Month: November 2019

Home / Month: November 2019

The world’s second richest man is a little anxious over Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s tax plan.

Speaking at the New York Times DealBook conference Wednesday, Bill Gates spoke about the Democratic presidential candidate’s proposed wealth tax — what she calls an “Ultra-Millionaire Tax” — which would directly tax multi-millionaires’ net worth, as opposed to their income. (Sen. Bernie Sanders has unveiled his own wealth tax.)

“I’ve paid over $10 billion in taxes, I’ve paid more than anyone in taxes,” Gates said. “If I had to pay $20 billion it’s fine. But when you say I should pay $100 billion, O.K., then I’m starting to do a little math about what I have left over.”

The Microsoft co-founder tried to soften the comments, adding, “I’m just kidding.”

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Gates also expressed that he wasn’t sure Warren would be willing to take the needs of people like him into account, or even hear them out. “I’m not sure how open-minded she is, or that she’d even be willing to sit down with somebody who has large amounts of money,” he said.

Warren responded on Twitter Wednesday night. “I’m always happy to meet with people, even if we have different views. @BillGates,” the politician wrote. “If we get the chance, I’d love to explain exactly how much you’d pay under my wealth tax. (I promise it’s not $100 billion.)”

Given that wealth consolidation has been such a hot topic this election season, it’s no surprise that Gates’s comments reverberated online almost immediately, with some expressing anti-billionaire comments and others defending him. At least a few people also attempted to calculate exactly how much wealth Gates would have “left over” if Warren’s tax plan went into effect.

Gates noted that he believes wealthy individuals should pay more taxes than they currently do. “I’d love somebody to find a middle ground approach [between the two parties] because … the government does need more resources than it has today.”

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But he added that his perspective might not necessarily reflect broader sentiment in America. “Somebody can say I’m very biased since I’ve been a prime beneficiary of the existing system,” he said.

Gates, along with his wife Melinda Gates and famed investor Warren Buffett, is a founder of The Giving Pledge, a campaign encouraging the ultra-wealthy to give most of their money to philanthropic causes.

More millennials in the U.S. are suffering from chronic health problems, potentially restraining the lifetime economic potential of a generation of young adults.

A spike in conditions like depression, hypertension and high cholesterol among younger people could increase health-care costs and lower incomes in coming years, according to a report Wednesday from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, a federation of 36 independent companies that together provide coverage for 1 in 3 Americans.

Between 2014 and 2017, rates of depression among millennials surged by 31%, while hyperactivity rose 29% and hypertension increased 16%, according to the report. High cholesterol and tobacco-use disorder also increased.

Without change, the effects of those trends could be game-changing for the U.S. and its economy, the report warned. Health-care costs in the U.S. are already high and climbing, on track to make up nearly 20% of gross domestic product in coming years.

It’s likely that a tough economy has played a role in millennial health, since the group entered the workforce in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis and is grappling with burdensome student-debt loads, said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, which prepared the report using Blue Cross Blue Shield data. Zandi called it a self-reinforcing dynamic and “vicious cycle” that needs to be disrupted.

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“To address this brewing crisis, it’s going to take action not only from the perspective of the economy but also from the perspective of health care,” he said in an interview.

Biggest Generation

Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996, meaning the oldest turned 38 this year. The generation is known for its technological savvy, generally high levels of education, and demographic diversity. There are roughly 73 million U.S. millennials, and this year, they are expected to become the largest U.S. generation as more baby boomers die, according to the Pew Research Center.

The new report didn’t provide a precise estimate for the effects of worsening millennial health on U.S. economic output. Instead, it predicted the generation’s lower levels of health could eventually cost the oldest millennials more than $4,500 in annual income.

Under the worst-case scenario, millennial health-care costs could climb 33% compared with the prior generation, according to the report. If nothing changes, current trends could also indicate an increase of more than 40% in death rates among millennials as compared with Generation X, the group born between millennials and baby boomers, the report found.

A prior analysis from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association in April focused on the increasing prevalence of the 10 most common conditions among millennials, a list that included hyperactivity and diabetes, finding that they were more frequent among millennials than the previous generation.

Opioids, Wars

Other research has also raised concerns about millennial health, particularly mental health. Drug-related deaths among the group have surged in the past decade, as have alcohol-induced fatalities and suicides, according to an analysis this year by the groups Trust for America’s Health and Well Being Trust.

