Demi Lovato suffered a bloody face injury after hitting their head on a crystal.

The singer, 29, posted a video on TikTok on Wedesday (13.07.22) showing a forehead gash and said it would need stitches ahead of an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s chat show.

Demi, who is non-binary and changed her gender pronouns to they/them, said: “Guess who hit their head on a crystal and has to get stitches before Kimmel tomorrow???:

The clip shows the singer covering her forehead with their hand as a man could be heard saying: “How are they gonna know?… nobody’s gonna know.”

They then revealed the wound and appeared to mouth the word “f***”.

Demi posted it before she was set to perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday. (14.07.22)

They added a string of hashtags to their post, including one referencing their new single ‘Substance’, from Grammy nominee Demi’s forthcoming album ‘HOLY FVCK’, due out August 19.

The ‘Let It Go’ singer said about the record: “The process of making this album has been the most fulfilling yet, and I’m grateful to my fans and collaborators for being on this journey with me.

“Never have I been more sure of myself and my music. And this record speaks that for itself.”

The release comes after the singer’s 2018 brush with death after they said they suffered three strokes, a heart attack and “brain damage” after a drug overdose that year.

It was believed to be caused by heroin and fentanyl-laced oxycodone, with the brain damage leaving Demi unable to drive as they said they were stricken with “blind spots in my vision”.

In the documentary ‘Dancing With the Devil’, Demi admitted about the incident: “My doctors said that I had five to 10 more minutes.”

Demi also said they still drank and smoked marijuana after 2018, but they have apparently got totally clean after entering rehab again in 2021

They say they now feel “sober is the only way to be”.

By Moira Warburton and Rose Horowitch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Republicans in Congress are lining up behind legislation that critics say would roll back protections for transgender people, setting a playbook for action on a divisive social issue should they take control of Congress this fall.

The bills have no chance of becoming law this year, as Democrats narrowly control both chambers of Congress. But they are a sign that Republicans aim to elevate a battle over transgender rights that has so far largely played out at the state level.

Republicans in the House of Representatives have introduced a bill that would block federal funding to colleges where transgender women are allowed to participate in sports with cisgender women. A separate bill would allow transgender people to sue medical personnel who helped them transition as minors.

Another bill would block funding to schools that disobey state laws regarding “materials harmful to minors,” mimicking state laws that have been used to remove books discussing history around race and LGBT themes.

The bills have support from key Republicans in the House and Senate. Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has promoted the sports bill at a press conference and in a conservative newspaper. It is backed by 127 of 211 House Republicans.

In the Senate, five Republicans have sponsored a version of the bill targeting medical providers, including Senators Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and Marco Rubio.

Republicans would be in a position to advance those bills next year if they win control of the House or the Senate in the Nov. 8 midterm elections, which analysts say is likely.

“I hope these are legislative initiatives that we can pass when we get the majority back,” said Representative Jim Banks, who sponsored the medical providers bill and represents a district in Indiana, which banned transgender students from playing on girls’ sports teams at schools this May.

FEARS OF DISCRIMINATION

Critics say the legislation proposed by House Republicans would reduce access to care needed by transgender people to transition. Transgender people are significantly more likely to attempt or commit suicide, often due to lack of access to gender-affirming medical care, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT advocacy group.

Banks called such criticism “outrageous” and said he did not see how his legislation would contribute to an unsafe environment for transgender people.

Violence against LGBT people has also increased fourfold between 2020 and 2021 in the United States, according to ACLED, a nonpartisan organization that tracks violence globally. The increase occurred during a three-year uptick in anti-LGBT bills introduced in state legislatures, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

“There has always been fringe voices who oppose LGBTQ equality, but now, unfortunately, that fringe has grown loud and is being given national platforms,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president of GLAAD, a LGBT advocacy group.

Sixty-four percent of Americans support protecting trans people from discrimination, according to a June poll from Pew Research Center; 10% oppose protections.

Eighteen Republican-led states have enacted bans on trans girls and women participating in publicly funded women’s sports, while more than a dozen have introduced legislation mimicking Florida’s law limiting classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

President Joe Biden has taken steps to counter those state laws, including issuing a proposal to expand current gender discrimination protections to transgender people in college sports.

Advocates are pushing Democrats to do more to enshrine protections into law before the November elections, but they face uncertain prospects in the evenly divided Senate.

“If we lose the House or the Senate I think it’s really unlikely we’ll be able to prevent discrimination” at the federal level, said Fran Hutchins, executive director of Equality Federation.

