Benji B says the “genius” of Virgil Abloh inspired the soundtrack to his last ever Louis Vuitton show.

The BBC Radio 1 DJ and long-time collaborator of the late creative director – who passed away in November following a private cancer diagnosis, aged 41 – reflected on using Virgil’s memory and wishes to create the music for ‘Louis’ Dreamhouse’ at Paris Fashion Week.

The 42-year-old music producer told i-D: “The genius of V is the fact that all of these thoughts that he empowered us to have just manifested into reality.”

Benji – who worked with Tyler the Creator, Lupe Fiasco and others on the event – had a lot of notes from Virgil to work with.

He said: “Virgil was like, ‘I want it to be theatrical, I want there to be elements of choreography and one of the references that was often talked about in many of the million WhatsApp groups that we’ve shared was ‘orchestra’, ‘orchestra pits’, ‘the magic of the orchestra’.”

Benji doubted if bringing Virgil’s dream to life was something the team could pull off.

He admitted: “I had no idea, honestly, if it was going to work or not.”

He found it “heartbreaking” when they couldn’t tell Virgil about their achievements, such as securing the legendary Arthur Verocai, 76, to arrange the music.

He said: “There’s many, many, obviously heartbreaking things about this week, but one of the things I really wish I could have done most is just send that WhatsApp message. You know, ‘We got Verocai, exploding head emoji,’”

Benji admitted finding out that Virgil had also contacted the orchestra they booked to perform – the Chineke! Orchestra, the first majority Black and ethnic minority orchestra in Europe – was “a moment of beautiful synchronicity”.

After the musical group’s founder Chi-Chi Nwanoku told him Virgil had spoken to him about potentially playing the show, Benji said: He never told me that. It was a moment of beautiful synchronicity.”

Despite the loss of the Off-White creator – who is survived by his childhood sweetheart and wife, Shannon and their two daughters, Lowe and Grey – Benji believed that he was there in spirit.

He said: “I think he was watching, and smiling, for sure.”

Lady Gaga stayed in her ‘A Star Is Born’ character for years.

The 35-year-old star featured in the 2018 movie as Ally Maine and admitted that she kept up the persona for much longer than her ‘House of Gucci’ alter ego Patrizia Reggiani – who spent months living every waking moment as.

Speaking during a Variety Actors on Actors conversation with Jake Gyllenhaal, Gaga said: “I would actually say playing a character for me is like living one long song, one long song that lasts for months. For ‘A Star Is Born’, it was years for me.”

The ‘Bad Romance’ hitmaker revealed that she was keen to shed her ‘House of Gucci’ persona as Patrizia is a convicted killer.

Gaga explained: “I dropped her faster because she was a killer and there were some things about the transformation for me psychologically that were super challenging.

“When I watch the movie, it looks like I’m watching a montage of my life. I don’t feel like I’m watching a film.”

The star also revealed that she was immediately drawn to Patrizia after being approached to feature in Ridley Scott’s film, which tells the story of how Patrizia masterminded the murder of her former husband Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver).

Gaga said: “The first thing I thought when I read the script was ‘OK, they want some woman to use her body and her manipulation to get money from this incredibly wealthy man.’

“And the more that I dug through it, I realised that she was really in love with him. And women are complex creatures, and we’re complicated, and it’s never one single story. It’s many stories.”

She continued: “I wanted to inject a reality into her that was multifaceted and broken. When I think about her as a character, I think of me taking little bits of glass from tons of different women and encapsulating them into one character that I still believe to be truly her, but I think insanity is subjective.”

Washington (AFP) – Testing in humans of an HIV vaccine that uses messenger RNA technology has begun, the biotech firm Moderna and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative said Thursday. 

This Phase 1 trial is being carried out in the United States among 56 healthy adults who are HIV negative.

Despite four decades of research, doctors have yet to develop a vaccine to protect people from the virus that causes AIDS, which kills hundreds of thousands of people around the world each year.

But hopes have been stirred with the success of mRNA technology, which allowed for the development of Covid-19 vaccines in record time, including one from Moderna.

The goal of the vaccine now being tested is to stimulate production of a kind of antibody called “broadly neutralizing antibodies,” or bnAbs, which can act against the many variants of HIV that are circulating today.

