Ancient DNA Changes Everything We Know About The Evolution of Elephants

A study by Meyer et al reconfigures the elephant family tree, placing the straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) closer to the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), than to the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), which was once thought to be its closest living relative. Image credit: Asier Larramendi Eskorza / Julie McMahon.

Ancient DNA Changes Everything We Know About The Evolution of Elephants

By Julien Benoit, Postdoc in Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of the Witwatersrand. First published on The Conversation Africa.

For a long time, zoologists assumed that there were only two species of elephant: one Asian and one African. Then genetic analyses suggested that the African Elephant could be divided into two distinct species, the African Forest and African Savannah elephants.

Now a new elephant has been added to the mix. The palaeoloxodon antiquus has been extinct for 120 000 years. This elephant roamed Europe and western Asia during the last ice age, about 400 000 years ago. A study of its DNA shows that this supposedly European animal is actually the African forest elephants’ closest relative. Another study by the same team found that at a genetic level, it may even have more in common with the modern African forest elephant than the African savannah elephant.

This study changes everything we thought we knew about the evolutionary history and ancestry of modern elephants and their closest relatives. It also shows that the African elephant’s lineage was not confined to Africa; the animals actually went out of the continent, which we didn’t know before. It roamed Europe and – through a lot of interbreeding – left its genetic mark far from its original stomping grounds.

The new find, based on DNA from fossils found in Germany, may also shed light on a DNA discrepancy that has puzzled scientists for some time.

Nancy Pelosi's Max Mara 'Fire Coat' Worn To Obama's Second Inauguration Will Be Reissued

Nancy Pelosi's Max Mara 'Fire Coat' Worn To Obama's Second Inauguration Will Be Reissued

Nancy Pelosi's 2013 Max Mara ‘Fire Coat’ is about to make a comeback!! ‘Beale’ Street Director Barry Jenkins must be orgasmic.

On Wednesday evening, Max Mara announced that the jacket setting Twitter blazing was its "Fire Coat," which the Italian fashion house last sold in 2013. However, because the coat is drawing so much attention, the Italian fashion brand confirms that it will reissue it in 2019 in a range of colors, including Pelosi's red/rust shade.

Now all we need is 'Beale Street' director Barry Jenkins -- who really was the catalyst behind the red coat blast -- and Pelosi in a DC ad shot, and fashion has made history.

In a statement, Max Mara Creative Director Ian Griffiths said:

The FIRE COAT is a boule shaped coat with a funnel collar — which is very feminine — but it has a shoulder and sleeve that are cut quite sharply. So whilst the body is soft, the shoulders give it structure. That contrast between masculine and feminine gives it modernity. This coat was designed over 6 years ago; a good coat is a life companion so it should be designed not to date. Ms Pelosi wore this coat to the Presidential Inauguration in 2013, and again for her historic meeting at the White House in 2018, so it clearly means something to her. You develop an emotional relationship with a coat like nothing else in your wardrobe and Max Mara coats are much more than just clothes. They represent lasting values, they project personal strength and glamour. I can imagine why Ms Pelosi chose to wear the FIRE COAT for this important moment and I'm honoured.

Elephant Conservation Update From Botswana Includes Pending Prince Harry Transfer Of Elephants To Zambia

Elephant Conservation Update From Botswana Includes Pending Prince Harry Transfer Of Elephants To Zambia

PORTER escapes to Belmond Savute Elephant Lodge, an adventurous tented hideaway in Botswana’s Savute Channel, part of Chobe National Park and boasting the highest concentration of elephants in Africa.

Belmond Savute prides itself on a “happy marriage of style and substance; for the eco-conscious traveler”, offering “the tents’ sustainable design features (that) include the removal of all concrete, the use of eco-friendly composite bamboo decking in the principal areas, and a 95% solar-grid system for power.” 

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Elephant Deaths in Botswana

Since September 2018, controversy has swirled in Botswana around the story that 87 elephants were reported to be “killed by poachers’ in Botswana. The high-impact story originated with “Elephants Without Borders,” an NGO in the USA and Botswana surveying the elephant population.

Under the new government of Mokgweetsi Masisi, Botswana’s parliament is exploring its ban on trophy hunting, citing the large size of Botswana’s elephant population and the growing issue of human-elephant conflic (HEC) in the country.

