People hold candles during a memorial service in Orlando, Florida, for the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shootings. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

In the wake of Sunday's mass shooting at Pulse, an iconic nightclub in Orlando, Florida, the country has rallied around the city's LGBTQ community. The attack, which left 49 dead and 53 wounded, served as a horrific reminder that for all of the progress that's been made since the Stonewall riots, LGBTQ people and their allies still face hatred and violence. Yet if the tragedy cast a pall over the Pride celebrations happening across the country, it has also motivated people to come together in support and love: In Orlando on Monday night, thousands turned out for a candlelight vigil where Pulse employees declared—to massive cheers—that the club would reopen.

Pulse is a cornerstone of Orlando's thriving LGBTQ community. Since it opened 13 years ago, a diverse clientele has embraced this multi-room space, known for its drag shows, Latin dance nights, and all-around positive vibes. As President Barack Obama put it in a speech on Sunday, Pulse is "more than a nightclub. It is a place of solidarity and empowerment, where people have come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds and to advocate for their civil rights."

VICE spoke with the club's current and former regulars to hear firsthand why Pulse is such a special place, and how the community has been affected by the tragedy that unfolded there this weekend.

John Anthony, former patron

I started going to Pulse from pretty much the grand opening up until I left town in 2007. And then after that, most every time I was back in Orlando I'd swing by. The club as it opened is pretty unrecognizable from what it is today. But back then, the main bar was this kind of Kubrick-ian all-white bar. It was called the "white room." Everything—floor, bar, seating, decoration—was all this stark white. Those first couple months, they would just have bussers and bar-backs waiting to see if there were any scuff marks on the floor, and they would just dive to wipe them up. They were so careful about things looking super pristine.

Those first couple years, it was the place. Every weekend, it was not even a matter of asking if anybody was going to be there, it was just, what time would you see people? The bartenders, they would see you walk in, sometimes they'd have your drink ready and on the bar once you walked up to it. It's the first bar that I think people in my demographic—early 20s through maybe early 30s at the time—sort of felt ownership of. Southern Nights has been around forever. So Pulse was really the first bar that kind of came and stayed during my years. People felt like we sort of birthed and nurtured it, because it was ours.

Joe "Joe Joe" Rodriguez, local DJ

I was one of the first Latin DJs working at Pulse. I used to work at Club Revolution, at another gay club there. I worked there for two and a half years. They closed that down and they went for a new name, new business. They kinda got rid of everybody there, so one of the guys there he started doing a night at Pulse, then he called me over and said, "Go ahead and start doing a Latin night on Saturdays." It became a real popular night, and it just exploded.

We played all the hits: Latin music, salsa, merengue, reggaeton. A little bit of house music. I kind of blended it in a little bit. I'd read the crowd—if there was more salseros, if there were more merengue dancers. Every weekend I played different music. Good music gives good vibes. When you're a DJ, when you know you're doing a good job playing great music, you can feel that power, you know? You just feel that soul. It's just unbelievable. You see so many happy people—that's what gets a DJ very hyped up. It was just great memories at Pulse.

Marchers at the Orlando Pride Parade in 2009 carrying a sign for Pulse. Photo via Flickr user Jeff Kern

Alex Goodman, local DJ

It's always packed at Pulse and it's always so much fun. It's very celebratory and it's very accepting. You can have a beard and wear a dress. You can be straight. You can be a beautiful drag queen. You can be an ugly drag queen. You can be whatever you want to be and not be judged there. As a DJ, I'm a little snobby with the music. The music the DJs are playing on the nights I go—it's not my style. But it doesn't matter. You're there with your friends. You're having drinks or watching a show, and you can't help but dance.

Danielle Hankins, patron

Our LGBT community is pretty tight-knit. It's hard to go somewhere without somebody knowing each other. We support each other very strongly.

My wife and I went to Pulse to celebrate her best man's birthday the day after we got married. is kind of a socialite—he knows everybody—and when we went, he knew all the bartenders and the bouncers and everybody that works there. He'd go around and we would say hi to everybody and everybody would wish us a happy birthday. He would turn around and introduce myself and my wife, be like, "These are my lesbians, and they just got married!" A lot of the bartenders were congratulating us and offering to buy us drinks. My wife and I don't drink, at all. We would've felt awkward at a bar drinking sodas. But we never felt that way at Pulse. Never.

I am a paramedic. On the night of the attack, I got a call at about three in the morning telling me to be ready if the need was for us to be called in. I didn't really know what was going on. I just knew there was a possible mass-casualty incident and to be on alert. It wasn't until later on in the day, when the smoke started to clear a little bit that I found out what really had transpired.

Dan Schwab, assistant beverage manager at Parliament House

It's very fluid. It's all unfolding minute-by-minute. People are still basically in shock. You see people, you look at 'em, you haven't seen them since it happened and everybody just bursts into tears. You don't know what to say. You're happy that the person you're seeing is safe, and it's just overwhelming with emotion.

We had a vigil last night, and this coming weekend we're doing what we're calling the "Pulse Bar." We're a large complex here. We have several bars on property, and we're setting up one of those bars in particular. It's going to be called the Pulse Bar, and it's going to be staffed by Pulse employees. And that'll be this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. There's a lot of people Pulse was their bar. This way, it's a place that they know they can come to, to catch up, make sure everybody's safe, meet up with friends and hang out and still have their same people they're used to being with—such as a bartender and whatnot—right there with them as well.

Follow Peter Holslin on Twitter.

SFU photo via Wikimedia Commons

Police are investigating a student accused of sexually assaulting three women at British Columbia's second largest university, according to the Vancouver Sun. With this latest set of allegations at Simon Fraser University, three of the province's major academic institutions have now come under fire for fumbling sexual assault cases in the past six months.

This article originally appeared in VICE US.

Like many people, I issued a audible sigh when word got out that Roots, the seminal miniseries based on Alex Haley's 1976 novel, was being remade. The slave-movie phenomenon that has gripped Hollywood of late has led many to develop slave-movie fatigue. Cable-news flakey Roland Martin's comical dustup with Snoop Doggy Dogg was just the tip of the iceberg. In barbershops and Kappa socials, blacks talk about wanting images of the lives they lead everyday. Also, doesn't the 1977 original stand on its own? Does the addition of gratuitous violence and advances in filmmaking and storytelling make it better?

In the History Channel reboot, Kunta Kinte (Malachi Kirby) comes of age on screen as he transitions into Mandinka manhood in 18th-century Gambia. Few American viewers who encounter these idyllic scenes know that at the peak of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, upwards of one in six captured human beings sent to America originated from the Mandinka ethnic group. Perhaps a few more have gleaned, from their experience of being Americans, that in order for American slavery to be successful, the systematic destruction of a coherent black African personhood was imperative.

The struggle between personhood and slavery culminates in the destruction of names. Perhaps the most gripping scene in episode one is when Kunta Kinte is forced to accept the name Toby. Kirby, like LeVar Burton before him, captivates the audience as he resists being stripped of his name—the very thing that connects him to his people and to a place he will never live to see again—while being savagely whipped. (Burton is a co-executive producer on the new show.)

Only after intervention by Fiddler (Forest Whitaker), Kunta's handler, does he realize that acceptance of his new name—and by default his new condition—is imperative to his survival. This dramatization underscores one of the more unfortunate aspects of American slavery. African Americans often find gaps in their respective quests for their roots due to the fact that American slaveholders knew that in order to create a permanent, bonded class of non-citizens, it was necessary to forcibly sever their cultural ties to Africa. To this day, many African Americans still carry the names of their former masters.

Africa's continued exploitation goes uninterrogated by the international mainstream media.

Roots 2.0 does have its foibles, not unlike its predecessor. In the original television miniseries, Kinta is captured on the beach by a white guy and two black kidnappers. Statistically speaking, it probably didn't go down that way at all. The new film accurately points out that the slave trade did exist on the African continent before Europeans arrived. The arrival of Europeans industrialized the trade by creating a hemisphere-sized market for human beings. As such, Kunta is corralled by opportunistic members of a neighboring tribe during a raid. Kunta, along with scores of others, is subsequently traded for two cases of guns and ammunition before being branded and loaded onto a ship bound for Annapolis, Maryland.

Ironically, the West's relationship with the African continent has changed little. But now, instead of trafficking in humans, dictatorships are propped up in an effort to guarantee the uninterrupted flow of valuable natural resources. The occasional brave documentary film, such as Austrian-born Hubert Sauper's We Come as Friends, points this out, as well as how countries in the East, such as China, are no better at treating their darker treated equitably. But mostly Africa's continued exploitation goes uninterrogated by the international mainstream media. The publics that these organizations serve just don't give a shit.

