By Andrew Chung

(Reuters) -U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared inclined to rule in favor of a Christian group that sued on free speech grounds over a refusal by Boston officials to fly a flag bearing the image of a cross at City Hall in a challenge backed by Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.

The justices heard oral arguments in an appeal by the group, Camp Constitution, and its director, Harold Shurtleff, over Boston’s 2017 denial of their application to raise the Christian cross flag due to concerns that it could appear as an unconstitutional government endorsement of a particular religion. Lower courts sided with the city.

The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has taken an expansive view of religious rights and has been increasingly receptive to arguments that governments are acting with hostility toward religion.

The dispute arose over Boston’s practice of allowing private groups to hold flag-raising events using one of three flagpoles on the plaza in front of City Hall to promote inclusion and the diversity of the city’s residents. From 2005 to 2017, Boston approved all 284 applications it received before rebuffing Camp Constitution. The vast majority of flags were those of foreign countries, but also one commemorating LGBT Pride in Boston.

At issue is whether the flagpole became a public forum meriting free speech protections under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment to bar discrimination based on viewpoint, as the plaintiffs claimed, or whether it represented merely a conduit for government speech not warranting such protection, as Boston claimed.

Liberal and conservative justices questioned the city’s stance.

Liberal Justice Elena Kagan doubted that in this particular case the cross flag could violate the First Amendment’s so-called establishment clause prohibiting the government from establishing a state religion.

“In the context of a system where flags go up, flags go down, different people have different kinds of flags, then it is a violation of the free speech part of the First Amendment and not an establishment clause violation – the end,” Kagan told a lawyer for Boston.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito noted that Boston’s policy appeared to exclude flags that were discriminatory, offensive or religious.

“When you say anybody can speak by putting up a flag, with these few exceptions, are you not creating a forum for private speech rather than speaking your own mind?” Alito asked a lawyer for Boston.

But liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor voiced concern about the potential for confusion by average observers, saying it is a “fiction” that people would think a raised flag outside City Hall relates to an event not sponsored by the city.

“If you see a flag on the pole, you think it’s City Hall speaking,” Sotomayor said.

Camp Constitution, whose mission is “to enhance understanding of our Judeo-Christian moral heritage” as well as “free enterprise,” sued in 2018 over its rejection.

Among other topics, Camp Constitution’s website posts materials questioning the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, claiming that last year’s U.S. Capitol attack was actually a cover up for “massive” 2020 election fraud and calling Japan’s 1941 Pearl Harbor attack and al Qaeda’s Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States “carefully orchestrated false flags.”

The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the city’s control of the flag-raising program made it government speech.

Biden’s administration backed Camp Constitution in the case, arguing in court papers that because Boston treated the flagpole as a forum for private speech it cannot approve “private civic and social groups while excluding otherwise-similar groups with religious views.”

Boston said that requiring it to open the pole to “all comers” could force it to raise flags promoting division or intolerance, such as a swastika, or a terrorist group. Given that risk, Boston last October halted applications to use the flagpole, at least while the case plays out.

Biden’s administration and some justices said Boston could create and closely control a more limited flag-raising program going forward to avoid those concerns.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

By Nikolaj Skydsgaard

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – The pandemic has blocked Novak Djokovic’s march to tennis history, so the 34-year-old may be pinning his hopes on a cure for COVID to get his hands on another glorious grand slam before time runs out.

The Serbian superstar, who became a focus of the global vaccine debate over his failed attempt to enter Australia without being inoculated, holds a majority stake in a Danish biotech firm aiming to develop a treatment to counter COVID-19, the company’s CEO told Reuters.

QuantBioRes boss Ivan Loncarevic, who described himself as an entrepreneur, said the tennis player’s acquisition of the 80% stake was made in June 2020 but declined to say how much it was.

The company is developing a peptide, which inhibits the coronavirus from infecting the human cell, expects to launch clinical trials in Britain this summer, according to Loncarevic, who stressed the firm was working on a treatment, not a vaccine.

The CEO said the company had about a dozen researchers working in Denmark, Australia and Slovenia. According to the Danish company register, Djokovic and his wife Jelena own 40.8% and 39.2% of the company, respectively.

A spokesperson for Djokovic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Djokovic has enjoyed phenomenal success – Forbes listed him in the world’s top-50 highest paid athletes for 2021. It calculated his on-court earnings at $4.5 million, dwarfed by the $30 million it said he earned off court.

