Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman is bisexual.

The 33-year-old actress plays Selena Kyle’s alter ego in Matt Reeves’ upcoming movie ‘The Batman’, and Zoe has confirmed the sexuality of her character.

Speaking about Selena’s friend Anika, she told Pedestrian.tv: “That’s definitely the way I interpreted that, that they had some kind of romantic relationship.”

The director also spoke in detail about Zoe’s wishes for her character and how it was intended for there to be an “intimate relationship between” Selena and Anika.

The 55-year-old filmmaker explained: “[The film is] very true to the character of Selina Kyle. She’s not yet Catwoman, but all the elements of how she’s going to become Catwoman are there.

“And in terms of her relationship with Anika, I spoke to Zoe very early on and one of the things she said which I loved was that, ‘She’s drawn to strays because she was a stray and so she really wants to care for these strays because she doesn’t want to be that way anymore and Anika is like a stray and she loves her. She actually represents this connection that she has to her mother who she lost, who was a stray anymore’.”

He added: “So I don’t think we meant to go directly in that way, but you can interpret it that way for sure. She has an intimacy with that character and it’s a tremendous and deep caring for that character, more so than a sexual thing, but there was meant to be quite an intimate relationship between them.”

Zoe confirming Catwoman’s sexual orientation comes after she said she tried to “forget” past versions of the character.

The star’s take on Catwoman – who has been played by the likes of Halle Berry and Michelle Pfeiffer in the past – is different because Matt had his own unique ideas for the movie.

She said: “It was really about, for me, just trusting the story that Matt [Reeves]’s written, and doing my best to almost forget about the idea of Catwoman and what she means culturally and really just focus on telling the story.”

(This Feb 25 story corrects ownership of Mid Atlantic Offshore Wind LCC in paragraph 10.)

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration’s sale of offshore wind development rights off the coasts of New York and New Jersey drew a record $4.37 billion in high bids from developers that included major European energy companies.

The auction, which began on Wednesday and stretched into Friday afternoon, is the first offshore wind lease sale under U.S. President Joe Biden, who sees the expansion of the industry as a way to tackle climate change and create jobs.

The administration has set a goal to install some 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030 along the nation’s coastlines and several states, including New York and New Jersey, have set ambition mandates for clean power adoption.

“This week’s offshore wind sale makes one thing clear: The enthusiasm for the clean energy economy is undeniable and it’s here to stay,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

The auction’s scale marks a major step forward for offshore wind power in the United States, which has lagged European nations in developing the technology. Currently, the United States has just two small offshore wind facilities, off the coasts of Rhode Island and Virginia, along with two additional commercial-scale projects recently approved for development.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which oversees energy development in federal waters, offered six leases across 488,201 acres (197,568 hectares) between New York’s Long Island and New Jersey, an area known as the New York Bight.

By the end of the auction, total high bids on the six blocks amounted to $4.37 billion. That is more than three times the revenue received from all U.S. offshore oil and gas lease auctions over the past five years.

The top bidder was Bight Wind Holdings LLC, a joint venture between Germany’s largest power producer RWE and Britain’s National Grid, which won a single 125,964-acre parcel for $1.1 billion.

Other winning bidders included Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Bight LLC, a fifty-fifty joint venture between Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF Renewables North America, whose parent companies are European energy giants.

Other winners included Mid Atlantic Offshore Wind LCC, which is owned by a Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners fund; OW Ocean Winds East LLC, which is a joint venture between Portugal’s EDP Renewables and France’s ENGIE; Attentive Energy LLC; and Invenergy Wind Offshore LLC, BOEM said.

An offshore energy industry group, the National Ocean Industries Association, said the auction reflected optimism among offshore wind developers of strong future demand.

“The record-shattering interest in the New York Bight lease sale is testament to how bright the American offshore wind outlook is and how confident developers are in the strength of the U.S. offshore wind industry as a whole,” said Erik Milito, president of NOIA.

WINDFALL

BOEM spokeswoman Tracey Moriarty said the revenues also marked a big win for taxpayers.