Politicians have quoted the Botswana elephant population to be as large as 237,000. However the African Elephant Status Report (AESR) estimates Botswana’s elephant population to be 131,626 individuals migrating across an area of 228,073 square kilometres. The vast majority of these elephants occur in the northern region that includes Chobe, Moremi, and the Okavango Delta.

Kaywin Feldman Becomes Director Of National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC

Kaywin Feldman Becomes Director Of National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, has named Kaywin Feldman as its new director, replacing Earl “Rusty” Powell III, who has led the National Gallery since 1992 Feldman will be the fifth director—and the first ever female director—at the 77-year-old American institution with annual visitors of more than 5.2 million visitors . Feldman, who has been director of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) since 2008, will take up the new position in March 2019.

artnet News writes: “Under her leadership, attendance at Mia has nearly doubled, from around 450,000 in 2009 to more than 700,000 in 2018 to date. She has also expanded the museum’s digital presence—something the NGA has been conspicuously slow to invest in—and championed equity and social justice in the museum’s program. Earlier this year, the museum announced the launch of its Center for Empathy and the Visual Arts, a think tank dedicated to exploring how museums can build a more just society.

She is also not afraid of experimentation. Last year, for example, the Mia unveiled an unorthodox overhaul of six of its 17 period rooms designed to highlight the power structures behind them. (The fact that one of the room’s previous inhabitants was a slave owner was made explicit, as were his ties to the local Native American community.)

As Feldman moves to lead a DC organization mired in partisan politics, her principled, diplomacy skills will be tested fully by Congress and line staff.

New NY State Atty Gen Letitia James Prepares To Launch Massive Trump Business Investigation

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo campaigning with then candidate for NY State Atty General Letitia James.

New NY State Atty Gen Letitia James Prepares To Launch Massive Trump Business Investigation

Besides Nancy Pelosi, another bad-ass lady boss has entered Trump's sweet dreams.

Newly-elected New York Attorney General Letitia James, has reached out to former US Atty General Loretta Lynch to be part of her transition team, with an eye on bringing in experts for its Trump-related investigations, writes NBC News.

Writing Hillary Women News on FB for 3 yrs. I know well the mountain of dead bodies in Trump's namesake business. And the NY Feds have watched the Trump family since the mid-80s, preferring to monitor his ties to the Russian mob and money-laundering -- leading to numerous arrests -- and not going after Trump himself. Trump was the honey bait, if you will.

When Trump supporters start screaming that this is all Trump hate, it's important to understand that Trump's brazen actions now threaten democracy in America, and so both the feds and state legal entities are moving in on Trump as part of an international network up to no good.

If the Zembla videos out of The Netherlands are correct -- and they have been on everything so far -- the missing piece in the public domain is the relationship of Israel's right wing to Russia. Israel is the one big chess piece not openly on the legal chess board. Not yet. But Russia has courted Israel's right-wing billionaires extensively. Jared Kushner is, of course, a major conduit in the Zembla analysis.

Zembla is the equivalent of '60 Minutes' in the Netherlands.

The Daily Beast writes Thursday that the ‘Russia investigation’ is set to go global. In court filings due to drop in 2019, prosecutors will unveil Middle Eastern countries’ attempts to influence U.S. politics.

Various witnesses affiliated with the Trump campaign have been questioned about their conversations with deeply connected individuals from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, according to people familiar with the probe. Topics in those meetings ranged from the use of social-media manipulation to help install Trump in the White House to the overthrow of the regime in Iran.

This week has been a blockbuster headache for Trump, with so much breaking news that it’s almost impossible to track all the lawsuits and investigations surround Trump and the Trump family.

Felicity Jones Talks Playing Ruth Bader Ginsburg In 'The Illusionist' For Porter Edit Dec. 7, 2018

Felicity Jones Talks Playing Ruth Bader Ginsburg In 'The Illusionist' For Porter Edit Dec. 7, 2018

Actor Felicity Jones graces the pages of Porter Edit’s Dec. 7 issue, styled by Tracy Taylor in ‘The Illusionist’ by Matthew Sprout.

