Many blessings for the man, the myth, the legend: The Rock.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has come a long way since the ’90s, when he graced our television screens as a superstar WWE pro-wrestler. Since those days, Johnson has really made a name for himself, acting in blockbusters and accumulating a massive following of dedicated fans across his social media.

Of course, being an icon means getting consumed by the spotlight … with great fame comes great meme-ability. Here are the best memes birthed from the chiseled mass of a human that is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

1. Dwayne the *insert word that ends in -ock* Johnson

The good people of the internet really appreciated Johnson’s title. Why not show it by photoshopping his face onto random objects that end with in “-ock”?

Some examples include Dwayne “The Loch” Johnson, Dwayne “The Dock” Johnson, and my personal favorite, Dwayne “The Croc” Johnson. This is the praise this glorious man deserves.

2. The evolution of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

Johnson has gone through quite a transformation over the years. 

The original meme of Johnson’s metamorphosis was just a three-part image displaying his stages of development. Needless to say, this would leave any geologist in complete and utter shock. 

It wasn’t over, though. A more comprehensive study of Johnson’s evolution was conducted. It turns out “The Rock” began as “The Pebble” in 1989. If he continues at his current rate, he will become a planet. This is fact.

Image: UgurGamingNL / imgur

3. “The Rock’s” fanny pack 

The ’90s were a wild time, and an infamous photo of Johnson in a black turtleneck with a fanny pack and chain combo proves just that. Johnson first posted this cursed image in 2014, with the intention of poking fun at himself.

What was supposed to be a funny throwback became a moment in fashion history. People began to dress like The Rock. The impersonations were pretty on point.

4. “The Rock” driving

A scene from Race to Witch Mountain made for a pretty great meme. The clip in question is near the start of the film, when Johnson, who plays a former mob get-away driver named Jack Bruno, discovers two children in the back of his taxi cab.

The scene spawned the one of the best meme formats ever. It created the perfect way of expressing how most people feel when they witness something unbelievable. It’s also one of the very few memorable moments from an otherwise forgettable Disney film.

Image: TheDudeThatIsMo / imgur

5. FOCUS!!!

If you think Johnson got massively swole doing the bare minimum, boy are you wrong. This man has a killer workout routine, but his secret might be his one-word mantra: FOCUS. A video compilation of him yelling this word into the camera was uploaded onto YouTube, and it really resonated with everyone.

Of course, people made memes. It’s actually pretty motivating. 

6. “The Rock’s” cuff pose

Johnson somehow has the amazing talent of posting pictures of himself that can be turned into zesty memes. While not as iconic as his ’90s lewk, The Rock’s cuff pose set a whole new standard for being photogenic. 

Was he attempting to button his cuff? Or did he just have something up his sleeve? No one knows for sure, but this pose eventually inspired a meme dedicated to posing flawlessly like The Rock. Nothing beats the original, though.

Johnson eventually realized the internet was onto him. Gotta find a new pose, buddy.

7. “The Rock” holding a rock

According to an article from Popsugar, this photo of The Rock cradling a rock was a gem from the ’90s. Thankfully it resurfaced, leading to one of the best Reddit threads of all time.

The r/Photoshopbattles subreddit is where Redditors create the best photoshopped images they can think of. A challenge like no other was issued when u/skulman7 asked members to photoshop another object that would be carefully held in The Rocks’ loving hands. 

The results were amazing.

Image: reddit user i_am_a_bot_ama / imgur

Image: Reddit user DementuZ / imgur

Image: Reddit user bariki0 / imgur

Someone please give this man a lifetime meme achievement award ASAP. He deserves it.

Sao Paulo – Erica Malunguinho is one of the 27,000 Brazilians running for office in Brazil’s October election. She is part of the 31 percent of candidates who are women, four percent who are black and 0.19 percent who are transgender.

“I decided to run because I had no other choice”, she said.

