Diane Keaton thinks Reese Witherspoon’s 18-year-old son is “gorgeous”.

The 76-year-old actress recently mistook a photo of Deacon Phillippe – whose father is the ‘Legally Blonde’ actress’ ex-husband Ryan Phillippe – for one of the young Leonardo DiCaprio but despite the confusion, she stands by her initial assertion that he’s very attractive.

After talk show host Ellen DeGeneres pointed out her gaffe, Diane replied: “Oh I made that mistake, whoops, but look at him. That’s gorgeous. How old is he now?”

Ellen quipped: “Too young for you, he’s a child, look at him.”

Diane replied: “Maybe he’d like to know me. No, no, no… Shall I leave?”

Deacon isn’t the only young man to have caught Diane’s eye as she’s known to be a fan of Justin Bieber and had a great time recently filming the “gorgeous and genius” star’s ”Ghost’ music video.

She said: “So much fun, you guys. No, he’s a great man. Young man! Gorgeous and genius.

“It was one of the most pleasant experiences of my life.

“I loved it. He’s adorable, he’s the greatest guy. Special, sweet.”

While the ‘Book Club’ star insisted she isn’t dating at the moment, she suggested she’s previously dated a 20 year old.

She said: “The youngest age of a man I’ve gone out with? I don’t go out.

“Let’s pretend I have. Probably someone like 20. Not recently! I haven’t been out.”

The ‘Poms’ actress – who has two adopted children, Dexter, 27, and Duke, 22 – has previously dated the likes of Woody Allen, Warren Beatty and Al Pacino but never married and doesn’t regret the fact she didn’t.

She previously said: “I think I’m the only one in my generation and maybe before who has been a single woman all her life.

“[I’m not sad] because I think that I needed more of a maternal aspect. I don’t think it would have been a good idea for me to have married, and I’m really glad I didn’t, and I’m sure they’re happy about it, too.”

Joe Alwyn has insisted writing songs with Taylor Swift was “accidental”.

The ‘Conversations With Friends’ actor has two co-writing tracks on his girlfriend’s ‘Folklore’ album and three on the follow-up ‘Evermore’ under the pseudonym William Bowery, but he insisted the pair didn’t deliberately set out to forge a musical partnership.

Speaking to the new issue of GQ Hype magazine, he said: “It was really the most accidental thing to happen in lockdown.

“It wasn’t like, ‘It’s three o’clock, it’s time to write a song!’ It was just messing around on a piano and singing badly and being overheard and then thinking, you know, ‘What if we tried to get to the end of it together?’ “

Joe found it particularly “surreal” having Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon singing ‘Exile’ with Taylor, but described it as a “perk” of the coronavirus pandemic.

He added: “Sending it to Justin with the idea of doing a duet and getting voice notes back of him singing over the top and stuff was surreal. It was a perk of lockdown.”

The 31-year-old actor’s collaboration with the ‘Shake It Off’ hitmaker was originally kept secret because they didn’t want their relationship to overshadow the music.

Joe explained: “The idea was that people would just listen to the music rather than focus on the fact that we wrote it together.”

And though the songs were well received, Joe has no plans to write any more with his girlfriend, though he enjoyed the experience.

He said: “It was fun to do it together, and I was proud of it. It was nice getting such a positive reception.”

The ‘Harriet’ actor confirmed there’s likely to be a version of ‘Exile’ with him on it somewhere, but he hopes it’s never made public.

He exclaimed: “Jesus, there’s probably a voice note somewhere that should be burned.”

Read the full feature online at GQ Hype now: https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/joe-alwyn-interview-2022

Hugh Dancy admits it was “surreal” stepping onto the ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’ set.

The 46-year-old actor – who plays fictional film director Jack Barber in the big screen sequel – insisted while he didn’t feel strange joining a long-term cast, the situation as a whole was “surreal” for everyone.

Speaking to GuysUGuys.com, he said: “It was lovely! It wasn’t surreal – I know what you mean.

“It was surreal a bit as it was for everybody because this was made slap bang in the middle of COVID and we’d all really been in full lockdown, and suddenly here we all were together in a room with people.

“Some of them I knew from before, some of them I didn’t. I suppose the question was, ‘Are they gonna be nice to me?’ It was easy!”

Dancy praised the atmosphere on set too, and noted he could instantly tell it was a happy crew, which has been passed down “right from the top”.

