This past Saturday, I volunteered for Elizabeth Warren’s town hall in Cincinnati.  I saw her speak several years ago and I have to say I think she’s gotten even better. She’s personal. She’s funny. She’s authentic. She connects with people. And her experience when it comes to economics is perhaps unparalleled. She’s also able to make the complex simple in a way that few others can.  You’ve probably heard about some of her policy ideas recently. Here, I’ll break down three powerful ways she communicated her ideas in her town hall and show you how these can help you in your conversations. 

Rafael Nadal has beaten world number one Novak Djokovic to claim the Italian Open in Rome in dominant fashion 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 and dish out some payback for the Australian Open 2019 humiliation at the hands of the Serbian. Read Full Article at RT.com

Afghan legislators brawled over the appointment of a new speaker as the assembly sat for the first time since elections were held in October. One man even brandished a large knife as security chased him through the chamber. Read Full Article at RT.com

Donald Trump’s failure to establish a trade deal with China may prove to be his Achilles’ heel. And we’re not talking about bone spurs. Global stock markets react to each day’s news, and stock prices rise and fall. But Trump’s escalating trade war with China is having a long-term negative effect on at least one sector of the U.S. economy, shrinking profits for farmers for nearly a year. Trump is still trying to pass himself off as the ultimate deal-maker, even though his deal-making chops were exposed as worthless in the New York Times report that he lost $1 billion in business deals over a decade in the 1980s and 1990s. Trump and his administration keep promising that they’re going to get the best deal for Americans "when the time is right,” possibly when Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in June. Yet ever since Trump started imposing tariffs on imported Chinese goods, and China retaliated in kind, both countries are raising tariffs to higher and higher levels. The U.S. and China are no closer to a trade deal today than they were when Trump first started the tariff war last summer. How bad is the global situation? Here’s how Vox explained it: There are signs that things could soon get even worse: The Trump administration is considering upping tariffs on all of China’s remaining imports — about $300 billion worth of products. ... The two countries aren’t close to striking an accord that would see China modify some of its trade laws in exchange for tariff relief from the US. Second, Washington and Beijing could soon have little to no free trade between them — stunting the global economy and increasing prices for consumers and importers in the U.S. The lack of a China market is hurting U.S. crops, especially soybeans, corn, and wheat. Instead, China has stepped up soybean purchases from Russia, Canada, and especially Brazil. All the while, U.S. soybean prices continue to plummet. Soybean futures have hit the lowest price levels in a decade. Commodities prices for pork and cotton also are spiraling down. U.S. farmers have borne the brunt of Trump’s failed strategies. There have been a record number of bankruptcies for Midwest farmers—the number of 2018 farm bankruptcies were twice what they were in 2008. Some farmers are able to survive only by taking second jobs. And despite Trump tweets about how “Patriot farmers” are willing to bear the pain so they’ll gain in the long run, those farmers are not happy with Trump right now.

The Israeli broadcaster of the Eurovision said Iceland could be punished for holding up Palestinian flags during live coverage of the competition’s voting results. Read Full Article at RT.com

A trio of first team players are reportedly on the verge of leaving Juventus after becoming disillusioned with the club's preferential treatment of superstar forward Cristiano Ronaldo, per reports from Spanish media. Read Full Article at RT.com

10 years ago, «Inglourious Basterds» sent a message about being intolerant of Nazis that hits home today

Spanish tennis great Rafael Nadal is in ruthless form in the Rome Masters final against world number one Novak Djokovic, winning the first set without dropping a game to win 6-0 in Italy, also known as a 'bagel'. Read Full Article at RT.com

Igor Makarov, a Russian oligarch whose supposed “niece” was filmed discussing alleged shady deals with the Austrian vice-chancellor, stated he has no family links to that woman as he was “an only child” in his family. Read Full Article at RT.com

The US and its allies began enhanced maritime security patrols in the international waters of the Persian Gulf in close cooperation with the US Fifth Fleet on Saturday, amid Washington's tensions with Iran. Read Full Article at RT.com

As Europeans prepare to vote in the EU Parliament elections, the European Commission has raised some eyebrows with a tweet extolling the virtues of the union, in true George Orwell style. Read Full Article at RT.com

OPEC countries and allied producers need to discuss the situation on the market before making proposals for the cartel’s meeting in June, Russia’s energy minister has said amid calls to further extend output cuts under OPEC+ deal. Read Full Article at RT.com

Volatile tennis star Nick Kyrgios has been described as «not normal» by the uncle and former coach of World #2 Rafael Nadal after the Australian served a volley of insults at the Nadal family during a recent podcast appearance. Read Full Article at RT.com