The vaccine is supposed to teach B lymphocytes, which are part of the immune system, to generate these antibodies.

In this trial, participants are injected with an immunogen — a substance that can trigger an immune response — and then a booster immunogen later.

These substances will be delivered with mRNA technology.

“The induction of bnAbs is widely considered to be a goal of HIV vaccination, and this is the first step in that process,” Moderna and the IAVI, a research organization, said in a statement.

“Further immunogens will be needed to guide the immune system on this path, but this prime-boost combination could be the first key element of an eventual HIV immunization regimen,” said David Diemert, a lead investigator at one of the four sites where the trial is being carried out, George Washington University in the US capital.

The immunogens used in this trial were developed by IAVI and the Scripps Research Institute, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Moderna.

A first trial last year tested the first immunogen but without employing mRNA technology. It showed that the desired immune response was triggered in dozens of people taking part in the research.

The next step was to bring in Moderna with its new mRNA technique.

“Given the speed with which mRNA vaccines can be produced, this platform offers a more nimble and responsive approach to vaccine design and testing,” the Moderna-IAVI statement said.

“The search for an HIV vaccine has been long and challenging, and having new tools in terms of immunogens and platforms could be the key to making rapid progress toward an urgently needed, effective HIV vaccine,” said Mark Feinberg, the CEO of IAVI.

By Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden said on Thursday 14.5 million Americans have signed up for health insurance since Nov. 1, attributing the progress to the passage of his pandemic relief package and the re-opening of an online health insurance marketplace last year.

The data includes more than 10 million who enrolled through a U.S government website HealthCare.gov during an open enrollment period, Biden said in a statement. He said the numbers were the “highest ever produced” during such an event.

The president also said one in seven uninsured Americans got covered between the end of 2020 and September 2021, with lower-income Americans gaining coverage at the highest rate, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“This did not happen by accident,” Biden said. He said his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan did more to lower costs and expand health care access for Americans than any action since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Biden also said the opportunity to enroll for health insurance has been extended through Jan. 31 for Americans living in California, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington, DC — places with their own health insurance marketplaces.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy notched its strongest growth in nearly four decades in 2021 after the government injected trillions of dollars in COVID-19 relief, and is seen soldiering on this year despite headwinds from the pandemic, strained supply chains as well as high inflation.

The Commerce Department’s report on Thursday showed the economy accelerating in the fourth quarter as businesses replenished depleted inventories to meet strong demand for goods. Last year’s robust growth supports the Federal Reserve’s pivot towards raising interest rates in March.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters on Wednesday after a two-day policy meeting that “the economy no longer needs sustained high levels of monetary policy support,” and that “it will soon be appropriate to raise” rates.

The sharp rebound in growth last year could offer some cheer for President Joe Biden whose popularity is falling amid a stalled domestic economic agenda after the U.S. Congress failed to pass his signature $1.75 trillion Build Back Better legislation. It, however, could diminish prospects of more money from the government. The government pumped nearly $6 trillion in pandemic relief.

“While Omicron will lead to weaker growth in the first quarter, activity is expected to rebound nicely once the latest pandemic wave abates and supply-chain glitches ease,” said Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

“The Fed will need to be ‘humble and nimble’ as it navigates underlying economic strength, worsening labor shortages, and stubbornly high inflation.”

The economy grew 5.7% in 2021, the strongest since 1984. It contracted 3.4% in 2020, the biggest drop in 74 years. The stunning reversal came as gross domestic product increased at a 6.9% annualized rate in the fourth quarter. That followed a 2.3% growth pace in the third quarter.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast GDP growth rising at a 5.5% rate last quarter. Estimates ranged from as low as a 3.4% rate to as high as a 7.0% pace.

The momentum, however, appears to have faded by December amid an onslaught of COVID-19 infections, fueled by the Omicron variant, which contributed to undercutting spending as well as disrupting activity at factories and services businesses.

Inventory investment increased at a $173.5 billion rate, contributing 4.90 percentage points to GDP growth, the most since the third quarter of 2020. Businesses had been drawing down inventories since the first quarter of 2021.

