Jenna Jameson is showing off dramatic results of her weight loss program on Instagram.

The mother of three and former adult film star, 44, shared new before and after photos on Instagram Sunday, saying she has lost 63 pounds since giving birth to daughter Batel Lu in April 2017

“I’m running like a well oiled machine,” Jameson wrote in the caption,”Oddly enough I feel stronger, maybe because I’m not lugging around so much weight.”

When she was at her high point of 187 pounds, Jameson says her ankles used to hurt and she suffered heart palpitations. “My ankles no longer hurt. I literally thought I needed to go to a podiatrist because it hurt to step down,” she wrote. “I now don’t have heart palpitations.”

The Sunday post came after Jameson posted a set of before and after photos on Thursday that went viral online.

“When I do make these before and after pictures it motivates me to continue!” Jameson wrote Thursday, making it clear she sees a “beautiful” body in the before photo “that gave life to 3 perfect children.”

But the “after” results are powerful.

“Looking at the image on the right I’m in awe that THIS body birthed three humans!” Jameson added. “I’m rolling into this weekend charged and excited to stick to my program.”

Jameson also posted a shot of her scale hitting 124.6 on Thursday, making the 63 pound weight loss.

More: Kevin Smith tweets about significant weight loss: ’20 down, 30 more to go!’

Also: Want to lose weight? Put your brain on a diet.

 

Jameson listed her keto diet with fasting plan in a separate post last week.

Every morning I eat the exact same thing. 3 eggs with cheese and an avocado. Lunch is my biggest meal, I always eat arugula salad, grilled asparagus or zucchini with some kind of meat (usually a hamburger patty or grilled chicken) I then snack when ever I feel hungry (usually on almonds or macadamia nuts… sometime cottage cheese) that’s it! Then I begin my fast at 6 pm. I drink lots of water until I go to sleep at around 10 pm. I drink coffee at 8 am and I end my fast at 11 am. That’s it! 

 

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The Grand Renaissance Dam being built by Ethiopia along the Nile is slated to be the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa upon its completion.

But the multi-billion dollar project, which Ethiopia says is vital for its future economy, has been dogged by disputes and delays.

Egypt and Sudan also rely on the river Nile.

Although Ethiopian leaders deny the dam will cause water shortages, farmers in Egypt fear they will have less water to irrigate their fields. 

Talks between the countries have been deadlocked for months, and leaders have vowed to iron out their differences peacefully. 

Presenter: Elizabeth Puranam

Guests:

Timothy Kaldas – TIMEP political analysis

Yohannes Gedamu – political science lecturer, Georgia Gwinnett College

Harry Verhoeven – professor of government, Georgetown University

Source: Al Jazeera News

Britain’s Andy Murray enjoyed a winning return to Grand Slam tennis as he fought back to beat Australia’s James Duckworth in the US Open first round.

The 31-year-old won 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 7-5 6-3 on the new Louis Armstrong Stadium at Flushing Meadows.

It was Murray’s first best-of-five-set match in 14 months, having had surgery on a long-term hip injury in January.

The Scot will play Spanish 31st seed Fernando Verdasco in the second round in New York.

“I’m very happy to be back,” Murray said.

He has faced a long road to recovery after opting to have surgery, tentatively coming back early this year before deciding he still was not fit enough to play five sets at Wimbledon.

Although he had to pull out of his home Slam with a “heavy heart”, making his five-set comeback at Flushing Meadows – where he played in his first major final and won his first Slam four years later in 2012 – was the next best thing.

Walking out on the newly renovated court, Murray received a huge ovation – only bettered by the one which greeted the winning point.

Signs of tension were apparent as he closed in on his first Slam win since beating France’s Benoit Paire in the Wimbledon fourth round last year, a double fault at 30-15 in the final game briefly delaying his victory.

But a sharp scamper from the baseline ended in a stretching scoop over the net before a powerful first serve on match point put Duckworth on the back foot.

Murray raised both arms skywards in triumph after Duckworth pumped a forehand into the net, clenching his fist towards his watching team, which included wife Kim.

Murray ‘toughs it out’ as promised

Following his injury problems, Murray is ranked 382nd in the world and, although the former number one is able to play in the US Open because of his protected ranking, being unseeded left him open to a difficult draw.

However, he was handed an opening opponent in Duckworth who is ranked lower, at 448, after suffering a catalogue of injury problems himself.

Murray was far from his best in the opening set, saving two break points early on before steadying his service game as a tie-break loomed.

