The leader of the free world has a decent jump shot, still embarrasses his kids with his dad jokes, and loves rap music. With just over a year left in the Oval Office, Barack Obama president told People Magazine in an interview that his favorite song of the year comes from Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly.
Three 747-200F airplanes have been abandoned at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia. In an attempt to locate the owner of the planes, airport officials placed an ad in Malaysian newspaper The Star today (Dec. 7), asking the owner to please retrieve the jets from the country’s largest airport.
The US Supreme Court has decided not to take up a challenge to an assault weapons ban in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Ill., effectively leaving similar bans intact in New York, New Jersey, California, Maryland, and a handful of other states.
Modern Love, the New York Times’ popular weekly column of reader-submitted essays on love and relationships, is getting its own podcast. The newspaper has teamed up with Boston public radio station WBUR to retell popular stories from the 11-year-old column, and check in with the authors to find out what happened next.
Germany is on pace to take in one million asylum-seekers this year. In the last 11 months, the country has taken in 964,574 new migrants, including more than 200,000 just in November. According to Die Welt (link in German), more than half of the potential refugees—about 484,000 migrants—came from Syria.
Holly Woodlawn, the Puerto Rican transgender actress who came to fame after starring in 1970s films by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrisey, died yesterday (Dec. 6) at the age of 69. The Associated Press reported that the actress died of cancer.
Benedict Cumberbatch once called it the least supportive thing an audience member could do. Broadway legend Patti Lupone descended from the stage and approached a theatergoer while in character to take away her phone. Using smartphones during concerts and plays has always been annoying for audience members who just want to watch a show in peace (New York City even banned the use of cell phones at performing art shows in 2003)—but it’s even worse for the performers. Take comedians—now that any joke or turn of phrase can go viral if an audience member records it and put on YouTube or Twitter, it’s harder to test out new material. Chris Rock called it a form of “self-censorship.“
Several cable news stations—including MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News—gained access to the apartment of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, the dead suspects in the San Bernardino mass shooting, and broadcast live video of reporters rummaging through their personal belongings.
Just one year into her second term, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff faces impeachment charges as the South American country suffers from an exhausting corruption scandal and a worsening economic recession.
A Turkish man is on trial after being accused of insulting president Recep Tayyip Erdogan by comparing his facial expression to that of Gollum, the Lord of the Rings character. The trial, however, has been adjourned until February to allow a group of experts to study the comparison and determine whether or not it is an insult, according to local media.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla, announced the birth of their baby daughter Max today (Dec. 1), along with a extensive letter laying out their plan to give away 99% of their Facebook shares during their lifetimes.
With its new video project, Google doesn’t just want you to watch the opera—it wants you to (virtually) come on-stage.
Would the Chinese ever crave a plate of Kung Pao chicken—a dish that doesn’t exist in China but is beloved by Americans? In 2013, two American graduate students set out to open what they believe is the first westernized Chinese food restaurant in China.
The man who shared a photo of a passport on Facebook to prove that his legal name was ”Phuc Dat Bich” has admitted that it was all a hoax. But not before major news outlets covered the story. Today, the man wrote in a lengthy Facebook post—since taken down, along with his profile—that he “made a fool out of the media,” and claimed that his real name is “Joe Carr”—or “joker,” if you’re paying attention.
Researchers have discovered a rare painting from the 16th century, which appears to have survived the centuries only because it was turned around, while the back was used for another purpose.
The US may no longer be the most expensive place to get a college education in the world. New research shows that England has the highest tuition fees at its public universities than pretty much any country in the industrialized world.
One of the world’s last four remaining northern white rhinoceroses died this weekend, leaving big questions about the future of the species.
Teenagers today still struggle to judge the truthfulness of information they find online, according to a new survey on children’s media consumption (pdf) by UK communications regulator Ofcom.
When 128 people were killed in terrorist attacks in Paris, millions of people around the world were shaken in a way they simply had not been the day before, when a terrorist attack in Beirut left 43 people dead and more than 200 injured.
Thousands of census documents from around the time of the Holocaust were found hidden behind a wall in a Budapest couple’s apartment, according to the AFP. The couple, Brigitte and Gabor Berdefy, unearthed the trove while renovating their home.
Requests for information and applications via the French army’s website have tripled since the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, according to Le Monde (link in French).
Half-marathons—the slightly more palatable version of full-length marathons—are supposed to be 13.1 miles (21 km) long—but a recent race in Thailand was unintentionally quite a bit longer. Due to a mapping mishap, runners in the Standard Chartered Bangkok marathon last Sunday were subjected to an extra-long run: almost 17 miles, or 30% longer they had trained for.
A man who lost the “love of his life” in the Paris attacks has written a devastating message in his wife’s memory, promising to raise their son to be “happy and free.”
A defiant, slightly outlandish hashtag started trending after the French police announced that one of their police dogs was killed during a dawn raid in the Saint-Denis suburb of Paris.
