Mediaboss Marketing

TEHRAN An informed source at Irans Foreign Ministry has said that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif plans to visit Iraq on July 19.

Zarif will meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, President Barham Salih and Mohamed al-Halbousi, the speaker of the National Assembly, IRIB reported.

Zarif and Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Mohammed Hussein had a phone conversation in June.

Zarif highlighted the significance of the issues being pursued in bilateral relations and the necessity of implementing the agreements reached between the two sides during the Iranian presidents visit to Baghdad.

President Hassan Rouhani said in May that Irans principled policy is expanding relations and cooperation with Iraq in various areas.

In a phone conversation with Iraqi President Barham Salih, Rouhani attached great importance to expansion of economic relations, saying, Expansion of relations in various areas among the friendly governments and nations can help us pass the problems.

Elsewhere, he said that Iran attaches great importance to stability in Iraq.

The Islamic Republic of Iran will stand beside the Iraqi government and people and seeks to maintain Iraqs sovereignty and prevent foreign intervention, the president pointed out.

Salih, for his part, said cooperation of friendly countries, such as Iran, is required to establish stability in Iraq.

NA/PA

Read the rest here:
Zarif to visit Iraq on July 19 - Tehran Times

In one of the most serious abuses of the judicial system since the legalization of cannabis over the past decade, a Pickens County, Alabama judge has sentenced an Arizona man to five years in prison following the revocation of his probation for a 2016 cannabis arrest.

Iraq War Veteran Sean Worsley was arrested in the town of Gordo for marijuana possession following a routine stop by officers for what was initially a noise complaint. The couple was accused of playing their music too loudly in their car when they stopped for gas, according to the Alabama Political Reporter.

When Officer Carl Abramo said he smelled cannabis, Worsley allowed him to search the vehicle, leading to his arrest.

However, Worsley, who is from Arizona, legally used cannabis for post-traumatic stress disorder. According to APR, he was wounded in an IED attack and suffered from back and shoulder pain. Arizona is one of 33 states where medical cannabis is legal. Alabama is not.

The result, according to The Washington Post, was a years-long legal fight that cost Worsley thousands of dollars and eventually caused him to go homeless, all the while, the legal cannabis industry continued to rake in billions of dollars. At one point, Worsley missed a court date in Alabama when the VA rejected his application for a substance abuse program.

According to APR, Worsleys medical cannabis card expired in Arizona. He was then extradited back to Alabama by state authorities, where he is now awaiting a spot in an Alabama Department of Corrections facility.

Its the sixth circle of hell of this countrys cannabis laws.

I feel like Im being thrown away by a country I went and served for, Worsley wrote in a letter from the Pickens County Jail to Alabama Appleseed, which is a criminal justice organization that has published a detailed account of his case, according to the Washington Post. I feel like I lost parts of me in Iraq, parts of my spirit and soul that I cant ever get back.

Worsleys story is a prime example of not only the terrible discrepancy in state cannabis laws but both the racial disparities of the criminal justice system and Americas lack of appreciation for the men and women who serve this country in uniform.

The Alabama Cannabis Industry Association has seen the need to bring clarity to the laws related to the medical marijuana issue facing our citizens, said Michael Fritz, the general sel for the Alabama Cannabis Industry Association in a statement to APR.

Alabama District Attorney Andrew Hamlin has doubled-down on Worsleys conviction, however. In a letter sent out on Tuesday, he ignored Worsleys service and the legality of cannabis in Arizona, instead choosing to focus on the veterans history of possession arrests. While it is true that Mr. Worsley is a decorated veteran of the United States military, it is also true that he is a criminal that has habitually broken the law in numerous states, wrote Hamlin, who tried to make every excuse he could for arresting and throwing the book at Worsley.

In the meantime, a bill to legalize medical cannabis has passed the Alabama Senate, though that wont help Worsley at this time.

Its time to permit medical cannabis in our state, as our sister states have done and avoid needlessly jamming our already over crowed prisons with marijuana arrests, said Chey Garrigan, the executive director of the ACIA, to APR.

Continue reading here:
Alabama goes full drug war in sentencing Iraq War veteran to five years in prison for cannabis possession - PotNetwork

The memory of a teenage Black Watch soldier has been honoured with the unveiling of a mural 16 years after his death in Iraq.

Private Paul Lowe, 19, was one of three members of the regiment from Fife who were killed by a bomber in Falluja in November 2004.

Sergeant Stuart Gray, 31, from Dunfermline and Private Scott McArdle, 22, from Glenrothes, also died along with an Iraqi interpreter.

Now, following a fundraising campaign by Pauls family, his image has been recreated on the side of the ex-servicemens club in his home town Kelty.

The 30 foot high mural is the work of Glenrothes-based artist Donna Forrester and was commissioned after the soldiers brothers raised 6,000 to make the project a reality.