Health problems have afflicted earlier generations, influenced by factors like the Vietnam War and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the report said. But the breadth of millennial health issues makes finding a specific cause trickier. Along with the shadow cast by the financial crisis, Moody’s Zandi pointed to the opioid crisis and said extended wars in Afghanistan and Iraq could also be important.

The report relied on five years of data from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Health Index, which is based on health-insurance claims from more than 41 million Blue Cross Blue Shield members who are commercially insured.

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George Clooney was notably one of the first of Hollywood’s leading men to condemn disgraced film exec Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual misconduct. And, now, the Ocean’s Eleven star continues to call for change, echoing Blake Lively’s assertions that rampant sexual harassment and abuse need to be curbed in every industry, even in the legal field of his wife, Amal.

While speaking with Entertainment Tonight, the 56-year-old stressed a need to bring other perpetrators, like Weinstein, to justice by overturning the conspiracy of silence. “I will say that somebody knew and if there was a reporter that sat on a story for years and didn’t write it,” he said. “I want to know who took women up to a hotel room and then left them there for Harvey. There are other people involved in this and the whole culture of this is gonna have to stop.”

Clooney also claimed that particular “culture” unfortunately pervades countless other professions, including wife, Amal’s, work as a well-known barrister.

“She’s faced those exact kinds of situations in law,” he said of the British human rights lawyer. “It’s everywhere and so it needs to be addressed as if it’s a problem for all of us. And we have to take it on full force ’cause the kind of assault that we’re talking about now is – it’s so infuriating that this was allowed to go on as long as it did.”

But the Academy Award winner is hopeful that a break in silence will allow for a brighter future. “We have to, moving forward, we have to make sure that now there has to be something good that’s gonna come out of all of this,” Clooney stated. 

He continued: “And the thing that’s good that could come out of this is that women feel safer in talking about these situations, and in doing so, that it makes it much harder for men who would behave like this to do it, [knowing] that they’ll get outed… they could lose their job or even go to jail if it goes that far. I think it’s important that that’s gotta be the step forward from this. There has to be something good that comes out of it.”

Keep fighting the good fight, George!

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More than a year has passed since Ryan Reynolds made his debut as the superhero Deadpool in the eponymous blockbuster movie, but we’re still learning new things about what it took to get the adaptation from script to screen. And one of those new things? Well, it’s kind of gross TBH.

When a fan tweeted an impressive Deadpool Halloween costume to Reynolds on Tuesday, he responded in a way that we think would make Deadpool himself pretty proud.

“My son is ready for Halloween @VancityReynolds,” the parent tweeted alongside a photo of a child in a Deadpool suit.No idea how he is supposed to use the washroom. Any tips Ryan?!!”

Deadpool Movie/Twitter

Tips? Not really. New costume information? Definitely.

“Everybody knows the Deadpool suit is also a toilet,” Reynolds tweeted. “Get it together.”

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Not sure what that means for Deadpool costume replicators, but it’s a pretty funny tweet either way. Leave it to Ryan Reynolds to make Halloween even more fun.

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As for her little sister Bella Hadid, she seems to still be involved in the show. On Wednesday, she shared a photo from backstage at last year’s VS Fashion Show, confirming how excited she was to walk. “5.DAYS,” she wrote. “I am so excited! Can’t wait to see you Shanghai!!!!”

We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled to see if any more models are forced to drop out of the show.

Jennifer Hudson and fiancé David Otunga have ended their relationship after ten years.

“They have been in the process of ending their relationship for a number of months,” Hudson’s rep tells People exclusively in a statement.

“Today, Jennifer requested and received a protective order against her ex-fiancé. Jennifer’s actions are solely taken in the best interest of their son,” the statement concluded.

Hudson, 36, and Otunga, 37, are parents to 8-year-old David Daniel Otunga Jr.

Otunga’s attorney, Tracy M. Rizzo, released a statement to People on behalf of the former pro wrestler following the split news.

“Mr. Otunga has never abused or harassed Ms. Hudson or their son, and it is unfortunate, especially in today’s climate, that she would feel the need to make these false allegations against him. Mr. Otunga looks forward to his day in court and in being awarded the residential care of the parties’ only child,” a part of the statement read.

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Former pro wrestler Otunga proposed to Hudson in September 2008 after less than a year of dating. The couple welcomed their only child nearly a year later in August 2009.

