BBC Question Time: Kirstie Allsopp Brands Boris Johnson ‘Disgraceful’ For Not Meeting Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s Husband
Kirstie Allsopp has branded Boris Johnson “disgraceful” for not meeting the husband of a British woman jailed in Iran who is fighting for her innocence.

The Foreign Secretary has come under pressure over the plight of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe after he told a parliamentary committee that she was training journalists – rather than being on holiday with her 22-month-old daughter Gabriella – when she was arrested and jailed in Iran 18 months ago.

It emerged on Thursday that Iranian state TV had framed his ‘false’ comment about her as a “confession”.

But on BBC’s Question Time, the Tory Cabinet minister was condemned by TV presenter Allsopp less for his recent error and more for the fact he has not met the husband battling for justice for his wife.

She said:

“I don’t know whether the Iranian Ambassador watches Question Time, I wouldn’t want to take any risks, and I mean that very seriously. “I have followed this case since the very beginning. The plight of Richard, Nazanin and their little girl Gabriella haunts me. That little girl, who can’t come home to the UK because all that keeps her mother sane is her visits, and a father who hasn’t hugged his own daughter in 18 months because he can’t go to Iran. “The fact that Boris Johnson has not seen him, given him 10 minutes of his time in the last 18-months is, frankly, disgraceful.”

Johnson’s remarks led to the 37-year-old making an unscheduled court appearance on Saturday where Johnson’s comment was used as evidence against her on a fresh charge of  propaganda against the regime. 

Richard Ratcliffe has made an emotional appeal to Johnson to focus on bringing his wife home.

Ratcliffe urged Johnson to “make good the promise he made to go and visit Nazanin in Iran” in a vlog for HuffPost UK.

Ratcliffe refused to be drawn into the row over forcing Johnson’s resignation, instead challenging the foreign secretary to help reunite his family for Christmas.

On Thursday, the Foreign Secretary said he hoped to meet Ratcliffe for the first time before he visits Iran in the next few weeks.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/boris-johnson-iran_uk_5a04e3a0e4b01d21c83d957a

In New Musical ‘The Band’s Visit,’ an Exquisite Meditation on Hopes Won and Lost: REVIEW

A man stares at a payphone in the desert, waiting all night for his lover to call. Another describes the thrill of spotting his late wife for the first time across a crowded dance floor. Such countless, carefully observed moments assemble like the lines of a poem in The Band’s Visit, an airy and remarkably insightful new musical meditation on loss, connection, and the suspension of hope that opened November 9 at the Barrymore Theatre.

Here’s the set up: A ceremonial police orchestra from Alexandria, Egypt walks into a café. The catch? They’re in the wrong place — the Israeli town where they were invited to play sounds very similar to the tiny one where they wind up, give or take a consonant.

It’s a perfectly indie-movie premise; the show is based on a 2007 Israeli film of the same name by Eran Kolirin. But in bringing it to the stage, first to Atlantic Theatre Company in 2016 and now on Broadway, playwright Itamar Moses and composer David Yazbek challenge the conventions of musical theatre in ways that feel like a fresh reinvention of the form.

Which means don’t come expecting regular old song and dance — the production, detly directed by David Cromer, might better be described as a play shot through with music. In fact, the opening number, an ode to rural ennui sung in rounds by the residents of Beit Hatikva, doesn’t open the show. First we meet the town’s guests for the night, all lined up in powder-blue uniforms at airport arrivals with instruments at their sides.

It’s a comedy of communication from the beginning, as the bandmates ask around about how to reach their destination (a question, like so many others in the story, that hints toward the great mysteries of life). As it is, they’re misdirected and taken in for the night by the listless townspeople of Beit Hatikva (they’re meant to be in Petah Tikva). A cozy narrative of hospitality triumphing over difference ensues, not dissimilar, at least thematically, from last season’s surprise hit Come From Away.      