“The high bids will benefit tax payers, as the money incurred will go to the U.S. Treasury,” she said.

It was not immediately clear how or if the high price of the leases would impact the cost of power eventually generated by the projects.

Trade group American Clean Power Association praised the record-breaking auction and said it supported BOEM’s goal to hold six more lease sales through 2024.

“We challenge policymakers to provide even more certainty to this new industry, ensuring that the American people benefit from its growth and job-creating potential,” said CEO Heather Zichal.

Not everyone supports offshore wind development. The Biden administration’s ambitions have stoked concerns among commercial fishermen and coastal communities about harm to their livelihoods and property values.

In January, a group of New Jersey residents sued BOEM over its leasing plans for the New York Bight. The group, from the summer colony of Long Beach Island, is concerned about the aesthetic impacts of the turbines and potential lost tourism.

Commercial scallop fishermen in the region are also worried that the construction of offshore projects will hurt scallop populations and complicate navigation.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Marguerita Choy, Aurora Ellis and Jonathan Oatis)

By Jake Spring, Andrea Januta and Gloria Dickie

(Reuters) – Climate change is already disrupting billions of lives and humanity is not doing enough to limit the suffering, the United Nations climate science panel warned in a major report on Monday.

Noting that nearly half the world’s population was already vulnerable to increasingly dangerous climate impacts, the report calls for drastic action on a huge scale: A third to a half of the planet needs to be conserved to ensure future food and freshwater supplies. Coastal cities need plans to keep people safe from storms and rising seas. And more.

“Adaptation saves lives,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said with the report’s release. “As climate impacts worsen – and they will – scaling up investments will be essential for survival… Delay means death.”

The 3,675-page report, the latest in a series by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), details the global consensus on climate science. This report, however, focuses on how nature and societies are being affected and what they can do to adapt.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine overshadowed the release of the report and drove the sole Ukrainian author to leave the proceedings to take shelter, although a government representative did attend its final approval by nearly 200 nations.

British, Spanish and Egyptian officials said the report was a call to action. U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry lamented that too little has been done to adapt to climate change and said the report offered a “blueprint for action”.

“Denial and delay are not strategies, they are a recipe for disaster,” Kerry said in a statement.

TOUGH CHOICES

On nearly all counts, the report makes clear that climate change is impacting the world far faster than scientists had anticipated. Meanwhile, countries have failed to rein in planet-warming carbon emissions, which continue to rise.

“Unchecked carbon pollution is forcing the world’s most vulnerable on a frogmarch to destruction,” Guterres said in a video address Monday. “The facts are undeniable. This abdication of leadership is criminal.”

While governments need to drastically curb their emissions to prevent runaway global warming, they can also work to limit suffering by adapting to the conditions of a warmer world, the report says.

That will take a lot of money – to finance new technologies and institutional support. Cities can invest in cooling areas to help people through heatwaves. Coastal communities may need new infrastructure or to relocate altogether.

“The scale of transformation that we need is unprecedented in human history,” said Zinta Zommers, a report review editor with the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

U.S. and European investment firms said the report was a wake up call to the huge risks climate change presents to the financial system and that most companies are not doing enough to adapt.

The report predicts disruptions to economies and food production will push millions into poverty.

In some cases, the report acknowledges, the costs of adapting will be too high.

LIMITING WARMING

The report’s release three months after global leaders met at a climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, highlighted the urgency of efforts to contain global warming to within 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of pre-industrial temperatures.

Breaching that threshold will deliver irreversible damage to the planet, it says. And every increment of warming will cause more pain.

“Adaptation is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. There are limits to adaptation,” said Maarten van Aalst, director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and a report co-author.

Limiting global warming to close to 1.5C may not prevent losses to nature, societies or economies, but will substantially reduce them, the report says.

Having already warmed 1.1C, the planet is expected to hit the 1.5C threshold within two decades.

“Our atmosphere today is on steroids, doped by fossil fuels. This is already leading to stronger, longer and more frequent extreme weather events,” said Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization.

