List of All Articles with Tag 'ie'

If there's a trend, Trisha Paytas is doing it, and she's managed to get hold of Selena Gomez's Mexican-style blanket to recreate her viral meme within days. The YouTuber posted a video of herself to TikTok branding it her 'after the hurricane photoshoot' as she posed in the turquoise rug. "Her mind is centuries ahead of all of ours", one person joked in the comments, as others quizzed how she'd managed to get an identical blanket so quickly. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

If Microsoft Corp. completes its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in the coming months, the $69 billion deal will

Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty Tuesday to amended fraud and money laundering charges, appearing in court for the first time since his bail was revoked and he was sent to a Brooklyn jail to await trial.

A 27-year-old woman with a rare genetic disorder who could only identify with Mickey Mouse while growing up due to the shape of the Disney character’s hands is trying to be the role model she never had as a social media influencer, to show people with disabilities they are “fully worthy and capable” of achieving anything. Rochelle Muir, who lives in Colorado, was born with ectrodactyly, which means she has three fingers and a thumb on each hand, two toes on her right foot, and four toes on her left foot. The condition causes difficulties in buying footwear, and with relationships – with one of her ex-boyfriends splitting up with her due to the possibility of their child being born with ectrodactyly – but she is now happily partnered with Charles, 31, a primary school counsellor who, along with her father Bill, is her “biggest cheerleader”. Rochelle, who is a client engagement manager for a healthcare company, could identify with characters such as Mickey Mouse growing up as he also has four digits, but she said “being like a cartoon is not exactly the role model you want”. She now posts pictures and videos on her social media platforms to educate others about ectrodactyly, raise awareness of the limb difference community, and share her hobbies, including gaming. “I remember specifically always loving the characters which had brown hair whenever they were in Barbie movies because I thought, ‘Oh, she’s like me!’,” she told PA Real Life. “But I never had that feeling when it came to my limb differences.” Rochelle has never let the disorder hold her back despite being teased and bullied at school, but when she entered the dating world in her 20s, she faced rejection multiple times and felt she was not “capable or worthy of having an amazing relationship”. “I’ve never been rejected over something that I couldn’t change about myself, something I was born with, and that was probably the first hit to my confidence with my limb differences where I felt awful about being born the way I am, about being disabled,” she said. “I just thought, I’m never going to find a meaningful relationship, I’m not worthy, I’m not capable, and that was the dialogue that kept going through my brain over and over again.” Rochelle has since removed “that nasty little voice out of (her) head”, found love with partner Charles, and shared her story publicly on social media, as she wants to “uplift” others among the disability community and show the world that “disabled is not a dirty word”. She said she is no longer “worried about showing (her) true self” and wants to encourage others to do the same. “Most people usually point out the negatives, but there are so many great positives with going and finding other people that look like you, other people you can connect with, and just creating this amazing community where you can uplift each other,” she said. “That’s one of the things I love about social media so much because when I came out about my limb differences, other people reached out and said, ‘Hey, I look exactly like you, this is so exciting, I’ve never seen anyone else that has the same hands as me’. “So it’s one of my favourite things now – and, yes, it’s sad that we didn’t have that growing up, but at least it’s there now and we can have that moving forward.” Ectrodactyly is a rare genetic disorder, and symptoms can vary, the National Organisation for Rare Disorders says. Rochelle underwent surgery to minimise the gap between her fingers and remove the longer toe on her right foot, enabling her to have improved grip and wear shoes from a young age. However, finding the right shoes has been an ongoing challenge and, when she was younger, she could not understand why she could not wear the same shoes as “able-bodied” people. “I remember specifically, there was a time, I think I was about five, that I tried to get my mum to buy me a pair of flip flops – they were pink, and they had butterflies and flowers on them,” she said. “My mum was so heartbroken because she couldn’t fully explain to me, ‘No, you can’t wear these shoes, they are going to be too dangerous for you’. “She eventually just caved and got me the shoes, and we were going up the escalator to go to the next floor in the mall, and I tripped, and we fell. “Ever since then, I’ve thought, I’m going to wear shoes that will stay securely on my feet.” Throughout her life, Rochelle has used humour to “defuse” awkward or uncomfortable situations and to enhance her confidence, but when it came to dating, for the first time in her life she felt self-conscious and “unworthy of having a real relationship”. She remembers one boyfriend who “was like a deer in the headlights” when he saw her feet for the first time, and another who ended the relationship over the possibility of their child being born with ectrodactyly. “He talked to his family, and his mum at the time said, ‘You need to decide whether you want to have kids because if you do, you have to break up with her’,” Rochelle explained. “The relationship ended, and I thought, I can’t blame him, but when I spoke to my friends, they said, ‘You’re amazing. What’s wrong with having a child with a limb difference?’ “That’s when I realised that I had internal ableism, where I told myself that having a disability is awful – ‘you’re not capable, you’re not worthy of having an amazing relationship’.” Ableism is discrimination in favour of able-bodied people – and it was at this point that Rochelle decided she wanted to do something about the lack of representation for people with ectrodactyly on social media. This “lit the fire” in her to share her story publicly for the first time, aged 25, and she has never looked back. Since then, she has launched her own Instagram, TikTok and YouTube channels on which she discusses ectrodactyly, limb differences and other disabilities, along with her hobby of gaming, and she has met Charles. Reading positive comments and messages, including from mothers of children who describe her as “an amazing role model”, has been “heart-warming” and makes her emotional – and she wants to continue to “fight ableism and bring more representation for the limb difference community”. “The biggest thing for me is representation for the limb difference community, but also for other disabilities as well, because the more we have that out there, the more of a norm it will be,” she said. “I want to be that role model, that person I wanted to look for in social media growing up, that person that younger me would be proud of and say, ‘Oh yeah, I know her, she’s so awesome, I’m just like her’. “It’s a younger me that inspires me to keep going forward and talking about these things, and I want to give the message that disabled is not a bad word, it’s not a dirty word, and you are fully worthy and capable of anything you put your mind to.” Find out more about Rochelle and her social media channels at beacons.ai/goodmornindreamer Read More Tempted to try barefoot running? Here’s what you need to know Can a vegan diet help with hot flashes in menopausal women? Why are wellbeing experts concerned about the ‘lazy girl job’ trend? Tempted to try barefoot running? Here’s what you need to know Can a vegan diet help with hot flashes in menopausal women? Why are wellbeing experts concerned about the ‘lazy girl job’ trend?

