If you’ve avoided reviews of Netflix’s latest original movie, The Cloverfield Paradox, allow me the honour of telling you it’s a hot mess.

In a move that Indiewire says “made exhibition history,” Netflix aired the first ad for Paradox during the Super Bowl—then made the film available to watch right after the game. I’m not a big sportsball fan, but you could tell the ad struck a nerve from the excited chatter on Twitter.

I certainly don’t want to downplay the significance of this. Even when films are released to little fanfare, they’re generally made available to the press before making it to audiences. They sometimes play a few festivals before a wider run. And they’re traditionally marketed for weeks or months before playing on a screen. The Cloverfield Paradox did away with all of that, strutting into our living rooms unannounced with all the confidence of a new Beyoncé album—and none of quality to back it up.

It did have a minor leg up though. Paradox has brand recognition, serving as a (retrofitted) prequel to 2008’s Cloverfield and 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane. Like 10 Cloverfield Lane before it, Paradox was a standalone horror film before being rebranded and wedged into what is effectively an anthology series. That sleight of hand is sure to have done some of the heavy lifting of attracting people over to Netflix after the game.

Even without any heads up, critics wasted no time tearing into The Cloverfield Paradox. In fairness (and in my humble opinion) it’s not quite as bad as it’s been made out to be. It’s hardly “a desperate plunge into the abyss of shoddy sci-fi” or an “unmitigated disaster.” But it’s still pretty terrible. It’s a fun concept with an impressive international cast, including David Oyelowo, Daniel Brühl, Zhang Ziyi, and Chris O'Dowd. And it has some genuinely solid moments of body horror and sci-fi adventure, with echoes of Alien and Event Horizon. But yes, it has plenty of goofy misfires too.

Chris O’Dowd loses an arm early on in an accident that doesn’t particularly make any sense. Even less sensical is the fact his arm is then sentient while detached. We may be in the realm of interdimensional cosmic fuckery here, but the film’s vague attempts at some kind of basis in scientific reality tend to fly out the airlock pretty spectacularly in moments like this. Exhibit B: somehow the astronaut protagonists lose their bearings completely when their space station rotates. It begets the question: how did any of these geniuses get cleared to travel to outer space? And does no one think to look out the window for the sun or star patterns? Anyways...

Last December’s Bright, Netflix’s “first blockbuster”—which attempted to answer the question of “What if Middle Earth was actually present-day LA, and human cops were racist against orcs?”—was also smashed by critics. With nary a redeeming feature, it’s a no-holds-barred, genuinely unmitigated disaster as a piece of art. But according to Netflix’s mysterious proprietary metrics its been a major hit among users of the streaming service.

The film opens with Will Smith’s vaguely racist (against orcs, in case you forgot) cop character murdering a fairy with a broom because the fairy has been getting into his bird feeder. That’s the kind of narrative logic that drives the rest of the film. If you’re looking for real-world referents, they’re hard to find. Is the fairy like a pesky squirrel? Who the hell beats squirrels to death?

If that’s not enough, he then turns to a crowd of onlookers to declare that “fairy lives don’t matter today.” Wait, what did the fairy stand in for? Is Black Lives Matter the analogy? Imagine being the white screenwriter who thought that line would play well coming from a black cop. (For context, said white screenwriter is nepotism-personifying, all-around shit heel Max Landis.)

The rest of the film is an unpleasant string of racist stereotypes (but they’re all orcs, get it?) combined with a half-baked rise-of-the-Dark-Lord subplot featuring kung fu fighting elves and a magic wand.

Netflix claims that Bright was streamed 11 million times in its first three days on the site. I have to wonder if that says anything about the film though. It’s undoubtedly popular with some segment of its audience—or the ones passionate enough to voice their support on Rotten Tomatoes anyway. Despite a 27 percent critics score, its audience score sits at an impressive 86 percent. The Cloverfield Paradox is significantly less beloved across the board, with an 18 from critics and 55 from audiences.

But the beauty of Netflix is that you can affordably hate-watch hot garbage like this. I was comfortable in my assumption that Bright would suck beyond belief when I pressed play, and I had no misgivings about it, beyond the slight pain that comes with knowing that I’ll be counted among those who want more content like this from Netflix. Generally speaking, I lost nothing by checking it out. My monthly Netflix bill will be the same this month as it was last month.

Regardless of their audience or critic scores, movies like Bright and The Cloverfield Paradox benefitted immensely from a weirdly compressed bit of spotlight and availability, and don’t seem to have suffered much from the critical beatings they endured. Traditionally, they would have been released to theatres with little fanfare. Some would have gone to see them. Some would have liked them even. Others would have skipped the cost of a theatre ticket. In the months between their theatrical runs and home media releases, people would have largely forgotten about them, and that would have been it.

Enter Netflix.

With a subscription to the service, no one has to waste $13 on a movie they’re not sure about. But they can still satisfy their curiosity immediately. The practice of hate-watching or of appreciating a so-bad-it’s-good movie becomes easy, cheap, and immediate.

It’s tempting to consider what other films might have benefited from this exhibition model. 2015’s Jupiter Ascending was released after months of delay, dulling some of the excitement a new Wachowski title might otherwise generate. It was met with bad reviews, and generally fizzled out. It’s spectacularly bad, but also a huge pleasure to watch. Unlike Bright, its sci-fi/fantasy premise of intergalactic royalty farming humans for eternal youth is campy, overacted, but most importantly fun (Channing Tatum playing a half-wolf/half-human soldier zipping around on hover skates is a site to see!). Maybe it could have found its niche online.

Or maybe a film like Gigli, ridiculed in the press in 2003, could have found a cult following of viewers who could enjoy its so-bad-it’s-good cheesiness while the critical conversation was still actually happening.

Of course, it being 2018, this conversation has extended beyond the economics of film exhibition or even personal tastes. There’s now also an online battle raging as a result of the disconnect between critics and audiences on the artistic merits of trash movies being unloaded onto the streaming site.

In reality, plenty of popular and successful movies have been poorly reviewed before, but the conversation has shifted now. Like a politically illiterate asshole yelling “fake news” at every disagreeable opinion coming from the TV, Bright fans have decided there must be something rotten at the core of film criticism. And most prominent among them is Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos, who said that critics “speak to specific audiences who care about quality, or how objectively good or bad a movie is—not the masses who are critical for determining whether a film makes money.”

(Yes, Sarandos really said that. He defended Bright by suggesting that it’s objectively bad and that the paying Netflix subscribers who made it a hit have no taste. One has to wonder how he justifies acquiring well-reviewed festival films like Okja and Mudbound with such a philosophy.)

Netflix certainly wasn’t able to silence critics in either case though. And people have always had the option of seeing poorly reviewed movies in theatres (how many Transformers movies are we up to now?). With a sequel to Bright now in the works, it would be hard to argue that critics spoiled anyone’s fun.

What the releases of Bright and Paradox seem to have changed is the nature of movie buzz—or its overreliance on delay and staggered distribution.

Netflix’s original movies are likely not going change the game entirely, but they do add variety to the mix. Later this month, Duncan Jones’ Moon follow-up Mute will hit the streaming site. It’s one to look forward to, and likely wouldn’t exist without Netflix’s backing. Then again, Netflix has yet to release screeners to film critics, and Jones’ last film was Warcraft, so it might be wise to start managing expectations now.

As I write this, Marvel’s Black Panther is making a strong case for the viability of theatrical exhibition. It has already achieved incredible buzz through early reviews and advance screenings. It’s breaking records in ticket pre-sales and will likely inject some much-needed energy into the Marvel cinematic universe, all by totally traditional means.

Like most innovations, Netflix’s entry into first-run film exhibition is unlikely to cancel out what came before. But as always, it’s well positioned to give us more options, and some risk-free garbage already paid for by our all-inclusive monthly fees.

Follow Frederick Blichert on Twitter.

While police continue to investigate sexual assault claims against Harvey Weinstein in New York and London, it looks like cops in Los Angeles are making some headway. The Los Angeles Times reports that the LAPD recently submitted three cases of assault against the producer with the district attorney's office, bringing the total number under review to five.

Weinstein has denied the dozens of accusations of sexual misconduct against him—ranging from harassment to rape—and his lawyers have insisted that he's innocent of any criminal wrongdoing. After news of his alleged predatory behaviour, dating back to the 70s, began to pile up, the Beverly Hills Police Department filed two cases to the LA County district attorney's office at the end of last year. Many of the alleged incidents occurred at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills.

