There are few more difficult places for a foreign journalist to report from China than Xinjiang.

Especially now.

Security has been bolstered amid a new campaign, which the government says is aimed at eradicating “Islamic extremism” in a province where more than half the population is Muslim.

Two weeks ago state TV aired pictures of what were described as vocational schools showing Muslim men and women being taught language and job skills. Most were Uighur, a Turkic-language people who are ethnically distinct from the Han Chinese.

China’s leaders argue harsh measures are needed to prevent violence associated with Uighur separatism; violence that, they say, has claimed the lives of hundreds of Chinese people in the past decade.

Human rights groups say the schools are, in fact, a vast network of re-education camps where detainees are held indefinitely without charge and forced to denounce their faith and recite Communist Party propaganda.

The Economist magazine recently described Xinjiang as “the perfect police state”.

During a brief visit there two weeks ago I saw nothing to dispel that view.

‘Kill, kill, kill’

The surveillance is all pervasive. Streets bristle with CCTV cameras. In some cities there are now police posts every 30 metres.

Since I was last there three years ago, there’s a new addition to the vast security network of police and elite special forces; a motley collection of shopkeepers armed with wooden sticks who have been trained in security measures. Twice a day outside their premises they rehearse their defensive drills, sometimes shouting, “Kill, kill, kill.”

In 2015, it was still possible to talk to local people, albeit discreetly. Not now.

For a Uighur to talk to a foreign journalist is to risk arrest. By coincidence, one of the Public Security Bureau officers assigned to tail us – Michael – had been my minder during my previous visit. And this time he wasn’t going to let the Al Jazeera team out of his sight.

He was there to welcome us back as we were attempting to check into a hotel, where I had stayed on previous visits.

The sheepish staff at reception told me my booking had been cancelled on the orders of the local government. A resigned shrug of the shoulders. There was nothing they could do.

Instead we were offered rooms in a government-owned hotel, where uniformed and plain-clothed police lounge in the sprawling lobby.

Sinister, surreal, absurd

Xinjiang today is both sinister and surreal, but occasionally the absurd makes an appearance. The ringtone on Michael’s phone plays George Michael’s I’m Never Gonna Dance Again. George Michael became the soundtrack of our brief stay in Kashgar, because his phone never stopped ringing.

Filming and reporting in Xinjiang has always been tightly controlled. But it’s in overdrive now.

I was forced to delete countless pictures surreptitiously recorded on my iPhone. One showed a security checkpoint, another a padlocked Uighur shop.

In a near-deserted market a giddy trio from local TV turned up. The reporter – like Michael – was also a Uighur. She wanted to interview me about my impressions of Kashgar. I declined.

If I had told the truth our visit might have come to an even swifter end than it did. Undeterred, the TV crew tagged along, meaning our group had now grown to 10, decreasing still further any hopes of talking to someone – anyone.

One question hangs in the crisp autumn air: where are all the young men? China’s government is at last providing some of the answers. After denying the existence of internment camps, state-controlled media now proudly defend the policy; a policy that by many accounts is now being expanded.

Kashgar, closer to Baghdad than it is to Beijing, is the largest Uighur city and is said to have four camps holding 120,000 people. The largest is reportedly in Number 5 Middle School, but I would not get to glimpse even the outside of that school. According to Michael, such camps don’t exist in Kashgar.

‘Love the Party’

Instead of a re-education camp we were shown the outside of the Id Gah mosque, the biggest in China. There’s been a mosque on this site for more than 600 years. Part of its facade is now peeling.

For the mostly Chinese visitors, the mosque is just another tourist attraction. In the recessed entrance armed security guards sit beneath a red banner exhorting worshippers to, “Love the Party, love the country.”

On a wall opposite the mosque, looped images of President Xi Jinping, taken during his trip to Xinjiang in 2014, are projected onto a giant screen. One shows him surrounded by a group of smiling Uighur children.

It was shortly after this trip that more than 40 people were killed during a bombing and knife attack in the provincial capital, Urumqi. The government blamed Uighur separatists, and the crackdown began.

The ancient part of Kashgar remains closed. It was apparently being rebuilt, just as it was the last time I was here in October 2015. Instead we were taken to a faux version of the Old City, complete with cultural performances reflecting distant – as opposed to recent – Uighur history.

It was just after my colleague had taken the classic metaphorical image of a caged bird that the mood of our hosts started to change.

