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Donald Trump is a billionaire, or claims to be. The last opponent he is expecting to face in the 2020 presidential election is someone even richer. But one of the more unusual clusters in the putative Democratic field is the billionaire boys club: former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, hedge fund investor and activist Tom Steyer and former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz. Estimated combined wealth: $50bn. If any or all decide to run, they will have a massive spending advantage over conventional politicians and be at liberty to carpet-bomb crucial primary states with advertising. But their deep pockets are also likely to produce a visceral reaction from leftwing activists likely to favour warriors against economic inequality such as Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. “I don’t think Michael Bloomberg is going to win Democracy for America’s endorsement anytime soon given his connections to Wall Street,” said Neil Sroka, spokesman for the progressive group. “It’s going to be hard for any of the billionaires given concerns over the influence the wealthy have over our politics.” A recent straw poll by another liberal advocacy group, MoveOn, was led by Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke on 15.6%, with Sanders and Warren in the top five. Bloomberg ranked eighth on 2.71%, with Steyer in 23rd place on 0.28% and Schultz tied for 32nd and last place on 0.1%. But these are early days and corporate titans can buy name recognition. Schultz, 65, reportedly plans to travel the country early next year to promote a book entitled From the Ground Up: A Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America. Bloomberg, a businessman who recently re-registered as a Democrat, and Steyer spent heavily in the midterms to help Democrats regain the House of Representatives. Earlier this month they were on the ground in the key states of Iowa and South Carolina. Both have political causes that could make them stand apart from a highly crowded field. It’s going to be hard for any of the billionaires given concerns over the influence the wealthy have over our politics Bloomberg, 76, vowed to make climate change the defining issue of the Democratic primary campaign, despite potential resistance in states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, where Trump won in 2016 by promising to resurrect the coal industry. Whereas climate change was not even mentioned in the Hillary Clinton v Trump debates in 2016, there is a growing clamour for it to be treated as a global emergency. Steyer, 61, held a roundtable discussion in Charleston focused on voting rights in the first southern primary state. Like Bloomberg, he has spent millions of dollars promoting awareness of climate change. But he is best known for his dogged effort to bring about Trump’s impeachment in defiance of Democratic leaders who regard the strategy as too risky. Nearly 6.5 million people have signed up to his Need to Impeach website, handing him an email list that could prove invaluable in an election campaign. Steyer described Trump as “the most corrupt president in American history who is a basic threat to our system and our safety and to the constitution itself”, the Associated Press reported. He said many Democrats and Republicans “don’t think it’s good for their careers to talk about that”. The events of recent days, in which prosecutors connected Trump to the federal crime of paying hush money to two women during an election campaign, and special counsel Robert Mueller nailed fresh details of his team’s contacts with Russia, have fuelled demands for impeachment and suggested that Steyer could find himself on the right side of history. Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution thinktank in Palo Alto, California, said: “The 2020 Democratic field is not unlike a game of Monopoly; it’s a question of what property do you own … You have to look at this through the lens of Democratic primary voters: Steyer has beat the others to punch on impeachment.” Whalen added: “Schultz has been quietly reaching out to policy types. If it’s Goldilocks and the Three Bears, he is the coolest porridge, Steyer is the hottest and Bloomberg is the middle.” But while the three are more than a match for Trump at business, they cannot claim to be reality TV stars. “You have to ask yourself, while these guys are fabulously wealthy, are they interesting?” Whalen said. “None of them has the intrigue or scandal or celebrity that Trump has. Put Steyer and Schultz and Bloomberg in front of an audience in Iowa and tell me which one connects. “It has to be Steyer because of his message to hang them high. It’s not Bloomberg talking about what he did for infrastructure in New York. There’s a lot in Bloomberg’s record in New York that won’t please Democratic activists.” One example is Bloomberg’s policy of having police stop people on the street to search them for guns, an approach that largely affected men of colour. In 2013, a federal district judge ruled that stop-and-frisk had been carried out in an unconstitutional manner, but Bloomberg continues to insist that stop-and-frisk did not infringe civil rights. He is socially liberal but fiscally conservative, a free trader with views on banking regulation that are anathema to the left. He told ABC’s The View that he thinks most Democrats want a “middle-of-the-road” strategy with a pragmatist in the White House. His support for immigration and gun control are not likely to be enough to win over the progressive wing. Dave Handy, a New York-based political consultant and organiser, said: “The momentum in the party is circling back towards Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Tulsi Gabbard, even folks who want to brand themselves as progressives like Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris. It would be hard for a guy like Michael ‘stop-and-frisk’ Bloomberg or Tom Steyer to come out and say: ‘I’m a progressive.’ “If Bloomberg tries to present himself as on the left on healthcare with the soda ban [a failed attempt to limit sales of jumbo sugary drinks], that’s precisely the wrong type: it’s what conservatives like to call the nanny state.” Wealth is not necessarily disqualifying: former Democratic presidents such as Franklin Roosevelt and John F Kennedy hailed from American aristocracy. But amid deep scepticism about the corrosive effects of money in politics, and as more and more candidates say they will reject corporate donations from political action committees, the timing is unfortunate. None of the billionaires has yet thrown his hat in the ring. But Bloomberg is actively considering it, while it emerged recently that Steyer is using an anonymous LinkedIn page to advertise vacant “state director” jobs in Nevada, South Carolina and New Hampshire. Schultz is keeping a lower profile: he joined Twitter in September 2012 but is yet to tweet. Bob Shrum, a Democratic strategist who was an adviser to the Al Gore and John Kerry presidential campaigns, urged: “They could be formidable but they’d better not wait around. They have to start on the ground in Iowa and New Hampshire and not assume buying ads will be enough. Their money is a huge advantage, although Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Beto O’Rourke can raise huge amounts. Bloomberg can have a fundraising breakfast with himself.” —The Guardian

Expatriate communities residing in different parts of Doha, including Barwa Al Baraha Industrial area, Asian Town, Labour City, Al Khor and Shahaniya recently celebrated Qatar National Day. The celebrations were organised by Minister of Interior (MoI) Public Relations Department. The members of expatriate communities, including Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh presented cultural performances, including thematic parade and Qatar national song. The performances highlighted the importance of opportunities given by Qatar to the expatriate communities living in Doha.  The members of Indian community presented a free style dance sequences on Hindi, Malayalam, Punjabi and Tamil songs, which was followed by a flash mob for the audience. Nepali expatriates also performed at the event. They presented dance performances, including folk, contemporary and modern dance forms. Resham Basnet and Birendra Sunar, Nepali singers, also performed at the event.  The artistes from Nepalese Cultural Centre, including Yogen Magar, Saran Magar, Rabin Magar, Samita Magar, Salina Tamang and Chadani Rai also performed at the event along with Non Resident Tamang Society artistes, including Asmita Tamang, Kalpana Tamang, Sirchen Tamang and Sarmila Tamang and led by Sirchen Tamang. Other artistes, including Kirat Yakthung Chumlung Dipendra Rai, Bijyan Rai, Kalpana Kumari Rai, Gyanu Rai, Ekmaya Rai, Shyam Kumar Rai, Hutaraj Rai, Saran Kumar Rai and Prativa Rai performed Sakela dance.  The dancers from Tamu Society that performed at the event, including Bishnu Gurung, Pratisya Gurung, Silla Gurung, Bishanu Gurung, Lil Bahadur Gurung and Sangita Gurung.  The performance by Sri Lankan artistes highlighted the importance of water for the crop harvest.

The Embassy of Qatar in Nepal recently marked Qatar National Day celebrations under the theme of ‘Promise of Prosperity and Glory’ in Kathmandu. Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nepal, was the chief guest at the event. Yusouf bin Mohamed al-Hail, Ambassador of Qatar, welcomed the gathering.  The event kicked off with the anthems of Qatar and Nepal, which was followed by a cake cutting ceremony.  While addressing the gathering, the ambassador said, “Our bilateral relations are prospering continuously. The two countries also have abundance of natural resources. Therefore, there are various opportunities and ideas to strengthen the bilateral co-operation in different fields, including trade, investment, agriculture, tourism and hydropower. The event was attended by notable personalities, including government officers, heads of diplomatic missions and parliamentarians.