Family, friends and club members were on hand to see its unveiling on the gable end of Kelty & Blairadam Ex-servicemens Club.

Stuart Lowe said: It really is outstanding and the perfect tribute to Paul who was well known and still remembered in the town.

Paul made the ultimate sacrifice and weve wondered for a few years now as to what the best way would be to pay tribute to his life.

Stuart said the inspiration for the artwork came after the completion of the Connor Law mural which was created in memory of the 26-year-old Kelty boxer who tragically died in 2019.

We approached the artists responsible for that mural and we hatched a plan to create a similar one of Paul, he said.

Donna has created something very special indeed, not just for the family, but for the town as a whole, we are so grateful.

Donna took two weeks to complete the painting, which depicts the soldier in uniform playing a bugle.

She said: As an artist you are always looking at how you could improve it but Im pretty happy with the outcome and just pleased for the family who can now see Paul remembered in such a way.

Duncan Graham, club treasurer and Black Watch veteran, said it was an honour to pay tribute to Paul, who was a club member.

He added: Kelty has traditionally been a strong recruiting ground for the Black watch so its especially fitting to see this mural in Pauls honour.

Its a stunning piece of work reminding people of the bravery shown by all service men and women.

Its even more poignant as the Kelty club celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

Read more from the original source:
Giant artwork is fitting tribute to Fife Black Watch soldier killed in Iraq - The Courier

The frog is considered a gay icon (Picture: Getty)

There are a number of unlikely gay icons in this world, from The Babadook to Peppa Pig, and it seems that frogs have made the list.

If youre a regular user of TikTok, you may have noticed that alongside videos of dancing and lip-syncing there is an abundance of frog videos.

Where dogs and cats reign supreme on other social media platforms, TikTok is full of sweet little amphibians. Sometimes its frogs sitting weirdly, sometimes its frog care videos for pet owners, sometimes its a girl raising hundreds of thousands of tadpoles in her back garden.

Not all of these videos are made by or featuring lesbians, but the two commonly cross over, with lesbian TikTok and frog TikTok inextricably linked.

Lets look at why.

Lesbian frog TikTok is a communion of two TikTok niches lesbians and frogs.

There are a number of subcultures to be found on the social media site, from alt TikTok to beans TikTok to the oft-maligned straight TikTok.

Because the platform alters your For You page depending on what you tend to like and interact with, groups formed based on what different people saw and found funny or engaging.

In this case, its being a woman who loves women and cute frogs.

Videos feature illustrations and crafts with frogs on them, funny frogs wearing funny outfits, and basically every manner of frog creativity.

The genre frog lesbian has fully sprouted, with the hashtag lesbianslovefrogs now boasting over 710,000 views, and a search for frog lesbian showing thousands of results.

There are a number of reasons why lesbians may gravitate to frogs (and not just because theyre cute and hilarious).

The frogs are gay meme came to prominence around two years ago when shock-jock Alex Jones claimed on the show InfoWars that water was being poisoned and was making the frigginfrogsgay.

His channel then uploaded a video titled Proof! Gay Frogs Are Real, cementing frogs status as gay icons forevermore.

Frogs have also been top meme-fodder for many years. Dat Boi, Kermit sipping tea, graphic design is my passion, froggy chair, and its Wednesday my dudes all had their moment in the sun (as well as Pepe, but the less we say about him the better).

In that sense, its understandable that TikTok (the social media site best suited to more surreal and younger comedy) would become the home of frog content.

Nearly half of those who use TikTok are under 24, and under 24s are the age group most likely to be queer. Ergo, frog lovers and LGBT+ people were bound to merge and become part of the TikTok canon at some point.

But why lesbians specifically?

Although frogs are gay (incontrovertible fact, please dont argue), the links between frogs and lesbians particularly might derive from an aesthetic movement titled cottagecore.

TikTok defines this as flower prints, knitting, plants and mushrooms. Basically nice, comforting, nature-based images and sounds to soothe us and be aesthetically pleasing.

i-D magazine spoke to one queer woman about why she identified with cottagecore so much, and she said: Lesbians tend to be oversexualised by the media. Cottagecore sees love as a connection between two souls.

Another stated, It especially makes me feel like the things I loved in childhood, like having farm animals and picking blackberries in the fields and getting lost in the woods, are cis- and hetero-coded. So for me, cottagecore is an ideal where I can be visibly queer in rural spaces.

In a world where we need to own a house to have a dog or cultivate our own gardens, frogs are one of the easiest ways to get closer to nature.

And if that desire (frog)spawns a new subculture where WLW and animals are celebrated and we get to see cute frogs on our feeds then that works for us.

Do you have a story youd like to share?

Get in touch at MetroLifestyleTeam@metro.co.uk.