Jones was in Washington, DC Tuesday night for the premier of the new biopic ‘On the Basis of Sex’, in which Jones plays Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Notorious RBG, now 85, posed with Jones and also Armie Hammer who plays her late husband Martin Ginsburg, and Justin Theroux, who plays former ACLU legal director Melvin Wulf. Read the opening night details at The Hollywood Reporter.

Back to Porter Edit, Jane Mulkerrins interviews Jones about playing heroic women.

While the film documents Ginsburg’s path to the highest legal appointment in the land, a path beset by sexism and misogyny, it is also a portrait of her very modern marriage to fellow lawyer Marty, played in the film by Armie Hammer, who supported his wife’s career unreservedly. Marty did all the cooking at home, says Jones: “They believed that gender stereotypes limit both men and women, that the patriarchy holds everyone back.” The apartment, she says, remains full of “the remnants of their life together – including racks of Marty’s cooking pots”. Now, Jones does not take her own opportunities for granted. “You’re not just expected to settle down and have children,” she notes. “If you want to do that, then that’s equally as valid a choice. But if you have ambition, why not follow it?”

The film ‘On the Basis of Sex’ opens in US theaters on Dec. 25 and in the UK on Feb. 8.

'Beale Street' Director Barry Jenkins Is Crazy In Love With Nancy Pelosi's Ravishing Red Max Mara Coat

'Beale Street' Director Barry Jenkins Is Crazy In Love With Nancy Pelosi's Ravishing Red Max Mara Coat

Barry Jenkins is in the news as Director of ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’, nominated for a 2019 Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Film. Jenkins was also nominated for screenplay, along with Regina King for supporting actress.

Based on James Baldwin’s 1974 novel of the same name, ‘Beale Street’ tells the 70s love story of a young black Harlem couple, Tish and Fonny. Devoted to each other since childhood, the young lovers are torn apart when Fonny is falsely accused and jailed for rape.

In a smile-worthy move, Jenkins had other matters on his mind after Nancy Pelosi’s epic TV performance at the White House Tuesday, when Donald Trump tried to negotiate a budget deal live before the American people. It did not go well for the US president, although Trump’s supporters surely disagree, especially if you like to see Trump constantly interrupting the next Speaker of the House and the most formidable woman in US politics.

Anne's Response to Women's March 'Founders' Response To Alyssa Milano and Theressa Shook

Anne's Response to Women's March 'Founders' Response To Alyssa Milano and Theressa Shook

This Women's March Founders battle goes on, and it's tough for me to see where it ends. My inability to buy into these words puts me on the outs with Women's March leaders, seeing no way back towards unity.

After what I've personally been through with these leaders, the words "As a Black woman, it hurts me to see the recent headlines regarding this movement. While you may think you’re helping, you are tearing a movement that was built on unity apart. This is not the time to strengthen the wedge between white women and people of color" are utter poppycock.

I'm sorry but this is Donald Trump talk #101. These four women wouldn't even allow Hillary Clinton to be one of over 20 honored at the Women's March. Do NOT talk to me about driving wedges, and this is BEFORE I share what has been privately said to me.

There is NOTHING in the quoted paragraph below that represents an olive branch. Rather, it's a reconciliation ceremony in which injured parties shares their own testimony. In particular white women are supposed to sit quietly and listen . . . indefinitely . . . for years.

I support reconciliation ceremonies and Laurene Powell Jobs is investing in the possibility of such an event in America over slavery. She is concerned it will become a horror show only, and is heavily involved with leaders in South Africa who have gone through this process to understand how to make such a reconciliation process successful in America. Her partner in this possibility is New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu.

My focus is saving America from Trump, cultivating a new democracy and also working for women's rights worldwide. There is not an indefinite time horizon on my life, and I am focused on both purpose and results. Decades of my life have focused on racial reconciliation in America and I've done my part. My eye is now on a larger ball -- aligning myself with hundreds/thousands of women of color worldwide who are willing to bury the ax with white women and move forward.

The leaders of the Women's March have no such goal. It's a Sartre play with no way out.

