MEXICO CITY — A yellow Labrador retriever has retired from rescue work nearly two years after gaining international fame for searching for survivors in the rubble of a deadly 2017 earthquake in Mexico City.

Mexico’s navy presented Frida the dog with a toy at a Monday ceremony to wish her joy during her retirement. She is 10.

Frida became a symbol of hope as Mexicans eagerly awaited signs of life following the Sept. 19, 2017 quake that killed more than 300.

Over the course of her career, she was credited for finding at least 41 bodies and a dozen people alive. She also worked two international missions after earthquakes in Haiti and Ecuador.

Watch: Frida at work during the 2017 Mexico quake

Samuel L. Jackson struck down a mistake on a poster promoting his upcoming movie “Spider-Man: Far From Home” with great vengeance and furious anger.

Jackson responded to a viral image showing two posters side-by-side, in which his character Nick Fury’s eye-patch appears over different eyes, with a tirade worthy of a line in “Pulp Fiction.”

“Uhhhhhhh, What In The Actual FUCK IS GOING ON HERE???!!!” Jackson captioned the picture on Instagram,

For good measure, he also included the hashtags #headsgonroll and #lefteyemuthafukkah.

Now, it’s unclear how furious Jackson really was over the blunder. The location of the side-by-side posters is also unknown. The movie is slated for a July 2 release.

Jackson’s purported anger earned an amusing rebuke from his wife, actress and producer LaTanya Richardson Jackson:

MUMBAI — Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said those who were imprisoned during the Emergency will be provided pension and a citation.

Speaking in the state Assembly during the Question hour, Fadnavis said “pension was an honour more than money” for those who served jail term during the Emergency.

“Many people refused the pension. But some are still poor who lost jobs after being arrested for no fault of theirs,” he noted.

Earlier, Minister of State for Relief and Rehabilitation Madan Yerawar, while responding to a question by NCP member Ajit Pawar, said 3,267 applications for pension were approved so far.

Out of these, 1,179 applications were approved on the basis of the Rs 100 stamp paper submitted to prove that the applicant served a jail term during the Emergency. 

For the latest news and more, follow HuffPost India on Twitter, Facebook, and subscribe to our newsletter.

Pawar asked how can the pension be given without proof and what was the guarantee that the stamp paper was genuine.

To this, Yerawar said the applications were scrutinised by a committee headed by the district collector concerned and only genuine ones were approved.

“A budget of Rs 42 crore was finalised for the pension scheme and out of this, Rs 28 crore to Rs 29 crore has been disbursed,” he said.

BJP member Parag Alavani then said those imprisoned during the Emergency are now senior citizens and finding it difficult to make frequent visits to the collectorate.

“It is not true that the pension can be availed by just submitting an affidavit. There should be a separate cell in the collectorate office to handle the pension scheme,” he demanded.

Subhash Patil (of the Peasants and Workers’ Party) said his father and uncle served 18 months in jail during the Emergency and that his family had to face lot of hardships.

“Those who served in jail during the Emergency want honour more than money. It would be good if the pension amount is increased to Rs 25,000 and a citation is also given,” he said.

However, Fadnavis rejected the demand for an increase in the pension amount, saying, if needed, it would be considered in future. But, he agreed for a citation along with the pension.

As per the government’s decision, those who were imprisoned for a month will be given a monthly pension of Rs 5,000 and those jailed for more duration will get Rs 10,000 per month.

If those imprisoned have died, their kin would be given a monthly pension of Rs 2,500 (for jail term of a month or less) and Rs 5,000 (for jail term of more than a month).

Congress member Basavraj Patil demanded an increase in the pension amount for those who participated in the ‘Marathwada Mukti Sangram’ (liberation of Marathwada).

To this, Fadnavis said pensions for those who took part in the freedom struggles for Goa, Marathwada and India are on par and have recently been hiked.

Emergency was imposed in India from June 25, 1975 to March 21, 1977 by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. 

Chrissy Teigen had nothing to fear but fear itself.

Oh, and a toy dinosaur grabber.

The model and cookbook author played Jimmy Fallon’s “Can You Feel It?” game on Monday night, during which she and “The Tonight Show” host thrust their hands into a box containing mystery objects.

And Teigen struggled to keep her cool:

Fallon wasn’t much better, however, when faced with a live lungfish and cockroaches.

Check out the clip above.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX launched its heftiest rocket with 24 research satellites Tuesday, a middle-of-the-night rideshare featuring a deep space atomic clock, solar sail, a clean and green rocket fuel testbed, and even human ashes.

It was the third flight of a Falcon Heavy rocket, but the first ordered by the military.

The Defense Department mission, dubbed STP-2 for Space Test Program, is expected to provide data to certify the Falcon Heavy — and reused boosters — for future national security launches. It marked the military’s first ride on a recycled rocket.

Both side boosters landed back at Cape Canaveral several minutes after liftoff, just as they did after launching in April. But the new core booster missed an ocean platform, not unexpected for this especially difficult mission, SpaceX noted.

NASA signed up for a spot on the rocket, along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Planetary Society and Celestis Inc., which offers memorial flights into space.

An astronaut who flew on NASA’s first space station back in the 1970s, Skylab’s Bill Pogue, had a bit of his ashes on board, along with more than 150 other deceased people. Pogue died in 2014.

SpaceX said the mission was one of its most challenging launches. The satellites needed to be placed in three different orbits, requiring multiple upper-stage engine firings. It was going to take several hours to release them all.

The Deep Space Atomic Clock by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a technology demo aimed at self-flying spacecraft. Barely the size of a toaster oven, the clock is meant to help spacecraft navigate by themselves when far from Earth. NASA also was testing a clean and green alternative to toxic rocket and satellite fuel.

The Planetary Society’s LightSail crowd-funded spacecraft will attempt to become the first orbiting spacecraft to be propelled solely by sunlight. It’s the society’s third crack at solar sailing: The first was lost in a Russian rocket failure in 2005, while the second had a successful test flight in 2015.

“Hey @elonmusk et al, thanks for the ride!,” tweeted Bill Nye, the society’s chief executive officer.

The Air Force Research Laboratory had space weather experiments aboard, while NOAA had six small atmospheric experimental satellites for weather forecasting.

The Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket in use today. Each first-stage booster has nine engines, for a total of 27 firing simultaneously at liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

The first Falcon Heavy launch was in February 2018. That test flight put SpaceX founder Musk’s red Tesla convertible into an orbit stretching past Mars.

“What do dragons eat anyway?” Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) asks no one in particular in the “Game of Thrones” Season 8 premiere.

“Whatever they want,” Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) quips back so coldly it’d make the Night King shiver.

Unfortunately, Khaleesi’s fire response could come back to bite her when you realize that her last dragon, Drogon, may have turned Emilia into his own personal Clark(e) Bar.

Yes, ever since the “Game of Thrones” finale, there’s been one lingering, morbid question: 

Did Drogon eat Dany? 

In the final episode of the HBO fantasy series, Daenerys is dead on the ground as her killer, lover and nephew, Jon Snow (Kit Harington), looms over her. Drogon then enters the throne room all like, “Hey, guys. What’s going on — oh my God, Mom!”

The shock of Dany’s death is a lot for a dragon to take. He nudges her body in vain, reminiscent of Simba pawing at a lifeless Mufasa. Then, in a fit of despair, Drogon spits fire at the Iron Throne, melting it down to metal mush. He grasps his mom in his claws and flies away.

Some speculate that Drogon took Dany to Valyria, the ancestral home of House Targaryen. There’s also a theory that he’s going to Volantis to get Dany resurrected by a Red Priestess. The last we hear about Drogon in the show, he was heading east, so either could be the case. 

Nevertheless, the possibility remains that Drogon, who’s been malnourished throughout Season 8, turned his mama into the First of her Nom, Nom, Nom.

But could it actually happen?

