Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
m President Donald Trump is firing back at Snoop Dogg days after the release of a music video in which the rapper points a toy gun at a clown dressed like Trump and pulls the trigger. On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted: “Can you imagine what the outcry would be if SnoopDogg, failing career and all, had aimed and fired the gun at President Obama? Jail time!” The video is for a remixed version of the song “Lavender,” by Canadian group Badbadnotgood featuring Snoop Dogg. In it, Snoop Dogg shoots the Trump clown with a gun that releases glitter and a flag with the word “bang.” Reports came out Tuesday that the Secret Service is aware of the video. A spokesman for the agency did not immediately respond an inquiry from The Washington Post. The rapper was also criticized over the video by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who lost to Trump in last year’s Republican presidential primary campaign. Rubio told website TMZ that “Snoop shouldn’t have done that,” adding that “we’ve had presidents assassinated before in this country, so anything like that is something people should really careful about.” He added that if the “wrong person sees that and gets the wrong idea, you could have a real problem.” The song focuses on police brutality and other matters. Snoop Dogg told Billboard that he wanted to make a song “that was not controversial but real — real to the voice of the people who don’t have a voice.”
m Angelina Jolie defended the United Nations on Wednesday, saying the world body, as “imperfect” as it is, needs reform but also support. The American actress and special envoy for the U.N. refugee agency decried a “rising tide of nationalism masquerading as populism, and the re-emergence of policies encouraging fear and hatred of others” during a speech at a U.N. ceremony in Geneva honoring Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. envoy to Iraq who died in a 2003 bombing attack in Baghdad. Saying she was speaking as a “proud American” and “an internationalist,” Jolie said some politicians were elected “partly on the basis of dismissing international institutions and agreements.” She didn’t mention U.S. President Donald Trump. The 41-year-old actress and filmmaker is set to teach a master’s course at the prestigious London School of Economics this fall as a visiting professor. Jolie will be lecturing in an unpaid post in September as part of a master’s program on women, peace and security. She gave a preview of her class Tuesday with a lecture at the school’s Centre for Women, Peace and Security. She told the newspaper before the lecture that she was “a little nervous” but she hoped to do well because the talk was “very important” to her.