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India Today
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- India Today
Beyonce manages scary mid-air malfunction during Houston show. Watch
Pop icon Beyonce, who is currently on her 'Cowboy Carter' tour, hit a tense moment during a performance. The singer was performing on the first day of her two-day concert in her hometown, Houston. She was performing at the NRG stadium when a stage malfunction 43-year-old singer performed '16 carriages' while sitting on top of a red convertible that was lifted above fans. As seen in a viral social media clip, the car experiences a sudden slant movement at a sharp angle. Beyonce, who appeared secured with a harness, holds onto a cable attached to the car as it stop, stop, stop, stop,' Beyonce said calmly into her mic as the music cut out. Glancing down at the crowd, then back up, she flashed a smile while fans erupted in supportive cheers. (Video Credit: X/MYBEDAZZLEDCANE)She later expressed gratitude to the audience for their patience. The car prop she was riding in was slowly lowered to the stage. As it neared the platform and stabilised, she shifted back to her seat, still smiling as the lights to the Houston Chronicle, the prop malfunctioned midway through the song. Once safely on the ground, Beyonce briefly exited before returning to continue the the unexpected moment, the 'Cowboy Carter' tour went on smoothly. Fans praised Beyonce's calm response and thanked the crew for keeping her safe.- EndsMust Watch
Pink Villa
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
Beyoncé Handles Scary Stage Malfunction Mid-Air During Houston Cowboy Carter Show; Here's What Happened
Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter tour hit a tense moment during her first of two shows in her hometown of Houston on Saturday, June 28. The Texas Hold 'Em singer was performing at NRG Stadium when a suspended car prop she was sitting on started tilting unexpectedly mid-song. While performing 16 Carriages, Beyoncé was seated on top of a red convertible that was lifted above her fans. A video shared on TikTok shows the car suddenly slanting at a sharp angle. Beyoncé, who appeared secured with a harness, held onto a cable attached to the car as it tipped. 'Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop,' Beyoncé calmly told her crew through her microphone as the music cut off. Looking down at the crowd and then back up, she managed a smile as fans cheered to show support. Here's how Beyoncé handled it The Grammy winner didn't panic despite being stuck above the stadium. She thanked the audience, saying, 'Thank y'all for your patience.' The car was then carefully lowered to the ground. As the vehicle neared the stage, it steadied, and Beyoncé shifted back to her original seated spot, still smiling as the stage lights dimmed. A fan who shared the clip on TikTok wrote, 'Omg she scared me. So glad she's safe and nothing happened!! SOMEBODY GETTING FIRREDDDD,' referencing her famous quote from her I Am World Tour in 2010. What caused the malfunction? According to the Houston Chronicle, the car prop stopped working halfway through the song. Once she was safely back on the ground, Beyoncé briefly left the stage before returning to continue her set. A video posted on X showed her addressing the crowd afterward. 'If ever I fall, I know y'all would catch me,' she said, getting loud cheers in response. Despite the scare, the Cowboy Carter tour continued without further issues. Fans praised Beyoncé for handling the moment so gracefully and thanked the crew for ensuring her safety.