“Might he eat her? Possibly, yes,” Dr. Carolyn Rando, a forensic anthropologist at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, told HuffPost. “I don’t think we can discount that he was going off to eat her.”

However, as a fan of the show, Rando has a more optimistic outlook and doesn’t think Drogon is making a Khaleesi kabob.

“It seems like the dragons in the show have some sort of semblance of understanding of human behavior a little bit. And so they see her as a parent. So it was a grief type of thing,” said Rando, explaining her theory. 

A poignant example from the show, where pets actually did eat their owner, may also support the case that Drogon didn’t consume Dany. 

Following the Battle of the Bastards in Season 6, Sansa feeds Ramsay (Iwan Rheon) to his own dogs, but these dogs were starving, isolated and trained to kill in hostile conditions.

Dany’s dragons were raised with love and even considered her their birth mother.

“At the birth, it was the first thing they saw. The first thing they would have seen was her. So I think that imprinting is really strong. And if you look at animal studies in zoos, where they’re trying to raise animals to go back into the wild, they’ll use puppets and things that look like the animal that they are so that they don’t imprint on people. So I think it’s probably down to really strong imprinting. This is my parent, and I need to protect them.”

Still, regardless of whether your pet loves you, it could still turn you into lunch.

Rando wouldn’t call it “common” for pets to eat their dead owners but said it “probably happens more than we think.”

“When you look at the case studies, it’s very specific conditions,” Rando said. “So someone lived alone, not a lot of friends came by the house, they died of natural causes, the pets couldn’t get out of the house. There’s no food in the house. Those types of things.”

According to Rando, dogs and cats are most often the owner-eating culprits, though there was one case involving a “free range hamster” that used its owner’s skin and nails to make a nest.

So what makes a hamster suddenly have the urge to redecorate? Hunger and the owner’s social isolation can both contribute to pets becoming people eaters.

“There’s one case where they consumed the entire body of their owner, which is not very common,” Rando said. “What it looks like when you look at the house and the pictures is that they ate as much of the dog food in the other room as possible first, and then eventually went on.”

Distress is also a factor. In one particular case, a man took his own life while in the same room as his dog. Even though the victim was found after 45 minutes, his face already had “extensive postmortem animal bite marks,” according to the case study.

Rando explained that this may have started with the dog trying to make sure its owner was OK, since when dogs greet people they often go for the face.

“So it tends to lick, and there’s a lot of blood and then eating might happen, but more out of just stress or something like that.”

It’s not necessarily always feeding behaviors, but rather “attention getting behaviors,” such as licking or pawing, that can lead to biting.

Interestingly, those behaviors seem eerily similar to the circumstances in which Drogon finds Dany.

The final season of “Game of Thrones” went from all men must die to all dragons must diet.

In the Season 8 premiere, it’s revealed that the dragons aren’t eating well because they don’t like the North. And though it could be argued that reptile metabolism slows down in the cold, leading them to need less nourishment overall, the show makes it clear the lack of appetite is a concern for Dany and the North is ill-equipped to keep up with dragon nutrition.

In addition, Drogon just spent a significant amount of time burning King’s Landing to the ground on his mother’s orders. Our guy is likely a very hungry boy.

As previously mentioned, he also nudges Dany when he finds her, much like the attention-getting behaviors in pets that could lead to them biting at a dead owner’s face. As far as social isolation, the show established that Dany doesn’t have a ton of friends at this point.

Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) said in Season 6 that dragons were intelligent. “More intelligent than men, according to some maesters,” he added.

Following Daenerys’ death, Drogon melted down the Iron Throne, perhaps displaying that intelligence, knowing on some level that the Throne’s corrupting power was the true cause of her pain. (You know, besides that knife Jon Snow put in her heart.)

That being said, if hamsters are even gnawing on the bodies of their owners, the possibility that Dany went from a Targaryen to Drogon’s tartare is still on the table.

“Yes. I think that’s fair. And I think we can’t discount it,” Rando said. “But maybe it’s me just being wishful thinking that he wouldn’t actually eat her.”

But if Drogon was really hungry, Rando has one suggestion. 

“If you’re going to eat somebody, you eat Jon. He’s right there.”

NEW DELHI — Taking a potshot at the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the party never recognised efforts of anyone but only the members from the Gandhi-Nehru family.

Replying to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in Lok Sabha, Modi said the Congress never spoke about the good work of former Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narasimha Rao.

“There are some people who feel only a few names contributed to the national progress. They only want to hear those few names and ignore the others. We think differently, we feel each and every citizen has worked for India’s progress,” Modi said.

For the latest news and more, follow HuffPost India on Twitter, Facebook, and subscribe to our newsletter.

“Did they ever speak about the good work of Narismha Rao ji? In this Lok Sabha debate, the same people did not even speak of Manmohan ji,” the Prime Minister added.

Modi also reminded Congress of the Emergency, saying it’s a blot on the democracy that will never fade.

In his first address to Parliament after being voted to power, Modi also stressed on the need to move together to fulfil the dream of a strong, safe, developed and inclusive nation.

The Prime Minister said the NDA was given a chance to rule in 2014 as the people thought it was a way of escaping from the UPA regime.

“We have to move together to fulfil the dream of a strong, safe, developed and inclusive nation.

“I think beyond winning and losing elections. I strive for the welfare of the countrymen. For me, what is satisfying is the opportunity to serve 130 crore Indians and do work that has made a positive difference in the lives of our citizens,” Modi said.

There’s a story about AP Abdullakutty that begins recirculating every time he switches parties: In 2006, the then Lok Sabha MP from the CPI(M) travelled over 600km from his hometown in Kerala’s Kannur district to the famed Vaitheeswaran Koil village near Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu to meet an astrologer. The controversial Leftist, who used to describe himself as a “Muslim-Marxist”, wanted to find out when his birthday was, a fact that his family had not recorded.

The elderly practitioner of Nadi astrology (which uses thumb impressions to read the person’s destiny) gave Abdullakutty his horoscope, and also some advice which the politician seems to have taken to heart: change political loyalties at frequent intervals to hold on to power and position.

Three years after that visit, the CPI(M) suspended and later expelled the politician for praising then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s development model. Soon, Abdullakutty joined the Congress, which was happy to welcome him and send him to the Kerala assembly not once, but twice. 

But 10 years later, Abdullakutty did it again—got himself expelled from the Congress, and that too for the same reason: praising Modi, who by then had left Gujarat behind for Delhi, and the prime minister’s chair. 

On Monday, he visited New Delhi to visit his hero, and is expected to join the party formally soon.

But why was Abdullakutty’s journey from the Left to the Right delayed by a 10-year stint at the centre? And if this doesn’t work out, does he have any place left to jump to? 

Why the BJP, and why now?

Political observers say that Abdullakutty’s latest move to embrace the Sangh Parivar is based on careful calculations: the upcoming by-election to the Manjeswaram assembly constituency in Kasaragod. In 2016, the Indian Union Muslim League’s P B Abdul Razak scraped through, defeating BJP’s K Surendran by 89 votes. After Razak’s death, the constituency which has a huge Muslim population as well as several Sangh Parivar strongholds, is up for grabs. Abdullakutty may have been able to convince Modi and Amit Shah that a practising Muslim like him, who performed pre-Haj umra in Mecca soon after returning from Vaitheeswaran Koil, could bridge the divide between hardcore believers among both Hindus and Muslims. 

He is also aiming to project himself as the Shahnawaz Hussain of the South. While the right-wing party had inducted former union minister Alphons Kannanthanam as its Christian face some years ago, it was hobbled by the lack of a Muslim leader in the state. Insiders say Abdullakutty will at least be made a state secretary. In addition, the BJP also plans to highlight him across the country as a nationalist Muslim with a Hindutva worldview. His illustrious past as a two-time CPI(M) MP and two-time Congress MLA is the icing on the cake. 