In a pretty spooky case of coincidence, news that Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato have both reportedly parted ways with their manager Scooter Braun comes almost four years to the day after Taylor Swift confirmed she planned to re-record her first five albums - from her debut to 1989. On 22 August 2019, the 'Cruel Summer' singer told Good Morning America she was “very excited” to be able to release her own versions of her back catalogue, after Braun bought her former record label Big Machine Label Group (BMLG) and, with that, the rights to the masters of her earlier work. She said: “It’s something I’m very excited about doing because my contract says that starting November 2020 – so next year – I can record albums one through five all over again.” When that month came around, Swift alleged Braun sold the master rights and “100 per cent of my music, videos, and album art” to a private equity firm known as Shamrock Holdings. The musician is now with Universal Music Group’s Republic Records, and is continuing to re-release past albums with the additional stamp of ‘Taylor’s Version’ on them. We’ve already had revamped versions of Fearless, Red and Speak Now, with Swift recently announcing that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) would be coming later this year. Although she told Good Morning America she would re-record her first five albums, Swift eventually had six records under her belt when she parted ways with BMLG, meaning fans can still expect Reputation and her debut, Taylor Swift, to be re-released. And Swift hasn’t held back from making her feelings known about Braun in recent years, with the music video from her track “The Man” – from her seventh album, Lover – showing Swift in prosthetics as a male protagonist urinating against a wall featuring the names of past albums graffitied onto it. There’s a sign banning the riding of scooters (wink, wink), and another which reads: “Missing: if found return to Taylor Swift.” Ouch. Now things haven’t been much better for Braun, as on Monday 21 August – close to four years since that Good Morning America interview - it was reported both Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato have split from the music manager, and last week there were rumours Justin Bieber would do the same. Although representatives for Lovato, Grande and Braun all declined to comment when approached by Billboard, the outlet cites sources who have confirmed the artists’ dramatic decision. Of course, Swifties have been absolutely relishing what they consider to be an incredible case of “karma” – conveniently, the name of a song by Swift herself: And as if the anniversary of Swift’s Good Morning America interview matching the ditching of Braun by Lovato and Grande wasn’t enough, one Swiftie pointed out that the star announced the release of her album Reputation – famed for its rumoured digs at the likes of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian – on 23 August 2017. This is Taylor Swift’s world and we’re all just living in it. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A hilarious 2018 video of Jackie Chan has resurfaced, because the martial artist has no idea who the Kardashians are. In an interview with Access Hollywood, Chan is asked who his favourite of the famous family was, to which he simply responded: "Kardashian? What's mean Kardashian?... Is that an English?" Many fans were surprised that the Hong Kong native had managed to avoid the Kardashian hype, given that he's actively involved in Hollywood. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Israeli forces shoot dead a 17-year-old militant during an overnight detention raid near Jenin.

An overview of the media in Lithuania, including links to broadcasters and newspapers.

A power outage overnight at a Los Angeles hospital prompted the evacuation of more than 200 patients from a building housing neonatal intensive care and OBGYN units, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

A 3-D-printed toilet has been invented and the surface is so slippery that nothing can leave a mark on it. Cleaning the toilet has to be one of the grimmest household chores, but thanks to new material, you may never have to scrub a loo again. The toilet is the invention of Yike Li at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, who, alongside colleagues, invented a toilet whose surface is so slippery that nothing stains it and uses less water for each flush. The team created a prototype of the toilet around 10 times smaller than a real one. It was made using 3D printing technology, where particles of plastic and hydrophobic sand grains were fused together with lasers. The surface of the toilet was lubricated with a type of silicon oil that also penetrated the surface due to the complex structure of the material. The team tested the toilet with a variety of substances, including honey, yoghurt, muddy water as well as synthetic faeces. They found that none of the substances stuck to the toilet bowl. Amazingly, the toilet was just as slippery after having been rubbed with sandpaper over 1,000 times, which Li believes is due to the oil being able to penetrate the material of the toilet. Li believes the technology would be suited for settings in which a toilet gets a lot of use, such as on modes of transport and in public toilets. He explained: “The reduced flushing volume would result in less wasted water during transportation to the processing facilities, thereby saving transportation costs.” But, before that can happen, Li says the technology needs to be adapted for use on a full-sized toilet and also needs to be cheaper to make. You can see the toilet in action below courtesy of New Scientist. Nothing can stick to this 3D-printed slippery toilet youtu.be Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A look at why Martin Odegaard took Arsenal's penalty against Crystal Palace instead of Bukayo Saka and who the club's first-choice taker for the 2023/24 season may be

Provides an overview of Cambodia, including key dates and facts about this South East Asian nation.