Yet time may not be on the world number one’s side in his quest to be viewed as the greatest player is history, as he advances deeper into his 30s.

He had desperately hoped to play in Australian Open this month with his sights firmly set on netting a 21st grand slam title, which would move him above archrivals Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal.

Frustrated Djokovic now risks being frozen out of tennis, with rules on travellers who are unvaccinated tightening in the third year of the pandemic and some tournaments reconsidering exemptions.

The most immediate concern is the next grand slam – the French Open in May where Nadal has already amassed a staggering 13 titles – after the country’s sports ministry said on Monday there would be no exemption from a new vaccine pass law.

(Reporting by Nikolaj Skydsgaard; Additional reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Ossian Shine; Editing by Alison Williams and Pravin Char)

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit will only allow advertisers who support gender equality in their annual swimsuit issue.

The publication announced their new ‘Pay With Change’ initiative – only allowing brands to advertise in its pages if they work to ensure gender equality – on Thursday (20.01.22), which marked the 58th anniversary of the first swimsuit issue in 1964.

In a statement, MJ Day – the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit editor-in-chief – said: “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit has been leading the charge in creating change in women’s lives for years, despite what some critics and naysayers would like you to believe.

“However, in a world where women’s bodies are under attack and their value is continuously underestimated, we knew we needed to act in a bold, more responsible way. Pay With Change is not just a platform to us, it is our commitment to creating greater progress for women.”

Examples of their work “leading the charge” include having Leyna Bloom and Valentina Sampaio as their first transgender models gracing the 2020 and 2021 issues, respectively.

The magazine – which boasts Tyra Banks, Brooklyn Decker, Olivia Culpo and Cheryl Tiegs among its cover stars over the years – will gauge potential advertisers with their past, present and future commitments to gender parity before coming to their final conclusions in May regarding who will feature alongside their digital, print and social media content.

Hillary Drezner, the publication’s general manager, said: “Pay With Change will be our new standard of business moving forward. It’s our proof of progress, proof of passion and proof of our belief that we must be the change we want to see.

“Starting now, we’ll turn our advertising and activation space into a place to create change for women. We are committing to this initiative throughout all aspects of our business and are inviting all brands who are demonstrating progress to join us.”

In addition, a percentage of each dollar gathered in advertising revenue will go towards the newly established Sports Illustrated Gender Equity Fund, which will support charities championing gender equality.

Olly Alexander wants to play an “erotic superhero”.

The Years & Years singer was praised for his acting in the acclaimed TV series ‘It’s A Sin’ and admits that he wants to play a sexy character with superpowers in the future.

Olly – who is openly gay – told NME magazine: “There’s a lot of good stuff that gets made but good stuff with gay characters that I could possibly play? Not so much.

“For me to be interested in a role, it would have to be (someone) sexy with magic powers. I basically want to play some kind of erotic superhero.”

The 31-year-old star worked with Russell T. Davies on ‘It’s A Sin’ and the former ‘Doctor Who’ showrunner said he would be prepared to direct a Marvel movie if the studio creates a homosexual superhero.

Russell told BANG Showbiz: “If they want to make a gay superhero: properly gay, not just a nice little character in the background, I would be there. I could write it, I could write it like a demon.”

The 58-year-old screenwriter – who also worked on ‘A Very English Scandal’ and ‘Torchwood’ – described Olly as an “amazing” talent and admits that it was comparable with the time he got to work with Kylie Minogue on the 2007 ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas special.

He shared: “It was like working with Kylie Minogue on ‘Doctor Who’, I was like, ‘Wow, extraordinary.’ I’ve been very lucky.”

Washington (AFP) – The White House launched a charm offensive, complete with a Tom Hanks video, to mark Joe Biden’s first year as president Thursday, but dire new polls and a major congressional setback told another story.

Biden, who was sworn in to replace Donald Trump at noon last January 20, marked the day by meeting with top cabinet members in charge of rolling out his signature infrastructure spending plan, a $1.2 trillion splurge he got passed in November with rare bipartisan support.

“Our nation has never fully made this kind of investment,” Biden said, celebrating one of his biggest wins of last year — and a project that should keep delivering good news as bridges, roads and other large public works roll out.

The previous evening, the 79-year-old Democrat held an epic press conference lasting an hour and 52 minutes, longer even than the famously rambling events Trump used to stage. 

Defending himself on his handling of the Covid pandemic and roaring inflation, Biden said he’d got “a lot done” in the face of unprecedented difficulties for a president.