Spending shifted during the pandemic to goods from services, a demand boom that pressured supply chains. Excluding inventories, GDP grew at a moderate 1.9% rate.

JOBLESS CLAIMS FALL

Growth last quarter was also lifted by a jump in consumer spending in October before retreating considerably as Omicron spread across the country. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of economic activity, grew at a 3.3% rate after rising at a 2.0% pace in the third quarter.

It has been hampered by shortages of motor vehicles and other goods. A global chip shortage is hurting production.

Reduced household purchasing power, with inflation way above the Fed’s 2% target, also hindered consumer spending at the tail end of the fourth quarter.

Support to GDP growth last quarter also came from business spending on equipment, which rebounded after being held back in the July-September period by shortages of trucks.

Trade made no contribution after being a drag on GDP growth for five straight quarters, while investment in homebuilding contracted for a third consecutive quarter. The sector is being constrained by expensive building materials, which has resulted in a record backlog of homes yet to be built.

There are, however, signs that the impact from the Omicron-driven outbreak in infections is easing. A separate report from the Labor Department on Thursday showed initial claims for jobless benefits dropped 30,000 to a seasonally adjusted 260,000 during the week ended Jan. 22.

Claims shot up to a three-month high in early January. Unadjusted claims tumbled 73,357 to 267,573 last week. There were sharp declines in Illinois, Kentucky, Texas, New Jersey, New York as well as Pennsylvania.

The labor market is viewed as being at or close to maximum employment. Employers are desperate for workers, with 10.6 million job openings at the end of November.

Though the economy appears to have hit a soft patch in the first quarter because of challenges from the never-ending pandemic, the worst inflation in decades, supply chain bottlenecks and upcoming interest rate increases, a pickup is anticipated by the second quarter.

Growth estimates for the year are as high as 3.9%.

“We see the economy continuing to grow above its natural speed limit through this year amid still-solid demand, a need to replenish severely depleted inventory levels and manufacturers’ obligation to meet record levels of backlogged orders,” said Sam Bullard, a senior economist at Wells Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrea Ricci)

Washington (AFP) – US police officer Cariol Horne intervened when a colleague started choking a Black suspect during an arrest in 2006. “Fifteen years of hell” ensued for Horne, also African-American, as she was punished for stepping out of rank.

In the United States, police have a “duty to intervene” when another officer uses excessive force in their presence and can be prosecuted if they do not step in, according to half-century-old case law developed by the courts.

Three former Minneapolis police officers are currently on trial in such a case: the federal justice system accuses them of failing to act in May 2020 when George Floyd, a Black man, suffocated as another officer knelt on his neck for nearly 10 minutes.

In the video of the incident, which sparked anti-racism protests around America and the world, their passivity was almost as shocking as their colleague’s actions.

In the face of public outrage, many municipalities changed their rules in order to codify their officers’ duty to intervene and give the regulation more weight. 

According to the Police Use of Force Project, 72 out of the 100 largest US police forces now have this clause, compared to 51 before Floyd’s death.

But for De Lacy Davis, a former police officer who founded the organization Black Cops Against Police Brutality, these reforms are superficial.

He says they won’t accomplish anything without a fundamental change in the culture of law enforcement, which he says currently has no intention of breaking the “blue wall of silence.”

‘Punched me in the face’

That expression, which refers to the color of police uniforms, implies complete solidarity among officers — even towards the black sheep of the force. And woe betide anyone who dares to break away.

Horne has lived through the bitter experience.

In 2006, working as an officer in Buffalo, New York, she says her colleague swung at a Black man in his 50s during an arrest and “tried to strangle him.”

“I intervened and he punched me in the face,” Horne told AFP.

A fight ensued, and paradoxically, “I became the one investigated. They came after me for having stopped him,” she said.

After a long trial, Horne was dismissed in 2008, just before reaching 20 years’ seniority that would have entitled her to a pension.

At the time, she was 40 and had five young children to support. Without her pension, she had to rely on federal assistance.

Disgusted by the injustice of her situation, “I went through a depression,” said Horne, recalling “15 years of hell” as she fought to vindicate herself.

No regrets

In 2018, she got some indirect satisfaction when her former colleague was sentenced to prison for violence against four Black teenagers.

