Chernobyl control room now open to visitors -- but only wearing a hazmat suit

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant has seen a huge increase in visitor numbers in recent years as part of a growing global interest in dark tourism.
And now, intrepid travelers be able to get inside the control room where the world's worst nuclear accident unfolded, Chernobyl tour companies confirmed to us.
Those who venture inside the highly radioactive area at the infamous Reactor 4 will be provided with white protective suits, helmets and masks for the brief visits. After leaving, they will be subject to two radiology tests to measure exposure.
The move is part of a government drive to encourage tourism in the area after President Volydymyr Zelensky signed a July decree designating Chernobyl an official tourist attraction.
"We must give this territory of Ukraine a new life," Zelensky said at the time. "Until now, Chernobyl was a negative part of Ukraine's brand. It's time to change it."

Four killed in knife attack at Paris police headquarters

Four police employees were killed in a knife attack at Paris police headquarters on Thursday, according to city prosecutor Remy Heitz.

The three policemen and a female police administrative worker were killed by a fellow member of staff, who was later shot dead, authorities told us.
The incident took place inside the building, which is located near Notre Dame Cathedral on the Île de la Cité in central Paris.
One victim is undergoing surgery, said French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner. He did not elaborate on the victim's condition or injuries.
Castaner said the assailant was a 45-year-old man and had been an employee at the police station since 2003. There is no indication of a motive yet.
The wife of the attacker has been taken into custody, a source in the Paris prosecutor's office told us. It is not yet clear if she was at the scene of the attack or why she was taken into custody.

Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin Wed in South Carolina

A little over a year since the couple legally tied the knot in a Manhattan courthouse, they held their more traditional wedding ceremony on Monday.
Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin are Mr. and Mrs. (again)!

A little over a year since the couple legally tied the knot in a Manhattan courthouse, they held their more traditional wedding ceremony in South Carolina on Monday, according to multiple news outlets. The duo wed at sunset at Montage Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton, South Carolina.

The 154 guests included Scooter Braun, Kendall Jenner, Camila Morrone and Joan Smalls, and Daniel Caesar is expected to perform later in the evening.

As a "wedding gift" for himself, Bieber splurged on a watch from Jadelle Beverly Hills, taking to Instagram to share a photo of his new ice.

MTV EMAs: Ariana Grande Leads Nominations

The star gets seven nominations, followed by Shawn Mendes, Lil Nas X and Billie Eilish with six each.
Ariana Grande is leading the nominations for the MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs) with seven, including for best artist, best video for "thank you, next," as well as best song.

Shawn Mendes, Lil Nas X and Billie Eilish follow with six nominations each, J Balvin with five and Lizzo and Taylor Swift with four each.

Camila Cabello, Nicki Minaj, Shawn Mendes and Cardi B were among last year's winners.

With the EMAs set to take place in Seville, Spain on Nov. 3, MTV unveiled the nominees in key categories with a nod to the traditional Spanish cortado via foam cream visuals.

The awards show will air live on MTV in nearly 180 countries, with the red carpet sponsored by the upcoming Charlie’s Angels film.

Below is the full list of nominations.

Al Franken Faces New Sexual Harassment Allegation

Al Franken was accused of sexual harassment by an anonymous woman on Monday, the latest in a string of misconduct allegations that forced the former Democratic Minnesota senator’s resignation last year.

In a piece published by New York magazine’s The Cut, the woman, a current “senior staffer at a major progressive organization” came forward on condition of anonymity to accuse Franken groping her at an fundraising event in 2006 for U.S. Senator Patty Murray.

“At the time of the incident, I think, I’m going to go to law school. All I want to do is run for office in my home state. This created a moment of reflection,” she told The Cut. “ … It rocked my confidence. As I look back on my career, I am always in deputy roles and support roles.”

Franken resigned in July 2018 at the behest of Democratic leadership after a conservative talk radio host accused him of forcibly kissing her during a skit performed as part of a 2006 U.S.O tour.

The latest allegation comes in the midst of a bit of public comeback for Franken, who on Saturday launched a weekly program on SiriusXM titled “The Al Franken Show.”

Trump's 'Civil War' threat is 'beyond repugnant,' says GOP Rep. Kinzinger

President Trump sent out a barrage of tweets over the weekend defending his “perfect” phone call with the president of Ukraine and trying to shut down the House impeachment inquiry before it gets underway — including passing along a warning that removing him from office would lead to “a Civil War like fracture,” a threat that a Republican congressman called “beyond repugnant.”