While Abdullakutty is joining BJP with many ambitions, his former associates in the CPI(M) and Congress have derided him as a powermonger turncoat without any ideology. Mullapally Ramachandran, president of the state’s Congress (which was happy to welcome him 10 years ago) described him as opportunism personified. 

Back in 2009, when the CPI(M) suspended Abdullakutty, Modi had invited his Marxist fan to the BJP. 

“Despite being a Muslim and a communist, he praised me and my policies, and that deserves admiration,” Modi had said in February 2009. But Abdullakutty chose the Congress then as the BJP barely had any chances of winning in Kerala. 10 years later, the party still hasn’t opened its Lok Sabha account in the state but has one MLA, and is eyeing more gains from polarisation. That’s why Abdullakutty has chosen to burn his bridges with two major parties. 

A liability soon?

Like most other turncoats, Abdullakutty has often changed his political views according to the party. As the president of the CPI(M)’s student wing, he was a part of violent agitations against computerisation and self-financed colleges. But once he left the party, he began supporting a ban on agitational politics and turned into a champion of technology. 

One thing BJP can rely on is Abdullakutty’s self-projected patriotism—this reporter once wrote about his plans to take a break from active politics to safeguard the country’s borders as a soldier of the Territorial Army (he changed his mind later, apparently because the task was too tough). 

A politician who takes frequent breaks from public life to focus on his business interests, which include real estate and tourist hotels, Kutty is a rare species for many in Kerala. During his stint with the Congress, he faced many allegations, including financial misappropriation. But the survivor managed to keep himself afloat. And at the right moment, he took out the Modi card to ensure a suitable rehabilitation in the Sangh Parivar camp.

With hardly any followers, Kutty may soon turn into a liability for the BJP as well. But until then, the saffron camp will hope that his name and religious identity pay off for them in the state. 

Sonamjeet Narwan was waiting to board an Air Canada flight when she says she experienced “unequivocally foul” racism that the airline handled in a “horrid” way. 

The 28-year-old U.K. citizen was standing in line for a Tuesday morning flight from Washington D.C. to Toronto when she said a woman cut in line. When Narwan and another passenger asked the woman to wait her turn, she rolled her eyes and told Narwan to go back to where she came from.

“She said she knew my type,” said Narwan. “When I asked her what she meant by that, she said, ‘You’re a 9/11 bloodsucker.’

“While I am not Muslim, that is beyond the point. It’s not rocket science that all Muslims aren’t terrorists, nor are all brown people a homogenous group. Even if I were Muslim, this is unequivocally foul and racist.” 

Narwan, who lives in Sao Paulo, Brazil, shared the incident with HuffPost Canada through WhatsApp while on another flight later in the morning. Her sister, Gurpreet Narwan, had tweeted about the incident to Air Canada shortly after it happened.

Air Canada told HuffPost the incident is “highly concerning” and it is looking into the matter. “The upset passenger was upgraded and the in-flight crew did all they could to reassure her onboard,” said spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick. 

Narwan said she took the upgrade to the front row of seats so that she would be further away from woman. 

In its international tariff conditions, Air Canada says passengers are prohibited from being abusive, offensive, threatening, intimidating, violent or disorderly. If employees believe there’s a possibility the passenger would disrupt or impair the “physical comfort or safety” of others, they can refuse to allow the passenger to board, or require they follow “probationary conditions.”  

Narwan said the incident took place in front of Air Canada staff, who largely ignored it. In tears, Narwan asked the woman not be allowed on the same flight as her, as she felt deeply uncomfortable. 

“She had her arms folded stridently, and she was staring me down with an antagonizing smirk. I asked her to stop staring at me, and she declined this request,” Narwan said. 

WATCH: Air Canada crew left passenger on parked plane. Story continues below.

She said Air Canada staff told her she would have to first report the incident to police, which she did. The police officer advised her that, as there was no physical assault, it was up to the airline to decide if it would allow the passenger to board. Air Canada confirmed police were involved and no action was taken.  

Narwan said she went back to Air Canada staff who told her that “while the abuse was ‘despicable’ and ‘clearly racist,’ it was not illegal” and the passenger would be allowed to fly. Narwan was offered an alternative flight.

“This was not an option, out of principle,” she said. “What message is the airline sending if it is placing the burden on the victim, and allowing (the woman) to get away scot-free?” 

Narwan got on the plane, shocked at the turn of events, but now feels resolute. “I want some acknowledgement from the airline that how this abuse was handled was nothing less than horrid,” she said.

It’s been 10 years to the day since Michael Jackson died at the age of 50, leaving fans, critics and onlookers worldwide completely stunned. 

The star – still an icon, albeit a troubled one – had been preparing for a 50-date run of concerts at London’s O2 Arena, which was set to be his big comeback after years of hitting headlines for financial woes, abuse allegations and rumoured health issues. 

His untimely death – which was itself marred in controversy with doctor Conrad Murray later found guilty of involuntary manslaughter – abruptly brought Hollywood and the music world to a standstill.

In the decade since, the nature of his legacy has become increasingly unclear, as while his music is for the most part still celebrated, allegations about his personal life have persisted, having never fully disappeared following a 2005 trial, which saw him acquitted on all counts of child molestation.

Having debuted at the Sundance Film Festival (where a small group of protestors gathered), the controversial documentary Leaving Neverland aired on HBO and Channel 4 in March, shining a light on allegations from two men who separately claim Jackson sexually abused them when they were children.  

The Jackson estate vehemently denied the claims, describing the four-hour long film as a “public lynching” but their statement did little to stem public interest. In the wake of the documentary airing, radio stations in Canada and New Zealand issued blanket bans on Jackson’s songs.

Here in the UK, plays on many stations have decreased, with Jackson’s five most popular BBC Radio songs now relegated to occasional plays on regional stations, rather than the main national ones, Radio 1, 2 and 6Music.

So now, 10 years on from Jackson’s death, what state is his legacy in? How do fans feel? It’s complicated.

A Twitter callout on the topic resulted in hundreds of replies – in the form of both public posts and private messages – within 24 hours.

The majority of public ones protested Jackson’s innocence and some came from accounts dedicated to doing this, featuring his face as their profile picture and usernames including #JusticeForMJ, MJ4Ever and #MJInnocent.

“His music is more relevant than ever!” one tweet read. “His lyrics are timeless and always fitting. His messages are important! It shows his true feelings and he meant each sentence that he’s ever sung.”

“He is the King of music,” another said. “His legacy will remain and endure. He is the greatest artist of all time. Neither the lies of the press nor false accusations could destroy his legacy of love, peace and incredible talent.”

One person simply wrote, “[He’s] the greatest entertainer of our generation”, a title for which there are very few contenders (Madonna, Prince and David Bowie are a few of the only other names that spring to mind).

But nobody is denying his phenomenal career achievements. 

Thriller, released in 1982, remains the best-selling album of all-time. He was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame twice, won 15 Grammys and more American Music Awards than any other artist.

In a sure sign of his enduring musical appeal, Jackson also became the first artist to have a top 10 single in the Billboard in five different decades.

But for some devotees, the allegations are affecting their ability to enjoy the music.

Jinjja Chai podcast host Girl Davis describes herself as a “lifelong Jackson fan”, telling HuffPost UK: “In regards to his music, he’ll always be my number one artist.

“MJ had so much talent and so much creativity that it made me want to be creative.

“I danced to Michael, learned how to dance like him (and Janet) and would pore over his lyrics and indulge in his music videos. We loved him for his talent and artistry.

“These memories are mine and they don’t endorse his alleged misconduct with children.”

But Girl – who in 2017 took a trip to America to see the Jackson siblings’ childhood home – describes her thoughts on his legacy as “quite complicated”.

Following the star’s death, fans and critics have often stitched together conclusions for themselves and Girl rationalises that “in my opinion, it’s very clear Michael had an issue with boundaries when it came to other people’s children”.

