Zookeepers are sharing a new challenge to help lift their spirits during the coronavirus lockdown.

Enhance Search Engines with Google Search Suggestions

Mail Merge for Gmail to help you send personalized emails.

BBC Sport marks Dennis Bergkamp's birthday by looking back at his brilliant winning goal for the Netherlands against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup.

Dynamo Dresden, who play in the second tier of German Football, have put their entire squad and coaching staff into two-week isolation after recording two new coronavirus cases.

As millions of people have their salaries cut, will mortgage providers lend based on reduced salary?

The BBC speaks to unexpected sources who are supplying PPE amid coronavirus shortages.

German football will be the first to restart in Europe - here's your guide to following it.

Dr John Wright is intrigued by some singers who became ill long before the UK's first known Covid-19 case.

A polar vortex has blasted into the northeastern US this weekend bringing rare May snowfall and record low temperatures to some areas.

Nicola Sturgeon has said she will refuse to switch immediately to a new coronavirus slogan the UK government is expected to adopt, amid widespread criticism of the change.

Filed under: North America, United States

Continue reading Sorry Indianapolis, You're No Longer the Sole Location Offering TSA PreCheck Enrollment Background Checks

Sorry Indianapolis, You're No Longer the Sole Location Offering TSA PreCheck Enrollment Background Checks originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 16 Dec 2013 15:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: Arts and Culture, North America, United States

With their reputations on the line, travel agents Joanne and Gary will tackle any request, no matter how impossible, and any client, no matter how unreasonable. Full of overzealous travelers, overbooked flights, and hoteliers who are just over it, Craving for Travel reminds us why we travel-and everything that can happen when we do.

Continue reading Off-Broadway Comedy 'Craving for Travel' Showcases Travel Agents Trying to do the Impossible

Off-Broadway Comedy 'Craving for Travel' Showcases Travel Agents Trying to do the Impossible originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 07 Jan 2014 10:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• This week's most popular movies on Netflix include its original thriller "Dangerous Lies" and "Den of Thieves."
• Netflix introduced daily top lists of the most popular titles on the service in February.
• Streaming search engine Reelgood keeps track of the lists and provides Business Insider with a rundown of the week's most popular movies on Netflix every Friday.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Netflix action movie "Extraction" is pacing to be the streaming giant's biggest movie premiere ever, but it was dethroned this week as the service's most popular movie. Another Netflix original, "Dangerous Lies," stole the crown.

Netflix introduced daily top 10 lists of its most viewed movies and TV shows in February (it counts a view if an account watches at least two minutes of a title).

Every week, the streaming search engine Reelgood compiles for Business Insider a list of which movies have been most prominent on Netflix's daily lists that week. On Reelgood, users can browse Netflix's entire movie library and sort by IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes ratings.

This week's list also includes "Den of Thieves," another movie starring Gerard Butler after his "Angel Has Fallen" enjoyed a few weeks on the list.

But the real winner this week is Netflix itself, as five of the seven movies on the list are Netflix originals. 

SEE ALSO: Insiders say major questions hang over DC Universe as its parent company prepares to launch Netflix rival HBO Max

7. "The Willoughbys" (2020 — Netflix original)

Netflix description: "Four siblings with horribly selfish parents hatch a plan to get rid of them for good and form a perfectly imperfect family of their own."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 89%

What critics said: "Though the film-makers are indebted to Edward Gorey and Lemony Snicket — and pay musical homage to Mark Mothersbaugh's work on The Royal Tenenbaums — they find their own voice, when it counts." — London Evening Standard

6. "Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story" (2020 — Netflix original)

Netflix description: "After 16-year-old Cyntoia Brown is sentenced to life in prison, questions about her past, physiology and the law itself call her guilt into question."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 75%

What critics said: "A moving reflection of what criminal justice reform means in personal terms." — New York Times

5. "Arctic Dogs" (2019)

Netflix description: "When he stumbles upon evil Otto Von Walrus's scheme to melt the Arctic, ambitious delivery fox Swifty assembles a ragtag crew to protect the planet."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 13%

What critics said: "There's really not much to recommend about this film: the animation lacks texture, the score is overwrought, the plotting is scattershot, and the character design is uninspired." — AV Club

4. "Den of Thieves" (2018)

Netflix description: "A highly skilled crew of bank robbers plotting a heist at the supposedly impenetrable Federal Reserve faces off against an elite unit of L.A. cops."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 41%

What critics said: "It often resembles a men's rights bonding weekend more than it does a movie." — Guardian

3. "Extraction" (2020 — Netflix original)