Suffice it to say, aside from some historical adjustments and a deeper look into the all-important Mandinka credo that Kunta carries with him and inculcates into his descendants, the remake does not shed new light on Haley's work and doesn't particularly break new ground, remaining faithful to novel in ways the original didn't, while updating the violence to our post-12 Years a Slave, pre-Birth of a Nation moment. The original miniseries was groundbreaking because it placed American slavery in front of the American audience in a way that had never before been attempted. Since 1977, American audiences have been exposed to countless slave movies and the shock value has, for better or worse, worn off, I think—perhaps most whites just don't think about this stuff at all. I'm never quite sure.

What Alex Haley managed to do in writing Roots was to put a face and a name on the faceless and the nameless. Perhaps this is what provokes the discomfort and the criticism of Roots in some quarters—the truthfulness of Haley's narrative, which he claimed was drawn from a real family saga, was challenged time and again in its era. But as long as the Africans purchased, packaged, and shipped by European and American merchants are trapped in obscurity, a safe distance from the repugnant nature of slavery is possible. Roots removes this obscurity, placing the audience within dangerous proximity to the truth. The series asks them to contemplate what, in this country, was a birthright to the white population for over 200 years: domination of the black body. Haley empowered a generation of African Americans by showing us all these painful truths, helping many forge a lasting bond between them and their ancestors. In the case of this latest adaptation, perhaps the ends justify the means.

Follow Brandon Harris on Twitter.

This article originally appeared in VICE UK.

YouTube is probably the greatest anthropological project ever launched. It has managed to expose the multitudes of the human condition more than any other medium ever created, and allowed people to express themselves in more diverse ways than at any point in history. This weekly column is an outlet for me to share with you some undiscovered gems, as well some very well trodden gems, and discuss just what it is that makes the chosen accounts so intriguing.

WHO: Not Personal
WHAT: Videos of people unsuccessfully trying to circumvent laws by claiming they are sovereign citizens
HOW MANY SUBSCRIBERS AT TIME OF WRITING: 1,317
WHY SHOULD I CARE: A few years ago, a very specific type of video began appearing more and more often among my circles on social media. It was at a time when I was being arrested for drug possession and generally getting into the youthful pursuit of anti-establishmentarianism. Fuck the police, they're all pigs, why can't I smoke weed near schools and in churches, etc? Why am I not allowed to do whatever I want, Mr Prime Minister? I just want to listen to MF Doom in a park without plainclothes police officers bundling me into a squad car to confiscate the scant amount of cannabis I had in my bag. Is that too much to ask? Clearly.

But then these videos started to appear – videos that made me feel like I didn't have to submit. People were filming their interactions with the police, and they were using all sorts of jargon and arguments to absolve themselves from whatever crime they'd been accused of committing.

"Am I being detained?" is the mantra of these "free men" and "free women" – these "sovereign citizens" – who refuse to give their names or answer questions as to what they're doing and why. They became popular enough for David Cross and Bob Odenkirk to pastiche the practice on their patchy Mr Show Netflix comeback. Sometimes it pays off – the officer gives up, everyone's time sufficiently wasted. Sometimes, though, it doesn't pay off at all. The opposite happens. In the words of the infantile community of braying video game upload commenters, these people get "rekt".

Not Personal is a fitting name for an account that documents essentially impersonal interactions between two people who think they're right. The only problem is: one has legal right to incarcerate the other if they feel it's necessary. The account specifically shows people failing to convince police officers that they're "sovereign citizens", and are therefore not obligated to follow certain laws of the land.

Most of the offences are traffic stops by highway cops, so the sovereign citizens claim they are "travelling" and are free to do so without any of the relevant legal documents that you or I would be required to possess or hand over to authorities. It's all based in very murky legal waters – the result of a lot of forum reading, a lot of googling and not a lot of actual living. When confronted with these special souls, many of the officers lose their temper after extended questioning and end up smashing the car window and dragging them out.

I cannot in any capacity condone any kind of forceful arrest of peaceful (if incredibly annoying and self centred) individuals. As much as it pains me and the (HED)Pe fan that is my former self, these interactions could be easily avoided by giving the officer your driving license. There really is no reason not to, unless your license is all fucked up and out of date, in which case: busted! Plus, if the police didn't have a reason to suspect you initially, they sure as fuck do now.

I'm not totally easy with the presentation of these things, either; sadly, as with anything online, there's not a lot of leeway for nuance. The police are either power hungry pigs or just good guys trying to do their jobs.

It is, of course, absolutely integral to all of our safety that the police are held accountable and filmed misbehaving and shirking their civic duties to fulfil their own egotistical, misjudged ends. But filming an unsuspecting traffic cop trying to look at your driving license after you've been speeding (literally his job) and refusing to tell him your name, as if you're a fucking in-exile super spy, is just dumb.

I know this might read slightly like a pro-police "just let them do their jobs!" propaganda, but I can assure you it's not. There's just a certain satisfaction in a know-it-all getting "rekt". Plus, I really like watching dickheads get their windows smashed in with hammers.

@joe_bish

More from VICE:

YouTube Channel of the Week #24: Surveillance Camera Man

YouTube Channel of the Week #23: CrowbCat

YouTube Channel of the Week #22: Pat Condell

Image via pixabay

This article was originally published in VICE UK.

Dodgy internet lenders in China are reportedly getting female college students to provide nude pictures of themselves as collateral in a loan-for-porn scheme.

In this creepy arrangement, reported by Chinese media this week, students have agreed to send nude photos of themselves holding their identification cards to lenders. After doing so, the girls are then eligible for higher loan amounts – two to five times the normal sum, according to Beijing Youth Daily. The lenders told the students that they'd publish the photos online if loans aren't repaid in time, with extreme interest rates.

The site's online leaders allegedly preyed on young people who may be out of pocket or lacking in financial experience. One female student told the Beijing Youth Daily that she wanted to start a small business, so in February agreed to send nude photos to private lenders in exchange for 120,000 yuan (£12,873). Within four months, the debt she owed had more than doubled. After being threatened by her lenders, she was forced to ask her family for money to avoid having her photos put online.

These arrangements are taking place on JD Capital's Jiedaibao website – a platform where people, often friends and acquaintances, can borrow or lend money, making their own agreements. In a statement to the Guardian, a spokesperson for the company condemned the loans, saying, "This kind of naked loan is actually taking advantage of the online platform to operate an illegal usurious offline business." They said they will work with the police to investigate this or similar practices.

More on China:

Inside the Terrifying World of a Women's Rights Activist in China

Gay Men and Women in China Are Getting Married to Appease Their Parents

China's Rent-a-Foreigner Industry Is Booming

Down the hatch. All photos by Sean Foster

This article originally appeared in VICE Australia.

Microdosing means taking enough of a psychedelic drug to get a gentle boost of creativity, energy, mood, and focus, but not enough to actually trip. There's been a lot of info about it in the past few years, mostly focusing on silicon valley types who swear microdosing makes them better people. They could be right, but I've always figured that taking acid in small amounts misses the point. It's like having a fat joint in front of you but only taking a slight toke, then dabbing your face with a napkin and saying "that's all for me, thank you kindly."

But the benefits are well documented, and while a few journos have tried it, I haven't. So I decided I should.

The issue was finding the acid itself. Tabs and sugar cubes are common as Zubats but I was looking for liquid LSD. I was only looking for about one or two tabs worth but the dealer gave me a sweet deal because he liked a very similar story I wrote a while ago about trying to survive on Nutella.

Although he gave me ten solid trips' worth of LSD, it was still just a few tiny drops of liquid inside a tiny bottle. If I was to accurately dose I'd need to dilute it and make up a solution. I called my chemistry friend "Bob" and he coached me through the process of mixing up a saline-based volumetric solution.

It took a bit of math.

But we got there in the end. Also these were the only syringes Bob had. I wasn't going to shoot it up. Relax.

Monday
15 micrograms

A standard tab contains anywhere between 80-100 micrograms of actual acid, so I didn't think I would feel anything at only 15 mics. I did though; kind of similar to having half a beer on an empty stomach, nothing major but definitely something. My mood was good and I felt motivated to write which has been rare lately.

That afternoon I went for a walk on my own in a park. I felt almost disgusted by anything man-made. I craved nature and the LSD in my system gave the trees a vibrancy I never usually notice. The first day was actually great.

Tuesday
18 micrograms

My friend called me in the morning about an hour after my dose and asked to describe how it felt. I wasn't really sure how to place it. In the end I went with "powerful."

Bouts of intense focus came in waves. I'd get into this zone where words just flowed onto the page and time lost all meaning. An hour would seem to pass in five minutes. But the power was short lived. After a few hours of intense focus, I kind of hit a wall and got real sleepy. Too sleepy. I kept drifting off. Day two was great at first, but then exhausting.

Wednesday
25 micrograms

I upped the dosage on day three because I was already starting to build up a tolerance. And it was my birthday.

