What Trump will (and won't) push aside
Outta the way! Trump comin' through
A video showing President Trump apparently shoving the prime minister of Montenegro out of the way during a photo-op garnered him social media mockery for the second time this week (Melania's hand swat: #NeverForget). At a Thursday meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders in Brussels, Trump called on other leaders to chip in their "fair share" of the group's costs. He also didn't quite give a full-throated endorsement to the part of the NATO treaty that says an attack on one member country is considered an attack on all. A White House spokesman, however, said Trump would never just push countries in the military alliance aside. The president later got a shove of his own from a U.S. federal appeals court, which blocked Trump's revised travel ban involving six majority-Muslim countries. A Supreme Court showdown looks all the more likely.
This candidate allegedly ‘body-slammed’ a reporter. Today, he could become a congressman.
It’s Election Day in Montana, and voters could put a Republican charged with misdemeanor assault into the U.S. House of Representatives. Greg Gianforte upended the Treasure State’s congressional race Wednesday when he allegedly “body-slammed” and broke the glasses of a Guardian reporter named Ben Jacobs. Police charged Gianforte as newspapers dropped their endorsements of him and House Speaker Paul Ryan condemned the act. An attack ad with audio of the incident dropped Thursday morning, as Democrats hoped to propel folk-singing cowboy Rob Quist to victory.
His gun helped save a patrolman's life — but he doesn’t think everyone should own one
Thomas Yoxall saw a trooper getting pummeled on the side of a road. Yoxall drew his handgun and told the aggressor to back away. The man didn’t. So Yoxall fired. Two shots hit the assailant and saved the patrolman’s life. It’s an argument-ending episode on why good people should own guns. But after staring down a barrel at least four times in his life, even Yoxall thinks gun ownership should be restricted. Read this fascinating profile of a tattooed plumber and former felon now hailed as a hero in Arizona.
'Star Wars' turns 40 today. Not everyone is celebrating.
There’s no pop culture behemoth like Star Wars, whose first blockbuster debuted 40 years years ago Thursday. The franchise revolutionized filmmaking with its fast-paced storytelling and jaw-dropping special effects, but not all movie buffs celebrate it. Many blame Star Wars for the state of Hollywood today, a never ending parade of big-budget sequels aimed at kids. But well before the umpteenth “Iron Man” movie, the 1970s saw a renaissance of sophisticated films (think Taxi Driver, The Godfather and Chinatown). Then Star Wars happened, and the movie industry — for better or worse — began to change. See our ranking of the "40 best Star Wars" characters.
Is Saban’s salary shameful?
Coach Nick Saban will pocket a cool $11 million-plus for teaching grown men how to toss a ball and tackle one another at the University of Alabama next season. That’s at least $915,000 for every regular season game. It’s an eye-popping salary that Terry Bradshaw, for one, finds “shameful.” The Super Bowl champ and ex-quarterback tore into Saban on ESPN’s Paul Finebaum Show, grousing that the salary was “the entire athletic budget” at his alma mater, Louisiana Tech (Fact check: the budget’s $22 million). Still, Bradshaw didn’t even bring up the biggest beef most have with Saban’s salary: None of the “student-athletes” who brought him four championships in Tuscaloosa ever saw a cent outside their scholarships.
This is a compilation of stories from across Paste BN.