Netflix description: "A hardened mercenary's mission becomes a soul-searching race to survive when he's sent into Bangladesh to rescue a drug lord's kidnapped son."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 68%

What critics said: "Illustrates an important principle in escapist entertainment: you don't have to one-up your predecessors. Sometimes, it's enough to replicate what made them successful." — Newsday

2. "All Day and a Night" (2020 — Netflix original)

Netflix description: "While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 56%

What critics said: "'All Day and a Night' lingers and sometimes meanders in that gray zone, where the story can accrue texture and feeling and emerge as more than the sum of its plot mechanics." — Los Angeles Times

1. "Dangerous Lies" (2020 — Netflix original)

Netflix description: "A broke caregiver unexpectedly inherits her patient's estate, but dark secrets swirl around her newfound wealth, tangling her in deceit and danger."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 39%

What critics said: "Looks like it cost the amount of your monthly Netflix subscription and is as satisfying to watch as it is paying that particular bill." — Globe and Mail

The government locked down South Africa without knowing exactly how the virus works. And while there is evidence it helped to "flatten the curve", its time to reopen more of the economy, writes Thabi Leoka.

South Africans must insist on innovative solutions and new policies to ensure that when the country emerges from this governance and economic crisis, it does so not only aware of the country’s weaknesses but also primed to effect the necessary changes, writes Pieter du Toit.

While the phased-in reopening of schools in South Africa in the midst of Covid-19 remains provisional and sensitive, the Western Cape Education Department has advised principals and school management teams to wait a few more days before returning.

A Canadian department store chain is calling it quits after more than a century in business.

Brighton chief executive Paul Barber has warned a premature return to football action from the coronavirus pandemic could "cost lives".

Former captain Paul O'Connell says it will be vital for the British & Irish Lions to pick a leader capable of beating the Springboks at their own game.

It seemed like such a great idea at the time. You wanted to put together a video for a loved one, including all their family and friends singing their praises, making their life look as epic as a Hollywood production.

Oh, it was a Hollywood production, all right. Contributors showed up late and sent weird file formats, editing took forever, the music wasn’t right...and on it went. Before you know it, a simple tribute video you thought might take an hour or two consumed multiple nights and had you cursing the day you ever thought of the idea.

Video montages take work. But by enlisting Tribute to help you assemble your message of love, It’s all a lot more manageable.

In fact, the Tribute process is so easy that you probably won’t have to do more than a few minutes of work to produce a high-quality tribute video that brings tears of joy. No, seriously...Tribute swears 80 percent of their videos elicit actual tears of joy. Of course, there’s no way of knowing their metrics for judging the results of their 500,000 Tribute videos so far...but if they’re close, your odds for an emotional testament to your subject are pretty darn high.

With Tribute, you just enter the emails for all the people you’d like to contribute to the video. Tribute emails your participants, explains the project, and guides your subjects through how to shoot and submit their segment for the finished video.

Once all your videos are in, Tribute will compile all your clips into a touching, polished montage. Read the rest

The DML News App offers the best in news reporting.

The post REPORT: German Intelligence Releases ‘Harsh’ Verdict About WHO and China appeared first on Dennis Michael Lynch.

Hospitals in British Columbia and Ontario are beginning to address major backlogs in surgeries after the COVID-19 pandemic forced thousands of cancellations that could take well over a year to address.

The following article, Professor Who Mocked Barron Trump During Senate Hearings Gets Censorship Position at Facebook, was first published on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Facebook just announced a 20 person board of oversight that will assist with content moderation. One of the people selected for the board, a professor at Stanford Law School, was announced as a member of the board and is raising eyebrows because of her snarky comment about Barron Trump during Senate Impeachment Hearings. Pamela Karlan, […]

Continue reading: Professor Who Mocked Barron Trump During Senate Hearings Gets Censorship Position at Facebook ...

The following article, Witness Tampering? Asst. HHS Secretary Releases Threatening Text Messages From Dem Rep. Eric Swalwell: “In clear violation of House Ethics rules “, was first published on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Now that Michael Caputo, who was previously a target of the Mueller investigation, has been cleared, he has released some pretty damning text messages from the virulently anti-Trump lawmaker from California, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D). The text messages appear to prove that Swalwell, who has spent the last 3 1/2 years calling for Trump’s impeachment, […]

Continue reading: Witness Tampering? Asst. HHS Secretary Releases Threatening Text Messages From Dem Rep. Eric Swalwell: “In clear violation of House Ethics rules “ ...