He added: “I was thrilled, I was really happy to be coming in doing this part. You still don’t know – it’s funny, I think that with anything like this, the tone of it is set right from the top and you could tell as soon as you walked in that everyone was having a good time.”

The ‘Hannibal’ actor was asked about any potential initiations for newcomers on set, and Michell Dockery – who has played Lady Mary Talbot since the period drama first launched as an ITV series in 2010 – joked they came up with a musical task.

She quipped: “We made him sing the theme tune for Downton Abbey and make up his own words and score them.”

Dancy teased: “And it’s in the movie!”

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are reportedly planning to make their official tours “less formal” and want to be addressed by their first names.

Prince William and his wife Catherine – who was known as Kate Middleton before their marriage – are keen to “move with the times” and want to push plans for a huge shake-up of protocol following the criticism they faced on their Caribbean tour earlier this year.

An insider told the Sunday Mirror newspaper that the couple want to scrap “stuffy” processes including people having to curtsy or bow when they meet.

The source said: “They want to be more approachable, less formal, less stuffy and break away with a lot of the tradition.

“When the team arrived back in London [from the Caribbean] the couple had a debrief with aides.

“They went over everything and pinpointed specific things that went wrong and how to improve moving forward.

“The general consensus was that the tour seemed out of date, out of touch, too formal and stuffy.

“So now it’s more ‘Wills and Kate’ instead of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge… ‘Just call me Wills’ type of thing.

“They want to try to avoid the bows and curtsies in public, be more approachable, less formal, less stuffy, and break away with a lot of the tradition and focus on a modern monarchy.”

The couple’s Caribbean trip was hit by protesters campaigning to have Britain apologise for being involved in the slave trade in the past, while their stop in Jamaica came at a time when the country is considering following some of the other island nations and dropping Queen Elizabeth as head of state.

They were also criticised for pictures showing them shaking hands with well-wishers who were standing behind a metal cage fence, and for echoing a previous visit made by the queen and her late husband, Prince Philip, and standing in an open-topped Land Rover during a Commissioning Parade.

The insider said: “If they could wave a magic wand and go back in time, they would change almost everything about the Caribbean tour.

“William and Kate are now both very aware that to certain parts of the world, and to the younger generations, the monarchy is a symbol of colonialism and a time gone by.

“Now, it seems silly to have celebrated that and push royal traditions during the tour.

“One of the big mistakes they pinpointed was echoing the Queen and Prince Phillip’s military parade, standing up in the open-top Land Rover.

“In retrospect, the team decided that this was one of the main symbols that showed the Royal Family hadn’t changed and moved on with the times. It portrayed a very elitist and out of touch monarchy, and this can no longer be the image it should portray in order to survive.

“It was a shock to them all. A real eye-opener. This is what prompted institutional change within the monarchy. Otherwise, they just wouldn’t survive.”

While there are said to be plans for an “overhaul” of the “rules and traditions” the entire royal family are bound by, the focus is currently on William and Catherine – who have three children – because they are seen as representing “the future of the monarchy”.

(Reuters) – An Alabama law that makes it a felony to provide gender-affirming medical treatment to transgender youth went into effect on Sunday while a federal judge weighs whether to grant a motion to put a temporary hold on it.

The legislation makes it a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison to provide puberty blockers, hormones and medical procedures to transgender youth under 19.

Governor Kay Ivey had signed the bill on April 8. A similar but not as far-reaching law in Arkansas was blocked by the courts last year before it could go into effect.

After a two-day hearing concluded on Friday, U.S. District Judge Liles Burke gave no indication on when he will rule on the motion seeking to temporarily halt enforcement of the ban while a lawsuit is pending, according to local media reports.

The lawsuit, brought by organizations including the Human Rights Campaign and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, argues the ban would cause “immediate and irreparable” harm to the plaintiffs and that the measure violates several of their constitutional rights.

The groups filed the lawsuit on behalf of parents of four Alabama transgender youth, two physicians and a minister. The U.S. Department of Justice has joined the case, saying the Alabama law “violated the equal protection clause” of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment.

Mainstream medical and mental health professionals say gender-affirming care saves lives by reducing the already high risk of depression and suicide among trans youth.

Gender-reassignment surgery for people under 18 is extremely rare and would take place only after years of treatment in cases where the patient’s wishes are unwavering, according to medical experts.

