Last week’s surprise release of a draft Ukraine war peace plan has raised hopes that the nearly three-year bloody conflict may finally come to an end. Ukraine has suffered horrible losses that may change the demographics of that country for decades to come. If this peace plan can be negotiated in a way that satisfies …

Maybe leaving out your biggest stars wasn’t the right move after all. The 2025 Country Music Association Awards were last week, and credit where it’s due, it was actually one of the better shows we’ve seen in recent memory. Other than an awful collab between BigXthaPlug and Luke Combs, the performances were all pretty good, and the show actually highlighted some up-and-coming artists who were deserving of the attention while also paying tribute to legends like Vince Gill. But unfortunately for the CMA Awards, much of the conversation surrounding the show centered on who WASN’T there instead of those who were at Bridgestone Arena. The biggest name that was notably absent was, of course, Morgan Wallen. He’s the biggest artist in the genre by far, but he’s had a strained relationship with the awards show since being banned back in 2021 and leaving empty-handed in both 2022 and 2023. In 2024, Morgan finally won Entertainer of the Year, and deservedly so after dominating country music for a couple of years at that point, but by then the damage was done: Morgan wasn’t even in attendance to collect the award, and he hasn’t mentioned it in the year since. He did, however, take a not-so-thinly veiled shot at the awards show recently during a surprise appearance with Ella Langley at the Ryman Auditorium, when he told the crowd it “takes a lot more than an awards show” to get him to Broadway in downtown Nashville these days. Morgan wasn’t the only one who wasn’t in attendance either: Jason Aldean and his wife, Brittany, were in Miami during the awards show, with Brittany commenting that they didn’t feel the need to be there since Jason has never gotten much love from the CMA Awards. Jelly Roll was another artist who was noticeably absent from both the show and the nominations, after being nominated for both Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year in 2024. He didn’t give a reason for not being there, and he’s been open about his mental health struggles and illness while on a recent tour in Australia so maybe he was just staying home to recover, but nonetheless it felt like a big absence from one of country’s hottest names right now. The list goes on an on: There was no Eric Church, Reba, Carrie Underwood, or even Luke Bryan, who has hosted the show the past few years. And of course there was no Turnpike Troubadours, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Muscadine Bloodline, or countless other artists who draw massive crowds despite not getting any mainstream attention. And whether you’re a fan of their music or not, it’s hard to deny that it hurts not only the credibility of the awards shows but also their ratings when fans can’t tune in to see the biggest artists in the genre. The ratings for the CMA Awards have been slipping the past few years, bottoming out at a new low last year of only 6.1 million viewers after peaking at 16.1 million viewers back in 2014, just over a decade ago. And this year the show once again hit a new low, drawing around 6.04 million viewers on ABC. Now, this was still the most-watched show in the timeslot, so there’s no arguing that the awards aren’t relevant or that they’re not still a massive draw for country fans. And the show was also made available to stream on Hulu the next day, so the dip in viewership could partly be attributed to people waiting until the following day instead of watching live. But it also seems to be a troubling side effect of leaving out country music’s biggest stars. We saw a ton of comments from folks wondering where Morgan Wallen was, and why the biggest name in country music wasn’t performing at the show, much less winning any awards. It seems like country fans are increasingly tuning out, even after the show has seemed to slow down on the gimmicks like pop collabs and random celebrities telling corny jokes that caused a massive decrease in ratings over the last decade. And when fans aren’t able to tune in to see their favorite artists, can you really blame them?The post CMA Awards Hit Another All-Time Ratings Low In 2025 first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

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Black Trauma Oscars - Ron Taylor stand-up comedy

The Kansas City Star ran a commentary this week urging Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene not to resign from Congress, arguing that she shouldn't let Donald Trump bully her out of her seat. It was a thoughtful piece and made a fair point: A president shouldn't intimidate any member of Congress, and women in power shouldn't be treated the way Trump has treated them. But I disagree with the column's larger premise. Greene isn't leaving because of pressure alone. She's leaving because she finally realized two things at once: She couldn't accomplish anything more in Congress, and her family mattered more than another year of political combat. And underneath all that is a deeper, older lesson she is now learning the hard way — no one rides a tiger and decides when to get off. Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readers-opinion/guest-commentary/article313105341.html#storylink=cpy