‘Whose side are you on?’

They suspected – rightly – that we weren’t buying into the sanitised narrative. In a small local cafe, where we had stopped for a break, a particularly hostile female official from the local propaganda department demanded to look at everything we had so far filmed.

She turned her ire on my Chinese colleague. “Whose side are you on?” she yelled.

At first we refused her demand. By now there were 15 uniformed and plain-clothed policemen crammed into the tiny cafe. Playing to the gallery, Ms Yang announced loudly: “We need to keep them in Kashgar for further investigation.”

The implication was clear. We would not be allowed to leave unless our material was vetted. At times like this my immediate concern is for my Chinese colleagues. I have a foreign passport. They don’t and have no protection.

We were held for two hours, during which time they inspected every frame we had shot. They managed to ensure our deleted files could not be recovered. It had been a good day for Kashgar’s propaganda department.

The surveillance started even before I had left Beijing.

As an accredited journalist, my name had been flagged the moment I checked in for the flight to Urumqi. Four-and-a-half hours later plain-clothed police were waiting for me in the arrivals hall. Given I appeared to be the only non-Asian face I wouldn’t have been hard to spot.

An hour later the same men appeared in the lobby of my hotel. One even took the room next to mine, presumably to see if I attempted to interview anyone there.

At first they stopped us filming innocuous street scenes. They later relented, but only permitted filming in their presence. “Do not talk to anyone,” we were repeatedly warned.

Security officers favour casual street style with ironic flourishes. My favourite: “Leave Me Alone.”

There was no chance of the Al Jazeera team being left alone in Xinjiang. In the Kashgar hotel there were at least 20 officers in the lobby, there for just one reason: us.

Surveillance state

Official figures show China’s surveillance budget now outstrips the amount spent on defence. I wondered what the cost to Chinese taxpayers had been of the operation to monitor three journalists.

Ordinary Uighurs spend much of their life queuing. Outside Urumqi’s international bazaar, Uighurs and Han Chinese lined up at separate security checkpoints. Uighurs are searched more thoroughly. Naturally, we weren’t allowed to film any of that.

Unlike my previous visit, we also weren’t allowed to film inside a Uighur home. If so, I might have seen if it was true that all knives now have to be chained to walls.

Xinjiang is at the heart of one of President Xi Jinping’s signature economic policies; the One Belt, One Road initiative. The plan envisages revitalising the fabled Silk Road trading routes to link China to Europe and the Middle East through vast infrastructure projects.

But for that ambitious plan to work, Xinjiang has to work.

China’s leaders say Uighurs are benefiting from poverty eradication programmes. On October 24, the People’s Daily reported more than $6bn had been spent on improving the lives of almost two million Uighurs.

But that is still a drop in the ocean compared to what the government is spending on security and surveillance in Xinjiang.

And something else is clearly apparent.

Xinjiang has become another area that is now all but off limits to foreign journalists.

After dropping off “Lost in Japan” last week, Shawn Mendes is already back with a stunning new visual. This time, he and Khalid joined forces on the eve of the U.S. midterm elections to release a video for “Youth” that’s all about the power young people have to make change. (In other words, let this serve as your latest reminder to go vote!)

The nearly eight-minute video opens with slow-mo footage of a handgun crashing to the ground, then flashes between scenes from this year’s March For Our Lives rally. At one point, Parkland activist David Hogg delivers a line that perfectly sets the tone: “If you listen real close, you can hear the people in power shaking.”

Throughout the rest of the video, Shawn and Khalid appear as minor players behind several trailblazing kids showing off their talents, which range from dancing and directing to painting and playing basketball. It’s emotional, impactful, and a timely call to action that, as Shawn and Khalid shared on Twitter, “our youth is our strength, our vote is our voice.”

See a clip of the video below, and watch the full thing exclusively on Apple Music.

On October 29, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that she was stepping down as leader of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) after 18 years in that post. She also declared that she would not run for office after her term expires in 2021; if she completes it, she would be the second-longest-serving chancellors in recent German history after Helmut Kohl.

As the first woman chancellor of Germany and CDU chairperson, she has invariably changed the face of German politics and especially the centre-right. Throughout her years in power, her political success and perseverance have surprised many, especially those who helped her assume the CDU’s leadership back in the late 1990s.

At that time the party was facing a massive scandal after revelations that it had accepted donations from arms lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber, which led to the downfall of both former Chancellor Helmut Kohl and party leader Wolfgang Schauble.