The idea of Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier’s The House That Jack Built is the most exciting thing about it. Can the notorious provocateur prince of international art cinema use the forensic procedural of a serial killer story to interrogate his internalised misogyny and the complicated relationship to women within his own artistic practice? Alas, it remains largely just that — a provocative idea executed with a halfhearted commitment. Von Trier earned his reputation with such works of formal invention and transgressive thematic daring as Breaking the Waves and Dancer In the Dark that could shock and move audiences in equal measure. But as his compulsive need for public provocation began to overwhelm the merits of his artistic output, he has become more of a willful outsider. He managed to self-immolate one of his richest films, 2011’s Melancholia, by making off-the-cuff Nazi jokes during a Cannes Film Festival news conference. His latest movie shows that his lesser tendencies still have him in their grip, as the film revels in grisly violence and wan philosophical digressions. Jack premiered at Cannes this year and also screened in recent one-off engagements in its ultra-violent director’s cut. The movie receives its official theatrical release in an R-rated version that is five minutes shorter. Von Trier has spoken about his struggles with depression, and it seems that every film he makes nearly breaks him, which may partly explain the sense of diminishing returns across his last few films. At one point in Jack, Von Trier includes images from some of his films, in case anyone was wondering who he considers to be the real star of the movie. The story revolves around Jack (Matt Dillon), an engineer who wants to be an artist in Washington State, over a 12-year period in the 1970s and ‘80s. Jack’s real passion is murder, mostly of women. The film is structured around Jack telling his tale to Virgil (Bruno Ganz) while being led to hell, a nod to Dante’s Divine Comedy. The movie continually cuts back to archival footage of pianist Glenn Gould, pushing the notion that Jack is a frustrated artist attempting to bend the world to his will. (Von Trier is perhaps attempting to cryptically respond to/rationalise his reputation for being difficult to his performers.) Once the conversation turns to Albert Speer, Nazi architecture and Holocaust atrocity footage, it feels as if the filmmaker is looking to troll audiences. Dillon feels a bit lost for much of the movie, seemingly asked to play Jack as something of a blank slate, devoid of empathy or understanding and prone to frustrated rage. The way Dillon and Von Trier attempt to work in tandem brings to mind the recent collaboration between actor Ethan Hawke and filmmaker Paul Schrader on First Reformed, another instance of a onetime youthful heartthrob now in middle age and a writer-director who has at times seemed lost in his career. Yet Hawke and Schrader elevated and brought the best out of each other, while Dillon and Von Trier often seem confused and at odds. As Jack’s victims, Uma Thurman and Siobhan Fallon Hogan aren’t given much to do, while Sofie Grabol makes a stronger emotional impression as a woman attempting to protect her sons. Riley Keough is allowed to seem like the fullest character in the movie as a woman coming to realise her fate. If Keough’s character, or any of Jack’s victims, had been given more consideration by Von Trier’s storytelling, it would provide a welcome counterbalance to Jack’s egomaniacal musings and rantings, giving the movie a stronger core and its examination of Jack’s self a clearer focus. The House That Jack Built is a disappointment for many reasons, not least of them being that it is not a total and utter failure. Then one could just dismiss it outright and be done with it. But Von Trier has managed to cobble together just enough of interest — odd moments, pieces of performance, stray ideas and the simple audacity of putting this mess out into the world, that it feels like there may be something there worth considering, a maddening possibility. And that may be his cruelest prank of all. – Los Angeles Times/TNS

Kangana Ranaut, who took over the reigns as director of her forthcoming film Manikarnika – The Queen of Jhansi, says directing a film is like leading a worker’s life, but she had fun while she was at it. Kangana interacted with the media at the trailer launch of Manikarnika – The Queen of Jhansi along with her co-actors Ankita Lokhande, Mishti and Suresh Oberoi, as well as producer Kamal Jain, writer K.V. Vijayendra Prasad and music composers Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy on Tuesday. The Queen star stepped into the film’s original director Krish’s shoes after he departed the project due to what has been blamed on scheduling conflicts and creative differences. Asked whether she wants to pursue direction in the future as well, she said: “I was telling my sister yesterday, I don’t know what it is about me that I really love working as a technician as no actor wants to be out in the sun as opposed to being in the air conditioned van. “No actor wants to be sweaty where 80 people are asking you like 100 questions. No actor wants to do recce of locations when you can simply be in your luxury suite. I don’t know what it is about me that I am so comfortable in this job that there is nothing more that I love than directing, even though I don’t get to wear make-up and I don’t get any special treatment.” She added: “It is absolutely a worker’s life to be honest but there was something so amazing about this job. I don’t know why people consider it a job. It is just so much fun. I think acting is more like a job but directing is just like having fun. I hope I get more chances to do this and I hope I continue doing this because this seems like my first love.” In past interviews, Kangana had said it was her dream to play the role of Rani Laxmibai in her film career. How does it feel now that her dream is fulfilled? She said: “A lot of people tried to make it (film) and before Kamalji (Jain), there was another producer who had approached me for a similar subject. I worked on that script for two years as well, but then we didn’t get additional producer to produce the film and that project didn’t materialise. So, I had serious setbacks with this, but eventually we came up with this film. “Therefore, I feel today is a very special day for all of us because we have made it.” Asked if she has learnt anything new after playing the role of Rani Laxmibai or whether her perception about the warrior queen has changed after doing this film, she said: “I haven’t learnt as such after doing this film because we have heard so many stories about her since our childhood days. My only brief to our costume team or music team was that to match up to her legacy because it is too larger than life and nothing is good enough. The kind of stories we have heard about her bravery are absolutely amazing. “There is one scene in the film where she jumps off her fort with her child on her back and rides a horse but while doing that scene, we were literally drained... There is nothing which seems good enough. Therefore, I feel even if we can live up to the audience expectations, then it will be good enough.” The film, set for release on January 25, 2019, is produced by Zee Studios in association with Kamal Jain and Nishant Pitti. – IANS

A Qatari woman and a mother of four, paving her own way in the fields of modelling, acting, and script writing, an inspirational figure and an RJ on a local FM radio station, Zahra al-Ansari believes that a woman with all her duties and obligations can and should follow her dreams. She advises that women love themselves and cherish their dreams. Zahra recently celebrated Qatar National Day in her own style. She released a colourful video with the help of a technical team. Dressed in Qatar national colours, she is seen riding a horse in the desert.  The talented Zahra recently spoke to Community about motherhood and her journey through years.  Speaking about herself, she said, “I’m a graduate in Philosophy from the United States and I can converse in six languages, including Arabic, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Urdu/Hindi and Konkani, a regional language in India. I’m a mother of four.” Besides fulfilling her domestic and motherly duties, Zahra finds time for modelling, acting and broadcasting on a radio. She says, “I started working as an actor, model and RJ around three years ago only. I am also a social media blogger. Since the beginning, I have earned a lot of respect and appreciation on social media for my talent. As far acting is concerned, I have been a part of an Arabic drama serial that went on-air on Qatar Today TV. I have also acted in a small Hindi and Urdu shorts. “Apart from all that I’m also a writer. I’ve been a part of a short film Broken as its screen writer and actor. The film is in Arabic with English subtitles. Through the film, I have spoken for women who face discrimination all over the world. I also blog on fashion.” Zahra is also a model but she says that she does not do it for money. “I do modelling to support young and talented designers in Qatar, especially Qatari women designers. I also support make-up artists and those who deal in make-up accessories. I actually encourage women to follow their dreams in the areas of fashion and make-up.” Known as RJ Zoya, she runs a unique night show at 89.61 FM. She said, “The show Sowalif Tali El Lail is in Arabic, English and Urdu/Hindi. We’re mostly targeting Qataris.” With all these activities, Zahra has sort of become a role model for women in Qatar. “I have about 400,000 followers on my Facebook and Instagram pages. Women approach me with their problems and aspirations. Further, I have travelled many countries in the world. I see the kind of issues women face all over the world these days and these issues inspire me to motivate other women to pursue their dreams alongside their responsibilities and obligations.” My journey of inspiring other women started some three years ago. When I saw the sufferings of the women around the world, I decided to inspire them with my work and then with my words. I think even if I can bring a positive change in one person’s life, I would have been successful. I support empowerment of women. Life is not about giving it up but moving forward. The boundaries around a woman can be turned into opportunities.” She thinks that her country has helped her a lot in pursuing her dreams. “I love Qatar. It is a wonderful place. The country is all about being positive. Look, we welcome all kinds of religions, cultures and people and all live here in harmony and peace. As a woman, I am pursuing my dreams in my country. On the National Day, I came out and expressed my love for my country in a different way. It is a country where everyone with positive ideas can make headway.” She desires to continue inspiring other women with her works. “I plan to inspire and motivate as many women around the world as possible to go after their dreams and aspirations.”