About a month after becoming engaged, Hudson’s mother, Darnell Donerson, and her brother, Jason Hudson, were found fatally shot in a Chicago home. Her 7-year-old nephew, Julian King, was found dead in the backseat of a car. Hudson’s former brother-in-law William Balfour was convicted of the murders in 2012.

Update:

According to the Associated Press, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians—including three teenagers—during anti-occupation protests on Saturday. Over 300 Palestinians were reportedly injured.

Earlier:

Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered near the Israel-Gaza border fence on Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of the weekly “Great March of Return” demonstrations and demand an end to Israel’s brutal occupation.

According to Gaza health officials, Israeli forces have so far killed two demonstrators—including a 17-year-old boy named Adham Amaara—and injured dozens more with live ammunition, rubber bullets, and tear gas.

“Thirty-three Palestinians have been evacuated to hospitals in the Strip, including ten that were wounded by live Israeli fire at the border,” Haaretz reported. “Dozens were treated in field clinics erected in tents near the border.”

As Yara Hawari wrote for Middle East Eye, “Protests at the Israeli fence enclosing the territory began on 30 March 2018 to commemorate Land Day, which marks an incident in 1976 when Israeli police shot and killed six Palestinian citizens of Israel who were protesting the expropriation of thousands of dunams of Palestinian land.”

Last year’s protest led to weekly demonstrations each Friday, during which Palestinians have marched to the border fence to demand dignity and an end to occupation.

The mostly peaceful protests have been met with deadly force by the Israeli military, which has killed more than 200 Palestinian demonstrators and injured thousands more over the past year.

In a report published last month, the United Nations said Israel’s use of lethal force against unarmed demonstrators may amount to “war crimes or crimes against humanity.”

“One year on, the Great March of Return protests have become a manifestation of ultimate despair,” wrote Hawari. “The effects of the siege and occupation have left more than half of Palestinians in Gaza living in abject poverty, many with serious mental and physical health conditions.”

“While despair in Gaza continues, so too does the dream of returning home,” she concluded. “This past year, however, has shown us that the costs will be high—particularly if Israel continues to violate Palestinian rights without consequences.”

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Female employees who did not flirt with Matt Lauer were not considered “good colleagues” by the disgraced Today co-anchor, a source with knowledge of his workplace conduct tells People.

NBC announced Lauer, 59, had been fired Wednesday after the network received a “detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior” on Monday, with reason to believe “this may not have been an isolated incident.”

“What people need to understand is that there is a flip side to Matt-the-serial-adulterer persona, and that’s all the women he didn’t hook up with—and they didn’t always fare so well,” the source tells People. “So if you were a woman who didn’t seem just utterly charmed by him, or who wasn’t interested in flirting with him, then you were useless to him, and worse, you’d get a target on your back. Period. If you didn’t bat your eyelashes and giggle and banter and play along, then sooner or later you’d get the criticism that you didn’t appear to be supportive of him, that you didn’t have his back, that you weren’t being a proper colleague to him. But that was almost the best case scenario, because that could ostensibly be fixed: you could just decide to kiss up and go along to get along.”

Theo Wargo/WireImage

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“Here’s what was worse: if he flat-out wasn’t interested in you? Then you might as well have been invisible,” the source adds. “For the most part, women served no purpose for him unless he was attracted to them. So if he wasn’t hot for you, it was only a matter of time before you’d become more and more marginalized. You were damned if you did and damned if you didn’t.”

PEOPLE previously reported that Lauer allegedly cheated on his wife Annette with multiple women. Since the news broke, two more women have accused him of sexual harassment, and a former NBC employee alleged to The New York Times that he sexually assaulted her in 2001.

“If you’re a PA fetching coffee for him, you’d better know how to flirt,” People‘s source adds. “If you’re a new producer working on second-hour segments, you’d better know how to flirt. And if he deemed you to be not his type and didn’t want to flirt? Then you’d better not be counting on him to have the first idea who you even are. And certainly not to have your back if you ever want a promotion or anything like that.”

An NBC spokesperson previously told People in a statement, “We can say unequivocally, that, prior to Monday night, current NBC News management was never made aware of any complaints about Matt Lauer’s conduct.”

Lauer, who joined the network in 1992 as a newsreader on Today, had been co-anchor of the morning show since January 1997 and reportedly signed a $20 million dollar contract last year.

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He addressed the allegations for the first time in a statement Thursday.

“There are no words to express my sorrow and regret for the pain I have caused others by words and actions,” Lauer said. “To the people I have hurt, I am truly sorry. As I am writing this, I realize the depth of the damage and disappointment I have left behind at home and at NBC.”

