Jerry Bishop, the voice of hit daytime courtroom show 'Judge Judy,' was also a Los Angeles radio host.

The second installment of ESPN's Michael Jordan documentary series tells the story of the birth of the Chicago Bulls' dynasty and its two star rebels.

Actress and former pinup Carmen Electra recalls her romance with Dennis Rodman in ESPN's "The Last Dance," about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.

Joe Davis, Alex Faust and Brian Sieman call games for L.A. sports teams. Like many others, their careers are on hold due to the coronavirus outbreak.

In 'Defending Jacob,' based on the book by William Landay, creator Mark Bomback takes on the 'murder gene.' We looked into the science behind it.

Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan rewrite the history of Hollywood in Netflix's "Hollywood," a progressive fantasy of motion pictures in 1947.

Will Smith, Alfonso Ribeiro and other "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" alumni saluted the late James Avery, a.k.a. Uncle Phil, during the cast's virtual reunion.

Beloved NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation," starring Amy Poehler, returned Thursday during the coronavirus outbreak for a special to benefit Feeding America.

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper announced on air that he is a father. His son, Wyatt, was born Monday.

RAITH ROVERS last night gave Dundee United the green light to open talks with their top managerial target Ray McKinnon.

Celtic boss Neil Lennon is trying to sign Dundee United striker Lawrence Shankland in the January transfer window, but the Hoops face a tough battle to sign the 24-year-old this month, amid competition from arch-rivals Rangers.

The ECB has announced a financial package to help cricket clubs amid the coronavirus crisis.

All the latest rumours and gossip coming out of Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

All the latest rumours and gossip coming out of Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

LIFE after death is real, according to a woman who astonishingly claims to have entered another dimension where she saw bright lights and her dead father.

CANCER be tricky to detect because you may not experience any symptoms in the initial stages and when you do, they can be confused with more benign conditions. An easily overlooked sign of cancer is a colour patch on your tongue.

PANCAKES are loved by many around Britain, but how can you make the fluffy pancakes which are beloved by the Queen?

Dan Ashworth has called for a major revolution of English football following the coronavirus pandemic.

Sebastian Vettel is out of contract later this year but Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto is eager to keep hold of him.

POPE BENEDICT is "making Francis' life a misery" as rumours of a major row between the two Vatican titans continue to boil, an expert has warned.

EVEN the best part of a week on, the incredible arrogance and disrespect towards the Queen from the Sussexes continues to reverberate.

UNIVERSAL CREDIT claims have surged in recent weeks, as Britons have begun to feel the impact of the coronavirus crisis. How do earnings affect payments?

GEORGE SOROS made a chilling warning about the state of global markets in 2012 that has fresh relevance today as world leaders grapple with the unprecedented challenge of rebuilding the post-coronavirus economy.

THE iconic gown Princess Diana wore to a state banquet at the White House in 1985 is currently being held in quarantine.

PRINCESS ANNE, 69, appeared in a video on the Royal Family Instagram to celebrate the International Day of the Midwife. A video of the Princess Royal, the Queen's only daughter, was posted to the IGTV of the account.

A recent IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear program was portrayed by most Western mainstream media and politicians as new proof Iran is close to building nuclear weapons. The US Senate passed sanctions on Iran targeting its central bank in response.

However, the report does not say what the mainstream media and politicians claim. It has been much more guarded and much of it is about the state of Iran’s program up to 2003. After that period, the report is much more uncertain. Furthermore, many experts contend that the speculations (not definitive proof) that are in the report are misguided, too, leaning on unreliable sources, for example.

This update to the page on Iran has more information about this. Although the page is long, look for the new section about half way down under the heading of Regurgitating old stories as new information to justify sanctions?

Read full article: Iran

An overview of the Climate Change Conference (also known as COP 17), held in Durban, South Africa in December 2011.

Predictably and sadly, the same issues have resurfaced: lack of media coverage, West stalling on doing anything trying to blame India and China instead, lack of funding, disagreement on how to address it, etc.

Geopolitical threats (real and imaginary) quickly focus a lot of political will and money is easily found to mobilize military forces when needed.

The economy also takes center stage as the current pressing issue, while climate change is easily deferred, in the hopes that the West can let China and India pick up the burden of addressing emissions even though they have not contributed to the historical build up of emissions that have started the recent changes in the climate.

This page is an overview of the Durban conference.