India Today
3 days ago
- Politics
- India Today
Cellphones banned across Texas schools to curb screen addiction, 5 million affected
Texas has become the first US state to impose a statewide mandatory ban on student cellphone use in public and charter schools, affecting more than 5 million students. Under House Bill 1481, all school districts must prohibit the use of personal communication devices during school must either ban devices entirely from school grounds or require students to secure them in lockers, backpacks, or magnetically locked pouches. Devices covered include smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, pagers, and similar gadgets, though those provided by schools are have 90 days from the law's effect to adopt and enforce policies. The bill, authored by State Rep. Caroline Fairly, R-Amarillo, was pitched as a means to boost young Texans' mental health.'The passage of HB 1481 marks an important step toward restoring focus and connection in our classrooms,' Fairly shared in a statement on Monday.'By creating a phone-free environment, we're giving teachers the tools to teach without disruption and students the space to learn, think critically, and engage with one another face-to-face," Fairly said."This bill puts education, not screen time, at the centre of the school day. I anticipate not only seeing major jumps in GPA's and test scores, but improvements in mental health and social wellbeing as well," Fairly FOCUS, MENTAL HEALTH AND BULLYINGProponents argue the ban is crucial to reclaim classroom focus and reduce screen-related mental health Representative Ellen Troxclair noted that excessive smartphone use has been tied to rising teen suicide rates, and students now receive over 20 notifications per hour in and educators alike have found that devices hamper attention and engagement.A Houston Chronicle editorial reported that schools using secure storage saw a 75% reduction in bullying incidents and a 13-point rise in test FOR MEDICAL AND SAFETY NEEDSThe law sets out clear exemptions for students who require devices for medical reasons or special education needs, provided these are supported by a physician's and some parents raised concerns about emergency communication, particularly recalling the tragic 2022 Uvalde shooting, where trapped pupils used phones to call for lawmakers addressed this by requiring that phones remain accessible in emergencies -- even if locked away during districts, such as Richardson ISD, report a marked improvement in teacher engagement, with 85% of educators agreeing that classroom time was reclaimed once phones were removed. Others, like Grandview ISD, employed locked pouches and witnessed students becoming more present and socially engaged during the school joins at least nine other states, including California and Arkansas, in moving to limit in-class cellphone use. With mounting evidence linking smartphone dependency to classroom disruption, states are embracing stricter districts fine-tune rules and tackle practicalities, Texas's bold step is likely to influence education policy elsewhere. The challenge now is to ensure smooth implementation without compromising student safety. Teachers, students, and parents will be watching closely as the new academic year begins.- Ends
New York Post
5 days ago
- General
- New York Post
Revolutionary War-era boat buried in Manhattan for over 200 years is being painstakingly rebuilt
ALBANY — Workers digging at Manhattan's World Trade Center site 15 years ago made an improbable discovery: sodden timbers from a boat built during the Revolutionary War that had been buried more than two centuries earlier. Now, over 600 pieces from the 50-foot (15-meter) vessel are being painstakingly put back together at the New York State Museum. After years on the water and centuries underground, the boat is becoming a museum exhibit. Advertisement 5 A conservator cleans a piece of wood from a Revolutionary War gunboat using steam. Houston Chronicle via Getty Images Arrayed like giant puzzle pieces on the museum floor, research assistants and volunteers recently spent weeks cleaning the timbers with picks and brushes before reconstruction could even begin. Though researchers believe the ship was a gunboat built in 1775 to defend Philadelphia, they still don't know all the places it traveled to or why it ended up apparently neglected along the Manhattan shore before ending up in a landfill around the 1790s. Advertisement 'The public can come and contemplate the mysteries around this ship,' said Michael Lucas, the museum's curator of historical archaeology. 'Because like anything from the past, we have pieces of information. We don't have the whole story.' From landfill to museum piece The rebuilding caps years of rescue and preservation work that began in July 2010 when a section of the boat was found 22 feet (7 meters) below street level. Curved timbers from the hull were discovered by a crew working on an underground parking facility at the World Trade Center site, near where the Twin Towers stood before the 9/11 attacks. The wood was muddy, but well preserved after centuries in the oxygen-poor earth. A previously constructed slurry wall went right through the boat, though timbers comprising about 30 feet (9 meters) of its rear and middle sections were carefully recovered. Advertisement Part of the bow was recovered the next summer on the other side of the subterranean wall. 5 Curved timbers from the hull were discovered by a crew working on an underground parking facility at the World Trade Center site, near where the Twin Towers stood before the 9/11 attacks. AP The timbers were shipped more than 1,400 miles (2,253 kilometers) to Texas A&M's Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation. Each of the 600 pieces underwent a three-dimensional scan and spent years in preservative fluids before being placed in a giant freeze-dryer to remove moisture. Then they were wrapped in more than a mile of foam and shipped to the state museum in Albany. Advertisement While the museum is 130 miles (209 kilometers) up the Hudson River from lower Manhattan, it boasts enough space to display the ship. The reconstruction work is being done in an exhibition space, so visitors can watch the weathered wooden skeleton slowly take the form of a partially reconstructed boat. Work is expected to finish around the end of the month, said Peter Fix, an associate research scientist at the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation who is overseeing the rebuilding. 