According to Variety, the LA County district attorney's office has created a special task force just to review sexual assault allegations following the scandal. It's now up to prosecutors to decide whether or not to charge Weinstein, which a district attorney's spokesman told the Times is still up in the air.

Meanwhile, Weinstein's reportedly been spending his time at a rehab center in Arizona, being treated for sex addiction. While the cops look into the accusations against him and prosecutors weigh taking him to court, some folks in the area have decided to take justice into their own hands.

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Related: Only One in Four Harassment Victims Report It. Will the Weinstein Revelations Change Anything?

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Here at VICE Canada, we gravitate toward subjects we believe require a new angle, a more human perspective, a younger voice analyzing it, or an immersive exploration.

With the opioid crisis simmering to an arguable state of emergency, and with its path of devastation affecting our own editorial team, we have dedicated as many resources as we can to covering this immense health issue. Our first documentary on the issue, Dopesick, has now been viewed over 5 million times on YouTube.

Steel Town Down: Overdose Crisis in Soo airs Saturday at 7PM on CTV, Twitter and will be online on VICE.com | Photo by Allison Tierney

But we know that we need to extend our reach even further in order to continue informing Canadians, and people the world over, with the realities of the opioid crisis. Which is why when we were given the opportunity to collaborate with CTV and W5, the nation’s most watched current affairs and documentary TV series, we wanted to expand our work on the opioid crisis with them.

What came out of it is a stirring and powerful film about the impact of the opioid crisis on Sault Ste. Marie, a small city of 75,000 people in northern Ontario. It tells a different type of story than we’re used to seeing—one outside of the major urban centres of Canada such as Toronto and Vancouver. And it paints a portrait of a place where once-lucrative industrial jobs have been disappearing for decades, and the only crisis worker is shouldering the havoc that opioid overdoses are wreaking through her city.

We hope the film resonates with you, as the process of producing it has resonated with us. And we’re humbled to release it to such a wide audience this Saturday evening.

Vice Canada’s latest documentary on the opioid crisis, STEEL TOWN DOWN: OVERDOSE CRISIS IN THE SOO, airs this Saturday at 7 PM on CTV, Twitter, and will be online on VICE.com.

People don’t really “get” Australia. I can’t blame them. Our branding is unfortunate: a confused mix of Crocodile Dundee, racism, and Vegemite. We’re also something of a geographical puzzle, holding the unique honour of being the only landmass officially classified as both a continent and a country. As Buzzfeed News reports, this fun trivia night fact recently stumped a US college professor, who failed a student as a result.

27-year-old Ashley Arnold is studying for an online degree in sociology at Southern New Hampshire University, and her final project for the semester involved analysing the social media use of any given country. She picked Australia, and received a failing grade after her professor—who holds a doctorate in philosophy—made the bold claim that it didn’t exist.

Arnold and her professor exchanged a series of emails where the student was forced to explain that a simple Google search proves Australia is absolutely an independent nation with an independent government. We are, in fact, the sixth largest country in the world.

“I want you to understand that any error in a project can invalidate the entire research project,” the professor told Arnold in one email.

“Research is like dominoes, if you accidentally knock over one piece the entire set will also fall. Australia is a continent; it is not a country. That error made it nearly impossible for you to accurately complete your week 2 research outline correctly.”

Eventually, after being provided with numerous web links proving Australia’s status as a bona fide independent geographical and political entity, including the Australian Government’s own website, the professor caved and admitted she would review the assignment “after I do some independent research”.

Arnold has since received a new grade: B+. Which is still pretty bloody rough, to employ some Australian slang.

Follow Kat on Twitter

This article originally appeared on VICE AU.

Since LeapFrogs and iPads became this decade’s stand-in for using TV as a babysitter, the questions around kids' increasingly involved relationship with technology continues to be top of mind for many parents. While some embrace the potential for technology to enrich children's lives, others view it as a corrupting influence and look for ways to limit their kids’ exposure to technology—if not an entirely unplugged childhood. We met with parents at different points on this spectrum to see how they’re approaching the ever-evolving challenges of raising kids in a tech-filled world.

The Philadelphia Eagles became World Champions for the first time in franchise history Sunday night. They defeated the much-hated New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII, turning sad, can't-catch Tom Brady into many a meme along the way. As time expired the city's (possibly inebriated) citizens poured into the streets, tearing down light posts, turning over cars, storming the gates of City Hall with kegs, and generally getting very weird. It was bedlam unlike the city has ever seen—happy bedlam—leaving some Eagles fans perhaps confused. At least one fan choose to eat the freshly dropped shit of a police horse instead of punching the animal from which it came, the Philly norm.

Yesterday, proud fanatics of the Birds came together again to celebrate the victory, this time in the light of day. Below are photos of the beautiful, exuberant chaos of the City of Brotherly Love's official Super Bowl Parade. ( Brian McManus)

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This article originally appeared on VICE US.

A red car blasting David Bowie as it floats around the Earth has become a real bee in the bonnet for the Flat Earth community.

To fill you in on why these cosmographically confused folks are scrambling, on Tuesday SpaceX—the private aerospace manufacturer and space transport founded and run by Elon Musk—successfully launched and landed Falcon Heavy, which was dubbed the most powerful operational reusable rocket in the world. The Falcon’s payload was a red Tesla roadster playing an infinite loop of Space Oddity with a dummy in it, which then floated around the Earth—its final destination is Mars.

The Tesla’s time in the void was live streamed and people quickly used the opportunity to dunk on Flat Earthers. Twitter even made a moment called “Did Elon Musk just shut down the Flat Earth conspiracy?” (Quick tip: the answer to the question is no, Eratosthenes did that like 2,000 years ago.)

Both the non-stop dunking and the clear view of a round Earth understandably peeved off those who adhere to the wisdom of Kyrie Irving. Some are saying that the stunt was actually made to distract people from the fact that Tesla filed their biggest ever quarterly loss recently; others are saying it’s all part of an evil Illuminati plan. Some say that the entire production was computer generated while others are of the belief that it was filmed in a studio a la the moon landing.

The only thing the Flat Earth community seems to agree on though, is that they think the stunt was fake as hell.

It’s already been reported that the Flat Earth Society was upset with Musk for the stunt they described as “a good car ad.” In a tweet—the society actually has a pretty good Twitter game—they stated: “people who believe that the Earth is a globe because ‘they saw a car in space on the Internet’ must be the new incarnation of ‘It's true, I saw it on TV!’ It's a poor argument.”

“Why would we believe any privately-held company to report the truth?”

In all fairness to FES, that last point is pretty good but, you know, broken clock right twice a day and all that. However, it’s not just the intellectual leaders of the movement who are upset with Musk but the whole lot.

Now, to be completely candid, the Flat Earth community is a hard one to pin down and report on because of all the trolls who co-exist side-by-side with the true believers. To exacerbate the matter, many of the trolls tend to write in a similar cadence as the zealots in order to push them further down the rabbit hole for, and I’m assuming here, lulz. That said, this is a community that one can safely assume adheres strongly to Poe’s Law—the idea that it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views without someone believing them.

Like many other, shall we say, niche communities, Flat-Earthers have found a home on YouTube and have created video after video “debunking” the launch. In one incredibly perplexing video that has 20,000 views, the commentator connects the Eagles winning the Super Bowl to the “flight of the falcon,” relates the term Saturn to Satan, says the rocket is shaped like a Satanic “penis,” sees Illuminati pyramids in the roadster, and uses the fact that the video was shot on a fisheye lens as proof it’s a fake.

Musician and newly converted Flat Earther Delano Edwards, who has half a million followers on YouTube, made a video called “FLAT EARTH PROOF (ELON MUSK SPACEX FALCON HEAVY WAS FAKE)!!!!” and lays out several points like “where the fuck the stars at?” “why ain’t it spinnin’?” and “where the fuck the satellites at?”

“You make billions of dollars every fucking year and this is the best shit you can come up with? From us being Flat-Earthers at least let us say ‘well you did a good job this time,’ I can do better than this with five dollars and the green screen I got,” says Edwards.

“You gotta be a retarded person to believe that this shit is real. Wake the fuck up.”

It’s not just the YouTube Flat Earthers who are getting cranky over the stunt. On the Flat Earth Society forum several of the topics of conversation are all related to the SpaceX launch. One of them goes for a ridiculous 150 messages with the posters bitching about Musk and putting their heads together to try and prove how the launch was either fake or actually proves Flat Earth theory.