Societies will fail to adjust well to a warming world if they aren’t socially inclusive in tackling the task, the report warns. Solutions need to consider social justice and include indigenous populations, minorities and the poor, it says.

“It’s the poor and most marginalized who are most vulnerable” to climate change, said Timon McPhearson, an urban ecologist at The New School in New York and one of the report’s 270 authors.

Losses and damage from climate-related events, such as storms or heatwaves, are already mounting.

In the decade up to 2020, highly vulnerable people in places such as Africa, South Asia and South America were 15 times more likely to die from floods, droughts or storms, the report said.

Hundreds of plant and animal species have disappeared at a local level, and some altogether from the planet. Australia’s Bramble Cay melomys rodent, for example, was driven to extinction by sea level rise, noted said IPCC co-author Brendan Mackey of Australia’s Griffith University. And marine heatwaves are killing off swathes of the Great Barrier Reef.

For people, time is running out to make the society-wide transformations needed, the report authors warn.

“There is a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future on the planet,” said Hans-Otto Portner, co-chair of the IPCC working group that generated the report. “We need to live up to this challenge.”

(Reporting by Jake Spring, Gloria Dickie in London and Andrea Januta in New York; Additional reporting by David Stanway in Shanghai, William James in London, Brendan O’Brien in Chicago and Isla Binnie in Madrid; Editing by Katy Daigle and Alex Richardson)

By Lawrence Hurley and Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared skeptical of the federal government’s authority to issue sweeping regulations to reduce carbon emissions from power plants in a case that could undermine President Joe Biden’s plans to tackle climate change.

The court, whose 6-3 conservative majority has shown wariness toward broad federal agency actions, was weighing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal- and gas-fired power plants under the landmark Clean Air Act.

Although some justices questioned the EPA’s power in an abstract sense, it remained unclear how they would rule, as lawyers representing the EPA and power companies pushed back against a decision that would prevent the agency from issuing any regulation that went “outside the fenceline” – meaning beyond restrictions on individual plants.

An eventual ruling restricting the EPA’s authority could hamstring the administration’s ability to curb the power sector’s emissions – representing about a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gases. The United States, behind only China in greenhouse gas emissions, is a pivotal player in efforts to combat climate change on a global basis.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito indicated that any broad assertion of authority sought by the EPA would constitute a “major question” that under court precedent requires Congress to have expressly authorized it.

“You are claiming that the interpretation gives you the authority to set industrial policy and energy policy and balance such things as jobs, economic impact, the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change as well as costs,” Alito told U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing Biden’s administration.

The Supreme Court is reviewing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s 2021 decision striking down Republican former President Donald Trump’s Affordable Clean Energy rule. That regulation would have imposed limits on a Clean Air Act provision called Section 111 that provides the EPA authority to regulate emissions from existing power plants.

The United Nations earlier in the day released a 3,675-page report https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/un-climate-report-urges-world-adapt-now-or-suffer-later-2022-02-28 urging global action to combat climate change. Outside the Supreme Court, a small group of demonstrators carried signs reading “Protect the Clean Air Act.”

The case was pursued by Republican-led states led by coal producer West Virginia. Other challengers include coal companies and coal-friendly industry groups. Coal is among the most greenhouse gas-intensive fuels.

Democratic-led states and major power companies https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/us-utilities-side-with-environment-agency-supreme-court-climate-case-2022-01-27 including Consolidated Edison Inc, Exelon Corp and PG&E Corp sided with Biden’s administration, as did the Edison Electric Institute, an investor-owned utility trade group.

During the argument, their lawyer Beth Brinkmann, stressed the value of flexibility that would allow for some “outside the fenceline” regulation, including authorization of emissions trading between plants.

That argument seemed to draw some interest from the bench, including conservative Justice Clarence Thomas.

“I don’t know how you can draw such clean distinctions,” Thomas told Yaakov Roth, a lawyer representing coal companies.

Liberal Justice Elena Kagan said that “inside the fenceline” regulations can be just as onerous on coal plants as a more industry-wide rule.