The following article, OUCH! Michelle Obama’s Netflix Documentary “Becoming” Gets Panned By Critics, was first published on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Unlike Melania Trump, who’s yet to appear on the cover of a major fashion magazine since becoming America’s First Lady, Michelle Obama has always been given special treatment by the far-left media, who couldn’t put her face on enough magazine covers. When her “Becoming” documentary aired on Wednesday, it was probably expected that the media […]

Continue reading: OUCH! Michelle Obama’s Netflix Documentary “Becoming” Gets Panned By Critics ...

Research Event

Event participants

Dr Tim Summers, Senior Consulting Fellow, Asia Programme, Chatham House

Research Event

Event participants

Trine Flockhart, Senior Fellow, Transatlantic Academy
Patrick W Quirk, Fellow, Transatlantic Academy
Chair: Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, SOAS

17 June 2014

Research Event

Event participants

Ambassador Zhong Jianhua, China’s Special Representative for African Affairs
Chair: Alex Vines OBE, Research Director, Area Studies and International Law; Head, Africa Programme, Chatham House

Invitation Only Research Event

Event participants

Dr Leena Koni Hoffmann, Centre for Population, Poverty and Public Policy Studies; Author, Who Speaks for the North? Politics and Influence in Northern Nigeria; ERANDA Junior Research Fellow, Africa Programme, Chatham House (2013)
Chair: Elizabeth Donnelly, Assistant Head, Africa Programme, Chatham House

Research Event

Event participants

Dr Doyin Okupe, Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to the President of Nigeria 

12 November 2014 , Volume 90, Number 6

23 February 2015

Members Event

Event participants

Parag Khanna, Author, Connectography: Mapping the Global Network Revolution

6 January 2017 , Volume 93, Number 1

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Shelling of Tripoli's Mitiga airport early on Saturday, part of an intensified barrage of artillery fire on the capital in recent days, hit fuel tanks and damaged passenger planes, the Transport Ministry said in a statement. Mitiga is the last functioning airport in the Libyan capital, though civilian flights stopped in March because of repeated shelling even before the country imposed a lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic. Brega Petroleum Marketing Company, part of the National Oil Corporation, said its jet fuel tanks at Mitiga caught fire after coming under attack and firemen were working to control the blaze.

Attorney General Bill Barr explained that the FBI did not conduct “a bonafide counterintelligence investigation” in the case that led former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn to plead guilty to federal investigators in 2017.Barr, speaking in an exclusive interview with CBS News after the Justice Department dropped its case against Flynn on Thursday, said that his review of the case found Bureau investigators laid “a perjury trap” for Flynn in a January 2017 White House interview.“They didn’t warn him, the way that would usually be required by the Department, they bypassed the Justice Department, they bypassed the protocols at the White House, and so forth,” Barr stated. “These were things that persuaded me that there was not a legitimate counterintelligence investigation.”Former FBI director James Comey admitted in a December 2018 interview that he “sent” the agents to interview Flynn, adding that it was “something I probably wouldn’t have done or maybe gotten away with in a more organized administration.”In its Thursday court filing, the Justice Department explained that it was “not persuaded” that Flynn’s interview, which led to his guilty plea for lying to FBI agents Peter Strzok and Joe Pientka, had proper predication and was materially relevant.Comey tweeted his disappointment, following the decision, saying "the DOJ has lost its way."> The DOJ has lost its way. But, career people: please stay because America needs you. The country is hungry for honest, competent leadership.> > -- James Comey (@Comey) May 7, 2020Barr pointed to recently-released information that showed the FBI moved to close its surveillance of Flynn after finding “no derogatory information” about the retired general’s contacts with Russians, only for Strzok to keep the case open, leading to the eventual interview.“They were closing the investigation, in December [2016], they started that process and on January 4, they were closing it. When they heard about the phone call, which the FBI had the transcripts to — there was no question as to what was discussed, the FBI knew exactly what was discussed — and General Flynn, being the former director of the DIA, said to them, ‘you listen to everything, you know what was said,’” Barr explained.“So there’s no mystery about the call, but they initially tried some theories of how could open another investigation, which didn’t fly, and then they found out that they had not technically closed the earlier investigation, and they kept it open for the expressed purpose of trying to catch — lay a perjury trap — for General Flynn,” he added. A different filing released last week showed handwritten notes from an FBI official that questioned if the goal of Flynn’s White House interview was “to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired.”Barr also did not comment on whether those that sought to entrap Flynn would face criminal charges, pointing to U.S. Attorney John Durham’s probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation and saying his team was “in the middle” of “looking at the whole pattern of conduct.”“I’m going to wait until all the evidence is [in], and I get their recommendations as to what they found and how serious it is. But, if we were to find wrongdoing, in the sense of any criminal act, obviously we would follow through on that,” Barr said. “But again, just because something may even stink to high heaven, and appear to everyone to be bad, we still have to apply the right standard and be convinced that there is a violation of a criminal statute and that we can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. The same standard applies to everybody.”