Transgender rights have emerged as a wedge issue in the culture wars ahead of the November midterm congressional elections. Republican lawmakers have introduced hundreds of bills across state legislatures, the majority of them directed at trans youth.

Many Republicans and conservative activists promote the laws as safeguards for children and parental rights. Opponents, including Democrats and LGBTQ organizations, say the legislation is harmful, unnecessary and would have dire consequences on an already vulnerable population.

According to a recent survey by the Trevor Project, a non-profit focused on suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth, 93% of transgender and nonbinary youth said they have worried about trans people “being denied access to gender-affirming medical care due to state or local laws.”

(Reporting by Maria Caspani; Editing by Leslie Adler)

New York (AFP) – After carefully avoiding the taboo topic for decades, more and more US companies are taking a stand on the right to abortion, a sign of a new generation with growing influence and very different expectations than their predecessors.

Mere hours after the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion indicating the national right to abortion would be overturned, a variety of American businesses began to react publicly.

“Given what is at stake, business leaders need to make their voices heard and act to protect the health and well-being of our employees,” Levi Strauss said in a statement. “That means protecting reproductive rights.”

Like the iconic denim brand, Apple has also pledged to cover costs for employees who have to travel to another state to get an abortion.

Revoking the nationwide right to abortion “will jeopardize the human rights of millions of women,” the review platform Yelp told AFP, saying it would have “a seismic impact on our society and economy” and urging other companies to “step up to safeguard their employees.”

Since Texas in September implemented a law banning abortion after six weeks — before many women even know they are pregnant, and with no exceptions for rape or incest — the stigma on speaking out has started to break.

Amazon, Uber and even the bank Citigroup have all announced they will cover the additional costs that the Texas legislation might cause for their employees.

“We’re in a very unusual political time where this issue’s come back up as a pressing political issue, and it will force companies to take a stand,” said Maurice Schweitzer, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business school.

“Businesses that are located in states that might overturn (abortion access), they have to make a decision one way or the other: Are they going to offer that benefit in terms of travel to a location where those services could be accessed? Or are they not?” said Neeru Paharia, a professor at the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business.

“It kind of forces a lot of these (companies) to take a stand on this issue.”

According to The New York Times, Tesla, which moved its headquarters from California to Texas, has also pledged to cover its employees’ abortion-related expenses.

‘New generational thing’

The newfound boldness of US businesses is also tied to the fact that “in this country, people who are pro-choice are larger in number than people who are anti-abortion,” said Paharia.

The announcements by several leading companies are part of a “general trend” that has been developing for the past decade and “picked up steam” under former US president Donald Trump, she said.

Immigration, LGBT rights, gun regulations, the Black Lives Matter movement, voting rights — hot-button issues keep coming up, in a climate of heightened polarization, and many companies have been pressured to respond by their employees.

“This is a new generational thing,” explained Mark Hass, a journalism and communication professor at Arizona State University. “The millennial generation, Gen Z are… increasingly concerned about who they work for, the values of those companies.”

“Companies like Apple, companies like Amazon, companies like Uber… rely on having the best employees,” he said. “So their employees are sort of their North Star,” or guiding force.

Paharia agreed: “It’s a tight labor market, and certain kinds of job skills are hard to come by.”

In a country where public confidence in elected officials has been eroding for many years, employees are also expecting more from their employers, she said.

Schweitzer made a distinction between the new economy’s flagship companies, whose employees are better educated than average and often able to work anywhere, and more traditional companies, which are sometimes located in more conservative regions of the United States.

The latter often have less mobile and less skilled workers, with a more limited influence on their employer.

“That’s going to be a big part of why tech companies, for example, are going to react more strongly to this than other companies who would rather stay out of it,” he said.

Unlike before, firms that have taken sides publicly have generally avoided backlash, calls for boycotts or smear campaigns.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio did introduce a bill Tuesday that would prevent companies from receiving tax breaks on expenses tied to covering abortion-related travel, but the bill is unlikely to pass.

However, “the groups that are interested in restricting abortion access, they’re a minority. And they seem to be winning on this issue right now,” said Schweitzer. “So I’m not surprised that they’re being a little bit quiet.”

Tom Hiddleston hopes Loki coming out as bisexual was “meaningful to people who spotted it”.

The 41-year-old actor plays the first bisexual lead character in the Marvel Universe – but Tom admits there’s “further to go”.