“People like me, we have no other choice than to confront the system. More than a need to stay alive, we have a need to be in positions of power,” Malunguinho, who is running for state deputy in Sao Paulo told Al Jazeera.

Women, and especially black women, are historically misrepresented in Brazil. Although they make up more than half of the electorate, only 31 percent of the total candidates for this year’s elections are women, barely the minimum 30 percent quota set by Congress in 2008.

In May, the Supreme Electoral Court amended the Electoral Law to require political parties to spend at least 30 percent of their campaign funds on its female candidates. The amendment came after the Public Defender’s Office found that thousands of female candidates received no votes in 2016, indicating they may have simply been names on the ballot. 

Despite the government’s efforts, women and analysts said women continue to face discrimination, persecution and disrespect in Brazilian politics.

Esther Solano, a sociologist from the University of Sao Paulo, calls Brazilian politics a “white boys club”.

“Brazil is still a very patriarchal, misogynist country, in which women are still thought to belong at home, taking care of the family.” The same goes to politics, she said. 

Of the 81 current senators, only 13 are women. Fifty-four of the 513 members of the Chamber of Deputies are women.

Malunguinho blamed this on the system itself.

“Misogyny is a form of oppression and in politics it tries to remove women from these spaces. The system is so organised, it has its own mechanisms to erase anyone it doesn’t want”, she said.

‘Life and death’

In March, Rio de Janeiro councilwoman Marielle Franco was killed in a drive-by shooting, prompting mass protests and international condemnation.

Born in a favela, Franco was a prominent black activist, advocating for the rights of minorities and poor communities. Six months after her death, two former police officers were detained on suspicion on being in the car from where the shots were fired, the case remains largely unsolved, with some officials saying her death was politically motivated.

“What happened with Marielle shows she was an inconvenience,” Diana Mendes told Al Jazeera. Mendes is part of the Black Women Decide movement, which calls for women of colour to run for office and participate in politics.

“As a woman, as a black woman, I know I’m not safe”, she said. “The reason we talk about race when we talk about politics it’s because it is a matter of life or death.”

Mendes said this is why black women need to have more representation in the political sphere.

According to the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE), black and mixed women represent 27 percent of Brazil’s population, but make up just 16 percent of the number of candidates running this year.

Mendes said it’s a “myth” that there are fewer female black candidates because they simply don’t want to run. She points the financing obstacles, along with the lack of TV and radio campaign time and overall lack of support from the parties. 

The challenges don’t stop on election day, according to Andreza Collato, the head of the National Office for Policies for Women.

She said she frequently hears of verbal abuse, lack of access and attempts to silence women in the National Congress or the Senate.

“The disrespect against women persists,” Andreza told Al Jazeera over the phone. “Men still see women as their property, with the duty of domestic chores.” She said although unacceptable, that’s the reality of the Brazilian culture.

Women’s rights hardly mentioned in campaigns

Solano said male candidates are starting to understand the importance of the female vote, “which explains why almost all of them have picked a woman as their running mate”.

But women’s rights are far from being at the centre of their campaigns. Most presidential hopefuls barely mention women in their platforms, and many who do have only offered vague proposals. 

Fernando Haddad, the Workers’ Party candidate and runner-up in most polls, plans to tackle unemployment among women and increase female participation in politics. He has been criticised, however, for not mentioning abortion and high rates of femicide.

Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who currently leads the polls, only mentions women once in his electoral programme, promising harsher sentences for convicted rapists.

His conservative stance has gained him a considerable amount of support, especially among evangelicals, but his controversial views also gave him the worst rejection rates from women: 54 percent said would not vote for him, according to the latest polls by the Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics (IBOPE).

In 2014, during a heated debate in the Chamber of Deputies, Bolsonaro told a colleague who called him a rapist for inciting violence against women: “I wouldn’t rape you because you don’t deserve it”.

After his remarks the Supreme Federal Court formally accused Bolsonaro of “inciting rape”. In August, the court order him to pay a $2,500 fine and make a public apology.