There are users in the forum pushing back on the Flat Earthers, who are then disparaged by the true believers as “muskbots.” Like all online activity, most of the threads quickly turn into flame wars.

“Cursing Elon, gimme a break. We are laughing at you and the Elon fanboys. I think (it) is funny that you boys believe that his Tesla is flying in space,” reads one such message written by a user named Hoppy. “You are so brainwashed that you believe anything NASA tells you, and now you believe Elon. It is pitiful and funny at the same time.”

Indeed, all the Flat Earth theories, arguments, and ways of spreading them vary greatly but, there was one unifying point—other than that it was fake—made at least once in every video and forum thread, it was the fact that Bowie fucking rules.

At the end of the day, you know what, it’s nice to know we can all agree on something.

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Researchers tried to warn us back in 2016 about the disgusting number of germs fancy Dyson hand dryers actually spread—apparently 1,300 times more than paper towels. But now one microbiology student has uncovered just how disgusting the dryers actually are.

According to the New York Times, Nichole Ward and her classmates were tasked with finding out just how much bacteria would grow in various unsterilized locations after setting down a petri dish there for three minutes. Ward decided she'd put hers inside a Dyson hand dryer in the women's bathroom and quickly discovered her spot was much grosser than all her other classmates'. In a viral Facebook post, the California woman displayed a photo of the truly horrifying arrangement of fungi that was apparently lurking inside the ubiquitous machines.

"DO NOT EVER dry your hands in those things again," she wrote. "This is the several strains of possible pathogenic fungi and bacteria that you’re swirling around your hands, and you think you’re walking out with clean hands. You’re welcome."

The swarm of commenters seemed either vindicated or completely outraged by the post, with some blaming the dryers for making people sick and others claiming that Ward is being deceptive or unscientific. Ward told the Times she's even received some death threats.

But mostly, the post has tapped into a years-long war between the paper towel and hand dryer industry about which product is more sanitary. Big Dryer already clapped back at the viral post by questioning Ward's methodology, which is exactly what it did in 2016, when a university study concluded that their machines spread bacteria. After VICE wrote about that study, a representative from Dyson emailed to say that "the paper towel industry has scare-mongered with this research for the past four years." (The Times notes that one of the only independently funded studies into the matter found that paper towels and hand dryers were mostly hygienically equivalent.)

But until scientists decide one way or the other, it might make sense to just wave your hands around or wipe them on your jeans after washing them.

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This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Everybody knows that IKEA is a magical place. It is a labyrinthian wonderland, full of interconnected home and dining sets strung together by a yellow road and the wafting scent of meatballs. But no matter how much IKEA may look like the set from a Michel Gondry movie, it is still a store and not a playground. It's not really the appropriate spot to plan a massive hide-and-seek game or run away from home and camp out in—though that's what kids are up to now, apparently.

This week, an 11-year-old boy in the UK left school on Tuesday afternoon but never made it home. His parents quickly reported the boy missing and police began a frantic search for the kid. But when the boy, Kaden Mirza, reappeared the next day, it turned out he hadn't actually been missing at all—he'd just spent the kicking back on a Malm at IKEA, dreaming of viral fame, Mashable reports.

According to the Kaden's father, Abid, the kid was inspired to sneak inside the store thanks to a viral YouTube trend where teens spend the night inside a business or disgusting McDonald's play structure and call it the "24-hour challenge." In typical dad fashion, Abid referred to it as the "stay in Ikea overnight and not get caught challenge," but same thing.

Apparently the 24-hour challenge first took off back in 2016, when a pair of Belgian teens spent hours crammed in an IKEA closet and managed to spend the night at the store, recording the whole thing for YouTube. Since then, incorrigible youth copycats have pulled similar stunts, sneaking in and building forts inside Walmarts, Chuck E. Cheeses, and waterparks, since they have to find some way to entertain themselves now that teens don't party anymore.

In a private Facebook post, Abid wrote that 11-year-old Kaden had "been watching videos and checking [the] web for all this and then deleting it and never left a clue," planning his illicit IKEA caper "quite well."

Sure, the whole thing sounds like an updated version of The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler or an episode of Arthur and is significantly less life-threatening than eating pouches of colorful chemicals, but kids probably shouldn't be creeping into stores after-hours and dicking around. After two 14-year-old girls managed to stay the night in a store in Jönköping, Sweden back in 2016, the retailer tried to crack down on the "non-sponsored sleepovers."

"We appreciate that people are interested in IKEA and want to create fun experiences, however the safety and security of our co-workers and customers is our highest priority which is why we do not allow sleepovers in our stores," a spokesperson told the BBC.

South Yorkshire police pointed out that "warehouses and shopping departments contain large quantities of heavy stock and items that could easily fall and crush someone if they are moved incorrectly," so it's probably best not to start shoving stuff around to make a small fort.

"To many young people this internet craze may seem like a bit of fun that is impressive on social media," Detective Inspector Anna Sedgwick continued, "however the risks and harm that could be caused are by no means humourous and could be catastrophic."

Hear that, kids? Next time you want to pull a stunt in IKEA, why don't you grab your grandpa and do something really impressive.

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This article originally appeared on VICE US.

When harm reduction workers at the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society found out earlier this month that people in the city were experiencing opioid overdoses after reporting that they smoked crack, they issued a set of tips just for dealers.

Dealers are often vilified in the context of the opioid crisis. Notably, manslaughter charges against alleged fentanyl dealers are increasing across Canada. However, those working on the front lines of the crisis say the lacing of non-opioid drugs with fentanyl, in particular, is most likely due to accidental cross contamination. As the tip sheet pointed out, the crack in question in Toronto may have been contaminated with fentanyl or those using the drug may have thought it was crack when it was not. The Toronto Overdose Prevention Society’s tips for dealers include:

• “When weighing out, cutting, or packaging drugs, make sure there is no cross contamination”
• “Try to use separate scales for different drugs”
• “Wipe down scales, knives, blades etc. and make sure surfaces are clean, between weighing out and cutting up (use alcohol wipes)”
• “Consider packaging drugs differently from each other to avoid selling the wrong drug; use different colour flaps or baggies for different drugs”
• “Avoid reusing baggies or flaps; residue from one drug can contaminate the next”
• “Ask about Fentanyl Test Strips – they can tell if a drug is fentanyl, or if other drugs might contain it”

VICE reached out to Nick Boyce, one of the members of the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society, who helped put together the tip sheet. Boyce volunteers at the Moss Park Overdose Prevention Site in Toronto, which has had nearly 5,000 visits and has stopped or reversed 158 overdoses since it opened in August 2017.

“There’s lots of messaging out there to people who use drugs, and there’s a lot of efforts in trying to address the supply from the law enforcement perspective,” Boyce told VICE. “One message that’s always missing is drug dealers themselves, suppliers. It was an opportunity to engage with them in some way.”

Though fentanyl is a drug of choice—there are people who intentionally use it—it’s also often found in heroin in the US and Canada. Boyce said that the fentanyl showing up in non-opioid drugs, such as cocaine (which is relatively rare, but has happened), is likely caused by cross contamination—aka accidentally.

“That’s where many of these mistakes can happen... Some [dealers] may take better care than others, some may be more aware,” he said. “There’s a misconception that all drug dealers are awful, evil people—for sure there are some, but a lot of them are very conscious of who their customers are and want to provide quality service.”

When it comes to fentanyl test strips, Boyce said, people need to be aware that there are limitations with these. You don’t test the entire contents of a baggie of powder with the strips; you test a small sample. Just as it is with chocolate chips in cookies, the fentanyl may not be evenly distributed throughout a bag of drugs or a pill—so, test results on a sample do not necessarily speak for the entire contents of your baggie.

If you use drugs there are a number of harm reduction measures you can take to stay as safe as possible—not using alone; not mixing substances; and getting a naloxone kit that can reverse an opioid overdose, for example.

If you want to learn more about safer drug use or how to safeguard your customers from cross contamination if you sell drugs, reach out to harm reduction organizations in your area. In Toronto, this includes keepSIX; The Works; and the Moss Park Overdose Prevention Site.

Follow Allison Tierney on Twitter.

Don MacIntyre, a former Alberta MLA who resigned his United Conservative Party (UCP) seat earlier this month, is facing sexual assault charges against a minor.