Making time for exercise can be difficult because of work, family commitments  or cost. Poppy Noor shows how to squeeze it in, whatever your schedule Twenty seconds “Some people think if they can’t fit in a 60-minute gym routine, there’s no point,” says Steve Kamb, a fitness instructor and the founder of the training website NerdFitness. But, for many people, it takes a lot of courage just to get through the door to go for that first run. Giving yourself 20 seconds to be brave is a great stepping stone. Use it to Google a workout plan, or even just to walk into the gym and straight back out again, suggests Kamb. “It doesn’t matter if you finish the task just yet. Sometimes getting into the gym in the first place is the victory.” Thirty seconds Planking engages a number of muscles in the shoulders, back and stomach. Achieving a non-stop 30-second plank is harder than it looks, but planking helps to build a stronger core and improve posture and even flexibility. Muscle burns more calories than fat, so planking can help you to burn more calories even when you are not working out. A couple of BuzzFeed writers who resolved to plank every day for 30 days, building up to a plank of two minutes, saw improvements in muscle definition by the end of their trial. One minute Sprinting for as little as a minute each day can reduce body fat, build muscle and increase the rate at which your body burns calories while resting. Marathon runners regularly incorporate short bursts of sprinting into training, as in the Swedish technique fartlek, because it drastically improves speed and cardiovascular fitness so that people can exercise longer. Sprints should be broken into 20-second bursts, so that you are working flat out. One study of obese men showed that they improved leg power and oxygen uptake in only two weeks. Another found that one minute of sprint interval training, three times a week, had the same health benefits as 50 minutes of continuous moderate exercise, despite a five-fold lower time commitment (when taking into account the warm-up and cool-down). It is also one of the best abdominal workouts you can do — raising your leg at the 45-degree angle required for a proper sprint is equivalent to doing a crunch, and sprinters repeat this movement about 60 times in a 100-metre sprint. Three minutes If your goal is to one day do a pull up, starting with your grip strength could be an idea, because it is what determines whether you fall off the bar. “There’s nothing to stop you from picking up dumbbells and going for a walk,” says Kamb. He suggests carrying them like suitcases at your side, an exercise known as “the farmer carry”. Each week your grip strength will get a little better. Four minutes A four-minute workout could help you to silence the voice in your head that says: “I don’t want to work out.” Tabata workouts are made up of 20-second intervals of intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated eight times, totalling four minutes. “Often when people miss one workout, they feel they’ve lost all their gains. Tabata keeps up momentum and will sustain your muscle growth even when you can’t make it to the gym,” says Kamb. Five minutes Get ready for tomorrow’s workout tonight. “Put your alarm clock against the other side of the room, a glass of water by your bed, sleep in your gym kit and put your shoes by your bed,” says Kamb. His reasoning? Everyone wants to be as lazy as possible when it comes to exercising — if you are already in your workout clothes when you wake up, you have eliminated a major hurdle. Ten minutes Take the stairs — it is great for you. Research shows that stair-climbing improves cardiovascular health and fitness, reduces “bad” cholesterol and can result in moderate weight loss. “You are raising your weight against gravity. Even going slowly, it’s as intense as jogging,” says Dr Frank Eves, a senior research fellow in sport, exercise and rehabilitation sciences at the University of Birmingham. “Climbing four flights of stairs will get your heart rate working at up to 80% of its maximum capacity. When you’re feeling breathless, surprisingly, it’s because your muscles just got a little bit fitter. Do that regularly and you’ll start to see bigger increases.” But make sure you walk up — not down, he says: “We did a study where we put signs up saying ‘Take the stairs’ — but people just walked down. That defeats the point — climbing stairs is two to three times more strenuous.” Research has shown the health benefits for sedentary people of climbing 13 floors a day. Eves suggests spreading them throughout the day, at home or in coffee breaks at work. Thirty minutes Get off the bus or train a stop early and walk home. Researchers from Sheffield Hallam university looked into the benefits of walking for 30 minutes a day in three 10-minute bursts, compared with people fitting in the often recommended 10,000 steps a day. The 3,000-step walkers fared better. The researchers put this down to the intensity of the walks — so make sure your walk home is a brisk one. Forty-five minutes “Low-intensity steady state” cardio exercise (Liss) is essentially the opposite of high-intensity interval training (Hiit). It has cardiovascular benefits, as well as increasing and strengthening the legs. The advantage over Hiit is that you can do it for longer. One hour Health is as much about what you put in your mouth as it is how you move. Batch-cook your lunches for the coming week if you want to get ahead — when you are not hungry or rushed you will make healthier choices. Nine weeks This is enough time to complete the NHS’s Couch to 5K programme for absolute beginner runners. The programme builds up from walking to running 3.1 miles through three structured commitments a week and comes with a great podcast to keep you going. Sixty-six days It is often said it takes 21 days to form a habit. In fact, researchers at University College London who studied habit formation found that the average time for behaviour to become automatic was 66 days. If you want to improve your health, whether by drinking more water or eating a piece of fruit at lunch, try to stick with it for more than two months. Sixteen weeks If you can run 5km fairly easily, that is a good base to start training for a half-marathon. Training programmes tend to focus on building up to 13 miles over 12 to 16 weeks. Cancer Research UK has published various training timetables, starting with 20-minute runs. The developers of the Couch to 5K app have also created an app for first-time marathon runners called 26.2 Marathon Trainer. Six months to one year If applicable, quit smoking. Your lung capacity is a key part of exercising, as is your heart function and the transportation of oxygen through your blood — all of which are affected by smoking. It may take time — some research says quitters try an average of 30 times before stopping successfully — but it will be worth it. The risk of heart disease halves after a year without smoking and your lung function will improve, too. — The Guardian

Actor Sushant Singh Rajput has said that he was really happy with the audience response to his recently released film Kedarnath because whenever an audience appreciates a movie, then it encourages an actor to do better. Susuhant was interacting with the media at Star Screen Awards 2018 on Sunday. Director Abhishek Kapoor’s romance-drama Kedarnath features the actor opposite debutant Sara Ali Khan. It set against the backdrop of the disastrous 2013 Uttarakhand floods. The movie has managed to collect a total of Rs42 crore after the end of its first week. Talking about the film’s success, Sushant said: “I am really happy with the audience response to the film. When an actor’s work gets appreciated then it feels good because through that he gets an encouragement. “The kind of minute detail we have shown in the film, they are getting connected to it and appreciating it. As an actor or as a filmmaker, all we want is that whatever we wanted to say should reach towards the audience without any obstacle.” Sushant’s former girlfriend of six years Ankita Lokhande is also gearing up for her Bollywood debut in Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi. Last week, casting director Mukesh Chhabra shared her first look from the film on his Instagram and captioned it: “Here is the official look of actress Ankita Lokhande as Jhalkari Bai in her debut film – Manikarnik’a. A woman soldier in Rani Laxmibai’s army, Jhalkari Bai eventually rose to the position of an adviser to the Queen.” Sushant commented on the post: “It looks absolutely great Ankita. I am extremely happy to see this. May God bless you with lots of success and happiness.” Ankita replied” “Thank you Sushant. I wish you the same.” Talking about the incident, Sushant said on Sunday: “I saw the picture and I really liked it. I wanted to congratulate her on that so, I did it.” When asked Sushant whether he congratulated Ankita personally on her Hindi film debut, he said, “I am the same person on digital platform and in my real life so, whatever comment I made on that post was not to show off for people but I really wanted to congratulate her. She also replied to my comment then, I feel there wasn’t need for any separate conversation.” Sushant will be seen in Tarun Mansukhani’s Drive and Abhishek Chaubey’s Son Chiriya. – IANS