Floyd’s murder shone new light on her own case, and in the fall of 2020, Buffalo City Hall adopted a new regulation dubbed the “Cariol Law” that would require police to step in when a fellow officer is overly abusive — and would also protect those who intervene from repercussions.

Finally, in 2021, a judge overturned Horne’s firing and restored her pension rights. “While the Eric Garners and the George Floyds of the world never had a chance for a ‘do-over,’ at least here the correction can be done,” said Judge Dennis Ward.

Garner suffocated to death in 2014 when a New York officer put him in a choke hold. The African-American man pleaded, “I can’t breathe,” which has become a rallying cry at protests against police brutality and racism.

Today, Horne is still waiting for her pension payments, and is following the former Minneapolis officers’ trial without high expectations.

Even if the court sends a message by convicting them, nothing will change “until the officers who try to intervene are… protected” from reprisal, she said.

“What we need are ‘Cariol Laws’ in the whole nation.”

But even though she paid a high price, Horne remains convinced she made the right choice. “Never would I ever regret that a man lived because I intervened.”

By Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Thursday called on Congress to immediately enshrine the Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. Constitution and formally protect women’s rights nearly a century after lawmakers first raised them.

In a statement, Biden urged Congress “to pass a resolution recognizing ratification of the ERA,” saying recent legal analysis showed there was nothing preventing lawmakers from acting.

The Democratic president’s call comes amid jostling over the deadline to enact the ERA, which passed Congress in 1972 with a 1982 deadline to be enacted if 38 state legislatures voted to approve. Nearly 100 years have passed since it was first introduced in 1923.

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives separately unveiled a resolution to enshrine the ERA, but it could fall short of the 60 votes needed in the Senate, where Democrats control just 50 seats.

While supporters say the ERA is needed to protect against sexual discrimination and would help achieve equal pay, opponents argue the original timetable has passed and that the amendment is no longer needed.

Virginia became the 38th state in 2020 to adopt the ERA, but Republican then-President Donald Trump sought to block ratification with a legal memo saying the process must begin anew.

A new Justice Department legal analysis, however, allows the process to move forward and “makes clear, there is nothing standing in Congress’s way from doing so,” Biden said.

House oversight panel Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney and other Democrats argue that the ERA made clear it takes effect two years after the final state’s ratification, with Thursday marking two years since Virginia’s vote.

The resolution “reaffirms what we already know to be true: the Equal Rights Amendment is the 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” Maloney said.

The issue also remains entangled in the federal courts: Virginia, Illinois and Nevada sued to have the ERA declared valid.

In a statement, the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration said it would abide by the Justice Department’s legal opinion unless otherwise directed by a final court order.

(This story removes extraneous word in 1st paragraph.)

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Additional reporting by David Morgan and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Jonathan Oatis)

Christine Baranski wants to star in another ‘Mamma Mia!’ film.

The 69-year-old actress has portrayed Tanya Chesham-Leigh in the original 2008 movie and the 2018 sequel ‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’ – which features the music of ABBA – and hopes to star in a third flick.

Christine told Entertainment Weekly: “If we could go back and have the same amount of good fun and be on a Greek island filming and dining together at night at some wonderful trattoria or tavern, I don’t think anybody would give you an argument.”

The ‘Gilded Age’ actress did concede that reassembling the all-star cast – which includes Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried and Pierce Brosnan – would be a difficult task.

Christine said: “It’s a nightmare to get that sort of cast together.”

She suggested that an easier way to get the cast assembled again would be in a similar manner to the recent ‘Friends’ and ‘Harry Potter’ reunions.

Christine shared: “I always think wouldn’t it be fun just to get back together on that Greek island and maybe film all of us having dinner and telling the stories and singing all ABBA songs? And then just have it filmed as a great night out.”

Amanda previously said that she hoped to make more ‘Mamma Mia!’ movies as she wants to keep playing her character Sophie rather than having another baby.

The 36-year-old star quipped: “Definitely third ‘Mamma Mia!’, definitely no third child.

“If it was up to me, yes, of course, there would be eight ‘Mamma Mia!’s. Do you know how much fun that is?”

Disney is “taking a different approach” to the dwarfs in ‘Snow White’.

