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When he was growing up in the Arkansas Delta, it might have been difficult to convince young DeKevious Wilson that he would one day be associated with a former president of the United States of America.

Through his pursuit of higher education and helping others, Wilson has achieved that distinction. He is one of 30 individuals selected as an Obama Foundation Scholar for the 2022-23 academic year.

A native of West Helena, Wilson earned a Master of Science degree in college student personnel from Arkansas Tech University in 2013. He selected ATU for graduate study, in part, because of an affinity for Russellville he developed spending summer days there with family members who live in the area.

There was a group of us, and we were looking at different graduate programs knowing we wanted to go into higher education, said Wilson. We didnt necessarily want to leave the state, but we wanted a good, competitive program. Arkansas Tech was it. Getting to know the professors, deans and building a tight-knit family with my cohort members helped a lot. It was a great experience.

That experience included the acquisition of techniques that aided Wilson as he went through the early years of his career, first as a higher education professional and later as a counselor for the South Side of Chicagos Youth Guidances Becoming A Man (BAM), a program that facilitates academic success and seeks to reduce violence among boys and young men of color.

Those theories that I acquired at Arkansas Tech really help me personalize the trajectory in which a particular student might go, said Wilson. Do we need to take a couple of steps back? Do we need to look further into other possibilities? Or, if I dont have the wherewithal, I know other individuals who can help in a particular area. That knowledge has helped me tremendously. I know for a fact it helped change the trajectory of the lives of students Ive worked with.

Knowing that I am able to put the student on a path that will allow them to find their own answer through their own decision-makingthats rewarding, continued Wilson. A lot of them dont realize they have autonomy and there are other options out there dealing with their social and emotional health.

Now that he has moved into an upper leadership role as a regional manager for the BAM program, Wilson is helping develop the policies that assist the young men under his organizations influence.

You wouldnt believe in 2022 we still deal with food deserts, said Wilson. There are still communities that dont have viable grocery stores where people can shop and get fresh produce and meats. Were dealing with communities that have been historically disenfranchised. Parents often work two-to-three jobs, so the oldest kid is the one who gets everyone else up, makes sure theres breakfast if they can and makes sure the little brother, little sister or cousin gets to school. There are young people who are great students, but they have to come to school late because they have to make sure little brother and little sister get to school safely.

Wilson cited access to reliable and quality health care as another common issue he sees among the young people he mentors.

Its a myriad of things these individuals are facing on a day-to-day basis, said Wilson. With the gun violence and gangssometimes thats the only family they have, and they only feel like they can be someone through that structure. This program gives them the opportunity to learn a new way to respond. These young men are human. When you get to know them, they want better for themselves and their family. A lot of them dont want to leave. They have to play a role in their families lives, but they want to be sustainable in that role.

Wilson is furthering his education by pursuing a masters degree in public policy at the University of Chicago.

Information from the Obama Foundation states the Obama Scholars program seeks to empower emerging leaders with a proven commitment to service with the tools they need to make their efforts more effective and impactful upon their return home.

For Wilson, home has dual meaning. Theres the home he has made in Chicago and the one back in Arkansas that always remains close to his heart.

Im a little boy from Helena-West Helena, Ark., said Wilson. To, one, be at the University of Chicago, and then to be honored as an Obama Scholarthe emotions were everywhere. By the same token, I was made for this. Its an accumulation of everything Ive done from Arkansas Boys State to Arkansas Governors School to all the things Ive doneeverything has prepared me for this moment. One thing the Obama Foundation is going to get from me is Southern hospitality and the life experiences I bring because of that.

I hope I can change and expand my view of how the world is constantly evolving and how were supposed to meet that mark, continued Wilson. I look forward to bringing that wealth of information back to my community here in Chicago as well as my home state of Arkansas. I will represent us with great dignity and Southern pride.

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ATU Alumnus Named Obama Foundation Scholar | Arkansas Tech University - ATU News

There is one long-standing question that has captured the imagination of humanity. Do aliens exist and if they do what do they look like.? For a really long time, many conspiracy theories dubbed Area 51 as a kind of a base that contained knowledge about extraterrestrial life. We still dont know what is the purpose of the base but Former US President Barack Obama may have given out Americas biggest secret to Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry.

Curry has met President Obama several times, and they seem to have become friends over the years. The duo has been spotted playing golf several times. And they even shot a commercial together, which went viral.

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And, incidentally, Obama may have revealed the secret about aliens to Curry.