“Reform can be very small or can be catastrophic. There are ‘inside the fence’ technological fixes that could drive the entire coal industry out of business tomorrow, and an ‘outside the fence’ rule could be very small, or it could be very large,” Kagan said.

The rule proposed by Trump, a supporter of the U.S. coal industry who also questioned climate change science, was meant to supplant Democratic former President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan mandating major reductions in carbon emissions from the power industry.

The Supreme Court blocked https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-carbon/supreme-court-blocks-obama-carbon-emissions-plan-idUSKCN0VI2A0 Clean Power Plan implementation in 2016 without ruling on its lawfulness.

Coal-aligned groups want the justices to rule that Biden’s administration cannot take a sweeping approach to regulating carbon emissions under Section 111. Such a decision would prevent the EPA from enforcing industry-wide changes, limiting it to actions targeting individual plants.

That would be a blow for the administration, which wants the U.S. power sector decarbonized by 2035. If Biden’s administration loses the case, Congress would need to pass new legislation for the government to impose sweeping climate-related regulations – unlikely given congressional divisions.

Prelogar said the EPA will unveil a proposed new regulation by the end of the year, which would likely come after the Supreme Court’s ruling – expected by the end of June.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Will Dunham)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday that there is no place in the Republican Party for white supremacists or anti-Semitism, after two Republican lawmakers appeared at a white nationalist conference last week.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Kharkiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Russian President Vladmir Putin on Monday levelled conditions on ending Moscow’s offensive against Ukraine as Russian forces shelled the country’s second city in the face of sweeping Western sanctions.

The Russian attacks on Kharkiv killed at least 11 people, Ukrainian officials said. Kyiv says more than 350 civilians, including 14 children, have been killed since the invasion began on Thursday. The United Nations said more than half a million people have fled the country. 

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators on Monday met for the first time since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion with Ukraine demanding a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops. The talks ended with both sides agreeing to continue a second-round of negotiations “soon”.

In a lengthy telephone call, Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron that “the demilitarisation and denazification” of Ukraine and Western recognition of Russian sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula were prerequisites to ending fighting in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

“The Russian enemy is bombing residential areas of Kharkiv, where there is no critical infrastructure, where there are no positions of the armed forces,” said Oleg Sinegubov, the governor of the region that includes Kharkiv.

An AFP photographer in the city inspected damage caused by fighting on Sunday, finding a destroyed school, as well as several burned out Russian infantry vehicles. 

Russian corpses in army fatigues could also be seen in the streets.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned what he called “the barbaric air strikes being carried out by Russia against innocent civilians, including children”.

Earlier on Monday, the Russian army urged Ukrainians to leave Kyiv “freely” on one highway out ahead of what is an expected Russian offensive to capture the capital.

Financial pain

Long queues for groceries snaked through the streets of Kyiv on Monday after a strict 36-hour military curfew was lifted and volunteer militias learned how to make home-made explosives. 

“We will greet them with Molotov cocktails and bullets to the head,” bank employee Viktor Rudnichenko told AFP. “The only flowers they might get from us will be for their grave.”

The Russian ruble crashed to a record low as sanctions imposed by the West over the weekend had an immediate impact in Moscow, forcing the central bank to more than double its key interest rate to 20 percent.

“Ninety percent of Russians are going to rush to withdraw their rubles and change them into dollars, property or even gold,” predicted 51-year-old retired soldier Edward Sysoyev, who was in line to take out cash from a Moscow bank. “It’ll be ordinary people who pay for this military bun-fight.”

As Russia becomes increasingly isolated on the world stage, it faced a crucial test of support Monday as the 193 members of the UN General Assembly held an extraordinary debate on a resolution condemning Moscow’s “unprovoked armed aggression” in Ukraine.

During the rare emergency special session — just the 11th the Assembly has held in the United Nations’ 77-year history — Russia defended its decision to invade as member state after member state made a plea for peace.

“The fighting in Ukraine must stop,” warned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, after the session began with a minute of silence for the victims.

“Enough is enough. Soldiers need to move back to their barracks. Leaders need to move to peace. Civilians must be protected.” 