Rustiness was evident in the tie-break, though. A routine forehand volley planted into the tramlines gave Duckworth an early lead and then, after fighting back on serve, Murray allowed his opponent to win three straight points for the opening set.

In the build-up, Murray spoke about having to “tough it out” over five sets – and that is exactly what he did.

“At times it was tricky, especially early on,” he said.

“James was serving big and playing a lot of drop shots and throwing me out of rhythm, but I managed to play some good stuff at times.

“Then I made a change on the return games – started standing further back to give me more time.

“It allowed me to get into the rallies and that made me more comfortable.”

WASHINGTON – The Agriculture Department said Monday it will soon begin paying $4.7 billion to farmers whose harvests have been hurt by “unjustified retaliation” from foreign governments in trade wars with the United States.

The compensation is the initial payment of some $12 billion in aid that President Donald Trump promised in July to farmers slammed by tariffs.

“Our farmers work hard and are the most productive in the world, and we aim to protect them,” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Purdue said.

Starting Sept. 4, the USDA’s Farm Service Agency will administer a program to provide payments to corn, cotton, diary, hog, sorghum, soybean and wheat farmers.  Soybean farmers will get the bulk of the money, $3.7 billion. Pork producers will get $290 million, while cotton farmers will receive $277 million.

An announcement about further payments will be made in the coming months, if warranted, the USDA said.

A separate program will be used to buy $1.2 billion in commodities unfairly targeted by unjustified retaliation, the USDA said. The commodities will be distributed through nutrition assistance programs such as The Emergency Food Assistance Program and child nutrition programs.

Pork producers will get $558 million through that program, while $93 million will go toward the purchase of apples. Another $85 million will be used to buy and redistribute both pistachios and dairy products.

In addition, another $200 million will be made available to develop foreign markets for U.S. agricultural products. The program will help U.S. agricultural exporters identify and access new markets and help mitigate the adverse effects of other countries’ restrictions, the USDA said.

More: Trump offers help to farmers hit by escalating China trade war

 

 

 

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Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – The camps are overwhelming. Makeshift shelters made out of tarpaulin and bamboo sticks stretch as far as the eye can see, closely bunched together with little room for breathing space.

The clay ground they are built on is not solid either, with at least 200,000 Rohingya at a direct risk from landslides in the event of heavy rains, which could kill them and sweep away the flimsy structures.

Yet recently built infrastructure, ranging from brick inlaid roads and bridges over open sewage and small streams coloured red and green by human filth, are anything but temporary. My fixer pointed to the concrete drainage system built on either side of a brick road and grumbled that even some of the surrounding local villages don’t have that kind of groundwork.

Each camp has health clinics, learning centres, women friendly spaces and markets – complete with stalls selling vegetables, live chickens, clothes, mobile phone chargers, and barbershops.

The camps are here to stay. It’s something I inherently knew, as a third-generation Palestinian refugee, when I first set eyes on the thousands upon thousands of coloured tarps. I knew they would evolve into lasting structures, transforming the camp area into a shanty-town or ghetto.

I had seen it before, in pictures of the Gaza refugee camp my grandparents found themselves in, living in a tent stamped with a UNHCR logo. Nine children later, the tent became a mud-dried one-roomed block, kitchen, living and sleeping area all in the same space.

As the children grew up and married, more rooms were added.

The block was knocked down in the late 1990s and a three-storied building took its place, each flat belonging to an uncle and his family.

With the arrival of more than 700,000 Rohingya since last August, there are now more than one million refugees in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, living in 32 camps over the two sub-districts, or upazilas of Ukhiya and Teknaf.

The Rohingya now live in new communities, forced to live in close proximity by the bleak circumstances as neighbours in the camps. Villagers separated from each other now live next to former residents of villages and hamlets from different townships, where dialects, food and local traditions differ.

As we passed by the long queues of people waiting to receive food provisions, holding their UN cards which detailed how many kilos of rice, lentils and flour they received, I was again reminded forcibly of my grandparents who had undergone through the same experience 70 years earlier in Khan Younis refugee camp, their dignity stripped away after being ethnically cleansed from their village, made reliant on aid agencies.

Considering that more than half of the Rohingya refugee population are children, one cannot but help wonder when these shelters will take on a more permanent form. Those who had arrived in earlier waves of displacement had already swapped out the tarpaulin out for mud-dried walls.

