President Donald Trump said that it’s a “scary time” for young men in America since they can face sexual assault allegations even when they may be innocent.

 Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding a flight Tuesday, Trump said that the political climate in America today makes it hard to refute allegations, referencing claims of sexual misconduct by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

 “It is a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something that you may not be guilty of,” he told reporters. “This is a very difficult time. What’s happening here has much more to do than even the appointment of a Supreme Court justice. You can be somebody that was perfect your entire life and somebody can accuse you of something. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a woman. But somebody can accuse you of something.”

 Trump said that the current situation meant that some men are “guilty until proven innocent.”

 Asked if he had a message for young women, Trump said it’s a “great time for women.”

 California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford testified to Congress last week that as a teenager Kavanaugh held her down, put his hand over her mouth and tried to remove her clothes. A second woman, Deborah Ramirez, said that as a college student he exposed himself to her during a party. A third woman, Julie Swetnick, alleges that she was gang raped at a party that Kavanaugh attended.

 Kavanaugh denies all of the allegations.

 During the 2016 campaign, Trump faced allegations of sexual misconduct from 18 women ranging from walking through women’s dressing rooms to unwanted kissing to touching their genitals without their consent. Trump denied all the allegations, calling the women “horrible, horrible liars.” He’s currently facing a defamation lawsuit from one of the women, former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos.

 The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., also said in an interview this week that he’s “scared most” for his sons, rather than his daughters. ||||| President Trump Donald John TrumpGiuliani says he confirmed Trump ‘never’ spoke with Cohen about congressional testimony Russian pop star linked to Trump Tower meeting cancels US tour Harris after announcing presidential run says her 'highest priority' is protecting Mueller probe MORE said Tuesday the controversy surrounding Brett Kavaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court shows it is a “scary time for young men.”

 "It is a very scary time for young men in America, when you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn before leaving the White House.

 Trump said Kavanaugh has been treated unfairly as multiple women have come forward to accuse the federal judge of sexual misconduct. The FBI is investigating the allegations, delaying a Senate confirmation vote.

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 "It's a very scary situation where you're guilty until proven innocent," the president said. "That is a very, very difficult standard."

 Trump's comments are likely to fuel the firestorm surrounding Kavanaugh's nomination and renew questions about his attitude toward the "Me Too" movement.

 Nineteen women have accused the president of sexual misconduct or said they’ve had an extramarital affair with him. Trump has denied all of the allegations.

 Asked if he had a message for young women, Trump replied, “Women are doing great.”

 The president said he hopes for a “positive” vote in the Senate this week for Kavanaugh, but it will "be dependent on what comes back from the FBI.”

 The sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh stem from his time in high school and college in the 1980s.

 His first accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, delivered dramatic testimony last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, in which she said Kavanaugh pinned her down and tried to rip off her clothes while drunk at a house party with other high school students.

 Kavanaugh forcefully denied the allegations during his own testimony, which pleased Trump and his other Republican supporters.

 Two other women have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct while drinking excessively during his years in high school and college.

 The president warned Democrats that they risk turning Kavanaugh into a martyr on the right if they block his nomination, a move he said would energize conservatives ahead of the midterm elections.

 "They are so in favor of Judge Kavanaugh. It’s like a rallying cry for the Republicans," Trump said.

 But several GOP senators, led by Sen. Jeff Flake Jeffrey (Jeff) Lane FlakeSchumer recruiting top-notch candidate for McCain Senate seat The Hill's Morning Report — Trump eyes wall money options as shutdown hits 21 days Poll: Sanders most popular senator, Flake least MORE (Ariz.), are withholding their support for Kavanaugh until the FBI investigation concludes.

 The White House agreed to allow the FBI expand its investigation after senators accused the administration of limiting it too narrowly, according to reports on Monday.

 Several key senators have indicated they would be uncomfortable voting for Kavanaugh if the inquiry was seen as perfunctory.

 But top Republicans have said they plan to move ahead with Kavanaugh's confirmation vote this week, wary a further delay could possibly derail his nomination.

 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellDACA recipient claims Trump is holding ‘immigrant youth hostage’ amid quest for wall Former House Republican: Trump will lose the presidency if he backs away from border security Pence quotes MLK in pitch for Trump's immigration proposal MORE (R-Ky.) mocked a new story about the judge getting into a bar fight during his years at Yale University and reaffirmed his plans to hold a vote this week.

 "Senators will have the opportunity to vote. We’ll have the opportunity to vote 'no' on the politics of personal destruction. We’ll have the opportunity to vote 'yes' on this fine nominee," McConnell said on the Senate floor. ||||| Published on Oct 2, 2018

 (2 Oct 2018) President Donald Trump says he wants to "see what happens" with the FBI investigation into his embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Trump also said it was "a scary time for young men" who could become subject of false accusations. (Oct. 2)

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 You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you... ||||| Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he believes the reaction to the allegations of sexual assault and other misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh makes it "a very scary time for young men in America."

 "It is a very scary time for young men in America, where you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of," Trump said. "This is a very, very -- this is a very difficult time. What's happening here has much more to do than even the appointment of a Supreme Court justice."

 The allegations against Kavanaugh -- including sexual assault and exposing himself to a young woman in college -- have sparked the latest reckoning in America about sexual assault and men's treatment of women, bringing the #MeToo movement back to the fore. And while Trump has called Christine Blasey Ford, who testified to Congress that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were in high school, "credible" and "compelling," he has continued to support Kavanaugh's confirmation and emphatically defend his character.

 Trump's comments on Tuesday were just the latest instance of the President expressing concern about the public outcry resulting from the allegations against Kavanaugh and the impact on other men.

 "It's a very scary situation where you're guilty until proven innocent. My whole life I've heard you're innocent until proven guilty, but now you're guilty until proven innocent. That is a very, very difficult standard," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. "You could be somebody that was perfect your entire life and somebody could accuse you of something."

 Read More |||||

Write a summary.

– As President Trump exited the White House for a flight Tuesday, he spoke with reporters on the South Lawn about the topic you'd expect: Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the allegations against him. Some standout lines, per Time, the AP, and the Hill: "You can be an exemplary person for 35 years and then somebody comes and they say 'you did this or that,' and they give three witnesses, and the three witnesses at this point do not corroborate what she was saying. It's a very scary situation where you're guilty until proven innocent. ... That is a very, very difficult standard." "It is a very scary time for young men in America, when you can be guilty of something you're not guilty of." "What's happening here has much more to do than even the appointment of a Supreme Court justice. ... You could be somebody that was perfect your entire life, and somebody could accuse you of something. Doesn't necessarily have to be a woman ... but somebody could accuse you of something and you're automatically guilty, but in this realm you are truly guilty until proven innocent. That's one of the very, very bad things that's taking place right now." As for what kind of a time it is for women, "Women are doing great," he replied when asked if he had a message for them. CNN sees parallels between Trump's statements and comments Donald Trump Jr. made in a Monday interview with the Daily Mail in which he said that, in light of the Kavanaugh allegations, he is more afraid for his sons. "I mean, right now, I'd say my sons. I've got boys, and I've got girls. And when I see what's going on right now, it's scary."


 UPDATE: 905 a.m. - OPD reports on April 18, at about 12:44 a.m., 17 year old Kristian Perez was located at a residence in Orofino. Perez was located at 12127 Indio Avenue following a tip that had indicated Perez was staying at that location.

 The residence belonged to 26 year old Tyson Imel. Perez was found in good health and was taken into custody without incident on a runaway charge.

 The investigation is ongoing and Imel may be facing criminal charges himself for providing assistance to Perez.

 UPDATE: 5:55 p.m., April 17, Orofino Police Department:

 Statement from Orofino Police Department:

 The Orofino Police Department is continuing to investigate the disappearance of Perez. Today we sought and received a search warrant for cellular phone records from Perez's cellular service provider. We are currently going through call records and text messages to determine if any of that information can help us locate Perez.

 A Lewiston PD officer had reported seeing a male subject matching the description of Perez at the Zip Trip on Main Street during the late evening of April 15th following Perez's disappearance. Within the last hour Zip Trip staff made the surveillance video from that night available to law enforcement and it was determined that the subject of the video was not Perez.

 We are continuing to pursue every tip and lead that comes into our Department regarding Perez and his whereabouts. We are reaching out to the public for any information regarding the disappearance of Perez or his whereabouts and request that anyone with any information at all contact the Orofino Police Department at 208-476-5551.

 Noon, April 17 - The Orofino Police Department is seeking information related to the disappearance last Saturday, April 15, of Kristian Perez, 17, of Orofino. Perez had last been heard from at 9:32 p.m., who had advised his mother he had left the Orofino High School prom.