In the power vacuum and image crisis that followed, Merkel was seen as an ideal placeholder, who would step in and clean up the mess of party strongmen like Kohl, Schauble and former CDU treasurer Walther Leisler-Kiep, before they returned to take back the reins.

It was a classic case of “glass cliff“: a woman being given a leadership role during a time of crisis, when the chance of failure is the highest. 

But once Merkel got her hands on power, she strategically maintained her grip on it for almost two decades. Now, after her decision to step down as party leader and eventually chancellor, the old boys’ club of the CDU are coming back with a vengeance, eager to undo her political legacy.

The ‘Andenpakt’ 

Lying in wait for Merkel to quit all these years was the so-called “Andenpakt” (Andes pact), an informal interest group within the CDU comprised of white conservative men.

The pact was created by a dozen CDU youth who had gone on an official visit to South America in 1979. On their flight from Caracas to Santiago de Chile (which flew over the Andes and gave the informal name of the group), they vowed to seek power together and help each other along the way.

Most of these men have similar socioeconomic backgrounds, were all born in West Germany, and are mostly Catholic. Their pact was quite successful and over the years many of them climbed the career ladder and landed powerful political positions, both on state and federal level.

Roland Koch, a staunch liberal-conservative with a pro-business agenda, became minister-president of Hesse, the financial powerhouse of Germany. Christian Wulff, more liberal in his agenda when it comes to social policy, but just as pro-business as Koch, was elected minister-president of Lower Saxony, the home state of Volkswagen. Friedrich Merz, who is now hoping to succeed Merkel, became chairman of the CDU parliamentary group, succeeding his mentor, Schauble.

In the late 1990s, the Andes pact was ready for the final step, to conquer the political heights in Germany – the CDU leadership – and form the next government. But it was just then that the donations scandal hit and spoiled their plans.

The rise of Helmut Kohl’s ‘little girl’

As the party reverted to damage control, Kohl and Schauble decided to push forward a fresh face. The shy East-German-born, liberal Protestant Angela Merkel emerged as the general secretary of the party. She had previously held offices that none of the ambitious Andenpakt members took seriously, such as minister for women and youth and minister of the environment in Kohl’s government, so none of them perceived her as a threat.

She was seen as the ideal, scandal-free face for the position of party leader who would head the CDU while it recovered from the scandal and while the Social Democrats were in power any way. No one imagined that she would hold onto the position for 18 years and rule as chancellor for 13 of them.

In fact, one of the advantages that Merkel had during her early political career was the fact that she was constantly underestimated by the men around her, including experienced politicians like Schauble and even Kohl, who used to refer to her as “Mein Madchen” (my girl).

Not seeing Merkel as a serious competitor, the CDU leadership nominated the Bavarian minister-president Edmund Stoiber to run for Chancellor in the 2002 elections over her. This was highly unusual, as it was customary for the party leader to also run for Chancellor. It was not as if Merkel did not want to run herself, but back then she still did not have the necessary political backing, partly due to the dominance of the Andenpakt. 

Stoiber ended up losing the election, which ultimately paved the way for Merkel’s rise to power. Showing remarkable Machiavellian talent, she managed to outmanoeuvre most of her main opponents within the party. She not only sidelined Stoiber but also beat Merz to the position of leader of the opposition in the Bundestag.

Thus, Merkel came out of the 2002 election with two of the most powerful posts in the CDU. In 2005, she finally got her chance to lead her party in elections. After a modest success, she struck a coalition deal with the Social Democrats, becoming Germany’s first female chancellor.

In the subsequent years, Merkel continued to consolidate power within the CDU and many more Andenpakt members fell victims to her political schemes. Roland Koch, for example, fought many internal party battles with her, mostly concerning her push to liberalise the CDU’s conservative politics and move it towards the political left. In the end, he gave up, exasperated, and like Merz moved to the private sector.

Then there was Christian Wulff, the minister-president of Lower-Saxony. To neutralise him, she simply promoted him to the highly respected though politically powerless position of president of Germany.

Thus, Helmut Kohl’s “little girl” showed everybody that she knew how to play the power game better than many of the men who looked down on her and saw her as a politically harmless. 

Who will succeed Merkel?

Throughout her 13 years in power, Merkel managed to build a name for herself nationally and internationally. She was named repeatedly “the most powerful woman in the world” by Forbes magazine.