The Next Generation (TNG) School recently organised Qatar National Day Educational Fiesta with different colourful cultural and social awareness activities at its Ain Khaled campus. The mammoth event received active engagement from the school staff, students, families, Pakistani community and different departments of government of Qatar. The six-hour-long fiesta really engrossed the gathering. In the beginning, the audience stood up in respect for the national anthems of Qatar and Pakistan. The students performed on Arabic and Urdu songs. The girl guides and boy scouts earned applause for their performances. There were many stalls set up by different government departments on the occasion to raise awareness among the participants about different social and health issues. Hamad Medical Corporation had three stalls one each for blood donation, organ donation and Kulluna – workshop on child passenger safety. Further, Ministry of Interior’s staff provided information about community policing. The Drug Enforcement Department presented different gifts to the participants. Members of Qatar Red Crescent presented a demonstration about first aid and CPR on the stage. British Council provided the interested student with information about IELTS (International English Language Testing System) examination. Tebyan Education Services showcased 3D printer and 3Doodler. STEM xplorer offered slime activity for the children. SFQ Sport Academy arranged a soft play area and Lego robotics activity for the young children. Cando offered free activities such as balloon twisting and art activities. Molecular Science offered home science kits. Hexis Trading had a bookstall. McDonalds arranged free kids activities and mascot appearance, henna designing, games and face painting. Different outlets had their food stalls also placed at the school campus. Riyaz Ahmed Bakali, TNG Director, speaking on the occasion, said, “Everyone is celebrating Qatar’s national day. We are celebrating the day within our domain at the campus. Poets recite poetry, singers sing songs, and sports person attend different sport events. As an educational institute, we have organised the education fiesta. Education is a strategy of Qatar. Education is core element of Qatar’s 2030 vision. “We have set up different stalls mostly related to education. We are committed towards the quality education. We also want our students to be aware of their national identity as well as their close association with Qatar. We are celebrating the occasion to express our love and bond with Qatar. We have arranged an array of activities to inform, educate and entertain the participants. We have also highlighted cultures of Qatar and Pakistan through different stage performances.” Commodore Irfan Taj, Defence Attache at the Embassy of Pakistan to Qatar, was the chief guest on the occasion. Talking to Community, he said, “I appreciate TNG for organising such a mega festival on the eve of Qatar National Day. I also appreciate the role of the school in promoting education in Qatar. The school has been catering the students not only from Pakistani community but also from other communities in Qatar. All credit goes to the children who took part in different programmes and the organisers who put together different stalls. There are many opportunities in Qatar to obtain quality education. There are many world-renowned universities in Qatar. The government has put its best efforts in promoting education in Qatar. Education is the future of our children. We need to have best utilisation of the education facilities in Qatar. “As residents of Qatar, it is our duty to express solidarity with the host nation on their national day. To celebrate the occasion with young students has its particular significance. The young minds need to be aware of the Qatar’s history, culture and way of life.” Anwar Ali Rana, Chairman Sohni Dharti, organisation of Pakistani community living in Al Khor, said, “I particularly enjoyed the stage performances of Qatari and Pakistani songs presented by the young students. The participation of the community was overwhelming. “It is very necessary to celebrate the national day of the host country. It is our duty to take part in the celebrations. I am encouraged to see the great enthusiasm and interest shown by the Pakistani community.”

All of the lights are on Kanye West and Drake after a heated dispute between the rap stars spilled into the public. West unleashed dozens of tweets directed at his past collaborator on Thursday, including some claiming Drake had “threatened” him and that he owed him an apology for mentioning his line of Yeezy shoes in a song. The online mayhem began with West sharing a screenshot of a text he’d received, apparently from someone he works with, that reads, “Drake sent in a clearance request for Say What’s Real. Do you wanna clear?” Say What’s Real is a 2009 song by Drake that samples West’s track Say You Will, which would explain why Drake would need to request clearance from West to release it. Clearly, the request didn’t set with West. “Been trying to meet with you for 6 months bro,” West wrote in one of the earlier tweets of his outburst. “You sneak dissing on trav records and texting Kris talking bout how’s the family.” His mention of “Kris” appears to refer to West’s mother-in-law Kris Jenner, while “Trav” would refer to Travis Scott, a rapper who has collaborated with both West and Drake and is in a relationship with Jenner’s daughter Kylie. West also seemed to take issue with Drake rapping about Kanye’s popular sneakers, the Yeezy Boost 350s, in a verse on French Montana’s song No Stylist. “Yeah, keeping it G, I told her, ‘don’t wear no 350s around me,’” Drake raps in the song. West on Thursday wrote, “Still need that apology for mentioning the 350s and trying to take food out your idols kids mouths.” The father of three continued to say that he was not the one who informed fellow rapper Pusha T that Drake had secretly fathered a child. Pusha made headlines over the summer when he accused Drake of having a kid in his song The Story of Adidon. Shortly after that song was released, Pusha released an album, Daytona, produced by West, that also included a diss track that touched on the claims that Drake has used a ghostwriter. “I told you I ain’t tell Pusha about your son,” West tweeted Thursday. West added in a subsequent post that he hadn’t heard “any of the diss records” and that he’d “never intentionally try to hurt Drake.” He later wrote that Drake finally called him following the barrage of tweets. “Drake called trying to threatened (sic) me,” West wrote. “There would never be a drake without a Kanye west so never come out your mouth with a threat,” read another tweet from West. The Famous rapper added that he wasn’t going to clear Drake’s request. “How you gone be on Trav’s song coming at me,” West wrote. “Trav should have never allowed that.” All in all, West shared over 100 tweets during Thursday’s posting spree. Drake, meanwhile, cryptically shared a series of laughing-face emojis to his Instagram story Thursday night. West ended his rant by sharing multiple tweets preaching positivity. “All positive vibes,” he wrote. – New York Daily News/TNS