(Reporting by Rose Horowitch and Moira Warburton; editing by Andy Sullivan and Aurora Ellis)

New York (AFP) – New York City has stressed to the US government the “urgency” with which it needs monkeypox vaccines amid a rise in cases, its mayor said Wednesday.

America’s biggest metropolis has recorded 336 infections but that is unlikely to reflect the true numbers, according to the city’s department of health.

Official cases rose from 267 on Tuesday, up from 223 the day before.

Anyone can get and spread monkeypox but many cases have been found in men who have sex with men.

The city of around nine million people is home to a large gay community and health authorities had to apologize this week after its vaccine reservation website crashed when it was overwhelmed with people trying to book appointments.

Some 1,250 slots were available but many social media users expressed frustration at being unable to book an appointment.

Mayor Eric Adams said he had had a telephone meeting with the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We discussed the supply constraints that New York City is facing and the urgency to expand our vaccine access footprint to more people, in more neighborhoods, through more partners and providers,” he said in a statement.

New York is due to receive 14,500 doses from the US government this week, adding to the nearly 7,000 it has received since June 23.

Health services are prioritizing the two-dose vaccination for gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men, as well as for transgenders and non-binary people.

Monkeypox is a viral illness endemic in West and Central African countries that causes symptoms such as fever and rash.

It is similar to but less severe than smallpox, but can be riskier in immune compromised people. It is primarily spread through close contact.

Jane Lynch is “so glad” that Lea Michele is getting to star in ‘Funny Girl’ on Broadway.

The 61-year-old actress believes her former ‘Glee’ co-star, 35, is going to take the role of Fanny Brice – which was originated by Barbra Streisand in the 60s and earnt her a Tony and an Oscar- and “make it her own” after she takes the reins from the musical’s current leading lady, Beanie Feldstein.

Jane – who is departing the role of Fanny’s mother as Lea joins and being replaced by veteran performer Tovah Feldshuh – told Deadline: “We have been in touch about it. You know, it was just a really strong idea to have Feldshuh and Lea premiere together. That’s the only reason [we won’t appear together.] I adore her. She’s just going to take this show and make it her own. I’m so glad she’s getting the opportunity in real life to do the show and not just on ‘Glee.”

Lea – who played noted Barbra Streisand fanatic on the Ryan Murphy musical comedy-drama – confirmed the news on her social media

She wrote on Instagram: “A dream come true is an understatement. I’m so incredibly honored to join this amazing cast and production and return to the stage playing Fanny Brice on Broadway. See you September 6th.”

Last month, Beanie first revealed that she would be departing the show in September but on Sunday (10.07.22), the 29-year-old actress announced that she was leaving earlier following “the production decided to take the show in a different direction” and will now be doing her final performance on July 31 after her interpretation was met with mixed reviews.

The ‘Booksmart’ star called playing the role “a lifelong dream”.

Beanie said: “Playing Fanny Brice on Broadway has been a lifelong dream of mine, and doing so for the last few months has been a great joy and true honor. Once the production decided to take the show in a different direction, I made the extremely difficult decision to step away sooner than anticipated. I will never forget this experience and from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank every single person who came to the August Wilson for the love and support you have shown me and our amazing cast and crew.”

She added: “The people I have had the great joy of bringing Funny Girl to life with every night, both on and off the stage, are all remarkably talented and exceptional humans and I hope you continue to join them on Henry Street after I depart on July 31st.”

Ex Studio 54 owner Mark Fleischman has died by assisted suicide at Dignitas, according to his former business partner.

The 82-year-old nightclub legend – who ran the Manhattan hotspot frequented by names such as Truman Capote, Liza Minnelli, Andy Warhol, Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger between 1980 and 1986 -passed away in the Swiss city of Zurich after unidentified illness robbed his ability to walk or do other independent tasks.

Daniel Fitzgerald, the co-owner of Los Angeles’ Century Club with Mark in the 90s and 00s told BBC News: “I guess he was in more pain than we knew.”

Daniel has arranged for a “living wake” for Mark and wanted him to delay his trip to Switzerland, where assisted dying is permitted by law and the charity – which aids terminally ill people to end their life on their own terms – has been operating since 2002.

He continued: “I thought maybe we could convince him not to [go]. “We had a really nice party for him and a lot of his friends came, and everyone thought, ‘he’s going to postpone it a month and we’ll see what we can do’. But he was set on doing it.”

Daniel said that when they worked together at their California night spot as a pair they “worked really well together for a long time and had a lot of fun together.”

He added: “He would be able to have fun but be really smart at the same time, and be really intelligent about figuring things out. He taught me a lot. He was a great mentor for me.”

