Trendy News Update

Lucy Flores, a Democratic politician from Nevada, pushed back on former Vice President Joe Biden’s response to her claims he touched her inappropriately while calling for acknowledgment in her f irst television interview since taking her story public. Flores detailed the incident in a New York Magazine piece published Friday, where she wrote that Biden grasped her shoulders from behind and kissed the back of her head without her consent during a campaign event in 2014. In a statement released Sunday, Biden denied that there was an inappropriate tone to the encounter, saying he didn’t believe he acted inappropriately and making Flores uncomfortable was “never my intention.” Flores pushed back on the statement, saying on CNN’s “State of the Union” she wanted the former vice president to acknowledge his alleged actions and “change his behavior.” “If he is saying that he never believed that that was inappropriate, then frankly I think that’s a little bit of a disconnect,” she said. ...

Pope Francis  has joined  Morocco ‘s King Mohammed VI in saying  Jerusalem  should be a “symbol of peaceful coexistence” for Christians, Jews and Muslims on the first day of a visit to the North African country. The spiritual leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics was invited by King Mohammed VI for the sake of “interreligious dialogue”, according to Moroccan authorities. He is expected to celebrate mass at a Rabat stadium with an estimated 10,000 people attending as well as visiting a church-run social services centre and meeting with Catholic priests and other Christian representatives on Sunday. In a joint statement on Saturday, the two leaders said Jerusalem was “common patrimony of humanity and especially the followers of the three monotheistic religions”. “The specific multi-religious character, the spiritual dimension and the particular cultural identity of Jerusalem… must be protected and promoted,” they said in the declaration released by the ...

CLOSE Rapper Nipsey Hussle was shot and killed outside of his store in Los Angeles. Wochit, USA TODAY News of the shooting death of rapper Nipsey Hussle is sending shock waves through the music community, sparking tributes from fellow artists and fans alike.  The Grammy-nominated rapper, 33, whose real name is Ermias Asghedom, was one of three people shot Sunday outside the storefront for his clothing company, called The Marathon Clothing , in South Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti confirmed his death on Twitter.  John Legend said he’d been with Hussle on Thursday “filming a video for a beautiful new song we created with Khaled.” He added, “He was so gifted, so proud of his home, so invested in his community. Utterly stunned that he’s gone so soon.” RIP Nipsey. I just spent Thursday with him filming a video for a beautiful new song we created with Khaled. We filmed in Inglewood, close to where he grew up. He was so gifted,...

This… is American Idol ‘s top 20. Judges Katy Perry , Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie narrowed the search for their eponymous star on Sunday’s episode of ABC’s reality singing competition. After picking the top 40 during Hollywood Week , the show went to Hawaii for the showcase round performances from Disney’s Aulani Resort & Spa, where the list was cut in half. They now head back to Los Angeles and will perform in front of a live audience from the famed The Wiltern starting Monday. Home audiences will get to start voting with the show’s April 15 broadcast. Watch a first look video of the top 20 above, and see the full list below: Madison Vandenburg – Cohoes, N.Y. Shawn Robinson – Atlanta, Ga. Eddie Island – Nashville, Tenn. Evelyn Cormier – Claremont, N.H. Alyssa Raghu – Orlando, Fla. Ryan Hammond – Modesto, Calif. Raquel Trinidad – Tampa, Fla. Logan Johnson – Boise, Idaho Dimitrius Graham – Baltimore, Md. Riley Thompson – Mabank, Tex. Walker Burroughs – Birming...

A $1 billion Israeli intelligence startup accused of helping Saudi Arabia track its adversaries could be the key to new assertions from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ security consultant Gavin de Becker. In an op-ed published in The Daily Beast on Saturday , de Becker said his team concluded that Saudi Arabia “had access to Bezos’ phone and gained private information,” following its investigation into how Bezos’ texts with girlfriend Lauren Sanchez ended up in the hands of The National Enquirer. A foreign government surveilling a powerful American CEO using advanced technologies? It sounds like the stuff of a spy novel. But as it turns out, tracking people’s cell phones is a well-established practice, and the technology behind it — known as “lawful intercept spyware” — is a $12 billion industry. Software can track texts, emails and apps While De Becker stopped short of asserting how Saudi Arabia accessed Bezos’ phone, his op-ed linked out to a New York Times article on “internet mercena...