Names and faces
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist for girls’ education who is the world’s youngest Nobel laureate, returned to her native country early Thursday in her first visit since an attack by Taliban militants gravely wounded her in 2012. Yousafzai, now 20 and studying at Oxford University, is expected to stay mostly in Islamabad, the capital, during her four-day visit, where she met with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Thursday. “In the last five years, I have always dreamed of coming back to my country,” she said in an emotional speech at the prime minister’s office. As the audience burst into applause, Yousafzai broke into tears and for a moment cupped her hands to cover her face. “I am just 20 years old, but I have seen a lot in life,” she continued with a choked voice, recalling how she grew up in the picturesque Swat region only to watch it slide into extremism and terrorism. When she was shot by Taliban militants at age 15, she was already widely known for her advocacy for girls’ education. Doctors in Britain spent months rebuilding her skull, and she soon returned to her advocacy work. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. She is expected to visit her childhood home in the Swat Valley and the site where the Taliban attacked her. And in a nearby district, Shangla, she will inaugurate a large school for girls being built with aid from the Malala Fund, an advocacy organization for girls’ education worldwide that she founded in 2013.
Roseanne Barr got a call from President Donald Trump who congratulated her after the debut of her ABC sitcom reboot drew 18.4 million viewers. Speaking by telephone Thursday on ABC’s
Good Morning America, Barr said the call was “pretty exciting.” She described the exchange as a “friendly conversation about working in television and ratings.” Barr, who said she has known Trump for years, is a political supporter of the president’s. Her revamped sitcom tackles current politics, with Roseanne embracing Trump, and clashing with her sister, a staunch opponent. The White House confirmed the Wednesday night phone call, which was first reported by The New York Times. They did not say if Trump had watched the show. But Trump, a former reality star, is keenly interested in ratings. The updated sitcom starring Barr returned to the air Tuesday, more than two decades after the original ended its hit run. The hourlong debut episode was watched by 10 percent more viewers than saw the May 1997 finale of ABC’s original Roseanne. Barr said Trump was happy for her, adding, “I’ve known him for many years, and he’s done a lot of nice things for me over the years.”