Asked about starring in the Disney+ series ‘Loki’, Tom replied: “I was just really honoured to be asked. We all wanted to retain the integrity of the character – I wanted to make sure we didn’t lose the bits that people loved, while doing something new.”

Tom – who previously played Loki in several Marvel movies, including ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ and ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ – acknowledges that Loki coming out as bisexual was still only a “small step”.

But he maintains that it’s an “important” moment for the franchise.

He told the Guardian newspaper: “I also hope Loki coming out as bisexual was meaningful to people who spotted it. It was a small step, and there’s further to go. But it was definitely important to all of us.”

Loki’s sexuality is addressed in the third episode of the series.

Sylvie, a female character, asks Loki: “How about you? You’re a prince. Must’ve been would-be princesses or perhaps another prince?”

And Loki replies: “A bit of both. I suspect the same as you.”

Marvel writer Kate Herron has also addressed the issue on Twitter.

She previously wrote on the micro-blogging platform: “From the moment I joined @LokiOfficial it was very important to me, and my goal, to acknowledge Loki was bisexual. (sic)”

However, the writer accepted that, at this stage, it’s just a “small step”.

She said: “It is a part of who he is and who I am too. I know this is a small step but I’m happy, and heart is so full, to say that this is now Canon in #mcu #Loki (sic)”

Greensburg (United States) (AFP) – For the Donald Trump supporters attending a Pennsylvania rally, reports that the Supreme Court may soon end the federally protected right to abortion have been galvanizing. As one man summed up the feeling, “Life is precious.”

The political shockwaves of a high court opinion — a draft of which leaked Monday in an exceedingly rare event — are expected to reverberate through US politics for months, especially with midterm elections set for November. 

Trump himself barely touched on the subject in a rally held under torrential rains in the city of Greensburg.

But as he flirts more and more openly with the possibility of seeking a new term as president in 2024, the subject seemed to be on the lips of all his supporters.

“I am a Christian, and so Biblically, the way our world is going just does not line up,” 45-year-old Nicole Rye told AFP.

A Florida native, she and her husband have crisscrossed America for years attending as many Trump rallies as possible. They run a concession stand selling “Trump 2024” paraphernalia and offering a range of stickers insulting President Joe Biden in various colorful terms.

“God gives children as blessings. They are; it’s Biblically written,” Rye said. 

She said she feels profoundly grateful to Trump for using his appointments to push the Supreme Court — which rules on some of the nation’s most sensitive issues — to the political right.

With many Democrats defending abortion rights just as passionately as many Republicans reject it, the expected ruling is bound to deepen the nation’s already dramatic divisions.

The emotion evoked by the issue could be seen on Rye’s face.

“I have a past,” she said, tears filling her eyes. “There’s us women who have been through it. 

“But you can’t. Life is life. And I firmly believe that.”

‘The next Einstein’

Leroy Kinnan, a 47-year-old who lives in the area, had accompanied his daughter to her first Trump rally.

“How do we know by aborting a baby that we didn’t terminate the next Einstein or a doctor who cures cancer?” he asked.

He said abortion is sometimes used as “a form of birth control,” adding that he firmly opposes it except in cases of rape or incest. 

If the Supreme Court overturns the landmark 1973 ruling that established a federal right to abortion — as the leaked draft made clear it plans to do — each US state will be free to ban or allow abortion within its borders. 

More than 20 conservative-leaning states have already taken moves toward outlawing the practice.  

The court’s final ruling is expected in June or July.

Trump, perhaps wary about proclaiming a premature victory, barely mentioned the court’s impending ruling, saying merely, “They’re making a very big decision now.”

But the crowd of several thousands clearly knew what he meant.

The billionaire politician was in Pennsylvania to support several Republican candidates in the legislative elections in November. 

Jason Killmeyer, a Republican who is running for the House of Representatives, was much more direct as he strode through the muddy fairgrounds where the rally was held, seeking support from Trump backers. 

“Eight hundred thousand dead babies a year is too many,” he said, referring to a widely circulated estimate of the number of abortions in the country. 

His language reflected the anti-abortion argument that fetuses, even in their earliest phase of development, are people. 

Killmeyer promised the voters he met that he would not shy away from taking on those Democrats who favor a woman’s right to choose.

“Let’s jump into these cultural battles and no longer let the left wing set the tone and the pace of cultural engagement,” he said, promising that if elected he would work to outlaw abortion even in states that might want to allow it.

John Roan, who is 52, agreed. He and his wife have adopted six children, now aged eight to 27.