“I believe people let it carry on for so long simply because of who he was,” she says. “This is why it’s hard for me to play his music without feeling guilty.

“I still own all his albums and DVDs with every music video on them. I love Michael Jackson the artist, I have no idea who Michael Jackson the person was.”

Jackson’s success means many of his songs hold special places in people’s hearts, having soundtracked everything from school dances to weddings, and another fan who asks to be identified by his first name, Darren, says he has been “a massive MJ fan since I can remember”.

“I danced to Thriller in my junior school at the end of year event,” he says. “I went to three concerts with my mum and dad, I’m friends on Facebook with a lot of MJ’s musicians and people he’s worked with.

“I have so many memories tied up with him and his music [but] since watching Leaving Neverland I’ve not been able to listen to or watch any of his music.”

Admitting his frustration at people who refuse to acknowledge the accusations against Jackson, he adds: “I still can’t believe how many of his fans won’t believe any of it, I think they’ve invested so much over the years defending him that they will never accept it.”

For some, Jackson tracks have also soundtracked the tougher moments in life, making the cloud the allegations have brought about feel even darker.

A 25-year-old, who asks to remain anonymous, describes themselves and their family as “huge Jackson fans”, explaining that their brother chose I Just Can’t Stop Loving You to play during their mother’s funeral.

“It’s a lovely song and has such weight behind it,” they explain. “Now for me, it’s tainted. I can’t play that song and think about happy memories with my mum anymore. Now all I can think about is MJ and what he’s allegedly done.

“Every time his or a Jackson 5 song comes on Spotify I skip it, because I just can’t bring myself to enjoy it the way I used to.”

But the numbers suggest support remains steadfast and for every fan tuning out, there seem to be plenty more pressing play on Jackson’s hits.

In March, Billboard reported that after the release of Leaving Neverland, streams of Jackson’s music actually increased by nearly 10 percent (it had initially been reported there had been a drop, before this error was rectified). Meanwhile, Spotify’s This Is Michael Jackson playlist still has over 1.2million subscribers (the David Bowie equivalent has 600,000 and Prince’s 544,000). 

The West End production of Thriller Live is continuing its indefinite run (you can currently book tickets for dates up to April 2020) and if you can’t make it to that, Jackson tribute acts are still booking dates up and down the UK.

Speaking over the weekend, Janet Jackson made a rare comment on her brother’s legacy, telling The Times that she’s certain it “will continue”.

“I love it when I see kids emulating him, when adults still listen to his music,” she said. “It just lets you know the impact that my family has had on the world.

“I hope I’m not sounding arrogant in any way — I’m just stating what is. It’s really all God’s doing and I’m just thankful for that.”

The statistics side with Janet. A final fan, 33-year-old Dean, says he believes the allegations in Leaving Neverland. But he reasons: “MJ’s music is good and important, but that’s not why it’s possible to separate the music and the man.

“The reason why we *have to* separate the music and the man is because of its prevalence in our (globalised) culture.

“Whether it’s his influence on modern R’n’B and pop music, or Bollywood, it is now too late to remove his mark on our world.”

The discourse online is overwhelming and the hundreds of replies to this one tweet about Jackson’s legacy would surely be enough to put many people off discussing him online.

But putting Jackson ‘the artist’ to one side, Dean concludes this is exactly what we need to do.

“I’m not gonna stop listening to Billie Jean,” he says. “It means more to me [now] because I think of a specific moment in my life, with my family… His [Jackson’s] reach is too deep, too wide and too late for society to extricate itself from his work.

“[The] best thing we, as adjusted and good people, can do is to have open conversations about the man.”

Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for first lady Melania Trump, will replace Sarah Huckabee Sanders as White House press secretary, the first lady announced Tuesday. 

Grisham will also serve as White House communications director, a position that has been vacant since former Fox News executive Bill Shine stepped down in March to advise President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.

“I can think of no better person to serve the Administration & our country,” Melania Trump tweeted Tuesday. 

Grisham has served in the first lady’s office since March 2017, when she was brought on as communications director. Last year, she was promoted to deputy chief of staff for communications.

Before moving to the East Wing, Grisham worked as deputy press secretary for then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer. She previously served on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and on his transition team following the election.

The president announced Sanders’ departure from the White House in a tweet earlier this month, lauding her as “a very special person with extraordinary talents.”

“After 3 1/2 years, our wonderful Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be leaving the White House at the end of the month and going home to the Great State of Arkansas,” he tweeted. “Sarah, thank you for a job well done!”

He described Grisham as “terrific” when asked on “Fox & Friends” earlier this month whether she was a contender for Sanders’ old position.

Sanders applauded Grisham’s move to the West Wing on Tuesday and predicted the mother of two would do “an incredible job” in her new position.

“I’m sad to leave the WH, but happy that our team is in such good hands,” Sanders tweeted. “I’m so proud that another mom and a great friend will be taking over. The President and the country are lucky to have her!”

Grisham has built a reputation among White House staffers and reporters as the first lady’s “enforcer,” according to The Washington Post. She has aggressively defended Melania Trump amid some of her most controversial moments.

For instance, in June 2018, the first lady infamously wore a green jacket emblazoned with the words, “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” while traveling to Texas to visit a detention facility housing children who had been separated from their parents. 

Grisham snapped at the media over its coverage of that bizarre wardrobe choice, stating there was “no hidden meaning” and that reporters should focus on the first lady’s work and not her clothing.

“After today’s important visit to Texas, I hope the media isn’t going to choose to focus on her wardrobe. (Much like her high heels last year),” Grisham said in a statement, referring to the first lady’s choice to wear Manolo Blahnik stilettos in 2017 while visiting Hurricane Harvey-stricken Houston.

Grisham’s loyalty to the Trumps once drew scrutiny from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, a federal watchdog agency unrelated to the office formerly operated by special counsel Robert Mueller.

The OSC issued her a warning letter for violating the Hatch Act, a law that prohibits government employees from engaging in a political campaign, after she tweeted in July 2018 about her three-year anniversary working for Team Trump.

Asked for comment about the opinion, Grisham told CNN that she stood by her tweet. “Since Day 1, I’ve been proud to work for this President, this first lady, and this administration,” she told the outlet.

Prior to joining Trump’s camp, she worked on Mitt Romney’s failed 2012 presidential campaign and as the spokeswoman for the Arizona attorney general’s office.

In 2016, during her tenure as the spokeswoman for the Arizona House Republicans, Grisham faced backlash for revoking reporters’ media credentials after they refused to consent to background checks.

Grisham said at the time that requiring background checks for reporters was part of a new policy to secure the state House floor. But some media outlets forcefully disagreed with the decision.

Jim Small, editor of Arizona News Service, which publishes the Arizona Capitol Times, blasted Grisham and the state House GOP for pulling his reporters’ press passes, calling the move “an attack on the press.”

“[It’s] direct retaliation against us and one of our reporters who exposed how House Speaker David Gowan was using state vehicles to crisscross the state and advance his congressional bid,” Small wrote in an op-ed in the Capitol Times.

“[T]his sweeping policy has less to do with security than it does with retribution against a reporter who dared to investigate the most powerful person in the chamber,” he wrote.

This story has been updated with information about Grisham’s tenure as a spokeswoman for the Arizona House Republicans.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri denied that the social media platform listens to its users’ conversations during a recent interview with Gayle King on “CBS This Morning.” 

In a clip of the interview published Tuesday, King directly addresses widespread concerns about privacy and data collection on various social media platforms — and a popular theory about phone microphones and ads.

The “CBS This Morning” host asked Mosseri, who was named the new head of Instagram last year, whether the social media app documents its users’ conversations in some way to tailor ads.

“Can you help me understand how I can be having a private conversation with someone about something I’m interested in seeing or buying, and an advertisement for that will pop up on my Instagram feed?” she asked.

She continued, “I haven’t searched for it, I haven’t talked to anybody about it, I swear, I think you guys are listening – I know you’re going to say you’re not.” 

