All posts tagged: Bill Clinton

Azerbaijan’s climate charm offensive is backfiring – POLITICO

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[ad_1] When Egypt hosted in 2022, activists used the event to highlight the government’s crackdown on political opponents. Last year saw widespread criticism when COP28 host the United Arab Emirates appointed the man tasked with expanding the country’s oil and gas output to lead the talks. Likewise, the incoming president of COP29 is a former Azerbaijani oil and gas industry executive — though he was later tapped to lead the country’s ecology ministry. Still, Baku has been unapologetic about its intention to use the conference to promote its own economic interests. Aliyev used a speech as host of the talks to brand his country’s natural gas reserves “a gift of the gods” and to push for more investments in the fossil fuel industry, in addition to renewable projects — climate critics be damned. Europe has increasingly turned to Azerbaijan in recent years as a replacement for the Russian fossil fuel it shunned after Moscow invaded Ukraine. | Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images “As a head of the country, which is rich with fossil fuels, of course, we will …

Jason Bateman's Beard Steals Show In Presidential Group Pic

Jason Bateman’s Beard Steals Show In Presidential Group Pic

Published by Sam

[ad_1] It’s not often you see three U.S. presidents in one photo together, and it’s even rarer when Jason Bateman’s beard gets the most attention. Of course, the occasion was commemorated with a group pic, but the reaction to it was surprising. People on X, formerly Twitter, seemed more focused on Bateman’s (admittedly impressive) scruff than on the three-quarters of a Mount Rushmore’s worth of presidents hanging out together. And, yes, things got hairy at times. [ad_2] Source link

Protesters interrupt Biden, Obama, Clinton at $25 million New York fundraiser

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[ad_1] Protestors, calling for ceasefire in Gaza, attend a demonstration near Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, on the day of a fundraising event for U.S. President Joe Biden with him and former U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in New York City, U.S., March 28, 2024.  Andrew Kelly | Reuters President Joe Biden and his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, headlined a star-studded fundraiser with former President Bill Clinton on Thursday, offering a robust defense of the White House’s handling of the Gaza crisis as protesters interrupted the event. Biden, who traveled with Obama on Air Force One to New York, took part in a discussion with Clinton moderated by “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert at the iconic Radio City Music Hall in front of thousands of guests. Organizers say the event raised more than $25 million for Biden’s U.S. reelection campaign. But the fundraiser was punctuated by several protests inside the massive auditorium, with attendees rising at several different moments …

Gwyneth Paltrow Has Held This Grudge Against Bill Clinton for 28 Years

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[ad_1] If you’ve ever wanted to see Our Lady of Linen and Juices, Gwyneth Paltrow, scream “die, bitch!” while massacring a fly; drop the judgiest possible “wow” while critiquing her interviewer’s face-washing technique; and resurrect a nearly three-decade personal grudge against a former president, we have some fantastic news for you. Paltrow made an appearance on the latest episode of Hot Ones, released Thursday, facing down the Scoville scale and downing hot sauce while answering interview questions from host Sean Evans. And it’s safe (if admittedly cheesy, but please—allow us this one thing) to say that she got a touch spicy while talking about former president Bill Clinton. “Fuck you, Bill Clinton!” she said. The GOOP founder and actor’s animosity towards 42 stems from a 1996 White House screening of Emma, which Paltrow starred in. Paltrow was 24 years old when she played the titular role in the screen adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, and Clinton’s response to the movie at that screening didn’t inspire confidence, to say the least. Paltrow confirmed that Clinton …

Gwyneth Paltrow Reveals Her Movie That Had Bill Clinton Snoring

Gwyneth Paltrow Reveals Her Movie That Had Bill Clinton Snoring

Published by Sam

[ad_1] Apparently, the 42nd President of the United States is not a fan of 19th-century comedy films. That’s the hot take Gwyneth Paltrow is delivering all these years later. The 51-year-old actress recently appeared on Hot Ones and told host Sean Evans about that one time former President Bill Clinton slept through a special screening of Emma at the White House. It was actually Evans who brought up the subject, when he asked for confirmation of the story. “Is it true that Bill Clinton passed out asleep during a White House screening of Emma?” Evans asked. “True,” said Paltrow while barely containing her laughter. “He was snoring right in front of me. I was like, ‘Wow, I guess this is going to be a real hit movie.’” Paltrow starred in the 1996 period comedy directed by Douglas McGrath. Set in early 19th-century England, Paltrow portrayed 21-year-old Emma Woodhouse, a sweet and super likable young woman who exuded extreme naiveté. The film is based on Jane Austen’s 1815 novel of the same name. Toni Collette, Alan Cumming, Ewan McGregor and Jeremy Northam …

