These are the top maybe-not headlines from the past 36-hours presented by The Conversation Project from raw engagement data from our social media to the headlines posted over the past day.
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The 8 topics that our followers ranked as the most conversational are:
SHANE GILLIS OUT AT ‘SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE’ FOLLOWING RACIAL, HOMOPHOBIC SLURS IN PODCAST
“After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL,” a show spokesperson said Monday on behalf of executive producer Lorne Michaels. “We want SNL to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show, and we hired Shane on the strength of his talent as comedian and his impressive audition for SNL. We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days. The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard.”
[SOURCE: hollywoodreporter.com]
AMAZON TRIBAL CHIEF NOMINATED FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE FOR EFFORT TO PROTECT RAINFOREST
Chief Raoni Metuktire from the Kayapó tribe, 89, has asked for help around the world to preserve the Amazon rainforest as it faces a record number number of wildfires, Reuters reported. Toni Lotar, a spokesman for the Darcy Ribeiro Foundation, which proposed Raoni’s name to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, told Reuters the committee has initially accepted the nomination but that the full process to be considered a nominee must be finished. The chief has accused Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro of causing the fires with his plans to develop the Amazon rainforest economically and to assimilate the indigenous people, Reuters reported.
[SOURCE: thehill.com]
REMOVAL OF CONFEDERATE STATUES BLOCKED BY CHARLOTTESVILLE CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE
The monuments, erected in downtown Charlottesville in the 1920s during the Jim Crow era, “were part of a regime of city-sanctioned segregation that denied African-Americans equal access to government and public spaces,” attorneys for the city said in court filings earlier this year, per The New York Times. City workers preparing to drape a tarp over the statue of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson in Justice park in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 23, 2017. Judge Richard Moore later ordered for the tarp to be removed. Local residents filed a lawsuit in March 2017 to stop the city from dismantling the statues. A few months later, white nationalists held a “Unite the Right” rally in the city, in part to protest the removal of Lee’s statue. The demonstration turned deadly when a white supremacist drove his car into a group of counter-protesters. Heather Heyer, 32, was killed in the attack and dozens of others were injured.
[SOURCE: huffpost.com]
CHINA APPEARS SET TO UNVEIL VERY HIGH-SPEED DRONE DURING BIG MILITARY PARADE IN BEIJING
The rumor of the potential existence of a number of increasingly complex, high-supersonic, or even hypersonic developmental Chinese drones goes back the better part of a decade. Eastpendulum.com has kept a close eye on developments in this shadowy space and has uncovered a number of patents that match the planform in question. A number of flight tests likely supports the existence of this craft, and possibly its developmental progenitors, which would be just one of multiple extremely high-speed weapons capabilities China is developing. It’s thought that the craft is launched from an H-6 bomber, or at least was for testing.
[SOURCE: thedrive.com]
BRIAN TURK, ‘CARNIVALE’ AND ‘BEVERLY HILLS: 90210’ ACTOR, DIES AT 49
Turk’s biggest recurring role was on “Carnivàle,” where he was a series regular on the mid-2000’s show about a traveling carnival n the Depression-era Dust Bowl. He played Gabriel, the carnival’s “strongman.” He also had guest spots on “Boy Meets World,” “ER,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Saved by the Bell,” “Criminal Minds,” and “Two and a Half Men,” according to his IMDB page. Turk’s major movie credits included “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” “A.I.,” and “American Pie 2.”
[SOURCE: msn.com]
COLIN KAEPERNICK’S NIKE AD WINS EMMY FOR OUTSTANDING COMMERCIAL
The commercial, titled “Dream Crazy,” features Kaepernick alongside other sports legends including Serena Williams and LeBron James, who have reached beyond their personal achievements to support and advance political and social causes. The ad was released in September 2018 days before the start of the NFL season. Kaepernick was one of the faces of Nike’s 30th anniversary commemoration of its iconic “Just Do It” campaign. Despite some intense response to the ad — like people burning their Nike shoes and a Missouri college dropping the brand — the company’s stock hit an all-time high. Nike also gained tens of thousands of Instagram followers after announcing the campaign.
[SOURCE: msn.com]
NEW YORK WANTS EMERGENCY BAN AFTER 64 CASES OF VAPING-RELATED LUNG ILLNESS
A number of states — along with the federal government — are rushing to regulate e-cigarettes after a rise in vaping-related lung illnesses that are reported to have killed 6 people and sickened hundreds. Most of the illnesses are believed to be linked to vaping THC, the compound in marijuana that makes people high.
[SOURCE: axios.com]
U.N. YEMEN ENVOY SAYS ‘NOT ENTIRELY CLEAR’ WHO IS BEHIND SAUDI OIL ATTACK
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft told the Security Council that emerging information on attacks on Saudi oil facilities “indicates that responsibility lies with Iran” and that there is no evidence the attack came from Yemen. The Saudi-led military coalition battling Yemen’s Houthi movement said that the attack on Saudi Arabian oil plants was carried out with Iranian weapons and was not launched from Yemen according to preliminary findings.
[SOURCE: reuters.com]
Eight Things To Talk About uses the raw engagement data from the social media engagement from The Conversation Project to generate the top-ranking headlines over the course of a weekend.
A full weeks’ data (from Friday to Friday) is compiled, weighed, and sorted to produce the content for the Wrap-Up Show with J Cleveland Payne, published every Saturday as a podcast available at ThisIsTheConversation.com or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.
To ‘participate’ in the rankings of the headlines for this newsletter or the podcast, follow the Conversation Project on social media and engage with the posts to give them more ‘votes.’ The Conversation Project can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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