Ready to make amends? Months after Britney Spears and mom Lynne Spears got into a public squabble on social media, the princess of pop appears to be waving the white flag.

Despite rejecting her estranged mom’s apology earlier this year for her role in her conservatorship, going so far as to tell Lynne to “go f**k yourself,” Britney invited her to sit down for a much-needed one-on-one chat.

Britney offered her mom a sit down via the caption of yet another confusing Instagram post that featured her smirking at the camera while black eyeliner surrounds her eyes. The photo was taken from her bare shoulders up, though it appears that she was pushing her breasts together without a top or bra on — a pose that has become one of her favorites as of late.

‘GO F**K YOURSELF’: BRITNEY SPEARS SLAMS MOM LYNNE’S APOLOGY, TELLS HER DOCTORS TO ‘BURN IN HELL’

“Instagram doesn’t like posts of people revealing their bodies anymore so here’s a selfie of me in Mexico !!!” she began her caption, before addressing dad Jamie Spears and Lynne. “Mom and Dad … I crossed the border and I made it !!!”

Seemingly referring to the near 14-years she spent in the conservatorship, with her dad serving as the conservator of her estate until he was suspended in September 2021, Britney continued, “After no coffee for 15 years … Mom we can go have coffee together now !!! I’m treated as an equal … let’s have coffee and talk about it !!!”

Britney has savagely gone after her family for the alleged abuse she endured in her conservatorship ever since her bombshell testimony in June 2021.

Aside from accusing her dad of treating her like a dog, trying to kill her, spying on her and forcing her to take the mood stabilizing drug lithium against her will, Britney has gone after her mom for abandoning her in her time of need.

LYNNE SPEARS CLAPS BACK AT BRITNEY SPEARS’ ACCUSATIONS AFTER SINGER SHARES TEXT MESSAGE EXCHANGE FROM 2019 FACILITY

The “Toxic” songstress claimed Lynne could have helped her get a lawyer to free her from the legal bind if she really wanted, insisting the matriarch was actually “the one who gave [Jamie] the idea” for the conservatorship all those years ago.

Meanwhile, Lynne has claimed Britney was the one rejecting her and that they should talk face-to-face rather than go back and forth on social media. However, Britney wasn’t having it with her mom’s stance.

After the controversial mother figure apologized to her daughter in October for all of the “pain” she has been through, Britney told her to go “f**k” herself.

By Mohammad Yunus Yawar and Charlotte Greenfield

KABUL (Reuters) – Female university students in Afghanistan were turned away from campuses on Wednesday after the Taliban-run administration said women would be suspended from tertiary education.

The decision to bar women was announced on Tuesday evening in a letter to universities from the higher education ministry, drawing condemnation from foreign governments and the United Nations.

“We went to university, the Taliban were at the gate and told us ‘you are not allowed to enter the university until further notice’ … everyone was crying,” said Shaista, a business studies student at a private university in Kabul.

Students and Reuters witnesses said that the presence of security forces outside universities was higher than usual and female students were told to leave by armed Taliban forces, even if they were going to complete administrative tasks.

The bar on women students is likely to complicate the Taliban administration’s efforts to gain international recognition and to get rid of sanctions that are severely hampering the economy.

The U.N.’s mission in Afghanistan asked the Taliban-run administration to “immediately” revoke the decision.

It also urged the authorities to reopen girls’ schools beyond the sixth grade and “end all measures preventing women and girls from participating fully in daily public life”.

Hasti, a third-year political studies student, was preparing for her final exam scheduled for Wednesday when she heard the news, and spent the evening crying in front of her study materials instead.

“I have done my best to study, it is very hard for me, because right now I have to stop my studying and my goals are not achievable…. if the situation continues like this for women, it means women and girls are being buried alive,” she said.

MORE SANCTIONS POSSIBLE

A student at Kabul University said she initially managed to convince guards to allow her inside to collect her diploma as she had finished her final exams and qualified for her degree. But while inside security forces entered and told all women to leave, including those in the middle of exams, meaning she left empty handed.

At Nangahar University, in eastern Afghanistan, male medical students sitting an exam walked out in solidarity with their female classmates, shown in videos posted on social media and confirmed to Reuters by one of the male students. Several male professors at tertiary institutes around the country said on local television and Twitter that they were resigning.

According to the late Tuesday announcement, the decision was made by the Taliban administration’s cabinet.

Several Taliban officials, including the deputy foreign minister and administration spokesperson, have spoken out in favour of female education in recent months.