The repatriation deal between Bangladesh and Myanmar doesn’t even include these earlier refugees. And how can it be viable, with Myanmar refusing to create the suitable, secure conditions required for the Rohingya?

Furthermore, the United Nations has once again demonstrated its incompetence in the face of its two permanent Security Council members, China and Russia, who staunchly veto every resolution in favour of the Rohingya. Palestinians know the feeling, albeit with different players on the UN stage, all too well.

Children everywhere

More than half of the 1.1 million Rohingya population living in refugee camps are children, a frightening statistic considering the wretched conditions they live in.

They are everywhere, and eager to use the few choice words of English no doubt picked up from the thousands of NGO workers operating in the 32 camps and the overcrowded, inadequate learning centres set up.

“Hello, fine, how-are-you?” they said enthusiastically to any foreigner, following them around. Even two-year-olds knew these words and would parrot them to us.

The children are everywhere: babies riding on the hips of five year olds, toddlers standing outside of their shelters, older kids ferrying firewood into the camps from the nearby forests, their skinny frames buckling under the weight.

They play marbles, digging small holes for the balls to roll into, or kicking a football about, barefoot and splashing in the open sewage water, or engaged in made up games that evoked more memories of how my cousins and I would spend our summer days in Khan Younis refugee camp.

Sometimes we’d fill a plastic bottle with sand and empty it out only to fill it up again, an absent-minded Sisyphean skill we’d perfected. Other times we would dig holes in the sand outside my grandparents’ house until our fingers touched water, a reminder of the sea that lay a few hundred metres away but was blocked off by a massive Israeli military barracks.

In Kutupalong camp, the largest and most overcrowded refugee camp in the world with a population of 620,000 people, a group of children, all under the age of 10, were standing together on a slightly higher ground than us, bathing under one of the outdoor spigots, shrieking with laughter.

They screamed their hellos and “how-are-you’s” and waved energetically, shouting with glee whenever we responded. This went on for a few minutes, repeated greetings and responses and merriment. Then they shouted, still in unison, a phrase I hadn’t heard from the rest of the children we had encountered.

“I’ll kill you!” they screeched, before doubling down in laughter. “I’ll kill you!” they screamed again, their expressions of mirth and innocence at odds with the demonic words, resulting in a disorienting reality for the outsider.

“I’ll kill you” rang in my ears long after we left the camp, their beaming faces burned into my eyes, thinking about the space where trauma and relief, innocence and witnessing of evil, disconcert and liveliness exist in the harmonious form of children, the first blameless victims of every genocide, every forced displacement, every war waged on one population.

 

As a senator from Arizona, John McCain successfully fought for hard-to-get nonstop flights between Washington, D.C., and Phoenix, among other cities.

But when Phoenix-based America West Airlines began new service from Washington’s close-in Reagan National Airport to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in late 2000, McCain wasn’t on the packed flights.

He took the long(er) way home for years, booking flights that required a connection in another city.

Flights at Reagan Airport are restricted to a distance of 1,250 miles, though Congress has sporadically “exempted” certain flights from that “perimeter rule.” McCain led an effort to repeal the rule in 1999. It failed but ultimately helped lead to exemptions that included up to three daily nonstop flights on the 1,979-mile route between Washington and Phoenix. 

McCain’s refusal to take the new nonstop was his way of stubbornly sticking to a vow he made in response to criticism that he only wanted the flights so he could shorten his commute. 

“To John, that was such an abhorrent thing to be accused of, he just took it off the table and said, “OK, I won’t fly it,” American Airlines CEO Doug Parker recalled. “I don’t think any other member (of Congress) would make that statement.”

Parker was an executive with America West from 1995 through its 2005 merger with US Airways, when he became CEO of the combined carrier. He lived in Arizona until US Airways merged with American in 2013 and he became CEO of American.

ARCHIVES: US Airways’ final flight closes curtain on another major airline (story continues below)

 

He is also a McCain family friend, counting McCain’s son, Andy, among his close friends. The two went to graduate school at Vanderbilt University. Another McCain son, Doug, is a pilot for American.

McCain’s refusal to take the nonstop flight tripped him up occasionally. Parker recalled that McCain missed a Phoenix event where he was scheduled to introduce President George W. Bush, who beat him to become the Republican nominee in 2000.

It wasn’t sour grapes. His connecting flight had been canceled.

“John was stuck,” Parker said.

His replacement: Sen. Jon Kyl, who had taken the nonstop flight to Phoenix.

“He wouldn’t take the nonstop even to get to an event on time,” Parker said.