Separately the United States said it had banned all US transactions with Russia’s central bank, while traditionally neutral Switzerland said it would adopt the same measures as the EU.

The economic pain is intended to change Putin’s calculations, but the roughly 100,000 Russian troops thought to be inside Ukraine continue to move forward from positions in the north, east and south on Monday.

“The Western sanctions on Russia are hard, but our country has the necessary potential to compensate the damage,” insisted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. 

Putin, who put his nuclear forces on alert on Sunday, banned foreign currency transfers outside of Russia and ordered exporters to exchange their foreign reserves for the ruble in moves to support the currency.

There were more signs of rare dissent on Monday among the usually ultra-loyal oligarchs who surround the Russian leader — in addition to anti-war demonstrations that saw an estimated 2,100 people arrested on Sunday.

Russian advances

“It is necessary to change the economic policy, it is necessary to end all this state capitalism,” tycoon Oleg Deripaska wrote on Telegram while criticising “fantasists” in charge.

Western defence officials and the Kyiv government say Ukrainian troops have so far kept the country’s major cities out of Russian hands despite incursions in the capital and Kharkiv over the weekend. 

The small southern city of Berdyansk has been occupied, however, Ukrainian officials said.

Moscow claimed it had “gained air superiority over the entire territory of Ukraine”, while accusing Ukrainian troops of using civilians as human shields.

“You don’t conquer a country in two days,” said Olivier Kempf, a security analyst at the Foundation for Strategic Research think tank, warning against Western optimism about Russia’s slower-than-expected progress so far. 

“There have been difficulties, yes, that’s war. They perhaps have logistical problems, but no matter what anyone says, they are still advancing,” he told AFP. 

The talks on the Belarus-Ukraine border were led by Ukraine’s defence minister and Russian presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky.

Kyiv had been initially reluctant to send a delegation to Belarus, given the country’s role in facilitating Russia’s attack on Ukraine by hosting troops and weaponry used for the invasion.

“We agreed to keep the negotiations going,” Medinsky said at the end of the talks.

Financial hit

The weekend featured a momentous series of announcements from Europe, with Germany unveiling a historic change to its defence policies, and the EU saying it would buy and supply arms to Ukraine, the first such move in its history.

Fresh sanctions announced over the weekend on Russia’s economy are intended to cut it off from the global financial system in the way that Iran, Venezuela or North Korea have been frozen out of international trade. 

The Moscow Stock Market was closed Monday to prevent an expected mass sell-off. 

Many Russian banks have been excluded from the SWIFT bank system, which is used to settle international trade, and the Russian central bank has seen its foreign assets held in Western countries frozen.

The response from the world of sports has also been gathering steam, as Russia was expelled from the World Cup and the country’s clubs and national teams suspended from all international football competitions “until further notice”, FIFA and UEFA said.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has again appealed to his European backers to let his country into the European Union.

“We turn to the EU for immediate admission of Ukraine according to a new special procedure,” Zelensky said. “I am convinced that this is just. I am convinced that we have earned this.”

In the past few days since Russia invaded Ukraine, 16 children had been killed and 45 others injured by shelling, according to the president. This information could not be independently verified.

Addressing Russian soldiers in Ukraine, Zelensky said, “Just save your lives! Go!”

Ariana DeBose hopes she can pave the way for more queer Afro Latinas in Hollywood.

The 31-year-old actress became the first openly queer woman of colour to win an individual film Screen Actors Guild Award when she scooped the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role accolade on Sunday (27.02.22) and while it is an “honour” for her to be “seen”, she hopes her victory will help other women succeed in the future.

Speaking in the SAG Awards press room after her win at Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar, she said: “I think it’s just indicative that the doors are opening.

“It’s an honour to be seen, it’s an honour to be an Afro-Latina – an openly queer woman of colour, a dancer, a singer, and an actor. It’s indicative to me that I will not be the last, and that’s the important part.

“Whatever firsts are attached to my name, they are immensely special to me, but I’m focused on the fact that if I’m the first of anything that means I won’t be the last.”