MORE: Woman reveals genius way to use a tampon to keep your houseplants alive

MORE: Salon captures before and after portraits of peoples post-lockdown haircuts

Go here to read the rest:
What is frog TikTok, and why does it so often cross over with lesbian TikTok? - Metro.co.uk

It's been 6 months since the WHO warned about an unknown virus circulating in Wuhan, China. Now, the U.S. has more than 3 million confirmed cases and there are more than 12 million globally.

It was a tactic Trump used to launch himself to the White House in 2016. But his advisers say the world has changed since the coronavirus pandemic seized the global economy and nationwide protests against police brutality erupted. In that climate, they fear voters wont be as receptive to certain divisive culture war issues, especially the independent voters, senior citizens, suburban women and the sliver of African Americans Trump must win to carry crucial swing states like Wisconsin, Ohio or Pennsylvania.

He has been spoiled with his successes, but Im not sure it is the same atmosphere as it was in 2016, said one Republican close to the White House. The problem is when he gets off on the tangents on the Confederate flag. Im not here to defend that.

Several Republican strategists said reviving cultural wars and making not-so-subtle nods to Confederate sympathizers is not a way to mobilize the voters outside of Trumps hardcore base. Trump has also leaned hard into arguments that Michael Flynn, his first national security adviser, was duped by the deep state into lying to the FBI, and allegations that presumptive 2020 rival Joe Bidens family is corrupt.

People do not care about Michael Flynn or Bidens kids, says Ed Rollins, chair of the Pro-Trump Great America PAC and former national campaign director for President Ronald Reagans successful 1984 campaign. Those issues are complicated. People care about whether you can lead the country through these two crises of a pandemic and a recession.

I thought when the virus broke out and the economy fell apart, it gave Trump an opportunity to step up and show what kind of leader he could be, but he certainly did not do it well, Rollins added. If we are sitting here on Labor Day with these polling numbers, we will not turn it around.

Part of the problem stems from Trumps insistence that he alone acts as his best campaign manager, communications director and strategist. Campaign staffers are quick to say the president drives the message. They simply follow and amplify his words.

Few staffers or advisers around the president can give him bad news, apart from a handful of allies, like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) or House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

More often, advice to Trump is delivered by friends or surrogates on television: a medium the president monitors so closely that the ensuing coverage drives his reactions. It was on TV recently that former New Jersey governor and longtime Trump friend Chris Christie urged him to drastically change his tone and approach heading into the November election.

Recent national polling has consistently shown Trump trailing Biden by an increasingly large margin though Trump campaign officials are quick to say such polling is flawed and that they are more focused on polling in nonbattleground states. That polling, though, paints a bleak picture for the president, too. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report predicted on Wednesday a Democratic tsunami at the polls in November, with Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina and Florida up for grabs and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania leaning Democratic.

Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that Trumps reelection message should hinge on the presidents handling of the economy, his patriotism and his work on health care, which she argued would resonate with women.

But several advisers believe the president should hammer a message of supporting law enforcement and police, especially as cities like Atlanta, Chicago and New York have experienced recent surges in gun violence, including spates of shootings over the July 4 weekend. They see such appeals as more effective than specific attacks on African Americans like Bubba Wallace which, privately, Republicans have viewed as disastrous.

And some donors and advisers want Trump to continue his campaign to protect controversial statues and monuments. They see a fine line between that push, which they say resonates with many Americans, and tweeting about the Confederate flag, which they say is a losing issue.

Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller disputed the idea that the campaign cannot settle on its messaging, saying each subject resonates with different voter blocs.

Trump built the greatest economy in the history of the world, and he is doing it again, and for many voters, that is the strongest reason they are supporting President Trump in his reelection, Miller said. For many other voters, the fact that President Trump is pledging to get schools opened for this fall speaks more to their families and their situation, and for other voters, President Trumps commitment to push back against a radical left-wing mob is one of the strongest selling points.

The result, at times, has been an all-of-the-above approach that can bounce between each message.

Your guide to the permanent campaign weekday mornings, in your inbox.

Trumps political advisers are not yet on the same page on the messaging, said Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally and former House speaker. It is a work in progress, but it is early July. They will get to that by the time they get to the convention.

The challenge is to find the discipline to stick to the messages and to keep coming back and hammering on them, Gingrich added. When Trump is on his A game, he is the best politician in the country. They just have to keep him on his A game for three months.

In those months, Trump will get a lot of scrutiny, with cases of the coronavirus surging and many Americans still stuck at home.

These swing voters want to know, How do I get my normal life back? What has to happen to get my normal life back? said a second Republican close to the White House.

They are paying attention to news and politics more than any time in their lives, the person added. If I am the Democrats, I am happy about it because they are paying more to the idiocy of Trump, but they are also paying attention to the extreme machinations of the left.

Link:
Trump's culture wars worked in 2016. His aides worry the world has changed. - POLITICO