The rich (and rife) historical context bridging Egypt and Israel only subtly shades the story, which is intimately human in scale. The orchestra’s conductor (a superb Tony Shalhoub) and Dina, the town’s lithe, sardonic cafe owner (Indecent’s Katrina Lenk, on her way icon status), spark a not-quite-romance. The trumpet player and would-be lothario (Ari’el Stachel) teaches a shy villager (Etai Benson) how to talk to girls. The clarinetist (Alok Tewari) soothes a tense young family at home with his unfinished concerto.

The story might be considered a slice of life, but in the shape of a constellation: one passing night in the middle of nowhere. Music by Yazbek — lyrical, rousing, gentle as desert breeze — doesn’t just punctuate emotional high points (though it does that quite well), but takes on a more visceral role. A handful instrumentalists idly pass the time as musicians might, supplementing the off-stage orchestra with music we can see and feel.

Language, the story argues, is a kind of music, too, perhaps especially if you can’t discern its meaning. That goes as much for the characters on stage as it does for those in the audience who won’t understand the show’s occasional interludes of Arabic and Hebrew. Cromer’s fluid direction, and the soft-midnight atmosphere created by Scott Pask’s scenic design and Tyler Micoleau’s lighting, transport us to a far-flung corner to show us that we’re all the same, simply doing our best to understand one another.

“Has she called?” Dina asks the man waiting at the payphone. “Not yet, but soon,” he replies, holding his breath with the kind of hope that glues the whole world together.

Recent theatre features…
Julie Taymor Directs Clive Owen in Stylish but Earthbound ‘M. Butterfly’ on Broadway: REVIEW
In Off-Broadway’s ‘Lonely Planet,’ Coping with AIDS Trauma on a Human Scale: REVIEW
Transcendent ‘Torch Song’ Starring Michael Urie and Mercedes Ruehl Is Required Gay Viewing: REVIEW
‘Downton Abbey’s Elizabeth McGovern Opens in Puzzling ‘Time and the Conways’: REVIEW
‘A Clockwork Orange’ Shows Plenty of Skin, Skimps on Danger Off-Broadway: REVIEW

Follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter: @Mr_NaveenKumar
(photos: matthew murphy)

The post In New Musical ‘The Band’s Visit,’ an Exquisite Meditation on Hopes Won and Lost: REVIEW appeared first on Towleroad.

In New Musical ‘The Band’s Visit,’ an Exquisite Meditation on Hopes Won and Lost: REVIEW

Laser Microscope Reveals Stunning 3D Images Of The Brain In Unprecedented Detail
A revolutionary new laser-enabled microscope has been able to capture the stunning intricacies of the brain in unprecedented detail.

These incredibly detailed images are helping us better understand the brain on a cellular level and in turn how it can go wrong in the form of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Developed by Scottish technology firm M Squared, the Aurora light-sheet microscope is able to produce 3D images accurate enough to capture the neural connections themselves.

This stunning image actually shows the nerves ‘firing’ inside the brain of a mouse revealing just how fantastically complex it is.

By being able to better see our brains and in turn see how they work in 3D, these images are helping further our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

The Aurora microscope is able to capture high-contrast 3D images up to 500 times faster than conventional confocal microscopy techniques.

Being able to accurately map large biological structures at the cellular level has proven difficult in the past.

While we know that certain chemicals can induce changes in how the brain operates (in the case of Alzheimer’s for example) what we know far less about however is how they interact with each other at the sub-micron level.

Aurora enables scientists and researchers to do this.

Dr Deepak Srivastava, Director of the Wohl Cellular Imaging Centre at Kings College London commended the performance of the new microscope saying:

“The Wohl Cellular Imaging Centre (WCIC) provides advanced and cutting-edge light microscopy solutions for neuroscientists and related life sciences with the aim of helping to advance breakthrough discoveries in the development and treatment of life-changing illnesses.”