In 2015, he said “women should be paid less [than men] because they get pregnant”.

On Saturday, thousands are expected to protest Bolsonaro’s candidacy and call for a greater emphasis on women’s rights.

“Even women who are not feminists feel the need to have politicians who represent them and who don’t mistreat or humiliate them”, said Juliana de Faria. She’s the founder of Think Olga, one of the biggest feminist think-thanks in Brazil and one of the many calling for protests against Bolsonaro. 

Faria told Al Jazeera Bolsonaro is “legitimising violence”.

“If the president does it, then people will feel at ease to do it”, she said.

Bolsonaro’s campaign did not respond to Al Jazeera request for comment. Bolsonaro, who has been hospitalised since being stabbed earlier this month, told local media on Monday that he has “never incited hate”.

“They said Bolsonaro hates gays, black people, women. Show me an audio or a video where I’m attacking someone”, he said.

Women like Malunguinho, de Faria and Mendes, among others, believe it will take years for women to be respected and treated the same as men in Brazil.

“But we have the faith to keep cultivating,” de Faria said. “So one day there will be a garden, and it will prosper and grow even if we’re not there to rip its fruits and flowers”.

WASHINGTON – A childhood friend of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says he will cooperate with an FBI investigation or any law enforcement investigation that is done “confidentially to investigate” numerous claims of sexual assault. 

Mark Judge has seemingly found himself at the center of the Supreme Court debate. He is the man accused of watching and laughing while Kavanaugh, his classmate and close friend Kavanaugh, held a girl down and tried to remove her clothes at a party while they were all in high school. 

Both Judge and Kavanaugh have denied both Ford’s allegations and those by a handful of other women. 

“I will cooperate with any law enforcement agency that is assigned to confidentially investigate these allegations,” a signed letter by Judge states. 

The letter was sent to leadership on the Senate Judiciary Committee Friday after a dramatic vote on the panel with Jeff Flake, R-AZ, a deciding vote for Republicans, saying he would only vote to confirm Kavanaugh to the high court after a week delay and FBI investigation. 

Since the allegations by psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford came to light, Judge left town and was spotted holed up in a Delaware beach house. 

More: Kavanaugh classmate Mark Judge spotted hiding out at Delaware beach house by reporter

More: ‘Uncontrollable male passion’: Writings of Brett Kavanaugh’s classmate under scrutiny

More: ‘What happens at Georgetown Prep, stays at Georgetown Prep,’ Kavanaugh joked in 2015

Over the last two weeks, Democrats and Ford’s attorneys have repeatedly called for Judge to be subpoenaed and questioned him under oath about the batch of allegations by women describing Kavanaugh assaulting them and his alleged drunken behavior. 

Judge has supplied a number of written statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee, including one Thursday evening after hearing Ford’s emotional testimony before the panel. 

“I did not ask to be involved in this matter nor did anyone ask me to be involved. We have told the Committee that I do not want to comment about these events publicly,” he said, adding “I do not recall the events described by Dr. Ford in her testimony before the US Senate Judiciary Committee today. I never saw Brett act in the manner Dr. Ford describes.”

The letter, and others he’s submitted to the committee are sworn statements and come under the penalty of a felony. His comments to the FBI would carry a similar penatly.

Asked whether Ford will offer the FBI similar testimony that the allegations against Kavanaugh were false, his attorney, Barbara Van Gelder told USA TODAY “Mr. Judge will answer any and all questions that FBI wants to ask him.”

Judge, an author and columnist, was placed under the national spotlight after Ford’s allegations and his writings faced intense scrutiny. 

His books, “Wasted: Tales of a Genx Drunk” and “God and Man at Georgetown Prep: How I Became a Catholic Despite 20 Years of Catholic Schooling,” have been examined for their portrayal of a high school culture centered on binge drinking and chasing girls. And some of his columns from more recent years have been criticized for their takes on sex and women. 

