A Bride Kidnapped Every 40 Minutes | Meet the DIY Democrats

Gazbubu Babaiarova, who lived through a kidnapping herself, is fighting to end her country’s outdated tradition.

With a bottle of vodka in hand, a Kyrgyzstani mother declares in earnest that they’ll be kidnapping a bride-to-be for her son in an hour or two. “We need her in the field,” she tells filmmaker Petr Lom, looking straight on. “The car is at the gate.” And so begins a bizarre scenario in which Lom gets a front-row seat to the big day, a kidnapping and marriage, and a glimpse at the ominous ever after.

More than a decade later, the 50-minute documentary, called Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan, is a crucial tool in Gazbubu Babaiarova’s arsenal in fighting for this so-called Kyrgyz tradition to be recognized as criminal human rights abuse.

Can GM’s bold CEO successfully steer the automaker through its latest storm?

Mary Barra might have the toughest job in corporate America right now. As mourners gathered on Wednesday to pay tribute to former U.S. President George H.W. Bush at the Washington National Cathedral before a front row filled with current and former American presidents, the chairman and CEO of General Motors made her way into closed-door meetings on Capitol Hill to face another sullen group of national leaders: the members of Congress whose constituencies will be the most impacted by GM’s recent announcement that it will halt production at five plants in North America next year and cut up to 15,000 jobs.

It was nearly 27 years ago that Bush made his way to Japan with then GM Chairman Robert Stempel to meet with Japanese leaders and business executives in an effort to open up markets and make American automobiles more competitive with surging Japanese imports. The trip ended with Bush vomiting his dinner into the Japanese prime minister’s lap. Meanwhile, GM and the other Big Three Detroit automakers continued to have their lunches eaten by their Japanese counterparts.

On their first play from scrimmage in Week 2 of the NFL season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers decided to show off. At its own 25-yard line, the team dialed up one of the aggressive vertical plays it so favors. Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick used play-action to fake a handoff and then unleashed a bomb to wide receiver DeSean Jackson. Jackson and the ball found one another 35 yards past the line of scrimmage, and the shifty wideout escorted it the remaining 40 yards to the end zone.

“I can’t say I was expecting that, Kenny!” Ronde Barber, part of FOX’s broadcast team, told his partner, Kenny Albert. Neither was Tampa Bay’s opponent, the Philadelphia Eagles.