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:
ROYAL BALLET STAR LIAM SCARLETT, 35, FOUND DEAD AMID INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR ALLEGATIONS
Internationally-renowned choreographer Liam Scarlett has died at the age of 35. Scarlett had been suspended from The Royal Ballet amid allegations of inappropriate behaviour with male students. Scarlett was the youngest choreographer to have a full-length ballet commissioned by the company. Scarlett’s position with The Royal Ballet ended last year, when the Royal Opera House, which is home to the Royal Ballet Company, said that an independent investigation into Scarlett had concluded. The artist-in-residence was investigated over claims of sexual misconduct involving students. The allegations sent shockwaves through the ballet world, with Australia’s Queensland Ballet among those to cut ties with Scarlett.
[SOURCE: mirror.co.uk / ENGAGEMENT: 29.90%]
SEAHAWKS DE ALDON SMITH IS WANTED BY LOUISIANA POLICE FOR AN ALLEGED SECOND-DEGREE BATTERY ON APRIL 17
The St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office released a bulletin saying Smith is wanted in connection with an alleged battery that took place on April 17 at the French Press Coffee House in Chalmette, a suburb of New Orleans. Travers Mackel of WDSU reported law enforcement officials said the altercation was captured on video. Smith, 31, signed with the Seahawks last week after spending the 2020 season with the Dallas Cowboys. He had missed the previous four seasons amid a suspension for violations of the NFL’s substance abuse and personal conduct policies. Smith has been arrested multiple times for driving under the influence, illegal possession of assault weapons and allegations of domestic assault, among other charges. Any further off-field issues may result in Smith again seeing his football career placed in jeopardy.
[SOURCE: bleacherreport.com / ENGAGEMENT: 10.64%]
EUROPEAN SUPER LEAGUE: SOCCER IN DISARRAY AS 12 CLUBS FORM BREAKAWAY
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham have linked up with six European clubs – three from Spain and three from Italy – to create a rival competition to the Uefa Champions League, European soccer’s current elite tier. It is anticipated three more clubs will join the breakaway group as founding members with the new competition, which will begin ‘as soon as practicable’ to eventually feature 20 teams. A joint statement read: ’12 of Europe’s leading football clubs have today come together to announce they have agreed to establish a new midweek competition, the Super League, governed by its founding clubs. The timing of the announcement is incendiary coming ahead of an anticipated announcement from Uefa confirming changes to the Champions League format on 19th April. The European governing body is expected to approve an increase from 32 to 36 teams from 2024 with the existing structure of eight groups of four replaced by one league. The format, known as the ‘Swiss model’, would see all teams play ten games in the first stage with opponents determined by a seeding system. The statement from the 12 clubs makes clear they do not believe these proposed changes go far enough.
[SOURCE: sportspromedia.com / ENGAGEMENT: 5.61%]
LAUREN BOEBERT HUMILIATES HERSELF WHILE TRYING TO COMPARE MARXISM AND PONZI SCHEMES
Rep. Boebert showed in a one-sentence tweet that she doesn’t know the meaning of Marxism or a Ponzi scheme. One suspects that Boebert thinks socialism and Marxism are the same. They aren’t. Secondly, Boebert doesn’t know what a Ponzi scheme is. A Ponzi scheme is not a redistribution of wealth, which would be socialism, not Marxism. Ponzi schemes thrive on capitalism and the idea of some sort of market inefficiency that can lead to big returns on investments. A Ponzi scheme is a form of financial fraud. Not only does Boebert’s comparison not work, but it the equivalent of gibberish. Boebert also voted against bone marrow for cancer patients because she likely believes that the national bone marrow registry is either Marxist or Ponzi scheme. Her tweet would be funny if her ignorance were not so potentially deadly to the American people.