 OPD investigation found Perez’ tuxedo jacket, one shoe and his broken cell phone in proximity to a relative’s vehicle he had ridden in to the prom that night. Using a canine tracking team, investigators believe Perez walked west from the prom location at the National Guard Armory into a nearby parking lot along U.S. Highway 12 where it is believed he may have entered a vehicle.

 An attempt to locate was sent out to surrounding law enforcement agencies. There was a possible sighting of Kristian in the Lewiston area. Lewiston Police Department is following up on that sighting.

 As of press time (Monday, April 17), OPD has yet to find any family or friends of Perez who have heard from him since he left the prom.

 Information related to this case can be provided to OPD, 476-5551. ||||| A photo of the teen who went missing on April 14, Kristian Perez. He was found safe the following week.

 The 17-year-old boy who went missing Friday night after the Orofino High School prom is still missing as of Monday afternoon.

 Kristian Perez apparently left the prom at about 9:30 p.m. on Friday and has not been heard from since, according to his family.

 The local police department launched an investigation and confirmed Kristian had signed out of the prom at 9:32 p.m.. Kristian rode to the prom with a relative and his tuxedo jacket, one shoe, and broken cellular phone were recovered in proximity to that vehicle.

 PREVIOUS: Orofino police search for missing teen

 Monday, police said in a statement they had a search warrant to go through Perez's call records and text messages to determine if any of the information can help them locate the missing teen.

 A canine tracking team indicated Kristan may have walked west from the National Guard Armory where the prom was held for a short distance to a nearby parking lot along Highway 12, where he may have gotten into a car.

 The principal of Orofino High School said Monday that Kristian Perez is a good kid, and fairly quiet.

 "I think he's around," the principal said.

 Initially, a Lewiston PD officer had reported seeing a person matching Perez's description at Zips in that area, but surveillance video Monday showed it was not him, according to Orofino Police.

 Orofino Police Department is seeking information from the public relating to Kristian’s disappearance or possible whereabouts. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Police Department at 208-476-5551.

 © 2018 KREM-TV ||||| The search is on to find Kristian Perez, a teen who vanished without a trace. The investigation began Saturday night when the 17-year-old seemingly disappeared from his high school prom.

 It’s been about 48 hours since Kristian Perez vanished from Orofino. Right now Orofino police have secured a search warrant for Perez’s cellphone, going through calls and text messages, in hopes of figuring out if any information can help find him.

 Police say the last time anyone saw him was Saturday night, when he signed out of the prom at 9:32p.m.

 Here’s a look at where Perez was last seen, The National Guard Armory off of Highway-12 where Orofino’s prom was held.

 According to Orofino police, Perez was reported missing by his mother after he didn’t return home.

 Police brought in a canine tracking team, which indicated Kristian may have walked west from the National Guard Armory. But the track was lost after a short distance, near an entrance into a nearby parking lot along the highway. It is believed Kristian may have then entered a vehicle.

 Shannon Moudy, news reporter spoke with the school district’s superintendent Robert Vian, who said the school has a crisis prevention program for any students or staff affected.

 "The administration met with the staff this morning to give the staff as much information as we have about the missing student, let the teachers know that if any students were struggling or having particular concerns they should be sent to the counselors’ office,” said Vian. “So we sort of have protocols in place to help students and staff deal with situations, but this one is fairly unique."

 If you have any information on where Kristian Perez may be, let authorities know right away. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– A 17-year-old high school student in Idaho signed out of his senior prom at exactly 9:32pm Friday, but he never returned home—a lone shoe, his tux jacket, and a busted cellphone were found near the car he came in, KREM reports. Kristian Perez's family says no one's heard from him since he left the event Friday night, and local police say in a statement in the Idaho County Free Press that they've obtained a search warrant for his phone and are now scouring his call and text logs for possible clues. Cops say Kristian's mom reported him missing when he didn't come home after the prom, which was held at the National Guard Armory in Orofino. Per KLEW, a police dog-sniffing team tried to follow Kristian's scent, which apparently led west from the armory, but the scent vanished right at the entrance to a parking lot along the same highway the armory is located on. Investigators speculate Kristian may have gotten into a vehicle at that location. Cops say in the statement that a possible sighting of Kristian in Lewiston, about an hour away, came up empty after they reviewed a surveillance tape and concluded the person seen in the video wasn't the missing teen. (The wife of a teacher who's gone missing with a Tennessee teen has filed for divorce.)


Article:

A total of 18 people were fired from one business after joining the nation-wide protest "A Day Without Immigrants."

 Thousands of people participated in the movement across the country, including people in Middle Tennessee.

 In Nolensville, nearly 20 employees at Bradley Coatings, Incorporated told their supervisors on Wednesday they'd be taking part as well. Then, on Thursday they were told they no longer had jobs.

 "We are the team leaders directly under the supervisors and they informed us last night that we could not go back to work and the boss said we were fired," one employee told us.

 The former employee asked to remain anonymous but had this message to his former boss.

 "I would tell him he was unfair, after working for them for so many years, gave him our best. They could not understand that it was just one day. We were going to make up that day on a Sunday, but they didn't understand that, and it was not the best way. They didn't give us an opportunity and just told us we were fired," he said.

 "Tennessee is an employment-at-will state which basically means an employer can end your employment at any time without reason or cause. Of course, there are a lot of different stipulations, civil rights issues that could stop them from doing that," Department of Labor and Workforce Development spokesman, Chris Cannon said.

 Bradley Coatings, Inc.'s attorney released the following statement:

 "Bradley Coatings, Incorporated (BCI) is a family-owned, Nashville-based business that provides commercial painting services to its clients on a very demanding schedule. Established in 1986, BCI has always celebrated diversity and supported the immigrant community. This past Wednesday night, certain employees of BCI informed their leadership that they would not be at work the following day. Because of the time-sensitive nature of the jobs these employees were assigned to, all employees were told that they would need to show up for work or they would be terminated. On Thursday, the majority of BCI’s employees fulfilled their obligations to our clients, but eighteen employees did not. Regretfully, and consistent with its prior communication to all its employees, BCI had no choice but to terminate these individuals. The reason these employees missed work—to engage in peaceful demonstrations—had nothing to do with BCI’s decision to terminate them. BCI regrets this situation, but it has contracted with its clients to complete work on a schedule set by the client’s general contractor. BCI will review its procedures in an effort to avoid similar issues in the future, and will continue to provide timely service to its clients and support to the Nashville immigrant community." - Robert Peal, Company Attorney ||||| CATOOSA, Okla. (KTUL) - A dozen workers at a Catoosa restaurant are without a job after getting fired for skipping work as a show of support for “A Day Without Immigrants.”

 The restaurant workers are all Hispanic and say it was important to them to participate in the national protest.

 But they didn’t think it would cost them their jobs.

 “They feel like they’ve been unfairly terminated," said a friend, translating for the employees.

 The group worked at I Don’t Care Bar and Grill in Catoosa. They talked to us after they were fired for not showing up to work. They asked us not to show their faces or give their names.

 “(They’ve) been working there for almost two years since the restaurant opened," said the friend.

 The group willingly chose to stay home with others across the country, supporting “A Day Without Immigrants.”

 “(They’re) upset they stood for something they felt was necessary so the community would stand together, and they got terminated for that," said the friend.

 The six are part of a group of 12 kitchen staff let go.

 The owner fired them by text message.

 A message to one of the employees reads: "You and your family are fired. I hope you enjoyed your day off, and you can enjoy many more. Love you.”

 The workers aren't sure what comes next, but they did feel they had to stand up for immigrants living and working in the U.S.

 “That was their way to show they are needed in the community," said the friend.

 Restaurant owner Bill McNally gave us a written statement, saying he has a "zero tolerance policy for no show/no call incidents and the 12 employees violated that policy."

 Despite the shock of being fired, the employees say they aren’t mad and expected a possible reprimand, but they weren’t counting on getting canned.

 “They feel like he could’ve done something for them since they’d been working for him," said the friend.

 Friday in a Facebook post, the restaurant was shopping for replacement workers.

 In the meantime, these workers say they’re moving on to other jobs, taking their stance with them.

 “Immigrants are important to the nation," said the friend.

 The group says it's never had a problem with the owner in the past and wishes him the best.

 But the fired employees say they will continue to stand together in the future.

 The owner did share with us he’s fired other employees over the past two years for violating his “no call/no show” policy. |||||
What is a summary?

