Archive April 17, 2025

Faux feminism has left the planet

On Monday, April 14, six elite American women blasted off into space from west Texas on a self-piloting rocket ship developed by the space technology company Blue Origin, owned by bazillionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The “crew” of the much-ballyhooed all-female flight – marketed by Blue Origin as a giant leap not only for womankind but for the entire world – included pop star Katy Perry, television personality Gayle King, and Bezos’s fiancee Lauren Sanchez, author of the children’s book The Fly Who Flew to Space and the organiser of the wannabe feminist space excursion.

In preparation for the star-studded spectacle, Elle magazine ran a fawning cover story on the “historic mission”, which the magazine described as “the first time anybody went to space with their hair and makeup done”. By the end of the article, which is basically a continuous succession of aneurysm-inducing lines, one finds oneself with little hope for the world aside from that an asteroid would strike and just put an end to it all.

Perry, for example, is quoted as declaring that “we are going to put the ‘ass’ in astronaut”, while also sharing the scintillating logistics of celebrity space travel: “I was like, What am I going to wear?” Then there’s an exchange between Sanchez, who predicts that “we’re going to have [eye]lash extensions flying in the capsule!”, and King, who wonders if the lashes will “stay on”, prompting the response from Sanchez: “Mine are glued on. They’re good.”

Fellow “crew” member Aisha Bowe, an aerospace engineer and entrepreneur, explains that she “wanted to test out” her hair to make sure it was rocket-ready: “So I skydived in Dubai with similar hair to make sure I would be good.”

None of this is to say, of course, that women can’t care about their eyelashes and hair. But in a world in which a whole lot of women don’t have money to eat – much less skydive in one of the planet’s most expensive places to see how their hair might fare during an 11-minute, multimillion-dollar jaunt in outer space – such chatter does nothing to further female empowerment.

It does everything, however, to reinforce inequality – and makes a mockery of Sanchez’s pre-flight claim that “we’re going to be able to come back and inspire people and bring people together.” Following the completion of Monday’s flight, she was quoted as reflecting on her quick inspection of the Earth from above: “You look at this, and you’re like, ‘We’re all in this together.’”

To be sure, it requires an astronomical hypocrisy to invoke a collective “we” when not all of “us” are engaged to the world’s second-richest human, who as of March had a net worth of $231.2bn. We’re also not really “in this together” when Bezos himself is actively abetting the obliteration of solidarity in the United States, cosying up to President Donald Trump – whose anti-feminist agenda is, mind you, clear as day – as he goes about happily dismantling whatever semblance of rights remain in the country.

The Blue Origin website assures visitors that the company “exists for the benefit of Earth” and boasts a “passion for preserving Earth”, which is “humanity’s forever home”. To that end, Blue Origin allegedly strives “to minimize our carbon footprint and promote sustainable practices in all aspects of our operations” – reusable rockets, reusable engines, and so on – which ultimately amounts to nothing but your typical corporate claptrap that allows the super-rich to keep annihilating the earth and its atmosphere while claiming not to.

And it’s not just Blue Origin that has enabled Bezos’s own carbon footprint to asphyxiate “humanity’s forever home”. He remains the executive chairman and largest shareholder at Amazon, which, as the Washington, DC-based group Food & Water Watch noted last year, has generated hundreds of millions of pounds of plastic packaging – “part of a larger crisis clogging our planet with plastic pollution and setting our climate ablaze”.

The report explains that as plastic breaks down, “it gets into the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe, harming humans and ecosystems around the globe.”

No wonder the rich are looking to escape.

Obviously, Bezos is not singlehandedly responsible for the Earth’s demise. There are plenty of other plutocrats who have done their fair share while preaching sustainability, including Elon Musk – the world’s richest person, founder of the space technology company SpaceX, and aspiring coloniser of Mars.

But Blue Origin’s “historic” publicity stunt has put a faux feminist face on a system predicated on destruction and inequality – one in which Americans must continue to die of poverty on a huge scale so that the elite minority can ride around in self-piloting rockets. Why spend billions of dollars to alleviate terrestrial suffering when you can shoot for the stars instead?