It was surreal to be around my family with LSD in my system. It wasn't that I was worried they'd find out, rather, the slight alteration to my perception brought on by a magnificent Peroni-red wine-acid cocktail accentuated all their beautiful positive features.

I looked around and everybody was glowing. Then a big cake baked by my older sister came out and that waxy 23 stared at me. But I didn't stare back, instead I looked at every face in that room and almost fucking cried because I wasn't a kid anymore and they were all so beautiful. I kept looking at my mum and wished one day that I'd have a quarter of the strength she has. It was a great day, everything just seemed to flow so well. All I had was happiness.

Thursday
30 micrograms

You might notice that my dosage keeps going up. I told myself I was overcoming a growing tolerance, but that's not really true. By Thursday I knew it was because I have no self control. I didn't want to microdose. I just wanted to dose.

This philosophy saw me laying on the couch at around 6 PM. I was so keen for a quiet one when my friend Sean called.

Sean: Oi I've got free tickets to Hot Dub Time Machine tonight.
Me: I don't know what that is.

Me neither. Let's go.
Okay.

You still doing that acid thing?
Yeah.

Bring it.

So my friends all got on my acid but I couldn't just sit there and watch. I figured I'd have just a little drop.

We arrived at whatever the fuck Hot Dub Time Machine is on something between two and three strong tabs of LSD each. I was hyper-aware of everything and I understood all the mysteries of the universe. I knew all. Like seriously. Like dude.

The true grip of infinite knowledge that comes with every deep trip hit me hard, even though another part of me realised I was just thinking about shit I already knew. Delusions of grandeur and too much free beer. The music was incredible. The people were incredible. The carpet was incredible.

Friday
12 micrograms

I woke up on Friday feeling like shit. My mind was mashed potatoes but I still took a tiny dose for science. I'd walk into rooms and forget why I was there. I'd vacantly stare at the fridge in vain only to return minutes later to repeat the process. I attempted to write but what came out resembled recounts of my grade three weekend. I gave up on adulating and watched Invader Zim until a girlfriend came over in the afternoon. She laughed at my scattered attempts to describe my week so I gave up and we slept the day away while flashbacks from the night before danced around my psyche.

Saturday
15 micrograms

I really didn't feel like more acid so I stuck to the regulation dose. I wanted to avoid all human contact but my family had organised a big dinner to say goodbye before I left on a backpacking trip to Asia. We ate together and my mind was gone, but I was happy. I think the biggest feeling throughout the week had been one of gratitude and appreciation for the food I ate, the bed I slept in, the people around me. I'm very, very lucky.

Sunday
60 micrograms

I didn't sleep at all Saturday night so day six kind of just merged into day seven. Instead of sleep I spent the night writing and packing everything I'd need for the next three months. In just a few hours I'd be on a midday flight to Singapore. I was so fucking done with acid but it was my last day so I thought fuck it let's up the dose. I was flying with a budget airline so I figured acid would entertain me in the absence of the little screen of joy afforded by more affluent flyers.

I was hoping the increased dose would get me buzzing but it did just the opposite. I did something stupid and googled Singapore drug laws, then walked through to my gate nervous. On the surface I looked calm and ready but I kept forgetting where I put my ticket, and the PA announcements were so loud.

I never imagined I'd take acid on a plane, it just wasn't on my to do list but here we are. I was so tired that I drifted off while the plane was still on the runway and woke up above the clouds. That fucked with me. Maybe it was the altitude but the trip actually seemed to swell in intensity. I actually said my goodbyes to my loved ones in my head because I thought there was at least a 40 percent chance this big metallic bird would dive beak first into the ocean.

I was self aware enough to know this was stupid, but I was also high enough to mentally prepare for the worst. I thought about death a lot as I sat eating crackers. Not that I was scared of death, I was just concerned about the way in which my death would come about, and the impact it would have on my loved ones.

I can see the benefits of responsible microdosing and if I had stuck to my regular microdose then I would've smashed out my work, but I didn't because I have the self control of an unsupervised fat kid at a birthday party. I never stood a chance.

Still, I don't regret my week and in all honesty it produced nothing like the gacked feeling you get after a multi-day music festival. In fact, on the few days that I did microdose responsibly I definitely felt a marked increase in productivity and creativity. And now, as I write this in a sweaty Singaporean bar, I'm still feeling the warm afterglow of passion brought on by a weeklong psychedelic rollercoaster.

Follow David on Twitter and Instagram.

All photos by Sean Foster.

Hillary Clinton. Photo by Gage Skidmore

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

US News

Wife of Orlando Shooter Could Be Charged
Noor Salman, the wife of the gunman who killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, could face charges in connection with the attack. Salman knew of her husband Omar Mateen's intent to carry out an attack, according to a law enforcement official. Senator Angus King, who received a briefing on the investigation, said "she had some knowledge" of her husband's plan.—CNN

Clinton Wins DC, Expands Lead Over Trump
Hillary Clinton has won the final Democratic primary in Washington, DC, and has opened up a 12 point lead over Donald Trump. Clinton leads Trump 49 percent to 37 percent in a new national poll by Bloomberg. The poll reveals 63 percent of women say they would "never" vote for Trump.—Bloomberg

Alligator Snatches Child from Disney World Resort
Police are searching for a two-year-old boy who was snatched by an alligator and dragged into a lake at a Disney World hotel on Tuesday night. The boy had been sitting on a sandy area of the resort with his parents and two siblings when the alligator attacked, according to police. His father could not wrestle the boy free from the animal.—USA Today

Feds Charge Former IBM Employee with Espionage
The Department of Justice has charged Chinese national Xu Jiaqiang with three counts of economic espionage for allegedly stealing source code from IBM. The authorities claim Mr. Xu intended to sell the code, described as "decades of work," for his own profit and for the benefit of the Chinese government.—BBC News

International News

Iran Leader Threatens to Set Fire to Nuclear Deal
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has threatened to "set fire" to the nuclear deal sealed with world powers if US presidential candidates renege on the agreement. Khamenei says Iran has met its obligations by halting the enrichment of uranium at 20 percent and shutting down two nuclear facilities.—Reuters

Syria Group Condemns UN Handling of Aid
A report by the Syria Campaign group has accused the UN of delivering 99 percent of its aid to government-controlled territories. Based on interviews with current and former aid workers, the report slams "a culture of compliance" that has allowed the government to veto deliveries to rebel-held areas.—Al Jazeera

Family of Murdered Hostage Backs Canadian Ransom Policy
The family of Robert Hall, a Canadian hostage who was executed by an Islamist militant group in the Philippines, say they support the government's policy of not paying ransom. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says paying ransom could encourage more kidnappings. Hall's family say they agree "wholeheartedly."—Toronto Star

Spending Scandal Forces Tokyo Governor to Quit
The governor of Tokyo, Yoichi Masuzoe, has said he will stand down over allegations he used abused official funds to pay for expensive vacations. Masuzoe had been expected to lose a no-confidence vote in the Tokyo assembly later today. He had claimed to need the vacations to "feel refreshed" for work.—The Japan Times

Barack Obama meets the Dalai Lama at the White House in 2010.

Everything Else

Obama to Meet Dalai Lama
President Obama is scheduled to meet privately with the Dalai Lama at the White House later today. Obama's last meeting with the Tibetan Buddhist leader was in 2014, and it angered the Chinese government.—ABC News

Judge Persky Removed from Sex Assault Case
Aaron Persky, the judge condemned for giving Stanford rapist Brock Turner a six-month sentence, has been taken off a different case involving an alleged sexual assault. District Attorney Jeff Rosen said prosecutors "lack confidence" he could "fairly participate."—The Guardian

Biden Says Ignoring Misogyny Makes Men Accomplices
Speaking at the first ever United State of Women Summit in Washington, DC, Vice President Joe Biden asked men to end the "locker room talk, the bar banter, the rape jokes." He said that if you ignore misogyny, "you become an accomplice."—VICE

Mexican Politician Faces Jail for Visiting El Chapo
State-level legislator Lucero Sánchez López could face jail time for allegedly using a fake ID to visit Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán in prison prior to his escape last July. Mexican media outlets have reported a romantic relationship between El Chapo and Sánchez.—VICE News

Done with reading today? Watch our new video "How One Man Is Dealing with Life After Leaving His Family's Polygamist Cult."

When developer Alx Preston released adventure game Hyper Light Drifter at the end of March 2016, it was rapturously received by critics who loved the game's retro feel. Inspired by favorites like Final Fantasy 6, Super Mario Bros, and the Legend of Zelda series, the game follows a hero as he tries to find a cure for his crippling health condition, inspired largely by Preston's own struggle with a congenital heart defect.