The studio has responded after Peter Dinklage blasted the upcoming live action remake and criticised the fairytale’s “backwards” depictions of dwarfism.

In a statement, a Disney spokesperson told Variety: “To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community.

“We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.”

The upcoming movie is being directed by ‘500 Days of Summer’ and ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ filmmaker Marc Webb, while ‘West Side Story’ actress Rachel Zegler has been cast in the lead role alongside Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen.

This week, Dinklage admitted he was “a little taken aback” by the sudio celebrating casting “a Latina actress as Snow White” despite the story’s problematic representation of people with dwarfism.

The ‘Game of Thrones’ star – who suffers from a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia – said: “There’s a lot of hypocrisy going on.

“Literally no offence to anyone, but I was a little taken aback when they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White. But you’re still telling the story of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’. Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there. It makes no sense to me.”

Dinklage admits that he was perplexed by Disney’s positivity towards the flick and suggested that he hadn’t campaigned hard enough for people suffering with dwarfism to be given better acting roles.

He added: “You’re progressive in one way but then you’re still making that f***ing backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the f*** are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soap box? I guess I’m not loud enough.

“I don’t know which studio that is but they were so proud of it. All love and respect to the actress and all the people who thought they were doing the right thing. But I’m just like, what are you doing?”

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has authored pivotal rulings bolstering abortion rights and safeguarding a landmark healthcare law while questioning the death penalty during 27 years as a liberal on a bench often dominated by conservatives.

Breyer, who U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday said would retire https://www.reuters.com/world/us/liberal-us-supreme-court-justice-stephen-breyer-retire-media-reports-2022-01-26 at the end of the court’s current term, will leave a legacy as a moderating influence and a pragmatist on a court that has moved rightward during his tenure and currently has a commanding 6-3 conservative majority. At age 83, Breyer is the oldest of the current justices on the top U.S. judicial body.

He was appointed to the lifetime job in 1994 by Democratic President Bill Clinton. Only conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, who joined the court in 1991, has served longer among its current members. Breyer’s retirement will not alter the court’s ideological balance but will give Democratic President Joe Biden the chance to name a liberal replacement young enough to serve for decades.

In a speech last year, Breyer expressed faith in the court as an institution and defended it against accusations that its rightward shift had rendered it more politicized. Breyer noted among other things that the justices had turned away former President Donald Trump’s efforts, based on false claims of widespread voting fraud, to overturn his 2020 election loss.

“These considerations convince me that it is wrong to think of the court as another political institution,” Breyer said.

The court’s conservatives have become increasingly bold during its current nine-month term, with rulings due by the end of June that could gut abortion rights and widen gun rights.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, called Breyer a “model jurist” who “embodies the best qualities and highest ideals of American justice: knowledge, wisdom, fairness, humility, restraint.” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, a Democrat, praised Breyer as “a trusted voice on the bench with a first-rate legal mind.” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham added, “He has always been a scholar and a gentleman whose record on the Supreme Court is solidly in the liberal camp.”

As a member of the court’s liberal wing, Breyer helped advance LGBT rights including joining the landmark 2015 decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide and the 2020 decision protecting gay and transgender employees from workplace discrimination.

Breyer authored two high-profile rulings defending abortion rights. In one of them, the court in 2016, on a 5-3 vote, struck down a Republican-backed Texas law that sought to impose restrictions on clinics and doctors who perform abortions, provisions that had caused some clinics to close. The other one, a 5-4 decision in 2020, struck down a Republican-backed Louisiana law with similar physician restrictions.

Breyer last year authored a ruling rejecting a Republican bid to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement that has helped millions of Americans obtain healthcare coverage. The 7-2 ruling preserved the law, dubbed Obamacare, for the third time since its 2010 enactment.

Breyer also wrote a ruling last year in a major free speech case that sided with a cheerleader who had been punished by her high school for a profanity-laced social media post.

‘CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT’

In 2015, Breyer questioned capital punishment’s constitutionality. In a 41-page dissent joined by fellow liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Breyer wrote that “the death penalty, in and of itself, now likely constitutes a legally prohibited cruel and unusual punishment” under the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment.