The CBC reports that a judge overturned a publication ban on Friday morning which allowed them to report that MacIntyre has been charged with sexual interference and sexual assault. A sexual interference charge only comes about when the victim is under 16 years of age and it relates to touching of a minor’s body for a sexual purpose.

The 63-year-old first appeared in court February 1 for a bail hearing—MacIntyre resigned from the UCP caucus the day after his first court appearance and resigned from politics in full on February 5 tweeting that it was to “focus on [his] family.”

UCP party leader Jason Kenney released a statement regarding MacIntyre’s charges and his resignation from the party.

"I was shocked and disgusted to learn of the serious criminal charges filed against former MLA Don MacIntyre," reads the statement. "There are few crimes more vile than sexual crimes against children, and those found guilty of it deserve to endure the most severe legal consequences possible."

As a result of his hearing McIntyre was released but must follow certain conditions; these include no contact with anyone under 16, and not going within 100 feet of a playground, school, pool, or daycare. He will next appear in court February 15. Global News is reporting that the actions leading to the charges allegedly came from before he was elected in 2015.

In the statement Kenney said that February 2—the day MacIntyre resigned from caucus—was the first time that he and his party learned of the charges. Kenney added that because of the severity of the charges UCP supported the reversal of the publication ban, which was eventually granted.

MacIntyre is probably best known as the outspoken Alberta MLA who repeatedly flirted with openly denying climate change. He was elected to Alberta's legislature for the Wildrose Party in 2015 in the southern Alberta riding of Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, and he joined the UCP upon their formation last year.

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About two years ago to the day, I Liz Lemoned myself.

I’d been seeing someone for a couple weeks, so I decided to ask her out to a proper date: dinner and a movie. She was down, and everything seemed gravy until, after a pause in our texting, she said, “Hey... you know Sunday night is Valentine’s Day, right?”

My dumb ass did not, in fact, know that Sunday was Valentine’s Day.

Though I had inadvertently turned my life into an episode of 30 Rock, I wasn’t about to flake, so I chose the best (only?) way to handle this situation: get Thai food and pick the most depressing possible for us to watch. We settled on Touched with Fire, a drama about two bipolar poets (portrayed by Katie Holmes and Luke Kirby) who meet in a psychiatric hospital and fall into a manic, toxic romance.

The film, which chronicles a deteriorating relationship that seems to recall Holmes’s messed-up history with both Tom Cruise and Scientology, is almost certainly not what you should watch on an early date, especially on fucking Valentine’s Day. Nevertheless, we had a great time.

The point is, Valentine’s Day is what you make it. If you’re in love and want to celebrate it by watching a corny rom-com, more power to you, but if you’re ready to lean into the whole “hello darkness my old friend” thing on this hallowed day of passion, here are some Netflix movies for you. —Peter Slattery

45 Years

Can you ever really know anyone? Andrew Haigh’s slow-burn British drama puts the idea of marriage through the ringer as a couple, played by a diabolically demure Tom Courtenay and a never-better Charlotte Rampling, comes to terms with the discovery of a decades-frozen body in the days leading up to their 45th anniversary. And, if you’re down for a devastating double-feature, watch The Night Porter afterward.

Raw

Horror/drama film Raw takes the cutesy phrase “I could just eat you up” to a disturbing new level. French director Julia Ducournau’s debut feature shows how a hazing ritual at a veterinary school leads to a student’s obsessive craving for human flesh. In what could be read as a ringing endorsement of its anti-V Day vibe, people literally passed out while watching it at film festival screenings a couple years back.

Boogie Nights

While sex-positive flicks like Make Love Not Porn abound in 2018, Paul Thomas Anderson’s classic takes us back to the greasy days of 1977 when the motto was more along the lines of “make porn, not love.” Come for a panorama of all-too-human shortcomings, stay for Mark Wahlberg’s 12-inch prosthetic penis.

The Tribe

We included The Tribe in our list of the best movies to watch while high for some reason, but the Ukrainian drama about a student gang in a school for the deaf ain’t your typical date movie either. The film, which is told exclusively through sign language without subtitles, has a brief moment of tenderness midway through, then plunges into a brutal chain of violence culminating in a bloody finale.

Heathers

Think Christian Slater is your dream boy? Think again, he’s a psychopath! Moral of the story, boys suck, and you should’ve been hanging out with Martha Dunnstock all along.

Before Midnight

The sequel to the sequel of maybe the most romantic movie of all time, Before Midnight shows what happens when whirlwind lovers finally start to get sick of each other’s bullshit. It’s a visually bright, emotionally murky finale of a poignant trilogy that, as its name suggests, is quite a bit darker than its previous installments.

The Human Centipede

As VICE UK’s Martyn Conterio wrote a couple years back, The Human Centipede’s “hypothesis and social diagnosis—a thesis written symbolically in feces—is stunningly bleak.” Sounds about right for Valentine's Day in 2018.

The Panic in Needle Park

Seven years before Requiem for a Dream was written, Pacino was sulking around the streets of New York City looking for his next big score, and bringing everyone who cares about him down in the process. What could possibly be stronger than love? Addiction, obviously.

Margot at the Wedding

An alternate title for Noah Baumbach’s harrowing family drama could be “White People on Their Worst Behavior.” An icy performance by Nicole Kidman is the backbone of this simple return-home story, but it’s the bitter way she makes you love her by the end that will have you questioning just how thick blood really is.

Teeth

It’s been more than ten years since Teeth premiered at Sundance, but the vagina dentata horror/comedy holds up as a feminist cult classic. As Broadly’s Sirin Kale wrote last year, Teeth is not only “a powerful critique of America's purity culture” but also “an incisor-sharp commentary on male entitlement, consent, and sexual violence.”

The Imitation Game

Nothing more and nothing less than love killed the cryptographer who cracked the Nazi code. In the immortal words of the only scientist anyone listens to anymore, “Break the cycle, Morty. Rise above: focus on science.”

Nymphomaniac: Part 1 and Nymphomaniac: Part 2

Leave it to the Danish sadist Lars von Trier to paint the bleakest portrait of human relationships since de Sade wrote Justine. There’s love, there’s sex, and there’s fucking. Nymphomaniac debases all three, in equal measure.

Seen all these already? Why not check out our list of the best Netflix movies to watch while stoned. You’re welcome.

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This article originally appeared on VICE US.

It's an interesting time to be a teenager in America, an era when fewer and fewer youngsters give a shit about dating, driving, drinking, or doing drugs. Gone are the days of smoking doobs on the playground and TP-ing a neighbor's house—apparently the next hot trend among today's kids is running for local office.

According to the Garden City Telegram, a bunch of teenagers have exposed a major loophole in Kansas and are running to be the state's next governor. Jack Bergeson, a 16-year-old Democrat who can't even vote yet, decided to run for the office last summer after realizing that there's no age requirement to do so.

Now five other kids have followed his lead—Aaron Coleman, 17, Joseph Tutera Jr., 16, Tyler Ruzich, 17, Dominic Scavuzzo, 17, and Ethan Randleas, 18, have all announced their bids for the governorship, the New York Times reports. Lucy Steyer, a 17-year-old, is also running for secretary of state.

And the candidates aren't wasting any time: Scavuzzo, a Republican, has already tapped his dad to serve as his campaign treasurer, while Coleman—a high school dropout who's running as an Independent—chose his grandma for the role. Meanwhile, Bergeson managed to make it into a debate with a handful of candidates at least twice his age, and Tutera Jr. (a Republican) is spending Friday at the Kansas Press Association Candidate Forum to get in some face time with the media.

The teens are already facing resistance from all the olds at the Capitol, who are currently debating a bill that would require gubernatorial candidates to be at least 18. Republican representative Blake Carpenter introduced the legislation late last month after he got wind of all the young bucks looking to govern the state, the Telegram reports. But it won't keep them out of the running for 2018—even if the bill passes, it won't take effect until January of next year.

Still, Bergeson thinks closing the governorship to candidates who may or may not be old enough to drive is a bunch of bullshit. In written testimony he filed opposing the bill, he shut down all the graybeards who claim he and his fellow teens are just campaigning as a joke—stressing that it's important to let anyone who wants to run go for it.

"I am not running for governor as a stunt, or a gag,” he wrote. "I am running for governor because of the minimum wage worker that has to work three jobs just to get by. I am running because our education system has been lagging behind other states. I am running to get money out of politics, but most importantly, I am running to get as many people involved in politics as possible."

