History/Evolution of Far Cry (2004-2018)
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President Trump drew international headlines last week for a botched handshake attempt with the Polish first lady after misreading that her extended hand was for him, when in fact it was for his wife Melania.
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| Photo: Trump Brigitte Macron Awkward Handshake |
And now less than a week after that awkward moment, Trump has suffered yet another bizarre handshake with another first lady -- this time with the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, Brigitte Marie-Claude Macron.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump were welcomed by their French counterparts on Thursday morning to kick off his second European trip in two weeks. The visit was set in motion by a call Macron made to discuss international relations, during which, he invited the U.S. leader to Bastille Day celebrations on July 14.
But when the time came for a photo opportunity between the two couples the Trumps, who have had previous physical interactions abroad dominate headlines, things appeared to start off a little shaky.
President Trump and President Macron shook hands, reinforcing U.S.-France relations on a world stage, following the pair's disagreement over Trump's decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord, but when Trump reached to shake hands with the French first lady he gave the internet another unusual sight.
Reaction of People at Twitter:
As Macron and Trump bid goodbye to first ladies, Trump looks Brigitte up and down. 'She looks great.. beautiful' https://t.co/4X7D6qGFCI— Adam Plowright (@ADAMPLOW) July 13, 2017
Live television. Trump just yanked Brigitte Macron's hand. What's wrong with this guy?! pic.twitter.com/zGiwc2wlzn— Arjun Sethi (@arjunsethi81) July 13, 2017
WATCH: POTUS to Mrs. Macron: "You're in such good shape. She's in such good physical shape. Beautiful." pic.twitter.com/DvJPF6aT5l— Yashar Ali (@yashar) July 13, 2017
Trump's revenge for the Macron handshake humiliation is to try to rip off the arm of the French first lady pic.twitter.com/HoaFRwD2WM— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) July 13, 2017
Here's that awkward handshake between Trump and France's Brigitte Macron. pic.twitter.com/5Ci6lAWuV6— Meg Wagner (@megwagner) July 13, 2017
Britain has a new unicorn.
Virtual reality startup Improbable announced Friday that it has raised $502 million in financing from investors including Japanese tech giant SoftBank.The investments value Improbable at more than $1 billion -- the threshold startups must surpass to be considered a unicorn.Improbable develops technology used in the creation of massive virtual worlds.
The company has created an operating system that allows developers to build virtual worlds and maintain them in the cloud. It allows gaming companies and studios to make big multiplayer games without spending money on hardware.
For the lead investor, however, the investment is more routine.
"SoftBank is a perfect partner for us, with many complementary investments in their portfolio," CEO Hermann Narula said in a statement.
SoftBank's investment arm has recently poured huge sums of money into several startups, moves designed to position the company for what CEO Masayoshi Son calls the coming information revolution.
The centerpiece of this effort is a $100 billion tech fund dubbed the SoftBank Vision Fund that will provide financing to emerging tech companies.The bulk of the tech fund's money is expected to come from the government of Saudi Arabia. Other backers include Apple (AAPL, Tech30) and Qualcomm (QCOM, Tech30).The investment in Improbable will not come from the Vision Fund, but could move to it in the future, Narula told Tech Crunch.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been released from prison, according to fighters who control the facility.
A statement from the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Battalion, a militia which controls Zintan, a mountainous region southwest of the capital Tripoli, said Saif al-Islam was released late on Saturday.
The most prominent of Gaddafi's sons, Saif al-Islam, 44, was captured in Zintan in November 2011 as he was fleeing to neighboring Niger after opposition fighters seized Tripoli.
Saif al-Islam, the most prominent of Gaddafi’s eight children, was sentenced to death in July 2015 by a court in Tripoli in a mass trial of former Gaddafi government officials.
He is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Since the Gaddafi's four-decade rule ended in 2011, Libya has struggled to establish basic institutions and rule of law, with militias and former fighters challenging the authority of the weak central government.
Nowhere else in the world can you hail a police car and snap a selfie with the driver.
Nowhere else in the world is that police car likely to be a Bugatti Veyron, Ferrarri FF or Lamborghini Aventador.
This is Dubai, where the police force has just been presented with a certificate by Guinness World Records for having the world's fastest police car in service -- a Bugatti Veyron -- just one of its 14-strong fleet of supercars.
A fleet of luxury supercars may sound outlandish, but it fits perfectly with the ethos of Dubai.
In a city where to turn heads your Bentley or Rolls Royce needs to be wrapped in gold, it seems normal for the police force to have a suite of supercars at its disposal.