“He was having a good time,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

Despite the cheerful messaging, Biden begins his second year as president facing a slew of bad news, including failure in the Senate late Wednesday of his cherished push for election law reforms — something he has said is needed to safeguard US democracy from Trump supporters’ attempts at fixing the vote.

The polls also seem to be getting only worse. According to new NBC and AP-NORC polls, 54 percent and 56 percent of Americans respectively disapprove of Biden’s performance.

The numbers point ominously to what most analysts expect to be a heavy defeat for Democratic legislators in November midterm elections, leading to Republicans taking control of Congress.

Asked about his sliding popularity, which is now in the area that Trump consistently inhabited, Biden just told the press conference Wednesday: “I don’t believe the polls.”

Tom Hanks reassures America

Biden likes to laugh off doomsayers, telling them to share his trademark sunny outlook.

And his aides and allies did their best to spread the mood Thursday.

In a two minute video, Hollywood legend Hanks recounted in his gravelly voice how the country’s economy is bouncing back from the pandemic. The video featured clips of ordinary people, like a UPS delivery driver declaring “the fear is gone.”

“We are strong, we are courageous, we are resilient, we are America — the land of the brave,” Hanks said in the video, which ended with Biden pronouncing: “I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future.”

Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on CBS, ABC and NBC networks, while Chief of Staff Ron Klain spoke on MSNBC. A slew of cabinet secretaries gave interviews to media more off the beaten track, including women’s magazines and rural outlets, the White House said.

Psaki went one step further, making a relatively rare appearance on Fox News, whose major stars outside of the news operation include conspiracy theory spreading, right-wing host Tucker Carlson.

As for the second year, the White House seems to hope it can change gears, partly by getting Biden beyond the Washington bubble, meeting voters and spending more time with legislators in relaxed settings. 

At his press conference, Biden said his top goal was to “get out” and “connect with people.”

Psaki said “he absolutely loves talking to people who agree with him, people that don’t agree with him.”

“You’ll see him out on the road more,” she said. “You’ll see him probably bring members of Congress with him on Air Force One, as he’s done recently, and he’s really enjoyed the opportunity to be able to have those free ranging conversations with them.”

Jennifer Coolidge has credited Ariana Grande with revitalising her career.

The 60-year-old actress has insisted the ‘7 Rings’ hitmaker’s impressions of her years ago on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ got the ball “rolling”.

Appearing on the show on Thursday night (20.01.22), she told the host: “You should know, it was sort of the beginning of a lot of cool things that happened for me.

“I was going through a dead zone, not much was going on. Then Ariana did this imitation on your show and you encouraged her. And then this ball got rolling.”

The ‘White Lotus’ star admitted she initially didn’t want to send Ariana a message about the imitation because she was certain she wouldn’t get a reply.

She added: “My friend who is her age, Theresa, she was like, ‘You should DM Ariana.’

“I thought it was such a good imitation and I was like, ‘No, she’s got like 260 million followers. Those are robots. The robots answer the DMs! We will never ever get to her.’

“And I did it anyway and then this response came back. Next thing you know, I was going to her house getting fit for wardrobe for [the video for Ariana’s 2018 single] ‘Thank U Next.’ That was all because of Jimmy Fallon.”

Meanwhile, the ‘American Pie’ actress recently compared the COVID-19 lockdown to “an acid trip” as she said she feared for her life amid the pandemic.

She explained: “Being locked up during COVID was sort of like an acid trip or something … I felt like I had taken some really weird drug because all of these scenes in my life were being played out. And I wasn’t taking any drugs, I was just eating a lot.

“I wasn’t drinking alcohol. I just … I felt like each day was sort of like I was hallucinating because my mother’s death came up [in] all of these things. And I think it was just because, you know, I didn’t really think we were going to survive the COVID thing.

“I mean, I really didn’t. I thought it was just a matter of time before it got all of us. And I felt like the moment was just lingering outside.”

Cher has paid tribute to Meat Loaf after the singer’s death aged 74.

The ‘Believe’ hitmaker has reflected on working with the late musician – whose death was confirmed on Friday morning (21.01.22) – on his 1981 track ‘Dead Ringer for Love’.

She tweeted: “Had So Much Fun With Meatloaf When We Did “Dead Ringer”. Am Very Sorry For His Family,Friends,& Fans.

“Am I imagining It, or Are Amazing Ppl In The Arts Dying every other Day!? (sic)”

More stars have also paid tribute to the ‘Bat Out of Hell’ legend, with Piers Morgan hailing him as a “rebellious chameleon”.