Read full article: COP17 - Durban Climate Conference

US campaign financing rules have been relaxed even further in recent years, making a worrying problem about the state of American democracy worse (because those with money have even more ability to try and buy votes or influence policy).

Media coverage of this issue, though it may pop up from time to time, seems quite limited. Perhaps because it is estimated that television stations this year could make as much as eight billion dollars from political campaigns.

The state of US mainstream media has unfortunately been lamentable for many years, and after the issues around hurricane Katrina, it was thought that the media would be rejuvenated. Unfortunately it does not seem that way.

This page has been updated with further information about campaign financing issues and how limits in the US have been lifted making the problem worse. Also added were notes on US press freedom, and an info graphic on media ownership concentration.

Read full article: Media in the United States

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) monitors global surface temperatures on an ongoing basis. Their analysis shows temperatures around the globe in 2011 compared to the average global temperature from the mid-20th century. The comparison shows how Earth continues to experience warmer temperatures than several decades ago.

Global temperatures have warmed significantly since 1880, the beginning of what scientists call the “modern record.” At this time, the coverage provided by weather stations allowed for essentially global temperature data. As greenhouse gas emissions from energy production, industry and vehicles have increased, temperatures have climbed, most notably since the late 1970s. In this animation of temperature data from 1880-2011, reds indicate temperatures higher than the average during a baseline period of 1951-1980, while blues indicate lower temperatures than the baseline average.

Click on the image to see the video:

Read full article: Global Temperature Anomaly, 1880 - 2011

Twenty years ago at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, countries adopted Agenda 21 — a blueprint to rethink economic growth, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection. Marking that anniversary, this year sees Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, with aims to get bold agreements to address things like poverty, sustainable development, decent jobs, etc.

This page provides coverage of recent events via Inter Press Service’s news feed.

Read full article: Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development

An overview of the Climate Change Conference (also known as COP 18), held in Doha, Qatar in December 2012.

Predictably and sadly, the same issues have resurfaced: lack of media coverage, West stalling on doing anything, lack of funding, disagreement on how to address it, etc.

This page is an overview of the Doha Climate conference. It also includes a feed of latest news stories from Inter Press Service’s coverage of the conference.

Read full article: COP18 - Doha Climate Conference

The latest data covering global arms sales shows that sale of arms in 2011 increased to around $85 billion, 84% of which went to developing countries. This was almost double the arms sales compared to 2010 which was the lowest since 2004.

One major factor for the increase was the US sales of arms to Saudi Arabia. Most other major arms sellers otherwise saw a decrease in sales and the trend in recent years had been declining sales.

The global financial crisis has affected many countries, and many developing countries started to see a decrease in purchases in the last few years. However, just 10 developing countries account for some 85% of all sales to developing countries in the period 2004 to 2011, which the data covers. Saudi Arabia tops that list followed by India and the United Arab Emirates. (As well as concerns about some of the regimes in the top buyers, some of this spending is also said to be due to modernizing efforts.)

Updated graphs and charts on arms sales data are provided here.

The arms trade is big business. The 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council (US, Russia, France, United Kingdom and China), together with Germany and Italy, account for approximately 85% of all arms sold between 2004 and 2011.

Some of the arms sold go to regimes where human rights violations will occur. Corruption often accompanies arms sales due to the large sums of money involved.

Read full article: The Arms Trade Is Big Business

A recent study found that coral reefs will face severe challenges even if average global warming temperature rise is restricted to 2 degrees Celsius. This is a rise that most countries are struggling to negotiate and meet. But reefs are very sensitive to temperature changes, experts fear the window of opportunity to prevent massive reef loss is very small.

Read full article: Nature and Animal Conservation

19% of the world’s reptiles are estimated to be threatened with extinction according to a study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Zoological Society of London. Reptiles include snakes, lizards, crocodiles, turtles and tortoises. But some species are at more risk than others. For example, freshwater turtles alone are at a 50% risk of extinction. Reasons vary, but include the usual suspects such as climate change and loss of habitat.

A recent study also estimated that some 100 million sharks are being killed each year — an unsustainable rate, given how long some species take to mature and reproduce. Much of the demand is driven by Chinese rising affluence and demand for shark fin soup in the mistaken belief it has various health benefits.

This small update to the biodiversity loss page has further details.