Breyer said innocent people have been put the death, capital punishment has been marred by racial discrimination and politics, its use varies wildly from place to place, there have been excessively long delays between sentencing and execution and it has been imposed arbitrarily.

Breyer dissented in major victories for the court’s conservatives such as the 2000 ruling that halted ballot recounts in Florida, effectively handing the U.S. presidency to Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore after a disputed election.

He pursued compromises when possible.

Breyer was the swing vote when the court in 2005 ruled on a pair of cases questioning whether religious displays on public property violated the Constitution’s First Amendment, which bars governmental endorsement of religion. Breyer was the only justice in the majority in both. The justices allowed a large monument of the biblical Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Texas Capitol but found that framed copies of the Ten Commandments could not be displayed inside two Kentucky courthouses.

Questioned last year during a session with school students about U.S. political fractures and polarization, Breyer said he remains “basically optimistic https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-justice-breyer-touts-compromise-democracy-adherence-precedent-2021-05-28.” For all of its flaws, Breyer said, American democracy is, on balance, “better than the alternatives.”

Breyer replaced liberal Justice Harry Blackmun on the court, securing Senate confirmation on an 87-9 vote. Breyer previously had been appointed in 1980 by Democratic President Jimmy Carter to the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Breyer was born in San Francisco on Aug. 15, 1938. He graduated from Stanford University in 1959 and two years later earned a degree from the University of Oxford. He graduated in 1964 from Harvard Law School, where he later served as a professor and lecturer.

He got his first taste of the Supreme Court as a clerk for Justice Arthur Goldberg. After a stint in the Justice Department’s antitrust division, he worked under his former professor Archibald Cox, special prosecutor in the Watergate scandal that led President Richard Nixon to resign in 1974. Breyer also served as an aide to Massachusetts Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy.

Breyer married Joanna Hare, the British-born daughter of Lord John Blakenham, a former Cabinet minister and member of Britain’s House of Lords. They had three children.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince Andrew on Wednesday asked for a U.S. jury trial as he again denied Virginia Giuffre’s accusations that he sexually abused her more than two decades ago when she was 17.

Giuffre, 38, sued the Duke of York last August, alleging he battered her while the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was trafficking her.

In a filing with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Andrew, 61, admitted to meeting Epstein in or around 1999, but denied Giuffre’s claim that he “committed sexual assault and battery” upon her.

David Boies, a lawyer for Giuffre, said in a statement that Andrew was trying to “blame the victim.”

“We look forward to confronting Prince Andrew with his denials and attempts to blame Ms. Giuffre for her own abuse,” Boies said.

Andrew’s ties to Epstein, who killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex abuse charges, have undermined his reputation with the public and standing in Britain’s Royal Family.

Earlier this month, the family removed Andrew’s military links and military patronages, and said the second son of Queen Elizabeth would no longer be known as “His Royal Highness.”

Andrew’s filing was an “answer,” a common document in U.S. litigation in which defendants deny or say they lack enough information to comment on plaintiffs’ substantive accusations.

The prince’s lawyers had previously called Giuffre’s lawsuit “baseless” and accused her of seeking another payday.

Giuffre received $500,000 in a 2009 civil settlement with Epstein.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has said a trial could begin between September and December 2022.

If Giuffre won at trial, Andrew could owe her damages. She has asked for an unspecified amount.

Andrew has not been criminally charged, and no criminal charges can be brought in Giuffre’s civil lawsuit.

Kaplan this month denied Andrew’s earlier request to dismiss Giuffre’s lawsuit, which the prince said he was shielded from under the 2009 Epstein settlement.

Andrew renewed that argument in Wednesday’s filing, and also said Giuffre lacks legal standing to sue because she lives in Australia.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Howard Goller)

Rihanna’s foundation has donated $15 million to climate justice.

The 33-year-old singer has pledged the money to 18 climate justice organisations – including the Climate Justice Alliance and the Movement for Black Lives – through her Clara Lionel Foundation.

A statement explained: “Climate disasters, which are growing in frequency and intensity, do not impact all communities equally, with communities of colour and island nations facing the brunt of climate change.

“In this spirit, we are proud to commit $15 million to 18 organisations working on climate justice across the US and Caribbean in partnership with #StartSmall, Jack Dorsey’s philanthropic initiative.