He wrote: “RIP Meat Loaf, 74. One of rock music’s all-time great characters whose seminal iconic album Bat Out Of Hell is one of the biggest-selling records in history.

“A wondrously talented, flamboyant, funny, outrageous and rebellious chameleon. Sad news.”

Actor Stephen Fry recalled his work with Meat Loaf on British comedy and music show ‘Saturday Live’.

He said: “I hope paradise is as you remember it from the dashboard light, Meat Loaf.

“Had a fun time performing a sketch with him on Saturday Live way back in the last century.”

And music mogul Pete Waterman heaped praise on his “unique voice”.

He added: “Meat Loaf was this larger than life character with a unique voice, that first album, Bat Out Of Hell was just amazing.”

Meat Loaf – born Marvin Lee Aday before changing his name to Michael Lee Aday – passed away with his wife Deborah by his side.

A statement on his official Facebook page read: “Our hearts are broken to announce that the incomparable Meat Loaf passed away tonight with his wife Deborah by his side. Daughters Pearl and Amanda and close friends have been with him throughout the last 24 hours.

“His amazing career spanned 6 decades that saw him sell over 100 Million albums worldwide and star in over 65 movies, including “Fight Club”, “Focus”, “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “Wayne’s World.” “Bat Out of Hell” remains one of the top 10 selling albums of all time.

“We know how much he meant to so many of you and we truly appreciate all of the love and support as we move through this time of grief in losing such an inspiring artist and beautiful man.

“We thank you for your understanding of our need for privacy at this time. From his heart to your souls…don’t ever stop rocking! (sic)”

Sean Penn is “glad” he is old and won’t have to “deal with” where the world is heading in the near future.

The 61-year-old actor admits he feels “frustrated” with how things are going in life, and believes one of the main issues around the globe is people are too quick to say things they don’t necessarily mean to make them look good.

He said: “I’m a little frustrated with the world. I’m glad I’m old and won’t be having to deal with where this stuff is going.

“We give too much of a s*** about what we are going to be accused of by people who want to be self-righteous because they can get a quick reward.

“And they’re self-righteous hypocritically – they damn this, but don’t worry about why kids are being bombed in Yemen, because it’s not getting them into a club right away.”

Sean’s latest directorial project has seen him helm movie ‘Flag Day’, which is based on Jennifer Vogel’s 2004 memoir ‘Flim-Flam Man : a true family history’ about her bank robber and conman father John Vogel.

Penn portrays John in the motion picture, and he cast his daughter Dylan Penn, 30 – who he shares with ex-wife Robin Wright – as Jennifer, but admitted he pushed her quite hard “emotionally” at times during filming.

He added to the i newspaper: “Very early on, it was her face that I was attaching to [the role].

“At one point, I almost felt I should be calling child protective services on myself for putting her through it emotionally.”

In October, Sean’s wife Leila George filed for divorce just over a year after they married in July 2020.

The news came after it was previously claimed Sean – who also has son Hopper, 28, with Robin – had to “win back” Leila after their romance began as an on/off relationship in 2016 and continued for several years until the last time they went their separate ways, which prompted the actor to “work hard” on fixing their bond.

Boy George thinks pop music has become “quite dull”.

The 60-year-old pop singer – who shot to fame in the early 1980s – has claimed that modern-day musicians are boring compared to the stars of the past.

He said: “I think it’s always hard to be interesting. I think pop music has got quite dull, I have to say.

“My favourite type of music is sort of Missy Elliott, Bowie. That’s pop music.”

The ‘Karma Chameleon’ hitmaker believes that modern-day pop stars lack “edge”.

He also suggested that they’ve become too predictable, saying they “just kind of dial it in”.

He told MailOnline: “Things that have got a bit of an edge to them. That’s what we’re looking for. We don’t want pop stars to just kind of dial it in and give us what we expect. I’m very objective about it. I’m a songwriter, that’s what I do.”

The Culture Club singer – whose real name is George O’Dowd – previously claimed that “modern production” has ruined the pop scene.

He hit out at “big choruses” and “studio trickery”.

He said: “We grew up in that era where people wrote melodic songs. When I was a kid I was listening to stuff from the fifties and sixties and seventies.

“A lot of modern production has big choruses now and studio trickery. When it comes on the radio I think, ‘This will be great when it finishes.'”

Meanwhile, the pop icon previously revealed that he was too “engaged chemically” to take part in Live Aid.

