Barbie’s companion Ken gets new looks: Man bun, beefy bod
Barbie’s companion Ken gets new looks: Man bun, beefy bod
NEW YORK (AP) — He’s been overshadowed by Barbie for decades, but now Ken is finally getting some attention.
Mattel is introducing 15 new looks for the male doll, including different skin tones, body shapes and hair styles. Barbie had a similar makeover more than a year ago, both part of the toy company’s plan to make its dolls more diverse and appealing to today’s kids.
Ken hadn’t changed much since he was introduced 56 years ago as Barbie’s blue-eyed, chiseled boyfriend. Now he’ll be sold in three body shapes: “slim,” ”broad” and “original.”
He’ll have modern hairdos, such as cornrows and man buns, and come in seven skin tones. And he’ll also be sporting new fashions: think skinny ties, plaid shirts and graphic tees.
“We are redefining what a Barbie or Ken doll looks like to this generation,” said Mattel’s Lisa McKnight, who oversees the Barbie line.
Senate steers toward showdown vote next week on health bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans steered toward a potential showdown vote on their long-awaited health care bill next week, despite indications that they’ve yet to solidify the 50 GOP votes they’ll need to avert an embarrassing defeat.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he expected to have a draft of the bill ready Thursday. The measure would peel away much of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul and leave government with a more limited role in providing coverage and helping people afford it.
“We have to act, and we are,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.
But later, he simply chortled when asked if he was confident the measure would pass, a victory that would elude him if just three of the 52 GOP senators voted no.
McConnell’s ability to assess and line up votes is considered masterful, and he’s eager to pass legislation fulfilling a keystone campaign promise of President Donald Trump and countless GOP congressional candidates. But underscoring the uncertainty he faces, senators from both ends of his party’s spectrum were grumbling about the bill’s expected contents and the clandestine way it’s being crafted.
Suspect shot after explosion at Brussels train station
BRUSSELS (AP) — Soldiers shot a suspect in the heart of Brussels after a small explosion at a busy train station Tuesday night continued a week of extremist attacks in the capitals of Europe.
A bomb squad performed a controlled explosion of a bomb belt the suspect had at the Central Station and established a wide perimeter near the city’s famed Grand Place square while checking to see if there more hazards, VTM network reported.
It appeared no one else was injured besides the suspect and the damage from the explosion was limited, Brussels prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Ine Van Wymersch told VRT. It was not clear if the suspect survived.
Federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt said authorities are treating the incident “as a terrorist attack” that was foiled when the suspect was “neutralized.”
“We do not know if the man is still alive or that he is dead,” Van der Sypt added.
London copes with deep divisions after attacks, tower fire
LONDON (AP) — The cars still zip over London Bridge at their typical fast clip, drawing little obvious attention.
But some pedestrians walking the bridge over the River Thames each day say they find themselves glancing at the passing traffic and wondering: Is that the one? Is that the one that’s going to swerve my way? The one whose driver wants to kill me for reasons I’ll never quite grasp?
“Of course I do think about it every day,” said 55-year-old Phil Bradley, who notes with approval that police have installed extra barriers since the June 3 attack when three Islamic extremists slammed a van into pedestrians on the bridge then went on a stabbing rampage in nearby Borough Market, killing a total of eight people. “But you have to keep it in perspective.”
Londoners tend to take their city for granted — until something goes terribly wrong. When the great city is ticking along, its residents barely notice its unique cosmopolitan blend, its seemingly effortless mix of dozens of different cultures. But when the city’s multi-ethnic personality is under threat, as it is now, people are uneasy, but also proud and protective, determined not to change their routines or their outlook.
The city has endured three deadly Islamic extremist attacks in the last three months alone. And the pace of horrific events has quickened: In the last week, London’s worst fire in decades claimed at least 79 lives and a group of Muslims leaving prayers marking the holy month of Ramadan were intentionally run down by a man in a van.
Clamping down, Trump team puts the ‘brief’ in press briefing
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s White House is putting the “brief” in press briefings.
Sean Spicer, the embattled press secretary, spoke for 30 minutes Tuesday and didn’t answer a number of basic questions, including whether the president believes Russia interfered in the 2016 election and whether Trump had seen the hotly debated Senate health care bill.
Once more freewheeling exchanges, White House press briefings have been shrinking both in length and content as Trump’s senior aides clamp down on information and contend with the president’s own lack of message discipline and preference for speaking directly to his fan base.
The administration has erected other barriers to transparency as well, such as refusing to make its visitor logs public. And Trump hasn’t held a full press conference since February or participated in interviews since the end of April.
The White House’s less-is-best approach to public information has become more pronounced since Trump returned from his nine-day, five-nation tour in late May.
After Warmbier’s death, US weighs travel ban on North Korea
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is considering banning travel by U.S. citizens to North Korea, officials said Tuesday, as outrage grew over the death of American student Otto Warmbier and President Donald Trump declared it a “total disgrace.”
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has the authority to cut off travel to North Korea with the stroke of the pen, has been weighing such a move since late April, when American teacher Tony Kim was detained in Pyongyang, a senior State Department official said. No ban is imminent, but deliberations gained new urgency after Warmbier’s death, said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal diplomatic discussions.
Even as Warmbier’s family prepared to mourn him at a public funeral service Thursday in Ohio, the circumstances behind his death remained unclear. The coroner’s office in Hamilton County, Ohio, said it had accepted Warmbier’s case but had only performed an external examination on his body because the family had objected to an autopsy.
Warmbier, 22, was released last week by North Korea in a coma, but died days later, his family said. The former University of Virginia student had been visiting North Korea on a tour group when he was detained, sentenced to 15 years hard labor for subversion, and held for more than 17 months.
“It’s a total disgrace what happened to Otto. That should never ever be allowed to happen,” Trump said in the Oval Office.