The Taliban’s supreme spiritual leader, based in the southern city of Kandahar, has the final say on major decisions.

Diplomatic and Taliban official sources have told Reuters the issue had been under discussion by the leadership.

“This decision had been anticipated for weeks, prompting some Western officials to start talking about additional sanctions and further economic restrictions,” said Graeme Smith, senior consultant at International Crisis Group.

“But the flood of outrage from the West will strengthen the resolve of the Taliban leadership, which defines itself as a bulwark against the outside world.”

Taliban leadership have said they want peaceful relations with the international community but that foreigners should not interfere in domestic affairs.

Most girls are unable to go to school beyond primary classes. The Taliban administration has said it was working on a plan for girls’ secondary education but has not given a time frame.

The administration made a surprise U-Turn on signals it would open all high-schools for girls in March.

(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar and Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Robert Birsel, Toby Chopra and Alex Richardson)

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Donald Trump paid no income tax during the final full year of his presidency as he reported a loss from his sprawling business interests, according to tax figures released by a congressional panel.

The records, released late on Tuesday by the Democratic-led House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee after a years-long fight, show that Trump’s income, and his tax liability, fluctuated dramatically during his four years in the White House.

The records cut against the Republican ex-president’s long-cultivated image as a successful businessman as he mounts another bid for the White House.

Trump and his wife, Melania, paid some form of tax during all four years, the documents showed, but were able to minimize their income taxes in several years as income from Trump’s businesses was more than offset by deductions and losses.

The committee questioned the legitimacy of some of those deductions, including one for $916 million, and members said on Tuesday the tax returns were short on details. The panel is expected to release redacted versions of his full returns in coming days.

Trump refused to make his tax returns public during his two presidential bids and his campaign for office, even though all other major-party presidential candidates have done so for decades.

The committee obtained the records after a years-long fight and voted on Tuesday to make them public.

A Trump spokesman said the release of the documents was politically motivated.

“If this injustice can happen to President Trump, it can happen to all Americans without cause,” Trump Organization spokesman Steven Cheung said on Wednesday.

Democrats on the panel said their review found that tax authorities did not properly scrutinize Trump’s complex tax returns to ensure accuracy.

Though the U.S. Internal Revenue Service is supposed to audit presidents’ tax returns each year, it did not do so until Democrats pressed for action in 2019.

The IRS assigned only one agent to the audit most of the time, the panel found, and did not examine some of the deductions claimed by Trump.

The IRS declined to comment.

Prior to taking office, Trump reported heavy losses for many years from his business to offset hundreds of millions of dollars in income, according to media reports and trial testimony about his finances.

The documents released by the committee showed that pattern continued during his time in the White House.

During that time Trump and his wife were liable for self-employment and household employment taxes. As a result, they paid a total of $3 million in taxes over those four years.

But deductions enabled them to minimize their income tax liability in several years.

In 2017, Trump and his wife reported adjusted gross income of negative $12.9 million, leading to a net income tax of $750, the records showed.

They reported adjusted gross income of $24.3 million in 2018 and paid a net tax of $1 million, while in 2019 they reported $4.4 million of income in 2019 and paid $134,000 in taxes.

In 2020, they reported a loss of $4.8 million and paid no net income tax.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan in WashingtonAdditional reporting by Doina Chiacu in WashingtonEditing by Scott Malone and Matthew Lewis)

By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) – The upstate New York city of Buffalo on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in state court accusing major gun manufacturers of fueling violence through irresponsible marketing and sales practices.

Defendants in the lawsuit include Smith & Wesson Brands Inc, Beretta USA Corp, Bushmaster Firearms Industries Inc, Colt’s Manufacturing Co LLC and Glock Inc. The city is seeking an unspecified money award to combat gun violence.

Bushmaster said in a statement that it had not fully reviewed the complaint but that “at first blush” it appeared “false.” The other companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The case appeared to be the first time a city has sued major gun companies under a 2021 New York law that allows lawsuits against gun makers and sellers for creating a “public nuisance” through their business practices.

Buffalo claims that the gun companies created such a nuisance by marketing practices that emphasize the high capacity and ease of concealing their products, appealing to people with criminal intent; deliberately supplying more guns than needed in the legitimate market; and failing to take steps to stop illegal sales.

“Defendants’ actions have created, maintained, or contributed to a condition in Buffalo that impacts the health and well being of us all,” the lawsuit said.

Buffalo was the site of a racially motivated mass shooting in May that killed 10 Black people at a grocery store. The shooter used a Bushmaster rifle.

New York City is currently pursuing a lawsuit against distributors under the state public nuisance law seeking to halt sales of so-called ghost guns, kits of components that allow buyers to construct finished guns without serial numbers of background checks.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)

Though King Charles III reportedly refused to pay for security for his son and daughter-in-law, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, it seems the newly-minted monarch is supposedly fine with paying for private protection for his brother, disgraced royal Prince Andrew.

Andrew, who was stripped of his royal patronages and military titles by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, earlier this year due to his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, will no longer be protected by London’s Metropolitan Police.

As a result, it seems like the King will fund private security for his sibling, a service that totals roughly $3 million per year.

KING CHARLES III REFUSED TO GIVE PRINCE HARRY HIS BLESSING TO MARRY MEGHAN MARKLE, BELIEVED SHE WASN’T ‘WORTHY OF THEIR FAMILY’: SOURCE

Despite refusing to pay for Harry and Meghan’s security while footing the bill for his brother’s, it seems Charles is still open to having his son and daughter-in-law in his life, even allegedly inviting the pair to his coronation next May.

“Harry is his son and His Majesty will always love him,” an insider close with the monarch spilled earlier this week, adding that he reportedly already extended an invitation to Harry and Meghan for the event next spring.

KING CHARLES III WILL INVITE PRINCE HARRY & MEGHAN MARKLE TO MAY CORONATION DESPITE TENSION: ‘THE DOOR WILL ALWAYS BE LEFT AJAR,’ SAYS SOURCE

“While things are difficult at the moment, the door will always be left ajar,” the source elaborated of their famously tense relationship.

Despite Charles’ purported willingness, it seems Harry’s older brother, Prince William, may have a different perspective on the matter, according to royal expert Angela Levin.

“It’s an important occasion and it can’t just be all about them [Harry and Meghan] — and if they do come it will be all about them. I think William will say, ‘Absolutely not you can not come,'” she explained, “He is the most annoyed about all of this and today once again they dragged him through the mud.”

The Telegraph previously reported on the purported payment for Andrew’s security.

Madonna kicked off the holiday season with a fancy Hanukkah dinner and celebration.

In photos and videos shared to her Instagram Story on Monday, December 19, the Queen of Pop, 64, danced around and banged on her dining room walls with her daughter Mercy James, 16, twins Estere and Stelle Ciccone, 10, and her son David Banda, 17— who wore a kippah to the occasion.

Madonna’s eldest children — Lourdes Leon, 26, and Rocco Ritchie, 22 — appeared to miss out on the exciting evening.

FANS APPALLED AFTER ‘QUEEN OF PHOTOSHOP’ MADONNA HOLDS BREASTS & FLAUNTS FIGURE IN LATEST SNAPS: ‘WHAT’S WRONG WITH HER?’

The “Material Girl” singer wished her followers a very “Happy Hanukkah” as she shared highlights of the family lighting the menorah and twirling around to festive songs.

While Madonna was born and raised a Catholic, she has dabbled in Kabbalah, also known as Jewish mysticism, throughout the years and has previously spoken out about her relationship with religion.

In 2007, Madonna joined other celebrity Kabbalah worshippers for a conference on Jewish mysticism in Tel Aviv, Israel, where they additionally celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, as OK! reported.

At the time, she raised a toast with former Israeli President Shimon Peres and declared herself an “ambassador for Judaism.”

In 2015, Madonna conducted an interview with The Independent and declared she does not identify as Jewish, or any specific religion, for that matter.

“No, I don’t affiliate myself with any specific religious group,” she explained at the time. “I connect to different ritualistic aspects of different belief systems, and I see the connecting thread between all religious beliefs.”

MADONNA BARELY COVERS NIPPLES IN LATEST STRIPPED DOWN SNAP: ‘EXPRESS YOURSELF DON’T REPRESS YOURSELF’

Madonna went on to confirm she had previously studied Kabbalah, occasionally observed Shabbat and even had a bar mitzvah for her son David, but has not specifically converted to Judaism.

“This appears like I’m Jewish, but these rituals are connected to what I describe as the Tree of Life consciousness and have more to do with the idea of being an Israelite, not Jewish,” she continued to explain to the Irish media outlet.

“The tribes of Israel existed before the religion of Judaism existed, so you have to do your history,” Madonna quipped. “So, am I Jewish? I mean, some people would say, well, you do a lot of things that Jews do, but I would say I do a lot of things that people did before Judaism existed. And I believe what I practice has to do with something deeper than religion, that it embodies all religions, including Judaism. And Christianity. And Islam.”