“We believe that life is precious,” said Roan, who wore a khaki baseball cap. 

Along with Trump, he added, he is willing to fight for his belief.

Human rights group Amnesty International released a report on Friday accusing Russia of over 60 cases of war crimes around the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.

Labelling the move by Amnesty as “historic,” secretary general Agnès Callamard made a presentation in Kiev documenting the allegations.

Amnesty believes more than 40 civilians were killed by airstrikes in Borodyanka and there were 22 cases of unlawful killings in and around Bucha.

Callamard stressed that in her view, the attacks on civilians were deliberate decisions and therefore unacceptable.

Russia invaded Ukraine nearly two and a half months ago. Areas north and north-west of Kiev were under Russian occupation for just under a month before Moscow switched its focus to the east of the country.

According to Ukrainian figures, more than 1,200 civilians have been killed in the Kiev area, about a third of them in Bucha alone.

Adele insists she has “never been happier” as she celebrates her 34th birthday.

The ‘Easy on Me’ hitmaker turned 34 on Thursday (05.05.22) and reflected on the positive changes in her life as she thanked fans for their well-wishes on her special day.

Sharing two bare-faced photos of herself in a Carolina Herrera minidress on Instagram taken by photographer Raven B. Varona, she wrote: “What a difference a year makes! If time keeps healing and smoothing out all the creases in my life like it does as the years fly by, then I can’t wait to be 60! I’ve never been happier! So many lessons, so many blessings to be grateful for. This is 34, and I love it here! Thank you for the birthday love as always x (sic)”

Adele – who has nine-year-old son Angelo with ex-husband Simon Konecki and is in a relationship with Rich Paul – later donned matching striped pyjamas to celebrate with friends including Raven, stylist Jamie Mizrahi, travel writer Jedidiah Jenkins and Crown + Conquer founder April McDaniel.

Jedidiah shared a post on Instagram Story featuring a smiling Adele and the rest of the group sleeping.

He wrote: ” ‘We’re all gonna watch Sleeping with the Enemy. I think I’m entering my Julia Roberts era?’ – Birthday girl.

“‘Oooh I’ve never seen it. Perfect, we’re in.’ ” – us.(sic)”

The ‘Chasing Pavements’ singer recently teased she’s planning to have another child.

Discussing her delayed Las Vegas residency, she said: “Imagine if I have to cancel because I am having a baby!

“We are now working our a**** off, but I don’t want to announce a new set of dates until I know everything will definitely be ready.

“The sooner I can announce the better, but I just can’t in case we are not ready in time. It is absolutely 100% happening this year.

“It has to happen this year because I’ve got plans for next year.”

The ‘Hello’ hitmaker is keen to add to her brood but admitted motherhood has been exhausting.

She said: “It takes me a while to recharge, and I would like to have more children – I only just feel like I’ve caught up with my sleep from nine years ago when I had my son.”

Madonna has asked Pope Francis to meet her.

The 63-year-old singer – who was criticised for blasphemy by the Vatican following the release of her controversial 1989 video ‘Like a Prayer, which featured burning crosses, a black Jesus and statues crying blood – has reached out to the head of the Catholic church because she wants to discuss “important matters” with him and insisted her treatment by the religious organisation hasn’t been “fair”.

She tweeted: “Hello @Pontifex Francis —I’m a good Catholic. I Swear! I mean I don’t Swear,” Madonna tweeted at the Pope. “It’s been a few decades since my last confession. Would it be possible to meet up one day to discuss some important matters?

“I’ve been ex communicated 3 times. It doesn’t seem fair.”

The Pope has yet to respond to Madonna.

In 2006, Madonna was also accused of blasphemy following a controversial performance in Rome, when she was “crucified” on stage.

At the time, the late Cardinal Ersilio Tonini spoke with the approval of then-Pope Benedict XVI, saying the ‘Vogue’ hitmaker had gone “too far”.

He said: “To crucify herself during the concert in the city of Popes and martyrs is an act of open hostility. It is nothing short of a scandal and an attempt to generate publicity,” the cardinal said at the time.

“The time will come when this woman will realise that Christ died on the cross for her as well, that he spilt his blood for her. I feel pity for her.”

The mother-of-six previously reached out to the Pope in 2019 because he was keen to talk to him about women’s rights.

She said: “Let’s talk about Jesus’ point of view about women. Let’s talk about it.