In the end, the stunt did not receive quite the rave reviews that were expected from the press and social media commentariat. It was so bad, in fact, that even The New York Times felt compelled to use the word “capitalism” in its assessment that “Blue Origin’s all-female flight proves that women are now free to enjoy capitalism’s most extravagant spoils alongside rich men.”

Indeed, this is capitalism on rocket fuel – taking acute socioeconomic injustice and blasting it into outer space.

Perry, who dramatically kissed the ground after descending from the rocket ship, professed to now “feel super connected to love” and pronounced the trip “all for the benefit of Earth”.

The vast majority of the earth’s inhabitants would no doubt be forgiven for failing to detect any sort of “benefit” – like, say, the Palestinian women and children currently being bombed to smithereens in the US-backed genocide in the Gaza Strip.

In the meantime, we can only hope everyone’s eyelash extensions stayed on.

Faux feminism has left the planet

On Monday, April 14, six elite American women blasted off into space from west Texas on a self-piloting rocket ship developed by the space technology company Blue Origin, owned by bazillionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The “crew” of the much-ballyhooed all-female flight – marketed by Blue Origin as a giant leap not only for womankind but for the entire world – included pop star Katy Perry, television personality Gayle King, and Bezos’s fiancee Lauren Sanchez, author of the children’s book The Fly Who Flew to Space and the organiser of the wannabe feminist space excursion.

In preparation for the star-studded spectacle, Elle magazine ran a fawning cover story on the “historic mission”, which the magazine described as “the first time anybody went to space with their hair and makeup done”. By the end of the article, which is basically a continuous succession of aneurysm-inducing lines, one finds oneself with little hope for the world aside from that an asteroid would strike and just put an end to it all.

Perry, for example, is quoted as declaring that “we are going to put the ‘ass’ in astronaut”, while also sharing the scintillating logistics of celebrity space travel: “I was like, What am I going to wear?” Then there’s an exchange between Sanchez, who predicts that “we’re going to have [eye]lash extensions flying in the capsule!”, and King, who wonders if the lashes will “stay on”, prompting the response from Sanchez: “Mine are glued on. They’re good.”

Fellow “crew” member Aisha Bowe, an aerospace engineer and entrepreneur, explains that she “wanted to test out” her hair to make sure it was rocket-ready: “So I skydived in Dubai with similar hair to make sure I would be good.”

None of this is to say, of course, that women can’t care about their eyelashes and hair. But in a world in which a whole lot of women don’t have money to eat – much less skydive in one of the planet’s most expensive places to see how their hair might fare during an 11-minute, multimillion-dollar jaunt in outer space – such chatter does nothing to further female empowerment.

It does everything, however, to reinforce inequality – and makes a mockery of Sanchez’s pre-flight claim that “we’re going to be able to come back and inspire people and bring people together.” Following the completion of Monday’s flight, she was quoted as reflecting on her quick inspection of the Earth from above: “You look at this, and you’re like, ‘We’re all in this together.’”

To be sure, it requires an astronomical hypocrisy to invoke a collective “we” when not all of “us” are engaged to the world’s second-richest human, who as of March had a net worth of $231.2bn. We’re also not really “in this together” when Bezos himself is actively abetting the obliteration of solidarity in the United States, cosying up to President Donald Trump – whose anti-feminist agenda is, mind you, clear as day – as he goes about happily dismantling whatever semblance of rights remain in the country.

The Blue Origin website assures visitors that the company “exists for the benefit of Earth” and boasts a “passion for preserving Earth”, which is “humanity’s forever home”. To that end, Blue Origin allegedly strives “to minimize our carbon footprint and promote sustainable practices in all aspects of our operations” – reusable rockets, reusable engines, and so on – which ultimately amounts to nothing but your typical corporate claptrap that allows the super-rich to keep annihilating the earth and its atmosphere while claiming not to.

And it’s not just Blue Origin that has enabled Bezos’s own carbon footprint to asphyxiate “humanity’s forever home”. He remains the executive chairman and largest shareholder at Amazon, which, as the Washington, DC-based group Food & Water Watch noted last year, has generated hundreds of millions of pounds of plastic packaging – “part of a larger crisis clogging our planet with plastic pollution and setting our climate ablaze”.