On the first episode of our new gaming series Pixel by Pixel, we meet Preston and his small team at California's Heart Machine studio to witness the feverish final moments leading up to the game's highly anticipated release. We also talk with Preston's family members and cardiologist to find out how he channeled his ongoing health concerns into his most exciting project yet.

Photo via Flickr user Andrew Magill

When you live abroad, you start to see your home country differently. I speak from experience: After moving to Switzerland in 2006, I began to see American policies for what they were—one country's way of doing things, but not necessarily the best way of doing things.

There are few examples that ring truer than America's obsession with guns. While the US leads the world in mass shootings, with 372 in 2015 alone, there has only been one mass shooting in Switzerland in the last 15 years. The Swiss rank fourth in the world in guns per capita—behind the US, Yemen, and Syria—but the ownership is rooted in a sense of safety and responsibility.

The recent shooting in Orlando, Florida, is a reminder that the United States has some of the loosest gun control laws in the developed world and the highest rate of gun-related homicide—about 15 times higher than 23 other high-income nations combined. And while news of mass shootings has sadly become normal in the United States, moving abroad can show how differently Americans view guns. We asked several American ex-pats about how moving to another country changed their perspective on gun control in America.

Tracy Slater, expat living in Japan

Almost no country takes gun ownership more seriously than Japan, where almost all firearms are illegal. The ones that are legal—shotguns and air rifles—are almost impossible to buy and maintain with the country's restrictions, which mandate that gun owners take a gun-safety class and pass a written test, pass a drug test, submit their criminal records, and have their mental health evaluated. Gun owners have to retake the class and the exam every three years to renew their license.

Tracy Slater, an American living in Tokyo, said these strict laws make shooting something of a novelty to people in Japan. Places like Hawaii and Guam have set up shooting ranges to cater to the Japanese-driven "gun tourism."

"I went to Guam on vacation once, and I saw many gun-shooting shops or parlors—not even sure what they are called—and it seemed like Japanese people might actually find shooting sort of fun," she told VICE. "On further thought, I realized that guns probably aren't scary here in Japan in the same way as they are in the US to civilians, or at least to some civilians, because there is so little threat that one civilian will shoot another."

Indeed, as the New York Times reported this week, the likelihood of dying by gun violence in Japan "is about the same as an American's chance of being killed by lightning—roughly one in ten million." (In the US, the likelihood of dying by gun violence is on par with dying in a car accident.)

Slater says the escalating gun-related violence in the United States has impacted the country she calls home.

"Lately, I've realized that one thing that would make me nervous about repatriating to the US—especially now that I have a child—is how reasonable Japanese society seems to be to be about guns and how scary the US seems in comparison," she said. "I never thought I'd think something like this. But lately, I'm starting to wonder if the place where I feel most safe and at home in my heart—Boston and the US—is actually the place where I would be most safe. That makes me sad."

Ryan Greiss, expat living in Israel

Ryan Greiss served as a foreign volunteer (called a "lone soldier") in the Israel Defense Forces, which allowed him to carry a gun in plain clothes when off-duty. Even though guns appear to be virtually everywhere in Israel—people take them to the grocery store, to weddings, to the beach—Greiss said their ubiquity is misleading.

"It's hard for civilians to carry guns," Greiss told VICE. "Most soldiers are of the mindset that they'd rather not be carrying a gun. You can't compare American and Israeli gun cultures at all—people can't collect firearms in Israel. They are seen as a grim necessity."

Gun ownership among Americans is actually 13 times higher than it is among Israelis. US gun-related violence is 33 times higher.

There is no clear right to bear arms under Israeli law. The country restricts gun licenses to people holding certain positions, such as designated ministry employees, authorized community leaders, and licensed guards and escorts. Obtaining a gun license for private use requires proof of a justified reason, according to Greiss.

Although there have been mass shootings in Israel—including one earlier this month, where four people were killed and seven more were injured—Greiss believes that the heightened presence of security forces, including off-duty military personnel, makes the country safer overall. Almost all Israeli civilians have served in the military in some capacity, and Greiss believes that, for lack of a better term, the "good guys with guns" are better trained in Israel than they are in the US.

"Any non-law enforcement concealed carrier in Israel has gone through a more rigorous qualification process, and almost always also has military and/or law enforcement experience," he said.

Greiss, who recently returned to the United States, said it felt "strange" not to have a gun with him all the time. At the same time, living in Israel did change his perspective. "When I hear about people who own fifteen assault weapons, I think, Why do you need that? I've seen what assault weapons can do, so I don't think they should be in the hands of the civilians. Gun ownership should be a right, but less of one."

Tom Heberlein, expat living in Sweden

Twenty-one years ago, Tom Heberlein didn't think much about taking his long guns to Sweden. Moose hunting in Sweden is nearly as popular as deer hunting in Wisconsin, where Heberlein lived previously, but he quickly learned that the way people hunt is very different.

"Hunting in Sweden is a bit utilitarian," he told VICE. "The Swedes hunt in a big group with dogs. Once you shoot, you don't put your kill in the back of a pickup truck and show it off to all your friends. You butcher it."

While hunting is popular in Sweden, it's illegal to carry a gun in the country except for specific and legal purposes (like hunting or going to a shooting range), and firearms have to be stored in a gun safe. Guns can be confiscated from anyone who drives drunk, commits domestic violence, or shows other signs of irresponsibility. Those policies made Heberlein reconsider American laws too, especially because the United States has nearly seven times the number of gun deaths than Sweden.

"We can't just sprinkle Swedish dust on America, and it will change," said Heberlein. "But we have to change the framework to view guns as a responsibility, rather than a right. You must prove you are responsible before you have a right."

Cate Smith-Brubaker, expat living in Mexico

Cate Smith-Brubaker has lived around the world, but she settled in Mexico "for the low cost of living, scenic beauty, temperate climate, and the rich cultures." At the same time, Mexico tops the United States with its rate of gun-related deaths, which is roughly 121 per million people (compared to 31 per million people in the United States).

Despite Mexico's reputation for violence, its gun-control laws have actually been cited as a model for the United States to follow. The Mexican Constitution recognizes a right to arms only in the home, although previous versions recognized a right to carry in public. There is only one legal gun store in the entire country, and only 14 percent of Mexican households have a firearm (as opposed to one-third of Americans, according to a report in the journal Injury Prevention). Firearms that wind up in Mexico illegally are mostly smuggled in from the United States—as many as 2,000 per day, according to CESOP, Mexico's governmental research service—because it's so much easier to obtain guns there.

"I've always held liberal views when it comes to my feelings about the US and both its domestic and foreign policies," Smith-Brubaker told VICE. But in the six years she's lived abroad, she said she's "learned more about how those policies affect people around the world, and how many people from around the world look to the US as the something akin to the proverbial canary in the mine."

The number of homicides in Mexico attributed to gang violence is as high as 55 percent, by some estimates, and the prevalence of drug cartels could partly explain why the gun-related death toll is exceptionally high. Still, Smith-Brubaker said that as gun violence feels more and more like a part of daily life in the US, she finds herself not only dismayed but looking to her foreign friends for answers.

Smith-Brubaker says she finds it difficult to explain to people in Mexico why Americans are so obsessed with guns. "I try to explain the Second Amendment," she said. "But I also add that it's an outdated part of the Constitution and has not evolved to suit a modern society. It's never an easy conversation to have and often leads to more questions than answers."

Smith-Brubaker added that, now that she lives abroad, the ease at which Americans can access guns seems jarring.

"An assault rifle? The name says it all. One only purchases an assault rifle to take as many lives as possible," she said. "I won't be able to explain that one to a Mexican cab driver."

Chantal Panozzo is the author of Swiss Life: 30 Things I Wish I'd Known. Follow her on Twitter.

Halat Karim Agha, a member of the Hamawand tribe, watches Peshmerga fighters prep a heavy machine gun to fire into ISIS territory on the front near Kirkuk, Iraq. All photos by the author

The road to one front of the war against the Islamic State winds through miles of barren, cracked-clay ground. The landscape is occasionally punctuated by marshes—mostly dry this time of year—fed by the manmade Hawijah River. A bridge, destroyed by the fighting, once spanned the river about 12 miles from the Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Now it lies in giant chunks of stone around the water.

At a nearby outpost, Halat Karim Agha, a slender, bald man with a thick mustache, gestures toward two soldiers manning a heavy machine gun. They are fighters in the Peshmerga, the Kurdish militia battling the Islamic State.

"This is what we use to kill Daesh," Agha tells VICE, using an Arabic term for ISIS. "When they see something move, they shoot."

The men fire off a few rounds to demonstrate, puncturing the air with rapid staccato gunfire. Agha smiles patiently.

"Now we wait," he says.

Mariwan Karim Agha and his brothers, Halat and Farooq, relax at the Hamawand tribe's ancestral home near Chamchamal, Iraq.

