The rapper has caused public outrage after suggesting that centuries of American slavery has come down to choice by those incarcerated and tortured
Hello, this is Anna getting you caught up on Wednesday's headlines and must-reads
Today's headlines
Kanye West: ‘Slavery is a choice’
Kanye West is on a roll of pissing his most loyal fanbase off. He has said that 400 years of slavery is ‘a choice’ in a TMZ interview that has sparked public outcry. The rapper, who has been tweeting out support for Donald Trump over the past few weeks, said: ‘When you hear about slavery for 400 years... For 400 years? That sounds like a choice. You was there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all. It’s like we’re mentally in prison. I like the word prison because slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks. Slavery is to blacks as the Holocaust is to Jews. Prison is something that unites as one race, blacks and whites, that we’re the human race.’
Trump’s health disputed
A doctor’s note describing Donald Trump’s health as ‘astonishingly excellent’ in 2015 was dictated to a physician by Trump himself, according to the doctor who signed the note. Trump made the letter from Dr Harold Bornstein public before the presidential primary contests to counter any concerns about his fitness and health. Two days before the letter was released, Trump tweeted: ‘As a presidential candidate, I have instructed my long-time doctor to issue, within two weeks, a full medical report – it will show perfection. Bornstein told CNN on Tuesday that he did not, in fact, write the letter. ‘He dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter,’ Bornstein said.
Facebook’s new privacy tool
Mark Zuckerberg announced a new Facebook privacy control called ‘clear history’ at the social media company’s annual developer conference, and admitted that he ‘didn’t have clear enough answers’ about data control when he recently testified before Congress. The tech CEO said the new tool is a ‘simple control to clear your browsing history on Facebook – what you’ve clicked on, websites you’ve visited, and so on’. Zuckerberg is currently grappling with some terrible publicity after a data breach scandal that has thrown the future of Facebook into disarray.
MDMA and PTSD
MDMA - the active ingredient in ecstasy - is safe and enhances the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when administered during psychotherapy, new clinical trial claims. Although more research is needed to fully assess the drug’s potential, the authors of the US Food and Drug Administration-approved experiment said, the study including 26 patients yielded positive results. All of the experimentees were firefighters and police officers who developed PTSD as a result of trauma in the line of duty.
What we like
Must-read
Read this fascinating profile on Patrick Skinner, a counterterrorism expert-turned-cop, in The New Yorker.
In-depth
Chris Bickerton traces the collapse of Europe’s mainstream centre-left in favour of populism for the New Statesman.
Culture
Film critic Peter Bradshaw talks about coming-of-age masterpiece Boyhood, that was filmed in real time during the course of its central character’s life, and why the struggle of the long-suffering mother is at its true heart.
Entertainment
Tim Bergling, the Swedish DJ known as Avicii, reportedly died by suicide. Citing ‘multiple sources familiar with the circumstances surrounding the famous DJ's death,’ a TMZ report indicates that Bergling had self-inflicted injuries caused by glass. Bergling was found dead in Muscat, Oman, on April 20th at 28 years old.