“These grants support entities focused on and led by women, youth, black, indigenous, people of colour and LGBTQIA+ communities. We invite others to join us in elevating, funding and supporting these groups and others who are on the frontlines of the climate justice movement.”

Rihanna created her foundation in 2012, and she was actually made a national hero of Barbados when the Caribbean country became a republic in 2021.

The chart-topping pop star – who was made an official ambassador for culture and youth in 2018 – was praised by the country’s prime minister, Mia Mottley, for all that she’s done for her home nation.

She said, in reference to one of Rihanna’s past hits: “May you continue to shine like a diamond.”

The prime minster noted that Rihanna commanded “the imagination of the world through the pursuit of excellence with her creativity, her discipline, and above all else, her extraordinary commitment to the land of her birth”.

She added: “On behalf of a grateful nation, but an even prouder people, we therefore present to you the designee for national hero of Barbados, Ambassador Robyn Rihanna Fenty.”

(Reuters) -Gun owners in San Jose, California, will be required to have insurance coverage for their weapons after city lawmakers passed an ordinance believed to be the first of its kind in the United States.

City Council members on Tuesday night passed a measure requiring San Jose gun owners to have a homeowner’s, renter’s or gun liability insurance policy that covers losses or damages resulting from negligent or accidental use of their firearm.

Gun owners will also be required to pay a small annual gun harm reduction fee that will go to evidence-based initiatives to reduce gun violence and gun harm, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said in a statement.

“Thank you to my council colleagues who continue to show their commitment to reducing gun violence and its devastation in our community,” Liccardo said. He said his city is the first in the United States to have such an ordinance.

Guns are a politically sensitive issue in the United States, which has the highest rate of gun ownership of any country as well as a higher incidence of gun violence than other wealthy nations.

The California Rifle & Pistol Association said on Twitter that it is preparing to challenge the law, saying it is unconstitutional and will not affect criminals with guns.

A Twitter user who goes by the name of John Phillips said that as a San Jose business owner and lifelong resident, he opposes the legislation, calling it “tyrannical, virtue signaling to infringe on our 2nd amendment constitutional rights. It is messy and wrong.”

The decision still needs to be approved next month at its final reading to take effect in August, local media reported.

California became the first state to ban assault weapons in 1989 after a school shooting in which five children were killed. Six other states and the District of Columbia have an assault weapons ban in place, according to the gun safety group Giffords.

(Reporting by Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; editing by Timothy Heritage and Jonathan Oatis)

Crystal Hefner has confirmed she destroyed “thousands” of naked pictures of women following Hugh Hefner’s death, after Holly Madison claimed he kept a “mountain of revenge porn”.

The 35-year-old star – who was married to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner for five years until his death in September 2017 – has reassured Holly, who was one of Hugh’s girlfriends from 2001 to 2008, that the pictures have “gone” after the ‘Girls Next Door’ star claimed she was “afraid to leave” the Playboy Mansion over fears photos of her might be circulated.

Crystal wrote on Twitter: “I found thousands of those disposable camera photos you are talking about @hollymadison. I immediately ripped them up and destroyed every single one of them for you and the countless other women in them. They’re gone.”

Holly replied: “Thank you @crystalhefner”

It comes after Holly opened up about Hefner this week.

Speaking in A&E series ‘Secrets of Playboy’, she said: “His friends were always so supportive and speaking so highly of him. But that’s the only side of him they ever saw. They had no idea what was going on behind closed doors and how the women were treated.

“When I lived at the mansion, I was afraid to leave. Something that was always lingering in the back of my mind, I think since the very beginning, was that if I left there was just this mountain of revenge porn just waiting to come out.

“When you would go out with Hef, he’s taking all kinds of naked pictures of these women when we’re wasted out of our minds. And he would print out like eight copies for him and all the women, you pass them around. It was just gross.”

Last week, Holly claimed the Playboy Mansion was like a “cult”.

She said: “The reason I think the mansion was very cult-like, looking back on it, is because we were all kind of gaslit and expected to think of Hef as, like, this really good guy.