If you have ever watched a raccoon confidently tiptoe across a fence or dive into a trash bin like it owns the place and felt utter delight, you might be thrilled to learn that new research has found these little bandits are cooking up new ways to melt our hearts…including picking up physical traits we associate with pets.Scientists say city raccoons may be showing early signs of domestication, an idea that first sparked Raffaela Lesch, a zoologist at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, when she tossed a can into a campus bin. Instead of the usual metallic clank, she heard a muted thud. Then a raccoon head popped out—comfortably, fearlessly. Something a bit out of character for a “wild” animal. “I wanted to know if living in a city environment would kickstart domestication processes in animals that are currently not domesticated,” Lesch said in a statement. “Would raccoons be on the pathway to domestication just by hanging out in close proximity to humans?”Inspired, Lesch and her students examined almost 20,000 photos of raccoons uploaded to iNaturalist. Out of those, they focused on 249 perfect side-profile images and made a lovely discovery: urban raccoons’ snouts were shorter than those of rural raccoons. What shorter snouts (and human garbage) have to do with domestication Urban raccoons have shorter snouts than rural ones, study shows. scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net Shorter snouts are part of what scientists call “domestication syndrome,” a bundle of physical traits that tend to appear when a species becomes more comfortable living alongside humans. Floppy ears, white patches of fur, and generally calmer behavior all fall into this category. For a species often nicknamed “trash panda,” it makes sense that their own personal domestication journey began with cozying up to our dumpsters, not their shortened snouts. This of course is not unique only to raccoons. It’s a strategy that wolves picked up a long time ago before they became dogs.Trash, it seems, really is the “kickstarter” for domestication, as Lesch put it. “All [animals] have to do is endure our presence, not be aggressive, and then they can feast on anything we throw away.” @cbctoronto Rafaela Lesch co-authoured a study that looked into the domestication of raccoons. They found raccoons' snouts are shrinking, which are a key indicator that domestication is underway. #Animals #Raccoons #Research #News #Toronto ♬ original sound - CBC Toronto However, before you hop onto PetSmart looking for raccoon- specific chew toys, researchers emphasize that this pet-ification process would still be in its earliest stages, if it is happening at all. After all, raccoons are not pack animals like dogs or sheep. But they are adaptable, social, and remarkably clever…so no one is ruling it out entirely. Whether this leads to actual domestication is still unknown, but the early signs are intriguing.People already want the raccoon adoption hotline numberOnce the study hit social platforms, enthusiasm skyrocketed.“All I heard is I'm gonna have a pet raccoon eventually,” one TikTok user wrote. “I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE FOR THE RACCOON DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM,” said another.And on Instagram, someone echoed, “Does anybody know when the raccoon distribution system goes live? I am very interested in this new pet.”A future with floppy-eared trash pandas?Evil Smile Evil GIFfrom Evil Smile GIFs Lesch says the real excitement comes from observing what might be the beginning of a long evolutionary story. As she put it, “We get to explore this story while it is in its beginning stages.”Of course, while we may long for the day when the phrase “good boy” applies not just to dogs but to the masked little neighbors raiding our bins at night, signs of their further domestication aren't entirely wholesome. For one thing, this behavior is a direct result of habitat loss, which isn't good. Furthermore, increased familiarity can put both animals and humans in harm's way. Overconfidence around people can also lead to higher chances of vehicle collisions or conflict if animals start expecting food near homes. Animals that adapt too closely to human environments can also disrupt local ecosystems by changing their feeding patterns or crowding out other species. Point being: yes the possibility of living out one's Disney-coded fantasy of having a raccoon familiar is closer than ever. But in the end, the best thing we can do for them is protect the wildness that makes them so endlessly fascinating in the first place.