Queen Rania Speaks To Topic of 'Fake News' + 'Truth' At Arab Social Media Awards In Dubai

Queen Rania Speaks To Topic of 'Fake News' + 'Truth' At Arab Social Media Awards In Dubai

HM Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan was honored in Dubai on Monday, presented with the Influential Personality of the Year Award at this year’s Arab Social Media Influencers Summit. by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Queen Rania seized the moment to deliver a stirring keynote address during the third annual summit, urging attendees to use digital platforms for the good of humanity, in an era of “fake news”.

“Online, the plain truth is not appealing enough to be circulated and liked or to command power in the virtual world, despite the fact that it has never been more accessible than today. The truth is losing ground to emotional rhetoric and sensational rumors,” Queen Rania stated. “We owe it to the truth to seek it out and distribute it. It might not be the most appealing or fascinating, but not all that glitters is gold. Let us aim to give truth the final word.”

Queen Rania launched her first official social media pages back in 2009, and AOC celebrated it. The royal reminded her audience that it is estimated that the average person will spend over five years of his or her life on social media. “Social media has achieved much of what we had expected from it, but unfortunately, we still managed to transfer our human barriers to this world,” HM added, exploring the ways in which digital platforms have changed from spreading hope and connecting humans in a barrier-free landscape. “We now listen not to communicate, but to respond, closing ranks and isolating ourselves among those who resemble us and confirm our own convictions.”

Moving from the downside to the positive opportunity of social media, Queen Rania urged influencers to maintain a steady focus on positive change.

Jennifer Aniston Is Fully Engaged In Becoming A Being Living An Expansively Happy Existence

Jennifer Aniston Is Fully Engaged In Becoming A Being Living An Expansively Happy Existence

Jennifer Aniston covers the January 2019 issue of ELLE US, styled by Alison Edmond in Gucci, Isabel Marant, Tom Ford and more. Zoey Grossman captures the ‘Dumplin’ star in deep but also light-hearted reflections about her life.

Carina Chocano interviews Aniston in Jennifer Aniston Doesn’t Need a Happy Ending.

“It is a grand mystery why the public obsession has never abated,” says Kristin Hahn, her producing partner and one of her best friends. “I’ve wondered about it myself for many years—I think Jen represents an archetype for us as a culture.” Aniston is the screen onto which America projects all its double standards about women, especially successful ones. We first got to know her as Rachel Green, the runaway bride who moved to New York City to become herself. Then we spent a decade emotionally invested in whether she would end up with Ross, only to have her perfect marriage to Brad Pitt end soon after that. It’s obviously a lucrative projection, or it would not have been bought and sold, year after year. What anyone gets out of it is unclear. “Maybe it has everything to do with what they’re lacking in their own life,” Aniston theorizes. Or maybe using marriage and children as the ultimate marker of female happiness is just another way to disempower successful women. “Why do we want a happy ending? How about just a happy existence? A happy process? We’re all in process constantly,” Aniston says. “What quantifies happiness in someone’s life isn’t the ideal that was created in the ’50s. It’s not like you hear that narrative about any men.” Men, of course, are allowed to continue merrily on their open-ended path to adventure. “That’s part of sexism—it’s always the woman who’s scorned and heartbroken and a spinster. It’s never the opposite. The unfortunate thing is, a lot of it comes from women,” she says. “Maybe those are women who haven’t figured out that they have the power, that they have the ability to achieve a sense of inner happiness.”

Adrienne Jüliger + Kim van der Laan In 'Riders of Destiny' By Tom Craig For Vogue Japan January 2019

Adrienne Jüliger + Kim van der Laan In 'Riders of Destiny' By Tom Craig For Vogue Japan January 2019

Models Adrienne Jüliger and Kim van der Laan are styled by Aurora Sansone in Dior Resort 2019 for ‘Riders of Destiny’, lensed by Tom Craig for Vogue Japan January 2019./ Beauty by Daniel Rull

Maria Grazia Chiuri was inspired by the Mexican tradition of Escaramuza for her Dior Resort 2019 collection called Diorodeo. Chiuri brought over a band of female riders from Phoenix, Arizona to celebrate the choreographed equestrian sport performed by women in traditional costumes, when she unveiled the collection at France’s Chateau de Chantilly.

A few weeks ago, AOC featured Jennifer Lawrence appearing in the Dior Resort ad campaign, a spread that ran into pc headwinds.