Just looking at his current opponents, it seems like Bergeson has already made some headway on that last point. And while it might seem like a total long shot for any of the teens to get the gig come November, it's not like complete lack of experience kept an outsider candidate from taking the White House.

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Related: Catching Up with the Poet Behind the Women's March Anthem 'Nasty Woman'

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Jade Tootoosis is Colten Boushie’s sister. Jade and her husband Lyle, her family, and many of her extended family are dear friends of mine. I was one of the MCs of Jade and Lyle’s wedding round dance just a few years ago and I was struck by the beautiful spirit, generosity, and love that filled the auditorium in Enoch Cree Nation that night.

I thought about that night a lot over the past year-and-a-half as I’ve watched their family struggle through the experience of navigating a justice system that has traditionally failed Indigenous peoples.

It’s been heartbreaking to see Jade Tootoosis react to the news that Gerald Stanley's defense team dismissed Indigenous peoples one by one in the jury selection process, essentially ensuring an all-white jury would decide his fate.

Yesterday, Indian Country collectively held its breath as we awaited the jury's decision in the case of the death of Colten Boushie. Boushie was 22 when he was shot dead by Stanley after driving onto Stanley’s farm with a flat tire. Stanley claimed it was an accident when he fired at Boushie at close range. The Crown argued the farmer meant to fire his weapon.

I didn't check social media all day for fear that Jade and her beautiful family would not receive the justice they deserved in the loss of their loved one. In a country that talks so much about righting the wrongs of the last 150 years, there was a tinge of hope that maybe justice would be served for Colten. However, many Native people I know outright rejected the idea that the Crown would do their job well and secure a conviction.

On Friday, after a day of deliberations, the jury found Stanley not guilty of second-degree murder. The courtroom erupted in pain. “You're a murderer. You murdered my son,” Colten’s mother, Debbie Baptiste, said.

Disbelief or shock are not even words that describe the very idea that Gerald Stanley was sleeping in his own bed last night. The very idea that Gerald Stanley was able to walk free without a lesser charge, which could have been considered by the jury, is unfathomable to me. With that said, of course, it's not surprising.

It’s not surprising to those who acknowledge a fundamental truth, even though it’s hard to do so. We need to get better at looking at what the Canadian project started out as and what it continues to be—a project in keeping Whiteness comfortable. We need to start naming White Supremacy for what it is—the roots of this country. Start naming colonialism for what it is, the system this country was built on. Start naming racism for what it is, the backbone of the spirit that kills Indigenous Peoples.

Jade Tootoosis at a media conference following Stanley's acquittal. Image via CP.

I spent the last week in Vancouver as faculty at Simon Fraser University’s masters of publishing intensive week, and while there I've presented my arguments against indigenization efforts under the guise of reconciliation in Canada. I hosted a talk this past Wednesday night that was standing room only, and much to the surprise of many I problematized the very notion that indigenization should be a practice in Canada right now.

I argue indigenization is an effort to tinker around the margins of systems, institutions, and programs that historically have not worked for Indigenous peoples. Indigenization, as I see it, is a project to make this country feel better about itself without having to address structural and systemic inequality. As far as I see right now, indigenization is a tinkering around the edges in an effort for those at the top to meet their minimum quotas—for those with the keys to the mansion to avoid giving up the keys.

This country doesn't need incremental change and it should not aim to take baby steps towards the future. The imbalance of power and the inequities in the systems we live and work in need to be fundamentally shifted with the balance of power, decision making, and resources going back to Indigenous peoples. This applies in the education system and the Canadian economy, in the political system and, yes, the justice system. Indigenous Scholars like John Borrows, Val Napoleon, and Tracey Lindberg work extensively to support the notion that Indigenous legal orders and Indigenous justice systems create a more equitable and fair system for all of Canada.

This past week Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was on TVO's The Agenda talking about justice reform and a more culturally sensitive approach to rehabbing and dealing with Indigenous inmates. There is no culturally sensitive approach to putting Indigenous peoples in jail. While there are good people doing good work with Indigenous peoples currently incarcerated, investing in sweat lodges and smudging inmates with sweet grass when they wake up in the morning sets the bar pretty low in terms of reform and change. What if all the resources that were being used for reform actually went to prevention, support, and cultural programming that rebuilt Indigenous communities after the harm of the last 150 years in this country. To think about reforming the justice system in a culturally appropriate way is a morally bankrupt concept—the playground-to-prison pipeline should not be resourced with our Indigenous knowledge systems because the prison pipeline doesn't deserve our knowledge. There is no justice for Indigenous People whether we are IN or OUT of prison.

Colten Boushie, seen in a Facebook photo.

From the time Indigenous kids are able to leave the house and go outside to play in this country, they are warned about going on other people's property and talking back to white people. Kids are urged to stay out of trouble and essentially be invisible in their homelands. Ask any Indigenous person if, when walking on the Rez or in rural areas with their friends, they've ever “hit the ditch” when they heard a vehicle approaching and they'll tell you it's a common practice—something they were told to do when they were kids.

Will indigenization and reconciliation ensure that Native kids playing in reserve and rural areas of this country are going to be safe? Will indigenization and reconciliation ensure that when one of our relatives’ cars break down they can count on a neighbour for help? Will indigenization and reconciliation change the minds of those who value property over Indigenous lives?

It's hard to talk about reconciliation in a country that cannot serve you justice. It's hard to talk about reconciliation in a country where you need to fight to stay alive. It's hard to talk about reconciliation when families and communities literally don't have time to wipe away the tears from one tragedy to the next.

Here's the thing, Indigenous peoples in Canada are well-versed in not receiving justice. A short list: stolen land; the Indian Act; residential schools; the 60s scoop; Indian hospitals; the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women; a lack of clean drinking water; poisoned land and water sacrificed to the resource-based economy much of this country survives on; and the uncountable failings of the justice system—premature and mysterious deaths, disappearances, and unsolved murders.

You can look to Louis Riel, Neil Stonechild, Leo LaChance, the deaths of seven youth over a period of just years in Thunder Bay, or the dozens of lives taken at the hands of serial killer Robert Pickton to know that we know what it feels when people from our community die at the hands of violence. Many families and their communities are well-versed in the numbness that follows the violent death of their loved ones. In many of these cases, Indigenous peoples themselves are blamed for their deaths. Colten's death was used against him and it’ll be used against us again. Many believe he should not have entered the Stanley's property after he had been drinking with friends that summer day, something every teenager in the Prairies does throughout their lifetime. Somehow, it is Colten’s fault that he was asleep in the front seat of that SUV when he was shot in the head and killed.

I’m frozen with fear today. What do I need to tell my daughters about staying alive in this country? How do I reassure them that they are safe in Canada.

The irony here is Colten Boushie's family has called for peace and prayer as Indigenous peoples across Canada plan for a day of action today. They're calling for peace and prayer after their son was shot in the back of the head with a handgun by a white farmer in Saskatchewan. So I ask, who are the Savages here?

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Ryan is an Anishinaabe/Metis comedian and writer based out of Treaty #1 territory (Winnipeg, Manitoba).

An all-white jury has found Gerald Stanley not guilty of murdering a 22-year-old Indigenous man, but if you ask Colten Boushie’s family and local Indigenous community, the fight for justice is far from over.

Police estimate there were about 700 people gathered in front of the courthouse in Saskatoon in support of the Boushie family Saturday afternoon. The not-guilty verdict has left many saying the justice system is deeply flawed and has failed Indigenous people.

Speakers at the rally questioned Canada’s commitment to reconciliation and stressed the need for resistance, and solidarity from allies in light of Boushie’s death, which has been referred to as the Rodney King trial of the Prairies.

Perry Bellegarde, national chief for the Assembly of First Nations was one of several Indigenous leaders to come out in support of a public inquiry into the investigation and trial of Boushie’s case, as well as an appeal of the verdict. He joined Chief Clint Wuttunee of the Red Pheasant First Nation, where Boushie was a band member, and Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs in calling for immediate action from government.

“If Canada and Saskatchewan are serious about reconciliation, we want more than words and tears. We want action and we want a say in in the control and action in the destiny of our rights for our children and for our future generations,” the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations’ second vice-chief David Pratt said.

Saskatoon wasn’t the only place people gathered together to stand up for justice in Boushie’s death. Thousands of people across Canada in cities like Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Calgary walked, rallied and chanted “justice for Colten.” Many said this court case was an example of the insidious racism that Indigenous people face on a daily basis.

