Melania Trump Tried to Donate Books to a School. Here's Why the Librarian Sent Them Back

A school librarian has kicked the First Lady out.
Just like Sam from Green Eggs and Ham before her, Boston school librarian Liz Phipps Soeiro took one look at the Dr. Seuss books Melania Trump donated to her school, and decided she "would not like them here or there."
The First Lady's office declared on Sept. 6 that Trump would donate Dr. Seuss books to schools across America that had been recognized for education excellence to celebrate National Read a Book day. Cambridgeport Elementary School was on the list, but the book slinger in charge there took issue with the gesture for two reasons — she didn't need free books, and they weren't right.

A Teacher Vanishes Again. This Time, in the Virgin Islands.

On Sept. 14, one week after Hurricane Irma swept through the Caribbean, a 32-year-old teacher named Hannah Upp left her apartment on St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands, to go for a morning swim at a nearby beach. According to a note she left for her friends, she then planned to go to the Virgin Islands Montessori School, where she worked as a teacher. It seemed as if she’d be home before the curfew the government had imposed in the wake of the storm.

Want to live on Mars? Elon Musk is about to unveil SpaceX's new plans

Get ready for the next phase of Elon Musk's most fantastical idea.

The eccentric tech mogul is scheduled to appear Friday at the 2017 International Astronautical Congress in Australia, where he's expected to unveil a broad update to SpaceX's plans to colonize Mars.

It was one year ago at the same conference that Musk laid out the first blueprint.

Here's a quick recap of that plan:

Billboard calling for Trump's impeachment goes up in California

Drivers crossing the Bay Bridge from Oakland to San Francisco witnessed an in-your-face political statement Monday morning.

CBS San Francisco reports a billboard that calls for the impeachment of President Trump was constructed along the roadway.

The digital ad bears a giant photo of a brooding Mr. Trump with the word "Impeach" in huge yellow letters. It also has a URL for an online petition.

The billboard is the work of a group called the Courage Campaign, whose president says it's time to get the country behind the removal of Mr. Trump. They want to pressure the Republican-controlled Congress, which has shown no inclination to impeach the president.

• Melania Trump threatens lawsuit over English class billboard

"We are a grassroots organization. If we are not calling for impeachment, given what has happened, who is?" asked the organization's president and executive director, Eddie Kurtz.

Chinese company cloned Washington Post website

A lookalike of the Washington Post website emerged in China, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The website used the Washington Post masthead and distributed content not just from the Washington, D.C.-based newspaper, but also stories from the state news agency Xinhua, which were tagged as Washington Post copy, the report added.

The website was operated by Sun News, a Chinese client of the Washington Post News Service, the report said.

That agreement called for allowing Sun News to republish a limited number of the Washington Post's stories and did not allow Sun News to use the newspaper's brand "in the way they did," the Financial Times reported, citing Washington Post spokeswoman Kris Coratti.

She said the issue is believed to be a "simple misunderstanding about the contract," the Financial Times reported.

Sun Media told the Financial Times it had not breached its two-year contract with the U.S. news service. we could not reach Sun Media for comment.

The website has since been redesigned.

Washington Post did not immediately respond 

Volcano threat forces evacuation of thousands on Vanuatu island

Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate an island in Vanuatu where a rumbling volcano is threatening to blow.

Ministers in the Pacific archipelago decided they could not risk people’s lives and so ordered the compulsory evacuation of Ambae island, which is home to about 11,000 people.

Lilian Garae, who lives on the island, said she could see “smoke coming out from the hills” and hear regular booming noises from the Manaro volcano. She was waiting to hear when she might have to leave her home and where she might be sent.

Ambae is one of about 65 inhabited islands in the Pacific nation about one-quarter of the way from Australia to Hawaii.

Rich Kids of Istanbul boast of luxurious lives with jets, flash cars and pet snakes and tigers

Your method of commute is important as one of the Rich Kids of Istanbul .

A new Instagram account flaunts the luxurious lives of the young and beautiful in the Turkish city with flash sports cars including Porsches and Lamborghinis one may expect.

But when you have everything - or your parents do - then you need to get creative.

Like driving with two giant snakes in the front seat with you as one featured photo shows.

Other pictures show the young and glamorous flying on a shiny red private jet or helicopter and strutting the tarmac with their pet pooch.

Hugh Hefner, iconic founder of Playboy, has died at age 91

Hugh Hefner, the iconic founder of Playboy magazine, died at his home, the Playboy Mansion, of natural causes at age 91, Playboy Enterprisessaid in a statement on Wednesday.

Playboy magazine was founded more than 60 years ago to create a niche upscale men's magazine, combining images of nude women with in-depth articles, interviews and fiction by a variety of well-known writers.

Hefner reportedly founded the magazine with $600 and another $1,000 borrowed from his mother. The first centerfold, an iconic feature of the monthly magazine, was of Marilyn Monroe.

"My father lived an exceptional and impactful life as a media and cultural pioneer and a leading voice behind some of the most significant social and cultural movements of our time in advocating free speech, civil rights and sexual freedom," Cooper Hefner, Playboy Enterprises' chief creative officer and Hugh's son, said in the statement.

Experts say North Korea doesn't want peace talks — it wants nuclear missiles and to bully the US

North Korea won't seriously engage in peace talks until it has satisfied itself with its missiles and nuclear warheads.
It doesn't really matter what the US offers right now.
Victory for North Korea doesn't mean battle, it means bullying and blackmailing the US into concessions.
Heated rhetoric from President Donald Trump pointed at North Korea has dominated news coverage and headlines for months now, but no tone or type of conversation can change the fact that North Korea doesn't want peace talks right now.

