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.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE EMAIL NEWSLETTER | BECOME A SUPPORTER ON PATREON
The 8 topics that our followers ranked as the most conversational are:
NATO EVENT CANCELED AFTER US AMBASSADOR SANDS BLOCKS TRUMP CRITIC
A conference celebrating the 70th anniversary of NATO was canceled after the U.S. ambassador to Denmark, Carla Sands, objected to a speaker who has made statements critical of President Donald Trump, the Danish think tank co-sponsoring the event announced Sunday. Stanley Sloan, a former CIA analyst and author of “Defense of the West,” had planned to deliver an address on the challenges facing the transatlantic alliance, and the West in general, at the conference, which was scheduled to take place Tuesday at the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen. A day before Sloan left for Denmark, he said he was informed by the Danish Atlantic Council that the U.S. Embassy “vetoed my participation due to my critical evaluation of Trump’s impact on transatlantic relations.” The next day, the Danish Atlantic Council announced the conference had been canceled altogether.
[SOURCE: usatoday.com]
WHITE CASTLE SLIDERS RECALL 2019: SELECT FROZEN SANDWICHES RECALLED
White Castle is voluntarily recalling select boxes of frozen sandwiches “for the possible presence of Listeria monocytogenes.” According to the notice posted on the Food and Drug Administration website, the recall includes a limited number of frozen six-pack cheeseburgers, six-pack hamburgers, six-pack jalapeno cheeseburgers, 16-pack hamburgers and 16-pack cheeseburgers. The recalled products have “best by dates” ranging from Aug. 4, 2020 to Aug. 17, 2020, according to the notice. Products with these dates are being removed from stores, according to the notice. There have been no reported illnesses from the products to date, the notice states, noting White Castle products with best by dates before or after are not included in the recall. A full list of the affected products with lot codes and dates is listed at www.fda.gov.
[SOURCE: usatoday.com]
WALMART APOLOGIZES FOR SWEATER FEATURING SANTA WITH COCAINE
Walmart has apologized for an adults-only Christmas sweater on its Canadian website that appeared to depict Santa with cocaine, according to a report. The retailer pulled the holiday outfit — along with several other risque seasonal sweaters — Saturday after they caused a stir with social media users, Global News Canada reported. “These sweaters, sold by a third-party seller on Walmart.ca, do not represent Walmart’s values and have no place on our website,” a spokesperson told the outlet. “We have removed these products from our marketplace. We apologize for any unintended offense this may have caused.” The sweater showed Santa with three lines of a white substance along with the phrase “Let it snow,” with the description, “We all know how snow works. It’s white, powdery and the best snow comes straight from South America. That’s bad news for jolly old St. Nick, who lives far away in the North Pole. That’s why Santa really likes to savor the moment when he gets his hands on some quality, grade A, Colombian snow.” Other duds for sale depicted Father Christmas in compromising situations, including with his pants off — roasting his “chestnuts” — in front of a fireplace. The threads quickly made the rounds on social media, where shoppers expressed shock about Saint Nick’s antics.
[SOURCE: nypost.com]
‘BENSON,’ ‘STAR TREK’ ACTOR RENÉ AUBERJONOIS HAS DIED AT 79
René Auberjonois, a prolific actor best known for his roles on the television shows “Benson” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and his part in the 1970 film “M.A.S.H.” playing Father Mulcahy, has died. He was 79. The actor died Sunday at his home in Los Angeles of metastatic lung cancer, his son Rèmy-Luc Auberjonois told The Associated Press. René Auberjonois worked constantly as a character actor in several golden ages, from the dynamic theater of the 1960s to the cinema renaissance of the 1970s to the prime period of network television in the 1980s and 1990s — and each generation knew him for something different. For film fans of the 1970s, he was Father John Mulcahy, the military chaplain who played straight man to the doctors’ antics in “M.A.S.H.” It was his first significant film role and the first of several for director Robert Altman. For sitcom watchers of the 1980s, he was Clayton Runnymede Endicott III, the hopelessly highbrow chief of staff at a governor’s mansion on “Benson,” the ABC series whose title character was a butler played by Robert Guillaume. And for sci-fi fans of the 1990s and convention-goers ever since, he was Odo, the shape-shifting Changeling and head of space-station security on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”
[SOURCE: apnews.com]
JUICE WRLD SWALLOWED TONS OF PERCOCET TO HIDE FROM FEDS, COPS SAY
Juice WRLD might’ve made a fatal decision as law enforcement searched his private jet — swallowing a bunch of painkillers in an attempt to hide them from the feds. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … the pilot who was flying Juice’s private plane alerted authorities on the ground that the rapper’s entourage had guns on them — a big no-no in air travel. When they landed, FBI and FAA agents were waiting for Juice and company. We’re told at some point between the plane landing and the feds conducting their search … Juice was seen swallowing several Percocet pills in what people believed was an attempt to hide them. Our sources say the pills might’ve contributed to his death in a possible OD. An autopsy was performed on the rapper Monday, but additional testing, including toxicology, cardiac pathology and neuropathology is still needed before determining an official cause. BTW, we’ve also learned that paramedics spent 40 minutes treating Juice, primarily trying to get his heart to beat regularly. They eventually transported him, at 2:55 AM, to the hospital. They arrived at 3:06 AM and doctors at the hospital pronounced him dead.