She remained popular in Germany, even when she was pushing for policies her CDU’s conservatives despised, such as her decision to abolish conscription and to phase out nuclear power. In fact, as some observers have pointed out, her political success was very much due to her doing what the majority of Germans wanted.

However, this changed in 2015 with the refugee crisis. The influx of more than one million refugees from the Middle East and elsewhere had a tremendous impact on German politics. Merkel’s liberal agenda of open borders and her famous sentence “Wir schaffen das” (“We’ll manage it”) – turned against her and led to the spectacular rise of the far right, to which the CDU rapidly lost ground.

For the first time, she either misread the will of the majority of Germans or simply followed her convictions. Conservative critics and the conservative media jumped at the chance to criticise her once again; Merz called her refugee policy “catastrophic“, while Koch blamed her for increasing distrust among German citizens in the CDU-led government.

Although she still won the 2017 election, the refugee crisis marked a turning point in her career, which ultimately resulted in her decision to step down as CDU leader.

The upcoming election for a new party leader during the CDU convention in December is a chance for those in the conservative wing of the party to get their revenge after many years of being sidelined by Merkel. 

Merz, who declared his readiness to take over almost immediately after she made the announcement, is currently the frontrunner. He seems to represent the hope of the conservative male-dominated party base to reclaim the CDU and turn its course back to conservative politics.

If he does win, it would be almost impossible for Merkel to maintain control over how and when she leaves office, something she has always said she wanted to have.

However, she is not going out without putting up a fight against her long-term Andenpakt adversaries. Running against Merz is Merkel’s protege, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (also known as AKK).

AKK is a highly respected politician with a liberal agenda who supported Merkel in the refugee crisis. As a practising Catholic, she is more conservative when it comes to social issues (she was, for example, critical of same-sex marriage), but like Merkel, she is also flexible and treads a middle ground while offering some concessions to the party’s conservative critics. If AKK wins, Merkel will be able to serve out her full term as chancellor rather than being pushed out.

AKK is also likely to maintain some aspects of her mentor’s political agenda, including the push for gender parity within the party and government. During her time as party leader, the number of women in powerful political positions has grown significantly.

In the current cabinet, over 40 percent of ministers are women, whereas when Merkel served in Kohl’s last cabinet at the turn of the century, she was one of just two women ministers.

If Merz wins the internal elections, however, this and other liberal legacies Merkel has fought to push through would be in danger of being dismantled.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

With the second round of sanctions against Iran, US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose the “toughest ever” punitive measures against the Islamic Republic is in full force, a reversal from his predecessor Barack Obama’s rapprochment towards Tehran.

In August, sanctions targeted Iran’s aviation industry, currency and even carpets. Now, except for a few countries, the rest of the world is cut off from Iran’s oil and gas market as well as its financial system. 

Iran remains a signatory to the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal and UN inspectors said Tehran continues to adhere to its obligations. Trump unilaterally abandoned the agreement in May, paving the way for the imposition of US sanctions amid international opposition.   

Now that the US sanctions are in place, experts said the two old adversaries would be engaged in a cat and mouse game, with Washington trying to enforce Trump’s order as rigorously as it could, and Tehran finding creative ways to bypass it.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo himself acknowledged that it would be “unsurprising” if Iran would try to bypass the sanctions.

Ali Sarzaeem, an economics advisor at the Center for Strategic Studies under the office of President Hassan Rouhani, said that there are several measures being considered to counter the US restrictions. 

“The US is doing whatever it can to punish Iran, and we are doing whatever we can do to confront them,” Sarzaeem, who teaches at Tehran’s Allameh Tabataba’i University, told Al Jazeera.

So what steps could Iran take to bypass the US sanctions?

Waivers

Iran has kept doing business with other countries amid sanctions through waivers obtained by its trading partners.

On Monday, Pompeo named the countries granted waivers to buy Iranian oil and gas after November 5: China, India, Italy, Japan, Greece, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey.

Pompeo did not say how long the waivers will last, but said they were granted to ensure oil prices are not destabilised if supply from Iran is abruptly removed from the international market.

Pompeo said that since Trump announced the sanctions in May, more than a million barrels of Iranian oil were removed from the market, and that Tehran lost more than $2.5bn in oil revenues.

Trump boasted he will drive down Iran’s revenue to zero. But Iran said the granting of US waivers is a win for Tehran, as it allows it to sell oil beyond the deadline. 