The beautiful Leslie Ann is a Camellia sasanqua that has had admirers bringing out their cameras for many years. It debuted in 1960, 58 years ago, thanks to nurseryman Ray Davis of Alabama. The next year in 1961 it won the coveted ‘Ralph Peer Camellia sasanqua award’. According to one website in Alabama it is one of two Camellias sasanqua to win the award twice. Camellia cultivars bloom at various times over a long season from late November through April. Flower size can be from a couple of inches up to 7 inches across. Camellia sasanqua is another commonly grown species. Plants in this species are called “sasanqua” to distinguish them from Camellia japonica. The growth habit of sasanquas is generally bushy when they are young, but as they age, many cultivars will eventually grow into lovely small trees 10 to 15 feet tall. As a horticulturist, it has always amased me when an old timer wins a coveted award. By old-timer, I am not talking the gardener though that might be appropriate, but, instead, I am referring to the plant. That probably pales in comparison though to Double Delight winning a coveted rose award when I was Director of the American Rose Society in the early 1990s. But when you think about a shrub hanging around for more than half a century all the while garnering prestigious awards, that truly is something extra special. Leslie Ann has done just that. In 2015 it was selected as a ‘Louisiana Super Plant’. In reality, though it has won much more than that, because in virtually every state where camellias can be grown Leslie Ann is still high on the recommended list. Leslie Ann Camellia sasanqua is, of course, an evergreen shrub offering you the opportunity to use it as part of the bones or structure in your landscape. You would love it even if it didn’t bloom. Striking, glossy deep green foliage on a shrub that reaches 8- to 10-feet tall and 4- to 6-feet wide makes it most worthy. It does bloom, however, opening to show a fully formal double, with white, and luscious raspberry pink margins. The flowers are seemingly produced for months from October through December. One of the attributes that you will notice however is that no matter the stage of bloom it seems to be drop-dead gorgeous. You will treasure it at all stages. Leslie Ann is cold hardy to zone 7 and makes as beautiful of a container plant as it does a specimen in the landscape. Grow Leslie Ann and I’m sure it will become your Super Plant too! Leslie Ann is recommended for full to part sun. Camellia sasanqua can tolerate a lot more sun than you would expect. Fertile, organic rich, acidic soil is best. Leslie Ann, Yuletide, and the October Magic series from the Southern Living Plant Collection, were the first shrubs planted in my new landscape and I can tell you they can thrive in heavier soil conditions but good drainage is paramount. When planting, make your holes 3 times the width of the pot and plant with the top of the rootball 1- to 2-inches above the soil surface. Don’t count on rain, water, and apply a good layer of mulch. Spring will be a great time to find them for sale and a terrific time to plant. These evergreen shrubs don’t get as much attention as their more popular cousin, the large-flowered common Japanese camellia, but they should. While I treasure them in the landscape, I am admiring them also growing in large mixed containers combined with Gold Mound chamaecyparis, purple leafed heuchera, lamiums and pansies for an amazing cool season display. If you live in an area that can grow camellias then, by all means, include the award-winning Leslie Ann sasanqua among your choices.– TNS

The art exhibition recently inaugurated at City Centre Rotana Doha will continue till December 20. The exhibition highlights Qatari talents and their creativity avidly displayed in their paintings. The artwork by four Qatari women is a reflection of their patriotism and love for their country. It is a tribute to the spirit of togetherness and unity on the occasion of Qatar National Day. From culture, Arabic calligraphy, old traditions, architecture, to the portraits of the members of the Royal Family, the exhibition features it all. The participating artists, include Hessa Kalla, Aldana al-Hawbash, Aisha Salem al-Abdallah and Mona al-Anbari. The opening ceremony of the exhibition was attended by notable personalities of the community, local media, art lovers, bloggers and influencers. Talking to Community, Hessa Kalla said, “I started painting when I was studying in the school. I have evolved as an artist and I try to keep improving my work with every exhibition and piece I create. I have taken part in various exhibitions locally, in neighbouring countries, and some international exhibitions in Europe. I got first prize in an art symposium that hosted 33 Asian countries in Bangladesh in 2014 as well.” About her work on display at the exhibition, she says, “Rotana is a well-known place. My three pieces exhibited here are a mesh of local Qatari culture and different other cultures in the world. They are abstract paintings featuring Arabic script and other scripts in abstract patterns.” Talking about the platforms for artists, available in Qatar, Hessa says, “There is a great support for the artists from the government and all the relevant institutes. I have always been supported by Katara, Ministry of Culture and Souq Waqif Art Centre. I have attended many exhibitions in Qatar. There are a lot of different platforms and galleries in specific for the artists to showcase their work.” She added, “All the participating artists are very happy to be here. The exhibition has provided us yet another opportunity to exhibit the true picture of Qatar to the foreign visitors.” Speaking about the event to Community, Sena Catak, Director of Marketing and Communications at City Centre Rotana Doha, said, “This exhibition is to express solidarity with Qatar on the Qatar National Day. We feel proud to host the exhibition featuring local artists. This is our tradition at the hotel to support the local talent, both Qataris and expatriates. The exhibition is open for public. We want every visitor to come and enjoy the artworks featuring Qatar and its cultural heritage.” “This time we are featuring the works of the female artists only. We want to emphasise on the power of women. We wanted to provide them a platform to reach out to a wider audience. We are expecting all the art lovers in Doha to visit the exhibition,” she said. Martin Kendall, General Manager at City Centre Rotana Doha, inaugurated the exhibition. Speaking on the occasion, he said, “Today we celebrate a group of creative Qatari artists who are keen to share their love and passion for the State of Qatar through the exhibition that showcases their fabulous art work to coincide with the the country’s preparations to mark the National Day. These Qatari artists are sharing their vision and imagination by relating their paintings with inspirational personalities, heritage and the Qatari culture”. “At City Centre Rotana Doha we are keen to support talent in general and Qataris in particular. This art exhibition is yet another initiative by the hotel to encourage all talents by providing them the perfect environment and platform that matches their outstanding artworks,” he added.

 Qatar is fast becoming a hub of sports activities as the government promotes and supports all sorts of physical activities and encourages the expatriate communities to take part in different events. Qatar Table Tennis Association (QTTA), in collaboration with Indian Sports Centre (ISC), recently organised a two-day long Inter Community Table Tennis Tournament at Qatar Table Tennis Training Centre. Philippines bagged Doha Bank Challengers Trophy, overall champions, in the second tournament of its kind and India remained the runners-up. As many as 200 players and teams from 15 different countries participated in the tournament. The participating countries, included Qatar, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Egypt, Indonesia, Lebanon, Philippines, Bangladesh, Ghana, Syria, Malaysia, Tunisia, Iraq, and Sri Lanka. The players and teams, both males and females, were divided into different age categories. Different countries exhibited extra-ordinary performance in both team and individual competitions and won laurels for their communities. In the team championship for U-18 boys, Iraq bagged the winner title which was followed by Qatar as the runners- up. In the team championship for men category, between 18 to 40 year, Lebanon won the title and Pakistan was the runners-up. In the team championship for men, above 40 year, Egypt won the winning title, which was followed by the Philippines with second position. In the team championship for women category, above 18 year, the Philippines got the first position and India was the runners-up. Besides the team competitions, individual players also played in the categories of men, women, boys, and girls of different age groups. In U-18 boys category Karim Yasser from Qatar bagged first position while, Abdul Wahab from Iraq was the runners-up. In the U-18 girls, Mithila Sunil of India won the title and Hrithika also from India bagged the runners-up position. In the men’s singles for the category of age 18 to 40 year, Rock El Hakim of Lebanon got first position and Awais Ahmed of Pakistan got the second position. In the men category, above 40, Saad Omar of Iraq was the winner and Hisham Noor of Egypt remained the runners-up. In the women category, above 18, Anna Criselle form the Philippines bagged the winning title and Cecela Tan of Indonesia remained the runners-up. The tournament was opened with a spectacular show of march past. All players of the participating countries marched with their national flags.  The organisers also released colourful balloons in the sky. Many notable personalities attended the event, including Kim Chang-Mo, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea; Ali Sultan al–Muftah, General Secretary of QTTA; and C K Krishnan of Doha Bank, along with ISC representatives and different community leaders. Artistes from Indian and Korean communities also presented group dances. A yoga expert from the Embassy of India presented an artistic yoga demonstration. Speaking on the inaugural ceremony, Nilangshu Dey, ISC President, said, “I extend my gratitude to QTTA for providing the opportunity and organising the tournament for all expatriate communities. I assure you that we will continue to organise such tournaments in future to promote table tennis among all expatriates living in Qatar. This is the second edition of the tournament. The number of players in the first edition were 180. The numbers have increased and we hope for more and more players from all expatriate communities to take part in the nest tournaments.” Ali Sultan al-Muftah said, “I am very happy to see the players from different communities in Qatar taking part in the tournament. From the players of different age groups and different countries, we may be able to find future table tennis players to play for Qatar national team. We will try to make this a yearly tournament. I appreciate ISC for initiating the idea of community table tennis tournament.” He added, “Qatar Open Table Tennis Championship will be held in March next year. I urge all the expatriates to attend the tournament. The expatriate players also need to become a part of Qatar Veteran Committee and attend the upcoming international event.” The prize distribution ceremony was attended by P Kumaran, Ambassador of India, besides the QTTA General Secretary and the representatives of ISC.