Mosseri immediately responded by noting that he gets asked that question “all the time,” before offering up two explanations: It’s either “dumb luck,” or the user is talking about a topic that’s subconsciously on their mind because they previously interacted with related content on Instagram. 

“So maybe you’re really into food and restaurants, you saw a restaurant on Facebook or Instagram, you maybe liked the thing — it’s top-of-mind, maybe that’s subconscious, and then it bubbles up later,” he said.

Mosseri later continued, “We don’t look at your messages, we don’t listen on your microphone. Doing so would be super problematic for a lot of different reasons.” 

King replied, “I’m not the first one that said that. I don’t believe you; I don’t know how this happens repeatedly.” 

Facebook, which acquired Instagram in 2012, has long faced scrutiny over privacy, transparency, its data-sharing practices and a lack of protection for election integrity.

Many people have additionally theorized that Facebook records its users via microphones on their phones to tailor ads. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rejected that notion, calling it a “conspiracy theory,” during his testimony before Congress last year.

Former Facebook product manager Antonio García Martínez argued in a 2017 article published in Wired that the company does not record user conversations and doesn’t need to, since “it is tracking you in other—no less insidious—ways you’re not aware of.” 

Fans of Brazil, a traditional football power that hasn’t won much of late, have spent the last decade-plus becoming accustomed to the sort of heartbreak so long relegated to those fans from lesser footballing nations.

But Sunday’s 2-1 loss to France in the Women’s World Cup round of 16 brought a special dose of disappointment: Far from South America, on a field in Le Havre, France, the greatest woman to ever play for Brazil ― and probably the greatest woman to ever play football, period ― might have donned the country’s famous yellow shirt for the final time, at least at a World Cup. 

All careers must end, even those of the stars who seem immortal at their peak. It happened to Pelé and Zidane, Ronaldo and Cruyff. Most of them are revered for what they did as they did it. 

Marta, by contrast, may go down as the most underappreciated superstar in the history of this sport. 

It wasn’t for a lack of effort or accomplishment. Marta is a six-time world player of the year and Brazil’s all-time leading scorer. She hauled Brazil to the World Cup final in 2007; this year, at 33, she scored twice, and her 17 career World Cup goals are more than any other man or woman has ever scored at the tournament.

Rather, it’s because of the sheer fact that she was a woman, and in her country and beyond, women’s football still suffers from a lack of investment, a lack of attention and a lack of care.  

You can trace the brief modern history of women’s football on the canvass that is Marta’s career. She was born in 1986, mere months before Brazil’s women’s national team played its first competitive match. Five years prior, Brazil had lifted its ban on women’s participation in organised football; five years later, FIFA would stage the first Women’s World Cup. 

Marta made her pro debut at age 14 for a team that wasn’t quite pro, then spent the next 20 years traversing the world in search of the sort of stability that is only now becoming conceivable for women’s football’s biggest stars. She played in two American leagues that don’t exist anymore, and for three teams that don’t either. She has found a reliable home in the National Women’s Soccer League, the first U.S. pro league to make it past its third birthday, but she still makes a fraction of what far less accomplished men do.

She played this year in a World Cup that is a testament to the rapid and inevitable growth of women’s football, but she did so for a country that continues to resist that progress at every turn. She has revolutionised the sport like no woman before her, and yet she is evidence of how limited an impact any one player or team can have on the future of women’s football if the powers that be in countries like Brazil and in a world dominated by FIFA won’t push forward.

Marta is women’s football’s greatest story, and one of its most tragic, too. 

Marta burst onto the World Cup scene in 2007, part of a golden generation that could have turned Brazil into the sort of superpower it has been for decades in the men’s game. She won the Golden Boot as the tournament’s top scorer and the Golden Ball as its best player. At just 21, she carried Brazil to the World Cup final and torched the sport’s biggest, baddest team — the United States — in the process.

It was around that time that she earned the nickname “Pelé in skirts,” a moniker often attributed to O Rei himself, though the sourcing is dubious. On the pitch, it fit, the reference to a garment women don’t wear during football matches notwithstanding. Women’s World Cup history had not yet produced a player who combined sheer athleticism with technical grace so completely. While some could match her lightning-quick speed, Marta added a technical acumen no one else could, challenging the existing idea of what women’s football could look like, as SB Nation’s Kim McCauley wrote in a glowing profile of her before this year’s World Cup. 

Marta dazzled opponents with the sort of flicks and tricks and audacity that stereotypically come to mind when one thinks of Brazilian football, moving the ball from one spot to another in ways defenders couldn’t anticipate because they’d never had to. It wasn’t just for show. Marta has netted a couple hundred goals over her career, including 111 for Brazil. None were better, perhaps, than the last one against the United States in the 2007 semifinal.

Marta’s ability to destroy defenders left an indelible mark on the shape and feel of her sport. In 2007, her utter annihilation of the U.S. Women’s National Team, as McCauley details, altered the future of football. It forced the world’s preeminent power, and thus everyone else, to overhaul their approach to the game. It wasn’t all that different from the way Pelé, Garrincha, and a host of Brazilian immortals brought o jogo bonito — the beautiful game — to the world in the 1950s and ’60s, and changed football forever. 

Off the pitch, though, the comparison between Marta and Pelé breaks down. Pelé debuted for Brazil in 1957, at a time when the country’s top domestic clubs were among the best in the world and the national team was on the verge of becoming the best in history. He helped Brazil win World Cups in 1958, 1962 and 1970. That run of success wasn’t an accident: It resulted not just from Brazilian players’ innate talent but Brazil’s active efforts to produce, nurture and promote it. Brazil won because Brazil ― all of Brazil, and most importantly, the Brazilians in charge of football ― wanted to. 

Pelé’s success, and Brazil’s, turned him into a global superstar, one of the world’s highest-paid athletes and, even in countries where football proved an afterthought, an icon. “My name is Ronald Reagan, I’m the President of the United States of America,” our 40th president reportedly told him during a White House visit in the 1980s. “But you don’t need to introduce yourself, because everyone knows who Pelé is.”

Marta, by comparison, has toiled in relative obscurity, lesser known to most everyone who isn’t a women’s football devotee than she should be. Casual fans may know her name, but it’s hard to imagine that they understand her impact on the sport or recognize her rightful place among the legends of football lore, Brazilian or otherwise.  

The sort of ultimate World Cup success that guarantees immortality in Brazil has eluded Marta and this generation of Brazilian talent. But that’s a convenient way to explain her obscurity — because that kind of success also has a price, and when it comes to female athletes, Brazil’s football federation has never been willing to pay it. 

The Brazilian Football Confederation, known as the CBF in Portuguese, responded to the 2007 final not by investing in its women’s team but by letting it languish.

Twelve years later, as Latin American football historian Brenda Elsey detailed before the World Cup, Brazil still has no professional women’s football league in which players can make a living wage. It spends almost no money on its national team. It barely acknowledges its women except to talk about them as sex objects. Brazil’s modest success obscures the fact that, as Elsey wrote, “there is perhaps nowhere in the Americas that rivals Brazil in its draconian treatment of women’s football.” 

The Brazilian national team, as a result, has fallen backward as other nations have surpassed it. Brazil reached the quarterfinals in 2011 but hasn’t moved past the round of 16 since. Some of that is down to bad luck and bad draws, but it’s also hard to ignore that France and the Netherlands, two teams that didn’t qualify for the World Cup in 2007, are today the sort of contenders Brazil could have been with a more attentive and invested federation. 

Marta could only change the game so much. The burden to do the rest falls on the CBF and FIFA, the governing body that continues to shortchange the women’s game even as it sells itself as an agent of change. 