 

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LAKEWOOD – Police have charged the father of a 10-month-old baby who was found crawling across Joe Parker Road on Sept. 22.

Evgeniy Dorman, 41, was charged with cruelty and neglect of a child, a fourth-degree crime, according to Lakewood Police Sgt. Gregory Staffordsmith. He surrendered to police at 1:15 p.m. Friday.

Police found that the baby boy crawled through an open front door, probably left “unsecured” by an older sibling, and then traveled about 140 feet into the road, Staffordsmith said. A passerby, Cory M. Cannon, found the baby and reported the incident to police.

MORE: Lakewood baby case: ‘It was an accident,’ caretaker says

Cannon, 41, of Eatontown, was driving down Joe Parker Road just before 6 p.m. on Sept. 22 when he saw the baby. He snapped a photo that went viral, sparking a social media controversy over whether he should have helped the baby before taking the photo.

A neighbor approached Cannon and took the baby back to his parents. The family didn’t know the child was gone until he was returned home, police said.

Cannon told the Asbury Park Press in an email that when he followed the baby and the neighbor to the child’s home, the door was ajar and a young child answered.

COLUMN: Hey keyboard warriors, stop playing digital cop

Police said the baby wasn’t injured or harmed, and that child protective services were called. The speed limit on Joe Parker Road is 40 mph. 

A woman who called herself the baby’s caretaker told the Asbury Park Press on Monday that it was an accident, and that she was busy taking care of the baby and couldn’t talk. She declined to be interviewed again on Tuesday.

Neighbors told the Press on Monday that the child’s parents are amazing, devoted people who made a mistake. The two individuals spoke to the Press on the condition of anonymity.

“It’s devastating what people are saying on social media,” she said, adding that the family is always at the park playing with their children. “I’m personally destroyed by this because I know the family.”

MORE: A look back at accidents involving children

A man at the neighboring home on Grandview Drive, which intersects with Joe Parker Road, said he’s a member of various community agencies and has seen tragedies of all kinds in Lakewood.

“We are all people of means,” he said. “If we felt there was a problem with the family, we would have gotten them the help they needed. We are a community that takes care of each other.”

Dorman was released pending a court date. The weeklong investigation was conducted by Lakewood Police and the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.

Keep checking app.com for the latest on the Lakewood baby case.

Kala Kachmar: @NewsQuip; 732-643-4061; kkachmar@gannettnj.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Citigroup has added another rising star to its new-look bond-trading unit.

In June, the company poached Sam Berberian, a coveted 32-year-old high-yield trader at Goldman Sachs, to run its junk-bond trading operation under Vikram Prasad, the head of credit trading.

Now, Citi is adding Ben Friedman, a late-20s standout portfolio manager at $17 billion hedge fund CQS, to work for Berberian, according to people familiar with the matter.

Citi, CQS and Friedman declined to comment.

It’s another big win for Citi’s fixed income markets division, which is overseen by Mickey Bhatia and Joe Geraci and has been reloading talent since a recent spate of senior departures in its high-yield debt unit.

Citi is a top player in the fixed income, currencies, and commodities business, ranking second behind JPMorgan Chase in 2017 and the first half of 2018, according to industry consultant Coalition.

It’s a return to the sell-side for Friedman, who traded debt for Bank of America Merrill Lynch for four years before jumping to CQS in 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Friedman made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2017 at age 27, and at the time he was managing nearly $1 billion in high-yield and distressed debt at CQS, which raked in profits of $160 million last year, according to Financial News.

Taron Egerton is dripping in gold in his first photo as Sir Elton John in Rocketman. Well, everywhere but his legs, where everything seems to have dripped right off, leaving his stems totally bare.

Egerton kicks back aboard a private jet as he’s transformed into John — early hairline and all — while rocking bedazzled square-rimmed glasses, a gold lamé jacket, blue, red, and gold winged boots, and a large diamond stud in his ear. It’s a look that undoubtedly lines up with the real “Rocket Man” artist’s flashy fashion sensibilities.