The Peshmerga, backed by coalition forces that include the United States, is currently attempting to advance toward the Islamic State–controlled city of Mosul. Near Kirkuk, the fighters of the Kurdish regional government are also gradually retaking land, village by village, from the self-styled Islamic caliphate. There's a team of US Special Forces stationed at the Peshmerga headquarters close to the city, led by a commanding officer who wears traditional Kurdish dress. So the Kurds aren't in this fight alone, but it's still a fierce struggle against a powerful foe.

Agha is no stranger to war, though. As a scion of the Hamawand tribe, one of Kurdistan's oldest and most venerated clans, this is essentially his birthright.

The Hamawands have a reputation for stubborn resistance that dates back centuries. Fiercely dedicated to their homeland, they've clashed with the Ottomans, the British, Saddam Hussein, and an al Qaeda–linked group in Iraq. But now the Hamawands face what they say is the most brutal enemy they've ever encountered, one that would destroy their homes and render their lands unrecognizable.

Given their autonomous nature and single-minded commitment to their own clans, though, tribes in this area have historically troubled not just invaders, but Kurdish nationalists determined to unify their people. Which gets at the tricky question of what role the tribes—rather than Kurds as a broader ethnic group—play in the Peshmerga fight against ISIS, and whether they will put aside their factionalism if and when the group is defeated.

A Peshmerga fighter takes a selfie on a destroyed bridge at the front lines near Kirkuk, Iraq.

In 1914, the writer E. B. Soane published a book about his travels through the region called To Mesopotamia and Kurdistan in Disguise . The Hamawands feature heavily in his account as fearsome bandits who terrorized the countryside:

The Hamawands, members of a race famous for bravery and lawlessness, have made a name for themselves among their countrymen, outdoing the wildest in foolhardy raids, and the bravest in their disregard of any danger, and a hostility to the Turks that has broken out continuously.

But the tribesmen themselves tell a rather different story about the period. Agha, along with his brothers, Mariwan Karim and Farooq, sit in folding chairs on the lawn at Mariwan's house. When the air in this part of Kurdistan cools at night, the sunbaked plains almost appear to sigh in relief. A nearby manmade lake, spanned by a rickety bridge, chirps with frogs and insects. Over the horizon, lights from the nearby town of Chamchamal gleam faintly, but out here there are few houses, and they all belong to Hamawands.

"The origins of the Hamawand tribe go back six hundred fifty years," Mariwan explains. He is now the tribal leader, following the death of his beloved father, Karim Agha, two years ago. Also slender and sporting a mustache, he looks very much like his brother Halat, and plays with one of his tiny nieces as he talks. Children scamper all over Mariwan's large property, but this little girl is the clear favorite, he says, because she has his mother's eyes.

"About three hundred fifty years ago, the Hamawand tribe came to Kurdistan," he says. "After that, we had many battles with the Ottoman Empire, which was occupying our lands. We were the only tribe to fight the empire successfully. We weren't making our forces obvious; we were hiding on the roads and using guerrilla tactics. Eventually, our leaders were invited to negotiations with the Ottomans in Adana . But the Ottomans tricked them and captured nine hundred Hamawand families as slaves, then redistributed them all over North Africa and the Middle East.

"After twenty years, most of the families left Africa," Mariwan says with a smile. "They traveled back to these lands on foot. The journey took nine months."

Mariwan Karim Agha in front of a photograph of his father at the Hamawand's ancestral home near Chamchamal, Iraq

More recently, the tribe teamed up with US forces during the Iraq war, battling Ansar al-Islam, a local affiliate of al Qaeda, as it began to emerge along the border with Iran.

" killed many young Peshmerga fighters," Mariwan explains. "They would make them line up and then record their murders on video. Later on, we discovered that they sent these videos to people in other countries in order to receive funding from them."

Mariwan frowns suddenly. "Now they're back here as Daesh," he says. "They would destroy everything about our way of life, so we must defend our land."

David McDowall, historian and author of A Modern History of the Kurds, says that despite their dedication, tribes like the Hamawands have been both a blessing and a curse to Kurdish nationalistic aspirations—and the broader project of achieving regional stability.

"One thinks of tribes as social organizations, but fundamentally, of course, they're political organizations," he explains. "They're in absolute contradiction with the notion of government."

But according to General Hiwa Rash, commander of the Peshmerga in Kirkuk, the tribes have been nothing but an asset to the effort against the Islamic State.

"If we go back in Kurdish history, we can always see the impact of the tribes," he tells VICE. "In the past, whenever Kurdistan needed help, the tribes were there... In fact, most Peshmerga fighters on the front lines come from tribes, because the Kurdish population is actually made up of many different tribes. But we never fight ISIS as tribes; we fight them like an organized army."

Tribal influence seems to still play a somewhat troubling role in Kurdish politics. Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and former Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), come from rival clans. Although the long-feuding leaders seem to have settled their differences for now, relations between the parties remain strained .

Mariwan Karim Agha pays his respects at his father's grave near Chamchamal, Iraq.

At this moment, however, the Hamawands don't seem particularly interested in political affiliations—they're more focused on the existential fight against ISIS for the preservation of their heritage. In Chamchamal, Mariwan erected a small museum to honor his father, where he displays the Hamawands' impressive collection of Mesopotamian artifacts dating back to the Stone Age. Mariwan even recreated his father's bedroom to look just as it was before he died, down to a plate of food on his desk.

"After the death of my father, I couldn't open the door to his bedroom for eleven months and two days," he says, his eyes going bright and wet for a moment. "He had a pure soul. The entire city loved him, not just the Hamawands. When he died, ten thousand people were at his funeral. They walked ten kilometers carrying his coffin."

Mariwan takes a minute to compose himself, looking at Karim Agha's bedroom, preserved under the florescent lights of the museum.

"My father always taught me to honor our past," he continues. "It's our responsibility to keep our tribe's legacy alive, because we sacrificed much for Kurdistan throughout history."

Follow Sulome Anderson on Twitter.

Photos via Ennis Esmer, Naima Sundiata, and Jesse Reid

This week's Tony Awards (watched by a remarkably large audience for an awards show about theatre) were a stark contrast to February's Oscars. Whereas the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences couldn't find a single actor of colour to nominate for any of the four big acting awards, all of the major Tony performing awards went to diverse men and women.

Cemeteries have lots of admirers. Goths? Yes, obviously. Suburban bands shooting their first EP covers? Yep. The purgatorial souls of your deceased relatives, tethered to Earth for eternity? Yes, 100 percent.

But also other people—the anonymous men and women out there who keep the cemetery book industry afloat, who contribute to this helpful list of the "160 Must-Have Cemetery Books." Scrolling through that very list, it turns out there are a whole load of books about the history of certain graveyards, or photobooks focusing on tombstones and that kind of thing, but none about the good people who keep these places going.

For her new book Friends of the Dead, London-based photographer Jess Kohl filled that gap, meeting various graveyard managers, workers, and volunteers, and taking their portraits. She sent us a few of those photos, which you can see below.

Jess Kohl is a recent Central Saint Martins graduate. You can see her work at her upcoming degree show, at Central Saint Martins in Granary Square, Kings Cross, from June 22 to 26.

Friends of the Dead is limited to 50 copies and available for pre-order through Jess's website.

Matt Brown, the man at the centre of the mayor-cestual scandal. Photo via YouTube

Canadian politicians, by and large, have been historically pretty bad at their jobs. In the last few years, there have been cup-pissers, sexists, and, most infamous of them all, crack-smoker/cunnilingus expert Rob Ford. But just in case those blunders weren't enough for you to lose faith in the political process, you can now add mayor-cest to that list.

Things get lairy in Marseille. Photo by Owen Humphreys / PA Wire

France 2016 will undoubtedly be remembered for some of the most serious "rioting" witnessed at a major international soccer tournament. Almost immediately after the fighting first broke out last Thursday evening, mainstream media analysis began attributing blame and pouring national disgrace on English hooligans. As one MP put it, those involved in the violence were quite simply "morons."

By Sunday morning, the day after the fixture, the media began to acknowledge a more complex picture. It was becoming increasingly clear that far from being protagonists, England fans were actually victims. Kevin Miles, the chief executive officer of the Football Supporters Federation (FSF), went as far as asserting, at first in radio interviews and then later in a formal statement, that England fans had not initiated a single incident of conflict. He abjectly denied that there were any organized English hooligan groups present in Marseilles. He also refused to condemn England fans for their involvement in violence, which he asserted could and should be understood as a legitimate form of "self-defense."

It was an extremely important injection of realism into a debate that, as usual, had become distorted. Accuracy had been sacrificed in favor of the moral condemnation of soccer fans, once again blaming the victims for somehow causing their own misfortune. The FSF's position was not only powerful but also quite courageous, given the dominance of the alternative views at that time.