Read full article: Loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions

In recent years, global military expenditure has increased again and is now comparable to Cold War levels. Recent data shows global spending at over $1.7 trillion, despite the global economic conditions. It is still approximately 1% increase since 2008 when the financial crisis began, for example.

Not all nations have felt the impacts of the global financial crisis in the same way. Some have grown economically, including many Asian countries, which has allowed some of them to increase their military spending. There are geopolitical interests at stake for various powers, so economic troubles or not, military spending is seen as important to maintain, or at least to minimize possible reductions.

The highest military spender is the US accounting for 39% of the world’s spending, more than the next top 10 countries combined, and more than all its potential enemies, combined. But this represents a slight decline over previous years as other nations, especially China and Russia, increase their spending. At the same time, the US has reduced military spending for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, while Western Europe’s austerity programs affect their military spending budgets.

This update includes new and updated figures, graphs and charts exploring this further.

Read full article: World Military Spending

At the start of June 2013, a large number of documents detailing surveillance by intelligence agencies such as the US’s NSA and UK’s GCHQ started to be revealed, based on information supplied by NSA whistle blower, Edward Snowden.

These leaks revealed a massive surveillance program that included interception of email and other Internet communications and phone call tapping. Some of it appears illegal, while other revelations show the US spying on friendly nations during various international summits.

Unsurprisingly, there has been a lot of furor. While some countries are no doubt using this to win some diplomatic points, there has been an increase in tension with the US and other regions around the world.

Much of the US surveillance programs came from the aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the US in 2001. Concerns about a crackdown on civil rights in the wake of the so-called war on terror have been expressed for a long time, and these revelations seem to be confirming some of those fears.

Given the widespread collection of information, apparently from central servers of major Internet companies and from other core servers that form part of the Internet backbone, activities of millions (if not billions) of citizens have been caught up in a dragnet style surveillance problem called PRISM, even when the communication has nothing to do with terrorism.

What impacts would such secretive mass surveillance have on democracy?

Read full article: Surveillance State: NSA Spying and more

An overview of the Climate Change Conference (also known as COP 19), held in Warsaw, Poland in November 2013.

Predictably and sadly, the same issues have resurfaced: West stalling on doing anything, lack of funding, disagreement on priorities, etc.

This page is an overview of the Warsaw Climate conference and also includes a feed of latest news stories from Inter Press Service’s coverage of the conference.

Read full article: COP19 - Warsaw Climate Conference

Over 40 years ago, rich country governments agreed to give 0.7% of their GNI (Gross National Income) as official aid to poor countries for development assistance.

The average aid delivered each year has actually been between 0.2 to 0.4%. The shortfall has therefore accumulated to almost $5 trillion dollars at 2012 prices, while total aid delivered in that same time frame has reached $3.6 trillion.

This update includes updated charts and graphs that look into this further.

Read full article: Official global foreign aid shortfall: $4 trillion

An overview of the Climate Change Conference (also known as COP 20), held in Lima, Peru in December 2014.

While it seemed like it was a successful meeting, because developing nations were committed to drawing up their own plans for emissions reductions for the first time, a number of important issues were left undecided such as how financing would work.

This page is an overview of the Lima Climate conference.

Read full article: COP20—Lima Climate Conference

Recently released data showed that 2014 was the hottest year since records began in 1880.

This update includes updated charts and graphs and animations that look into this further.

Read full article: Climate Change and Global Warming Introduction

Rangers could be without Alfredo Morelos and Scott Arfield for their trip to play Hearts on Sunday.

David Moyes came close to joining Celtic on two occasions and has opens up on his quest to return to management.

THE next Fortnite live event is kicking off now and there's good news for UK gamers missing out on the Party Royale Concert.

QUEEN and Adam Lambert's tour has already been postponed until next year but Brian May has concerns for performing in a post-pandemic world.

JOHN LENNON revealed his least favourite Beatles song was one he "knocked off" from Elvis Presley.

The British Open has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Ryder Cup remains scheduled to take place in September despite other major golf tournaments being postponed.

UNIVERSAL CREDIT claims have soared in recent weeks, as Britons have begun to feel the financial impact of the coronavirus crisis. How much is Universal Credit? The amount depends on whether certain circumstances apply.

STATE PENSION age must be reached in order to get the state pension. It also marks the point at which some may be able to claim the means-tested benefit Pension Credit.

STATE PENSIONS are calculated by National Insurance contributions - but can you top up any missed years?