McCain eventually relented, though no one recalls exactly when. Parker said it was only in recent years. He said McCain told him he took the nonstop flight to make it home for the graduation of one of his children and was surprised no one noticed and criticized him.

“He finally said, ‘OK, no one seems to care. I think the statute of limitations has run out.”’

TODAY IN THE SKY: The fleet and hubs of American Airlines, by the numbers (story continues below)

 

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake said McCain avoided the flight for “years and years” after Flake arrived in Washington in 2001.

When he finally started taking the flight, Flake recalled, McCain said, “I’ve done my penance, I guess.”

“Nobody said a thing about it. Nobody cared by that time,” Flake said.

Flake’s favorite McCain-on-a-plane story involves the Washington-Phoenix flight.

A few years ago, Flake was heading home on American’s nonstop flight from Reagan National to Phoenix.  A passenger sitting next to him in row 20-something was excited when she sat down. Flake figured maybe she recognized him.

Turns out she had passed McCain, who was sitting in his favorite window seat a few rows ahead of Flake, in coach class, and was thrilled.

“She said, ‘John McCain is on the flight. John McCain is on the flight,”’ Flake recalled.

The woman had no clue who Flake was and asked him, “Have you ever flown with him before?”

“I said, “Yeah, once or twice.”

It was the weekend of the annual Phoenix Open golf tournament, and Flake’s seat-mate wondered if he was a golfer playing in the tournament.

A passenger seated in front of the pair finally piped up and said, “Hey lady, he’s the other senator from Arizona!”

American still operates the route, offering three daily non-stop flights.

 

 

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The king spoke – and a $2 trillion dream went up in smoke.

For the past two years, Saudi Arabia has prepared to place up to five percent of its national oil company on the stock market. Officials talked up the Saudi Aramco initial public offering (IPO) with international exchanges, global banks and US President Donald Trump.

The planned listing was to be the cornerstone of the kingdom’s promised economic overhaul and, at a targeted $100bn – the biggest IPO ever. It was the brainchild of 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, the heir apparent of the world’s largest oil exporter.

But after months of setbacks, the international and domestic legs of the IPO were pulled.

The reason: MBS’s father King Salman stepped in to shelve it, three sources with ties to government insiders told Reuters news agency.

The decision came after the king met with family members, bankers, and senior oil executives, including a former Aramco CEO, said one of the sources, who requested anonymity. Those consultations took place during Ramadan, which ended in the middle of June.

The king’s interlocutors told him the IPO, far from helping the kingdom, would undermine it. Their main concern was an IPO would bring full public disclosure of Aramco’s financial details, the sources said.

In late June, the king sent a message to his diwan, or administrative office, demanding the IPO be called off, the three sources said. The king’s decision is final, a second source said.

“Whenever he says ‘no’, there is no budging,” the source said.

‘Keeping MBS in check’

After Reuters reported last week the deal had been shelved, Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said the government was committed to conducting the IPO at an unspecified date in the future.

A senior Saudi official referred Reuters to that statement and repeated that the government, Aramco’s shareholder, was working towards an IPO when conditions were right.

“We are surprised that despite this statement – that the government continues actively to plan for the IPO – Reuters persists in asking questions alleging that plans are halted.

“Aramco’s shareholder is the government of Saudi Arabia. His majesty, King Salman, has delegated management of the IPO to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and a committee which includes the Ministers for Energy, Finance and Economy.

“Therefore, decisions around the nature and timing of the IPO, will be decided by the committee for the government’s approval,” the official said.

In a country ruled for decades by the Al Saud dynasty, it is not surprising that the king ultimately decides. But the shelving of the Aramco IPO is a major blow to the prince’s Vision 2030 reform programme, which aims to fundamentally transform Saudi Arabia’s oil-dependent, state-driven economy.

It suggests the king is keeping the new unilateral power of the young prince – accrued soon after his father’s accession to the throne in January 2015 – in check.

It also raises doubts about Riyadh’s management of the IPO process and commitment to making the economy more transparent, some investors say.

Taking the reins

While King Salman has the final say on policy, he has given great authority to his son.

After assuming powers as defence minister and chief of the royal court in January 2015, MBS launched a war in Yemen, adopted a more assertive stance toward arch-rival Iran, and implemented a diplomatic and trade blockade of Qatar.

Taking the reins of a powerful new economic council, he set out to tighten state spending, grow the private sector, and win foreign investment.