That they haven’t, especially in Brazil, is evidence enough of the maddening levels of sexism, incompetence and corruption that run throughout FIFA and many of its federations. Marta and her teammates — from veterans Formiga, Bárbara and Cristiane down to emerging stars like Debinha and Ludmila, a stalwart for Spanish champion Atlético Madrid — are proof of the talent that exists in Brazil, and there’s an obvious and growing interest in the game among Brazilian fans. Even with games happening primarily during the daytime, and even while it’s hosting the men’s Copa América tournament, Brazil set television viewership records throughout this World Cup, with nearly 20 million people tuning in to its matches.

As Elsey noted, there’s pressure to invest from above — the South American federation has implemented rules promoting the development of women’s club teams — and below, from grassroots organizations developing the game at the youth level. The ingredients are all there. But the CBF has taken only the smallest steps toward improving the women’s game.

Marta has not said whether this was her last World Cup, though her teammates have admitted that they know the end is nigh. 

Whatever the case, she turned her two weeks in France into a crusade for the equality that still eludes her and women worldwide. After Brazil beat Jamaica, Marta sought out Cedella Marley, the daughter of Bob Marley and the Reggae Girlz’ biggest benefactor, to urge her to keep up her fight for women’s football on the island.

Against Australia, she celebrated a goal by pointing to a women’s equality flag on her boots, a gesture that required that she forgo a sponsorship deal to pull off. She wore bright red lipstick during matches against Italy and France as a symbol of her commitment to the game, and said she and her teammates were fighting “to represent women.” After the loss that might end her World Cup career, she urged girls back home to keep fighting for their future.

“This is what I ask of the girls. There’s not going to be a Formiga forever. There’s not going to be a Marta forever. There’s not going to be a Cristiane,” Marta said, referring to two of her fellow Brazilian legends. “The women’s game depends on you to survive. So think about that. Value it more. Cry in the beginning so you can smile in the end.”

In a just world, Marta would take her deserved place among the many mononymous stars of Brazil’s past, in a pantheon next to Pelé and Garrincha, Romário and Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and the like. Instead, the greatest player in the history of women’s football ended this World Cup begging girls to ensure the survival of the game she helped build — all because, and only because, the people in charge still refuse to build it for them. 

No Spanx you.

On Tuesday, Kim Kardashian offered a first look at her new shapewear line that boasts a pretty insensitive name — “Kimono Solutionwear.”

“Finally I can share with you guys this project that I have been developing for the last year,” Kardashian wrote. “I’ve been passionate about this for 15 years. Kimono is my take on shapewear and solutions for women that actually work.”

The name of the brand is clearly a play on the reality star’s first name. But naming a line of tight-fitting undergarments meant to control and shape people’s bodies after a loose-fitting silk robe that has held cultural significance in Japan since the late eighth century makes very little sense — especially since the 38-year-old entrepreneur is not Japanese herself.

People on Twitter expressed their confusion and accused Kardashian of cultural appropriation — much like the times she wore Fulani braids, sported an Indian headpiece and appeared to be in blackface.

Other people took offense to Kardashian’s claim in her post that her line will come in sizes ranging from XXS-4XL …

 ... Yet no plus-sized models were featured in her photos.

Kardashian is not the first person to trademark the word “kimono.” According to The Los Angeles Times, it has been used twice before for software and “sheaths for pens.”

“Are we making history or what?” Lady Gaga asked the packed crowd at a special invitation-only concert at the Apollo Theater on Monday night.

The pop star was in Harlem playing her very first show at the historic venue to celebrate SiriusXM’s acquisition of the Pandora streaming service, which took place earlier this year.

Gaga performed a set list filled with her biggest hits, including “Just Dance,” “Poker Face,” “Bad Romance,” and “Telephone.” The show loosely followed the plot of her current Las Vegas residency, “Enigma,” complete with dancers in day-glo costumes and a digital being who leads the singer on a journey to learn more about herself.

Halfway through the show, Gaga told the crowd, “We have a lot of things to celebrate ― it’s WorldPride Week,” referencing celebrations of the LGBTQ community taking place in New York City. “I think Pride should exist 365 ― all year ― but I’ll take a fucking global week!” she added.

She also noted that Friday is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, an event many designate as the birth of the modern LGBTQ rights movement.

“That was when our community said ‘enough is enough!’” Gaga said before giving a quick shoutout to trans icon Marsha P. Johnson, one of the rioters at Stonewall that night.

Gaga, who identifies as bisexual, then thanked her fans for “showing and teaching me,” and revealed something “very important” that she’d learned from them:

I wish to share this with anyone who is listening ― not just in this theater, but around the world ― ask the question: What is your pronoun? Because for a lot of people it’s really hard and their pronoun is not respected or they’re not asked, and for me, I’ve grown and changed over the years in a lot of different ways. I’ve felt misunderstood in a lot of different ways. All of our hardships are different ― I don’t mean to compare ― I just mean to say we’re in this together and I’ve had a million reasons to want to give up, but sometimes, if you’re lucky you just need one good reason to stick around.

The pop star then launched into a performance of her song “Million Reasons” from 2016′s “Joanne” album.

After playing several more fan favorites, including the LGBTQ anthem “Born This Way,” Gaga finished the show by performing her Oscar and Grammy-winning hit “Shallow” from the 2018 film “A Star Is Born.”

Gaga’s appearance at the Apollo marked her first performance at the iconic venue, which has featured some of the biggest names in music ― including Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., James Brown, and Lauryn Hill ― since it opened its doors in 1914.

A broadcast of her performance will air Friday on SiriusXM Hits 1 at 5 p.m., on Howard 101 at 11 p.m., and Saturday on Pandora NOW at 5 p.m.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed the name of Lady Gaga’s song “Million Reasons.”

It can be incredibly difficult to have a healthy relationship and sex life after sexual assault: Years and years can pass before you feel connected enough to your body to even think about getting intimate with someone. 

On Sunday’s episode of “Big Little Lies,” we got a rare depiction of just how complicated the experience can be: Years after Perry assaulted her, Jane (Shailene Woodley) decides to give Corey, her co-worker at the aquarium, a chance.

Their date isn’t without its hiccups: Corey goes off on a long, unwieldy tangent about sustainability and the sourcing of seafood, which Jane luckily seems to find endearing. And then there’s the botched kiss: Corey goes in to kiss Jane and she flinches and pulls away. 

“It’s not you,” she tells him after he apologizes. “I just have to idle on neutral for a little bit, that’s kind of my M.O. right now.”

Corey’s fine “idling on neutral,” and by the episode’s end, Jane’s walls have broken down a bit and the pair are slow-dancing in her driveway. 

Jane’s reaction is a pitch-perfect representation of someone suffering from PTSD who’s trying to trust again, said Virginia Gilbert, a psychotherapist in Los Angeles. 

“I think Jane demonstrates a lot of self-awareness in those scenes,” she said. “She knows she needs to give herself time to process how she feels. And she asserts good boundaries by telling Corey she’s not ready to become physical.” 

Jane is making progress, in her own way. There’s no “right” way to start dating again after sexual trauma; it’s going to be jarring regardless, but there are ways to make it a little easier. Below, Gilbert and other therapists share the general advice they give sexual assault survivors who are starting to date again.

1. Take as long as you need to be by yourself.

After an assault, saying “no” to dates can feel like a form of self-protection. That’s OK. You’re on your own timetable with processing this: Be gentle with yourself and avoid rushing into dating, even if well-meaning friends and family push it on you.

If you dip your toes back into the dating pool and hate it, it’s entirely OK to pull back, said Megan Negendank, a psychotherapist in Sacramento, California. 

“It’s fine for your needs to change,” she said. “Healing isn’t linear and you might feel good about going on some dates initially, but then notice your anxiety increasing and decide to slow down. Listen to this, be gentle with yourself ― whatever reaction you are having is normal! ― and communicate any boundaries you need.”

2. You plan the date, so you feel in control. 

It’s completely natural to experience hypervigilance ― it’s a common symptom of PTSD ― when out on a date with a new person, said Kimberly Resnick Anderson, a Los Angeles-based sex therapist who works with trauma survivors. 