[SOURCE: tmz.com]
ELON MUSK HITS TRAFFIC PYLON WITH NEW CYBERTRUCK AFTER DINNER IN MALIBU
Billionaire tech icon Elon Musk turned a lot of heads in Malibu, California on Saturday night when he showed up to a swanky restaurant in his new Tesla Cybertruck. But Musk’s night on the town included at least one embarrassing hiccup. The founder of Tesla and SpaceX hit a traffic pylon with his shiny new vehicle that some Twitter users joked was roughly the height of a small child. Musk was spotted at Nobu, one of the more expensive Japanese restaurants in L.A., where the new Cybertruck got a lot of attention on Saturday. According to celebrity news site TMZ the valets at Nobu decided to keep the truck front and center in the parking lot, where passersby stopped to get a peek at the new electric vehicle. At one point, Musk even came out of the restaurant with actor Edward Norton to show off his eye-catching vehicle. The Cybertruck was first unveiled at an awkward ceremony on November 21 where windows were shattered during a demonstration of how “bulletproof” the truck was, but this weekend’s blunder was arguably more cringeworthy. The Cybertruck doesn’t appear to have basic safety features yet like side mirrors and window wipers, which presumably hampered Musk’s ability to drive without hitting things. The vehicle’s strange shape leaves some bizarre blindspots, to say the least. And as anyone can see and hear from the video, the Cybertruck makes a loud “thud” noise as Musk hits the pylon. It’s almost comical, but apparently it wasn’t loud enough to make Musk stop his vehicle. Either that or he didn’t care.
[SOUREC: gizmodo.com]
IG REPORT: REVIEW OF FBI’S FISA WARRANT IN RUSSIA PROBE IS RELEASED
The Justice Department’s internal watchdog found the controversial surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser was riddled with errors, raising questions about its justification. The voluminous report, released Monday by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, identified 17 separate inaccuracies across three surveillance applications, effectively inflating the justification for monitoring former foreign policy adviser Carter Page starting in the fall of 2016. Horowitz, however, concluded the FBI was legally justified in launching its inquiry into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. There was no “documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the FBI’s decision to conduct these operations,” the report said. The 400-page report debunks claims by the president and his allies that political bias played a role in the FBI’s decision to investigate members of the Trump campaign for possible coordination with Russia. The inspector general also said there was “no evidence” the FBI placed any undercover sources or agents in the Trump campaign or had them attend campaign events. The criticism of the FBI’s surveillance activities, however, is central to the report’s findings and is likely to fuel new attacks from President Donald Trump and a cadre of Republican allies. Horowitz also singled out a former FBI lawyer for possible criminal investigation for altering a document related to the surveillance.
[SOURCE: usatoday.com]
FINLAND TO INAUGURATE WORLD’S YOUNGEST SITTING PRIME MINISTER
Finland’s transportation minister, Sanna Marin, will become the world’s youngest sitting prime minister when she’s sworn in this week. Marin, 34, was chosen by her Social Democratic Party after its leader, Antii Rinne, quit as prime minister, the BBC reported. Finland’s coalition government is made up of five parties, all led by women. Four of them are under the age of 35. Parliament is expected to confirm Marin as prime minister as soon as Tuesday, depending on how quickly other coalition parties name their ministers, according to The New York Times. She will become Finland’s youngest and third female prime minister. Former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb tweeted Monday, “My party is not in government, but I rejoice that the leaders of the five parties in government are female. Shows that #Finland is a modern and progressive country. The majority of my government was also female. One day gender will not matter in government. Meanwhile pioneers.”
[SOURCE: thehill.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.
Connect with us directly by emailing us at theconversationinbox@gmail.com or by simply visiting thisistheconversation.com.
