All posts tagged: brought

How online Ramadan content has brought Muslim ideas around faith, worship and community into the mainstream

How online Ramadan content has brought Muslim ideas around faith, worship and community into the mainstream

Published by skeptic

For Muslims around the world, Ramadan is a time of increased personal spirituality and introspection. The hope is to draw closer to God. The sacred month is also a time when Muslims in non-majority Muslim spaces become more visible to the wider public through collective activity such as fasting, communal prayer and breaking the fast together. For a long time, discussions about these Ramadan practices in the UK were largely confined to mosques and community gatherings in person. They were also confined to Muslim online spaces, such as what people refer to as “Muslim Twitter”. Increasingly though, Ramadan content online has shifted towards the mainstream. This increased visibility allows Muslim ideas around faith, worship and community to be heard and more widely engaged with. Ramadan is a time of individual and communal practice. GR Stocks|Unsplash Everyday interactions Research suggests that during Ramadan, Muslims are more frequently questioned about their religion and practices. Non-Muslims asking those who are fasting if it means “not even water” is such a common trope that the phrase has been satirised …

Reince Priebus on McDaniel: NBC should have ‘brought her in’ before signing contract

Reince Priebus on McDaniel: NBC should have ‘brought her in’ before signing contract

Published by skeptic

Former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Reince Priebus said Sunday that NBC News’s management should have done a better job properly vetting former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel before deciding to hire her as a paid contributor. In a panel discussion on ABC News’s “This Week,” Priebus said that, as a paid contributor at ABC News, he was surprised to see that McDaniel, his RNC successor, had not been brought on the show ahead of time to see if she could part ways with some of her rehearsed talking points. “The case on Ronna that I find to be obvious for someone like me, who’s a contributor here, I’ve been at other places. I’ve never been hired without the management bringing me in, meeting with people, doing interviews where I wasn’t on a signed contract, finding out whether I could get off the talking points or not,” Priebus said when asked for his perspective on the controversy at NBC News surrounding McDaniel’s hiring and speedy firing after employee backlash. “The root of the problem is that …

Louise Pentland reveals a spontaneous girls’ getaway brought her happiness

Louise Pentland reveals a spontaneous girls’ getaway brought her happiness

Published by skeptic

If I asked what your one hope for life would be, I’d bet an ice cold diet coke that so many of us would say, ‘just to be happy and healthy’. Being ‘happy and healthy’ are big things, right? We do a lot of things to try and be healthy (gym sessions, getting our steps in, eating well, green smoothies etc) but what do we do to try and be happy? What do we actually do to proactively seek joy? For the longest time I’ve been pretty passive about it all, but as you might know from last month’s column, 2024 is my year of Guilt Free Joy, and this March, I went for it! © Louise PentlandLouise Pentland asks: what do we do to try and be happy in our daily lives? Something you might not know about me is I am the world’s biggest homebird. I politely decline overseas hen dos, I’ve never had a raucous girls’ trip and I really only need to be about two hours away from my house before …

how a domino effect brought it down in seconds

how a domino effect brought it down in seconds

Published by skeptic

The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on 26 March was a shocking and tragic event. Six people remain unaccounted for in the disaster, which saw the world’s third largest continuous truss bridge fall into the Patapsco river. The cause was Singapore-flagged container ship, the Dali, which veered off course, colliding with one of the bridge’s supports, or piers. As the 300 metre-long vessel slammed into the structure, it triggered what’s known as a progressive collapse, where a domino effect leads to the entire structure failing. The bridge, built more than 45 years ago, crashed down into the frigid water at 1:28am eastern standard time (5:28 UTC). But how could one ship bring down this 366m (1,200 ft) structure within seconds of the collision? A progressive collapse involves the failure of a single element, like the pier, and results in the sequential failure of other connected components. These can include the metallic truss and the bridge’s deck. This type of collapse can have catastrophic consequences in terms of the risk to human …

Perimenopause has brought chaos to my life – but also peace | Menopause

Perimenopause has brought chaos to my life – but also peace | Menopause

Published by skeptic

In my 20s and 30s, I went hard, driven by a desire to live life fully. I wanted to stay up all night having heated conversations, collect experiences and adventures, make art and meaning from everything that happened. Somewhere in the far-off distance I pictured myself making it to age 40, but never thought further than that: I would turn 40 … and then I’d be 65? My naivete died three years ago in the middle of the night. I woke up drenched in perspiration, shivering. It was shocking to find myself suddenly so cold and in the dark. Within a month, I was waking at least twice a week – three, four or even five times a night. But it wasn’t just the night sweats. My menstrual cycle changed, dropping a day for several months, then bouncing back, then shortening again. The first two days of my period became much heavier – “crime scene periods”, another middle-aged friend and I would text each other, relieved we were not alone in this mess. In a …

The pet I’ll never forget: Buddy the rescue dog, whose final walk brought him so much joy | Life and style