“Due to PTSD, some women ‘freeze’ when faced with certain requests, like going on a walk at night with a guy they just met,” she said. “It’s that kind of trauma in the body that makes it hard to date.” 

To counter that feeling and regain some control of the situation, take the lead and plan the date to a T, Resnick said. Meet in a public place where you feel totally comfortable, drive your own car or take an Uber there, set a predetermined end time and have an excuse ready to go. (For instance, “I have an early conference call, so I want to be back home by 10:30.”)

3. Coordinate a safety check with a close friend.

4. You don’t have to talk about it with this person immediately. 

There are myriad things you can talk about on your date. Your sexual assault doesn’t need to be one of them. You are under no obligation to share your experience with anyone you’re casually dating, said Kristen Diou, a counselor in Texas and the co-host of the podcast “Pop Culture Therapists.”

“Your story is yours alone, and you get to choose when or who you want to tell,” she said. “You can still set boundaries without sharing your story.” 

5. Identify the signs that tell you someone is trustworthy.

Sexual assault can severely lower your expectations for men. Not every person is a threat, but it can take months, years or decades to regain trust and feel comfortable in someone’s company.

If the person you’re seeing is “safe” and worthy of your trust, Gilbert said they should have these three qualities: They should respect your boundaries without taking things personally. They don’t rush things or pressure you to change your mind about getting serious or getting physical. And last, their actions should match their words (if they say they’re going to do something, they follow through). 

6. Make sure you’re comfortable with your sexual self before you get physical.

Enjoying sex again, or for the first time ever, can be difficult after sexual trauma. There can be a mind-body disconnect that makes it feel safer and less triggering to disassociate from your body rather than embrace it.

Before you have sex with someone else, you need to reconnect with your sexual self and get to know your own body again through self-pleasure. 

“Touching yourself mindfully in your erogenous zones and finding out what it is like to feel your own touch can be a good reintroduction of your sexuality after the assault,” said Silva Neves, a London-based psychotherapist who specializes in sexual trauma therapy.

Breathe and deeply focus on the touch. But if you suddenly have images or memories of the assault when you touch yourself, definitely stop. 

“That’s how you know these parts of your body need more self-care before you can allow someone else to touch you there,” Neves said.

7. Set good boundaries if things get physical.

Certain interactions with your date might trigger you: A certain touch might remind you of the assault and cause you to completely freak out. You can’t prepare yourself for all those moments, but setting sexual boundaries and hashing out a definition of consent helps. The right partner should be happy to oblige, Diou said.

“Some survivors feel like they are going to lose a great partner if they won’t have sex or be physical with them in the beginning,” she said “That’s untrue. The right person will understand and be respectful.”

Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.

Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.

Being a sexologist isn’t as scandalous as the job title might suggest. 

Sexology is the general term for the scientific study of human sexuality and sexual behavior, and the people who study it are referred to as sexologists.

Some people think sexologists and sex therapists are one and the same. While a number of sexologists choose to pursue a career as a sex therapist (in other words, working directly with patients in a clinical setting), others explore careers like sex researcher, sex educator or public policy activist.

Isiah McKimmie, a Melbourne, Australia-based sexologist, told HuffPost that based on her job title, people often have the wrong idea about what her life inside and outside of the office actually looks like.  

“People often ask me what the ‘craziest’ thing I’ve seen in my work is, with the idea that people see sexologists for crazy reasons. But honestly, I see really regular people with really common challenges in my work, like low sexual desire, feelings of disconnection or lack of orgasm,” said McKimmie, who is also a sex therapist and couples therapist. “Or they think I’m totally sex-crazed! I’m not. I’m just a regular person, who really enjoys vanilla sex, too.”  

To find out more about what a sexologist does and how to become one, we talked to several people in the field. 

There’s more than one path to becoming a sexologist.

A small number of universities offer degrees in sexology or human sexuality at the undergraduate and graduate levels. But often people who go on to be sexologists have educational backgrounds in disciplines such as sociology, psychology, biology, public health or anthropology, among others, depending on their specific interests. 

“Sexologists generally have master’s or doctoral degree, or some other type of advanced professional degree,” Justin Lehmiller, a social psychologist and Kinsey Institute research fellow, said in a blog post. “While there are some training and certification programs available in sexology specifically, these are not absolutely essential to becoming a sexologist.”

Though a board certification is not required to call yourself a sexologist, many seek credentials from professional organizations such as the American Board of Sexology or the American College of Sexologists International. To be certified, you typically need to show a relevant advanced academic degree, work experience in the field and completion of a certain number of training hours, though requirements may vary based on the particular certification.

Clinical sexologist Claudia Six, who is based in San Rafael, California, said the field has changed a lot since she entered it nearly 30 years ago.

“Back then, there weren’t many school [programs] and you had to blaze your own trail. What I did was get a master’s in counseling psychology, in order to learn about therapy,” she said. “Then I got a Ph.D. in clinical sexology to study the psychological aspects of sexuality. I was certified by the American Board of Sexology, and also for many years got clinical consultations with some of the best in the field to hone my craft.” 

Sexologists can use their knowledge in a number of ways. 

“There are many ways to be a sexologist. I have chosen to do research,
teach and do workshops, as well as give advice — not therapy — based
on inter-disciplinary data,” said sexologist Pepper Schwartz, who is also an author and a sociology professor at the University of Washington.

Sexologists who are also sex therapists work with clients, either individually or as a couple, to improve and address problems in their sex lives — everything from mismatched libidos to difficulties orgasming to sexless relationships. Sex therapists should have certain qualifications, such as an advanced degree in either psychology, therapy or counseling, specific sex therapy training and clinical experience. But that isn’t always the case, McKimmie said. (Florida is the only state in the U.S. that requires a therapist to be certified in order to practice sex therapy). 

“Unfortunately these terms aren’t currently regulated, so anyone can call themselves a sexologist or sex therapist,” she said. “If you are looking for someone to help you in this area, it’s a really good idea to check their qualifications first.”

If you’re looking for a certified sex therapist, you can visit the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists’ online directory to find one in your area. 

Don’t expect any physical contact during a session with a clinical sexologist. 

“People sometimes think that as a clinical sexologist I do ‘hands-on’ work,” Six said. “Not at all. ‘All talk, no action’ is how I describe what I do. I am not a sex surrogate, which is a different profession involving actual sexual contact with clients.” 

McKimmie said her clients often have similar questions and concerns about what a session with her actually looks like. She assures them neither nudity nor sexual activity will ever be involved. 

“Sessions look like a regular therapy session, with sex education included,” she said. “If I need to explain something more graphic, I’ll use the vulva puppet I have in my office or a diagram from a textbook. My clients are given more ‘practical’ and sometimes sexual ‘homework’ when the time is right for them.”

“Sir, I rise to oppose the Motion and to speak in support of the amendments made by our party. First of all, let me begin by humbly accepting the resounding mandate that this government has got. But, it is the very nature of the overwhelmingness of this mandate, of the totality of this mandate, that makes it necessary for us to be heard today, the voice of dissent to be heard today. Had the mandate been any less, there would have been a natural checks and balances woven into the narrative. That is not the case. The House belongs to the Opposition. So, I stand today to reclaim this inch that has been guaranteed tous.

Let me start by quoting Maulana Azad, whose statue stands tall outside this great hall. He once said of this country that he was fighting to build. He said, “It is India’s historic destiny that many human races and cultures should flow to her, finding a home in a respectable soil, and that many a caravan should find rest here. There are cultures, our languages, our poetry, our literature, our art, the innumerable happenings of our daily life shall bear the stands of our joined endeavour.”

This is the ideal that was carved into our Constitution. This is the very Constitution each of us has sworn to protect. But, this Constitution is under threat today. Of course, you may disagree with me. You may say, acche din are here and the sun will never set on this Indian empire that this Government is seeking to build. But, then you are missing the signs. If you only would open your eyes, you would see that there are signs everywhere that this country is torn apart.