The report explains that as plastic breaks down, “it gets into the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe, harming humans and ecosystems around the globe.”

No wonder the rich are looking to escape.

Obviously, Bezos is not singlehandedly responsible for the Earth’s demise. There are plenty of other plutocrats who have done their fair share while preaching sustainability, including Elon Musk – the world’s richest person, founder of the space technology company SpaceX, and aspiring coloniser of Mars.

But Blue Origin’s “historic” publicity stunt has put a faux feminist face on a system predicated on destruction and inequality – one in which Americans must continue to die of poverty on a huge scale so that the elite minority can ride around in self-piloting rockets. Why spend billions of dollars to alleviate terrestrial suffering when you can shoot for the stars instead?

In the end, the stunt did not receive quite the rave reviews that were expected from the press and social media commentariat. It was so bad, in fact, that even The New York Times felt compelled to use the word “capitalism” in its assessment that “Blue Origin’s all-female flight proves that women are now free to enjoy capitalism’s most extravagant spoils alongside rich men.”

Indeed, this is capitalism on rocket fuel – taking acute socioeconomic injustice and blasting it into outer space.

Perry, who dramatically kissed the ground after descending from the rocket ship, professed to now “feel super connected to love” and pronounced the trip “all for the benefit of Earth”.

The vast majority of the earth’s inhabitants would no doubt be forgiven for failing to detect any sort of “benefit” – like, say, the Palestinian women and children currently being bombed to smithereens in the US-backed genocide in the Gaza Strip.

In the meantime, we can only hope everyone’s eyelash extensions stayed on.

Faux feminism has left the planet

On Monday, April 14, six elite American women blasted off into space from west Texas on a self-piloting rocket ship developed by the space technology company Blue Origin, owned by bazillionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The “crew” of the much-ballyhooed all-female flight – marketed by Blue Origin as a giant leap not only for womankind but for the entire world – included pop star Katy Perry, television personality Gayle King, and Bezos’s fiancee Lauren Sanchez, author of the children’s book The Fly Who Flew to Space and the organiser of the wannabe feminist space excursion.

In preparation for the star-studded spectacle, Elle magazine ran a fawning cover story on the “historic mission”, which the magazine described as “the first time anybody went to space with their hair and makeup done”. By the end of the article, which is basically a continuous succession of aneurysm-inducing lines, one finds oneself with little hope for the world aside from that an asteroid would strike and just put an end to it all.

Perry, for example, is quoted as declaring that “we are going to put the ‘ass’ in astronaut”, while also sharing the scintillating logistics of celebrity space travel: “I was like, What am I going to wear?” Then there’s an exchange between Sanchez, who predicts that “we’re going to have [eye]lash extensions flying in the capsule!”, and King, who wonders if the lashes will “stay on”, prompting the response from Sanchez: “Mine are glued on. They’re good.”

Fellow “crew” member Aisha Bowe, an aerospace engineer and entrepreneur, explains that she “wanted to test out” her hair to make sure it was rocket-ready: “So I skydived in Dubai with similar hair to make sure I would be good.”

None of this is to say, of course, that women can’t care about their eyelashes and hair. But in a world in which a whole lot of women don’t have money to eat – much less skydive in one of the planet’s most expensive places to see how their hair might fare during an 11-minute, multimillion-dollar jaunt in outer space – such chatter does nothing to further female empowerment.

It does everything, however, to reinforce inequality – and makes a mockery of Sanchez’s pre-flight claim that “we’re going to be able to come back and inspire people and bring people together.” Following the completion of Monday’s flight, she was quoted as reflecting on her quick inspection of the Earth from above: “You look at this, and you’re like, ‘We’re all in this together.’”

To be sure, it requires an astronomical hypocrisy to invoke a collective “we” when not all of “us” are engaged to the world’s second-richest human, who as of March had a net worth of $231.2bn. We’re also not really “in this together” when Bezos himself is actively abetting the obliteration of solidarity in the United States, cosying up to President Donald Trump – whose anti-feminist agenda is, mind you, clear as day – as he goes about happily dismantling whatever semblance of rights remain in the country.