Clinton pressed Trump to deploy hospital ship Comfort to Puerto Rico. Now it’s preparing to go

As the devastation from Hurricane Maria became more apparent Sunday, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton implored President Trump and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to help the people of Puerto Rico. Send the Navy, she tweeted, especially the hospital ship USNS Comfort.

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President Trump, Sec. Mattis, and DOD should send the Navy, including the USNS Comfort, to Puerto Rico now. These are American citizens. https://twitter.com/samynemir/status/911401368983924736 …

5:04 PM - Sep 24, 2017

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•  314,201314,201 likes

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Two days later, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Brock Long announced that the Navy will soon do exactly that. The decision, disclosed in front of the White House on Tuesday afternoon, was later confirmed by the Navy. It comes after days of critics saying that the U.S. government isn’t doing enough to support hurricane relief in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of nearly 3.5 million people that faces months without electricity and a long rebuilding process.

Trump accuses Facebook of being 'anti-Trump'

President Donald Trump accused Facebook on Wednesday of being “anti-Trump,” hinting without evidence that the social media giant colluded with “Fake News” organizations such as The New York Times and Washington Post.

“Facebook was always anti-Trump,” Trump alleged in a tweet. “The Networks were always anti-Trump hence,Fake News, @nytimes(apologized) & @WaPo were anti-Trump. Collusion?”

Saudi women joyously start driving even without licenses

Saudi Arabian women awoke to news of a royal decree permitting them to drive starting next year - and some were already behind the wheel on Wednesday, even though licenses will not be issued for nine months.

"Saudi Arabia will never be the same again. The rain begins with a single drop," Manal al-Sharif, who was arrested in 2011 after a driving protest, said in an online statement.

Online videos showed a handful of women driving cars overnight, after King Salman's decree was announced late on Tuesday.

"I wish I could translate my feelings right now. I feel like no one can understand it fully but us," said Abeer Alarjani, 32, who plans to start driving lessons this weekend.

The move represents a big crack in the laws and social mores governing women in the conservative Muslim kingdom. The male guardianship system requires women to have a male relative's approval for decisions on education, employment, marriage, travel plans and even medical treatment.

Fugitive former Thai PM Yingluck gets five years' jail in absentia

Thailand’s Supreme Court convicted and sentenced former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra in absentia to five years in prison on Wednesday for mismanaging a rice subsidy scheme that cost the country billions of dollars.

Yingluck fled abroad last month fearing that the military government, set up after a coup in 2014, would seek a harsh sentence.

For more than a decade, Thai politics have been dominated by a power struggle between Thailand’s traditional elite, including the army and affluent Bangkok-based upper classes, and the Shinawatra family, which includes Yingluck’s brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was also ousted by a coup.

Yingluck had faced up to 10 years in prison for negligence over the costly scheme that had helped get her elected in 2011. She had pleaded innocent and accused the military government of political persecution.

Nine judges voted unanimously to find Yingluck guilty in verdict reading that took four hours, and a warrant was issued for her arrest.

The court said Yingluck knew that members of her administration had falsified government-to-government rice deals but did nothing to stop it.

“The accused knew that the government-to-government rice contract was unlawful but did not prevent it ...,” the Supreme Court said.

'It' drives record September box office with Tom Cruise's 'American Made' ready to battle 'Kingsman'

Tom Cruise’s new action film “American Made” will battle “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” and “It” for box-office victory this weekend, closing out what is on pace to become a record-breaking September at the domestic box office.

Movies this month have grossed $592 million so far in the United States and Canada, putting the month on track to easily exceed the record $616 million in September in 2015, not adjusting for inflation, according to comScore. The robust ticket sales, thanks largely to New Line Cinema’s Stephen King adaptation “It,” come as a morale boost for the industry after its worst summer season in years.

The remaining question is whether Cruise, Pennywise the Clown of “It,” or the profane super-spies of “Kingsman” will reign over the box office as the month ends. Meanwhile, Sony Pictures will release its sci-fi thriller “Flatliners,” and Fox Searchlight will broaden its release of the well-reviewed tennis film “Battle of the Sexes.”

Planes, cocaine and firearms

“American Made,” about a pilot and hustler recruited by the CIA for a massive international covert operation, is expected to collect $12 million to $15 million Friday through Sunday in the U.S. and Canada, according to people who have reviewed pre-release audience surveys. The movie, released by Universal Pictures and financed by Cross Creek Pictures, is the latest stunt-fueled collaboration from Cruise and director Doug Liman, who previously made “Edge of Tomorrow” together. “American Made” is based on the true story of Barry Seal, who ran drugs for Pablo Escobar.

The 10 biggest US box-office winners of 2017

This year at the movies has been a roller-coaster ride when it comes to the box office.

It was on a high at the beginning of the year, with surprise performers like “Get Out” and “Logan” holding court until Disney’s live-action remake “Beauty and the Beast” flexed its muscles.

Then the summer came and was pretty disappointing (especially in August), though there were some standouts like “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” and “Wonder Woman.”

Now it's riding another high with the surprise September success of “It.”

It’s looking more and more like when 2017 comes to a close, the box office will match up to last year’s total gross and tickets sold (maybe even surpass it if “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” does beyond the monster business it's supposed to do).

Here are the 10 best box office earners so far this year.

Note: This selection is limited to only those titles released by the six major studios that have played in more than 2,000 screens for at least two weekends. Grosses below are all US earnings from Box Office Mojo.