– Thousands of immigrants stayed home from work Thursday, shuttering restaurants and slowing other industries, for the national "A Day Without Immigrants" protest. Now it appears many were asked not to come back. In Oklahoma, a dozen workers at I Don't Care Bar and Grill were fired after missing work Thursday; most had been working at the restaurant since it opened, KTUL reports. "You and your family are fired," their boss said in a text message. "I hope you enjoyed your day off and you can enjoy many more. Love you." According to WLTX, 21 workers at Encore Boat Builders in South Carolina—most of them long-term employees with young kids—were fired after taking part in A Day Without Immigrants. Meanwhile in Tennessee, 18 workers at Bradley Coatings were fired after informing their supervisors they planned to participate in the protest, NewsChannel5 reports. They say it was "unfair after working for them for so many years," especially because they were going to make up the time missed on Sunday. In a statement, Bradley Coatings says it has "always celebrated diversity and supported the immigrant community," but it "had no choice" but to fire the workers. According to WTVD, two employees at a North Carolina packing warehouse were suspended for missing work Thursday. Oklahoma, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina are right-to-work states, which means employers can terminate employees with few restrictions.


– A Canada college student who met a woman at a bar but somehow screwed up taking down her phone number still managed to connect using a nuclear option. Carlos Zetina, a first year student at University of Calgary, knew the woman he'd met was also a student. He also knew her first name: Nicole. Armed with these modest facts, Zetina soberly made his way to the school directory, searched for the name Nicole, then proceeded to email all 246 coeds who share the name, the Calgary Herald reports. “If you (sic) name is Nicole and you’re from Holland and you think Nietzsche is depressing then text me,” Zetina wrote in the email, which was obtained by the Star. “I’m Carlos btw I’m the guy who took you and your friend home last night... if you are the one and just don’t want to talk to me that’s ok as well.” Many of the Nicoles (and variations Zetina looped in, including Nicolettes and Nikkis) who received the email Friday were so taken aback by Zetina's gesture that they couldn't help but poke fun at him to one another. Nicole DuGraye even started a Facebook group for all the women called "Nicole From Last Night," thereby turning Zetina's email into a way to make new friends. Ironically, the intended recipient Nicole reportedly didn't receive the email and only learned of it through social media. Lucky for Zetina, she wasn't pulling a fast one with a fake phone number and believes he just got a digit wrong. She not only wants to meet up with Zetina, but intends to hang out with all her fellow Nicoles, too.

Expand this summary.

CALGARY—A group of women named Nicole at the University of Calgary have united thanks to a mass email sent by a man trying to locate his missed connection. By all accounts, the network of Nicoles can trace its start to Nietzsche, a number and a woman named Nicole from the Netherlands.

 A Calgary student trying to find a missed connection he met at a bar emailed 246 women named Nicole. They have since forged real-life friendships and helped him find the "original Nicole." ( Submitted by Nicolette Riley )

 First year U of C student Carlos Zetina was reportedly at campus pub The Den Thursday, when he met a woman named Nicole, on exchange from the Netherlands. “We met at the campus bar and we talked and had struck a pretty interesting conversation,” said Zetina. “She gave me her number, but I guess she accidentally gave me the wrong one because when I texted her the next day, a different person messaged me back that it wasn’t her.” So Zetina resorted to a very specific approach: Email everyone who had a U of C email account with the name Nicole or one of its variants. He said the university’s email had a directory, so it only took him a few minutes to copy anyone with Nicole in their name to the message.

 Article Continued Below

 Zetina said he sent the email because he didn’t want the Nicole he met to think he was “a bad guy who didn’t text back.” He wrote: “If you (sic) name is Nicole and you’re from Holland and you think Nietzsche is depressing then text me,” then gives his phone number. “I’m Carlos btw I’m the guy who took you and your friend home last night.” He added “if you are the one and just don’t want to talk to me that’s ok as well.” By 11 a.m. Friday, PhD candidate Nicolette Little had a message in her inbox with the following subject line: “Met you last night and you gave me the wrong number.” “I did a double-take and noticed 246 other Nicoles and Nicolettes and Nikkis were copied on this email,” she said. “Who sends an email to that many people? If it was me, I’d be a little horrified about how this all played out,” said Nicole DuGraye, who also got the message. “But I thought this was a great way to connect and meet new people and to try to find the real Nicole.”

 The Nicoles started exchanging messages about the email, according to Little, and that’s when the group began to grow. DuGraye decided to create a Facebook group called “Nicole From Last Night,” containing many of the Nicoles who received the original email. They planned a get-together to find the woman Zetina was looking for.

 The women included on the mass email got together in real life Friday for a gathering dubbed the "Congress of Nicoles." They say they plan on continuing to meet. ( Nicole McCoy )

 “I thought it was funny,” Zetina said. “Some of the Nicoles started messaging me pretending to be her as a joke.”

 Article Continued Below

 “There was just Nicoles saying they’d never been so happy to be called Nicole or Nicolette in their lives. Others were wishing Carlos ‘good luck buddy,’ and just talking about how it was an epic way to start your school year,” Little said. The like-named ladies, dubbed the Congress of Nicoles, got together Friday night at Side Street Pub in Kensington. “It was funny, because you just saw Nicole, after Nicolette, after Nikki kind of wandering by and looking around. We would just jump up and say, ‘Hey, are you a Nicole?’ and they’d be like ‘yes!’ ” Little explained, estimating about 20 women were at Friday’s meeting. The unusual get-together drew lots of attention on Twitter, with users tweeting their support with the hashtag #nicolefromlastnight. “Some dude emailed every Nicole at U of C to try to find the girl he met last night and instead they formed a girl gang and I am legit DYING,” tweeted @ParisEsther, prompting thousands of likes and hundreds of retweets. Alas, the intended Nicole was not in attendance, according to Nicole Macmillan, who was. The women discovered that the original Nicole did not have a university email address yet, and had only heard about the email after it had gone viral. She eventually posted on the Facebook group, revealing herself as “the real Nicole.”

 Macmillan said they weren’t sure if Nicole had given Zetina the wrong number on purpose as a gentle brush-off. “She told me it was a total accident, she had only had a Canadian number for about a week so it was a mistake, she wanted to give him her real number.” In the end, Zetina said the Nicole he’d been searching for did text him. “We’re planning to hang out maybe next week,” he said. “I really didn’t expect this to become a big thing.” Macmillan said she was glad to see the saga have “a beautiful ending.”

 The unusual get-together went viral with the hashtagh "Nicole From Last Night" trending on Twitter. The group of Nicoles eventually helped the original Nicole connect with the student who sent the email. ( Nicolette Riley )

 Another woman who received the message, Nicole Larsen, said she felt “happy to be a part of a love story.” “I felt like this was Cinderella or something ... but I was just an ugly step-sister.” Regardless of whether Zetina and his Nicole are meant to be or not, Macmillan said she and the other Nicoles plan to meet monthly. And they will be meeting the Nicole who started it all in person later this week. Macmillan said the whole situation, from the formation of their “little girl gang,” to the matchmaking, to the story going viral has “honestly been wild.” “It’s been so fun! I haven’t stopped laughing since Friday.” With files from Alexandra Jones and Canadian Press. Evan Radford is a reporter/photographer for StarMetro Calgary. Follow him on Twitter: @EvanRadford

 Read more about: ||||| A bevy of women named Nicole at the University of Calgary have united thanks to a mass email from a young man on a quest to locate his missed connection.

 The Friday morning email came from Carlos Zetina, who wrote that a woman named Nicole gave him the wrong phone number after he took her and her friend home on Thursday night.

 “Who sends an email to that many people? If it was me, I’d be a little horrified about how this all played out,” said Nicole DuGraye, one of the 246 people copied on the message. “But I thought this was a great way to connect and meet new people and to try to find the real Nicole.”

 The thought prompted her to create a Facebook group called “Nicole From Last Night,” and they’ve now planned a get-together in a bid to make friends and to find the woman Zetina was looking for.

 A mini meetup happened Friday, she said, with plans for bigger gatherings to come.

 Some dude emailed every Nicole at U of C to try to find the girl he met last night and instead they formed a girl gang and I am legit DYING @ucalgary #nicolefromlastnight pic.twitter.com/ql4sxuBADQ — sarah jurassica parker (@ParisEsther) September 8, 2018

 Zetina, a first-year student at the university, said he sent the email because he didn’t want Nicole to think he was “a bad guy who didn’t text back.”

 “We met at the campus bar and we talked and had struck a pretty interesting conversation,” said Zetina. “She gave me her number, but I guess she accidentally gave me the wrong one because when I texted her the next day, a different person messaged me back that it wasn’t her.”

 So the following morning, Zetina said, he sent an email to 246 people with “Nicole” in their name, writing that the Nicole he is looking for is from Holland and thinks German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is “depressing.”

 “If you don’t fit this description then ignore and if you are the one and just don’t want to talk to me that’s ok as well,” Zetina wrote in the email.

 He said the university’s email had a directory, so it only took him a few minutes to copy anyone with Nicole in their name to the message.

 Zetina said one of the Nicoles messaged him about the Facebook group and said they were all getting together to help him find the right Nicole.