Jade Tootoosis, Boushie’s sister, told the Saskatoon crowd Canadians have many difficult conversations about hate and injustice ahead. “Someone should not have to die for us to realize there are issues within our systems,” she said. “Indigenous people continue to have to defend and advocate for ourselves and our loved ones. And not only that—but have to check up on one another and caution one another and say, ‘Be safe when you go out.’”

Tootoosis greeted protesters warmly and encouraged Indigenous communities and allies across the country to speak out. “Colten is not here to stand up for himself… He’s not here to defend himself and we are doing everything we can as a family for him. We don’t want another Colten Boushie. For another individual to be lost like Colten.”

In the face of fears that the non-guilty verdict will further divide Saskatchewan along racial lines, FSIN second vice-chief Pratt asked for cooperation. “I encourage our people to show kindness, to show generosity, to show the people of this region what we are made of,” he said. “Let’s honour the spirit of our ancestors that signed treaty that agreed to work together—that agreed to share this land.”

Boushie’s family said they are planning on going to Ottawa to meet with Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, Boushie’s uncle told media. “I want to take this all the way to Ottawa,” he said. “Indigenous people have never received justice throughout Canada. This is white-privileged justice that has happened to my family. A whitewash.”

By Saturday afternoon, an online petition calling for a public inquiry into the Boushie case began to circulate on social media, following the emotional call to action from Boushie’s sister. “Don’t be afraid. Don’t be silent. Continue to mobilize organize, speak out wherever you are.”

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Shock has emerged as the signature emotional response to the organized confusion of the Trump era. The president is at war with the same agents of federal law enforcement investigating his old campaign. Just months after an alt-right rally in Charlottesville ended in death, emboldened white supremacists are littering college campuses with propaganda. And an immigration system that was already broken has been thrown into even more chaos by a White House bent on vindictive, nativist policies.

All that dysfunction—much of it inspired by racially-infused hate—is often greeted with incredulity, as if it were extremely unusual or even unprecedented. Keisha Blain knows better.

The author and historian is an ascendant voice highlighting disturbing episodes in America’s past, many of which were previously whitewashed or ignored entirely. The University of Pittsburgh professor co-developed the Charleston Syllabus in 2015 after white supremacist Dylann Roof murdered nine congregants at an historic African-American church in the South Carolina city. More recently, she helped craft the Trump Syllabus 2.0—an upgrade of an earlier effort criticized for failing to include perspectives from scholars of colour and other marginalized groups—to document the political climate that gave way to the 45th president. Both began as Twitter hashtags but were later fleshed out into books and classroom curricula tracing the roots of racial violence, white supremacy, and bilious politics. Blain also has a new book of her own out this month, Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom, a text that spotlights the black women who propelled the Black Nationalist movement of the 20th century.

Blain’s interest in political issues was nurtured early on during her years growing up in the Caribbean and in Brooklyn. But it wasn’t until college that a last-minute decision to take a history class set her life—and career—on an entirely different trajectory. We reached out to the academic for some context for her work correcting historic blind spots, how to make sense of the open racial antagonism emanating from this White House, and how black women have been shaping America's story all along. Here’s what we talked about.

The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

VICE: Americans have a strange relationship with our history, where we’ve kind of grown accustomed to a version of it that’s embarrassingly inaccurate. Take, for example, the sanitized version of Martin Luther King, Jr. that most school kids learn about: Most of us were taught MLK was this docile visionary who gave the ultimate feel-good speech, but never that he was a radical anti-capitalist and anti-war activist who really interrogated the concept of whiteness and white privilege. But we’re also starting to see pushback when dubious accounts of history come out, and more people seem willing to evaluate where they grew up with a critical eye. Is America’s vision of its own past improving?
Keisha N. Blain: I do think it’s improving. A few events that took place over the past several months have forced people to think about history and its portrayal. Several months ago, there was a strange comment made by [Chief of Staff John Kelly] from the White House about the Civil War occurring because of an inability to compromise. And many historians immediately responded and wrote op-eds expressing outrage.

But something that was clear, based on comments made by various leaders in the White House and elsewhere, was the need to get history out to the wider public. I came to realize the great work we do never reaches the people we actually want to read our work. So I’m encouraged by the direction we’re taking and the interest people have to know more.

Even today, with things like textbooks, we’re still battling over who and what should be included. And there are generations of Americans who went to school and learned history through a very particular lens—often a very racist lens. In many ways, we’re lagging behind as a nation.

We’ve lived with this skewed understanding of our history for so long already. What’s the price of letting this misinformation persist another generation longer?
I started thinking about this a few years ago, related to Charleston. I remember hearing leaders in our country and people on the news saying things like, “This is the first time we’ve seen this kind of violence taking place in a black church!” and talking about how it was strange and against our values.

When these tragedies occur, particularly when race is at the center, these are comforting things to say. It’s fine to acknowledge the growth we’ve made, but it’s dangerous to suggest it’s always been wonderful and say that only now are we seeing these instances. Let’s stop with the false narrative that things have always been great.

A lot of people were uncomfortable to hear this, but if you look at US history, Dylann Roof fits with a pattern. Black churches have always been targeted, for centuries. White supremacy has been rooted in this country for centuries. And that makes people uncomfortable. That’s fine. We can talk about what’s great in the US, but we also need to talk about the parts that make us uncomfortable. If we don’t, how do we confront it and make the changes we want to see?

That seems to be a common narrative around Donald Trump’s presidency: The shocking abnormality of it all and how it’s something we’ve never seen the likes of before. With Trump, is any of it really so strange and so new?
That’s what I had in mind with the Trump syllabus: As shocking at his election seemed to many people, it represented a point on a larger continuum of our history. In so many ways, we can see the threads throughout US history that almost signal to us as historians that this was already in the making. We identified 20th century figures who were very similar in their ideas about racism or immigration. There’s a sort of narrative that people often try to sell about United States, and then there’s reality. And they don’t often align.

Even the “MAGA” slogan is a rerun of sorts, right?
People are surprised that the slogan in and of itself isn’t new—it was from Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign.

So as often as we might be surprised by current events, there’s a bit of a Groundhog Day element to American history.
There’s a joke that historians know the past and the present but are terrible at predicting the future. But what I find terribly valuable about history is to see the patterns and how they play out or take new shape and meanings. Or generations later people pick up the mantle.

I often ask my students: When did the Civil Rights movement end? And some say the 60s or the 70s. And I ask them to consider Black Lives Matter and how the iteration of that could be an example of the Civil Rights Movement now. And then they looked at how similar strategies have been used in the 60s compared to now, with BLM. The demands are very much in line with the demands of our parents and grandparents before. I like asking those questions because it forces us to grapple with the notion of progress.

Have you heard of someone having a significant transformation after reckoning with their flawed understanding of American history?
One of the most rewarding aspects of the Charleston Syllabus was receiving letters from people who shared their personal journey with me. There was one particular woman who wrote to me and said, “Now that I’ve read the syllabus, I’ve learned so much. Can you recommend a graduate program in African-American history I could enroll in?” She shared with me her story that she had held certain views most of her life and admitted that her understanding of history was a very distorted one.

People emailed and said they were in their 50s and were embarrassed to admit they had never heard of some of these black women leaders. There were so many personal stories about how this information transformed them. You do these things and just hope for the best. And unsurprisingly, learning the history changes people’s thinking about the present.

As often as people of color get erased from history, black women seem to get shorted the most. With both the Civil Right movement and Black Lives Matter, these causes were often led by black women but are most commonly associated with a single male figure, right?
So many historians are still guilty of telling history through the eyes of men. People will sit down and write an entire book about a movement all about men, and it gets reviewed, and it gets published. And only after someone asks, "What about the women?” does the author have to respond.

When you look below the surface, it’s often women who organized and led them. Things like the Montgomery bus boycotts; those helped lead MLK to the national stage. But the boycotts were led by women like Jo Ann Robinson of the Women’s Political Council. And members of the community then turned to a man, to MLK, and asked him to lead the strategy.

What did you find when you were telling the story of women in the Black Nationalist movement? That’s another one that’s historically been seen as very male-dominated.
In 1927, [Black Nationalist leader] Marcus Garvey is deported back to Jamaica. And history books say the movement kind of died out until it was sort of revived by Malcolm X. And I think, “How did this vibrant movement with millions of followers die out?” And then I find that after Garvey was deported, a woman established a movement and it grows into the 1950s and 1960s.