[SOURCE: politicususa.com / ENGAGEMENT: 3.43%]
7-YEAR-OLD GIRL SHOT AND KILLED IN MCDONALD’S DRIVE-THRU IN CHICAGO
A 7-year-old girl is dead and her 29-year-old father hospitalized after they were shot in a McDonald’s drive-thru on Chicago’s West Side, CBS Chicago reported. Late Sunday, police said the shooter or shooters were still on the loose. It was part of another gunfire-filled weekend in Chicago in which at least two people died, including the little girl, and 22 were wounded, according to CBS Chicago. The station says a Chicago police officer rushed Jaslyn Adams to a hospital after she was found in a bullet-ridden car sitting in a McDonald’s drive-thru. She was pronounced dead at the hospital. Investigators said Jaslyn was hit multiple times around her body. Family members said her father, Jontae Adams, 29, was also hit. Chicago Police said he was shot in the upper body. He was taken to the same hospital as his daughter and was reported in serious condition and is expected to survive. At least 30 shell casings surrounded the vehicle after the shooting at 4:18 p.m., CBS Chicago said. The tinted windows on one side were shot out. There were bullet holes in the frame and back window, as well.
[SOURCE: cbsnews.com / ENGAGE<ENT: 3.27%]
DALLAS MEDIA PERSONALITY AND ANIMAL LOVER JOCELYN WHITE DIES AT 68
Longtime Dallas media personality Jocelyn White, who had her own successful television show, Designing Texas, died on April 18 following a short illness; she was 68. White was an award-winning TV, radio, and print journalist and a fixture on the local charity scene with a passion for animals, including her horse Fabio, three rescued Pugs, and a Chihuahua. She volunteered on the boards of a number of animal charities, most recently Equest, for which she served as chairman of the board of directors. She was also chairman of the board of directors for the SPCA of Texas from 2013-2015. Born March 9, 1953, in Crossett, Arkansas, White graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and English. She rose to fame in Dallas’ local media scene in roles such as weather reporter for Channel 4, where she began working in 1981. She went on to create a number of TV shows including Jocelyn’s Weekend, Texas Country Nights, HotOn!Homes, Designing Texas, and Designing America for Mark Cuban’s HDNet. In addition to television, White had a successful radio career that included working for Ron Chapman at KVIL radio and with Kidd Kraddick for the first two years of his Kidd Kraddick Morning Show on KISS FM. From 1988-1991, she was host of a weekly morning show called Sunday Morning with Jocelyn White on KVIL-FM.
[SOURCE: dallas.culturemap.com / ENGAGEMENT: 3.02%]
BRITAIN TO ADD INDIA TO COVID-19 TRAVEL RED-LIST
Britain will add India to its travel “red-list” on Friday after detecting 103 cases of a coronavirus variant first identified in the country, health minister Matt Hancock said on Monday. “We’ve made the difficult but vital decision to add India to the Red List. This means anyone who is not a UK or Irish resident or a British citizen cannot enter the UK if they’ve been in India in the previous 10 days. UK and Irish residents and British citizens who’ve been in India in the past 10 days before their arrival will need to complete hotel quarantine for 10 days from the time of arrival,” Hancock told parliament. The move was taken as a precaution while the variant first identified in India was assessed. Asked whether vaccines being rolled out in Britain worked against the variant, Hancock said he could not give that assurance but was looking to establish an answer as soon as possible.
[SOURCE: reuters.com / ENGAGEMENT: 2.85%]
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE TO INTRODUCE RESOLUTION TO EXPEL MAXINE WATERS FROM CONGRESS
GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) announced on Sunday that she plans to introduce a resolution to expel Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.) from Congress. Greene in a statement on Sunday said that she will “be introducing a resolution to expel Rep. Maxine Waters from Congress for her continual incitement of violence.” The Republican lawmaker specifically targeted Waters for speaking to protesters at a demonstration in Brooklyn Center, Minn., on Saturday. Protests broke out in the city last week after police fatally shot 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop on April 11. Waters told reporters on Saturday that she is “going to fight with all of the people who stand for justice,” adding, “We’ve got to get justice in this country, and we cannot allow these killings to continue,” Fox News reported. Asked about former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s trial, Waters told reporters that if Chauvin is not found guilty, “we’ve got to stay on the street, and we’ve got to get more active. We’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business,” according to Fox News, in addition to making other comments on the trial and police brutality in the U.S. Greene on Sunday claimed that Waters’s comments “led to more violence and a drive by shooting on National Guardsmen in Minnesota early this morning.” The Hill has reached out to Waters’s office for comment.
[SOURCE: thehill.com / ENGAGEMENT: 2.76%]
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 the past day.
A full weeks’ data (from Friday to Friday) is compiled, weighed, and sorted to produce the content for the Weekly Wrap-Up with J Cleveland Payne, published every Saturday as a podcast available at ThisIsTheConversation.com or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.
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