 “I thought it was funny,” he said. “Some of the Nicoles started messaging me pretending to be her as a joke.”

 Another woman who received the message, Nicole Larsen, said she felt “happy to be a part of a love story.”

 “I felt like this was Cinderella or something … but I was just an ugly step-sister.”

 A post in the Facebook group from the email’s intended target says she didn’t receive the email, but learned about it because it started circulating on social media.

 That Nicole said in the group that she also wants to meet all of the other Nicoles in the next few days.

 In the post, she writes that she meant to give Carlos her number, but he might have gotten a digit wrong when he wrote it down.

 Zetina said later that day the Nicole he had been searching for texted him.

 “We’re planning to hang out maybe next week,” said Zetina. “I really didn’t expect this to become a big thing.” |||||


Summarize this article:

 Omega #15, 2011, charcoal, graphite, pastel, Conté crayon on paper, 21.5 x 16 in., 2011

 JAMES FOTOPOULOS: Dreamful Slumbers

 Drawings & Videos

 January 7 to February 6, 2012

 Opening Reception January 7, 6-9PM

 Microscope Gallery kicks off the New Year with Dreamful Slumbers: Drawings and Video, the first New York solo exhibition of the filmmaker and artist James Fotopoulos, featuring over 80 charcoal drawings made between 2008 to 2011 and new video works. The title relates to a line in William Blake’s creation myth The Book of Urizen (1794) and the exhibit marks Fotopoulos’ serious return to drawing, a practice he began in his youth.

 Fotopoulos, who was featured at the Whitney Biennial and at MoMA in the mid-2000s, made the works in Dreamful Slumbers during a period “fueled by a disinterest in many modes of current art production I found myself either tangled in or standing too close too = like standing too close to a fire.” This was a time of intense artistic introspection during which Fotopoulos felt “…that if I couldn’t succeed in harnessing these images and emotions using those methods (turning my back on all the current technology which I had been absorbed in), then I should stop making work.” That Fotopoulos had by already made over 100 films and videos ranging from features to under 30 seconds only emphasizes the gravity of this statement.

 Dreamful Slumbers traces the development of Fotopoulos’ current works in (primarily) charcoal – which contain imagery of animals, bodies, personal symbols from youth, and letters and words as a personal codes of memories and dreams – starting with simple black & white images, to a longer period of experimentation with reds, to a sudden focus on blue. Additionally, drawings made for several recent moving images work, including the short Thick Comb and the features Chimera and Alice in Wonderland, which premiered at Microscope last May, are also presented and offer a comment on the relationship between art made by a filmmaker to the “art” made for a film.

 A new short video on installation, Wellness, made with drawings and Fotopoulos’ unique animation techniques brings to the forefront the discussion and connection between drawing and making moving images, a subject that has interested Fotopoulos since as early as 2005 when he was quoted in the New York Times as saying “With digital, I can work like I draw – it’s that free.” With a series of his just completed works titled “Blue”, Fotopoulos has completely and successfully bound the two, making a work in two parts: a drawing and a 15 to 20 second video.

 Still from: Blue 2, digital video, col, silent, 2011, 30 seconds

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 James Fotopoulos was born in Chicago and currently lives and works in Philadelphia. His films and videos have been screened internationally including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the New York Underground Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, the Walker Art Center and the Andy Warhol Museum, among others. His works have also been featured in a retrospective at Anthology Film Archives, 2004 Whitney Biennial, and at Museum of Modern Art (NY).

 His works have exhibited at: Momenta Art; Museo de Arte Contemportaneo del Zulia, Venezuela; Parsons Hall Project Space, Holyoke, MA; Triskel Art Center, Cork, Ireland; Bienniale for Videoart, Mechelen, Belgium; Vertex List NYC; Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Microscope Gallery, NYC among others. He has received a Creative Capital Grant for his in-progress interdisciplinary epic on the life of Richard Nixon. He has collaborated with Raymond Pettibon, Barney Rosset, Cory Arcangel, Torsten Zenas Burns, Ben Coonley, and many others.

 This exhibition follows the world premieres of several new and recent videos by Fotopoulos including the features “Chimera”and “Alice in Wonderland” at Anthology Film Archives (NYC) on January 5 and 6th.

 More info at www.anthologyfilmarchives.org

 Untitled, charcoal, graphite, Negro pencil, pastel on paper, 9 x 12 in., 2008

 All images are copyright and courtesy of James Fotopoulos © 2011 ||||| Now that Facebook has decided to publish a timeline that includes all of our online goings-on since birth, we wonder what a tangible chronicle of this would look like. Enter the very pregnant performance artist Marni Kotak, who is transforming the Microscope Gallery into a home-birth center where she will turn the birth of her baby into a work of art. Her exhibit "The Birth of Baby X" kicks off her long-term project "Raising Baby X," which will document her child's upbringing "from birth through attending college and developing an independent life," according to her website. Starting Saturday, she'll be making the gallery home as she waits for the contractions to start (due date is uncertain according to Kotak's doctor, but some time during the span of the next 5 or 6 weeks). Then, she'll have her baby right there with the assistance of a midwife and a doula. As the 36-year-old tells us, "I know it will be challenging, but I think if people give birth in the completely inhospitable environment of hospitals, hooked up to IVs and monitors, and strapped with stirrups into a bed, I can give birth in an art gallery." We dare Mark Zuckerberg to top that! We recently got to ask Kotak some questions about her project.

 You've reenacted the funeral of your grandfather and the first time you had sex, and you've stated that you're "most concerned with the question of how one can have and convey a real experience." Can you explain how a performance art experience is different than, say, an onstage performance? A performance art experience is more real than an onstage performance if it possesses a raw immediacy that cannot be captured, and therefore cannot be acted out, as in a work of theater.

 In an onstage play, the performers have scripted lines that they have memorized and they are playing roles. Performance art is essentially closer to real life in that it takes place in fleeting moments that can never be repeated, objectified, or commodified.

 In "The Birth of Baby X," I will be completely engrossed in the act of giving birth before a live audience. I will be focused on delivering my child into the world in the healthiest manner possible, rather than on how I look or what the audience may think. Everything I have learned about the birth process is that the more you surrender your mind and don't try to control the event, but let your body do what it naturally knows how to do, the better your labor progresses. This, to me, provides for the most authentic performance art situation. And the ultimate creation of this life performance will be a living being!

 Who are some of your influences? My biggest inspirations are the '70s performance artists like Marina Abramovic, Hannah Wilke, Chris Burden, Vito Acconci, and Carolee Schneeman, in which the performances focused on the visceral experience of the body, often testing the limits of human experience.

 There is a whole range of artistic practice that can be referred to as performance art. However, I feel that the best performance art takes place when the artist is not trying to perform, but is rather completely immersed in an authentic action.

 Most of your art performances deal with real life moments in your life. Why do you think it's so important to capture these moments -- even the mundane ones -- as art? I am driven to hold onto an authentic personal experience in a world that has essentially become consumed by an unreal hyper-reality. When I first graduated from Bard and began performing in New York in the late '90s, art was ironic and driven by semiotics and critical theory, and, with the rapid emergence of "new media," the concept that reality was being replaced by a hyper-mediated simulacrum. As a young woman, I had to believe there was more to life than that. Otherwise, what was the point? I would keep saying to myself in the back of my head: "I have to believe that this life has real meaning and value."

 If you weren't making art, what else would you be doing? Ideally, I am always making art, as my art is my life and vice versa. So, I am trying to approach every life situation from that standpoint. In that way, it almost doesn't matter what I am doing, as long as I am staying true to myself and am open to present moment unfolding. Or, in another fantasy, I could be a Russian spy, and my code name would be: Marnitov Cocktail.

 Do you think our culture has a fascination with chronicling our every move -- i.e., on Facebook, Twitter, etc.? Do you think it is because people want to make life seem relevant and/or meaningful? I like this question, because I have always had a deep-seated disdain for Facebook. I have an account because it seems to have become an essential communication tool of today, but I use the site solely to stay in touch with friends, who happen to use Facebook, about my upcoming shows and projects. I never log on just to post status updates or such about the details of my life. My life is for me to experience in an authentic way and not for Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of the company's shareholders to make more money from.

 But to answer your question more directly, yes, I do feel that people today are desperately seeking a sense of meaning in their lives. Facebook is feeding into that and providing -- what I see as an ultimately empty -- solution for a hyper-mediated world. What people who spend so much time on Facebook seem to forget is that it is essentially a corporation that is profiting from the nuances of their everyday experiences. Sadly, the more time that people spend on social networking sites and the less time they spend engaging in authentic experiences with friends and family in the real world -- and yes, I do still think there is a real world -- the more they are denying the significance of their own human experience. This in turn leads to a greater sense of desperation to find meaning in their lives, more wasted hours on Facebook, and so on and so forth. It is a vicious cycle.