To the surprise of no one, the White House recently moved to purge reporters by taking away or restricting their daily press passes to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Under the new rules unveiled by press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, journalists will be required to work at the White House for 90 out of 180 days in order to hold «hard passes,» which allow easy access to the building for reporters who regularly cover the administration. But that 180 days includes weekends, so if reporters aren't at the White House on most workdays, their pass gets rescinded. In other words, Sanders and the White House get to become the Deciders on who gets access to the White House. It's «the hallmark of authoritarianism,» complained Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon. And he's right. But the response from news outlets and press associations, has mostly been crickets, as they continue to display hallmark timidity in dealing with this bullying administration. Sadly, the dramatic purge is just the latest radical move by a White House that has severely restricted press access to official events. It all constitutes a historic, incremental effort by the Trump administration to lock out the news media—and, by extension, the public—from the government’s official duties and business. The move comes as the White House approaches nearly 50 straight days without hosting a press briefing. (Until Donald Trump, press briefings were held daily.) Sanders' no-show routine at the press briefings has become so absurd that White House reporters now often dash out onto the grounds when she's giving a live interview to Fox News on the White House lawn. When she's done with her friendly Fox News Q&A, reporters pepper her with queries on her way back into the White House. It's a complete charade and makes a mockery out of the idea of democratic transparency. So if the daily briefings are essentially dead, access to officials has been dramatically restricted, and now press credentials are being revoked, the question becomes: Is it time for news organizations to pull back their White House teams of journalists and use those resources more wisely from different locations? Is it time to acknowledge the folly of trying to produce actual journalism inside a White House filled with chronically dishonest people who view the press as the «enemy of the people,» and who do everything possible to restrict access? Basically, is it time to disband the White House press corps?

Joe Biden has been roundly mocked on Twitter after making the unlikely claim to a young activist appealing for a presidential debate on climate change that he kicked-off the whole global warming movement back in the late 1980s. Read Full Article at RT.com

Democrats participate in a public cringe about going too far left, too fast, and working people get the gig economy

An explosion targeting a tourist bus near a museum in the Giza pyramid complex has left at least 16 people injured, according to local authorities. There are no reports of deaths. Read Full Article at RT.com

An Al Jazeera video which accused Israel of exploiting the Holocaust to carry out a Nazi-like policy of “annihilation” against the Palestinians has been deleted following accusations of anti-Semitism. Read Full Article at RT.com

If Washington wants to “get along with Moscow,” the White House will have to refrain from using the sanctions stick, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says after the US extended anti-Russia restrictions. Read Full Article at RT.com

Reparations for black descendants of slaves entered the national discourse when, in June of 2014, Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote «The Case for Reparations» for The Atlantic. Directly after his article was published, Black Kos held a forum to discuss it. Here we are, five years later, and Democratic candidates for the presidency, among them Kamala  Harris, Julián Castro, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Marianne Williamson, have all weighed in positively on the issue. This is a deeply emotional issue for me, as it has been for many other black Americans.  On both sides of my family, I am descended from men and women who were enslaved in this country. Their lives and histories are well-known to me, passed down by my mom and dad, both of whom knew family members and friends of the family who had been enslaved. My husband is a descendant of great-grandparents enslaved in Puerto Rico and on the U.S. mainland. Hence, for me and mine, slavery is not some long-ago-and-far-away issue, or simply a fact in a history book.  It is real.  Daily, it affects who I am, how I live my life, my fears, my hopes, and my dreams. Being black in this country shapes my life in ways that, if one is not black, cannot always be understood. For many years, I’ve supported the call for this country to compensate us. This nation, built on land  ripped off from Native Americans, accrued its wealth— in both the North and the South—on the backs of enslaved Africans and their descendants. Reparations are also a personal issue for me. A white man who enslaved some my family members was compensated for losing their “services” when they were emancipated in D.C., which I wrote about here.

An explosion targeting a tourist bus near a museum in the Giza pyramid complex has left at least 16 people injured, according to local authorities. Read Full Article at RT.com

US President Donald Trump has made his first public statement about a controversial new abortion ban in Alabama, describing himself as “strongly pro-life” but is also arguing that abortion is appropriate in some cases. Read Full Article at RT.com

Read Full Article at RT.com

Education can help us fight — and win — the battle for the future. But only if we recapture and reinvent it first

Susan Sarandon, Pamela Anderson and Roger Waters are leading questions over why the MSM is ignoring a leaked OPCW report contradicting the claim that Syrian President Bashar Assad carried out a chemical weapons attack in Douma. Read Full Article at RT.com