In the few minutes that have been allotted to me, let me list out these dangerous signs. The first sign – there is a powerful and continuing nationalism that is being sphered into our national fabric. It is superficial, it is xenophobic, it is narrow. It has a lust to divide. It is not a desire to unite. Citizens are being thrown out of their homes and are being called illegal immigrants. People who have lived in this country for 50 years have to show a piece of paper to prove they are Indians. In a country where ministers cannot produce degrees to show that they graduated from college, you expect disposed poor people to show papers as proof that they belong to this country?

Slogans and symbols are being used to test religion. There is no one slogan, no one symbol that ensure any Indian that they are patriot. There is no one test, Sir. No one test.

Sir, the second sign – there is resounding disdain for human rights that is permeating in every level of governance. There has been a ten-fold increase in the number of hate crimes between 2014 and 2019. 10X. This is like the valuation of an e-commerce start-up, Sir. There are forces in this country that are sitting there just pushing this number up. The lynching of citizens in broad daylight is being condoned. From Pehlu Khan in Rajasthan last year to Mr Ansari in Jharkhand yesterday, the list is not stopping.

The third sign – there is an unimaginable subjugation and control of mass media today. Five of the largest news media organizations in India are today either indirectly controlled or indirectly debted to one man in this country. TV channels spent a majority of airtime broadcasting propaganda for the ruling party. Coverage of every Opposition party is cut out. Let the government come out with facts and figures to show ad-spend per media house. What are they spending the money on and which media houses are they blocking out? The Information and Broadcasting Ministry employs over 120 people solely to check the content on TV channels every day to make sure that there is no anti-government news being put out.

Fake news is the norm. This election was not fought on the plank of farmer distress. This election was not fought on unemployment. This election was fought on Whatsapp, on fake news, on manipulating minds. Every piece of news that this government, I repeat, every piece of news that this government have put out, every lie that you put out, you repeat and repeat and then it becomes the truth. This is the Goebbels doctrine.

You talk about naamdar and kaamdar? Let me tell you the Congress party might have put up 36 dynast since 1999 in parliament but the BJP put up 31. Every time you put out one figure anything that is not the truth, you are destroying the fabric of India. Yesterday the floor leader of the Congress party said that the co-operative movement has been a failure in Bengal and I urge him to check his facts. The one co-operative that he is referring to – Bhagirathi – in Murshidabad is now in profit. Every little misinformation that we put out serves to destroy this country.

The fourth sign is that there is an obsession with national security – identification of enemies. When we were children our mother used to tell us to do this and do that or kala bhoot will come. It is as though all of us in this country today are in fear of some nameless, shameless kala bhoot. There is fear pervading everywhere. The achievements of the army are being usurped in the name of one man. Is this correct? New enemies are being created every day and the irony is that over the last five years terrorist attacks have gone up manifold. There has been a 106 per cent increase in the death of jawans in Kashmir.

The fifth sign is that the government and religion are now intertwined in this country. Do I even need to speak about this? Need I remind you that we have redefined what it means to be a citizen? With the NRC and the Citizenship Amendment Bill we are making sure that there is only one community that is the target of anti-immigration laws. Members of Parliament these days are more interested in the fate of 2.77 acres of land than in the 812 million acres of the rest of India.

Yeh sirf 2.77 acre janmabhhoomi ka mudda nahi hain. Yeh sara desh, 80 crore acres, ko akhand rakhne ka prashna hai.

The sixth sign is the most dangerous. There is complete disdain for intellectuals and the arts. There is a repression of all dissent, funding is being cut for liberal education, scientific temperament which is enshrined in Article 51 of the Constitution. There is Article 51 of the Constitution, which demands a scientific temperament. Everything we are doing is pushing India back to the dark ages. Secondary school textbooks are being manipulated and distorted in order to indoctrinate.You don’t even tolerate questioning, let alone dissent.

I wish to quote the great Hindi poet, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar. I wish to tell you this, that the spirit of dissent is integral to India. You cannot shatter us.

“Haan haan duryodhan baandh mujhe, 
baandhne mujhe toh aaya hai. 
Zanjeer bari kya laya hai? 
Yadi mujhe baandhna chahe man, 
pehle toh baandh anant gagan.
Sune ko sadhna sakta hai,
woh mujhe kab baandh sakta hai?”

I ask you this, you cannot keep us down.

Number seven, the last sign; there is an erosion of independence in our electoral system. The Election Commission was used to transfer key officials. Rs 60,000 crore was spent in this election; 50 percent by one party, Rs 27,000 crore.

In 2017, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum put up a poster in its main lobby and it contained a list of all the signs of early fascism. Each of the seven signs I have pointed to you featured in that poster. There is a danger of fascism rising in India. It is incumbent upon all of us to stand up to it. Let us, the Members of this 17th Lok Sabha decide which side of history do we want to be on. Do we want to be upholders of this Constitution or do we want to be its poll bearers?

I do not dispute the resounding mandate that this Government has got but I have the right to disagree with your idea that ‘there was no one before and that there should be no one after you.’

In conclusion, I quote the poet Rahat Indori:

“Jo aaj saahibe masnad hain kal nahin honge 
Kiraaydaar hain jaati makaan thodi hai, 
Sabhi ka khoon shaamil yahan ki mitti me 
Kisi ke baap ka hindustan thodi hai?”

After his film with Remo D’Souza, Street Dancer, was pushed to 2020, rumour mill was abuzz with news of actor Varun Dhawan tying the knot with long-time girlfriend, Natasha Dalal by the end of this year.

However, Dhawan has denied the reports.

In an interview with Deccan Chronicle, he said, “It’s just not true. I am tired of denying these reports over and over again.”

His father, filmmaker David Dhawan, said everybody is quite excited to see Varun get married but it isn’t happening anytime soon.

He said, “I know everybody is eager to see Varun married, so am I. We all in the family would be happy when he gets married. Shaadi hogi khoob dhoom-dhaamse. But let’s not make updates and venues for the wedding. We will officially announce the wedding with all the details when it happens.”

Last seen in Karan Johar’s box-office turkey Kalank, Varun Dhawan is currently filming a dance drama before he dives into the Coolie No. 1 remake that also features Sara Ali Khan.

A total of 1,02,462 persons have been named in the additional exclusion list to the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) published in Assam on Wednesday. 

PTI reported that the the names included in the exclusion list were part of the ones who were included in the draft NRC published on 30 July, 2018, but were later found ineligible. 

NDTV reported that those excluded will be notified through individual letters and and can file their claims at designated NRC Seva Kendras by 11 July.

For the latest news and more, follow HuffPost India on Twitter, Facebook, and subscribe to our newsletter.

The state coordinator of NRC said in a statement that the list was published as per provisions of Clause 5 of the Schedule of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules 2003.

The draft NRC published last year had left out around 40 lakh people. It included the names of 2.9 crore people out of the 3.29 crore applications. 

 The NRC in Assam is being updated under the monitoring of the Supreme Court and the final list is scheduled to be released on 31 July.

The court had allowed five new documents to prove the legacy for the claimants — extract of names in NRC, 1951; extract/certified copy of Electoral Rolls up to the midnight of March 24, 1971 and Citizenship Certificate and refugee certificate issued by competent authority (up to 24 March, 1971 midnight).

The other two legacy documents include Certified copies of pre-1971 Electoral Roll, particularly, those issued from Tripura and the ration card.

The new draft exclusion list comes close on the heels of President Ram Nath Kovind saying that  the government would remove “infiltrators” on a priority basis. 

“My government has decided to implement the process of National Register of Citizens on priority basis in areas affected by infiltration,” Kovind had said in his customary address after the formation of the 17th Lok Sabha.

The President, however, did not specify in which areas the NRC will be implemented.

(with PTI inputs)