After Obama left office in 2016, it was Donald Trump who became the next US president. Trump and Curry had a very viral Twitter war, and it appeared like the duo did not see eye to eye. But Curry was a good friend of Obama and the two would often chat. They even played golf together.

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Kim Kardashian, Lindsay Lohan and the NBA World Gets Sentimental as StephenCurrys Wife Shares Heartwarming Photo of Her Munchkins

about 22 hours ago

And at one such time when the two were golfing at Mar-a-Lago, Obama seemingly revealed one of the biggest kept secrets of the world. After a shot, he turned to Curry and said, You wont believe what the aliens look like.

There is no proof to back up Obamas statement, but when a former president of arguably the most powerful country in the world talks about aliens, there can definitely be some merit to it. However, many would argue that the 44th POTUS was just cracking a joke on popular stereotypes.

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Another time, Obama gave Curry a stern message to Curry. This was after Curry went on a podcast and claimed that the moon landing was fake. He got a pretty intense mail from the former president and he asked Curry to make it right. And in turn, Curry went on Instagram and chatted with his millions of fans and cleared the air.

Curry has spoken highly about President Obama and the impact he has had on his life and on the country. Obama is also a fan of Curry and often raves about his shooting ability.

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WATCH THIS STORY: Is Stephen Curry a billionaire?

The two seem to be good friends and Obama even went as far as to reveal what might be Americas biggest secret to the Dubs superstar.

More here:
Does the US Government Know About Aliens? Barack Obama Seemingly Told Stephen Curry about Americas Biggest Secret - EssentiallySports

The Queen met a host of famous faces during the course of her 70 year reign, including numerous presidents and heads of state. During her 90th birthday, she received a visit from former US President Barack Obama and his wife.

During their three day visit, Barack and Michelle met Prince Harry and The Prince and Princess of Wales (formerly The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) at Kensington Palace for dinner.

Little George, who was only a few years old, stayed up past his bedtime to greet the former US President and the First Lady whilst wearing his dressing gown.

READ NEXT: The Queen's death: Is Camilla the Queen now Charles has become King?

Official photographs show the Obama's crouching down to shake George's hand, as well as smiling as they watch him play with his rocking horse.

A month later, Barack fondly recalled the moment he met Prince George during the US President's final Correspondents' Dinner in May 2016.

He jokingly said: "Last week, Prince George showed up to our meeting in his bathrobe.... That was a slap in the face. A clear breach of protocol."

Prince George has met quite a few legendary figures over the past few years, including tennis ace Roger Federer when he was only a few years old.

The Princess of Wales was rumoured to have arranged a tennis lesson for Prince George when he was only five with the multiple Grand Slam Champion.

So much so, Prince George attended the Wimbledon Men's Singles Final this year with his parents to watch Novak Djokovic win his seventh title.

For all the latest updates following the Queen's death, follow our live blog here.Want more from MyLondon? Sign up to our daily newsletters for all the latest and greatest from across London here.

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The cute moment US President Obama met Prince George in a dressing gown - My London

The former Obama White House official who negotiated the reopening of relations with Cuba is sharply criticizing President Bidens policies toward that country, saying his administration is gaslighting Havana by maintaining and even expanding harsh sanctions imposed by former President Trump.

Disappointed doesnt begin to scratch the surface of how I feel about the Biden-Cuba policy, said Ben Rhodes, who served as Obamas deputy national security adviser, in an interview for the Yahoo News Conspiracyland podcast. The Cuban government made an agreement with me based on the idea that they could trust that we would keep our agreement.

Granted it was Trump who initially reversed Obamas policy of normalizing relations with Cuba, he added. But then Biden doubles down on Trump policies, Rhodes said.

Why would any Cuban official ever, ever negotiate anything with America ever again after this? We had Trump in the most grotesque, callous way politicizing this. But then to have a Democratic administration legitimize what Trump did by continuing it its a gaslighting to those people in Cuba, you know?

Ben Rhodes announces that President Barack Obama will be the first U.S. president since Calvin Coolidge in 1928 to visit Cuba, in a daily briefing at the White House on Feb. 18, 2016. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Rhodess comments some of the strongest criticism yet of Biden from a senior Obama official were disputed by a White House national security spokesperson.

President Bidens policy toward Cuba is rooted in supporting the Cuban people and protecting human rights. Our approach to Cuba, just like any other country, takes into account various current political, economic, and security factors, the spokesperson said.

Over the past few years, conditions in Cuba and in the region have changed, and we have adapted our Cuba policy accordingly.