As if this photo could get more opulent, two gold-rimmed martini glasses sit perched on the side table beside the couch, and Egerton looks outside of the camera frame as if in casual conversation with the owner of that second beverage.

Rocketman is touted by Paramount as “an epic musical fantasy about the uncensored human story of Sir Elton John’s breakthrough years,” which occurred in the late ’60s and early ’70s. The titular single was released in 1972 on John’s fifth studio album, Honky Château. It was his first album to reach number one on the U.S. charts.

The film is directed by Dexter Fletcher and also stars Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Gemma Jones. Rocketman is scheduled to hit theaters May 31, 2019.

Image: Black Women’s Blueprint

If you don’t have any plans for this weekend, now you do. 

The Black Women’s Blueprint, an organization that works to empower black women and girls, is urging people of all different backgrounds and identities to march this weekend in support of black women’s basic rights. 

That’s to put it briefly, but if you’re interested in joining the online demonstrations through the hashtag #MarchForBlackWomen and attending an event this Saturday and Sunday, here’s what you need to know.

Who is organizing?

The event was launched by Black Women’s Blueprint, an organization that works to empower and secure equality for black women and girls. Partners of the event include DC Rape Crisis Center, National Economic & Social Rights Initiative, and the Marsha P. Johnson Institute.

When and where are the marches?

According to the Black Women’s Blueprint website, there will be two rallies taking place. The first will occur on Saturday, Sept. 29 in Washington, D.C. Participants are advised to meet at the National Mall, at the intersection of 7th street NW and Madison Drive NW, at 9 a.m. ET. From there, the march will move toward Freedom Plaza. On Sunday, Sept. 30, there will be a rally in New York City at 3 p.m. ET. The meeting point will be at Park Row, at the intersection of Broadway and Barclay Street. If you plan to attend either of these events, you can register at the link, below. 

What is #MarchForBlackWomen about?

Demonstrators participating this weekend will be advocating for the following:  

1.  Full reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act set to expire on September 30, 2018. The Violence Against Women Act makes it possible to fund social service agencies that support victims of sexual assault and domestic violence, such as law enforcement training and the National Domestic Violence Hotline. It was enacted in 1994, following Anita Hill’s testimony in 1991 against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

2.  Focusing on intersectional women’s rights concerns like poverty, affordable housing, reproductive rights, immigration protections and center the most vulnerable.

3. Reversing the Trump administration’s restriction on the use of these words: transgender, fetus, vulnerable, science-based, evidence-based, diversity, and entitlement. In December 2017, the Trump administration told analysts at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to no longer use those seven words in budget reports. 

Can people donate to #MarchForBlackWomen?

If you cannot attend a rally but want to show your support, you can donate money to the CrowdRise campaign. According to the campaign description, those who donate $50 or more will receive an #EveryBlackWoman sticker, $100 or more will receive a March for Black Women T-Shirt, and $150 or more will receive an inaugural M4BW ViewBook, as well as a one-year Black Women’s Blueprint membership. You can also spread the word and promote posts with the hashtags, #B4BW, #EveryBlackWoman, and #BlackWomenRise. 

Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – In the world’s largest refugee camp, dozens of Rohingya women work diligently, their small factory a hub of activity; they’re making sanitary pads and women’s underwear to be distributed to Rohingya refugee women like them.

The one-room factory near Kutupalong refugee camp is buzzing, the quiet chatter of conversation barely discernible over whirring sewing machines set up in rows. Workers crouch on the floor, drawing patterns with white chalk on black fabric stretched down the middle of the room.

Others cut fabric, sew and iron sanitary napkins.

“It’s very much needed for the women,” Hasina Begum, the factory’s supervisor told Al Jazeera, referring to the washable and reusable napkins.

“If they do not use them and rely instead on dirty cloths, they will fall sick.”