The singer was keen to help raise money to fight famine, but was in no “fit state” on the day of the fundraising initiative.

He explained: “I messed it up. I was otherwise engaged chemically.

“I mean, I think it was a stroke of luck that we didn’t do it because I wasn’t in a fit state to do it.”

By Rami Ayyub and Alexandra Ulmer

(Reuters) -The prosecutor for Georgia’s biggest county on Thursday requested a special grand jury with subpoena power to aid her investigation into then-President Donald Trump’s efforts to influence the U.S. state’s 2020 election results.

In a letter to Fulton County’s chief judge, first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, District Attorney Fani Willis wrote that multiple witnesses being probed have refused to cooperate absent a subpoena requiring their testimony.

“Therefore, I am hereby requesting … that a special purpose grand jury be impaneled for the purpose of investigating the facts and circumstances relating directly or indirectly to possible attempts to disrupt the lawful administration of the 2020 elections in the State of Georgia,” Willis wrote.

The investigation https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-election-georgia-investigations-idINKBN2AB0BR by Willis, a Democrat, is the most serious probe facing Trump in Georgia after he was recorded in a phone call pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the state’s election results based on unfounded claims of voter fraud.

Willis specifically mentioned that Raffensperger, whom she described as an “essential witness,” had indicated he would only take part in an interview once presented with a subpoena.

In a statement, Trump defended his phone call, saying he’d done nothing wrong and blasting “political witch hunts.” He also repeated false allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

“What this Civil Special Grand Jury should be looking into is not my perfect phone call, but the large scale voter fraud that took place in Georgia,” Trump said.

In a separate legal woe for the Trump family, the U.S. House of Representatives’ panel investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol on Thursday requested an interview https://www.reuters.com/world/us/jan-6-panel-plans-seek-testimony-ivanka-trump-cnn-2022-01-20 with Trump’s daughter and former White House aide Ivanka Trump.

Trump critics hope that his legal problems may ultimately stymie a potential presidential run in 2024.

“It begins,” Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island tweeted after news of the Georgia request.

‘FINDING’ VOTES

In her letter, Willis said a special grand jury, which can subpoena witnesses, was needed because jurors can be impaneled for longer periods and focus exclusively on a single probe.

A spokesperson for the superior courts in Fulton County, which encompasses most of the state capital Atlanta, said there was no immediate timeline for a response to Willis’ request.

During the Jan. 2, 2021 call, Trump urged Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, to “find” enough votes to overturn his Georgia loss to Democrat Joe Biden. The transcript quotes Trump telling Raffensperger: “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” which is the number Trump needed to win Georgia.

Legal experts have said Trump’s phone calls may have violated at least three state election laws: conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, and intentional interference with performance of election duties. The possible felony and misdemeanor violations are punishable by fines or imprisonment.

(Reporting by Rami Ayyub and Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Jonathan Oatis)

Sia was suicidal and went to rehab following the backlash over her film ‘Music’.

The 46-year-old singer – who has complex PTSD – has revealed she relapsed following the controversy surrounding her casting Maddie Ziegler in the titular role of an autistic teenager, instead of someone neuroatypical, in her 2021 directional debut.

In a New York Times profile about her close friend, comedy legend Kathy Griffin, 61, the ‘Unstoppable’ hitmaker said: “I was suicidal and relapsed and went to rehab.

“She saved my life.”

The ‘Chandelier’ hitmaker initially cast an actor with autism but the role proved too stressful for her so she brought her frequent collaborator into the project instead.

She said previously “I got Maddie back on board. I’ve learnt I’m ableist.

“And while I may have spoken to 20 factions of the autism community, I didn’t speak to another 20 factions. I actually didn’t even know the other 20 existed.”

Sia has defended her decision to cast Maddie in the film on multiple occasions and previously insisted it was more “compassionate” to hire her than an autistic actress.

She tweeted: “I did try. It felt more compassionate to use Maddie. That was my call…

“I cast thirteen neuroatypical people, three trans folk, and not as f****** prostitutes or drug addicts but s as doctors, nurses and singers. F****** sad nobody’s even seen the dang movie. My heart has always been in the right place.(sic)”

And Sia also insisted she simply couldn’t work without Maddie.

She said: “I realised it wasn’t ableism.

“I mean, it is ableism I guess as well, but it’s actually nepotism because I can’t do a project without her. I don’t want to. I wouldn’t make art if it didn’t include her.”

Maddie – who has starred in many of Sia’s music videos, including the promos for ‘Elastic Heart’ and ‘Chandelier’ – feared people would think she was “making fun” of autistic people.