Nonetheless the available evidence suggests the FSF position ultimately reflected the underlying reality of the way events developed in Marseilles. And what is also apparent is how closely they mirrored what happened when England last played in Marseilles in 1998, when widespread rioting also took place. Then, as in 2016, this rioting was created not by English hooliganism but by a complex array of interrelating factors linked to crowd psychology and behavior.

It is clear that England fans arriving in Marseille began congregating in the Old Port area of the city on Thursday evening. Some were singing and drinking, acting boisterously, even invoking boorish chants about German Bombers and Krauts. Others were simply relaxing in the many bars and restaurants. At some point, French "Ultras" began perpetrating violent unprovoked attacks on England fans to which the police responded by not by arresting but dispersing protagonists with tear gas grenades. After this point, it seems the police started to use tear gas and coercion to disperse any large gathering of fans, presumably in some flawed attempt to "prevent" further disorder.

It is evident that this then starts to feed into a sense of illegitimacy, vulnerability, antagonism, and empowerment among England fans, toward the locals and police. This gets amplified through a continuing pattern of interactions across the rest of the evening and the next day. In this sense, it is clear the policing response in Marseilles was, from the very outset, reliant on the kind of "old school" tactics that our research, both in Marseilles in 1998 and elsewhere, demonstrates plays a major role in escalating crowd conflict. Ultimately, the policing fed into a form of identity among England fans whereby conflict against police and locals was understood as increasingly legitimate and at times even necessary in order to defend themselves and others around them, or otherwise retaliate against these essentially unprovoked attacks.

These social psychological processes of escalation, at work across the first two evenings, then fed into the day of the match itself. Here they are further complicated by the arrival of a much larger number of English fans and a group of organized Russian "Ultras" keen to assert their supremacy in the perverse status culture of European hooliganism.

On the basis of eyewitness accounts, it appears that the first fighting actually broke out between the French Ultras who cascaded down into a large crowd of English fans gathered in the Old Port. Amid the confusion, and from the other side, the Russian Ultras moved against the English, purposefully attacking pretty much any and every one they could. The levels of violence they exercised were extreme, and there are accounts of some of them being armed with knives. Some England fans were seriously injured. A few critically. The police then reacted by driving into the crowd with their tear gas and other escalatory tactics. What subsequently took place was the major escalation that constituted the "riot" that filled media headlines and editorials for days.

Related: Watch our documentary on the rivalry between Rangers and Celtic

While media analysis has very much focused on the role of hooligans, what is immediately clear is, as with events in 1998, any adequate analysis of the rioting cannot ignore the role of group interaction and policing in bringing about the violence. What's more, the policing approach in Marseilles stands in stark contrast to international guidance and standards of good practice for these major UEFA tournaments. These standards are themselves underpinned by a research based policing model first developed for the highly successful Euro 2004 tournament in Portugal, and then applied and developed during UEFA 2008 and 2012 to equally good effect. While all these previous tournaments had problems they passed off without the kinds of rioting already witnessed in Marseilles in 2016, which is evidence in itself of the effectiveness of the approach.

Instead of focusing on the moral condemnation of English soccer fans we need to accept the idea that something has gone badly wrong with policing in Marseilles. We need to understand more clearly and objectively the lessons that need to be learned.

This context fed into a psychology among England fans that functioned to both legitimize conflict and increasingly empower fans who felt it was justifiable to confront those other groups. Put simply, England fans found themselves in a situation, as they did in 1998, where they had little option but to "mob up" and "fight back" in order to, as many of them saw it, "defend" themselves.

The most appropriate response is not some sort of soul-searching about a return to the dark days of English hooliganism. Rather it is about creating a policing response that is capable of protecting England fans from these attacks. The key challenge will be to change the French policing tactics toward something more proactive, dynamic, and proportionate. In this sense, one of the key issues arising from Marseilles is that the police in France need to move away from their ineffective and counterproductive reactionary policing approach and do much more to conform to international standards of good practice.

Clifford Stott is a professor of social psychology at Keele University. He specializes in crowds, riots, hooliganism, "public order" policing, human rights, and security.

Follow Clifford Stott on Twitter.

Photo via Mateen's Myspace page

Since the second the breathless rumors emerged that a horrific shooting was taking place at an Orlando nightclub this past Sunday—what would become the worst spree killing in US history—the public has been trying to figure out what would motivate someone to do it. The shooter, Omar Mateen, voiced homophobic and jihadist loyalties, making his ideology harder to pin down than the usual ISIS terrorist or American spree killer.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump almost immediately blamed immigration for enabling the carnage, but Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute's office at the New York University School of Law, begs to differ. Chishti pointed out that Mateen's militancy appears tied to the very things that have motivated many American mass shooters over the years: "He had mental illness, easy access to weapons, and easy access to rabid ideology on the internet," Chishti told VICE.

Like San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, Mateen was born and raised in the US, where mass shootings are a deep-seated part of the culture. Whether intentionally or not, no fewer than two of America's homegrown, gun-toting spree killers have turned out be a useful weapon for ISIS, and ISIS has embraced the shooters as heroes (although the gay rumors about Mateen could change that).

ISIS has already called for this Ramadan to be a "month of hurt" in the West—a time in which ISIS supporters worldwide should feel free to kill pretty much anyone for the glory of the caliphate. "This is a strategy that the Islamic State and groups like al Qaeda have been promoting for quite some time now," said Fred Burton, vice president for intelligence at the Austin-based military intelligence firm Stratfor.

Like the San Bernardino shooting in December, the horror in Orlando lacked any direct involvement from ISIS. Yet employing America's widely available firearms to rain indiscriminate death on soft targets is the same exact strategy employed by non-ISIS affiliated American mass shooters like James Holmes and Dylann Roof.

ISIS has many enemies, but to some extent prioritizes Americans as victims, and favors guns and explosives as weapons. Monday's horrific stabbing murder of two people by an ISIS-sympathizer is a good reminder that France is high on ISIS's enemies list as well. But attacks where guns are available are preferable, according to ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, who wrote in 2014, "If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him."

According to Mubin Shaikh, a former undercover operative for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, convincing brand new ISIS members to hop on a plane and go fight for the caliphate is "the ideal end result" for ISIS proselytizers, Shaikh told VICE. But recruitment messages also come with a second option, in case something's holding a new jihadi back. According to Shaikh, that second option is, "find a target and act in place."

Adnani has explained what it means to "act in place," according to a translation of one of his speeches by Rukmini Callimachi of the New York Times. "We have heard from some of you that you are unable to do your work," al-Adnani said, adding that "in the heartland of the Crusaders, there's no protection for that blood, and there is no presence of what we call innocents."

"It's brilliant in its simplicity," said Burton. Burton explained that from ISIS's perspective, through propaganda alone, you can activate a killer like Mateen to "kill a lot of people in a short time," without leaving a physical or digital paper trail. "If you and I are plotting an attack," Burton said, "we'd be talking on cellphones, and we might make in person meetings." That would leave us vulnerable to infiltration and wiretapping, he explained, and that's what makes the plan-it-yourself attack method so powerful.

Having worked undercover to infiltrate the ISIS recruitment process, Shaikh contrasted the San Bernardino and Orlando attacks with what he calls "specific recruiting." Specific recruiting is a much more dangerous process for the recruiter, in which select individuals are groomed—either in person or online—for a particular terrorist action—including blowing something up, hacking something, or just running off to Iraq or Syria. "A number of those plots have been interdicted, and a lot of the guys who were trying to do that are dead by drones," Shaikh said.

The alternative strategy at work here, Shaikh said, is simply "casting your net wide—inundating the public space with as much propaganda as possible." And it seems to be working.

But according to researcher Charlie Winter of Georgia State University's Transcultural Conflict and Violence Initiative, egging on violent individuals is far from the newest move in the terrorist playbook. In fact, al Qaeda has its own English language magazine called Inspire for just that reason. Inspire has praised spree killers like Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hassan, even if Hassan's possible terrorist loyalties are not exactly as clear-cut as those of Mateen.

But according to Winter, "the Islamic State is more successful in its attempts to inspire people" than al Qaeda. That's because, he explained, ISIS has gone out of its way to make itself the single most recognizable brand in the terrorism world. Mass shooters want to be associated with the Islamic State, exactly because the association will amplify the shockwaves set off by their killings. "They know they're joining a bigger, badder, team of terrorists," Winter said.

ISIS propaganda isn't created solely for American viewers like Mateen, but it is designed "specifically to engender a physical reaction," according to Shaikh. Viewers in countries like Syria can react to an ISIS video by joining the nearest sectarian group, he said, since he or she probably knows a place in town where people can sign up. In the US, however, that immediate reaction can mean venturing to the nearest gun store. "If you're full of testosterone, and pissed off at the world, and you want to do something about it, that will hype you up," Shaikh said.

