speak out" on Syria's chemical weapons at the upcoming General Assembly. "The world can decide whether it was used by the regime which has used chemical weapons before, or whether the opposition secretly went unnoticed into territory they don't control, to fire rockets that they don't have, containing Sarin that they don't possess, to kill their own people," he said. "I would say...

A Chinese fighter plane has been spotted on a Chinese-held island in the South China Sea, the first such deployment seen this year, a U.S. think tank reported on Thursday. The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), part of Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the J-11 fighter was visible in a satellite image taken on March 29 of Woody Island in the Paracel island chain. "This isn’t a first, but it’s the first time in a year," AMTI director Greg Poling said of the fighter deployment. Referring to the single fighter plane visible in the image, he said:...