Ariana also paid tribute to Rita Moreno and Chita Rivera, who previously played Anita in ‘West Side Story’, for opening doors for her too.

She said: “The legacy of Anita means a great deal to me, for many different reasons.

“I’m a Broadway girl at heart. We speak so frequently about Rita Moreno, as we should, she’s legendary.

“But the OG Anita on stage is Chita Rivera, and I have looked up to Chita for such a long time. She [paved the] way for me on the stage for me to be able to do what I do in that facet of the industry.

“So, to be able to be a part of the legacy of Anita that includes both Chita and Rita—and now Ariana— it’s really special to me. And we’re all very different types of Latinas, that’s beautiful and important too.

“There’s no one way to be Latina or Hispanic. There are many beautiful ways. I think each one of us is a testament to that.”

Jessica Chastain was “completely stunned” to be named Best Actress at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards on Sunday (27.02.22).

The 44-year-old actress was nominated for the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her work on ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ accolade alongside Olivia Colman (‘The Lost Daughter’), Lady Gaga (‘House of Gucci’), Jennifer Hudson (‘Respect’) and Nicole Kidman (‘Being the Ricardos’) and admitted she felt like the “luckiest person ever” when she was announced as the winner.

Speaking on stage at Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar, she said: “Whoa. Wow. Okay I’m really surprised. Thank you SAG-AFTRA for this, I’m completely stunned. I’m the luckiest person ever…

“I wanted to be an actor my whole life, and ever since I was a kid it was the only thing I ever really thought about, and there were years of studying and auditioning and not getting jobs. And I know what that feels like and I know the loneliness of what that feels like.

“And so, for those of you who are struggling and feeling unseen I just want you to keep going because you’re one job away, I promise! And the thing that really kept me going was you. It was everyone in this room and it was this community.”

Jessica admitted it had been a “dream” to play evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker in the movie and paid tribute to the “trailblazer”.

She said: “She wrapped her arms around those who were repeatedly cast aside and she launched herself into decades of LGBTQ love. I worked on the project for 10 years, and I hope that we made her story in a way that she would be proud of.”

Like many other winners, the actress touched on the situation between Ukraine and Russia.

She concluded: “And I love my artistic family, and my heart is with our international family all over the world right now who is fighting for their safety and their freedom. I love you all so much, thank you very, very much.”

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role was awarded to Will Smith for his portrayal of Richard Williams in ‘King Richard’ and he gave a shout out to her alter ego’s real-life daughters, tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams.

He said: “That may have been one of the greatest moments of my career just now because my name was called for King Richard sitting next to Venus Williams and her sister.”

Will hailed Richard a “dreamer like no one you’ve ever known” before thanking his castmates Aunjanue Ellis, Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton.

He said: “You guys are actors, so you know how sometimes your onscreen characters kind of bleed into real life. To walk you around this room tonight, to parent you on this film, to deliver you into this business has been one of the greatest pleasures of my life. “

Javier Bardem (‘Being the Ricardos’), Benedict Cumberbatch (‘The Power of the Dog’), Andrew Garfield (‘Tick, tick… BOOM!’) and Denzel Washington (‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’) were also nominated for the award.

Josh Gad thinks Disney “didn’t go far enough” in depicting his ‘Beauty and the Beast’ character as gay.

The 41-year-old actor played the part of Le Fou in the 2017 movie, but Josh regrets not making more of Disney’s first-ever “gay moment”.

He told The Independent: “We didn’t go far enough to warrant accolades.

“We didn’t go far enough to say, ‘Look how brave we are.’ My regret in what happened is that it became ‘Disney’s first explicitly gay moment’ and it was never intended to be that. It was never intended to be a moment that we should laud ourselves for, because frankly, I don’t think we did justice to what a real gay character in a Disney film should be.”

On reflection, Josh now regrets not making more of the opportunity.

The actor – whose character briefly danced with another male character in the film – said: “If we’re going to pat ourselves on the back, then damn it we should have gone further with that.

“Everybody deserves an opportunity to see themselves on screen, and I don’t think we’ve done enough – and I certainly haven’t done enough to do that.”