The U.S. and Cuba have been at odds since 1959, when Fidel Castro took control of the island nation and installed a communist government closely aligned with the Soviet Union. In the decades that followed, millions of Cuban refugees settled in the U.S., and Cuban Americans became a key voting bloc in states like Florida.

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President Biden meets with Cuban American leaders in the State Dining Room at the White House on July 30, 2021. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

The Obama administration normalized relations with Havana, an effort that was overseen by Rhodes and culminated in Obamas visit to Cuba in March 2016. The thaw was short-lived, however: When Trump entered office in 2017, he quickly reversed many of his predecessors policies toward Cuba, citing the emergence of Havana syndrome a collection of odd symptoms, such as dizziness, vertigo, headaches and in some cases brain injuries originally reported by some U.S. officials in Cuba and later by American diplomats and spies serving all over the world.

Subscribe to 'Conspiracyland' on Apple Podcasts

The new three-part podcast from Conspiracyland, entitled The Strange Story of Havana Syndrome, recounts in its first episode how the reports of Havana syndrome ailments set off a chain of events that led to a reversal of Obamas policy. After the initial reports of strange health symptoms surfaced in 2017, the Trump administration pulled most U.S. diplomats out of Cuba and accused the countrys government of launching targeted attacks against U.S. personnel charges that were widely reported in the news media but which U.S. officials no longer endorse, as the podcast reveals.

Cuban President Raul Castro, right, lifts up the arm of Obama, at the conclusion of their joint news conference at the Palace of the Revolution, in Havana, Cuba, on March 21, 2016 . (Ramon Espinosa/AP)

Until recently, the Biden administration had maintained many of the tight restrictions Trump had reimposed on Cuba and even expanded some sanctions still in place, targeting the chief of Cubas Interior Ministry over his role in cracking down on hundreds of Cubans who protested economic conditions last year. (It also refused to invite Cuba to last Junes Summit of the Americas conference in Los Angeles, hosted by Biden.)

Cubas communist government denounced Bidens moves, saying they had harshly punished the countrys economy during the COVID epidemic and contributed to shortages of food and medicine. There is no difference between Bidens and Trumps policy toward Cuba, Johana Ruth Tablada de la Torre, the deputy director for U.S. affairs at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, says in an interview for the Conspiracyland podcast, adding that what the U.S. is doing to Cuba is criminal.

Cuban-American demonstrators call for the U.S. to support protesters in Cuba during a demonstration in Lafayette Park, across from the White House, in Washington on July 26, 2021. (Jim Bourg/Reuters)

Also interviewed in the Conspiracyland podcast is Brian Nichols, assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, who blamed the Cuban government for the countrys economic woes. Until the Cuban regime decides to embrace democracy and free markets, I think its gonna be nigh-on-impossible for them to improve the situation there he said.

Nichols was also asked about the Biden administrations refusal to invite Cuba to this years Summit of the Americas conference, a rebuke that prompted leaders of Mexico, Bolivia and Honduras to boycott the event.

The host has wide latitude to determine whom they will invite, said Nichols. Although Cuban leaders have been invited in the past, since that time, they have made no progress toward increasing their respect for democracy, human rights, or the rule of law. So, clearly, allowing them to participate did not prompt better behavior on their part.

Cover thumbnail photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters, Jim Bourg/Reuters

Excerpt from:
Former top Obama aide accuses Biden of 'gaslighting' Cuba: 'Disappointed doesn't begin to scratch the surface' - Yahoo News

Michelle Obamas national voting initiative is teaming up with a climate group in an effort to mobilize young voters on the issue of climate change ahead of the midterms, The Hill has learned.

Obamas initiative, When We All Vote, is joining environmental organization Climate Power on the effort, which will total at least $1 million.

About $200,000 of that will be spent on voter registration, while the rest is expected to be spent on advertising.

The effort is anticipated to specifically home in on the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats climate, tax and health care bill enacted last month.

With passage of the Inflation Reduction Acts historic investments in climate action, we have an unprecedented opportunity to motivate young people to turn out to the polls,Lori Lodes, Climate Powers executive director, said in a statement.

The voting effort will include a website that allows people to check their voter registration, find their polling place and pledge to vote this year.

Obama launched When We All Vote in 2018. The organization is a nonpartisan organization that aims to increase voter participation in elections, according to its website. Other co-chairs of the organization includeStephen Curry, Selena Gomez, Tom Hanks, Jennifer Lopez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Shonda Rhimes andKerry Washington.

Climate Power was founded by other climate and liberal groups: theCenter for American Progress Action Fund, League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club.

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Michelle Obama organization teams up with climate group to mobilize young voters - The Hill