In September, Iran sold between 1.7 million and 1.9 million bpd of crude oil, according to a CNBC analysis. That number came down to 800,000 bpd from May, when the sanctions were announced. But the loss in volume was partly offset by the rise in the oil price.      

Special Purpose Vehicle

On September 24, the European Union (EU) announced that it is setting up a new mechanism, the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).

EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said the SPV “will allow European companies to continue to trade with Iran in accordance with EU law and could be open to other partners in the world”.

EU, alongside the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, France, China, the US and Iran were the original signatories of the 2015 deal, which is also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Europe’s decision to create the SPV was seen as an act of defiance against Trump.

Essentially, the SPV acts as a clearing house handling payments from European companies to and from Iran, while avoiding the US sanctions that prohibit direct payment through the regular payment system.

For example, if a European energy company buys oil and gas from Iran, the payments are directed to the SPV. In turn, Iran will use the payments deposited in the SPV to buy permitted items from Europe.

It is not yet clear how the final SPV structure would like. Whether or not European companies would avail it also remains a question. Many European companies, such as Total, have profitable operations in the US, and they could get slapped with US sanctions if they insist on trading with Iran.

On Monday, Iran’s Foreign MInistry spokesman Bahram Qassemi counseled patience in the implementation of the SPV, but he also said the establishment of the new financial mechanism is “complicated and time-consuming”.  

The SPV is still seen as another victory in Iran as it indicates Europe’s willingness to stand up to Trump.

European blocking statute

In August, the EU also updated the Blocking Statute, thereby shielding European companies from Trump’s sanction, while allowing them to continue operating in Iran.

It also allows companies to recover damages arising from punitive sanctions, in this case, from the US.

The law also forbids EU persons from complying with those kind of sanctions, unless exceptionally authorised by the European Commission. 

While it could work for small businesses with no links to the US, the statute could have limited use in Iran, particularly among major European companies with global operations. Those companies are automatically exposed to possible US sanctions in the event they deal with Iran.

Iran stock exchange trading

In late October, Iran announced that it has started offering oil for sale via its stock exchange, selling as much as 280,000 barrels of crude oil just minutes after the opening bell.

The idea of selling oil in the stock market first came up in 2000 during the previous period of sanctions, but is only implemented now.

According to Tasnim news agency, 280,000 barrels were traded in the Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX) at $74.85 per barrel. On the first day of trading, a total of one million barrels of crude oil were eventually sold.

Essentially, private buyers from within Iran or abroad buy the crude oil. In turn, the buyers can sell the same product to the world market with less traceability.

The US Treausury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) maintains a list of sanctioned companies and individuals linked to the Iran case. But a new company not listed by OFAC can “legally” buy oil from Iran.

‘Unofficial’ measures

Mohammad Eslami, a Tehran-based sanctions experts said, that there are still other measures that the Iranian government is taking to circumvent the US sanctions. 

Tehran is reluctant to discuss those measures openly as it does not want to compromise them, he said.

“All these structures, that the Iranians have built to confront these new sanctions, are unofficial,” said Eslami before adding that the measures included currency swap with other countries, and even crypto currency trading, adding that some entities are “already using it”.

Iran’s partners like Russia and China also “would not be willing to talk about the alternatives”. 

Russia, which has not been included in the US waiver, has denounced the sanctions, terming them “illegal”. There have been suggestions that Moscow would help Tehran bypass the sanctions by buying Iranian oil, then reselling them in refined form to Europe.  

Pompeo had already issued a warning, saying the Trump administration “is fully prepared to do all that we can” to prevent efforts to bypass the sanctions. 

Trump’s new sanction would face more complexities compared to the time of the Obama administration, said Eslami.

He said that while Trump’s sanctions are “more measured”, the US president failed to establish a global consensus against Iran, as he “could not establish powerful group of supporters for his policy”.

“Gradually, the structure of sanctions will be less powerful.”

Gilmore Girls was one of the few shows on television that featured discernible changes in season. And with the change in seasons come hats. Many, many hats.

There were knitted winter hats, topped with pom-poms or arbitrarily placed flowers. There were bucket hats that looked at home both on Lorelai’s head and on a baby at the beach. There were multiple newsboy caps, though not a newsboy in sight. 

But across the variety of shapes, patterns and textures, they all had one thing in common: they were terrible. Here is our tribute — may these stay back in the mid-2000s where they belong.