In June, Mark explained that his illness – which first manifested in 2016 – took away his ability to dress himself and how he needed to rely on his wife, Mimi for everything.

He said: “I’m taking the gentle way out. It is the easiest way out for me.”

The ‘Inside Studio 54’ author penned his in memoir about how he took over the club in the 80s after the original owners of the club – which first opened in 1977 – were imprisoned for tax evasion.

Mark wrote in the 2017 tome: “From the very first night we opened, in 1981, I was swept up in a world of celebrities, drugs, power and sex,

“Every night, celebrities and stunning women made their way through the crowd, up the stairs to my office to sip champagne and share lines of cocaine using my golden straw or rolled-up $100 bills.”

“I was the guy in control, the owner – the host of the party. It was my duty, my job, to make sure everyone had a good time. It was a responsibility, a heady feeling, one that I gave myself over to wholeheartedly. It was an exclusive world where anything could happen.”

President Donald Trump met with outside advisers at the White House on December 18, 2020 to discuss ways to remain in office after losing the election

Washington (AFP) – A White House lawyer described the late-night meeting in the Oval Office as “nuts.” A presidential aide said it was “unhinged.”

President Donald Trump was huddled with three outside advisers proposing outlandish schemes to overturn the results of the 2020 election and keep him in power.

The House panel probing the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters has unearthed stunning new details about what committee member Jamie Raskin called the “craziest meeting of the Trump presidency.”

Participants in the December 18, 2020 strategy session at the White House were Trump, Sidney Powell, a campaign attorney actively pushing conspiracy theories, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive of Overstock.com.

According to the committee, they arrived with a draft Executive Order for Trump to sign that would authorize the defense secretary to seize voting machines and for Powell to be appointed a special counsel to investigate the November election won by Democrat Joe Biden.

After Powell, Flynn and Byrne were let into the executive mansion by a junior staffer, White House lawyers were alerted to their unscheduled presence.

Powell said the group were alone with the president for 10 to 15 minutes before White House counsel Pat Cipollone rushed over to the Oval Office, setting a new “land speed record.”

“I didn’t understand how they had gotten in,” Cipollone told the committee. “I was not happy to see the people who were in the Oval Office.

“I don’t think any of these people were providing the president with good advice.”

Cipollone said he was “vehemently opposed” to Powell being named special counsel, and that seizing voting machines was a “terrible idea.”

Raskin said there was a “heated and profane clash” between Cipollone, other White House staffers and the outside advisers lasting more than six hours.

The group was joined at one point by former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, who had been energetically pushing discredited theories of electoral fraud for weeks.

‘Throwing insults’

“It was not a casual meeting,” White House staff secretary Derek Lyons said. “There were people shouting at each other, throwing insults at each other.”

Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, could hear the commotion in the Oval Office and texted to another staffer that the West Wing is “UNHINGED.”

Cipollone, the chief White House counsel, said the outside advisers were “attacking me verbally” for not showing loyalty to Trump by investigating claims of election fraud.

“We were pushing back and we were asking one simple question as a general matter: ‘Where is the evidence?'” he said.

Eric Herschmann, another White House lawyer who was there, said Flynn at one point sought to demonstrate alleged election irregularities with diagrams showing “Nest thermostats being hooked up to the internet.”

“It got to a point where the screaming was completely, completely out there,” Herschmann said. “It was late at night. It had been a long day and what they were proposing I thought was nuts.” 

Herschmann said he pointed out that all of Trump’s legal challenges to the election results had been tossed out of court, to which Powell replied: “Well the judges are corrupt.”

“And I say ‘Every one?'” Herschmann said. “Every one of them is corrupt? Even the ones we appointed?”

Herschmann said at one point that Flynn, a retired general, “screamed at me that I was a quitter.”

“So, I yelled back: ‘Either come over, or sit your effing ass back down,'” he said.

Lyons said the meeting ended after midnight having “landed where we started.”

“Which was Sidney Powell was fighting, Mike Flynn was fighting — they were looking for avenues that would enable, that would result in President Trump remaining President Trump for a second term.”

Shortly after the meeting broke up, Trump sent a tweet urging his millions of followers to attend a rally in Washington on January 6, promising it “will be wild.”

Washington (AFP) – Ohio police have confirmed a 10-year-old rape victim crossed state lines to terminate her pregnancy, local media reported Wednesday, in a case drawing broad attention after the US Supreme Court overturned a federal right to abortion care.

The girl’s startling ordeal of allegedly being forced to travel to neighboring Indiana to end her pregnancy after Ohio’s trigger law came into effect was highlighted by President Joe Biden recently as he signed legislation aimed at helping women seeking abortions.