By contrast, Josh previously claimed that he felt “so proud” of the film’s “gay moment”.

The Hollywood actor – who starred in the movie alongside Emma Watson, Dan Stevens and Luke Evans – explained: “Here’s what we decided, we decided that LeFou’s happy ending would be to dance with another man, [and] that became such a controversial thing apparently, even though it was three seconds of screen time.

“We never put a spotlight on it, we never meant to put a spotlight on it. I think the director Bill Condon was very proud of the moment and he made some comments about being very proud of it.

“[But] the movie speaks for itself, and that moment speaks for itself.”

By Tom Wilson

LONDON (Reuters) – Ukraine’s government has raised almost $8 million in cryptocurrencies after posting appeals on social media for donations of bitcoin and other digital tokens, according to blockchain analysis company Elliptic.

Ukraine’s official Twitter account made the appeal for cryptocurrency donations on Saturday following the country’s invasion by Russia, posting digital wallets addresses for tokens including bitcoin and ether.

Ukraine’s Vice-Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov Tweeted the wallet addresses. “Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations,” wrote Fedorov, who is also minister of digital transformation.

The donations came as Russian military vehicles pushed into Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv on Sunday and explosions rocked oil and gas installations on a fourth day of fighting in the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two.

By 1030 GMT Sunday, the wallet addresses had received crypto worth $7.9 million across almost 11,500 donations, London-based Elliptic said. The company tracks the movement of digital coins on the blockchain, a public ledger that records crypto transactions.

Ukraine’s ministry of digital transformation did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Its crypto crowdfunding appeal is unprecedented. Though some states such as El Salvador have embraced cryptocurrencies, Ukraine’s appeal for direct donations is among the first of its kind. It was not clear what Kyiv would use the funds for.

Crypto donations to Ukrainian volunteer and hacking groups have also spiked since Russia launched its invasion on Thursday, Elliptic said this week.

The donations to such groups, some of which have supplied equipment to government forces, grew strongly in January as Russia massed troops near Ukraine’s border ahead of its invasion.

(Reporting by Tom Wilson, editing by Ed Osmond)

Jussie Smollett is seeking a new trial after being convicted of falsely reporting a hate crime.

The 39-year-old actor was convicted of five felony counts of disorderly conduct for making false police reports, after staging a fake hate crime in 2019, but he’s now filed paperwork to get a new trial.

In the 83-page document, the actor claims that his constitutional rights were violated during the case, as his legal team were blocked from actively participating in the jury selection process.

In the documents – which have been obtained by NBC – his attorneys claim that the court “made numerous trial errors leading up to the trial and during the pendency of the trial”.

The legal team also argue that the evidence was “insufficient and inconsistent so that no reasonable trier of fact could have found Mr. Smollett guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and thus there is evidence that the jury verdict was contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence”.

The document adds: “As such, the Defendant now respectfully requests that his convictions be vacated or in the alternative, that the Court grant the Defendant a new trial.”

In December, the former ‘Empire’ star was found guilty on five of the six charges he faced in court.

Smollett was convicted on five counts related to giving a false report to police on the day of the alleged attack.

However, he was found not guilty on the sixth count of giving a false report to police at a later date, following the incident in Chicago in January 2019.

The actor initially reported an alleged attack outside his apartment by two men in ski masks. Smollett claimed that he was subjected to racist and homophobic abuse.

Smollett also alleged that he had an “unknown chemical substance” dumped on him and had a noose put around his neck.

Orlando (AFP) – Donald Trump may have lost the last US election and be under investigation over the 2021 Capitol riot, but the former president’s dominance remains undented in the Republican party, where he is virtually unchallenged.

The 75-year-old billionaire is due to speak on Saturday at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida — an opportunity to gild his popularity.

Even before his arrival at the hotel hosting the conference, Trump’s presence is felt in the numerous red “Make America Great Again” hats and in speeches, like that of Senator Ted Cruz, rife with taunts and attacks on figures reviled by conservatives.