Before I tell you how much I love Michelle Obama, let me tell you what I have against her. The former first lady is a woman capable of muddying your stance on things you stood firmly against. First on the list is the very concept of a first lady. Just think about this. For feminists, or anyone frankly with a 21st-century grasp of gender equality, it is a highly troublesome concept. It is a position that involves a woman – no matter the glorious complexity, glittering accomplishment or human drama of her prior life – being shoehorned into a role that is, by definition, about the man to whom she is married. Her role has never been defined, because, I suspect, to do so would involve the awkward truth — that it’s essentially to make her husband look good. First ladies both feed into, and reflect, our patriarchal values, and so, in this world still so intolerant of female domination, making their husbands look good inevitably involves diminishing themselves, and a decoupling from their own achievements, so as not to outshine the president. Michelle is both the ultimate first lady and has also, which is the second issue, been folded into a narrative of the American dream. This is problematic from a black perspective because, as Malcolm X so pithily expressed it, “I don’t see any American dream. I see an American nightmare.” Michelle’s role has been in the American dream of both the future, and the past. It’s often remarked that African Americans are the only Americans who do not have any “good ole days”. Because which period of American history could they be nostalgic for? The state sponsored terror of slavery, and segregation? The long, painful battle for civil rights? Or the enduring economic disadvantage and racism that all three left behind? But it is precisely amid the dark chaos of these conundrums that we find the irresistible light of Michelle Obama. In Becoming — the first book that tells her story from her own perspective — she reveals that her life is a form of alchemy. Her childhood, growing up on the South Side of Chicago, is recalled with an essentially American kind of wholesomeness: a strong nuclear family of four, sharing a one-bed apartment upstairs while the one below was occupied by her piano teacher great aunt Robbie. Her family worked hard and kept things moving upwards. If Michelle were British, this would be a class tale. She describes herself in her early years as “the striver”. Later, campaigning for the first time with her husband, she recounts the moment she realised that her task is mainly to share this story with “people who despite the difference in skin colour reminded me of my family – postal workers who had bigger dreams just as (her grandfather) Dandy once had; civic-minded piano teachers like Robbie; stay-at-home moms who were active in the PTA like my mother; blue-collar workers who’d do anything for their families, just like my dad. I didn’t need to practice or use notes. I said only what I sincerely felt.” The writer Ta-Nahesi Coates, present at one of these events, was so taken aback by her account of an “idyllic youth” that he “almost mistook her for white”, comparing her, he writes in his book We Were Eight Years in Power, to “an old stevedore hungering for the long-lost neighbourhood of yore”. “In all my years of watching black public figures,” he said, “I’d never heard one recall such an idyllic youth.” In a book that takes a high moral ground, the political process is the only thing Michelle allows herself to freely insult. But this protective love of Michelle’s childhood did not shut out the communal sense of suffering and injustice that is, for any observer of America, impossible to avoid. The neighbourhood she grew up in was transformed by white flight, and later “deteriorated under the grind of poverty and gang violence”. An early experience with the police via her beloved brother Craig taught her that “the colour of our skin made us vulnerable.” Persistent experiences of discrimination bred in her family “a basic level of resentment and mistrust”. Most of Michelle’s narrative on race, however, comes courtesy not of her own perspective, but that of the many commentators who weaponised her blackness against her. “The rumours and slanted commentary always carried less than subtle messaging about race, meant to stir up the deepest and ugliest kind of fear within the voting public. Don’t let the black folks take over,” she writes. Michelle recalls the “angry black woman” messaging, and the time “a sitting US congressman … made fun of my butt.” But in its dignified tone, Becoming leaves out far more of this sordid history than it chooses to recall. The New Yorker magazine cover depicting her as an armed Black Panther, for example, the time Fox News ran an onscreen graphic describing her as Barack Obama’s “Baby Mama” – like the earlier “welfare queen” trope, a dog whistle appeal to the idea that, if the black family is at the root of America’s problems, how could one of them possibly be part of its solution? Or the time Fox host Bill O’Reilly said: “I don’t want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there is evidence.” Incidentally it is O’Reilly’s book that Michelle will undoubtedly knock off the top of the bestseller list with Becoming — prompting him to tweet something vaguely gracious about the time she, in spite of his bile towards her, made the effort to seek out and be kind to his daughter at a party. It’s a gesture fully grounded in that most Michelle Obama-esque of doctrines. “When they go low, we go high.” Becoming is a 400-page expansion of this essential doctrine, without compromising a refreshing level of honestly about what politics really did to her. I have read Barack Obama’s two books so far, and this is like inserting a missing piece of reality into the narrative of his dizzying journey. There are brilliant details from their love story, like the time she tried to set him up with other single women, only to discover he was just “too cerebral” for Happy Hour nights where single people would mingle. There are compelling insights into the sorrow of miscarriage, the loneliness of living with a man whose sense of purpose often left little room for anything else, prompting her to seek couples counselling lest their marriage fall apart. “Coexisting with Barack’s strong sense of purpose — sleeping in the same bed with it, sitting at the breakfast table with it — was something to which I had to adjust,” she writes. Her candour about home life — the pressure of childcare, bills, debts, work and parenting — are interesting because they are so normal, and because normal is something she has never been allowed to be. As the academic Ula Y Taylor has written, “the idea that a woman would have a ‘radical’ disposition simply by being a thoughtful working black mother says a lot about Americans perceptions of political spouses, and it helps us to better understand why Michelle Obama is perceived as too strong to be first lady.” It’s hard to be cynical about either Michelle’s strength of character or her authenticity. Her book confirms what was observable about her time in the White House, that while she may have had to shape herself into the mould of what politics requires of a first lady, it was still a first lady-shaped version of something real. Her genuine dislike for politics is hard to avoid, in a book rooted in a high moral ground above insults and mudslinging, the political process itself seems the only thing she allows herself to freely insult. “The appeal of standing in an open gym or high school auditorium to hear lofty promises and platitudes never made much sense to me,” she writes. “The political world was no place for good people”, nothing but “the ugly red versus blue dynamic”, whose “nastiness” has affected her so personally. In this vein, she attempts to end the stubborn speculation about her own future candidacy. “Because people often ask, I’ll say it here, directly: I have no intention of running for office, ever.” It’s the one time you feel like you maybe know more about her than she knows herself. A few slights against politics and a one-sentence declaration that she will never run for office doesn’t quite cut it after so many pages of what is, unquestionably, a political book. It’s hard not to recall the time when, asked about the challenges of her husband’s political marathon, she once replied, “this is nothing compared to the history we come from”. During Barack Obama’s tenure, it was Michelle Obama’s roots in the African American experience, in the history of the south that she understood innately as “knit into me”, that lent him crucial legitimacy among black voters. It resurfaces here, adding the profound warnings of past suffering to the observation that, as she sees the Trumps take over the White House, “the vibrant diversity … was gone, replaced by what felt like a dispiriting uniformity, the kind of overwhelmingly white and male tableau I’d encountered so many times”. Becoming reads as Michelle’s first intervention into this distressing new reality. It definitely does not read like it will be the last.  — The Guardian

Women who suffer from obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) as well as snoring may be at a greater risk of impairment of cardiac function than men, says a new research. Snoring may be a sign of OSA, which is a serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. While there are several symptoms of OSA including gasping for air during sleep, waking with a dry mouth, morning headache and irritability, loud snoring is a common sign. The study found that OSA causes an increased risk for left ventricular and, more rarely, right ventricular dysfunction in the heart, causing cardiac risks. It showed an increase in left ventricular mass, meaning that the walls of the heart’s main pumping chamber are enlarged, making the heart work harder. “We found that the cardiac parameters in women appear to be more easily affected by the disease and that women who snore or have OSA might be at greater risk for cardiac involvement,” said lead author Adrian Curta, from the Munich University Hospital in Germany. For the study, the researchers analysed 4,877 patients who had received a cardiac MRI. The findings, presented at the 104th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, showed that the cardiac changes in the self-reported snorers indicate earlier impairment and might be an indication of undiagnosed OSA. Moreover, compared to the unaffected group, in the snoring group a significant difference was observed in the left ventricular mass in women than in men. In addition, OSA was found vastly underdiagnosed among snorers. “The prevalence of diagnosed OSA in the study group was extremely low. Together with the alterations in cardiac function in the snoring group, it leads us to believe that OSA may be grossly underdiagnosed,” Curta said. People who snore should get screened for OSA and those with OSA should be properly treated, Curta suggested. Treatment is dependent on the cause of an individual’s OSA. For instance, weight loss can often improve OSA in overweight individuals. – IANS