 Do you think reenacting a moment diminishes its actual value? I feel that it is never possible to re-enact a moment exactly. Although the intense nostalgia that is part of what drives my work would like it to be otherwise. I am profoundly aware that every precious moment in my life can never be re-lived, and that ultimately I will cease having life experiences. What does live on, however, are emotional residues, memories, of the original events. And so what I have tried to do in my performance re-enactments is to tap into those emotional residues and, in doing so, serve as a kind of conduit for audience members who have likely had similar or related experiences.

 Whatever the case, an attempt to re-enact a life event doesn't diminish its value if it is done through actually going back into what the original experience felt like. The danger is in if one tries to re-create an event by simply re-enacting a scripted set of actions. This would not pay tribute to the original experience, and would yield rather hollow results.

 What do you hope people take from your performance at Microscope Gallery? I hope that people will see that human life itself is the most profound work of art, and that therefore giving birth, the greatest expression of life, is the highest form of art. This child is the greatest work of art that Jason and I could ever make together.

 So often I find that people overlook how our lives are full of the most amazing, shocking, challenging, beautiful, and disturbing experiences -- far more interesting than anything anyone could put together as a "performance."

 My performance at Microscope will begin as I install the show, setting up my own home-birth center in the space, and will span the entire duration of the exhibition. Part of giving birth is the mental and physical preparation for the event. A lot elements go into a traditional home-birth, and I received a whole list of necessary supplies from my midwife. I will be installing an inflatable birthing pool and a shower in the gallery, along with my deceased grandmother's bed, the rocking chair that my mother rocked me on when I was a baby, shag carpeting, a surround video projection of ocean waves crashing on the shores of my favorite Cape Cod beach, artwork made by my husband and the child's father, Jason Robert Bell, and a small kitchen area for food and drinks.

 All of these elements are incorporated to make the labor process as smooth and as comfortable as possible. As this will take place in front of an audience, rather than in the privacy of my home, I am doing extra mental preparation at the advice of my doula (who along with my midwife will be present at the birth) to let go of my mind and totally go into my body. She told me that once I really enter active labor the body just takes over and I won't care at all what is going on around me. My focus will be on having my baby. I know it will be challenging, but I think if people give birth in the completely inhospitable environment of hospitals, hooked up to IVs and monitors and strapped with stirrups into a bed, I can give birth in an art gallery. And in giving birth in front of the audience, I am showing them, as in my previous performances, that real life is the best performance art, and that, if our eyes can be opened to it, all of the meaning that we seek is right there in our everyday lives.

 "The Birth of Baby X" opens Saturday, October 8, through Monday, November 7 at Microscope Gallery, 4 Charles Place, Bushwick. The hours are extended to 7 days a week, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and, the gallery says, "we will remain open or reopen if the birth is in process." Visitors to the show can get on a list be notified of when she goes into labor. Go to Runnin' Scared for all our latest news coverage.

 [ACruz] [@chelipj]

 Sponsor Content ||||| A Brooklyn performance artist had an opening in a local gallery this weekend for her next big piece: a live birth.

 Marni Kotak, who is 36 and eight months pregnant, is planning to go through the birth of her first child in front of an audience in an art gallery in the Bushwick neighborhood. The gallery has installed a shower and a refrigerator and already has about 15 people signed up to watch.

 In preparation for this weekend's “opening” at the Microscope Gallery, Kotak also brought along her grandmother’s bed, a rocking chair and her own paintings that are related to her pregnancy, including a framed sonogram.

 On Monday, she met with her midwife and doula in the space where she expects to give birth any minute, though on the gallery website the “Birth of Baby X” installation is officially supposed to run “October 8-November 7.”

 This is not Kotak’s first, uh, unconventional work. She also staged reenactments of losing her virginity and attending her grandfather’s funeral, according to the website. |||||

– This one isn't for the squeamish: Performance artist Marni Kotak's next piece involves her giving birth ... live ... in a Brooklyn gallery. The 36-year-old's "durational performance" runs though Nov. 7 at Microscope Gallery, which the Los Angeles Times reports has been altered to fit Kotak's needs: It now features a shower, her grandmother's bed, refrigerator, and rocking chair, along with a framed sonogram. The gallery will be open from 11am to 6pm until the birth occurs, and will extend its hours if need be for the blessed event. (Kotak is 8 months along, and timed the show, "Birth of Baby X," to coincide with her due date.) "I will be completely engrossed in the act of giving birth before a live audience," Kotak tells the Village Voice. "I will be focused on delivering my child into the world in the healthiest manner possible, rather than on how I look or what the audience may think." She shares plenty more thoughts, on Facebook ("my life ... is not for Mark Zuckerberg"), her influences, and what she'd be doing if she wasn't making art (one option: Russian spy, code name "Marnitov Cocktail"); click to read.


NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 24: U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the 69th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations Headquarters on September 24, 2014 in New York City. The annual event brings political leaders from around the globe together to report on issues meet and look for solutions. This year's General Assembly has highlighted the problem of global warming and how countries need to strive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images) (Photo: Andrew Burton, Getty Images)

 President Obama delivered his eighth and final speech as president to the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, pushing other world leaders to do more to meet the needs of the world's swelling throngs of refugees. While at the United Nations, he also participated in a refugee summit meeting. Watch his remarks below.

 You can watch President Obama's entire address to the General Assembly below.

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2dgfpv1 ||||| President Barack Obama addresses the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016. The president warned that the forces of globalization have exposed "deep fault lines"... (Associated Press)

 President Barack Obama addresses the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016. The president warned that the forces of globalization have exposed "deep fault lines" across the globe, calling for a "course correction" to ensure that nations and their peoples don't... (Associated Press)

 UNITED NATIONS (AP) — President Barack Obama conceded Tuesday that the United States and other world powers have limited ability to solve the most profound challenges facing the world, while calling for a "course correction" for globalization to ensure that nations don't retreat into a more sharply divided world.

 Obama, in his final speech to the U.N. General Assembly, acknowledged that the extremist and sectarian violence wreaking havoc in the Middle East and elsewhere "will not be quickly reversed." Still, he stuck faithfully to his insistence that diplomatic efforts and not military solutions are the key to resolving Syria's civil war and other conflicts.

 "If we are honest, we know that no external power is going to be able to force different religious communities or ethnic communities to co-exist for long," Obama said. "Until basic questions are answered about how communities co-exist, the embers of extremism will continue to burn. Countless human beings will suffer."

 In a less-than-subtle jab at Donald Trump, the Republican running to replace him, Obama said, "The world is too small for us to simply be able to build a wall and prevent (extremism) from affecting our own societies."

 The president was unabashed in his critique of Russia as he laid out his diagnosis of the world's ills. Obama's longstanding differences with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his actions in Ukraine have accompanied intense disagreement over Syria's future and a series of failed attempts by Russia and the U.S. to resolve the civil war there together.

 "In a world that left the age of empire behind, we see Russia attempting to recover lost glory through force," Obama said.

 The tough talk about Russia illustrated how little progress has been made in reconciling the diverging interests among the two powers that has allowed the Syria crisis to continue to fester. A year ago, Obama stood at the same podium and declared anew that Syrian President Bashar Assad must leave power, while Putin gave a dueling speech warning it would be a mistake to abandon Assad.

 In the year since, Moscow's leverage in the conflict has strengthened significantly. Russia's military intervention in Syria has helped bolster Assad's standing without pulling it into the military "quagmire" that Obama had predicted.

 Obama sought to use his last appearance before the global body to define how his leadership had put the world on a better trajectory over the last eight years. At the heart of that approach, Obama said, is the notion that the biggest conflicts are best solved when nations cooperate rather than tackle them individually.

 It's a theme that Democrat Hillary Clinton has put at the forefront of her campaign for president, casting herself as the natural continuation of Obama's legacy. In another apparent reference to Trump, Obama bemoaned how terrorist networks had spread their ideology on social media, spurring anger toward "innocent immigrants and Muslims."

 Obama lamented that the world has become safer and more prosperous at the same time that nations are struggling with a devastating refugee crisis, terrorism and a breakdown in basic order in the Middle East. He said governing had become more difficult as people lose faith in public institutions and tensions among nations spiral out of control more rapidly.

 "This is the paradox that defines the world today," Obama said. "We must go forward, and not backward."

 The president cited his administration's outreach to former adversaries Cuba and Myanmar as key examples of progress, along with global cooperation to cut emissions blamed for global warming. At the same time, he said he sought not to "whitewash" challenges across the globe, some of which he attributed to deepening anxieties about the profound shifts inflicted by technology and growing international interdependence.