Season 1, episode 1

Already off to a great start with this knitted cap.

Image: Warner Bros. Television

Season 1, episode 3

Rory’s golf hat, with multiple contrasting colors.

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Season 1, episode 7

We’re thankful for this pilgrim-chic moment.

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Season 1, episode 8

We’ll accept this cozy navy cap.

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Season 1, episode 10

We will not, however, accept this bulky striped cap.

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Season 1, episode 11

This hat is too small for Lorelai’s head. 

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Season 1, episode 13

Which animals were harmed in the making of this hat?

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Another day, another winter cap.

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Season 2, episode 2

This fake veil goes well with Lorelai’s fake pearls.

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Rory’s brief stint in the world of construction.

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Season 2, episode 4

Back when we all had to pretend that they were going to let Rory leave the show and go to Harvard.

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Season 2, episode 9

Rory takes historical accuracy seriously.

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Season 2, episode 10

Two hats you definitely bought from the Gap in 2002.

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This is fine.

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This hat is not fine. 

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Season 2, episode 11

Still not fine.

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Season 2, episode 15

Ugh, the hat from episode 10 returns.

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Season 2, episode 21

Rory missed this important hat moment due to a sudden impulse to see Jess. This did not work out in the long term.

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Season 3, episode 1

Bucket. Hat.

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Season 3, episode 10

Surprised by Rory’s lack of hat.

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Season 3, episode 11

Jess is pro-hat.

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Safety first.

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The Gilmore Girls costume department had a wide variety of matching hat-scarf sets.

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Knitted flowers.

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Season 3, episode 12

The beginning of Lorelai’s love affair with newsboy caps.

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Rory envying Lane’s double pom-pom cap.

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Lorelai’s brief but memorable time as an amateur fisherman.

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Season 3, episode 13

Both sitting inside, and yet, both wearing scarves.

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Rory’s first hat.

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Season 3, episode 14

Lorelai, it is nighttime. Why?

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Season 3, episode 19

Another episode, another newsboy cap.

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Season 3, episode 20

Lorelai loves a funeral hat.

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Season 3, episode 22

Congrats, girl.

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Season 4, episode 1

A Photoshopped hat is a hat all the same.

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Season 4, episode 7

Lorelai channeling the Renoir girl.

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Season 4, episode 10

All about that cerulean.

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Rory’s homemade hat pales in comparison to Paris’ newspaper flower.

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Season 4, episode 11

Double berets at Stan’s funeral.

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Lorelai’s most questionable hat of the series.

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Season 4, episode 13

Where did Lorelai acquire this skeevy trucker girl hat and why?

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Season 4, episode 14

Rory finally accepts her Yale fate.

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Lorelai’s Bon Jovi hat.

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Season 4, episode 15

Rory enabling Emily destructive department store binge shopping session.

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Season 4, episode 17

Rory visibly questioning why she has so many lavender winter hats.

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Season 4, episode 21

Ok, Lorelai. You look good here. We’ll accept this.

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Season 5, episode 4

Lorelai’s celebration of the American voting process.

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Season 5, episode 6

Cowboy hats and Slurpee runs.

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Season 5, episode 8

French maid chic.

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The moment Dean realizes Rory and her diamond tiara are too fancy for him.

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Season 5, episode 11

Another fine hat.

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Season 5, episode 15

How many wool caps can one have?

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Rory channeling Duck Soup.

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Season 6, episode 1

Rory in her new role as yacht stealer/hardened criminal.

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Season 6, episode 5

A hat that can barely contain the hair.

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Season 6, episode 8

“L” is for Lorelai.

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Season 6, episode 11

Newly 21-year-old Rory in Atlantic City swag.

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Real veil this time, still no marriage.

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Season 6, episode 12

Another fine hat.

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Paris’ power trip in the form of numbered hats.

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Season 6, episode 13

Why would someone do this?

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Season 6, episode 15

Sookie’s hat is the winner here.

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Season 6, episode 19

Matching tiaras for Lane’s bachelorette party.

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Season 6, episode 22

A great wig.

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Season 7, episode 11

We’ll accept this classic grey cap.

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Season 7, episode 14

Pulling out the pink hat from Season 3, episode 13.

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Season 7, episode 16

The thin purple scarf is the real offender here.

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Season 7, episode 21

Congrats on your final hat, Rory. 