“What do you really think he thought of women? And don’t you think Jesus would agree that a woman has the right to choose what to do with her body?

“One day he might invite me. I think this one might… I think he would be open to having that conversation with me.”

The ‘Ray of Light’ singer previously admitted that her religious upbringing has left her carrying a feeling of guilt throughout the rest of her life.

The American star – who has been married to Sean Penn and later, Guy Ritchie – shared: “Once you’re a Catholic, you’re always a Catholic – in terms of your feelings of guilt and remorse and whether you’ve sinned or not.

“Sometimes I’m wracked with guilt when I needn’t be, and that, to me, is left over from my Catholic upbringing.

“In Catholicism, you are born a sinner and you are a sinner all of your life. No matter how you try to get away from it, the sin is within you all the time.”

By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON Reuters) -U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene should be allowed to run for reelection, a judge ruled on Friday, rejecting arguments by a group of Georgia voters that her comments about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol made her unfit for federal office.

The ruling by Charles Beaudrot Jr., an administrative law judge in Atlanta, is only a recommendation. Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, will make the final determination whether Greene, also a Republican, is qualified to run for reelection.

Greene, a prominent supporter of Republican former President Donald Trump who represents a Georgia district in the U.S. House of Representatives, is seeking reelection this year. The Republican primary is scheduled on May 24 and the general election on Nov. 8.

Greene, in comments to the media, has played down and justified the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol assault by Trump supporters in their failed bid to block congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

A Greene spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the judge’s ruling.

In a novel legal challenge, a group of Georgia voters accused Greene of violating a U.S. Constitution provision called the “Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause” by supporting an incendiary rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol.

The constitutional clause, added after the U.S. Civil War of the 1860s, prohibits politicians from running for Congress if they have engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” or “given aid or comfort” to the nation’s enemies.

In his ruling, Beaudrot wrote: “the Court concludes that the evidence in this matter is insufficient to establish that Rep. Greene, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress … to support the Constitution of the United States … engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or (gave) aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

Trump at the preceding rally told his supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell,” repeating his false claims that the election was stolen through widespread voter fraud. The Trump supporters attacked police, ransacked parts of the Capitol and sent lawmakers into hiding for their own safety.

“I was asking people to come for a peaceful march, which everyone is entitled to do,” Greene told the judge at an April hearing on the effort to block her from the ballot. “I was not asking them to actively engage in violence.”

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Scott Malone, Leslie Adler and Chizu Nomiyama)

By Doyinsola Oladipo and Arriana McLymore

(Reuters) – Yelp Inc, Amazon.com, and Citigroup are among a small but growing number of companies rolling out policies to cover costs for American employees who need to travel out of state for an abortion.

Yelp Inc was one of the first to offer support for its employees who might need to travel out of state for access to abortion, a decision the company says was made to ensure its workers have equal access to healthcare.

A crowd-sourced platform for reviews of businesses including restaurants and hotels, Yelp started this month offering the healthcare travel benefit to U.S. employees.

“I think it really comes down to equal access to care. In order to safeguard employees and make sure that they can get the healthcare that they need, no matter what state they live in, we need a benefit like this,” Miriam Warren, Yelp’s Chief Diversity Officer told Reuters.

Yelp and Citigroup, Levi Strauss & Co and Amazon.com Inc have all pledged to pay for employees’ travel to obtain abortions while Oklahoma, Texas and other Republican-led states clamp down on access.

Some major employers, such as Walmart Inc, Target Corp and Walt Disney Co, have declined to weigh in since the leak to Politico this week of a Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn its 1973 decision legalizing abortion nationwide.

Some could be fearful of a growing trend among politicians in Republican-led states to punish companies for their stances on social issues.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a rising star in the Republican party, signed a bill in April stripping Disney of self-governing authority at its Orlando-area parks in retaliation for its opposition to a new state law that limits the teaching of LGBTQ issues in schools.

Dozens of U.S. House Republicans in April demanded that the chamber drop Citigroup Inc as its provider of credit cards for lawmakers, after the financial institution offered to pay travel costs for employees seeking abortions.

The issue has gained urgency now that 31 states have introduced abortion bans this year, according to policy analysis by research group Guttmacher Institute.

By offering support for employees who may need to travel out of state for abortions, Yelp and other companies hope to gain an edge attracting and retaining talent as well as appearing socially responsible to investors.