“If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal,” Trump tweeted, adding his own parenthetical to a quote from Robert Jeffress, an evangelical pastor and ardent Trump supporter who appeared on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”

The invocation of a civil war was met with outrage from Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., an Air Force veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I have visited nations ravaged by civil war,” Kinzinger tweeted, tagging Trump’s Twitter handle. “I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant.”

Trump, though, did not seem interested in toning down the rhetoric.

Leonardo DiCaprio reacts to Trump's 'insulting' tweet to Greta Thunberg at 2019 Global Citizen Festival

Leonardo DiCaprio shocked the 60,000 people who united in Manhattan's Central Park on Saturday for the 2019 Global Citizen's Festival, which honored the significant efforts to end extreme poverty by 2030.

The Oscar-winning actor took the stage to discuss the current climate movement and expressed gratitude for youth climate activists. He brought out three young leaders, Alexandria Villaseñor, Xiye Bastida, and Selina Neirok Leem, who he says " are powering the movement from the frontlines."

During DiCaprio's speech, he got candid about Donald Trump's headline-making tweet, where the president seemingly mocked 16-year-old Greta Thunberg hours after she delivered a passionate speech to the United Nations Climate Action Summit.

Khashoggi murder 'happened under my watch,' Saudi crown prince tells PBS

Saudi Arabia's crown prince said he bears responsibility for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year by Saudi operatives "because it happened under my watch," according to a PBS documentary to be broadcast next week.

It is the first time that Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler, has publicly indicated personal accountability for the killing inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by operatives seen as close to him. The CIA and some Western governments have said they believe he ordered it, but Saudi officials say he had no role.

The death sparked a global uproar, tarnishing the crown prince's image and imperiling ambitious plans to diversify the economy of the world's top oil exporter and open up cloistered Saudi society. He has not since visited the United States or Europe.

"It happened under my watch. I get all the responsibility, because it happened under my watch," he told PBS' Martin Smith, according to a preview of a documentary, "The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia," set to air on Oct. 1, ahead of the one-year anniversary of Khashoggi's death.

Facebook is rolling out a test to hide your likes

For the past decade, "likes" have been the chief currency of Facebook. It's the way we've determined how many people think our babies are cute, believe our jokes are funny and recognize our new jobs are impressive.

Facebook (FB) itself has been so synonymous with likes that the thumbs up icon for the like button was placed on the sign outside the company's headquarters.
Now, Facebook is rethinking this feature as part of a broader effort to make the social network less stressful to use.
On Thursday, the company said it will begin a test to hide the number of likes, reactions and video views from posts in Australia. The author of the post will still be able to see those metrics, but other users won't.
The test applies to posts from users and pages, as well as ads across Facebook. It will slowly roll out to the majority of Australian users.

"We are running a limited test where like, reaction, and video view counts are made private across Facebook. We will gather feedback to understand whether this change will improve people's experiences," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

Hypersonic 'space plane' promises four-hour London to Sydney flights by 2030s

 


Flight times from London to Sydney could be 80% shorter by the 2030s, should a hypersonic rocket engine being developed in the UK get off the ground. The UK Space Agency announced Tuesday at the UK Space Conference 2019 that it would be working more closely with the Australian Space Agency in an agreement dubbed a "world-first Space Bridge." The Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE) engine, from Oxfordshire-based Reaction Engines, looks to be the jewel in the crown of this new enterprise. "When we have brought the SABRE rocket engine to fruition, that may enable us to get to Australia in perhaps as little as four hours," said Graham Turnock, head of the UK Space Agency. "This is technology that could definitely deliver that.

We're talking the 2030s for operational service, and the work is already very advanced." Fans of supersonic flight have been yearning for a new way to break the sound barrier ever since Concorde stopped flying in 2003. In April 2019, Reaction Engines announced successful tests of a precooler, simulating conditions at Mach 3.3, or more than three times the speed of sound. That's more than 50% faster than the cruising speed of Concorde -- which used to make the journey between New York and Paris in around 3.5 hours -- and matches the speed record of the fastest jet aircraft ever made, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. The precooler tests took place at a testing facility at the Colorado Air and Space Port in the United States. At such high speeds, air flowing through the engine can reach incredibly high temperatures, which can potentially cause damage.