It was also questioned by conservative-leaning media outlets and Ohio’s attorney general, who cast doubt on the story’s veracity.

But Columbus, Ohio police detective Jeffrey Huhn testified in court early Wednesday that the unidentified girl underwent an abortion in Indianapolis on June 30, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

According to the paper, Huhn was testifying at the arraignment of a man arrested Tuesday by police who say he confessed to raping the child.

Huhn also told the court that DNA samples obtained from the Indiana clinic were being tested against the 27-year-old suspect, the Dispatch said.

Franklin County, Ohio court documents confirm that a Gerson Fuentes, 27, was arraigned Wednesday on charges of rape of a person under 13.

The disturbing story, first reported by the Indianapolis Star, has drawn international scrutiny and become a flash point in the deeply divisive issue of abortion rights in America.

Biden spoke of the Ohio rape victim during a July 8 ceremony where he signed reproductive right protections into law and urged Congress to codify Row v Wade, the 1973 ruling that established the nationwide right to abortion.

“Just last week it was reported that a 10-year-old girl was a rape victim in Ohio — 10 years old — and she was forced to have to travel out of the state, to Indiana, to seek to terminate the pregnancy,” Biden said.

“Just imagine being that little girl.”

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, strongly suggested to Fox News late Monday that case was a fabrication, and that there was “not a whisper” of evidence to back up the claims that a 10-year-old rape victim had left Ohio to have an abortion.

On Wednesday he reversed course, saying in a statement after the arrest that he praised the Columbus Police Department for “securing a confession and getting a rapist off the street.”

Thirteen states have already passed trigger laws to ban abortion, in some states even in the case of rape or incest.

Biden, a Democrat and staunch Catholic turned abortion rights proponent, has not contained his anger, calling the abortion bans in the case of rape or incest ‘extreme.”

A majority of Americans — 56 percent, according to an NPR/Marist poll — oppose the overturning of Roe v Wade.

A documentary series about David Beckham is in the works at Netflix.

The series will feature a mixture of unseen personal archive footage of the former England captain from the past 40 years, as well as interviews with friends, family and figures from the world of football who have been part of his career.

The streamer revealed that the multi-part documentary will explore Beckham’s humble beginnings in East London as well as the drive and determination that saw him become one of the most recognisable and scrutinised athletes on the planet.

The series will be directed and executive produced by Oscar-winner Fisher Stevens, along with Emmy-winning producer John Battsek.

David, 47, took to Instagram to share his enthusiasm for the project.

He wrote on the social media platform: “I’m excited to confirm that I am partnering with @Netflix on a documentary series about my life and career…

“The series will feature unseen archive, untold stories as well as interviews with the people who have been a part of my journey.”

David enjoyed a hugely successful football career where he represented clubs such as Manchester United and Real Madrid. He also made 115 appearances for England, while his marriage to Spice Girl Victoria Beckham has kept him in the celebrity spotlight.

The former footballer was involved in Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations last month when his face was beamed onto Buckingham Palace as he sent a video message to the 96-year-old British monarch during the star-studded Jubilee concert.

He said: “For 70 years you have worked so incredibly hard, not just for the people of this country but also for the whole Commonwealth.

“Thank you ma’am for your dedication, your service and for everything that you represent. Our country owes you so much.”

Washington (AFP) – Survivors of recent mass shootings in America and relatives of people killed in them pleaded with lawmakers Wednesday to ban the powerful assault weapons used in those massacres.

“I want you to picture my face, my husband’s face, as we read our daughter’s death certificate,” said a tearful Kimberly Rubio, whose daughter Lexi was killed in a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas on May 24. 

A total of 19 children and two teachers died in the attack in Texas by a young gunman armed with a military-style semiautomatic rifle.  

Rubio was one of a group of people touched forever by such violence who gathered outside the US Capitol on Wednesday.

“There is one question that should be on the forefront of their minds,” Rubio said of US lawmakers. “What if the gunman never had access to an assault weapon?”

A video released Tuesday shows the gunman walking calmly into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde before he heads to two classrooms and starts shooting. It shows how police milled around in hallways for more than an hour until they finally moved in and killed the gunman. 

The video has infuriated the parents of kids who were killed in the massacre.

“Our country has a problem, a big problem,” said Abby Brosio, who survived a mass shooting in Highland Park outside Chicago on July 4.

That time a gunman with a semi-automatic rifle and shooting from a rooftop on an Independence Day parade killed seven people and wounded more than 30.

In 1994 Congress passed a 10-year ban on assault rifles and certain high-capacity magazines. But lawmakers let it expire in 2004 without renewing the ban and sales of those weapons have soared since then.