The pet I’ll never forget: Buddy the rescue dog, whose final walk brought him so much joy | Life and style

Published by skeptic

My partner, Paul, and I are dog lovers through and through but our office jobs meant it had never been practical, or fair, to have a dog of our own. In lockdown our working situations changed, however, so we visited Oxford Animal Sanctuary and met Buddy, a labrador/border collie cross. He was nine and very reactive to other dogs. Knowing he had spent three years in and out of kennels, we couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him in what must have been an incredibly stressful environment. So on 4 July 2020 we brought him home. With us, Buddy was docile, gentle and obedient. He never barked or charged around; he was the perfect house dog. A real character, he loved waking us up by grabbing the corner of the duvet in his mouth and ripping it off. He adored playing football and always tried to join in when I attempted Yoga With Adriene or a Joe Wicks workout. But the sanctuary had warned that if he saw another dog he would become agitated and …

Who brought the crime, the drugs and the rape? It was him

Who brought the crime, the drugs and the rape? It was him

Published by skeptic

When Donald Trump came down that tacky golden escalator in his grotesque Fifth Avenue building on June 16, 2015, to the half-hearted applause of a group of paid actors, he had a lot of incoherent, half-baked things to say in announcing his seemingly unlikely campaign for president. But his most quoted utterance of that day, ostensibly about Mexican immigrants, turned out to be a fair and accurate preview about what he would offer America as Republican candidate and then president: When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with [sic] us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. Many more Americans now believe Trump’s xenophobic claims that immigrants are “bringing” the drugs and the crime and the rape, as well as taking more public assistance and perhaps creating hundreds of thousands of new Democratic voters. None of those claims are true. When a pathologically insecure and vindictive person warns about bad things (as …

Biden brought his A-game: But did the State of the Union turn the tide?

Biden brought his A-game: But did the State of the Union turn the tide?

Published by skeptic

Last Thursday, Joe Biden went before Congress to deliver his State of the Union speech. To quote the legendary “Rowdy” Roddy Piper in the cult classic movie “They Live,” the president had to choose between kicking a*s and chewing bubble gum — and he was all out of bubble gum. Biden presented the 2024 presidential election as a stark and clear choice between protecting American democracy or imperiling it by putting Donald Trump back in the White House, a man who has promised to be a dictator on “day one” of his return to the White House. In perhaps Biden’s strongest moment, he described Trump as an insurrectionist, a likely traitor and an enemy of American democracy and freedom. The former president’s coup attempt in January 2021 and his “plots to steal the election,” Biden said, had “posed the gravest threat to our democracy since the Civil War”: But they failed. America stood strong and democracy prevailed. But we must be honest: The threat remains and democracy must be defended. My predecessor and some of you here …

Meghan Markle defamation case brought by her half-sister dismissed by judge

Meghan Markle defamation case brought by her half-sister dismissed by judge

Published by Sam

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails A defamation case brought against Meghan Markle by her half-sister, Samantha Markle, has been dismissed by a judge in Florida. Samantha Markle, 59, brought the legal action over comments Meghan, 42, made to Oprah Winfrey and on her Netflix show, Harry And Meghan. She will now not be able to refile the case as Florida judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell dismissed it with prejudice. Ruling in favour of the former Suits actor, the judge said in a 58-page decision that the plaintiff had “failed to identify any statements that could support a claim for defamation or defamation-by-implication”. Meghan‘s lawyer Michael J Kump, said: “We are pleased with the court’s ruling dismissing the case.” Samantha Markle, who has the same father as Meghan, claimed the couple’s comments during the high-profile tell-all interview with Winfrey in 2021 were “demonstrably false and malicious lies”. Meghan Markle in Northern Ireland in 2018 (Getty …

Internet Personality Tate Brought to Romanian Court on UK Arrest Warrant

Internet Personality Tate Brought to Romanian Court on UK Arrest Warrant

Published by skeptic

Bucharest, Romania —  Internet personality Andrew Tate was arrested for 24 hours in Romania on a British warrant, his PR representative said on Tuesday, and the Bucharest Court of Appeals was set to decide on whether to extradite him. Tate and his brother Tristan were detained on allegations of sexual aggression dating back to 2012-15, which they “categorically” deny, his PR team said. The warrant was issued by Westminster Magistrates Court. “Brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate were forcibly detained for 24 hours and handed a European arrest warrant by UK authorities. The charges, dating back to 2012-2015, include allegations of sexual aggression,” Andrew Tate’s PR representative said in a statement. “The Bucharest Court of Appeal is slated to make a pivotal decision today on whether to execute the mandate.” The court had yet to decide when it will convene to address the warrant. It was not immediately available for comment. Tate, who gained millions of fans by promoting an ultra-masculine lifestyle, was indicted in June in Romania along with his brother and two Romanian women …