The Blue Origin website assures visitors that the company “exists for the benefit of Earth” and boasts a “passion for preserving Earth”, which is “humanity’s forever home”. To that end, Blue Origin allegedly strives “to minimize our carbon footprint and promote sustainable practices in all aspects of our operations” – reusable rockets, reusable engines, and so on – which ultimately amounts to nothing but your typical corporate claptrap that allows the super-rich to keep annihilating the earth and its atmosphere while claiming not to.

And it’s not just Blue Origin that has enabled Bezos’s own carbon footprint to asphyxiate “humanity’s forever home”. He remains the executive chairman and largest shareholder at Amazon, which, as the Washington, DC-based group Food & Water Watch noted last year, has generated hundreds of millions of pounds of plastic packaging – “part of a larger crisis clogging our planet with plastic pollution and setting our climate ablaze”.

The report explains that as plastic breaks down, “it gets into the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe, harming humans and ecosystems around the globe.”

No wonder the rich are looking to escape.

Obviously, Bezos is not singlehandedly responsible for the Earth’s demise. There are plenty of other plutocrats who have done their fair share while preaching sustainability, including Elon Musk – the world’s richest person, founder of the space technology company SpaceX, and aspiring coloniser of Mars.

But Blue Origin’s “historic” publicity stunt has put a faux feminist face on a system predicated on destruction and inequality – one in which Americans must continue to die of poverty on a huge scale so that the elite minority can ride around in self-piloting rockets. Why spend billions of dollars to alleviate terrestrial suffering when you can shoot for the stars instead?

In the end, the stunt did not receive quite the rave reviews that were expected from the press and social media commentariat. It was so bad, in fact, that even The New York Times felt compelled to use the word “capitalism” in its assessment that “Blue Origin’s all-female flight proves that women are now free to enjoy capitalism’s most extravagant spoils alongside rich men.”

Indeed, this is capitalism on rocket fuel – taking acute socioeconomic injustice and blasting it into outer space.

Perry, who dramatically kissed the ground after descending from the rocket ship, professed to now “feel super connected to love” and pronounced the trip “all for the benefit of Earth”.

The vast majority of the earth’s inhabitants would no doubt be forgiven for failing to detect any sort of “benefit” – like, say, the Palestinian women and children currently being bombed to smithereens in the US-backed genocide in the Gaza Strip.

In the meantime, we can only hope everyone’s eyelash extensions stayed on.

‘A Proud Feeling,’ Van Dijk Signs New Liverpool Contract

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk on Thursday signed a new two-year contract with the club, ending months of fevered speculation over his future just a week after Mohamed Salah extended his stay.

The announcement comes with Liverpool potentially just days away from winning the Premier League title in Arne Slot’s first season in charge.

“I’m very happy, very proud,” said Van Dijk, whose existing deal, like Salah’s, had been set to expire at the end of the season.

“There are so many emotions obviously that go through my head right now speaking about it.

“It’s a proud feeling, it’s a feeling of joy. It’s just incredible. The journey I’ve had so far in my career, to be able to extend it with another two years at this club is amazing and I’m so happy.”

With new deals confirmed for Salah and Van Dijk, the future of defender Trent Alexander-Arnold remains unresolved.

The England international, who returned to training on Wednesday after a month out because of injury, is out of contract at the end of the season and has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid.

Van Dijk, 33, has made 314 appearances for Liverpool, scoring 27 goals.

He has won the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, two League Cups, the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup, all under former manager Jurgen Klopp.

Last month Van Dijk said he had “no idea” if he would remain at Anfield but on Sunday hinted that he was set to extend his stay.

READ ALSO: Salah Signs New Two-Year Deal With Liverpool

The imposing centre-back had been linked with a move to Paris Saint-Germain but said his heart was set on Liverpool.

“It was always Liverpool,” he said. “That was the case. It was always in my head, it was always the plan and it was always Liverpool.

“There wasn’t any doubt in my head that this is the place to be for me and my family. I’m one of Liverpool. Someone called me the other day an adopted Scouser -– I’m really proud to hear these things, it gives me a great feeling.”