I remember going through FBI files on the topic and saw a correspondence that said, “I can’t believe we missed this.” The FBI was talking about women’s organizing efforts in the South. They were looking for the black men and they were looking for the troublemakers, and they weren’t imagining that women were the one’s keeping the movement going even after all the men were arrested.

Even when I started researching, people told me I wasn’t going to find anything on the subject. “There’s no material on it.” I would go to archives and ask if they had info on women in the black nationalist movement. And they’d say “oh, maybe just one thing.” And then I’d find troves of letters and materials and then tell them what I was finding.

Your work contests a lot of deeply entrenched ideas in American culture. Can you talk about that task and its pitfalls, both personal and professional?
As I developed as a scholar and teacher over the years, I felt rather confined by what appeared to be the standard expectations in my field. I certainly wanted to write history books and journal articles, but I wanted much more—I wanted to utilize my skills in a way that help improve the world in which we live. I wanted my work to have an impact far beyond the four walls of academia. This desire—and the urgent need for more public scholarship on race and history at this moment—motivated me to become involved in several public projects.

Doing this very public work can be challenging. I have had to come to terms with the reality that many people will not embrace the kind of work I am doing—even other professional historians. However, it has been personally rewarding. It keeps me going to know that my work is helping to shape national conversations on race and even more, that my work is helping to propel people to take tangible steps in their communities to help build a more just and equal society.

Learn more about Keisha Blaine's new book, out this month, here.

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This story is a part of VICE's ongoing effort to highlight the contributions of black women around the globe who are making a difference. To read more stories about strong black women making history today, go here.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

As a young man living in Addis Ababa during the swinging 60s, Hailu Mergia was a superstar. The Ethiopian capital city was a bustling cosmopolis where art and culture flourished amid the country’s uneasy quest for independence.

His jazz and funk band, The Walias, performed for the domestic and international elite at the then-prestigious Hilton Hotel’s music club, which granted residencies to Ethiopia’s hottest bands. Crowds of dignitaries and foreign diplomats, Hollywood movie stars, famous musicians like Duke Ellington and Alice Coltrane, and important African figures like Manu Dibango would flock to the hotel to dance and jam until sunrise.

“When we played in the Hilton Hotel, the audience was full of people from around the world, so everybody had requests for different kinds of music. Sometimes we’d play Indian melodies, sometimes we’d play Arabic music. We’d pick up American soul, blues and jazz melodies and then improvise on them in our own music,” Mergia remembers.

Born in the Ethiopian countryside in 1946, Mergia spent much of his childhood working as a shepherd, but began learning to play music as a boy scout at age 14. When his band rose to prominence in the 60s and 70s, they weren’t just kings of Addis Ababa nightlife, they were a beacon to Ethiopia’s revolutionaries. Under the Derg regime, constant warfare, famine, and brutal political oppression plagued Ethiopia.

The Walias’s seminal album Tche Belew features the single “Musicawi Silt,” one of the most famous songs of all-time in Ethiopia. It conveys messages of heroism through well-known references to Ethiopian battle songs. “Ethiopian music is like most art: in every piece there’s a message. Everyone is trying to explain what they know through music. Tche Belew is a hero’s song. It means ‘go for it,’” says Mergia.

Left photo: First photo ever taken of The Walias band, Zoo Park in Addis Ababa, 1963. Center photo: Mergia and The Walias with Manu Dibango, The Hilton Hotel Ballroom, early 1960s.

The album’s call for bravery proved apt. During the “Red Terror” over a half million Ethiopians were killed and countless more displaced. The constant state of crisis led to the nation’s first major diaspora into the western world, with the United States experiencing a surge in refugees.

In 1981, as his country entered one of the worst famines it had ever endured, Mergia made the painful decision to leave Ethiopia, abandoning his fame to move to the United States. He eventually settled in Washington, DC, where he’s been driving a cab for the last 20 years. “To give up fame and music was hard, but I always had a feeling that one day I’d make my way back to it again,” Mergia says.

Over the years in the States, Mergia managed to intermittently self-release a few tapes and CDs, but little of it reached his fans in Ethiopia. “Every once in a while someone in my cab sees my license and they know my name. Usually they have no idea I was famous,” he says.

Though Mergia is far from his home country, he keeps music close to him as he navigates the streets of DC. “I have a keyboard in the trunk of my taxicab,” he says. In between fares, Mergia pulls it from his trunk to practice in the backseat. “My keyboard works with batteries, so I always have music.”

Mergia playing a battery-powered keyboard in the back of his taxicab.

In 2013, music scholar and archivist Brian Shimkovitz was in Ethiopia digging through cassettes in the back of a record shop when he found one of Mergia’s old tapes. “I was super excited about it and I listened to it over and over,” Shimkovitz says. “So I tracked [Mergia] down on the internet.”

Shimkovitz runs Awesome Tapes from Africa, a blog and record label he started in his Brooklyn apartment in 2006. “The label grew out of the blog’s attempt to show what African music really sounds like in various regions, not a packaged world music version of it,” Shimkovitz explains. “The label tries to put out music other labels wouldn’t release, while doing 50/50 deals and advocating for the artists. Sending them money and opportunities as much as possible is the central mission. [Our] fans are people all over the world who are adventurous or curious listeners or music collectors or African expats.”

Like many of his fans, Shimkovitz was surprised to hear that Mergia was driving a cab. “I used to live in DC, so I was aware of the large Ethiopian community and their role in making that city work. So I guess I was surprised that a famous musician was doing a day job. But I can’t say I was shocked, as the live music scene is difficult as hell for any musician in the US, especially someone playing instrumental music,” says Shimkovitz.

“I want people to know that I’m back after so many years. I’m in business again,” Mergia says.

Shortly after they met, Shimkovitz signed Mergia with Awesome Tapes’ label and began booking him shows around the world. “We never have any big disagreements and the work has been successful so I guess that helps make things really fun. He’s my dad’s age. Not the age of someone I typically hang with and get along with so effortlessly. We have had beautiful times just goofing around while driving through the desert in Texas, or hanging on a boat backstage at a show in Germany, or watching him play Radio City Music Hall opening for Beirut,” Shimkovitz says.

This February, Mergia will release his first album in more than 15 years. “Lala Belu has been a long time coming,” Shimkovitz notes.

“All of it feels like a big comeback,” says Mergia. “A different kind of audience, playing with a different kind of band and working with a different kind of record company. The album is very different from all the albums I did after I left Ethiopia.”

When asked why he decided to release a new album, Mergia replies, “Art is a lifetime commitment. The more you play the more you know.”

After so many years out of the spotlight, Mergia’s drive to keep playing music—even if it meant practicing in the backseat of his taxi—perhaps reminded him of the message he sang in 1977: that one must “go for it.”

Mergia in his home in Fort Washington, Maryland, standing beside a portrait of his wife of 17 years, Ayuberhan Abegaz.

Album promotion posters from the 1970s in Ethiopia. Bottom right: Photo of the Zula Band playing at an Ethiopian restaurant in Washington DC Center Right: Photo of Walias Band on the Hilton Hotel balcony in the early 1960s.

Portrait of Mergia in Greece, taken in the early 90s.

Among many instruments, Mergia plays the accordion, synthesizer, piano, organ, melodica and drum machine.

Mergia playing the melodica in his living room.

Mergia holding a photo of the Walias Band from the 1970s. “There was an American radio station we listened to everyday in Addis Ababa that played James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Tyrone Davis, Aretha Franklin, and many more. So we’d pick up American soul, blues, and jazz melodies and then improvise on them in our own music,” he remembers.

Preorder Hailu Mergia’s new album Lala Belu here.

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This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Despite what you see in the movies, most amputees aren't war veterans who lost a leg in a grizzly battle. Eighty-two percent of amputations are due to peripheral vascular disease or diabetes. The word "amputee" doesn't necessarily mean you've had a limb amputated, either; it also applies to people born with a limb missing.

Tom Rourke, a 29-year-old animator from Nottingham, has been an amputee as long as he can remember. Aside from people mistaking you for a former-soldier, what is it actually like to live a regular old life, going to work and on Tinder dates, with a prosthetic leg?

VICE: When did you lose your leg?
Tom Rourke: I was born with my right leg malformed. I didn’t have both the bones beneath the knee. I wouldn’t have been able to walk on it if they’d just left it like that, I’d have been in a wheelchair. When I was three or four they decided to amputate it. They took my foot off so I could use a prosthetic.

So is the amputation under the knee?
Yeah, just above where the ankle would be.