Sia insisted: “I bold-facedly said, ‘I won’t let that happen.'”

However, she realised she cannot “protect” her from the criticism.

She added: “Last week, I realised I couldn’t really protect her from that, which I thought I could. We sent it off to the Child Mind Institute and she received 100 per cent as performance accuracy. I realise that there are some things I can’t protect her from as much as I try.”

Adam Rippon married Jussi-Pekka Kajaala in a spur-of-the-moment wedding on New Year’s Eve 2021.

The 32-year-old retired figure skater – who had been in a relationship with real estate broker Jussi-Pekka, 34, since they matched on dating app Tinder in 2018 – explained that they had “always wanted to do something simple” for their wedding and only decided to get married when a local officiant had a slot available for that day.

He said: “I think everybody knew that we were going to do it and I think nobody knew if we were going to give them a heads up or not. And I guess we didn’t even know if we were giving ourselves a heads up. Listen, we’re unpredictable. We always wanted to do something simple and just the two of us. And so we were looking at different options of what we could do and so obviously when you do that, the next best thing that you can do is you reach out to [California marriage officiant] Maria and you ask Maria: ‘When is her next availability for a wedding?’ And she goes, ‘I have availability this week, but I also have something today.’ And so then I said, ‘Listen, Maria, we’re on our way.’ “

The former ‘Dancing with the Stars’ contestant – who won the 2016 U.S. National Championships for figure skating – added that he and Jussi-Pekka had wanted to get married “for a while” and decided to go through with their nuptials with little planning to “just have it be finished.”

He told PEOPLE: “”We’ve been waiting to do it for a while and we always were like, ‘Let’s just go and do it and just have it be finished and we can finally be married.”

Jussi-Pekka also explained that they wanted to make “something special” out of the 31st December, which is “not usually a big deal” for them.

He said: “We had some plans for the date, but then we just decided to do it sooner because New Year’s Eve is not a big thing for us. We’re in bed like 10:30. So then we decided that, oh, maybe going to use this day for something special like this and now we have a great meaning for that day.”

By Rami Ayyub

(Reuters) – A top Florida public health official has been put on administrative leave as officials investigate whether he violated a state ban by emailing employees about their low vaccination rate against COVID-19 and urging them to get shots.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican widely believed to be planning a run for the U.S. presidency, in November signed a law banning schools, businesses and government entities from requiring vaccination against COVID-19, drawing condemnation from health experts and Democratic leaders.

The official placed on leave, Dr. Raul Pino, the Florida Department of Health’s director in Orlando, sent his staff an email on Jan. 4 noting their low vaccination rate and urging them to get shots, according to Orlando’s WFTV. Pino had an analyst pull vaccination data for his employees, WFTV reported.

The Florida Department of Health said it was conducting an inquiry to determine if any laws were broken.

“As the decision to get vaccinated is a personal medical choice that should be made free from coercion and mandates from employers, the employee in question has been placed on administrative leave,” the department said in a statement.

In the Jan. 4 email, Pino said he had pulled vaccination data for his 568 active employees, and that less than half had two doses while only 14% had their booster, according to WFTV.

“I am sorry but in the absence of reasonable and real reasons it is irresponsible not to be vaccinated,” Pino wrote.

Pino, who helped spearhead Florida’s response to the pandemic, was not immediately reachable for comment.

Florida was among several conservative-led states who sued the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to stop it from enforcing a now-defunct vaccine mandate for large businesses put in place by President Joe Biden.

The Supreme Court last week blocked that mandate – a policy the conservative justices deemed an improper imposition on the lives and health of many Americans – while endorsing a separate federal vaccine requirement for health care facilities.

(Reporting by Rami Ayyub; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

Lady Gaga has revealed she and Salma Hayek filmed a lovemaking scene that was cut from ‘House of Gucci’.

The 35-year-old singer-and-actress – who is hotly-tipped to win an Oscar for the role of Patrizia Reggiani in the blockbuster drama based on the real-life murder of Maurizio Gucci – has claimed there is “a whole side of this film” that was not shown in the final cut.

According to the ‘A Star Is Born’ star, Patrizia – who was convicted of hiring a hitman to kill her former husband Maurizio, who was played by Adam Driver in the acclaimed Sir Ridley Scott movie – “developed a relationship” with her psychic Giuseppina ‘Pina’ Auriemm in unused footage.