5 The wood was muddy, but well preserved after centuries in the oxygen-poor earth. AP On a recent day, Lucas took time out to talk to passing museum visitors about the vessel and how it was found. Explaining the work taking place behind him, he told one group: 'Who would have thought in a million years, 'someday, this is going to be in a museum?'' A nautical mystery remains Researchers knew they found a boat under the streets of Manhattan. But what kind? Analysis of the timbers showed they came from trees cut down in the Philadelphia area in the early 1770s, pointing to the ship being built in a yard near the city. 5 Archaeologists excavating 18th-century ship at World Trade Center site. AP Advertisement 5 Each of the 600 pieces underwent a three-dimensional scan and spent years in preservative fluids before being placed in a giant freeze-dryer to remove moisture. Houston Chronicle via Getty Images It was probably built hastily. The wood is knotty, and timbers were fastened with iron spikes. That allowed for faster construction, though the metal corrodes over time in seawater. Researchers now hypothesize the boat was built in Philadelphia in the summer of 1775, months after the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. Thirteen gunboats were built that summer to protect Philadelphia from potential hostile forces coming up the Delaware River. The gunboats featured cannons pointing from their bows and could carry 30 or more men. 'They were really pushing, pushing, pushing to get these boats out there to stop any British that might start coming up the Delaware,' Fix said. Advertisement Historical records indicate at least one of those 13 gunboats was later taken by the British. And there is some evidence that the boat now being restored was used by the British, including a pewter button with '52' inscribed on it. That likely came from the uniform of soldier with the British Army's 52nd Regiment of Foot, which was active in the war. Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here! It's also possible that the vessel headed south to the Caribbean, where the British redirected thousands of troops during the war. Its timbers show signs of damage from mollusks known as shipworms, which are native to warmer waters. Still, it's unclear how the boat ended up in Manhattan and why it apparently spent years partially in the water along shore. Advertisement By the 1790s, it was out of commission and then covered over as part of a project to expand Manhattan farther out into the Hudson River. By that time, the mast and other parts of the Revolutionary War ship had apparently been stripped. 'It's an important piece of history,' Lucas said. 'It's also a nice artifact that you can really build a lot of stories around.'
The Hill
7 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Abbott vetoes Texas THC ban
In a dramatic last-minute move, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) vetoed a total ban on recreational cannabis that had been backed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), causing a rare rift between the state's top elected officials. Abbott signed the veto of Senate Bill 3 on Sunday just one hour before its deadline, calling for a special legislative session in mid-July to address the state's wild-west cannabis market. The move came one day after Abbott signed House Bill 46, which dramatically expanded the state's medical cannabis program to include a wide range of new conditions, put dispensaries across the state and allow the sale of new products such as vaporizers. Senate Bill 3, which passed last month after a bitterly contested fight, represented what the Houston Chronicle has called a 'civil war' between medical and recreational cannabis, in which medical — until Sunday — appeared to have won. In a Sunday statement, Patrick blasted the veto — and Abbott. 'His late-night veto, on an issue supported by 105 of 108 Republicans in the legislature, strongly backed by law enforcement, many in the medical and education communities, and the families who have seen their loved ones' lives destroyed by these very dangerous drugs, leaves them feeling abandoned,' Patrick said. But in his veto statement, Abbott, while pointing to many of the same issues, argued that while the measure was 'well-intentioned,' it would set back the cause of controlling the state's booming hemp market. The bill, he wrote, would not survive legal challenge, because the all-Republican 2018 Farm Bill — which legalized hemp and opened the door to the current thriving cannabis grey market cannabis — bans states from restricting the sale of hemp. 'It therefore criminalizes what Congress expressly realized and puts state and federal law on a collision course,' Abbott wrote. He noted that in the case of Arkansas, the only other state that has tried such a ban, a federal judge effectively blocked it. That, he argued, means that a total ban would, ironically, lead to no control at all. 'If Senate Bill 3 is swiftly enjoined by a court, our children will be no safer than if no law had passed, and the problems will only grow,' Abbott wrote. The legislature, he wrote, will get a chance to regulate the industry later this summer.