Phoebe Robinson, comedian and host of the “2 Dope Queens”podcast, criticized the ad for its location and for not including a Mexican model.

“Lol. Wut?! Sooooooooo, #Dior & #JenniferLawrence wanna celebrate traditional Mexican women riders thru a ‘modern lens’ …by having a rich white woman named Jennifer be the face of this campaign?” she wrote alongside a re-post of the campaign video.

“And like they couldn’t think of a better landscape to shoot than in California?! Hmm, I dunno, maybe…like…shoot…in…Mexico…with …a…Mexican…actress like Salma Hayek, Karla Souza, Jessica Alba, Selena Gomez, Eva Longoria, or many others. But I guess they were all unavailable, so you had to go with Jennifer Lawrence,” Robinson wrote.

She said that using ‘modern’ to describe the campaign was, “ignorant and gross,” and asked her followers to comment with names of Mexican designers she could lend support to.

Max Mara Creative Director Ian Griffiths Talks Judy Chicago + Bad-Ass Successful Women

Eye: Max Mara Creative Director Ian Griffiths Talks Judy Chicago + Bad-Ass Successful Women

“I’ve been described as the most influential designer you’ve never heard of,” Ian Griffiths , Creative Director of Max Mara for 31 years told Harper’s Bazaar Australia in an interview published online December 9. Griffiths’ anonymity was about to be blown, when US House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — soon to be Madame Speaker again — wore her 2013 brick red Max Mara coat to a December 11 budget-funding showdown at the White House.

Hours later, Pelosi and her ‘Fire Coat’ were total bad-ass legend as big names clamored to know where to buy her coat. Griffiths stepped out of the shadows to talk his vision for confident, powerful women to Pelosi’s posse. His comments in the Harper’s interview echo the sentiments he expressed in announcing that Pelosi’s coat was headed back to stores in the next collection.

On December 4, Griffiths further defined the Max Mara woman as “successful. She’s made it on her own terms and she wants to be taken seriously.” Those words certainly describe Nancy Pelosi. The designer talked with Town & Country about Max Mara’s collab with Judy Chicago, and their release of a tee shirt to promote the artist’s major retrospective at the ICA Miami.

“As a long standing feminist artist who has found a powerful voice, Judy is the ideal partner for Max Mara—the collaboration is a reminder that classic does not mean conservative.”

One of her seminal pieces, ‘Bigamy Hood’, a painted car hood, served as inspiration for the t-shirt collab with Max Mara. Chicago described the collaboration as “an exciting challenge that required a considerable amount of time, creativity, and drawings.” The resulting design is what Griffiths calls “iconic Judy Chicago” but in a “classic Max Mara palette,” meaning a wearable, but still playfully radical t-shirt. “It underlines the brand’s commitment to the empowerment of women,” Griffiths says.

‘Bigamy Hood’ by Judy Chicago

Amal Clooney Critiques Trump At UN Correspondents Dinner, Unveils New TrialWatch Initiative To Monitor Global Judicial Systems

Amal Clooney Critiques Trump At UN Correspondents Dinner, Unveils New TrialWatch Initiative To Monitor Global Judicial Systems

Alright. First things first. Amal Clooney made a stunning appearance at wednesday night’s United Nations Correspondents Associations (UNCA) Awards dinner in New York City. Ignoring frigid temperatures, the human rights lawyer, accompanied by husband George Clooney, wore a “breezy, blue and white warm weather frock by J. Mendel, writes ELLE UK. As always, Amal looked ravishing.

Amal Clooney was honored as Global Citizen of the Year by UNCA for her human rights work generally and her willingness to take on high-profile cases involving persecuted journalists, often putting her at odds with the world’s repressive regimes.

Clooney seized the opportunity to address not only the global risks for journalists, but US president Donald Trump for his own attacks on the press. She referenced the mistreatment of journalists in countries like North Korea, Turkey, Brazil, and the Philippines, saying that Trumps’ actions legitimized aggression against the press.

In the words of Emirates Woman, Amal Clooney “put US president Donald Trump on blast.”

"The U.S. president has given such regimes a green light, and labeled the press in this country an enemy of the people," Clooney said, according to a video of her speech. " She continued, "In many of the cases that I have worked on too, I have seen journalists and opposition figures ruthlessly targeted so that they can no longer criticize leaders." In March, it was reported that Clooney joined the legal team representing two Reuters reporters imprisoned in Myanmar. 