“Trump is so popular that whatever position he takes most Republicans feel that they have to go along with them or at least not overly criticize them,” Aubrey Jewett, political science professor at the University of Central Florida, told AFP.

“Because if they do, the president is going to take political revenge.”

– ‘Future of the party’ –

Trump’s influence looms large as midterm legislative elections approach in November, with the political risks to Republicans who don’t fall in line implied in some of his statements. 

Last month, Trump suggested he might pardon those who participated in the January 6 assault on the US Capitol if he were reelected president, a provocative proposal met with little pushback from Republicans save a handful, including New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, who said those who stormed the seat of US democracy to stop the certification of Democratic President Joe Biden’s election win needed to be held accountable.

The former president continues to insist the election was stolen, despite 50 percent of Republican voters wanting to put those accusations aside and look to the future, according to a Politico poll published earlier this month.

“I think many of the Republican leaders, including a lot of campaign managers, would rather put that behind them,” Jewett said.

“They don’t see it as the future of the party. They’d rather not talk about any issues that could be controversial with voters.”

But Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida, underscored that Trump “is still a person whose endorsement is sought after, especially in the most conservatives areas.”

She added, however, that “we are increasingly seeing that some of the language and tone things don’t work as well with woman voters. And they are often the swing voters.”

– DeSantis, a possible adversary? –

Trump’s dominance is such that few other leading voices stand out in the party, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appearing to be the only possible exception.

On Thursday, DeSantis’ CPAC speech, in which he again criticized Biden and presented himself as a defender of individual freedom against a heavy-handed federal government, was met with cheers and applause. 

Some of his policies in Florida, such as prohibiting Covid-19 mask mandates in schools, made him a favorite of media like Fox News. 

While DeSantis hasn’t said he’s aiming for the White House, he also hasn’t ruled it out even if Trump runs.

A poll released this week by the University of North Florida found that among Republicans registered in the state, the governor is almost neck and neck with Trump as a favorite for president. 

“As a governor, DeSantis has a very good feel of the economical issues that affect local governments and local businesses,” MacManus said.

“And he’s able to speak about the economy in a way more meaningful to people as the grassroot. And right now the economy is the big issue.”

A possible sign of DeSantis’ growing influence, according to the New York Times, is that he’s drawn Trump’s ire by refusing to declare he won’t run for president in the 2024 election even if the former president stands.

Trump, who was a key contributor to DeSantis’ rise from little-known politician to governor of Florida — a key state in presidential polls — expects loyalty.  

“I think that, at this point, it will be political suicide if DeSantis comes out against Trump,” said Jewett. 

Elliot Page has condemned Texas government officials for declaring that medical care for transgender youths is child abuse.

The ‘Juno’ actor – who came out as transgender in December 2020 – has spoken out after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton declared earlier this week that hormone therapy, puberty blockers and other types of gender-affirming health care for trans youth are forms of child abuse.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott added that “prompt and thorough investigations” into gender-affirming care for trans-youth would take place.

In a statement to Variety, Elliot said: “I am horrified by the inhumane and downright dangerous declarations by the Texas Governor and Attorney General.

“Trans youth deserve gender-affirming care and to be able to live their true, authentic selves without fear and oppression. I stand with trans youth and their families.”

Gabrielle Union has also hit out at the new laws, with similar legislation being passed in Florida.

She tweeted: “This is where we are.

“We shot past dangerous and horrific a long time ago. The rubber has hit the road so who is standing shoulder to shoulder in this fight? Who truly gives a s*** and whose on that performative bs? Let’s see. (sic)”

Prominent trans actor Jen Richards also slammed the politicians for their proposals.

The ‘Better Things’ star wrote on Twitter: “Texas has declared that the kind of care recommended by every major medical and paediatric association, with decades of proof of efficacy, and provided by doctors in full cooperation with parents… is child abuse.”

Richards added: “We know what the result will be. Because trans people exist, have always existed, and will always exist, it just means that trans youth will be more at risk, more vulnerable, at home and in schools. They will be kicked out or run away and suicide rates will spike.”`