The 40-year-old, who is from Cox’s Bazar, said before the production, Rohingya women were afflicted with a number of diseases including leukorrhea, gonorrhoea and other vaginal infections.

“We are distributing these products to women and also instructing them on how to use them,” she said.

Working in Cox’s Bazar

Kutupalong camp’s population has swelled to more than 650,000 since August 2017, which marked the beginning of the mass exodus of Rohingya refugees fleeing a bloody campaign led by the Myanmar army in Rakhine state.

While several initiatives have been set up in the camp offering men and women vocational training in carpentry, soap-making and electrical appliance repair, only registered refugees who arrived in previous influxes are able to work. 

According to the UN refugee agency, only 34,000 out of 1.1 million Rohingya are registered as refugees in Cox’s Bazar. The more recently displaced Rohingya are not.

Hafsina Begum – no relation to Hasina – is a registered refugee. She was born in the camp after her parents fled their village of Fukira Bazar in Rakhine in 1999, and has been working in the factory for five years – since she was 15. Her family is now dependent on her income, which she says has earned her a degree of financial independence.

“Before coming to the factory, I was not skilled in professional work,” she told Al Jazeera. “Now I have learned how to tailor. I can sew anything.”

“Before that, we used simple cloths that were not comfortable,” she said. “But these sanitary napkins we make feel much better.”

The factory is part of a project under the Technical Assistance Institute, funded by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and established in 2011.

According to the supervisor, UNHCR sets the production target, while supplies and raw material are provided by TAI.

“On average, we make more than 6,000 sanitary napkins and up to 3,000 panties per month,” Hasina said.

“There’s the physical benefit, and for the women who make the products, financial benefits too,” she added.

The products, along with antiseptic cream and bathing and laundry soap – the latter two also produced by Rohingya workers in adjacent factories – are distributed to more than 4,000 Rohingya women – including the workers – between the ages of 13 and 49 every six months.

“The latest distribution to 4,296 women was in June,” Hasina said. “We had a surplus of production, so we hope that the products will also be given to some of the unregistered Rohingya women in the camp.”

Criteria for employment

Hasina said interest in this income-generating project among women trained in sewing and tailoring was beyond expectations, far in excess of the 40 positions available in the factory.

“We formed groups and gave them all a chance to work by following a rotating schedule,” she said. “Every three or four months, the working group was replaced by another so that everyone interested received the opportunity to work.”

According to a TAI official, the women working in the factory all underwent a six-month training course before starting. He added all the women selected are extremely vulnerable individuals.

“This includes adolescent girls from the age of 15 until the age 35 and single mothers, widows, divorcees, girls who have elderly parents or large families that need supporting,” the official explained.

He added unmarried girls need to have the approval of their parents, but there was no requirement that the workers have completed their schooling.

A similar programme has also been set up in the Nayapara refugee camp, which is located in the other sub-district of Teknaf.

‘Financial support’

Hafsina’s average output target is 600 sanitary napkins and 300 panties a month.

“The work gives me some financial support,” she said. “I can give money to my parents. And when I need to, I can use my own earning. This is the benefit of working.”

For each sanitary napkin and undergarment, the workers make TK15 each, or $0.18. The monthly income for a worker is between TK2,500 and TK3,00 ($30 to $35). The higher the output, the more they earn.

“With the latest swell of Rohingya refugees in the camp, workers earned between TK5,000 to TK7,000 ($58 to $82),” Hasina said. “It depends on the target.”

The factory offers another advantage for the working women, who use the space for socialising and constructive interactions.

“These women live in tiny one-room shacks,” Hasina the supervisor said. “When they come here, it is like a respite for them and lessens the financial strain on their families.”

As for her, Hasina said the work was rewarding in bridging the gap closer between the local women in Cox’s Bazar and the Rohingya.

“My role is an example of positive engagement with the Rohingya, where we teach them how to better their lives in the camp,” she said.