Amal also paid tribute to her client Nadia Murad, an Iraqi Yazidi refugee who survived sexual abuse by ISIS and will be honored Monday in Stockholm, as a co-winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Price. Clooney and Murad have worked together in trying to make ISIS legally accountable for the genocide of the Yazidi people.

On Wednesday. the Clooneys revealed their latest initiative, TrialWatch, which will monitor court trials where there is a risk of abuse, and rank countries’ judicial systems. The project is part of the Clooney Foundation for Justice. Amal released a statement regarding their latest endeavor saying, “Today, courts all over the world are used as tools of oppression. Governments get away too easily with imprisoning opposition figures, silencing critics and persecuting vulnerable groups through the courts. Trial monitoring will shine a light on these abuses.”

EYE: Albert Watson Unveils Pirelli 2019 Calendar With Gigi Hadid, Misty Copeland, Laetitia Casta + Julia Garner

EYE: Albert Watson Unveils Pirelli 2019 Calendar With Gigi Hadid, Misty Copeland, Laetitia Casta + Julia Garner

The 2019 Pirelli calendar stars several of the world’s most famous women including Gigi Hadid, Misty Copeland, Laetitia Casta and Julia Garner with backup from Alexander Wang (with Gigi Hadid), Calvin Royal III (with Misty Copeland), Astrid Eika (with Julia Garner), and Sergei Polunin (with Laetitia Casta) — all lensed by celebrity photographer Albert Watson.

While the Pirelli calendar is more sensual than last year’s by Tim Walker, it is born of the #MeToo movement. The staged scenes of sex and debauchery — best lensed by Terry Richardson’s infamous image of Eniko Mihalik eating a banana — are gone.

Albert Watson, who is known for his cinematic images, chose to "show women who were dreaming of things."

The narratives were shot in Miami and New York and revolve around four glamorous female movie characters imagining their future success. Copeland, a principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater, plays the role of an aspiring dancer biding her time at a Miami strip club; Hadid is a stylish but bored and melancholy heiress; Casta performs as a bohemian painter; and actor Julia Garner plays a photographer.

"The Pirelli calendar was, at the bottom roots, a pinup calendar for mechanics when they changed tires," Watson said at his vast Manhattan studio last month.

"They held onto the sexy thing for a long period of time, and when it came time for me to do it, (it) seemed wrong to take models to the beach to take their tops off. It seemed out of time with the #MeToo movement."

Serena Williams Launches Miami Popup While Joining Forbes 2018 Most Powerful Women List

Serena Williams Launches Miami Popup While Joining Forbes 2018 Most Powerful Women List

Serena Williams is an ultimate icon of the strong, sophisticated, sexy woman. In the last decade of AOC, I’ve called her the Smart Sensuality woman. Serena didn’t add “with heart” to her list of descriptors, but based on her own social activism, I know “with heart” is on the list of traits of women seeking their own voices by shopping at the champ’s new pop-up shop at the luxe Faena hotel during Miami's Art Basel. Guests at Wednesday night’s opening party for her Serena Collection included fellow tennis star Caroline Wozniacki.

"I want everyone to be able to do that and to step into their power," she said Wednesday night at the launch of her first pop-up shop, open until December 29th.

Everything in the Serena line, from a black sequined top with the word "Unbothered" to a crisp, white button-down that says "Slay" in red letters, is under $200.

'Colette' Actor Aiysha Hart Is Lensed By Lucia O'Connor-McCarthy For Harper's Bazaar Arabia December 2018

'Collette' Actor Aiysha Hart Is Lensed By Lucia O'Connor-McCarthy For Harper's Bazaar Arabia December 2018

Saudi-British actor Aiysha Hart is styled by Gemma Deeks in Gucci’s Fine Jewellery Collection for images by Lucia O’Connor-McCarthy for Harper’s Bazaar Arabia December 2018. Interviewed by Emily Baxter-Priest, Hart reflects on her newly-released film ‘Colette’.