'10 Minutes Gone': Film Review

 

Bruce Willis and Michael Chiklis co-star in Brian A. Miller’s crime thriller about a botched bank heist that sets off a wave of bloody retribution. Boasting a synopsis stacked with keywords certain to deliver reliable hits from streaming platform searches, Brian A. Miller’s lightweight action vehicle 10 Minutes Gone makes only a perfunctory stop in theaters before finding a more appropriate niche on VOD. Miller has made a career out of directing aging action icons in a string of generic thrillers, including Backtrace (Sylvester Stallone), Reprisal (Bruce Willis) and The Prince (Willis again), although few of them rate much of a mention, and his latest feature looks unlikely to change that track record for the better. Rex (Willis) runs a handpicked crew that pulls bank robbery jobs for hire, although he keeps them at arm’s length so he doesn’t need to have any personal conversations other than on the phone, preferring to handle the business side of the operations.

 His latest anonymous client needs a mysterious metal case extracted from an underground vault in Cincinnati, so Rex brings on safecracker Frank (Michael Chiklis) and his brother Joe (Tyler Jon Olson), along with weapons specialists Baxter (Swen Temmel) and Mitchell (John Hickman) and tech expert Griffin (Kyle Schmid) to take out the bank’s security system. Practically the only interesting thing about this hopelessly mismatched lineup entails predicting in what order they’ll all die, since their demise appears an almost foregone conclusion.

'Gemini Man': Film Review

Will Smith plays dual roles as both a veteran assassin and his younger clone in director Ang Lee's effects-heavy thriller. Will Smith co-stars opposite himself in Gemini Man, a rare detour into action-thriller terrain from Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi director Ang Lee. Playing an elite hit man drawn into a deadly showdown with his younger clone, this effects-heavy 3D spectacular features both Peter Jackson's Weta Digital and Hollywood sci-fi legend Douglas Trumbull in its vast creative credits pool. But the disappointing end result feels less than the sum of the talents involved, a weak script and thin high-concept plot only just held together by smart visual wizardry.

 Languishing in development since the late 1990s, Gemini Man began life as a Disney property with the late Tony Scott initially set to direct. Various big stars were attached over the years including Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood and Sean Connery. Now, after multiple rewrites and technical setbacks, the project finally comes to fruition as a vehicle for Smith to try and reboot his faltering action superstar status. Was it worth dusting off this clunky pre-millennial screenplay? Frankly, not really. Gemini Man is arguably a significant leap forward for visual effects but a backward step for gripping, sophisticated thrillers. Despite a few deftly handled set-piece action sequences, the formulaic screenplay, stock characters, leaden dialogue and wobbly accents feel gratingly amateurish in places.

Elizabeth Warren joins Biden at the head of the pack

Welcome to 2020 Vision, the Yahoo News column covering the presidential race with one smart, fast takeaway every weekday and a deeper roundup every weekend. Reminder: There are 130 days until the Iowa caucuses and 404 days until the 2020 election. While the political world was transfixed, understandably, by the building drama of an impeachment inquiry into President Trump, significant news was also being made on the campaign trail. I

t looks like the Democratic primary contest has a new frontrunner. Or a co-frontrunner, to be exact. In terms of polling, the story of the summer was how Elizabeth Warren started out in late April around 7 percent, still reeling from her stumble in handling questions about her claims to Native American ancestry, then slowly but surely gained support until she broke away from the pack and joined Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in the top tier.

Rep. Schiff says he's 'flattered' by Trump's attacks over Ukraine inquiry

 


Donald Trump and Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and one of the Democrats’ point people on impeachment, got into a war of words Thursday. Moments after Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testified about his handling of a whistleblower complaint against Trump, Schiff told reporters on Capitol Hill that it was “hard to imagine a more serious set of allegations than those contained in the complaint,” which deals with the president’s attempts to enlist the government of Ukraine in gathering damaging information about his potential rival, Joe Biden. Schiff said his committee would continue to investigate the president through a 14-day recess scheduled to begin on Friday.

 “We need to look into the allegation that this may not be the only communication of a potentially corrupt character that was shielded by this classified information computer system, abused for that purpose,” Schiff said, referring to allegations that records of Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were sequestered on a super-secure server rather than the one ordinarily used for such purposes.

Bollywood Legend Amitabh Bachchan to Receive India's Highest Film Honor

The acting icon, who also made his Hollywood debut in 'The Great Gatsby,' will receive the government's Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his stellar 50-year career.
Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan will be honored with India's highest film honor, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.