Speaking in an interview shared via Pop Crave’s Twitter account, Gaga said: “There’s a whole side of this film that you did not see, where Pina and I developed a relationship.

“Director’s cut, who knows. This is a testament to [Ridley Scott] as a director because he allowed us to go there, and I remember being on set with Salma and going, ‘So after Maurizio dies, maybe it gets hot?’ And she was like, ‘What are you talking about?’”

Salma, 55, said: “You think she’s kidding.”

And her co-star quipped: “Director’s cut, who knows.”

Meanwhile, Gaga recently said she “began to believe” Patrizia had sent a “large swarm of flies” to the set.

The ‘Born This Way’ hitmaker was surrounded by the insects while she was bidding farewell to the character on the last day of filming.

She shared: “On the last day of filming, I was on the balcony of my apartment in Rome, and I was blasting Dean Martin singing ‘Mambo Italiano’, and I had a cigarette hanging out of my mouth. I was Patrizia.

“But I knew I had to say goodbye to her: Large swarms of flies kept following me around, and I truly began to believe that she had sent them. I was ready to let her go.”

The heirs of Aldo Gucci, who was played by Al Pacino, recently slated the movie.

In a statement, they said: “The production of the film did not bother to consult the heirs before describing Aldo Gucci – president of the company for 30 years – and the members of the Gucci family as thugs, ignorant and insensitive to the world around them.”

They added how there was “a tone and an attitude to the protagonists of the well-known events that never belonged to them,” and that “this is extremely painful from a human point of view and an insult to the legacy on which the brand is built today.”

(This Jan.19 story corrects typographical error in headline)

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers late on Wednesday formally asked for a new trial after the British socialite’s lawyers raised concern about a juror’s possible failure to disclose before the trial that he was sexually abused as a child.

Maxwell, 60, was convicted https://www.reuters.com/world/us/maxwell-jury-resume-deliberations-after-judge-warns-omicron-risk-2021-12-29 on Dec. 29 on five counts of sex trafficking and other crimes for recruiting and grooming teenage girls to have sexual encounters with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell faces up to 65 years in prison.

“Today, counsel for Ghislaine Maxwell filed her motion for a new trial,” her defense lawyer, Bobbi C. Sternheim, said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan.

In the letter, Sternheim asked that all submissions pertaining to “Juror No. 50” remain under seal until the court rules on the motion.

Maxwell’s lawyers said this month there were “incontrovertible grounds https://www.reuters.com/world/us/ghislaine-maxwells-prosecutors-seek-inquiry-into-jurors-sexual-abuse-claim-2022-01-05” for a new trial after a juror, who asked to be identified by his first and middle names, Scotty David, told Reuters and other news media that he described being abused as a child during jury deliberations.

The next day Maxwell’s lawyer wrote to the judge seeking a new trial and New York attorney Todd Spodek filed an appearance in Maxwell’s case on behalf of Juror No. 50. Spodek did not respond to a request for comment and has not disclosed his client’s name in the Maxwell case.

Concerns have been raised that Scotty David did not disclose his abuse during pretrial screening.

Prospective jurors were asked in a questionnaire whether they had ever been a victim of sexual abuse. Scotty David told Reuters https://www.reuters.com/world/us/some-ghislaine-maxwell-jurors-initially-doubted-accusers-juror-says-2022-01-05 he did not remember the question, but that he would have answered honestly.

Prosecutors, who have requested that U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan conduct an inquiry into the juror’s statements, will have until Feb. 2 to respond to Maxwell’s motion.

Legal experts told Reuters that Maxwell would not be guaranteed https://www.reuters.com/world/us/no-guarantee-new-maxwell-trial-after-jurors-revelations-experts-say-2022-01-07 a new trial even if the juror did not disclose his abuse on the questionnaire, noting that cases of juror dishonesty that led to verdicts being overturned generally involved jurors who deliberately lied in order to be selected.

Nathan last week scheduled Maxwell’s sentencing hearing for June 28.

Epstein killed himself in 2019 at the age of 66 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex abuse charges.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York and Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Robert Birsel)

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Omicron variant, which is spreading far faster than previous versions of the coronavirus, is not likely to help countries achieve so-called herd immunity against COVID-19, in which enough people become immune to the virus that it can no longer spread, leading disease experts say.

From the earliest days of the pandemic, public health officials have expressed hope that it was possible to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19, as long as a high enough percentage of the population was vaccinated or infected with the virus.

Those hopes dimmed as the coronavirus mutated into new variants in quick succession over the past year, enabling it to reinfect people who were vaccinated or had previously contracted COVID-19.