Cast alongside Keira Knightley who plays the title character, it tells the biographical story of author Gabrielle Colette who agrees to ghost-write novels for her husband – at first to critical acclaim and then to devastating effect. Aiysha plays the role of Polaire, a divisive, eclectic and hugely successful French/Algerian singer and actress who embodies the most famous of Colette’s characters, Claudine, on stage. With myriad side narratives, the film’s core centres around these two women who stand up to the pre-existing circumstances of their time, their urgency for freedom of expression and the challenging of societal constraints, and whilst set in the late 19th century, its complexities very much resonate today.

On Forming Her Feminist Views

'Schindler's List' Rereleased On 25th Anniversary As Anti-Semitism Roars In America

'Schindler's List' Rereleased On 25th Anniversary As Anti-Semitism Roars In America

The epic movie ‘Schindler’s List’ is being released into theaters to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Oscar-winning film that debuted Dec. 15, 1993. ‘Schindler’s List’ — which won seven Oscars, including for best picture, director, adapted screenplay and original score — will be rereleased in a limited engagement on Friday.

Director Steven Spielberg sat down for an interview with ‘NBC Nightly News’ anchor Lester Holt that will air Wednesday, Dec. 12th.

"I think this is maybe the most important time to rerelease this film," said Spielberg, according to a transcript of the interview released ahead of its broadcast. The motion picture about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust may be more important now due to the global rise in hate crimes, hate speech and propaganda — including in America.

"When collective hate organizes and gets industrialized, then genocide follows," the Oscar-winning filmmaker tells 'NBC Nightly News' host Lester Holt in the Dec. 12 interview.

Holt and Spielberg discuss the August 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia murder of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, as she protested a white supremacist rally. President Donald Trump — who has been accused of racism in the past, writes The Hollywood Reporter — inflamed outrage by saying there were "very fine people on both sides" of the tragic Charlottesville event. 

Gwyneth Paltrow Did Not Invent Yoga's Huge Popularity In The US | Yoga Journal Shares The Facts

Gwyneth Paltrow Did Not Invent Yoga's Huge Popularity In The US | Yoga Journal Shares The Facts

American Oscar-winning actor, businesswoman, lifestyle guru and GOOP founder Gwyneth Paltrow covers the December 2018 issue of WSJ Magazine. George Cortina styles Paltrow in ‘Sweet Success’, lensed by Lachlan Bailey.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Tuesday, the self-promoter Goop founder said: “I remember when I started doing yoga and people were like, ‘What is yoga? She’s a witch. She’s a freak.’ ’’

Paltrow chose to ignore her inner voice waving a flag in her brain, continuing with WSJ:

“Forgive me if this comes out wrong,” she said, “but I went to do a yoga class in L.A. recently and the 22-year-old girl behind the counter was like, ‘Have you ever done yoga before?’ And literally I turned to my friend, and I was like, ‘You have this job because I’ve done yoga before.’ ”

Actually the real story of the spread of yoga in the US is also rooted in the immigration debate. According to the Yoga Journal, In 1920, Paramahansa Yogananda addressed a conference of religious liberals in Boston. He was sent by his guru, the ageless Babaji, to "spread the message of kriya yoga to the West." 

In 1924, the United States immigration service imposed a quota on Indian immigration, making it impossible for Easterners to travel to America. Westerners were forced to travel to the East if they sought after yogic teachings.

One of those people was Theos Bernard, who returned from India in 1947 and published Hatha Yoga: The Report of a Personal Experience. His book was a major sourcebook for yoga in the 1950s and it remains popular today.

That same year, Indra Devi opened a yoga studio in Hollywood. Her three popular books had housewives from New Jersey to Texas standing on their heads in their bedrooms. 

She was the first Westerner to study with Sri Krishnamacharya and the first to bring his lineage to the West. 

The person who introduced more Americans to yoga than any other in those days was Richard Hittleman, who in 1950 returned from studies in India to teach yoga in New York. 

He not only sold millions of copies of his books and pioneered yoga on television in 1961, but he influenced how yoga has been taught ever since. 

Although he was a student of the sage Ramana Maharshi and very much a "spiritual" yogi, he presented a nonreligious yoga for the American mainstream, with an emphasis on its physical benefits. He hoped students would then be motivated to learn yoga philosophy and meditation.