"Once they see the response," Shaikh said, " panic, hate, and division, recruiters and the people they're recruiting know that their particular act will achieve similar objectives."

Follow Mike Pearl on Twitter.

Illustration by Ella Strickland de Souza

If you watch porn, you've probably experienced it; browsing for something that appeals to you sexually, and instead opening up something way more sinister. For victims of rape or sexual assault, the risk is even greater. If sex has been used as a weapon against you, the last thing you want to see is something that reminds you of that violence and trauma.

The Clit List is a new, online database of feminist porn aimed at helping women reclaim their bodies after sexual assault. "We really felt something like this was needed," says Pavan Amara, whose organization My Body Back is behind the project. Amara was raped as a teenager, and says that, after it happened, she wanted a place to talk about how the experience impacted her sexually. So in 2014 she set up My Body Back, which holds workshops where survivors of sexual assault can discuss "things like masturbation, how to feel in control sexually again, and how to figure out what you like and don't like."

One issue that kept coming up was porn. "These women wanted to be able to explore their sexuality in a safe way," says Amara, "But what ended up happening is that they'd try and do that with porn and they'd just come across misogynistic, violent, horrible stuff that replicated what had happened to them, or showed rape as though it were normal. I thought, 'This is obviously a problem we should do something about, so we created a list of porn that women can safely watch—with no violence, that won't make us feel degraded."

The obvious problem with something like The Clit List is that everyone is different. What women find arousing or disturbing will depend on their particular experience of rape, abuse, or assault—as well as their own particular needs and desires. How can The Clit List know what its users will and won't find offensive?

The answer is: it can't. But what it can do is moderate everything it lists, and provide trigger warnings in reviews of the videos it posts about. This is where The Clit List manager Ella comes in. She's spent the last few months watching hours of pornography and writing detailed breakdowns of what goes down. In reviews published alongside the links, Ella explains what's in the film, its themes, the phrases used by actors, and the sex acts it contains, so you know what to expect.

Ella was drawn to the project not so she could have a legit reason to watch porn all day, but because she had experience working with women who had been raped, and had noticed there was nothing to help these women reclaim their sex lives, or help them find porn that's not patriarchal or violent. "Porn's not just a man's game any more," she says. "A lot of women watch porn, so why aren't there more services aimed at them?"

She also had personal reasons for getting involved: "I was in a destructive relationship for a number of years, which ended, thankfully, but as a result of that I was kind of lost in terms of my body image and being connected to what made me sexually alive and I was okay with again." Ella's friend suggest some porn for her, but also photography, literature, art that she might find sexy. "My friend was good enough to vet these things for me, because they knew certain things would trigger me." This is exactly what The Clit List is about—making porn accessible for everyone. "It needs to be cross-sectional," she adds. "It's not just about what I enjoy."

For this reason, The Clit List includes porn that's free, as well as paid for. Ella points out that while porn made by self-professed feminist directors like Erika Lust are an obvious go-to for the list, they often charge a subscription fee. So it will also include stuff you find on sites like PornHub, as well as categories for literature, photography, art, and tutorials and advice the girls have found.

I ask Amara what she'd say to someone who makes the obvious criticism that The Clit List is promoting an industry that might be considered unethical—or inherently anti-feminist. "We will only be including things which have a feminist ethos, not only on the screen, but off the screen too," she says. People are going to explore porn anyway, so it's better they watch stuff that keeps it's performers safe.

For women who have experienced sexual assault, this service could be life-changing. One woman, who wants to remain anonymous, tells me: "After I was raped it felt like my sexual independence had been stolen from me and I didn't know what I liked anymore. I couldn't get turned on by myself but needed a partner to be turned on visually, so I looked for porn. What I saw threw me back 100 steps. I started to feel very low after that because it took me back to what happened to me."

"The reason I wanted something like The Clit List so much is because it gives women back their control sexually. I won't need to rely on a boyfriend to sexually be in control of myself—I can be self sufficient and do it for myself using visuals without feeling I am unsafe."

Pavan says that the next stage is to expand the pornography listings to include sex toy information and reviews. "A lot of women find them useful after assault," she explains. "Some woman feel very tense when they're masturbating after being attacked. The vibrations from sex toys can help relax the pelvic floor muscles and help penetration, as can things like lube."

They also hope for the platform to be interactive. "We know that every woman is totally different," says Pavan, "so we're accepting entries from women who want to write a guest blog." Ella agrees that the future of The Clit List is to listen to what women want and provide it. For example: "Our users have told us that they are interested in BDSM so we're going to look at that in future. We need to make sure women are aware before they step into that so it's not going to cause damage."

Is she worried about that damage more generally? "Not really. I have the My Body Back team behind me who are experts in this field. They will help to make sure we are empowering women, not causing them harm."

Photo by Jake Kivanç

Warning: This article contains graphic content about an alleged sexual assault.

A parking enforcement officer has accused three Toronto police officers of raping her vaginally, orally, and possibly anally, according to disturbing details released in a court document Tuesday.

Last February, Toronto cops Leslie Nyznik, 38, Joshua Cabero, 28, and Sameer Kara, 31, pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and gang sexual assault stemming from an incident that took place in January 2015. The three men are colleagues who work in 51 Division downtown; they were each released after posting $15,000 bail.

The complainant cannot be identified because the crime is a sexual assault. On Tuesday, however, a judge overturned a publication ban on the information to obtain a search warrant, a document used to gather evidence in the case. It recounts the complainant's version of events on the night the alleged assaults took place and afterwards, which have been published in the Toronto Star and National Post.

The complainant told police she knew the three officers and was invited out for a "rookie night" by Kara in January 16, 2015. Upon her arrival at a bar downtown, she said Kara bought her a drink and she spent most of the night hanging out with him—they kissed while getting tequila shots, she said. But he went outside to puke and then was taken back to a hotel room he'd booked for the night. She said she continued to party with Nyznik and Cabero at Pravda Vodka Bar and the Brass Rail strip club, and they went back to the hotel room to grab Kara and keep drinking. At the hotel room, she said she felt very drunk and laid down beside Kara, trying to wake him up.

The complainant said she was immobilized and unable to speak. She told investigators she remembers Nyznik inserting his penis into her mouth and that one of the men took her jeans off. She recalled being penetrated vaginally. She told police she believed it was Cabero, and that the two men may have switched places.

Kara, who she alleges was lying down beside her, at one point said, "Josh, stop she is out."

She later recalled Kara asking to kiss her and then being penetrated vaginally again.

When she woke up, she said Kara was asleep beside her and she grabbed her clothes and went home, where she vomited and passed out in her bathroom. The following day, she had a rape kit examination at Scarborough Grace Hospital, during which a nurse found evidence of anal penetration.

The complainant said she didn't remember being anally penetrated, but recalled one of the officers asking "should I fuck her in the ass?"

She said she told a friend and fellow parking enforcement officer about the incident but was scared to report it to police, because it involved fellow officers. She did report it about 10 days later, after calling in sick to work and having a panic attack when she did go in.

That colleague knew the three officers and told investigators Nyznik and Kara told her everything that happened that night was consensual. She alleges the two men said the complainant had sex with Kara and Cabero and gave oral sex to Nyznik. Another officer who was at the party told investigators "all women want these two guys," while a bartender who was working that night—Nyznik's ex girlfriend—described the complainant as a "disaster."

Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, told VICE he cannot comment because the matter is before the courts.

At the time of the arrests, Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash said the accused officers have been suspended with pay, which is standard under the Police Services Act. Once the criminal process plays out, he said there would be a Police Services Act investigation, through which the maximum penalty is dismissal.

A preliminary hearing is set to take place in July.

Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.

AR-15 style rifles and shotguns for sale at Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly, Virginia. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

This piece was published in partnership with the Influence.

The aftermath of the Orlando massacre has once again highlighted America's extremely odd relationship with guns. But the country's relationship with marijuana—especially given weed's ability to alleviate the suffering of people with a range of medical conditions—is every bit as strange.

Noticing these two forms of weirdness, we wondered: In which US states, in 2016, can you legally buy an assault rifle if you want one—but not legally buy medical marijuana, even if you're quite ill?

One of these things causes many annual deaths. The other causes no annual deaths. We'll leave you to determine which is which.

With the recent passage of medical marijuana legislation in Ohio and Louisiana, there are now 26 states (plus DC) that allow it to a meaningful extent, or are soon to do so. Only seven states (plus DC) currently ban assault weapons. The lists of states mostly reflect US political fault lines, of course. (And yes, if you want to get really wonkish, there are various idiosyncrasies and exceptions to a bunch of these state laws. But still!)