Amanda Bynes is four years sobre and hinting at a return to showbiz, years after ducking out of the spotlight following a very public breakdown. The She’s the Man star, 32, opened up for the first time about her mental health struggles and drug abuse in an interview with Paper magazine, and expressed frustration with the relentless media attention that seemed to thrive on picking her apart at her lowest. “I know that my behaviour was so strange that people were just trying to grasp at straws for what was wrong,” Bynes told the outlet. “It definitely isn’t fun when people diagnose you with what they think you are… If you deny anything and tell them what it actually is, they don’t believe you. Truly, for me, (my behaviour) was drug-induced, and whenever I got off (drugs), I was always back to normal.” The actress and comedian was arrested for a DUI in 2012, and was hit with reckless endangerment and drug possession charges a year later after she was caught smoking in her Manhattan apartment lobby and tossing a bong out her window. The case was later dismissed. Later that year, Bynes was hospitalised and placed on a mental health hold after she set a small fire in the driveway of a California home. Looking back, Bynes admits that her attitude toward the business first soured with 2006’s She’s the Man, as the actress said seeing herself dressed as a boy on screen led to a “deep depression” that lasted 4-6 months. Easy A in 2010 had a similar effect, and Bynes said she was so distraught by her performance that she convinced herself she needed to quit acting. “I was high on drugs when I saw that but for some reason it really started to affect me,” she said. “I don’t know if it was a drug-induced psychosis or what, but it affected my brain in a different way than it affects other people. It absolutely changed my perception of things.” Bynes said she first started taking drugs at age 16, but didn’t abuse harder drugs until years later, when she discovered the harder drugs around the time she was filming Hairspray. The All That alum said she became hooked, and once she left showbiz after Easy A, found refuge in drugs. “I just had no purpose in life,” she reflected. “I had a lot of time on my hands and I would ‘wake and bake’ and literally be stoned all day long… I got really into my drug usage and it became a really dark, sad world for me.” The actress has now been sobre for four years, and is grateful to have left behind the substances that she says “really messed up” her brain. “Those days of experimenting are long over. I’m not sad about it and I don’t miss it because I really feel ashamed of how those substances made me act,” she said. “When I was off of them, I was completely back to normal and immediately realised what I had done — it was like an alien had literally invaded my body. That is such a strange feeling.” Bynes is currently enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, where she’ll get an associate’s degree this month, and start working toward a bachelor’s degree in January. But a return to acting could still be in the cards. The star says she hopes that she’ll return to the silver screen the same way she entered it: with excitement and hope for what’s to come. “I have no fear of the future,” she said. “I’ve been through the worst and came out the other end and survived it so I just feel like it’s only up from here.” – New York Daily News/TNS

The young and buddying artists of Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar) are taking part in ‘Minber’ exhibition organised by W Doha Hotel & Residences at its ART 29 gallery. As many as 15 senior and junior artists from the university are showcasing their works. Most of them are displaying their work for the first time in a public place. The gallery hosts several pieces of art that reflect individual identities and represents students’ several years of research and creative practice. The exhibition is open for the public till December 10. The gallery will remain open from 10am to 10pm every day. ‘Minber’, meaning ‘the stage’ in Arabic, is a celebration of the artistic practices and creative skills of the young students. The participating artists, include Amna al-Muftah, Amna al-Thani, Amira Radhi, Munira al-Thani, Aisha al-Abdulla, Salma Awad, Tiflah al-Naimi, Sarah al-Joyyousi, Peppy Prathyusha, Joseph Zampetti, Maryam al-Thani, Amena al-Mulla, Yara Elfouly, Hana Elleithy and Noor Alsheibani. The exhibition depicts how the students employed a variety of approaches, materials and techniques into their paintings and printmaking. The works show the research techniques and styles that the artists have put into their pieces. The art pieces include different genres of painting, various techniques and different models created by the students using different materials and daily use items. On the opening evening, the visitors took keen interest in the nascent works of the young artists. The artists were happy to see the feedback of the visitors. Talking to Community, Hana Elleithy, Senior artist with painting and printmaking as major, said, “I started drawing and painting when I was very young. My grandfather was an artist and I grew up watching him paint. After I finished my school, I decided to study art.” She said, “This is my second exhibition. My first exhibition was at the university. It is a wonderful exposure for us as students. We get to experience for what it is like to be in the real art world outside the parameters of the university. I like to paint realistically to some extent. I am also studying to be a certified yoga instructor and yoga has become a part of my studio life as well. Three of my paintings, show three different yoga postures targeting different things physically, emotionally and spiritually. I play with colours and with atmosphere. I usually use oil paints.” Salma Awad said, “I am a junior artist. I have exhibited my work that I have created during my ongoing semester. I was interested in sketching when I was in school. My mother noticed my talent and she supported me in pursuit of my art studies. This is my first exhibition. I am a little bit overwhelmed. I am looking forward to the response of the visitors. I am very excited. My work in the exhibition shows my imagination. I am a nature loving person. As a student, it is a new and a good experience to have an exhibition here.” Rhys Himsworth, Assistant Professor at the Department of Painting and Print Works at VCU Qatar, said, “We have brought mix of seniors and juniors to take part in the exhibition in collaboration with W Doha. The students are excited and getting little stressed. They get little apprehensive because of course in the school they are always making works for private audience. This is first time that they are showing it to the public audience. We have friends, family, media and general public here scrutinising their works. They also ask questions. It could be a daunting experience but it is exciting. Wassim Daaje, General Manager of W Doha said, “W Doha has become known for its commitment to display artwork from emerging local and regional talent. We are always looking for opportunities to provide young, aspiring artists a platform in which they can showcase their hard work and express their artistic style. We are very excited to introduce a new journey of creative experience and the exploration of 15 diverse emerging artists coming together to create one unique voice.”