The king also allowed him to push through high-profile social reforms including ending a ban on women driving and opening cinemas in the deeply conservative Muslim country.

MBS entered the line of succession in April 2015, replacing an uncle as deputy crown prince.

Two years later, he was elevated to crown prince in a palace coup that removed his cousin Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the interior minister.

The king has intervened at times.

Most notably, when MBS gave the impression last year that Riyadh endorsed the Trump administration’s still nebulous Middle East peace plan, including US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the king made a public correction.

At the Arab League summit in April, he reaffirmed Riyadh’s commitment to the Arab and Muslim identity of Jerusalem following an uproar in the Islamic world.

“The king is obsessed with the idea of how history will judge him. Will he be the king who sold Aramco, who sold Palestine?” the second source said.

Grinding to a halt

It is not clear exactly which of the IPO arguments prompted King Salman to make the decisive call on Aramco.

But industry experts and sources previously told Reuters that preparations had been slowing for months for at least two reasons: scepticism about MBS’s public declaration in 2016 that the sale would give the whole company a value of $2 trillion valuation, and concern about the legal risks and tough disclosure requirements associated with a foreign listing.

By April, Aramco stopped paying some of the banks working on the deal their retainer fee, three banking sources told Reuters. This is usually a fixed fee to ensure advisors do not lose out completely if the deal falters. An Aramco official declined to comment.

Then, while the king was deliberating, in mid-June, the banks, including JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, were invited to pitch for something different.

They were instead asked to present proposals for Aramco’s acquisition of a stake in petrochemicals giant SABIC from the sovereign wealth fund PIF, a banking source said.

That was an initial sign that plans for the listing were stalling and that Riyadh was looking to raise funds elsewhere, the banking sources said.

The senior Saudi official said Aramco’s interest in acquiring a stake in SABIC was in line with its objective of being the world’s leading energy and integrated chemicals business, and did not alter the government’s intent to list Aramco.

“Transferring SABIC’s ownership from the PIF to Saudi Aramco will enable PIF to boost strategies and governance and enhance PIF’s investment portfolio,” the official said.

“Such a strategic acquisition would necessarily have an impact on the timeline, but not the intent, of an IPO [of Aramco].”

Spokeswomen for JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley declined to comment on whether their banks have any role in the SABIC deal.

Blow to MBS’s agenda

Saudi Arabia can still generate cash from alternative sources and move ahead with other reforms. But MBS had promised the listing would help create a culture of openness in the secretive kingdom.

As well as raising concerns about that commitment to transparency, the shelved IPO contributes to a sense of unpredictability after scores of top royals, ministers and businessmen were rounded up in an anti-corruption campaign last November.

The sources said even though the king’s decision was a blow to the prince’s agenda, he is still the favourite son and heir with a major influence on policy.

Rather, they say, it suggests the king wants to show he will be the deciding voice for the foreseeable future.

“I’m not sure that I would see it as an undermining of the rule of the crown prince. It’s much more likely ensuring that he doesn’t go off the deep end,” said James Dorsey, a senior fellow at Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

After performing “Get Well Soon” and declaring it as the evening’s final song, Ari said, “I feel like we’re missing something… Oh, yeah! We have to finish with ‘Raindrops.’” She kicked off Sweetener‘s a cappella opening number, but then abruptly stopped, laughing as she explained, “Someone said, ‘Start again, I wasn’t recording!’ … And I listened!” After making sure the fan was ready this time, she took it from the top and proceeded to absolutely nail it.

British number one Kyle Edmund exited the US Open in the first round after a surprise loss to Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi.

Lorenzi, the world number 94, beat the 16th seed 4-6 6-4 7-5 6-1 amid high humidity at Flushing Meadows.

After taking the opening set, Edmund, 23, was pegged back in the second before he cramped up in the third, affecting his movement on court.

The match, which lasted three hours and 12 minutes, was played in temperatures of 30C and with humidity above 60%.

Edmund struggled as his fitness problems took hold in the third set, and he was repeatedly forced to stretch out his groin.

A series of double faults from 36-year-old Lorenzi kept a wincing Edmund in the set, but the longer it went on, the more the momentum shifted towards the unseeded Italian.

Edmund, shaking his head, did not even attempt to play a shot as Lorenzi closed out the set with a backhand, before the Briton called on the trainer for treatment.

Lorenzi sent down eight of his 20 aces in the final set as Edmund became more restricted, closing out the victory in the face of little resistance from the other side of the net.