“Some of what is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized, but there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed,” he added. “I regret that my shame is now shared by the people I cherish dearly.”

The British Parliament’s petitions website crashed Thursday morning as over a million of Britons attempted to make their opposition to Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan known.

Hours after May chastised members of Parliament for rejecting her Brexit plan a second time, an anti-Brexit petition was gathering about 1,500 signatures per minute when it crashed the website for 40 minutes. The site then briefly went up before failing again.

As of this writing, more than one million people had signed the petition demanding that May’s invocation of Article 50 of the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty, which allows a country to formally withdraw from the EU, be revoked.

“The government repeatedly claims exiting the E.U. is the will of the people,” reads the petition. “We need to put a stop to this claim by proving the strength of public support now for remaining in the E.U. A people’s vote may not happen, so vote now.”

The petition quickly reached the 100,000-signature threshold to force a debate in Parliament over the proposal after being posted on the government website Wednesday evening.

The site crashed as May was headed to Brussels to ask that the E.U. give her an extension for formalizing Brexit till June 30. May had originally planned for the U.K. to officially leave the E.U. by March 29, but Parliament has twice rejected her plan by wide margins in the past two months, most recently in a 242-391 vote on March 12.

May’s current plan involves a “soft” version of the Brexit plan, which 52 percent of voters in the United Kingdom supported in a June 2016 referendum.

In contrast to a “hard” deal which would have involved a complete withdrawal from the E.U., May’s deal would include less stringent controls on immigration into the U.K. and would retain its participation in the E.U.’s single market.

Critics of May’s deal argue that a “soft” Brexit would still damage the nation’s economy.

As Jen Kirby explained at Vox last November after May reached her deal with the E.U., “every political camp within the UK has found something to hate in this agreement”: 

The hardline “Brexiteers” in her party are virulently opposed—though it’s unlikely they’d be pleased by any deal. They see May’s deal as preventing the U.K. from reclaiming control of its borders and laws, and blocking it from making trade deals with other countries…

Labour has its own disagreements about Brexit within the party, but it has collectively rejected May’s deal, saying it doesn’t meet their required pillars for a satisfactory Brexit…

The bottom line: Few are satisfied with this compromise, because the U.K. is splintered between those who want out of the E.U. and those who never wanted to leave in the first place. No side actually “wins” with this deal.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn called May’s continued attempts to salvage the deal and move towards a withdrawal from the E.U. in June “unacceptable and reckless.”

Before Parliament rejected May’s deal for a first time in January—by the largest margin in the British government’s history—Corbyn was among those who called for a new election if the plan failed.

On social media, other critics called for a new Brexit referndum and new elections as a way to put controversy behind the country.

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If you’ve watched (and re-watched) the iconic ’00s movie Mean Girls time and time again, we’ve got news that’s basically the definition of “so fetch!”

Lindsay Lohan herself is down for a Mean Girls sequel, and she’s starting to call on her former co-stars to get on board.

Mean Girls 2 the movie—this is the importance. We need Rachel McAdams! We need the whole cast back!” Lohan said to E! News on a red carpet Wednesday. “I’d love to do it again. We had so much fun making it. Mark Waters is such a great director, Tina Fey is an amazing writer, Paramount was great to work with—we all had a blast.”

Paramount

Lohan has been talking about a potential sequel for more than a year now, but her persistence might be paying off. Some of her co-stars have mentioned a reunion, including Lohan’s on-screen love Jonathan Bennett, who played Aaron Samuels.

“The reason this movie did so well is because of the fans and I feel like they want it so badly that I would love to do a sequel with everyone, especially with Lindsay,” Bennett told TooFab in September. “You know, I’d love to work with Lindsay on something soon.”

He’s not the only one either. Even Tina Fey might be on board. Fey is currently working to take the movie to the Broadway stage in April, but she hasn’t ruled out a second round on screen, even though her first response was a firm no.

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“Paramount was very generous and solicitous with me for several years, saying, ‘Would you like to do it?'” Fey said to Movieline in 2010. “And at the time, I was like, ‘They should just let it be what it is!'”

After a straight-to-DVD sequel was released without her (or Lohan’s) involvement, Fey had some regrets.

“Now, it’s like, why not just do it?” she said. “I should have done it, because now it’s happening anyway!”

There’s still time, Tina!

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