The announcement was made Tuesday by India's Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar in a tweet stating, "The legend Amitabh Bachchan, who entertained and inspired for two generations, has been selected unanimously for Dadasaheb Phalke Award. The entire country and international community is happy. My heartiest congratulations to him."

The award is named after Dadasaheb Phalke who directed India's first film, Raja Harischandra, in 1913.

"There is a paucity of words searching a response.. for the generosity of words that pour in ..I am but deeply grateful and most humbled .. my sincerest gratitude," Bachchan tweeted as social media erupted with congratulatory messages for the star.

Chinese Gamer Ends Up Paralyzed Waist Down After Playing 20 Hours in Internet Cafe

Love spending long hours playing your favorite video games? Well let this be a warning for you. As you can tell from the headline, a gamer from China recently ended up getting paralyzed from his waist down after a 20-hour stint playing computer games in an internet cafe.

The man, whose identity remains unknown at the moment, began playing games in the evening. The following day, his friends already had to call an ambulance when he realized he couldn’t move the lower part of his body as he tried to get up for a bathroom break.

This guy had to be taken to the hospital after playing too much video games.
According to the reports we’ve gathered online, the incident happened in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province and the said gamer had to be taken to a nearby medical facility.

A $1B Estate, 74 Horses and a Secret Daughter: Meet the Original Real Housewife of Beverly Hills

From the exclusive archives of Dolly Green, daughter of city co-founder Burton E. Green, emerges a picture of an over-the-top heiress: "When you were with her, you felt like you were with royalty."
Wherever midcentury socialite Dolly Green went, a party usually followed. "She would walk into restaurants, and piano players would break into 'Hello Dolly,' " her godson Hernando Patrick Courtright recalls. "She would peel out a hundred-dollar bill and throw it in the fish bowl. Everybody made a fuss over her. When you were with her, you felt like you were with royalty."

In a way, Dolly was royalty: As the daughter of Burton E. Green, an oilman turned real estate developer, she was the princess of the first family of Beverly Hills. A century before Lisa Vanderpump and Denise Richards brought indulgence and sass to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Green luxuriated in extravagance and dominated its social scene, hosting the top movie stars and moguls of her time. Her reign was set before she was born. In 1900, her father and a group of speculators — including drilling pioneer Charles Canfield and Pacific Electric Railway owner Henry Huntington — bought the Hammel and Denker ranch in rural West Los Angeles. They thought they'd find oil, but instead found groundwater. The oil company quickly was reinvented as Rodeo Land and Water Co., and the high-end development of Beverly Hills was born.

Though it is up for debate whether Burton coined "Beverly Hills," after his hometown of Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, there is no doubt he was the first founder to build a mansion in the neighborhood, a grand Tudor on Lexington Road where he would live until his death in 1965.

‘The Batman': Jonah Hill in Talks to Play Riddler

Jonah Hill is in negotiations to play the Riddler in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

Robert Pattinson is set to star as the Dark Knight. Reeves took over the directing gig after Ben Affleck stepped away from the role. Affleck was also expected to play Batman again but then said he would be hanging up the cape for good. Reeves has since described the film as a “defining” and “very personal” story about the Dark Knight, rather than an origin story in the vein of Frank Miller’s beloved “Year One” series.

For months now, reports have said Hill was the frontrunner to play the antagonist the Penguin. The character first made his appearance in “Detective Comics #58” in December 1941 — he is one of Batman’s biggest enemies, a Gotham City mobster and crime boss. The Riddler first appeared in “Decective Comics #140” in October 1948 and is a criminal mastermind in Gotham City who likes to incorporate riddles and puzzles into his schemes. He is also one of Batman’s biggest foes.

Jan Merlin, Actor and Emmy-Winning Writer, Dies at 94

His toughest gig may have come on 'The List of Adrian Messenger,' for which he received no screen credit.
Jan Merlin, who played villains in dozens of films and TV shows and good guys on Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and The Rough Riders, died Friday in Los Angeles, his family announced. He was 94.

In a painful year in England and Ireland in which he served as a "movable prop" and received no screen credit, Merlin donned masks and heavy makeup to portray several characters and substitute for Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra and others in John Huston's The List of Adrian Messenger (1963). He then wrote a 2001 novel, Shooting Montezuma, based on that experience.

Merlin wrote several other books, many in collaboration with William Russo, who wrote Saturday in a blog post: "Most of our Hollywood history tales were based on his insider knowledge of how a set works, from knowing nearly every star of the 1950s and 1960s. [Merlin] laughed they were all 'six feet tall,' no matter what the truth might be."