Do you remember having your leg?
No. I vaguely remember being in hospital when they amputated it, but all I remember was being in the ward – I have no memory of the leg. I have a couple of other memories from around then; I have memories about a dog.

How much does it affect your day-to-day life?
There’s a daily element to it, but you work your way around it. Stuff like showering in the morning, you have to be really careful. If you imagine getting into a shower with one leg, you could fall over and break your neck easily. If I’m moving somewhere I’ll look for somewhere with a shower over the bath because they’re easier to climb into than the cubicle showers. There is no easy way to leverage yourself over those tiny metal steps.

WATCH:

Can you do sports?
I can do most things. I don’t think I could do rock climbing because my leg would just fall off. Anything using an ankle is tricky – when I was a kid, I used to try and skateboard, but you need an ankle to do an ollie. Although, for a while, if you lost a leg in the east Midlands, where I grew up, they'd show you a video of me rollerblading to show what was possible.

How often do you get a new prosthetic?
I’ve had this one for six or seven years because it’s quite hardy, other than the foot needing to be replaced now and then. The foot’s a separate rubber bit on the end that you can remove. I’ve got an appointment in a few weeks – I’ll think they’ll tell me that I need a new leg.

Where do you go when you need a new leg?
I go to a clinic for people who’ve lost arms or legs. I used to go to one that was an entire building just for that: for people with amputations from birth, or who’d had them later due to accidents or whatever. There were rooms with shelves from floor to ceiling with just arms or legs on them. They also did glass eyes; there was a cabinet full of glass eyes. It was very weird.

Are prosthetics like NHS specs, where there’s one standard one?
Yeah, I’ve got the bog standard one, because it can really take a battering and I’m not that worried about how it looks. I went to Norway and climbed a mountain and it just takes anything. There are other models, but they break a lot easier because they have more components in them to break. You have specialist ones for certain activities, like skiing. Women sometimes get specialist ones so they can wear heels.

In a dating situation, when do you tell someone?
I usually try and say fairly early on, because you don’t want it to be a surprise. I think that’s fair to them.

Does everyone in your life know?
I forget to tell people sometimes. A friend of mine didn’t realise for about six months after knowing me. I just sort of forgot to tell her because it’s not something I think of all the time.

Do you think it’s had an influence on who you are?
It probably meant that I was inside more when I was a little kid, particularly around the time it was amputated, doing a lot of drawing, so it had to have some influence.

Do you think there are any benefits to it?
It makes you a bit more sensitive to other people’s things, I think. And it drives you. Because it’s something that should stop you, you go in the opposite direction.

@wernerspenguin

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

Everything you need to know about the world this morning, curated by VICE.

US News

Pence Says Talks with North Korea on the Table
The vice president said the US and South Korea had settled on a new, twin-track policy of sanctions and engagement with North Korea. Pence noted that the move would open up the possibility of talks without preconditions between US and North Korean officials. Traveling home from the Winter Olympics, he said a “maximum pressure campaign is going to continue and intensify. But if you want to talk, we’ll talk.”—The Washington Post / VICE News

New York Files Suit Against Weinstein Company
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman brought a claim against the disgraced former producer Harvey Weinstein, his brother Robert, and the Weinstein Company. The suit argues the company was given “credible evidence of HW’s sexual harassment," and was apparently sufficient to halt Sunday’s expected sale of the company to an investor group for roughly $275 million, plus debts.—The New York Times

Huge Power Outage Hits Puerto Rico
Large parts of northern Puerto Rico, including some areas in San Juan, were without power Sunday night after an explosion and a fire at an electricity facility. Although the number of people impacted was unknown, more than 400,000 homes in the US territory were already without power due to damage from Hurricane Maria several months ago.—AP

Trump Infrastructure Plan Finally Set to See Light of Day
The White House was expected to outline a $1.5 trillion proposal to encourage state and local governments to spend on infrastructure Monday. Only $200 million was reportedly slated to come from federal coffers, while private industry, state, and local entities were meant to cover the rest of the costs. President Trump was scheduled to talk about the plan with lawmakers at the White House on Wednesday.—CBS News

International News

Russian Investigators Search Plane Crash Wreckage
A Saratov Airlines jet crashed around 50 miles outside Moscow on Sunday, killing all 71 people on board. At least one flight recorder was found in the snow as inspectors sought evidence.—BBC News

Egypt Kills a Dozen Militants in Sinai
The Egyptian army said 12 anti-government fighters had been killed and 92 others arrested in a ground operation in Sinai. Military air strikes also hit 60 militant locations, according to a televised statement from the army. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has vowed to root out a militant Islamist insurgency in the area ahead of his bid for re-election next month.—Reuters

Australia Failing its Indigenous People, Report Says
A government report found the country is falling short in four of seven targets for reducing inequalities Aboriginal people face, and specifically that the gap in life expectancy was widening. Former PM Kevin Rudd, whose government set the targets in 2008, blamed funding cuts.—AP

Duterte Says Soldiers Can Shoot Women in the Genitals
Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte told a gathering of former rebel fighters that soldiers were entitled to fire at female suspects. “We won’t kill you. We will just shoot your vagina,” Duterte was reported to have said. His spokesman recently dismissed the leader's rants as a joke. “I mean, that’s funny," the spokesman said. "Come on. Just laugh.”—VICE News

Everything Else

‘Fifty Shades Freed’ No.1 at the Box Office
The franchise's final installment earned $38.8 million in North-American movie theaters, part of an international debut totaling $136.9 million. The trilogy has now earned over $1 billion around the world.—The Hollywood Reporter

NBC Apologizes for Offending Koreans
Winter Olympics pundit Joshua Cooper Ramo said Japan had set Korea “a cultural, technological, and economic example," upsetting many in the Korean peninsula who harbor negative feelings toward the former empire. NBC apologized for Ramo's comments, and said he “will have no further role on our air” at the games.—Reuters

Justin Timberlake Tops Album Chart
The singer’s new LP Man of the Woods debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200, moving 293,000 copies in equivalent sales in its first week. The album, Timberlake’s fourth No.1, enjoyed the strongest debut since the release of Taylor Swift’s Reputation.—Billboard

Jóhann Jóhannsson Dies at 48
The acclaimed composer, who scored Arrival and Sicario, was found dead at his Berlin apartment on Friday, his manager confirmed over the weekend. “The power of his music will live on,” said his label Deutsche Grammophon.—Noisey

Travis Scott Given Key to His Hometown
The mayor of Missouri City, Texas, awarded Scott the key at a ceremony this weekend. “This is better than any award show I’ve ever been to,” Scott said, before jumping into a rendition of his track “Butterfly Effect.”—Noisey

Oculus VR Founder Moderating Subreddit About Oculus
Palmer Luckey, the man who sold his VR company to Facebook, was tapped to help moderate the r/Oculus subreddit. His appointment to the role sparked a backlash by some users unhappy Luckey gave money to help fund the Trump inauguration and with his politics generally.—Motherboard

Make sure to check out the latest episode of VICE's daily podcast. Today we're talking to Frank Pinello, host of our series The Pizza Show, about a topic we can all get behind.

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This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Last night, Canada’s Olympic figure skating team won gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, but the real winner was international viewers who learned the truth about our cold nation: Canada fucks.

With the gold already secured for the Canadian squad, ice dancer duo Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir closed it out with their sexy, sexy dance to “Moulin Rouge”—which at least one American commenter brilliantly referred to as “ice fucking.”

Now, this specific performance had already caused a bit of a stir back in Canada last month, with our favourite buttoned-up newspaper, the Toronto Star, referring to the pair’s Moulin Rouge routine as “lush, ripe and sensual.”

What does that really mean? Well, it means the performance basically features some suggested cunnilingus amid the athletic twirls and jumps. (Anyone who discounts figure skating/ice dancing as a sport because of the dancing and corrupt judging has never put knives on their feet and tried to spin.)

The move that got everyone hot at the Canadian Skating Nationals last month.

“I think edgy would probably summarize most of the program quite well and that’s what we were going for,” Virtue, who also won gold with Moir at the 2010 Olympics, told the Star last month.

The “edgy” routine was actually toned down for the Olympic audience in South Korea, which is delightful considering the online reaction to it.

And you haven’t really experienced the routine until you’ve heard it in the original Francais, the sexiest Canadian language.

And no, they aren’t a couple, they are just two sexy professionals who have been turning us on (to figure skating) for years.