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Thank you for joining us on this journey.

This article was originally published in 2016.

Delegations have been grilling Saudi Arabia on its human rights record at the UN in Geneva as it faces a torrent of international condemnation over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Member states have also been criticising abuses of the Saudi-Emirati coalition’s role in the war in Yemen in Monday’s so-called “Universal Periodic Review” – which all 193 UN countries must undergo every four years.

The US delegation told the UN human rights council that it condemns the “premeditated killing” of Khashoggi.

“A thorough, conclusive and transparent investigation carried out in accordance with due process with results made public is essential,” the delegation said.

Washington, which has long backed the Saudi-led coalition, called last week for an end to air raids in the country.

The Saudi delegation in Geneva is headed by Bandar al-Aiban, who serves as the head of the country’s Human Rights Commission.

The delegation is presenting a report over the country’s efforts to live up to its international human rights obligations, and will respond to questions and comments from countries around the world on its record.

Activists are urging countries not to hold back.

“UN member states must end their deafening silence on Saudi Arabia and do their duty of scrutinising the cruelty in the kingdom in order to prevent further outrageous human rights violations in the country and in Yemen,” Samah Hadid, Amnesty International’s Middle East director of campaigns, said in a statement.

“The Saudi government’s long-standing repression of critics, exemplified by the extrajudicial execution of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last month, has until recently been willfully ignored by UN member states.”

‘Regret and pain’

Addressing the council, the Saudi delegation restated the kingdom’s position that it is investigating Khashoggi’s case and will prosecute those responsible for the killing.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has already expressed its regret and pain for the death of Jamal Khashoggi,” Bandar Bin Mohammed al-Aiban, president of Saudi Arabia’s human rights commission said at the meeting.

“King [Salman bin] Abdulaziz has already instructed the prosecution to proceed with the investigation into this case according to the applicable laws and preparation to reaching all facts and bringing all the perpetrators to justice in order to bare the facts to the public.”

A number of countries have already submitted lists of detailed questions for the review, including questions from the UK, Austria and Switzerland on the Khashoggi case.

“Given the recent violent death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, can Saudi Arabia elaborate on their claim that the laws of Saudi Arabia guarantee freedom of opinion and expression?” the UK asked.

Al Jazeera’s Paul Brennan reporting from Geneva said that the questioning that Saudi Arabia faces is stern, particularly because of the context of the recent murder Khashoggi.

“You can see that [the UK’s question] very elegantly phrased, but there’s no mistaking the bite behind it,” Brennan said.

“In some ways, it’s been predictably partisan of the tone of some of the questions. Uzbekistan and Algeria, for example, patted Saudi Arabia on the back for the progress that they said Saudi Arabia had made, for example, under the crown prince’s vision 2030 which they say upholds human rights,” Brennan said.

A ‘less vicious’ government

Explaining in their national report how the country upholds human right, Saudi Arabia mentioned its protection against abuse act, a child protection act, the ability that women now have the right to drive and various royal orders such as giving women more involved in government.

However, other reports submitted by UN committees and various NGOs paint a different picture, Brennan said.

Their reports highlight persistent discriminatory laws, a big increase in the number of executions between 2013-2015, the fact that there is no law that protects the rights to free assembly and continuing concerns about the lack of female involvement in governing process.

The reports point out that minors under the age of 18 who are found guilty of crimes could be stoned, or amputated and are even sentenced to death for non-violent crimes.

Abdulaziz Almoayyad, a Saudi human rights activist told Al Jazeera from Dublin that due to the international outcry over Khashoggi’s murder, Saudi Arabia is now treading more carefully.

Khashoggi’s murder has saved a lot of lives in Saudi Arabia, since just a couple of weeks before his death, the Saudi government was planning to behead a lot of Saudi activists, Almoayyad said.

“The Saudi government doesn’t care about the Saudi people but they care about international relations; they get their weapons from there, they get their support from there,” Almoayyad said.

“So what is happening now is affecting the scene inside of Saudi Arabia where the government is a bit weaker and less vicious towards activists inside and outside.”

Camila Cabello may have recently reaffirmed her wife status with Ariana Grande, but it’s another Fifth Harmony alum who’s hitting the road with the “Thank U, Next” singer as opening support on her upcoming, hotly anticipated Sweetener tour. And that alum is, naturally, Normani.