Move over Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. There’s a new health-promoting gut bacterium in town, and it’s called Akkermansia muciniphila. You will not find its benefits at the bottom of a yogurt cup. But a new study has identified more than one way to nurture its growth in the gut, and offered evidence that it may maintain — and even restore — health as we age.  Published this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the new research found that in mice and monkeys whose metabolisms had grown cranky with age, taking steps to boost A. muciniphila in the gut reduced the animals’ insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is the gradual impairment of the body’s ability to efficiently use food for fuel. It is best known as a way station on a patient’s path to developing Type 2 diabetes. But insulin resistance is also linked to a rogue’s gallery of ills, from obesity and inflammation to the sagging immunity and frailty that comes with advancing age. If a readily available means of slowing or reversing insulin resistance could be identified, it might have broad and powerful anti-ageing effects (in addition to protecting some of the world’s 650 million adults who are obese against developing Type 2 diabetes). First identified in 2004, Akkermansia muciniphila inhabits the large intestine and is thought to account for between 1 percent and 5 percent of all intestinal bacteria in adults. Scientists suspect it helps preserve the coat of mucus that lines the walls of our intestines. It may also play a role in making the polyphenols we eat in plant-based foods more available to our cells. Evidence is mounting that A. muciniphila is involved in obesity, glucose metabolism and intestinal immunity. For instance, a 2018 study of cancer patients suggests that it plays a role in immune response. Compared to patients who failed to be helped by a new generation of immunotherapy, those who did had a greater abundance of Akkermansia in their guts.  researchers took the stool of a patient who responded positively to the cancer-fighting therapy and transplanted it into lab animals with human cancers, the recipients became more likely to respond positively to the same treatment. In the new research, a team from the National Institute on Aging examined the molecular chain of events that appears to result from A. muciniphila’s depletion in mice and macaque monkeys. And they assessed the effects of restoring this gut microbe to elderly animals. First, they documented that the guts of older animals had markedly smaller populations of A. muciniphila than the guts of young animals, and that as A. muciniphila became more scarce, so did butyrate, one of the gut’s key protectors. The deficiency of these two substances caused the mucous walls of the of the aged animals’ intestines to thin and grow leaky. That corrosive process unleashed a chain of events that touched off inflammation, prompted an immune response and, in a final step, increased insulin resistance. Key to that final step was the accumulation in the gut of a specific kind of immune cell called 4BL cells. If the detrimental chain of events was to be disrupted, the accumulation of those 4BL cells probably had to be stopped, the researchers surmised. The researchers also documented what appeared to be a role for A. muciniphila in fostering healthy diversity among the garden of other microbes that colonise the gut. In animals with scant populations of A. muciniphila, a host of other common gut bacteria — as well as their beneficial byproducts, particularly butyrate — also suffered. When the researchers gave aged mice butyrate, the result was higher A. muciniphila levels and levels of insulin resistance that approached those seen in the younger animals. They got the same results when they gave aged mice and macaque monkeys the antibiotic enrofloxacin, a broad-spectrum antibiotic used in veterinary medicine. In both animals, enrofloxacin — which is not considered safe for use in humans — routinely wiped out the 4BL cells that were thought to be a key link in the chain leading to insulin resistance.  With them out of the picture, A. muciniphila levels rose and insulin resistance largely disappeared, demonstrating their pivotal role. The results suggest “that the insulin resistance and other pathologies associated with ageing and even frailty can be ameliorated by targeting” the cascade of events that flow from the depletion of of Akkermansia muciniphila, the study authors wrote. Belgian researcher Patrice Cani, who is exploring a probiotic form of Akkermansia that could increase its presence in the human gut, said the new findings are “perfectly in line” with studies that have shown the bacteria’s impact on insulin sensitivity. Finding the power of this gut bacteria in macaque monkeys is a particularly important step forward that supports “even more the need for future research in humans,” added Cani, who is based at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. Cani and his colleagues have just finished a small study in humans to investigate the safety and the feasibility of taking Akkermansia in a form that will boost its populations in the gut — a first. The results to date have been encouraging, he said. Los Angeles Times/TNS

Men who eat leafy greens, dark orange and red vegetables, berries and drink orange juice may be at a lower risk of developing memory loss in older age, according to a study. The findings showed that men who ate larger amounts of fruits and vegetables 20 years earlier were less likely to develop thinking and memory problems, whether or not they kept eating larger amounts of fruits and vegetables later. Men who consumed the most vegetables were 34 percent less likely to develop poor thinking skills than the men who consumed the least amount of vegetables. Men who drank orange juice every day were 47 percent less likely to develop poor thinking skills than the men who drank less than one serving per month. This association was mainly observed for regular consumption of orange juice among the oldest men, the researchers found. “One of the most important factors in this study is that we were able to research and track such a large group of men over a 20-year period of time, allowing for very telling results,” said Changzheng Yuan from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. “Our studies provide further evidence dietary choices can be important to maintain your brain health,” Yuan added. The study, published in the journal Neurology, looked at 27,842 men with an average age of 51 who were all health professionals. Participants also took subjective tests of their thinking and memory skills at least four years before the end of the study, when they were an average age of 73. A total of 55 percent of the participants had good thinking and memory skills, 38 per cent had moderate skills, and seven per cent had poor thinking and memory skills. However, the study does not show that eating fruits and vegetables and drinking orange juice reduces memory loss; it only shows a relationship between them, the researchers noted. – IANS

There is a good chance that if you eat out a lot with friends and family then someone in your group must have suggested going out for Mexican food one day or the other. That is the popularity of Mexican food now a day. Mexican cuisine is known for its simplicity and unique flavours and has something to offer for everyone. One word that is mentioned along the Mexican cuisine is ‘Tex-Mex’ so what exactly is Tex-Mex? You may think that it may be a Texas inspired Mexican food or fake Mexican food. The history of Tex-Mex is more complex than some poached and reinvented dishes from across the border. Tex-Mex should be recognised as a regional food that has expanded itself across neighbouring states and even across the United States and now recognised all over the world, morphing and changing along its way influenced by different group of people. Today Tex-Mex is one of the most prominent scenes of food in Dallas area. Diners are almost never too far from their favourite Tex-Mex restaurant. It is interesting and important to know that before Tex-Mex began to spread across the state of Texas, native Americans living in the state has a significance influence in the area, lending culinary influence of spices and technique to famous Tex-Mex dishes today. Tex-Mex as a term started to show up around 1940’s denoting the Texas and Mexico and later to denote the Mexican people living in Texas area after they both separated, and Texas became a part of the United states of America. Now the word Tex-Mex denotes Mexican food in the style of that Texas region. Tex-Mex, as a style of cuisine, has its roots in the 19th century in San Antonio. While some kind of  meat stew has been around since the time humans initially started cooking. Chili Con Carne came into being in Texas some time in 1800’s. Chili stands were popular in several Texas cities including Houston and Galveston but it was The San Antonio chili queens that made Chili Con Carne the bedrock of Tex-Mex cuisine. Chili is the mother of all Tex-Mex dishes. Early Texans used the ingredients that were readily available, which is why traditionally chili is beef based. Now you will ask what is the difference between the Tex-Mex and Mexican cuisine? To make it simple to understand I would say that use of four key ingredients make it different from the traditional Mexican cuisine. The four key ingredients in Tex-Mex cuisine is cheese, cumin, flour tortilla and beef. Cheese – great globs of yellow cheese in and on everting is very Tex-Mex. Another cheese related item is queso dip, which is not traditional Mexican. Although you will find it in all Mexican restaurants because if you do not provide it, the customers complain about its non-availability. Cumin – cumin isn’t traditional Mexican spice. It came to North America with people of Canary Islands who were brought by Spanish to work in San Antonio area. Flour Tortilla – traditional Mexican tortillas are made of corn. It wasn’t until the tortilla migrated to north where wheat flour was widely used to make tortillas. Beef meat – Texas being an area heavy in cattle meat, beef was more readily available and made ground beef in a hard taco shell as a staple of Tex-Mex cuisine. There are many simple and easy to make dishes in Tex-Mex cuisine, but today I’ll introduce you to Migas, as dish which is easy to make and can be made using some ingredients. Migas is the Spanish word for ‘crumbs,’ and in Spain it’s a dish typically comprised of stale bread and other ingredients. In Texas, Migas are made with tortillas or corn chips, scrambled eggs, and, in true Tex-Mex fashion, plenty of cheese. It’s nothing fancy – just great, hearty comfort food for breakfast, late-night, or any time, enjoy with friends and family. Tex-Mex Migas Ingredients Flour tortilla 4 nos Eggs 8 nos Olive oil 2 tbsp Yellow onion, chopped ½ cup Jalapeno peppers 2 no Salt to taste Black pepper to taste Cumin powder ½ tsp Salsa ¼ cup Cheddar cheese ½ cup Monterey jack cheese ½ cup Garnish Pico de Gallo to garnish Sour cream to garnish Guacamole to serve Method Heat oil in a large heavy bottom pan. Add diced onion and jalapenos and cook till soft and translucent. Meanwhile, place the eggs and salsa in a bowl and season with salt and pepper and whisk to combine well, set aside. When the onion is translucent add the tortillas and cook for one to two minutes or until soft. Reduce the heat to low and add the eggs mixture. Scramble until the eggs are almost set. Sprinkle cheese when cooked and remove from heat. Garnish with choice of garnish and serve hot.