“Aurora has already allowed researchers to gain unprecedented insight into key scientific questions.”

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/laser-microscope-reveals-stunning-3d-images-of-the-brain-in-unprecedented-detail_uk_5a0488b8e4b0f76b05c40cd2

Romanticizing the Confederacy Is Sick and Wrong

Slavery is America’s original sin. Don’t forget that for a minute, Trump administration.

www.advocate.com/commentary/2017/11/09/romanticizing-confederacy-sick-and-wrong

Women Who’ve Had HPV Vaccine Only Need Three Cervical Screenings In Lifetime, Research Suggests
No one enjoys going for cervical screening but we all know those uncomfortable few minutes could be life-saving.

The good news is that women may only need three cervical screens – formerly known as smear tests – in their lifetime if they have been given the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.

Currently, women aged 25 to 49 are advised to undergo cervical screening every three years, while those aged 50 to 64 are invited every five years under the NHS.

However, new research, funded by Cancer Research UK and conducted by a team from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), found that a cervical screening at ages 30, 40 and 55 would offer “the same benefit” to vaccinated women as the 12 lifetime screens currently offered in England.

The results are based on how the HPV vaccine and the improved cervical screening programme will work best together. The new programme, called ‘HPV primary testing’, is set to be introduced in England by December 2019.

It means that cervical samples are tested for HPV but only checked for abnormal cells if the virus is found. The current test checks for abnormalities first, which is less efficient.

Scotland and Wales are also making their own plans to introduce this new HPV test.

Since 2008, the HPV vaccine has been offered to schoolgirls and is usually given to girls in year eight. The first group to receive the vaccines are now reaching the age for their first cervical screening invitation.

The new research suggests that these women can still be effectively protected from cervical cancer with fewer screens, which could also save the NHS resources.

Professor Peter Sasieni, Cancer Research UK’s screening expert and lead author based at QMUL, said: “The NHS should benefit from the investment that it’s made by introducing the vaccination programme. These women are far less likely to develop cervical cancer, so they don’t need such stringent routine checking as those at a higher risk.

“This decision would free up resources for where they are needed most. The change in the screening system is a unique opportunity to reassess how often women are invited for cervical screens during their lifetimes.”

HPV infects most unvaccinated people (eight out of 10) at some point in their lives. Most infections go away on their own, but if an infection is not cleared it can go on to cause cervical cancer.

According to Cancer Research UK, without HPV infection there would be almost no cases of cervical cancer in the UK.

The current HPV vaccine protects women against the four most dangerous forms of HPV, which are responsible for causing 70% of all cervical cancer cases.

As the risk of cervical cancer is considerably reduced after vaccination, the study suggests that the number of screens should be decreased accordingly, avoiding unnecessary procedures for women.

The study also suggests that unvaccinated women should only need seven lifetime screens when the new test comes in, five fewer than is currently standard.

Dr Julie Sharp, head of health information at Cancer Research UK, said: “This is great news for women. The cervical screening programme is already very successful, and has led to a dramatic fall in deaths from the disease since its introduction.

“While we hope to see these improvements to the screening programme in the future, it’s important that women continue to take up invitations for cervical screening. So if you’re all set for your next screen, keep that appointment.”

The research is published in full in the International Journal of Cancer.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/women-who-had-hpv-jab-only-need-three-cervical-screenings-in-a-lifetime-research-suggests_uk_5a04707de4b0937b511019d7

5 GOP leaders who wasted no time throwing accused child molester Roy Moore under the bus
But they might be stuck with him.

www.queerty.com/5-gop-leaders-wasted-no-time-throwing-accused-child-molester-roy-moore-bus-20171109?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Louis CK, Accused of Masturbating in Front of Women, Is in Damage Control

The comedian’s new film premiere has been canceled after an exposé in The New York Times.

www.advocate.com/crime/2017/11/09/louis-ck-accused-masturbating-front-women-damage-control