 "In order to move forward though, we do have to acknowledge that the existing path to global integration requires a course correction," Obama said.

 ___

 Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in New York contributed to this report.

 ___

 Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP ||||| With the world watching, President Barack Obama today took an apparent swipe at Donald Trump's plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, in his eighth and final address to the United Nations General Assembly as commander in chief.

 Interested in Barack Obama? Add Barack Obama as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Barack Obama news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest

 "Today a nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself," Obama warned, without naming the Republican presidential nominee.

 Obama further cautioning against "the same forces of global integration" that have made democracies interdependent while exposing "deep fault lines in the existing international order" like gaps between the rich and poor created by capitalism throughout the world.

 He made two other references to the ineffectiveness of walls in stopping global forces, quipping in an apparent reference to the Zika virus that "mosquitoes don't respect walls" and saying of terrorism that "the world is simply too small to be able to build a wall and stop it from affecting our own societies."

 Though he never directly addressed the U.S. presidential election, Obama's message for the General Assembly was in many ways applicable to the impulses raging in the race, citing "a contest between authoritarianism and democracy right now" and an appeal for a top-down "strongman model."

 Obama rejected such tendencies. "History shows that strongmen are then left with two paths," he said. "Permanent crackdown, which sparks strife at home, or scapegoating enemies abroad, which can lead to war."

 Speaking about the big picture, the Obama recounted the progress made during his presidency, on issues such as the global financial crisis, international terrorism and re-establishing relations with Cuba.

 "This is important work," he stressed. "It has made a real difference in the lives of our people, and it could not have happened had we not worked together."

 Obama said nations "can choose to press forward with a better model of cooperation and integration" or "retreat into a world sharply divided and ultimately in conflict along age-old lines of nation and tribe and race and religion."

 "I want to suggest to you today that we must go forward and not backward," he said, although he added that doing so would require nations of the world to "acknowledge that the existing path to global integration requires a course correction."

 "The answer cannot be a simple rejection of global integration," Obama said. "Instead, we must work together to make sure the benefits of such integration are broadly shared and that the disruptions — economic, political and cultural — that are caused by integration are squarely addressed."

 Obama demanded that democracies of the world "speak out forcefully" for "freedom and dignity."

 "A world in which 1 percent of the economy controls the other 99 percent will never be stable," he said. "These are the policies I've pursued in the United States, and with clear results" — touting progress in job creation, cutting poverty, improving infrastructure and investing in childhood education.

 His speech came as fighting in Syria has resumed after the Syrian military declared Monday an end to the fragile cease-fire deal that was brokered between the U.S. and Russia just over a week ago.

 "Together now we have to open our hearts and do more to help refugees who are desperate for a home. We should all welcome the pledges of increased assistance that have been made at this General Assembly gathering," Obama said. "There's a lot of nations right now that are doing the right thing, but many nations — particularly those blessed with wealth and the benefits of geography — that can do more to offer a hand."

 In the same month that North Korea conducted its second nuclear test of the year, Obama highlighted the benefits of free markets over markets resisting influence from globalization.

 "We cannot unwind integration any more than we can stuff technology back into a box, nor can we look to failed models of the past. If we start resorting to trade wars, market distorting subsidies, overreliance on national resources instead of innovation, these approaches will make us poor collectively, and they're more likely to lead to conflict," he said.

 "And the stark contrast between, say, the success of the Republic of Korea and the wasteland of North Korea shows that central plan to control the economy is a dead end," Obama said. ||||| Obama warns against strongman governments

 Making his case against nationalistic and anti-immigration movements that have grown both in the U.S. and around the globe, President Barack Obama told the United Nations general assembly Tuesday that “today, a nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself.”

 Obama’s remark appeared to be an allusion to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has campaigned hard against the president’s record and has pledged to build a wall along America’s southern border with Mexico. In his final address as president before the United Nations general assembly, Obama was critical of the isolationist movement that Trump has championed in the U.S. and others have pushed abroad.

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 “As these real problems have been neglected, alternative visions of the world have pressed forward, both in the wealthiest countries and in the poorest,” Obama said after discussing economic inequality and other international issues. “Religious fundamentalism, the politics of ethnicity or tribe or sect, aggressive nationalism, a crude populism, sometimes from the far left but more often from the far right, which seeks to restore what they believe was a better, simpler age free of outside contamination. We cannot dismiss these visions. They are powerful. They reflect dissatisfaction among too many of our citizens. ”

 “Today, a nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself,” the president continued. “So the answer cannot be a simple rejection of global integration. Instead, we must work together to make sure the benefits of such integration are broadly shared.”

 The president led his speech with a celebration of global accomplishments to which the U.S. has been party during his administration, listing the reduction of terrorists’ safe havens, the landmark nuclear agreement with Iran and the resumption of diplomatic relations with Cuba as successes.

 But Obama also listed global problems like the flow of refugees, continued financial disruptions, and a lack of basic order and security in the Middle East. The president urged the international community “that we must go forwards and not backwards,” offering a defense of Western values as the best path forward for global growth and success.

 “I believe that as imperfect as they are, the principles of open markets and accountable governance, of democracy and human rights and international law that we have forged remain the firmest foundation for human progress in this century,” Obama said. “I make this argument not based on theory or ideology but on facts.”

 In making that case, Obama warned against strongman governments and oppressive tactics like media suppression. He said such strategies are stifling for economies hungry for information and ultimately lead to further crackdowns or the scapegoating of foreign enemies that can lead to war.

 Speaking specifically of the Middle East, Obama called for the recognition of a “common humanity” that would serve as a stepping stone toward resolving the various conflicts in the region. Again attacking isolationism, Obama said the rest of the world cannot turn its back on conflict in the Middle East in the hope that violence will be contained to the region.

 “Until basic questions are answered about how communities coexist, the embers of extremism will continue to burn, countless human beings will suffer, most of all in that region, but extremism will continue to be exported overseas,” he said. “And the world is too small for us to simply be able to build a wall and prevent it from affecting our own societies.” ||||| UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Both sides would benefit if Israel recognized it cannot permanently occupy Palestinian land and if Palestinians rejected incitement and recognized Israel’s legitimacy, U.S. President Barack Obama told the United Nations on Tuesday.

 Obama’s efforts to bring about an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement have failed over the nearly eight years he has been in the White House, with the latest push by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry collapsing in 2014.

 U.S. officials have held out the possibility Obama could lay out the rough outlines of a deal - “parameters” in diplomatic parlance - after the Nov. 8 presidential election and before he leaves office in January, but many analysts doubt this would have much effect.

 “Surely Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel ...(and if) Israel recognizes that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land,” Obama said.

 Related Coverage Obama to raise concerns about settlements with Netanyahu: White House

 Speaking at the General Assembly annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations for the last time as president, Obama also said Russia was trying to recover “lost glory” through force.

 He warned Russia that if it “continues to interfere in the affairs of its neighbors, it may be popular at home, it may fuel nationalist fervor for a time, but over time it is also going to diminish its stature and make its borders less secure.”

 Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 after months of protests in Kiev ousted pro-Moscow Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.

 On the international dispute over the South China Sea, Obama said: “A peaceful resolution of disputes offered by law will mean far greater stability then the militarization of a few rocks and reefs.”

 Slideshow (23 Images)

 China claims almost all of the South China Sea, through which ships carrying about $5 trillion in trade pass every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims in the sea, which is also believed to be rich in energy resources and fish stocks.

 In July, an arbitration court in The Hague said China’s claims to the waterway were invalid, in a case was brought by the Philippines. Beijing has refused to recognize the ruling. ||||| President Obama strongly defended a globalized, interconnected world in his final speech at the United Nations on Tuesday, arguing that open markets, capitalism and democracy should remain the guiding forces of the international order.

 Obama slammed what he described as "aggressive nationalism" and "crude populism" of populist leaders who are wary of internationalism growing in influence around the world. Obama did not directly mention the British vote to leave the European Union or the rise of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, but his speech was obviously aimed at pushing back against such developments, which he has strongly opposed.

 "A nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself," Obama said.

 Related: Obama to Highlight Foreign Policy Accomplishments at U.N.

 Later in the speech, Obama noted, "the world is too small for us to simply build a wall."

 It was a speech that sought to highlight the significant progress over the course of Obama's presidency on such issues as climate change, economic security and advocating for democratic freedoms — as he seeks to cement his legacy.

 "The integration of our global economy has made life better for billions of our women and children," he said, adding "our international order has been so successful we take it as a given that great powers no longer fight wars."

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 It was also a speech that underscored that, despite the progress, challenges remain as the world grapples with the rise of ISIS and eyes North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

 Obama also specifically spoke out against what he called a "strong man" leadership model, arguing instead for nations with democratic governments and strong independent news institutions. He seemed to contrast with the leadership approaches of both Trump and Vladimir Putin.