The C-type lectin receptors (CLRs) form a family of pattern recognition receptors that recognize numerous pathogens, such as bacteria and fungi, and trigger innate immune responses. The extracellular carbohydrate-recognition domain (CRD) of CLRs forms a globular structure that can coordinate a Ca2+ ion, allowing receptor interactions with sugar-containing ligands. Although well-conserved, the CRD fold can also display differences that directly affect the specificity of the receptors for their ligands. Here, we report crystal structures at 1.8–2.3 Å resolutions of the CRD of murine dendritic cell-immunoactivating receptor (DCAR, or Clec4b1), the CLR that binds phosphoglycolipids such as acylated phosphatidyl-myo-inositol mannosides (AcPIMs) of mycobacteria. Using mutagenesis analysis, we identified critical residues, Ala136 and Gln198, on the surface surrounding the ligand-binding site of DCAR, as well as an atypical Ca2+-binding motif (Glu-Pro-Ser/EPS168–170). By chemically synthesizing a water-soluble ligand analog, inositol-monophosphate dimannose (IPM2), we confirmed the direct interaction of DCAR with the polar moiety of AcPIMs by biolayer interferometry and co-crystallization approaches. We also observed a hydrophobic groove extending from the ligand-binding site that is in a suitable position to interact with the lipid portion of whole AcPIMs. These results suggest that the hydroxyl group-binding ability and hydrophobic groove of DCAR mediate its specific binding to pathogen-derived phosphoglycolipids such as mycobacterial AcPIMs.

Although a robust inflammatory response is needed to combat infection, this response must ultimately be terminated to prevent chronic inflammation. One mechanism that terminates inflammatory signaling is the production of alternative mRNA splice forms in the Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling pathway. Whereas most genes in the TLR pathway encode positive mediators of inflammatory signaling, several, including that encoding the MyD88 signaling adaptor, also produce alternative spliced mRNA isoforms that encode dominant-negative inhibitors of the response. Production of these negatively acting alternatively spliced isoforms is induced by stimulation with the TLR4 agonist lipopolysaccharide (LPS); thus, this alternative pre-mRNA splicing represents a negative feedback loop that terminates TLR signaling and prevents chronic inflammation. In the current study, we investigated the mechanisms regulating the LPS-induced alternative pre-mRNA splicing of the MyD88 transcript in murine macrophages. We found that 1) the induction of the alternatively spliced MyD88 form is due to alternative pre-mRNA splicing and not caused by another RNA regulatory mechanism, 2) MyD88 splicing is regulated by both the MyD88- and TRIF-dependent arms of the TLR signaling pathway, 3) MyD88 splicing is regulated by the NF-κB transcription factor, and 4) NF-κB likely regulates MyD88 alternative pre-mRNA splicing per se rather than regulating splicing indirectly by altering MyD88 transcription. We conclude that alternative splicing of MyD88 may provide a sensitive mechanism that ensures robust termination of inflammation for tissue repair and restoration of normal tissue homeostasis once an infection is controlled.

Contact between inflammatory cells and endothelial cells (ECs) is a crucial step in vascular inflammation. Recently, we demonstrated that the cell-surface level of endomucin (EMCN), a heavily O-glycosylated single-transmembrane sialomucin, interferes with the interactions between inflammatory cells and ECs. We have also shown that, in response to an inflammatory stimulus, EMCN is cleared from the cell surface by an unknown mechanism. In this study, using adenovirus-mediated overexpression of a tagged EMCN in human umbilical vein ECs, we found that treatment with tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) or the strong oxidant pervanadate leads to loss of cell-surface EMCN and increases the levels of the C-terminal fragment of EMCN 3- to 4-fold. Furthermore, treatment with the broad-spectrum matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor batimastat (BB94) or inhibition of ADAM metallopeptidase domain 10 (ADAM10) and ADAM17 with two small-molecule inhibitors, GW280264X and GI254023X, or with siRNA significantly reduced basal and TNFα-induced cell-surface EMCN cleavage. Release of the C-terminal fragment of EMCN by TNF-α treatment was blocked by chemical inhibition of ADAM10 alone or in combination with ADAM17. These results indicate that cell-surface EMCN undergoes constitutive cleavage and that TNF-α treatment dramatically increases this cleavage, which is mediated predominantly by ADAM10 and ADAM17. As endothelial cell-surface EMCN attenuates leukocyte–EC interactions during inflammation, we propose that EMCN is a potential therapeutic target to manage vascular inflammation.