The fleet includes a bespoke Aston Martin One-77, of which only 77 were ever built, a Bentley Continental GT, three hybrid Porsche Panameras and two BMW i8s.
Dubai's tour de force
But the flagship of the fleet is the Veyron, with a staggering top speed of 253 mph (407 km/h).Its 16-cylinder engine produces 1,000 horsepower, sending it from 0 to 60mph in just two and a half seconds.
The previous record holder belonged to the Italian police force -- the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, which has a top speed of 230 mph (370 km/h).
But Dubai's police superfleet isn't used for high-speed chases down Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard, or very many police duties at all for that matter. Instead, the cars cruise around the Dubai Mall area and Jumeirah Beach Residence in search of tourists and attention.
While multilingualism and good communication skills are requirements for the job, drivers also need to have a good sense of humor. Sultan says people often jokingly ask the police to arrest them, so they get to ride in the cars.
Selecting the supercars
The Dubai police has been using its superfleet as a marketing opportunity since 2013 when it first introduced the Lamborghini Aventador."It was a big hit for us to market our city and our police force," said Sultan.
Since the beginning, car makers have been vying for a spot on the fleet, which they see as an opportunity to market their own brand, according an executive from a premium car manufacturer.
"It's very prestigious to have the Dubai police as your customer, and it's something that all the dealerships will fight for," he said. "Once you've spent many years trying to get into a fleet, you want to stay in. And everybody else is trying to get in."
Glenne Headly was a very serious actress with a gift for comedy. That’s how Anna D. Shapiro, artistic director of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Co., remembered the theater’s longtime ensemble member, who died Friday at the age of 62.
“Glenne was a very, very serious actor and one of the hardest-working people I’ve ever worked with,” Shapiro told Variety. “She was a total perfectionist and she was obsessed with the science of acting comedy…She would focus on what it was that made something true, and by that uncovering why it was funny.”
Headly joined the famed Chicago theater company in 1979, five years after it was founded by Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry. Even after Headly moved to the West Coast to work in movies and TV, she maintained a regular presence in Steppenwolf productions through 2005. She won Chicago’s local Joseph Jefferson Awards for her work in productions of “Say Goodnight, Gracie,” “Balm in Gilead,” “The Miss Firecracker Contest,” and “Coyote Ugly.”
Steppenwolf has been a career springboard for numerous prominent actors, including Laurie Metcalf, John Malkovich, Joan Allen, Moira Harris, Tom Irwin, Gary Cole and John Mahoney. Headly’s six-year marriage to Malkovich ended in divorce in 1988.
Headly bowed out of Steppenwolf in 2005 to focus her attention on raising her son. But she returned to work with them after just a few years. Headly had most recently worked with Shapiro on Broadway in Larry David’s 2015 play “Fish In the Dark,” which Shapiro directed.
“She was a comic monster,” Shapiro said. “A couple of times she would say to Larry: ‘I’ll show you what’s funny,’ ” Shapiro recalled.
Headly never became a marquee star in film or TV but she had incredible presence on stage, enhanced by the distinctive pitch of her voice. “You couldn’t take your eyes off of her or your ears off of her,” Shapiro said. “She was absolutely enchanting. You felt like some kind of fairy queen was talking to you — a fairy queen who could kick your ass.”
Off stage, Headly was down to earth and a devoted mother to her son, Stirling. Shapiro had recently exchanged text messages with the actress about the possibility of her appearing in the Steppenwolf production of “The Minutes.” Shapiro sent her the play but there was a miscommunication along the way on the role that Headly was offered. She’d mistakenly been given the name of a character that has only a few lines.
“Anyone else of her stature would have been insulted,” Shapiro said. “With Glenne, she immediately went to a discussion of how she could best play that part.”
Headly’s roots were in theater but she was the type of performer who loved to work in any medium — she was no legit snob. Her recent TV credits ranged from HBO’s “The Night Of” (she played the high-priced defense attorney Alison Crowe) to guest shots on “Parks and Recreation,” “CSI,” “Psych,” “The League” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” She had a recurring role on USA’s “Monk,” as the wife of Ted Levine’s police captain. Earlier in her career, she logged a recurring role on NBC’s “ER.”
“She loved the TV shows she’d been doing,” Shapiro said. “She was having a blast with everything she was doing.”
At the time of her death, Headly was in production on the sci-fi comedy series “Future Man,” for Hulu and Sony Pictures TV. Producers, which include Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, said Headly’s role would not be recast and she would remain in the five episodes completed to date.
“She was funny, interesting, warm, smart, engaging and very, very talented,” the producers of “Future Man” said in a statement.
“Working with her was both an honor and a pleasure. She will be sorely missed.”
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