 "Those of use who believe in democracy, we need to speak out forcefully," he said adding, "I believe in a liberal political order."

 The president acknowledged the growing gap between the rich and poor, particularly in the U.S. He argued policies such as expanding labor unions and increasing education would help address these disparities.

 "The answer cannot be a simple rejection of global integration," Obama said. "We have to make sure the benefits of such integration are broadly shared."

 Obama arrived in office in 2009 set on winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But his speech illustrated how the world has changed in the last eight years.

 While U.S. troops remain in both nations, the president seemed as worried about economics and culture as military issues.

 "We are seeing the same forces of global integration that have made us interdependent also expose deep fault lines in the existing international order," the president said.

 President Obama arrives at the United Nations to address the General Assembly on Sept. 20. NBC News

 But he argued, "we must reject any forms of fundamentalism or racism or a belief in ethnic superiority."

 Obama also used the speech to list what he views as his signature achievements on foreign policy: normalizing relations with Cuba, reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran, helping push Myanmar towards democracy, agreeing with nations around the world on goals to reduce emissions and fight climate change.

 The president addressed some of the issues that are viewed as shortcomings of his foreign policy approach.

 He argued diplomacy was the only way to end the civil war in Syria. He called for greater international cooperation to fight ISIS.

 Obama recently pledged that the U.S. would accept 110,000 refugees, up from about 85,000 this year. The administration recently announced the U.S. had reached its goal of admitting 10,000 refugees from Syria this year.

 Children play at the yard of an abandoned school used by volunteers for hosting families of refugees from Syria and Afghanistan in Athens on June 27, 2016. ARIS MESSINIS / AFP - Getty Images

 The U.S. remains far behind the pace of nations like Germany in accepting refugees.

 But in increasing the number of refugees now, the Obama administration is both trying to address a growing humanitarian crisis, particularly in Syria but also reject the anti-Muslim, anti-refugee rhetoric of Trump.

 In his 2008 campaign, Obama promised to rebuild American relations with countries abroad who had opposed the Iraq War and felt the Bush administration too often acted internationally without consulting other nations. In a September 2009 address to the United Nations General Assembly, Obama promised a "a new era of engagement based on mutual interest and mutual respect."

 Related: Trump's and Obama's Views on Globalization Reflect Broader Gap

 In 2008, the Pew Research Center asked people in 24 countries around the world if they had could count on President George W. Bush to do the right thing on foreign affairs issues. Majorities in only three of the 24 countries expressed confidence in Bush.

 Last year, Pew asked a similar question. In 32 of the 40 countries Pew surveyed, a majority of the people had confidence in Obama's global leadership.

 But Obama's 2009 speech also shows some goals he did not accomplish.

 The president has not been able to convince Republicans in Congress to support the closing of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay or made much progress in achieving a permanent solution to the tensions between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

 A Navy guard patrols Camp Delta's detainee recreation yard during the early morning at Guantanamo Bay naval base in a July 7, 2010 handout. President Barack Obama urged lawmakers on Tuesday to give his plan to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a "fair hearing" and said he did not want to pass the issue to his successor when he leaves the White House next year. R. Holzworth/US Army / Reuters

 Even on issues like fighting climate change and reducing the nuclear weapons stockpiles around the world, Obama's achievements have been mixed.

 Obama successfully reached an agreement with Iran to reduce its nuclear program, but North Korea appears to have increased its nuclear capacity over the last 8 years.

 Al Qaeda has been weakened, as Obama hoped for in 2009, but ISIS has emerged as a major threat to commit terrorist acts across the globe.

 Obama in 2009 argued that "power is no longer a zero-sum game" and suggested the time was over for "alignments of nations rooted in the cleavages of a long-gone Cold War." But Russian president Vladimir Putin appears to view international relations in this model Obama criticized and has taken actions in the Ukraine and Iran that the American president has opposed but could not prevent. |||||

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– President Obama addressed the United Nations as president for the final time on Tuesday with a speech that urged world leaders make a "course correction" and be more open to refugees and less authoritarian. And he seemed to be take a shot, more than once, at Donald Trump's vision of a big, beautiful wall. Some lines from accounts by the AP, Politico, Reuters, ABC News and NBC News: "Today, a nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself." “The world is simply too small to be able to build a wall and stop it from affecting our own societies.” He also said, apparently in reference to Zika, that "mosquitoes don't respect walls." "We must respect the meaning that people draw from their own traditions, from their religion, their ethnicity, from their sense of nationhood. But I do not believe progress is possible if our desire to preserve our identities gives way to an impulse to dehumanize or dominate another group." "In countries held together by borders drawn by colonial powers with ethnic enclaves and tribal divisions, politics and elections can sometimes appear to be a zero sum game. And so given the difficulty in forging true democracy in the face of these pressures, it's no surprise that some argue the future favors the strongman. A top-down model rather than strong democratic institutions. But I believe this thinking is wrong." "History shows that strongmen are then left with two paths. Permanent crackdown, which sparks strife at home, or scapegoating enemies abroad, which can lead to war." "In a world that left the age of empire behind, we see Russia attempting to recover lost glory through force." "Surely Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel ...(and if) Israel recognizes that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land." Watch a video of the speech via USA Today.


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A capybara that has eluded capture for more than two weeks was spotted Friday morning by our very own Breakfast Television cameraman Bertram Dandy.

 One of the two missing capybaras was seen swimming at the south end of High Park, near The Queensway, and then clambering up a bank.

 #HighParkCapybara taking a morning dip! Thanks to @BTtoronto camera man Bert D for tracking him down ! @311Toronto pic.twitter.com/dfk1ETaCPQ — Brendan O'Mahony (@bomahony) June 10, 2016

 Dandy says he was just setting up his camera for a weather shot when he spotted the capybara right at his feet.

 “She was right there! And she was ninja-still. It looked like a log,” Dandy said.

 The two female capybaras escaped from their pen at the High Park Zoo on May 24, as zoo workers were moving a third capybara into the enclosure.

 One of them was spotted on June 5, but was not captured. City staff said traps were set the next morning.

 Capybaras are the world’s largest rodents. Fully grown, they can reach over four feet in height and can weigh as much as 140 pounds – they also look like large guinea pigs. They enjoy swimming and don’t like children.

 The escape led to the nicknames Bonnie and Clyde (perhaps Thelma and Louise would have been better) for the pair, a parody Twitter account, an online video game, and joking comments from Mayor John Tory about forming a search party.

 However, the zoo could be in real trouble, an animal welfare group told the CBC. A representative for ZooCheck said that the zoo could face charges under the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, especially given the zoo’s history.

 This isn’t the first time an animal has run free from the High Park Zoo.

 Almost exactly a year ago, the High Park Peacock escaped from the zoo and was on the loose in Toronto for days before returning home on its own.

 In 2009, six animals – four llamas, one yak and one wallaby – escaped from the zoo after someone opened their enclosures. ||||| The City of Toronto has set out traps for two elusive capybaras that have been missing for more than two weeks.

 The two female capybaras escaped from their pen at the High Park Zoo on May 24, as zoo workers were moving a third capybara into the enclosure.

 One of them was spotted on June 5, but was not captured. City staff said traps were set the next morning.

 The traps could be seen at High Park on Thursday.

 Related stories:

 One of two missing capybaras spotted in High Park

 Two capybaras still on the loose after escaping High Park Zoo

 Capybaras are so yesterday: Search on for Brampton alligator

 Capybaras are the world’s largest rodents. Fully grown, they can reach over four feet in height and can weigh as much as 140 pounds – they also look like large guinea pigs. They enjoy swimming and don’t like children.

 The escape led to the nicknames Bonnie and Clyde (perhaps Thelma and Louise would have been better) for the pair, a parody Twitter account, an online video game, and joking comments from Mayor John Tory about forming a search party.

 However, the zoo could be in real trouble, an animal welfare group told the CBC. A representative for ZooCheck said that the zoo could face charges under the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, especially given the zoo’s history.

 This isn’t the first time an animal has run free from the High Park Zoo.

 Almost exactly a year ago, the High Park Peacock escaped from the zoo and was on the loose in Toronto for days before returning home on its own.

 In 2009, six animals – four llamas, one yak and one wallaby – escaped from the zoo after someone opened their enclosures. ||||| Capybara

 Capybaras are the largest of the rodent species. Weighing as much as a man, these oversized, pig-like animals are highly adapted to an aquatic lifestyle and even mate in the water. Capybaras are found over much of South America. Efficient grazers, they are able to crop even the short, dry grasses left at the end of the dry season. They are capable of a range of vocalisations and can purr and bark. Like rabbits, they eat their own dung to extract maximum nutrition from their food. ||||| View Images These capybaras, nicknamed Bonnie and Clyde by the public, are hiding in Toronto.

