https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/04/politics/ocasio-cortez-dancing-video-trnd/index.html

(CNN)An attempt to discredit freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez using a video from her past backfired -- sending many on social media defending her instead.

The 30-second video was widely shared on Twitter on Wednesday and appeared to show a younger Ocasio-Cortez gleefully dancing on the roof of a building. A day later, she was sworn in as the youngest woman in Congress.

"Here is America's favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is," read the tweet from AnonymousQ1776, who described it as a video from her high school days.



But the edited clip is part of a 4-minute, 20-second video posted on YouTube eight years ago. And it was filmed at Boston University as part of a popular trend at the time. Ocasio-Cortez, who graduated from the university in 2011 with a degree in economics and international relations, was among a group of student dancers who took part in the video, which showed them imitating scenes from popular 1980s films.

"Using the European band Phoenix's Lisztomania, the students created what they call the BU "Lisztomania" Brat Pack Mashup, a homage to the original, which first aired on YouTube last year," the university said at the time. "The mashup, a remix of song and video clips, was an instant sensation and has been replicated worldwide."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/02/australian-man-screaming-at-spider-why-dont-you-die-triggers-full-police-response

Police in Western Australia have confirmed they sent multiple officers to an emergency call that turned out to be a screaming man with a “serious fear” of spiders.

A concerned passerby was walking outside a house in suburban Perth when they heard a toddler screaming and a man repeatedly shouting “Why don’t you die?”

After they called triple zero, officers arrived to find a man “trying to kill a spider”, who apologised for having an extreme fear of the arachnid.

The Wanneroo police Twitter account posted a screenshot of the police log of the incident on Wednesday morning.

“Caller walked past the AA and heard a male screaming out ‘Why don’t you die’ – repeatedly,” the log read. “The toddler inside was screaming … caller doesn’t know them, but has seen them a few times when walking”.

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/01/681469011/netflix-drops-hasan-minhaj-episode-in-saudi-arabia-at-governments-request

Last fall, the world watched as Saudi Arabia's official story about the death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi changed, and changed again. A series of contradictory claims and denials came even as evidence emerged that Khashoggi's killing had been ordered by the country's crown prince.

Many people were angry, and that included the American comedian Hasan Minhaj, who blasted the Saudi government on his Netflix news-comedy show Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj.

"This is the most unbelievable cover story since Blake Shelton won sexiest man alive," Minhaj joked to his audience.

But the Saudi government isn't laughing.

Last week, it had Netflix remove the episode in that country. As the Financial Times first reported, a Saudi regulator cited a law that prohibits the "production, preparation, transmission, or storage of material impinging on public order, religious values, public morals, and privacy, through the information network or computers."