After the Uvalde shooting, President Joe Biden appealed to lawmakers to again ban assault rifles or at least raise the minimum age for buying them from 18 to 21.

But Republican lawmakers, who see such a restriction as going against the constitutional right to bear arms, refused to go along with Biden’s proposal.

By Mike Stone

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Air Force successfully tested a Lockheed Martin Corp hypersonic missile this week, sources familiar with the efforts said on Wednesday, amid growing concerns Russia and China have had more success developing their own hypersonic weapons.

The U.S. Air Force successfully tested its Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) booster on Tuesday off the California coast, according to the sources. The ARRW is carried aloft under the wing of plane before it is launched toward its target. In previous tests, the weapon did not detach from the plane.

Hypersonic weapons travel in the upper atmosphere at speeds of more than five times the speed of sound, or about 6,200 km (3,853 miles) per hour.

In a separate successful hypersonic weapon test recently, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) demonstrated its Operational Fires program, two people familiar with the matter said.

The successful tests show progress among the myriad U.S. hypersonic weapons development efforts, which have in cases been beleaguered by failed tests, growing questions about cost and increasing concerns the United States is falling behind in what has become a superpower arms race.

Operational Fires is a ground-launched system that will “rapidly and precisely engage critical, time-sensitive targets while penetrating modern enemy air defenses.” DARPA has requested and received $45 million for OpFires in fiscal year 2022.

One of Lockheed Martin’s concepts for the DARPA weapon is to use an exiting High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher, like those sent to Ukraine, to launch the weapon.

These successful tests come after failed a June 29 test flight of a different type of hypersonic weapon, the Common Hypersonic Glide Body, at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii.

Defense contractors hope to capitalize on the shift to hypersonic weapons not only by building them, but also by developing new detection and defeat mechanisms.

Arms makers like Lockheed, Northrop Grumman Corp and Raytheon Technologies Corp have all touted their hypersonic weapons programs to investors as the world’s focus shifted to the new arms race for an emerging class of weapon.

(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Franklin Paul and Jonathan Oatis)

Britney Spears hit a bit of a bump in the road on her Tuesday night when she reportedly ran out of gas in the middle of one of L.A.’s busiest highways.

Law enforcement got a call around 10 p.m. on Tuesday, July 12, for a report about a white Mercedes blocking the third lane southbound on the 101, just north of Balboa Blvd. When the police arrived at the location, insiders told TMZ they found the princess of pop in the backseat of a passerby’s vehicle.

Spears reportedly explained to the cops that she ran out of gas while driving and that her car quit in the middle of the hectic highway. After the California Highway Patrol got traffic stopped, an officer was able to get in the driver’s seat of her Mercedes and steer the vehicle while she sat in the passenger seat. The car was then pushed to safety.

The cops noted the mother-of-two thanked them and said she was OK. The officers waited with the newlywed until her new husband, Sam Asgahri, came to pick her up.

Spears’ return to sunny California comes after the loved-up pair jetted off for their second honeymoon since saying “I Do” on June 9 at the pop star’s Thousand Oaks, Calif., property.

“Part 2 of the Honeymoon here in this unbelievable tropical piece of paradise … No this is not a girls gone wild campaign … It’s simply me living my life!” she captioned a video of her bikini-clad self posing in the water, with Spears taking off the bikini top in snippets. “This is what happens when you do a two week yacht island vacation … jumping from island to island is literally insane!!!”

(Reuters) – Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates is donating $20 billion to the charitable foundation run by him and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates to boost its annual distributions.

The donation will help the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – one of the world’s largest private charitable foundations – increase its annual payout by 50% to $9 billion by 2026, he said in a post on his personal blog on Wednesday.

“The great crises of our time require all of us to do more,” Gates said, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and climate change, among others.

He added that the compounding effects of crises, which include surging inflation, had increased the need to invest more in the foundation’s core focus areas of health, education, gender equality and poverty alleviation.

The donation brings the 22-year-old organization’s endowment to about $70 billion, which includes a grant of $3.1 billion from Warren Buffett last month.

(Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration said on Wednesday that refusing to fill prescriptions for drugs that could be used to terminate a pregnancy could be a federal law violation, regardless of various state bans.

The Department of Health and Human Services said in new guidance that pharmacies and pharmacists could run afoul of pregnancy and disability discrimination laws for denying access to drugs that could be used for abortion, including those used in medication abortion and emergency contraceptives.

“We are committed to ensuring that everyone can access health care, free of discrimination,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “This includes access to prescription medications for reproductive health and other types of care.”

(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)