Yoga was established on the West Coast in the mid-'50s with Walt and Magana Baptiste's San Francisco studio. 

In 1958, Indian-born Swami Vishnu-devananda, a disciple of Swami Sivananda Saraswati, arrived in San Francisco, sponsored by the artist Peter Max. 

His 1960 book, The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga, became an essential guidebook for many practitioners. Dubbed by a colleague as "a man with a push," he founded the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers, headquartered in Montreal, one of the largest networks of yoga schools in the world. 

Meditation and yoga exploded across America in the early '60s, when an unassuming-looking yogi "came out of the Himalayas to spiritually regenerate the world." Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation empire now claims 40,000 teachers and more than four million practitioners, with 1,200 centers in 108 countries.

The Yoga Journal article by Holly Hammond goes on in tracing the development of yoga — actually jump-started by the sixties counter culture in America. Yoga Journal was first published in 1975.

Perhaps in a slight to Gwyneth Paltrow, her role as the chief birth mother of yoga in America is not mentioned. Or perhaps Gwyneth Paltrow, like Donald Trump, drowns in her own narcissism.

Male Gorillas With Engaged Parenting Skills For All Babies In Group Produce More Offspring

THE DIAN FOSSEY GORILLA FUND

Male Gorillas With Engaged Parenting Skills For All Babies In Group Produce More Offspring

By Stacy Rosenbaum, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Los Angeles. First published on The Conversation.

Paternal care – where fathers care for their children – is rare among mammals (that is, animals which give birth to live young). Scientists have identified more than 6,000 mammal species, but paternal care only occurs in 5 to 10% of them.

Humans fall into that category, along with species like mice and lions. There are also a number of South American monkey species where males take on equal or greater childcare burdens than females. But these species are the exceptions, not the rule.

Scientists believe the reason so many male mammals don’t get involved in caring for their young is because they get higher “returns on investment” if their energy is spent seeking out more mating opportunities rather than actively parenting. Simply put, male mammals that spend their time producing more infants rather than taking care of the ones they have will leave behind more offspring. Over time, natural selection favours males who use this strategy, so fathering behaviour rarely gains an evolutionary foothold.

Mountain gorillas, found in the mountains of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, are among the exceptions to the rule.

Though mountain gorilla groups are full of complex social dynamics, just as human families are, in many groups some of the strongest social bonds we observe are between adult males and infants – even when the infants aren’t the males’ own offspring. From the time that young gorillas are old enough to move away from their mothers, they follow males everywhere. Males, in turn, are extremely tolerant. Some regularly hold, play with, groom, and let infants sleep in their nests with them.

In a recent study, my colleagues and I set out to determine why this might be the case, since this behaviour didn’t seem to only benefit their own infants. We found that the gorillas who spent the most time with any young, not just their own, also sired the most infants.

Obscenity Charges Dropped Against Egyptian Actor Rania Youssef Over Red Carpet Dress

Obscenity Charges Dropped Against Egyptian Actor Rania Youssef Over Red Carpet Dress

Actor Rania Youssef said she didn’t mean to offend anyone with her Cairo International Film Festival ensemble, after walking the festival’s red carpet last week in a black leotard layered underneath a sheer, beaded black gown. “It was the first time that I wore it and I did not realize it would spark so much anger,” said the 44- year-old, citing the influence of celebrity stylists. “I reaffirm my commitment to the values upon which we were raised in Egyptian society.”

Three Egyptian lawyers — Amr Abdel Salam, Hamido Jameel al-Prince and Wahid al-Kilani — known for using the courts to engage in moral vigilantism, according to The New York Times, filed a lawsuit against Youssef, accusing her of wearing an outfit that constituted “incitement to debauchery.”

The lawsuit was dropped on Monday and it appears that the actor will not face further charges, despite our first finding news of the lawsuit on Vogue Arabia Tuesday morning.

The actress’s gown “did not meet societal values, traditions and morals and therefore undermined the reputation of the festival and the reputation of Egyptian women in particular,” complainant Samir Sabri, The supporter of Egypt’s Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi, Egypt’s current and sixth president, claims to have filed over 2,700 lawsuits over 40 years, targeting actors, clerics, politicians and belly dancers.