Based on a comparison of these lists, here's a rundown of 24 states that allow assault weapons but do not allow* medical marijuana:

1. Alabama
2. Arkansas
3. Florida
4. Georgia
5. Idaho
6. Indiana (some regulation of assault weapons)
7. Iowa
8. Kansas
9. Kentucky
10. Mississippi
11. Missouri
12. Nebraska
13. North Carolina
14. North Dakota
15. Oklahoma
16. South Carolina
17. South Dakota
18. Tennessee
19. Texas
20. Utah
21. Virginia (some regulation of assault weapons)
22. West Virginia
23. Wisconsin
24. Wyoming

*except in extremely restricted circumstances, often involving very limited medical conditions and/or research.

Follow Patrick Hilsman on Twitter.

A version of this article was originally published by the Influence, a news site that covers the full spectrum of human relationships with drugs. Follow the Influence on Facebook or Twitter.

Photo via Flickr user heymeadow

On Tuesday, a two-year-old boy was attacked by an alligator at the Disney Grand Floridian Hotel near Orlando, Florida, where his family was vacationing, CNN reports.

According to Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings, the boy and his father were wading on the edge of the resort's onsite lagoon in barely a foot of water when an alligator approached and lunged for the toddler. The boy's father tried to wrestle the child free from the animal's jaws, but the alligator managed to drag the boy back into the shallow water.

Authorities arrived shortly after the attack and launched an initial overnight search for the boy using boats, trappers, and helicopters, but have yet to locate a body. Investigators have since euthanized at least four alligators in the lagoon that they believed could have attacked the boy, but determined none were responsible, the Miami Herald reports.

"The sad reality of it is it's been several hours, and we're not likely going to recover a live body," Demings said in a press conference.

The hotel's lagoon was not a safe spot for swimming, as noted by the many "No Swimming" signs that dotted the shore. While authorities say that particular area hasn't had a prior problem with alligators, Florida has been accumulating a ton of strange sightings, close encounters, and attacks from gators lately. According to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state saw nine attacks and one death in 2015.

Photo by Pabak Sarkar via Flickr

There you are, living in your parent's house, eating their food, and getting acquainted with the lower reaches of Netflix as you work a three-month job. You count your pennies, you bring in your lunch from home, you only drink during happy hour. Then finally, you've saved up enough, and off you go to a developing nation of your choosing, where you can upload 64 daily photos of sun-kissed landscapes, fruity cocktails, and you covered in paint powder.

Yes, you're going "traveling." What is the difference between traveling and just a very long vacation? Nothing. Traveling is one of those euphemisms that makes an activity sound more intellectual than it is. "Traveling" has an allure of adventurism, as if it was a sort of leisurely anthropology, when in fact it largely involves sleeping with Australians, buying a pair of terrible linen trousers, and getting food poisoning.

Basically, there is no way of going traveling without looking like a total dick, but there are ways of going traveling without being a total dick. Obviously the code of conduct varies: what's acceptable when you're spending three months in Thailand going to full moon parties is different from what's acceptable on a cold solo inter railing trip around central Europe. Take this as sort of rough guide. But not an actual Rough Guide because that would be copyright infringement.

DON'T BE AWFUL, DON'T BE STINGY

Photo by Bruno Bayley

Unless your version of "traveling" involves road-tripping the West Coast in a rental car while loudly listening to The OC soundtrack, chances are you will be visiting countries that are poorer than the one you normally live in. Does this mean you need to spend happy hour looking broodingly across from your 2 for 1 caipirinhas and comment on how all the brown people you've seen "seem so happy even though they live like this"? No. Does it mean that on your return home you need to do a sponsored "no carbs month" to raise enough funds for you to return to said country in six months to build a school for a deprived village? No.

What it does mean is you should have the self-awareness to not complain if you get overcharged for something. Paying $4 instead of $2 for a 30-minute cab ride isn't that upsetting when it cost you $70 to get an Uber to the airport. No matter how "broke" you think you are, you're probably not that broke compared to the people you're buying vegetables/bus tickets/cocaine from, so check your gringo privilege when you're asking for change from your taxi driver.

DON'T TRY AND MAKE PEOPLE AGREE WITH YOU

Photo via Flickr

One myth about traveling is that everyone you meet is a liberal vegan hippie who's #feelingthebern and looking into opening his or her own sustainable farm in Chile. This isn't true. You are going to meet a lot of people on your travels who aren't as "progressive" as you think you are.

You will meet overprivileged Westerners who enjoy traveling the world seemingly only to mock it, as if their culture of Hollister and shark-tooth necklaces was the most superior in the history of civilization. What will really blow your liberal mind is that you may also meet some people from developing countries who aren't that into social justice or cultural tolerance. That is just something you're going to have to come to terms with.

So what can you do when you realize you're sharing a room with two dudes from Tennessee who think Black Lives Matter is a terrorist network? Or that you have to spend a night drinking in the company of a real life flesh-and-blood men's rights activist?

You have two options: argue or ignore. Always choose ignore. I promise you you're not going to convince anyone to change his or her view of the Israel-Palestine over fish bowls of alcohol on a beach in Bali, so just don't try. Here is a magic sentence you can say every time some douchebag starts up with an objectionable opinion that strikes against the very core of your being: "Oh wow is that a tattoo? Tell me about it."

FUCK EVERYONE

Photo via Flickr

If, like me, you grew up in Britain and spent your youth sleeping with men the color of printer paper with beer guts, you're about to have your world turned upside down. You know those dudes with deep tans who look after their bodies that you only ever see in advertisements? They're real, they're out there, and they're ready to cheat on their girlfriends.

Yes, this really is a time to really stick it about a bit, even when it means suspending your normal standards and principles. He's not wearing shoes? Whatever! She's had two years of training in the IDF and can assemble an AK47 blindfolded? Hot! Your nations are sworn enemies? The ultimate hate fuck.

The only downside to this wanton promiscuity is dealing with the retroactive shame when you're back home surrounded by your normal friends who don't have toe rings. Something that seemed fine at a pool party in Argentina can make you feel a bit sick when you're replaying in your memory back home. But listen, the human brain is surprisingly good at compartmentalizing. I know this isn't the advice psychiatrists would give, but stick that shit at the back of your mind in a locked box and throw away the key.

Most importantly: Always, always reject their next-day friend request.

DO NOT GET A TATTOO

via

Your body is a thing of beauty that will not be improved by a picture or a dream catcher or your name misspelled in Cantonese.

DON'T WEAR HAREEM PANTS

Yes to this look. Photo via Flickr

Looking good while traveling is hard. All your clothes are mushed into a backpack and covered in sweat stains and sunscreen. Access to hot showers is infrequent. You smell. But there's a fine line between looking a bit wrinkled and being the dude at the hostel who wears the same pair of red, green, and yellow hareem pants for three months straight.

It's a sad fact that sometimes traveling will change who you are no matter how hard you try to stay unfriendly and cynical. Deep into my second month of backpacking around Central America, I let a girl from Tel Aviv braid a feather into my hair. Sometimes I wake up in a cold sweat thinking about it. I suppose there is nothing you can do to stop this.

There are however, limits. You are in South America, not Parklife festival. This means no bindis, feather headbands, body chains, "reclaimed vintage ornate embroidery," deep V-neck vests, shoes without socks, or buttcheek-exposing hotpants.

EAT STREET FOOD

Photo via Flickr

This is not the orthodox advice. I know most people tell you that if you want to avoid violently shitting at 15-minute intervals, you need to wait until you get to a supermarket or a proper restaurant. But hear me out. Street food is cheap as fuck and is almost always made by a nice old person who knows exactly what he's doing and has fed his family with the same recipe for generations. You are going to get the shits at some point no matter what you do. Eating fresh local food prepared right in front of you is going to taste better than paying the equivalent of $15 for a burger in some sports bar set up by an aging Australian dude in exile.

SLEEP IN THE AFTERNOON

Photo via Flickr

If you're staying in a hostel, you'll most likely be sleeping in a small room with nine other people who fart in their sleep and jerk off into their pillows. Also someone will be trying to have shower sex in your en suite bathroom at least 30 percent of the time. Also people will have washed their clothes but not dried them properly, so your whole room will have that rotting clothes smell. So you're going to want to spend as little time as possible in your tiny bed. If you're really tired, afternoon naps are the way to go: Most people tend to be out and about by then, and housekeeping will have opened the window and aired out the overnight fart cloud.

WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF MONEY

Photo via Flickr

Look, it wasn't your parents who strapped a huge bag consisting mainly of flavored condoms to themselves and fucked off to South America, was it? It wasn't your parents who spent all the money they'd saved up on water sports and cocaine. It was you, all you. So even if you're fortunate enough to call up the bank of mom and dad and request a $500 loan, you shouldn't.

It's surprisingly easy to get a job when you're away. Most bars can tell you're desperate and will happily pay you cash in hand as it's probably as financially helpful for them as it is for you. Most hostels are always looking for staff and will pay you in free board and food.

If you're really struggling and can't afford to live, then it's time go home.