 Photograph by Richard Lautens, Toronto Star/Getty Images

 Most people do their best to avoid rodents of unusual size. But after a pair of capybaras escaped from Toronto’s High Park Zoo on May 24, the Canadian city’s residents have taken to the streets (and social media) in an attempt to help officials find the giant rodents and lure them back into captivity.

 Easier said than done. It’s been more than three weeks since the pair, now nicknamed Bonnie and Clyde, made a break for it while being transferred to a new enclosure. And so far, attempts to recapture the rodents of interest have come up empty handed.

 The capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is native to semi-tropical areas of South America, from Venezuela on down to Argentina. But the High Park capybaras have clearly found a way to make do in urban Toronto.

 “Capybaras are pretty adaptive animals,” says Luciano Verdade, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Sao Paolo in Brazil.

 Verdade says that they can eat other plants in absence of their native grasses, inhabit both wetlands and forest fragments, and switch between being active during the day and night.

 “Last but not least, although they are relatively large animals, they can be deceptive in the proximity of humans,” says Verdade.

 Largest Rodents On Earth

 When it comes to the title of the world’s largest living rodent, all bow before the beefy wonder that is the capybara.

 In the wild, Verdade says capybaras usually top out at 175 pounds (~80 kg), though in captivity some specimens have been known to push past 220 pounds (100 kg). They can grow over four feet long (~1.3 meters), but their build is short, squat, and barrel-like—usually growing no taller than a human thigh.

 Like other rodents, capybaras have serious chompers that continuously grow as they’re ground down by gnawing. While these incisors make for formidable weapons against those who get too close, capybara are a favorite meal for caimans, jaguars, and anacondas.

 In many of the countries where they are common, capybaras are also eaten by humans.

 “The meat is sort of like a rabbit’s, halfway between white and dark,” says Rexford D. Lord, a retired ecologist and capybara expert. “It’s good. It’s really tender and tasty.”

 Though the instances are rare, capybaras have been known to bite humans from time to time. But residents of Toronto probably need not worry—the rodents are far more likely to retreat than stand and bite.

 “The capybara is semi-aquatic,” says Lord. “When it senses danger, it dashes toward the nearest deep water at a gallop. Then it slams into the water and disappears.”

 The animals will even swim in different directions underwater so as to resurface far away from where a predator might expect. Once in the water, a capybara can keep its entire body submerged, exposing just its eyes and nostrils.

 This is bad news for those who would see the escapees in Toronto returned to their pen, because the High Park Zoo is surrounded by several bodies of water.

 View Images One of the animals was spotted in a drainage pond in High Park Monday.

 Photograph by Lucas Oleniuk, Toronto Star/Getty Images

 Winter is Coming

 The most immediate threat to the AWOL capybaras is probably trying to dodge vehicles while crossing a road. But if the animals somehow evade capture for the rest of the summer, another danger looms.

 “They evolved for where they live, and they do well there,” says Lord. But the capybaras do not possess the necessary fat reserves or thick coats of animals that must endure harsh northern winters.

 Some capybaras illegally released in the southern United States have shown resilience against light snow, says Verdade. But that’s nothing compared to the conditions the creatures would face in Canada.

 “I do not believe they would survive the winter in Toronto,” says Verdade.

 Watch an anaconda devour a capybara. |||||

– A #CapybaraWatch hashtag is making the rounds online in the hopes that the public can help track down two giant capybaras that flew the coop of a Toronto zoo more than two weeks ago, National Geographic reports. The aptly nicknamed Bonnie and Clyde made a run for it on May 24 as they were being relocated to a different enclosure at High Park Zoo. Capybaras, native to South America, are known as the world's largest rodents, weighing as much as a grown man (up to 220 pounds in captivity, less in the wild) and reaching a length of 4 feet. What could make finding these two escapees difficult: They adapt well to new environments, can make do with plants that usually aren't on their dinner plates, and can hide out quite well in the water—and the zoo is surrounded by lots of it. What Toronto residents don't have to worry too much about with Bonnie and Clyde, who've already earned their own Twitter parody account, is being attacked: Although there have been occasional reports of the creature biting humans, "when it senses danger, it dashes toward the nearest deep water at a gallop," a capybara expert tells National Geographic. Oddly enough, even though the rodents are huge as far as rodents go, they may not be simple to spot. "They can be deceptive in the proximity of humans," a University of Sao Paulo wildlife ecologist says. Still, rescuers may be getting closer: CityNews notes traps were set out around Toronto after one of the creatures was spotted Sunday, and a CityNews reporter had another sighting Friday morning when he saw one of the animals taking a dip in a pond in High Park. (A worker at a California water-treatment plant ran into a capybara a few years back—and his pics went viral.)


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 The first illegal, dangerous, record lap of Manhattan we know of was Alex Roy's 27 minute run in 2001. In 2010, a group called CBC broke that with 26:03. Now a new driver claims 24:07. But what exactly is a lap of Manhattan, and how do you set the record? UPDATE: We have spoken with the driver.

 The new fastest laps claims to be set by the elegantly-named AfroDuck Productions. The run supposedly took place just a few days ago on August 26th, 2013. The car is a stock 2006 BMW Z4.

 So what's the route? The driver starts on FDR/East Side Drive at 116th Street, just outside of Harlem. They tear down under the Williamsburg, Manhattan, and Brooklyn Bridges, then shoot through the Battery Park Tunnel around the downtown tip of the island. After that there are the red lights of West Street/West Side Drive, which finally opens up in Midtown by all of Trump's buildings.

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 The course then cuts off the northern tip of Manhattan, turning right by the George Washington Bridge in Washington Heights. From there, the driver gets across Manhattan at one of its narrowest points, turns back onto FDR/East Side Drive and runs to the start/finish line.

 It's about 26.5 miles in total. That makes the average speed only something around 66 miles an hour. As you can tell by watching the video, the real time saving comes from managing traffic.

 Well, by managing traffic, I mean passing on the right, weaving across lanes, and cutting people off like a cabbie. Despite the fact that the run is set when there's very few cars on the roads (by Manhattan standards), this is still very much reckless driving.

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 I wouldn't want anyone I know to attempt this, and I wouldn't want to try a record run myself. It's one thing to drive and crash out your own car, it's another thing to try and drive the limit surrounded by completely innocent strangers in their own cars.

 UPDATE: We asked a few questions from Afro Duck, and received the following responses. ||||| Driver speeds around Manhattan in 24 minutes Posted: Tuesday, September 3, 2013 4:26 PM EDT Updated: Tuesday, September 10, 2013 4:26 PM EDT

 An anonymous driver claims to have made a lap of Manhattan in a record time of 24 minutes and seven seconds, a stunt that the NYPD does not find to be amusing.

 The man posted a video of the entire 26.5 mile loop taken from the dashboard of a BMW Z3.

 The driver, who goes by the code name AfroDuckProduction, says he made the run on August 26th. He says he broke the record even though he had to stop at six red lights.

 There has been a history of drivers recklessly trying to break the unofficial record since a driver posted a 27 minute trip around the island in 2001.

 The latest trip started at FDR Drive at 116th Street in Harlem. He raced down to Lower Manhattan and then back up the West Side Highway to the George Washington Bridge before cutting back east.

 The video has gotten mixed comments, with supporters praising him for his feat and others criticizing him for racing at break-neck speeds while other cars are on the road.

 One person posted on his YouTube page: "For anyone thinking this is a great idea, understand that this moron is one sneeze away from killing a family."

 The driver told the auto-blog Jalopnik.com: "Whether you're a good driver or not, when you're on the road, you have a high chance of getting hit by a drunk driver, being cut off, especially in New York. Being a good driver, you're more aware of what is around you."

 The NYPD says technology might help catch the law breaker.

 "We've seen this before. We've taken enforcement action," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says. " We now have license plate readers that will help in this investigation."

  |||||

Write a summary.

– The NYPD is on the lookout after an anonymous driver posted a video that appears to show him (or her) driving all the way around Manhattan (a 26.5-mile loop) in 24 minutes, 7 seconds. That would be an unofficial record, MyFox New York reports; the previous mark was 26:03, set in 2010. The August 26 drive was made in a BMW Z3, and the driver had to stop at six red lights. "We've seen this before. We've taken enforcement action," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly says. "We now have license plate readers that will help in this investigation." Jalopnik writer Raphael Orlove calls the Manhattan speed laps "illegal," "reckless," and "dangerous," and notes that though the driver was going an average speed of 66mph, the driver was also "passing on the right, weaving across lanes, and cutting people off like a cabbie." Orlove managed to contact the driver, who insists, "Being a fast driver doesn't mean that you're inherently a bad or reckless driver. ... I'm in control."