“For companies who care about issues of diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging, they can’t sit by and be silent on this issue because it really does impact every aspect of a woman’s life,” said Yelp’s Warren.

But speaking out on social issues can carry the risk of losing customers and employees who disagree with a company’s stance.

“Companies must carefully navigate such issues, as to avoid offending internal stakeholders as well as the external community,” said Izzy Kushner, president of human resources consultancy HR Impact.

(Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo and Arriana McLymore; Additional reporting by Aleksandra Michalska and Dawn Chmielewski; Editing by Howard Goller)

The Trevor Project, a non-profit that works to prevent suicide among young people in the LGTBQ community, polled nearly 34,000 people aged 13 to 24

Washington (AFP) – Nearly half of LGBTQ youth aged 13 to 24 in America seriously considered committing suicide last year, according to a survey released Wednesday.

The poll of nearly 34,000 people was conducted by The Trevor Project, a non-profit that works to prevent suicide among young people in the LGTBQ community.

This annual survey “demonstrates that rates of suicidal thoughts have trended upward among LGBTQ young people over the last three years,” said Amit Paley, the organization’s executive director.

The study found that 45 percent of respondents said they seriously considered suicide last year, and that 14 percent tried to take their life.

Among those aged 13 to 17, the share of those who said they seriously considered suicide rose to 50 percent.

Suicide attempts among young Americans rose throughout the population — especially among teenagers — during the pandemic’s two years of remote school and social isolation.

But a 2019 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already found “a significant difference” between levels of suicidal thoughts among young people, based on their sexual identity.

To wit: 14.5 percent of heterosexuals reported having seriously considered suicide but the figure shot up to 46.8 percent among those who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual, the CDC said.

Events in recent years have only reinforced these trends, said The Trevor Project.

It said the proportion of young LGBTQ people in America who seriously considered suicide last year is up two percentage points from 2020 and five points from 2019. 

“The Covid-19 pandemic and record wave of anti-transgender legislation continue to negatively impact LGBTQ youth’s mental health,” the organization said.

Seventy-three percent of people in the community reported feeling anxiety last year and 58 percent experienced symptoms of depression, the poll said.

By Jennifer Rigby

(Reuters) -Almost three times as many people have died as a result of COVID-19 as the official data show, according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report, the most comprehensive look at the true global toll of the pandemic so far.

There were 14.9 million excess deaths associated with COVID-19 by the end of 2021, the U.N. body said on Thursday. The official count of deaths directly attributable to COVID-19 and reported to WHO in that period, from January 2020 to the end of December 2021, is slightly more than 5.4 million.

The WHO’s excess mortality figures reflect people who died of COVID-19 as well as those who died as an indirect result of the outbreak, including people who could not access healthcare for other conditions when systems were overwhelmed during huge waves of infection. It also accounts for deaths averted during the pandemic, for example because of the lower risk of traffic accidents during lockdowns.

But the numbers are also far higher than the official tally because of deaths that were missed in countries without adequate reporting. Even pre-pandemic, around 6 in 10 deaths around the world were not registered, WHO said.

The WHO report said that almost half of the deaths that until now had not been counted were in India. The report suggests that 4.7 million people died there as a result of the pandemic, mainly during a huge surge in May and June 2021.

The Indian government, however, puts its death toll for the January 2020-December 2021 period far lower: about 480,000. WHO said it had not yet fully examined new data provided this week by India, which has pushed back against the WHO estimates and issued its own mortality figures for all causes of death in 2020 on Tuesday. WHO said it may add a disclaimer to the report highlighting the ongoing conversation with India.

The WHO panel, made up of international experts who have been working on the data for months, used a combination of national and local information, as well as statistical models, to estimate totals where the data is incomplete – a methodology that India has criticised.

However, other independent assessments have also put the death toll in India far higher than the official government tally, including a report published in Science which suggested three million people may have died of COVID in the country.

Other models have also reached similar conclusions about the global death toll being far higher than the recorded statistics. For comparison, around 50 million people are thought to have died in the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, and 36 million have died of HIV since the epidemic began in the 1980s.

Samira Asma, WHO assistant director general for data, analytics and delivery for impact, who co-led the calculation process, said data was the “lifeblood of public health” needed to assess and learn from what happened during the pandemic, and called for more support for countries to improve reporting.

“Too much is unknown,” she told reporters in a press briefing.

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby, Editing by William Maclean)