New (Virtual) Realities for Terminally Ill Kids

From WeChat campaigns to Mandarin debates, candidates are targeting the country’s fastest-growing immigrant community like never before.

When the Australian state of New South Wales voted for its government in March, pollsters were predicting a victory for the Labor Party, with its state leader Michael Daley expected to become its next premier. But a video that emerged showing Daley accusing Asian-Australians of taking away the jobs of “our young people” changed the electoral math. The party lost to the incumbent Liberal Party, including in Labor bastions in Chinese-Australian-dominated suburbs of Sydney. Labor leaders publicly blamed the video. The episode was a reminder of the growing political clout of the Chinese-Australian community that’s the country’s fastest-growing major ethnic group.

Players are taking on side hustles because their salaries are less than even the much-maligned referees.

The debate didn’t begin with Liz Cambage, but the MVP runner-up and Dallas Wings center certainly put it more succinctly than anyone had before. Cambage is expected to sit out the 2019 WNBA season, which tips off this month, in part because of her displeasure with the working conditions, as well as her trade request not being fulfilled. People are used to NBA players getting sky-high salaries, but her reference to the men (and women) in stripes was a stunning — yet accurate — point. The highest salary for a WNBA player is less than the minimum salary of an NBA referee.

Child of the Earth tells a heartwarming story about the final stages of life and the resilience of humanity in under 12 minutes.

Seventeen-year-old Kevin Flores sits on his living room sofa hooked up to a breathing machine. He inhales and exhales slowly as he absorbs albuterol to help him have a productive cough. The machine whirs and vibrates, shaking the mucus from his lungs.

This is a typical day for Kevin. He has advanced cystic fibrosis, an inherited condition that affects the mucus glands in his body, making it difficult to breathe on his own. He can’t play outside or exert himself, and when he does leave the house, he’s confined to a wheelchair. But last year, Kevin had an experience that not many kids his age do. He got to go to space … through the power of virtual reality.