Merlin also spent about five years as a writer on the NBC soap Another World, winning a Daytime Emmy in 1975 and receiving another nomination two years later.

'The Simpsons' and 'Rick and Morty' producer J. Michael Mendel dead at 54

J. Michael Mendel, the Emmy-winning producer who worked on "Rick and Morty" and "The Simpsons," has died two days short of his 55th birthday.

Adult Swim, the US television network which has broadcast Rick and Morty since its debut in 2013, released a statement on Twitter saying: "All of us at Adult Swim are devastated by the untimely passing of Rick and Morty producer Mike Mendel.
"He guided and supported a generation of artists, writers and creators and his absence will be felt by the entire community. Our deepest condolences go out to his family, friends and colleagues."
The cause of his death has not yet been confirmed.

UK PM faces calls to resign

As Westminster slowly returns to normal, talk is turning to what happens next.

As things stand: Parliament was not officially suspended; Brexit is happening on October 31; Parliament has passed a law instructing Boris Johnson to request a Brexit extension and avoid a no-deal Brexit; Johnson says he won't.

So Brexit becomes a game of chicken.

We know that Johnson wants an early election, as does his rival, Jeremy Corbyn.

Where they differ is on whether that happens before Brexit has happened, or after it has been extended to avoid a no-deal exit.

Corbyn has two options: call for a vote of no confidence in Johnson's government or keep applying pressure on the Prime Minister hoping he will resign.

Both options are risky as they could lead to Johnson simply sitting tight and watching a no-deal Brexit happen by default.

House of Reps member Chima Uju denies raping mother of four, says she is a ''serial liar and fraudster''

ju Chima, a member of the House of Representatives, has denied the rape allegation levelled against him by businesswoman and mother of four, Nkeiruka Cynthia Kamalu.
Kamalu in a fundamental rights suit filed before a Federal High court, alleged that Chima forcefully had sex with her when she was married in 2015. Read initial story here.
In a chat with the Nation, Chima who represents Ohaji/Egbema, Oguta and Oru West Federal Constituency of Imo State, said Kamalu was a liar and serial fraudster out to extort money from him.

“It is a pure case of fraud, someone who has been defrauding for years. Pure case of fraud! She even defrauded my friend to the tune of over N10 million. (There is) evidence, complete evidence!
Now, you are a man, let me ask you a question: somebody that said you raped her in 2015, and in 2018, the same person came and said she had birth (sic) for you: Is it possible?

Cristiano Ronaldo shades FIFA Best Awards with epic Instagram post

Football star, Cristiano Ronaldo took to his Instagram to make a post shading FIFA Best Awards after they awarded the 2019 FIFA Best Men's award to Lionel Messi.
Ronaldo, who was absent from the award showpiece event, immediately posted a photo of himself operating his i-pad while at home, suggesting that he purposely avoided the awards ceremony.
Ronaldo may have gotten a hint he won't win the award and avoided going to the ceremony.

Mike Pence takes eight-vehicle motorcade across island where cars have been banned for a century

For more than a century, motorised vehicles have been banned from Mackinac Island in Michigan - giving the former Revolutionary War battle site a unique charm and turning it into a tourist haven.

The ban is so strictly enforced that when President Gerald Ford visited in 1975, he and first lady Betty Ford travelled by horse-drawn carriage.

But the Trump administration is known for its norm-breaking, and on Saturday, vice president Mike Pence rumbled across the island in an eight-vehicle motorcade.

Mr Pence was on the island to speak at the Michigan Republican Party's leadership conference, the first ever sitting vice president to address it in its 60-year history.

How a routine training flight ended with 6 Marines killed in a tragic midair collision and 4 officers out of a job

The Marine Corps has finally finished investigating a midair collision off the coast of Japan that killed six Marines in December.

The collision of an F/A-18D Hornet and KC-130J Super Hercules was caused by an inexperienced fighter pilot who conducted an unusual maneuver, hitting the back end of the tanker aircraft during nighttime refueling operations.

But there were other issues, as the investigation also called attention to inadequate oversight of training and operations by squadron leadership and an unprofessional command climate within the squadron.

In the wake of the incident, the commanding officer, the executive officer, the operations officer, and the aviation safety officer were all relieved of their duties.

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Six Marines lost their lives in a tragic midair collision last December, and an investigation revealed a series of problems that resulted in the unfortunate incident.