Van Dijk arrived from Southampton in January 2018 for £75 million ($99 million), then a world record fee for a defender, and has been instrumental in Liverpool’s rise back to the top of the English and European game.

He won the Champions League in 2019 and a year later helped deliver the club’s first league title for 30 years.

He also came second in the 2019 Ballon d’Or vote, losing out to Argentina star Lionel Messi, who has won the award eight times.

Van Dijk, who played for Celtic before joining Southampton, took over the club captaincy in 2023 following the departure of Jordan Henderson.

Now he is on the brink of adding to his collection of silverware with Liverpool, who are set to equal Manchester United’s record of 20 English titles.

The Reds are 13 points clear of Arsenal with just six games remaining and could wrap up the title this weekend if the Gunners lose.

‘A Proud Feeling,’ Van Dijk Signs New Liverpool Contract

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk on Thursday signed a new two-year contract with the club, ending months of fevered speculation over his future just a week after Mohamed Salah extended his stay.

The announcement comes with Liverpool potentially just days away from winning the Premier League title in Arne Slot’s first season in charge.

“I’m very happy, very proud,” said Van Dijk, whose existing deal, like Salah’s, had been set to expire at the end of the season.

“There are so many emotions obviously that go through my head right now speaking about it.

“It’s a proud feeling, it’s a feeling of joy. It’s just incredible. The journey I’ve had so far in my career, to be able to extend it with another two years at this club is amazing and I’m so happy.”

With new deals confirmed for Salah and Van Dijk, the future of defender Trent Alexander-Arnold remains unresolved.

The England international, who returned to training on Wednesday after a month out because of injury, is out of contract at the end of the season and has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid.

Van Dijk, 33, has made 314 appearances for Liverpool, scoring 27 goals.

He has won the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, two League Cups, the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup, all under former manager Jurgen Klopp.

Last month Van Dijk said he had “no idea” if he would remain at Anfield but on Sunday hinted that he was set to extend his stay.

READ ALSO: Salah Signs New Two-Year Deal With Liverpool

The imposing centre-back had been linked with a move to Paris Saint-Germain but said his heart was set on Liverpool.

“It was always Liverpool,” he said. “That was the case. It was always in my head, it was always the plan and it was always Liverpool.

“There wasn’t any doubt in my head that this is the place to be for me and my family. I’m one of Liverpool. Someone called me the other day an adopted Scouser -– I’m really proud to hear these things, it gives me a great feeling.”

Van Dijk arrived from Southampton in January 2018 for £75 million ($99 million), then a world record fee for a defender, and has been instrumental in Liverpool’s rise back to the top of the English and European game.

He won the Champions League in 2019 and a year later helped deliver the club’s first league title for 30 years.

He also came second in the 2019 Ballon d’Or vote, losing out to Argentina star Lionel Messi, who has won the award eight times.

Van Dijk, who played for Celtic before joining Southampton, took over the club captaincy in 2023 following the departure of Jordan Henderson.

Now he is on the brink of adding to his collection of silverware with Liverpool, who are set to equal Manchester United’s record of 20 English titles.

The Reds are 13 points clear of Arsenal with just six games remaining and could wrap up the title this weekend if the Gunners lose.

[VIDEO] Plateau Killings Genocidal, Security Agencies Aware Of Attackers’ Routes– Lawmaker

A lawmaker, Daniel Asama, says security agencies are aware of the whereabouts of the masterminds of the recent killings in Plateau, describing the attacks as genocidal.

Over 100 people have been killed in the last two weeks in Plateau, a situation, Asama said, is devastating.

“The security agencies know where these attacks have been coming from. They know the direction from which these attacks have been coming. The people in the community can show them the routes,” the lawmaker representing Bassa/Jos North Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives said on Thursday’s edition of Channels Television’s The Morning Brief. 

“I am saying that the security operatives, if they talk to the people, will know where the attackers are coming from. I don’t believe exactly that they do not know where these people are coming from,” he said.

READ ALSO: Obi Asks Tinubu To End France Trip, Address Insecurity

The Labour Party (LP) chieftain said the killings have led to the displacement of communities and likened it to land grabbing. 

Watch him speak on the issue below: