WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden will lay out plans on Thursday to ask Congress for $37 billion for crime prevention programs as he seeks to address one of the top concerns among Americans ahead of congressional elections in November.

Biden will outline details of his Safer America Plan in a visit to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The $37 billion will be included in his budget request to Congress for fiscal 2023, which begins Oct. 1.

His plans include $13 billion over the next five years to hire and train an additional 100,000 police officers, a White House fact sheet said.

Biden has long rejected some progressive Democrats’ drive to “defund the police.” Polls show Americans consider crime one of the top challenges facing the country, and Biden is attempting to bolster Democrats in what are expected to be closely fought midterm elections in November that will determine whether they remain in control of Congress.

Biden would spend $3 billion to help communities clear court backlogs and set up task forces to share intelligence, with an eye toward reducing gun violence. His plan would also impose tougher penalties for fentanyl trafficking amid an epidemic of drug overdoses.

To tackle organized retail theft, the plan calls on Congress to pass legislation to require online marketplaces like Amazon to verify third-party sellers’ information, and to impose liability on online marketplaces for the sale of stolen goods on their platforms.

Biden’s plan establishes a $15 billion grant program called Accelerating Justice System Reform that cities and states could use over the next 10 years to pursue strategies to prevent violent crime and to ease the burden on police by identifying non-violent situations that may merit a public-health response, the White House said.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Lizzo hopes her Yitty brand will make fashion more inclusive for plus-size women.

The 34-year-old singer revealed that while she is happy to have her clothes custom made, she wants to make the world of fashion accessible for everyone, not only those who can afford to spend more on clothing.

She told Elle UK: “I’ve had a lot of shoots with people making outfits from scratch for me. And I’m not mad at it. Thank you. But what about the millions of people who are my size or bigger who can’t get access to chic and glamorous clothing? I don’t want to be the token big girl for the fashion world. I want to open the door. I want this for everybody.”

And Lizzo said shapewear was the obvious place to start.

She explained: “More than any piece of clothing, shapewear can make people feel ways about their bodies and, most of the time, it’s bad. I want to revolutionise shapewear. I want to change how people think when they hear the word ‘snatched’. I don’t want people to ever have to deal with a girdle again in their lives.”

While Lizzo is now happy with her body, she admitted it took time, and the support of her friends, for her to accept herself.

She said: “In doing the fake it till you make it method, I began attracting a lot of people who thought I was beautiful. In the past, a lot of people were my friend because they knew that having me around would make them feel better about themselves. But [my best friend] genuinely thought I was beautiful and helped me believe it and say it out loud.

“I was like, ‘Oh no, my [beauty] is real.’ And I think that’s an important thing. You start attracting people who see you the way you see yourself. Anyone around you is going to notice you how you view yourself.”

Steven Soderbergh has revealed that ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ is inspired by the stage show.

The 59-year-old director is returning to helm the third film in the ‘Magic Mike’ franchise – billed as the final movie for Channing Tatum’s stripper Mike Lane – and explained that the theatre show has influenced the flick.

Speaking to Variety, Steven said: “The movie is sort of a fictionalised procedural on how Mike comes up with the idea of a show – and then the obstacles, of which there are many, to trying to realise his vision of what this new thing could be.

“It’s a variation of ‘All That Jazz’.”

‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ is set to premiere on the streaming service HBO Max but Steven suggested that it could still have a run in the cinema.

The ‘Traffic’ director said: “We’re talking about it.

“It’s certainly hard to argue that this isn’t a movie that’s best seen in a theatre, because we have the data. People, primarily women, were going in packs, in large groups, to see the ‘Magic Mike’ movies.”

Steven revealed that ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ is likely to be the final film in the series but suggested that spin-offs could be developed with characters other than Mike Lane.

He explained: “I think there are other things to be done within what I consider now to be a larger ‘Magic Mike’ universe.

“There are stories that can be told that have the same sort of ethos and are tackling the same subjects that still involve dance but don’t have Mike Lane in them.”

The film’s production hit a rocky patch when Thandiwe Newton was replaced by Salma Hayek after shooting began but Steven says the actress has been a capable member of the cast.

Soderbergh said: “I hadn’t seen Salma in 22 years after she did a little bit part in ‘Traffic’.

“She just brings so much to the table. Anybody that spent any amount of time with Salma will see that there is so much of Salma in this movie.”

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – During weeks of hearings about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Donald Trump’s supporters, Republican Representative Liz Cheney has sat shoulder-to-shoulder with Democrats eager to portray the former president as a danger to democracy.

Her role as vice chair of the congressional panel investigating the 2021 assault has won her national praise from Trump critics on both sides of the political aisle, amid mounting evidence that the former president sought to remain in power by spreading falsehoods about a stolen 2020 election.

“President Trump is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices,” Cheney said at a Jan. 6 committee hearing last week.

But after the committee’s upcoming hearing on Thursday, Cheney will learn whether voters back home in Wyoming view her opposition to Trump as a principled stand against lies and insurrection, or as an unwarranted act of disloyalty to their party’s charismatic leader.

Of the nine lawmakers on the Jan. 6 committee, Cheney is one of just two Republicans and the only one seeking reelection. Her fate will become plain on Aug. 16, when deep red Wyoming holds a Republican primary election that will effectively choose the state’s next member of the House of Representatives.

The 55-year-old daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney is Trump’s biggest midterm election target in a revenge campaign against perceived enemies in the Republican Party.

Despite a campaign cash advantage of more than $5.5 million, she is trailing Trump-backed Republican challenger Harriet Hageman by more than 20 points in opinion polls and has had to appeal to voters outside the Republican Party, including Democrats, to switch parties and vote for her in the primary.

Cheney’s opposition to Trump has led to her ouster from the House Republican leadership, a Republican National Committee censure and a decision by the Wyoming Republican Party to no longer recognize her as a member.

“Instead of fighting for us, she’s fighting against President Trump. She betrayed us. She betrayed our values,” a Hageman campaign ad says of Cheney.

COUNTRY FIRST

Trump won 70% of the vote in Wyoming in 2020, his biggest margin among U.S. states. Cheney, a three-term incumbent who has voted in line with Trump 92.9% of the time, polled just below the 70% mark.

This time, as she weathers attacks from a Trump-backed Super PAC and the conservative Club for Growth group, Cheney is still hoping to win the day with her vow to put duty to the U.S. Constitution and the national interest above party loyalty.

A recent poll for the Casper Star-Tribune put her support at 30%, vs. 52% for Hageman. The winner of the primary will almost certainly be elected to Congress in November.

“Even people who dislike Liz Cheney, even people who are going to vote against her, will tell you that they are impressed with somebody willing to stand up on their convictions, so much so that they risk their political career,” said state Representative Landon Brown, a member of the Cheney campaign’s state leadership team.

“The only thing people can’t get past is this Donald Trump discussion,” he added.

Cheney’s best hope is to draw a large turnout from a coalition of voters including independent-minded Republicans from cities such as Cheyenne, Casper and Gillette, according to political analysts and her own supporters.

“There is one path to victory. I think it’s narrow, and I think it’s uphill. But I think there is one,” said Tim Stubson, a former state legislator who lost his bid for Congress to her in the 2016 Republican primary.

Her defeat would mean a symbolic win for Trump, as he considers whether to run for the White House again in 2024.

But Elaine Kamarck, a Brookings Institution senior fellow, said Cheney could still emerge victorious over the former president as part of the Jan. 6 committee, even if she loses reelection next month.

“The one thing they’re doing is convincing people that Donald Trump should not be president again. And I think Cheney is achieving that objective,” said Kamarck, who cited recent polling data showing that a large number of Republican voters want someone else for president in 2024.

Many also believe that Cheney will launch her own presidential campaign, if she loses next month in Wyoming.

“The fringe right and the fringe left all hate her. But you’ve got this overwhelming, massive majority of people in the center who believe that what she’s doing is the right thing,” Brown said. “Frankly, it’s the type of person that we need in the White House.”

(Reporting by David Morgan, additional reporting by Rose Horowitch; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)

The environmental organization Greenpeace says that Germany will be under Russia’s thumb until it decides to phase out its gas consumption altogether.

“No one should be reassured” by the fact that Russian gas is flowing to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline again after a 10-day beak for maintenance work, said Greenpeace’s Reenie Vietheer.

“There is only security from (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s power games with fossil energies by phasing out gas as quickly as possible,” aid Viethier.

The head of Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND), Olaf Bandt, said that though gas was flowing again, “the problems for autumn remain. The situation painfully demonstrates how heavily we depend on fossil fuels, first and foremost natural gas.”

Even in the city that never sleeps, some periods have been more vibrant than others.

Manhattan’s Jewish Museum is now putting the spotlight on the time between 1962 and 1964, “a pivotal three-year period in the history of art and culture in New York City.”

Dubbed “New York: 1962-1964,” the exhibit showcases paintings and sculptures by artists like Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Nancy Grossman alongside everyday objects from the period like TVs, furniture and jukeboxes.

The show examines “how artists living and working in New York responded to their rapidly changing world,” marked by events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 which culminated in Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, and the assassination of then President John F. Kennedy that same year.

According to the museum, this is the last exhibition conceived and curated by late Italian art historian Germano Celant, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 79 after contracting coronavirus.

Ricky Martin has come out victorious in his battle against his nephew, who accused the superstar of harassing him following a torrid affair. Radar can confirm that Martin’s nephew dismissed the allegations; therefore, the judge has dropped the temporary restraining order against the singer.

Martin’s attorneys, Joaquín Monserrate Matienzo, Carmelo Dávila and Harry Massanet Pastrana, tell RadarOnline.com, “Just as we had anticipated, the temporary protection order was not extended by the Court. The accuser confirmed to the court that his decision to dismiss the matter was his alone, without any outside influence or pressure, and the accuser confirmed he was satisfied with his legal representation in the matter.”

They continue, “The request came from the accuser asking to dismiss the case. This was never anything more than a troubled individual making false allegations with absolutely nothing to substantiate them. We are glad that our client saw justice done and can now move forward with his life and his career.”

New York (AFP) – Amazon is buying US primary health care provider One Medical for $3.9 billion, the companies announced Thursday, in a big step for the online retail giant’s move into the medical sector.

The massive firm has steadily gone far beyond e-commerce, and earlier this year said its telemedicine service was expanding nationwide in the United States.

“We think health care is high on the list of experiences that need reinvention,” said Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services.

“We see lots of opportunity to both improve the quality of the experience and give people back valuable time in their days,” he added.

One Medical, which has a network of primary care practices across the United States as well as telemedicine services, has grown to 767,000 members, according to its latest results.

“There is an immense opportunity to make the health care experience more accessible, affordable, and even enjoyable for patients,” said One Medical CEO Amir Dan Rubin.

The acquisition further grows Amazon’s broader ambitions, which expanded from its origins in e-commerce to streaming media, cloud computing, robotics, artificial intelligence and groceries.

Like other big tech firms, its ubiquity and size have drawn scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers concerned about things like privacy and fair competition.

Amazon’s deepening health push

Tech world observers were quick to reflect some of the discomfort over Amazon’s broad involvement in people’s lives.

“I think it will be really helpful if my doctor can look at my package order history and the food I get at Whole Foods before making any diagnoses,” tweeted Josh Elman, a Silicon Valley investor and product builder.

In the health field, Amazon has already launched an online pharmacy for US consumers, who will be able to order prescription medications directly from its website or mobile app.

That came after Amazon acquired PillPack, an internet pharmacy offering pre-sorted dose packaging and home delivery.

Buying One Medical will also build on Amazon’s announcement in February that it was expanding Amazon Care, which was first launched in 2019 to provide its employees with access to doctors.

The service combines virtual doctor or nurse visits using an Amazon Care mobile app with in-person care by medical personnel dispatched to patients’ homes, the tech company said.

Like its telemedicine service, Amazon says it wants to develop a more modern health care offering that is increasingly responsive to today’s lifestyles, more personalized and less time-consuming.

The telemedicine industry soared amid coronavirus restrictions and Americans’ use has since held steady at about 38 times over pre-pandemic levels, according to a McKinsey & Company report from July.

At the same time, Americans typically get their health insurance through their jobs, so the current US hiring crunch has pushed employers to offer increasingly attractive benefits.

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. congressional probe of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters wraps up its summer hearings on Thursday with a prime-time presentation focused on the former president’s actions during the three hours of rage after his raucous speech that day.

The hearing will detail both the scenes of violence that played out as Trump supporters fought their way into the Capitol and Trump’s actions in the 187 minutes between his speech urging the crowd to “fight like hell” and the final release of a video urging rioters to go home.

Ahead of the hearing, Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger released a video on Twitter in which former White House aides and officials described Trump watching television footage of the crowds that stormed the Capitol in a private dining room at the White House.

“To the best of my recollection, he was always in the dining room,” said former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany in the clip, which also showed former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone saying footage of the riot was visible on the screen.

Scheduled at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT Friday) to reach a broad television audience, the public hearing is expected to be the last eight the House of Representatives Select Committee has held since mid-June.

“The focus of this hearing is what was going on here on Capitol Hill as that mob breached barriers and stormed the Capitol and caused a delay in certification of the Electoral College vote,” a committee aide told journalists, speaking on condition of anonymity to preview the hearing.

“We are going to remind people that there was this inaction at the White House,” the aide said, noting that Trump did not release his video telling his followers to go home until after 4 p.m.

The panel of seven Democratic and two Republican House members has been investigating the attack on the Capitol for the past year, interviewing more than 1,000 witnesses and amassing tens of thousands of documents.

It has used the hearings to build a case that Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat by Democrat Joe Biden in the November 2020 presidential election constitute illegal conduct, far beyond normal politics.

The Washington Post reported that the committee could show outtakes from Trump’s effort to record a video the day after the riot. The newspaper said Trump resisted holding the rioters to account, to call them patriots and refused to say the election was over.

Spokespeople for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

PENCE, MILITIAS AND FRAUD ALLEGATIONS

Questioning of witnesses will be led by Kinzinger and Democratic Representative Elaine Luria.

Committee aides declined to name witnesses, citing security concerns, but according to media reports they will include Matthew Pottinger, a deputy national security adviser under Trump, and Sarah Matthews, a deputy press secretary in his White House.

Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, the Select Committee’s chairperson, will lead the hearing remotely, after testing positive for COVID-19.

Previous hearings have focused on the run-up to the riot, Trump’s pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to deny Biden the victory, militant groups whose members participated in the Capitol attack and Trump’s interactions with close advisers questioning his false allegations of massive voter fraud.

Committee members said Trump incited the riot by refusing to admit he lost the election and through comments including a December Twitter post calling on supporters to flock to Washington for a “big protest” on Jan. 6, saying, “Be there, will be wild.”

The Republican one-time reality television star, who has hinted he will seek the White House again in 2024, denies wrongdoing. He continues to claim falsely that he lost because of widespread fraud.

Trump and his supporters – including many Republicans in Congress – dismiss the Jan. 6 panel as a political witch hunt, but the panel’s backers say it is a necessary probe into a violent threat against democracy.

The attack on the Capitol injured more than 140 police officers and led to several deaths. More than 850 people have been charged with taking part in the riot, with more than 325 guilty pleas so far.

While Thursday’s hearing is expected to be the last of the current series, the panel left the door open for more in the coming months. The panel has said it had collected far more information than it could present in one series of hearings.

“There is no reason to think that this is going to be the Select Committee’s final hearing,” the aide said. The committee is also expected to have some sort of event to mark the release later this year of a report on its findings.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Scott Malone, Andy Sullivan and Alistair Bell)

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The defense in Steve Bannon’s trial said it will rest its case on Thursday without calling any witnesses and asked the judge to dismiss the contempt of Congress charges against Donald Trump’s noted former presidential adviser for defying a subpoena by the panel investigating last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol.

A day after the prosecution rested its case, having called only two witnesses, David Schoen, one of Bannon’s lawyers, told U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols that the defense has no plans to put on a case for the jury. That came after Evan Corcoran, after of Bannon’s defense attorneys, made the motion to dismiss.

Bannon, 68, has pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts after rebuffing the House of Representative select committee’s subpoena requesting testimony and documents as part of its inquiry into the Jan. 6, 2021, rampage by Trump supporters trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

“We would ask the court to grant our motion for judgment of acquittal. The government has rested its case and they have not presented evidence upon which a reasonable person can find beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Bannon is guilty of the charges of contempt of Congress,” Corcoran told the judge.

Bannon’s primary defense is that he believed the subpoena’s deadline dates were flexible and subject to negotiation between his attorney and the committee. Kristin Amerling, a senior committee staff member, testified on Wednesday that the deadlines were not flexible and that a lawyer for Bannon had never sought any extensions.

Corcoran on Thursday told the judge that even though Amerling testified the subpoena dates were inflexible, she was unable to articulate why those dates were selected or who picked them.

“No reasonable juror could find that Mr. Bannon refused to comply with dates that we now understand were open – were in flux,” Corcoran told the judge.

The prosecution asked the judge to reject the defense motion.

“The government has presented sufficient evidence,” prosecutor Amanda Vaughn said. “The reasons for the dates are irrelevant. The dates are on the subpoena. The committee made clear in its letters to the defendant that those were the dates and they had violated them.”

The prosecution’s two witnesses testified on Tuesday and Wednesday. Amerling testified that Bannon disregarded the subpoena’s two deadlines, sought no extensions and offered an invalid rationale for his defiance – a claim by Trump involving a legal doctrine called executive privilege that can keep certain presidential communications confidential.

The other prosecution witness was FBI special agent Stephen Hart, who investigated the circumstances of Bannon’s defiance of the subpoena.

On Wednesday, the judge let the defense inform jurors that Trump this month gave the green light for Bannon to testify before the committee after previously asking him not to cooperate. The judge also allowed him to introduce other recent correspondence between Bannon and the committee related to Bannon’s abrupt offer to testify.

Nichols told jurors they cannot consider Bannon’s belief about executive privilege as an excuse or consider future offers of compliance as a defense against prior non-compliance.

Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol and attacked police in a failed effort to block formal congressional certification of his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, which Trump falsely claims was the result of widespread voting fraud. Bannon was a key adviser to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, then served in 2017 as his chief White House strategist.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Will Dunham and Aurora Ellis)

Washington (AFP) – Film icon George Clooney and soul legend Gladys Knight are among this year’s crop of Kennedy Center honorees, one of America’s most prestigious arts awards.

Irish rockers U2, Cuban-born American composer Tania Leon and the contemporary Christian and pop artist Amy Grant round out the 45th class, which will be feted at the center’s annual gala on December 4.

The Kennedy Center — Washington’s performing arts complex that serves as a living monument to slain president John F. Kennedy — has like all arts institutions suffered during the pandemic and been forced to cancel, postpone or rein in previous celebrations.

But barring the unexpected this year’s appeared to be on track to bring the glitz to Washington, where such red carpet events are rare.

Last winter President Joe Biden attended, marking the first time a sitting president had attended the event in five years.

Donald Trump bucked tradition and did not attend during his presidency, after several of the honored artists threatened to boycott the gala in his first year in office if he were present.

This year’s event promised a slate of star-studded tributes to those being inducted.

“Growing up in a small town in Kentucky I could never have imagined that someday I’d be the one sitting in the balcony at the Kennedy Center Honors. To be mentioned in the same breath with the rest of these incredible artists is an honor,” Clooney, star of “Michael Clayton” and “Gravity,” said in a statement.

“Midnight Train to Georgia” singer Knight echoed the sentiment, saying she’s “humbled beyond words to be included amongst this prestigious group of individuals, both past and present.”

“The Kennedy Center’s commitment to the arts is unparalleled and I am so very grateful for this moment.”

By Trevor Hunnicutt, Steve Holland and Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Joe Biden, the oldest person ever to serve as president of the United States, has tested positive for COVID-19, is experiencing mild symptoms and will continue working but in isolation, the White House said on Thursday.

Biden, 79, has a runny nose, fatigue and an occasional dry cough, symptoms which he began to experience late on Wednesday, White House physician Kevin O’Connor said in a note released on Thursday. Biden has begun taking the antiviral treatment Paxlovid, O’Connor said.

“He is fully vaccinated and twice boosted and experiencing very mild symptoms,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

The White House will provide a daily update on Biden’s health, and he will follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and isolate at the White House while continuing to work, she said.

Biden faces dual challenges of soaring inflation and Russia’s land assault on Ukraine. His popularity has dropped sharply over the past year. A Reuters/Ipsos survey completed on Tuesday showed 36% of Americans approve of his job performance.

His illness forced cancellation of a trip to Pennsylvania where Biden intended to lay out plans to ask Congress for $37 billion for crime prevention programs.

“Folks, I’m doing great. Thanks for your concern. Just called Senator Casey, Congressman Cartwright, and Mayor Cognetti (and my Scranton cousins!) to send my regrets for missing our event today. Keeping busy!” Biden wrote on Twitter.

A picture accompanying the tweet showed the president smiling, wearing a blazer and sitting at a desk with papers.

The White House provided an unusually detailed account of the president’s morning activities, including a series of phone calls to political allies.

HARRIS, PELOSI TEST NEGATIVE

Multiple members of Biden’s administration and other senior figures in Washington have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent months, including Vice President Kamala Harris and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, both of whom have since tested negative and resumed working.

Representative Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the congressional probe of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, plans to run Thursday night’s hearing remotely as a result of testing positive.

U.S. stocks briefly headed lower following reports of the president’s diagnosis, with the S&P 500 dropping about 0.5% over the following 10 minutes. The index quickly retraced that loss and by mid-morning was back to near the unchanged mark on the day.

While many Americans have moved on from the strict precautions of the pandemic’s early months, returning to offices and schools and resuming summer travel, the virus continues to spread.

Cases in the United States are up more than 25% in the last month, according to CDC data, as the rapidly spreading BA.5 subvariant has taken hold.

Evading the immune protection afforded either by vaccination or prior infection, BA.5 has been the dominant subvariant in the United States since at least early July and has driven a surge of new infections globally.

PAXLOVID

The Pfizer Inc antiviral drug Paxlovid that Biden is taking has been shown to reduce the risk of severe disease by nearly 90% in high risk patients if given within the first five days of infection.

But Paxlovid has in some cases been associated with rebound infections, in which patients improve quickly and test negative after a five-day course of the drug, with symptoms returning days later.

Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of infectious diseases at Northwell Health in New York, who is not treating the president, said Paxlovid is likely the only treatment Biden will get, unless his symptoms worsen.

“Elderly people are more at risk for developing complications from COVID,” Farber said. “It dramatically is lower if you’ve been vaccinated and doubly boosted, which he has been, so I anticipate he will do very well.”

‘GET VACCINATED NOW’

Biden set up strict COVID-19 safety protocols at the White House, urged Americans to take the virus seriously and campaigned for everyone to get fully vaccinated.

He is tested regularly for the disease and anyone who meets with him or travels with him is tested beforehand, the White House has said. Biden had last tested negative on Tuesday.

He has stopped wearing a mask at public events in recent months, and the White House dropped its mask requirement ahead of his March 1 State of the Union Address.

Asked by Reuters on Wednesday what the country should do with COVID cases on the rise, Biden encouraged vaccination.

“It’s not in their interest or the public’s interest not to get vaccinated,” Biden, told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, referring to people who were not vaccinated. “We have the capacity to control it. They should get vaccinated now.”

Biden joins a roster of other world leaders who have contracted COVID since the pandemic started in early 2020.

A month before he lost the 2020 presidential election to Biden, his Republican predecessor Donald Trump was hit hard by the virus. He, his wife Melania and other White House staff contracted it after an event for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in September 2020.

Trump, then 74, was hospitalized on Oct. 2, 2020, and underwent aggressive treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in a suburb of Washington. His low oxygen levels alarmed his medical team.

“We are in a very different place than the last time a POTUS got COVID,” Ezekiel “Zeke” Emanuel, a physician and former member of Biden’s COVID transition team, wrote on Twitter.

“Biden is fully vaxxed/boosted and reportedly on a therapeutic (Paxlovid) that significantly mitigates symptoms. If anything, this shows how contagious BA5 is. Feel better, @POTUS!”

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Steve Holland; Additional reporting by Chris Gallagher, Nandita Bose, Susan Heavey, Michael Erman and Julie Steenhuysen; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Howard Goller)

(Reuters) – A U.S. venue cancelled Dave Chappelle’s stand-up show just hours before he was due on stage on Wednesday, after critics lamented the scheduled gig following controversy over the comedian’s jokes about transgender people.

In a statement on its website, First Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota said Chappelle’s show would moved to the city’s Varsity Theater, where the U.S. comedian is also due to perform on Thursday and Friday.

First Avenue had announced the Chappelle show earlier this week, drawing criticism on social media.

Chappelle drew a backlash last year for material in his Netflix comedy special “The Closer” that some in the LGBTQ+ community said ridiculed transgender people. His supporters viewed it as a cry against cancel culture.

“To staff, artists, and our community, we hear you and we are sorry. We know we must hold ourselves to the highest standards, and we know we let you down. We are not just a black box with people in it, and we understand that First Avenue is not just a room, but meaningful beyond our walls,” First Avenue said.

“The First Avenue team and you have worked hard to make our venues the safest spaces in the country, and we will continue with that mission. We believe in diverse voices and the freedom of artistic expression, but in honoring that, we lost sight of the impact this would have. We know there are some who will not agree with this decision; you are welcome to send feedback.”

A representative for Chappelle could not immediately be reached for comment.

In May, the Emmy Award winning entertainer was tackled on stage during his show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. A 23-year-old man was charged with four misdemeanor counts.

(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

New York (AFP) – “It was the worst pain that I have experienced in my life,” says 26-year-old New Yorker Kyle Planck, recalling his recent monkeypox infection.

Although anyone can catch monkeypox, Planck first took note of the virus in spring when authorities said many of the first cases in Europe and America were in men who have sex with men.

“I was a little bit worried that it would eventually affect us here in the United States, especially being a member of the LGBTQ+ community,” he remembers.

At the end of June, the PhD candidate in pharmacology says he started to feel very sick.

A fever, swollen lymph nodes and a negative Covid-19 test made him think it could be monkeypox.

A doctor told him to wait and see how his symptoms evolved, but after four days of being feverish he developed spots that left him in no doubt.

“They had started on my arms and my hands and over the course of a day they spread all over my body.

“I had about 30 lesions develop at that point,” he says at his apartment in the borough of Queens.

Planck was able to get tested on July 5 and the following day started treatment with TPOXX, or Tecovirimat, an antiviral drug originally used against human smallpox but authorized in a trial against monkeypox.

Planck concedes that his proximity to the medical community made it easier for him to enroll in a study.

“I know that is not the reality for most people in New York, which is really unfortunate,” he says.

Monkeypox usually clears up on its own but can be extremely painful.

Planck was in intense pain for a week, especially from the lesions on his mucus membranes, before the drugs started to relieve his symptoms.

“The pain was so severe for me that I basically was taking warm baths six or seven times a day, just because that was the only thing that would make me feel better,” he says.

Planck found the experience “exhausting” and adding to his stress was a fear of contaminating his roommate, even though transmission occurs by close contact.

He believes his case was “relatively mild” because he was able to receive treatment and that “so many people are going through worse.”

Planck feels that US health authorities were too slow to react to the first outbreak of cases and says that preventative messaging has been too weak.

Vaccine doses

“I think the government was kind of like, ‘let’s wait and see what happens, let’s wait and see if this becomes a problem,’ and that really doesn’t take into account how infectious diseases work,” he says.

Planck has written multiple letters to elected officials asking them to increase access to the antiviral drug.

“We have millions of doses of the TPOXX treatment available. And months into this outbreak, we’re still not really able to mobilize those resources,” he says.

The United States initially had 100 million doses of the ACAM2000 vaccine. It is designed to treat human smallpox but can cause significant side effects and is not recommended for immunocompromised people.

Only a thousand doses of the newer and safer Jynneos vaccine were available as cases first started multiplying, largely because nearly 800,000 doses were blocked in Denmark pending approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

Availability is increasing, however. 

New York City — which has 711 confirmed cases, the highest concentrated number in the country — has received 21,500 doses and is awaiting a supply of 25,000 more.

Appointments have gone in minutes and long queues have formed outside clinics in recent days.

“I don’t want anyone to have to go through what I went through,” concludes Planck.

Lizzo is a huge Beyonce fan.

The ‘About Damn Time’ hitmaker adores the ‘Break My Soul’ hitmaker – who is due to drop her next album, ‘Renaissance’ later this month -and wants to “make people feel” with her music how the 40-year-old superstar allows her to.

The 34-year-old pop star told Elle UK: “I’ve seen Beyoncé maybe up to 10 times live now, and she continues to give me that feeling. That excitement never goes away. She doesn’t just put out music for the sake of putting out music – there’s going to be something real, you know what I mean? A teachable moment. Every time I hear her, it’s like, ‘Man, I want to make people feel this way. How can I make people feel this way, too?’”

Lizzo won’t put tracks – even if she loves them – on an album “if they don’t serve the greater purpose”.

She said: “I have so many songs at this point, some that are my favourite I’ve ever written. But I’m not putting them on the album if they don’t serve the greater purpose. You know? And I think the greater purpose is: what do I need to say right now that can help people forever?”

The Grammy Award winner opened up about how she adopted the “fake it till you make it” approach to becoming her confident self.

Lizzo said: “In doing the fake it till you make it method, I began attracting a lot of people who thought I was beautiful. But she [her best friend] genuinely thought I was beautiful and helped me believe it and verbalise it out loud. I was like, “Oh no, my [beauty] is real.” And I think that’s an important thing. You start attracting people who see you the way you see yourself. Anyone around you is going to notice you how you view yourself.”

She added: “I spent years being ashamed. It took a lot of work for me to feel worthy of being in this place. To feel worthy of being a force to be reckoned with.”

The ‘Juice’ hitmaker also detailed how she longs to “open the door” for more people who look like her.

Lizzo said: “I’ve had a lot of shoots with people making outfits from scratch for me. And I’m not mad at it. Thank you. But what about the millions of people who are my size or bigger who can’t get access to chic and glamorous clothing? I don’t want to be the token big girl for the fashion world. I want to open the door. I want this for everybody.”

The September issue of ELLE UK is on sale from 28 July. Read more at https://www.elle.com/uk/life-and-culture/a40638394/lizzo-cover-september-2022/

By Alexandra Ulmer and Jason Lange

(Reuters) – A big Democratic Party fundraising group on Wednesday filed a complaint against the Federal Election Commission, accusing it of allowing Donald Trump to break campaign finance law by spending political donations on a 2024 presidential bid he has yet to launch.

The group, American Bridge, complained in March to the FEC about Trump’s Save America fund. Under U.S. law, the fund can pay for political activities such as Trump’s travel, hotel stays and contributions to political allies, but it cannot be used to fund the former Republican president’s own election campaign.

American Bridge says Trump is flouting campaign finance laws by dropping frequent hints that he is planning to seek the White House again while having Save America pay for rallies nationwide and digital advertising promoting him.

Wednesday’s suit, filed in the U.S. Court for the District of Columbia, alleges the FEC has failed to act on the March complaint, effectively allowing Trump to raise money for a presidential run without declaring himself candidate.

“The Commission’s inaction has allowed Mr. Trump to continue violating the law,” American Bridge said in the suit. “As each day passes that Mr. Trump is accepting excessive contributions, he sets himself up to have an unlawful head start against his opponents.”

Trump has repeatedly hinted at another White House run but has not officially declared himself a candidate.

Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Budowich has previously described American Bridge’s complaint as “frivolous” and with “zero merit.”

The FEC declined comment. When American Bridge filed the complaint in March, the FEC said it could not comment until the matter was resolved or closed.

The FEC’s leadership includes three Republicans, two Democrats and an independent. It often deadlocks on contentious issues.

Trump launched his Save America fund days after losing the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.

The group has more than $100 million in the bank, a formidable war chest. Campaign finance analysts have speculated about the ways Trump could try to use the money should he run in 2024.

To date, it has been used to pay for rallies where Trump has appeared with Republican candidates for November’s midterm congressional election and talked about another presidential bid.

Trump continues to top national polls among his party’s possible 2024 presidential candidates, although other potential contenders have raised their profiles in recent weeks.

(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer and Jason Lange, editing by Ross Colvin and Cynthia Osterman)

LONDON (Reuters) – The United States decision to end the constitutional right to abortion domestically will have no impact on how the country funds family planning services overseas, according to its global health lead.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the right of women nationally to terminate pregnancies.

Calling the decision “sobering” domestically, Loyce Pace, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs at the U.S Department of Health, said it would not affect the country’s position as the largest bilateral donor to family planning services globally.

“Those investments and those commitments remain the same in the wake of this decision,” she told a media briefing in Geneva.

The U.S. has long-standing legislation which prevents the funding of abortion overseas directly, but it does fund post-abortion care and abortion counselling.

Pace also said the U.S was ready to learn from other countries that have “managed their own challenges with regards to access to essential health care and services”.

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Nick Macfie)