It was announced on Monday (November 5) that the 22-year-old singer will join for the first leg of the Sweetener tour when it kicks off in March 2019. It’s been a good year for Normani, who teamed up with Khalid for the sultry “Love Lies” early on and recently collabed with Calvin Harris for two very different new jams. She was also dubbed “that bitch” by Nicki Minaj at thew 2018 VMAs.

“It’s a brand new world of self-discovery for me, and I’m still in the process of that,” Normani recently told Paper magazine about her solo career. “There’s been so many things that I’ve been able to do. I’ve been able to write more, and I’ve even been having fun in terms of producing. I’ve learned that I actually have that ear and that I know what I want. I’m learning the terminology and all the technical side of it. I’m really hands on in every single aspect of my music.”

Ariana, meanwhile, spent this past weekend unveiling “Thank U, Next,” a celebration of finally coming into your own, or working on it anyway, without anyone else in your life. On the road next year, though, it’ll be her and Normani — maybe the pair will team up for some surprise, unexpected performances onstage?

The Sweetener tour begins March 18 in Albany, N.Y. Ari and Normani will be there. Will you?

Dogs are lovely creatures. But, let’s be honest, vision is not their strong suit. 

That’s probably why this adorable doggo had a little bit of a hard time figuring out what was up with the screen door of his owner’s house. 

Twitter user Jensen Kendall uploaded a video of her dog and his misconception about their screen door. This very good boy apparently can’t tell when the screen door is closed, which means that his owners have to pretend to open it for him. 

This little girl is doing a good job of pretend-opening a door, though. 

By the looks of it, the dog is so convinced that the door is closed, he doesn’t even notice when his snout technically passes the threshold.

Theory: this dog is a vampire, who can’t enter a house without being invited first. 

It’s been months since we heard from Demi Lovato, who suffered a reported overdose back in July and entered a rehab facility shortly later. From updates her mother gave in September, Demi was “working on her sobriety and… getting the help she needs, and that in itself encourages me about her future and about the future of our family,” which seemed like very positive news.

Now, TMZ reports the 26-year-old artist was spotted at a Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles over the weekend with designer Henri Levy. There are photos, too, in which Demi is all smiles.

E! reports that Demi completed a three-month stay in rehab, though it’s unclear if her trek to the sushi spot was part of a weekend leave from the facility or if she’s out for good. She apparently may stay in treatment for the next few months.

Either way, Demi also reportedly hit up Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights as well, which, like, damn. That rules.

In August, Demi penned a note that addressed her overdose and ongoing struggles with addiction. “I now need time to heal and focus on my sobriety and road to recovery,” she wrote in the message posted to Instagram. “The love you have all shown me and I look forward to the day where I say I came out on the other side.”

Image: robb vices

Did seeing pictures from The Royal Wedding have you feeling like a damn peasant? Because same.

If you’re trying to be treated like royalty too, up your fancy game big time with a Robb Vices luxury subscription box to give you a monthly dose of that good life. 

If you’re wondering what we mean by “fancy,” just think about that video of Nick Offerman (AKA Ron Swanson) drinking whiskey by a fireplace. The monthly box from Robb Vices is basically that in subscription box form.

We’re talking top shelf alcohol, luxury kitchenware, cigars, leather accessories, artisan food samples, and more — one month’s box had a literal record player and a record. The creators (from Robb Report magazine) refer to these curated items as “vices,” picked especially for you to have a unique experience for whatever type of connoisseur you are.

Each box has a fun theme, too. Sometimes it’ll be geared toward the specific month or season (last August’s was called ,” which came  with a pair of gold-plated aviators, natural mineral sunscreen, and BBQ sauces) or may be a more general theme like They’ll also throw in a nice little booklet filled with fun stuff like food or drink recipes.

Yes, that’s a Bluetooth speaker pictured above and yes, that’s pair of over-the-ear headphones. Both look expensive AF and were in boxes from 2017. Robb Vices partners with premium brands, which is how they’re able to get their hands on such nice stuff for you.

You can apply and prepay for one of four plans: Month-to-month for $99.95/month, three months for $94.95/month, six months for $89.95/month, or one year for $84.95/month. (Before you say “That sounds a little pricey,” remember that the value of each box is like, two to five times more than what you’re paying.) Besides, you’re a baller — time to act like one.

If you’re in need of a gift idea for someone who enjoys the finer things in life, they definitely don’t have this yet. Learn more here.