“You started to feel like, ‘Oh, he’s not what they say in the media — he’s just a nice man.’ “

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The world is “not on a good track” to meet a global goal to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and must intensify efforts to move away from fossil fuels this decade, John Kerry, the U.S. special envoy on climate change, said on Monday.

“We’re in trouble. I hope everyone understands that,” Kerry told an event called Building Momentum to UN COP27 hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and officials from Egypt, the host of the next UN climate summit.

Kerry told the event he is concerned about the recent uptick in the use of coal globally and about plans to build new coal plants without carbon capture technology.

In November, Egypt will host the next UN climate summit, known as COP27, in Sharm el-Sheikh where the government will look to showcase its own work to phase out coal https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/innovative-financing-can-help-unlock-promises-egypts-cop27-minister-2021-12-02 in power generation, improve management of waste water, and launch construction of public transportation projects.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Hassan Shoukry said as the host of the UN climate summit, Egypt aims to be a voice for mobilizing climate finance to support developing nations and transferring clean energy technology to African nations who are among those hurt most by climate change.

“We will be listening to the needs and priorities of Africa and other developing countries who have suffered greatly from the negative effects of climate change,” said Shoukry, who will be the president of COP27.

Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad said Egypt’s goal is to generate 42% of its electricity from renewable energy sources.

Kerry said actions countries have taken do not meet the severity of the problem, even though “a huge amount of good” came out of the COP26 summit in Glasgow last November, including concluding the “rule book” for executing the Paris Climate Agreement.

The UK COP26 president, Alok Sharma, also raised concern about the road ahead from Glasgow https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/britain-urges-nations-deliver-climate-pledges-this-year-2022-01-24 in a separate speech on Monday, saying that countries are struggling to find ways to deliver on the promises they made in Scotland.

He cited the struggles facing the United States, where President Joe Biden has struggled to get through a multi-billion dollar spending bill that is needed to carry out his administration’s climate pledges.

Kerry did not address the uncertain fate of the congressional bill and focused on other countries.

He said the recent uptick in coal use over the last year and plans by countries to continue building coal plants will worsen global warming and urged countries to change course.

“Most countries have the ability to deploy very significant additional amounts of renewables and they’re not choosing to do that,” he said, adding that sticking with coal or planning to build out natural gas infrastructure would lock in decades of additional greenhouse gas emissions.

Many Chamber of Commerce members support building more natural gas-fired power plants while the country transitions to renewables, and Kerry told the group he “is for gas” but only if it includes carbon capture technology.

“If it’s abated – terrific. If you can capture 100% (of the carbon and methane emissions} and it makes it affordable – that’s wonderful. But we’re not doing that,” he said.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio)

Kristen Stewart and Dylan Meyer were “lucky” they were able to stage their engagement party amid the pandemic.

The 31-year-old actress feels fortunate that they were able to have a party during the ongoing health crisis.

The ‘Twilight’ star said: “We met years ago and then sort of re-met before the pandemic. And we got engaged – I guess it’s still the pandemic, so yes, I guess it’s a pandemic engagement. But it wasn’t at the height, it wasn’t full lockdown.”

Kristen explained that their engagement party took place before the current Omicron wave hit the US.

And the Hollywood star is “thankful” that they were able to enjoy their big moment.

She said during an appearance on ‘Live with Kelly and Ryan’: “We were kind of moving about the world a little more freely at the time. We did have an engagement party, which was nice and lucky and obviously not something we could have done now so I’m thankful for that.”

Kristen confirmed she was engaged during an interview on ‘The Howard Stern Show’ in November.

The actress revealed that Dylan’s proposal was “very cute” and that she can’t wait to tie the knot.

Kristen – who previously dated her ‘Twilight’ co-star Robert Pattinson – said: “We’re marrying, we’re totally gonna do it.

“I wanted to be proposed to, so I think I very distinctly carved out what I wanted and she nailed it. It was really cute, she did very well. We’re marrying, it’s happening.”

Kristen also admitted that prior to the proposal, she wasn’t sure who would pop the question.

She explained: “With two girls, you never know like who’s going to fulfil what weird f****** gender role thing. We don’t do that or think about it in those terms. She just grabbed that bowl and made it happen. It was f****** so cute.”