In ‘Exvangelicals,’ Sarah McCammon looks at the fragility and power of religion

Published by Sam

[ad_1] (RNS) — Growing up in an evangelical home near Kansas City, Sarah McCammon was surrounded by the love of Jesus and the fear of hell. If she messed up and failed to be a good Christian, not only could she face damnation but so could her unsaved relatives — as it was her job to evangelize them by being a faithful witness. It was a difficult burden to bear. “My childish disobedience, even my failure to exhibit the ‘joy of Jesus’ that should be clearly radiating from my heart, could cost my relatives their very souls,” McCammon, a national political correspondent for NPR, wrote in her new book, “Exvangelical,” which debuted Tuesday (March 19). “Carrying that heavy truth, I put on a smile.” Part memoir, part reporting snapshot of America’s changing religious landscape, “Exvangelical” weaves McCammon’s spiritual journey — from a home-schooler educated on “God and country” textbooks and purity culture to her departure from that childhood faith — with the stories of those who left the same evangelical subculture, often during the Trump …

The Ego Has Crash-Landed – The Atlantic

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[ad_1] If Donald Trump loses November’s election, it will be for one reason: He can’t help making it all about himself. Illustration by The Atlantic; Source: Getty. March 19, 2024, 8:20 AM ET Donald Trump dominated the news cycle this weekend. Everybody’s talking about the outrageous things he said at his rally in Dayton, Ohio—above all, his menacing warning of a “bloodbath” if he is defeated in November. To follow political news is to again be immersed in all Trump, all the time. And that’s why Trump will lose. At the end of the 1980 presidential debate, the then-challenger Ronald Reagan posed a famous series of questions that opened with “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Why that series of questions was so powerful is important to understand. Reagan was not just delivering an explicit message about prices and wages. His summation also sent an implicit message about his understanding of how and why a vote was earned. As a presidential candidate that year, Reagan arrived as a hugely famous and …

Biden Is Still the Democrats’ Best Bet for November

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[ad_1] Let’s start with the obvious. The concerns about Joe Biden are valid: He’s old. He talks slowly. He occasionally bumbles the basics in public appearances. Biden’s age is so concerning that many Biden supporters now believe he should step aside and let some other candidate become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. The New York Times journalist Ezra Klein made the best-available case for this view recently in a 4,000-word piece that garnered intense attention by arguing that Biden is no longer up to the task of campaign life. “He is not the campaigner he was, even five years ago,” Klein writes. “The way he moves, the energy in his voice. The Democrats denying decline are only fooling themselves.” In one sense Klein is correct. As the political strategist Mike Murphy said many moons ago, Biden’s age is like a gigantic pair of antlers he wears on his head, all day every day. Even when he does something exceptional—like visit a war zone in Ukraine, or whip inflation—the people applauding him are thinking, Can’t. Stop. …

Bipartisanship is dead; can it be resurrected?

Published by Sam

[ad_1] (RNS) — Bipartisanship is presented as an ideal by many American commentators and religious leaders, but it has a checkered history in American politics. Programs like Social Security and Medicare are bipartisan now but were bitterly opposed by Republicans before their enactment. And issues that have bipartisan support among voters can still have trouble getting through Congress. The ink on the American Constitution was hardly dry when factionalism broke out and the citizenry was divided into Federalists and members of the Democratic-Republican Party. We have had parties fighting each other ever since. When division over slavery became very intense, we had a civil war that freed slaves but set the stage for Dixiecrat rule in the South. There was a bipartisan consensus to ignore racism until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Before then, Southern Democrats played an outsize role in congressional politics. In a system based on seniority, they often were chairs of important congressional committees. They were also the swing votes on major legislation, which could pass or fail depending on …

Biden allies, rivals both want transcript of his special counsel interview released. It could happen

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[ad_1] WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden avoided criminal charges around his handling of classified documents in part because of his answers during a lengthy interview with the special counsel investigating him. But the sit-down also opened Biden up to fresh scrutiny over his age and memory, and now the public release of a transcript of that discussion is being sought by both Biden allies and critics seeking political advantage. The five-hour interview over two days, led by special counsel Robert Hur, helped establish that Biden didn’t intend to retain most of the sensitive records from his vice presidency that were found at his home and personal office. But Hur’s report also repeatedly impugned Biden’s memory in a deeply personal way, suggesting, for example, the president couldn’t remember when his own son had died. The transcript, if released, could provide a fuller picture of the conversation. The White House has the ultimate say over whether to make public the transcript or audio recording of the interview or to claim executive privilege and keep the interview …