Some health officials have revived the possibility of herd immunity since Omicron emerged late last year.

The fact that the variant spreads so quickly and causes milder illness might soon expose enough people, in a less harmful way, to the SARS-COV-2 virus and provide that protection, they argue.

Disease experts note, however, that Omicron’s transmissibility is aided by the fact that this variant is even better than its predecessors at infecting people who were vaccinated or had a prior infection. That adds to evidence that the coronavirus will continue to find ways to break through our immune defenses, they said.

“Reaching a theoretical threshold beyond which transmission will cease is probably unrealistic given the experience we have had in the pandemic,” Dr. Olivier le Polain, an epidemiologist with the World Health Organization (WHO), told Reuters.

That is not to say that prior immunity offers no benefit. Instead of herd immunity, many experts interviewed by Reuters said there was growing evidence that vaccines and prior infection would help boost population immunity against COVID-19, which makes the disease less serious for those who are infected, or become reinfected.

“As long as population immunity holds with this variant and future variants, we’ll be fortunate and the disease will be manageable,” said Dr. David Heymann, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

NOT LIKE MEASLES

Current COVID-19 vaccines were primarily designed to prevent severe disease and death rather than infection. But clinical trial results in late 2020 showing that two of the vaccines had more than 90% efficacy against the disease initially sparked hope that the virus could be largely contained by widespread vaccination, similar to the way measles has been curbed by inoculation.

With SARS-CoV-2, two factors have since undermined that picture, said Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“The first is that immunity, especially to infection, which is the important kind of immunity, wanes quite quickly, at least from the vaccines that we have right now,” he said.

The second is that the virus can quickly mutate in a way that enables it to elude protection from vaccination or prior infection – even when immunity has not waned.

“It changes the game when vaccinated people can still shed virus and infect other people,” said Dr. David Wohl, an infectious disease specialist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

He cautioned against assuming that infection with Omicron would increase protection, especially against the next variant that might arise. “Just because you had Omicron, maybe that protects you from getting Omicron again, maybe,” Wohl said.

Vaccines in development https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/omicron-is-wake-up-call-covid-19-vaccine-developers-2021-12-08 that provide immunity against future variants or even multiple types of coronaviruses could change that, said Pasi Penttinen, the top influenza expert at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, but it will take time.

Still, the hope for herd immunity as a ticket back to normal life is hard to shake.

“These things were in the media: ‘We’ll reach herd immunity when 60% of the population are vaccinated.’ It didn’t happen. Then for 80%. Again, it didn’t happen,” Francois Balloux, professor of computational systems biology at University College London, told Reuters.

“As horrible as it sounds, I think we have to prepare ourselves to the fact that the vast majority, essentially everyone, will get exposed to SARS-CoV-2,” he said.

Global health experts expect that the coronavirus will ultimately become endemic, circulating persistently in the population and causing sporadic surges. The emergence of Omicron, however, has raised questions about exactly when that might happen.

“We will get there,” said the WHO’s le Polain, “but we are not there at the moment.”

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Additional reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva, Alistair Smout in London and Francesco Guarascio in Brussels; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Bill Berkrot)

Dame Anna Wintour acknowledged her “complicated” relationship with the late Andre Leon Talley in her tribute to him.

The long serving editor-in-chief of Vogue – a position she has held since 1988 – issued a statement honouring the magazine’s former creative director following his death aged 73 on 18 January, but she also admitted to having frosty moments with the fashion icon.

In a statement shared on the fashion bible’s website, the 72-year-old star said: “Like many decades-long relationships, there were complicated moments, but all I want to remember today, all I care about, is the brilliant and compassionate man who was a generous and loving friend to me and to my family for many, many years, and who we will all miss so much.”

Andre – who boasted many roles such as the Paris Bureau Chief of Women’s Wear Daily, fashion editor at Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine, long-time trusted confidant of Karl Lagerfeld and apprentice to Diana Vreeland – gave his side of the rift between him and the former ‘House and Garden’ editor-in-chief in his 2020 memoir ‘The Chiffon Trenches’.

He branded her “ruthless” and unable of “simple human kindness” after cutting him – allegedly without telling him – from his legendary interview gig on the steps of the Met Gala and replacing him with a YouTube star, Liza Koshy.

He also claimed his role was cut for being too “old, overweight, uncool.”

However, a source told Page Six that the Conde Nast executive and the former ‘America’s Next Top Model’ judge made amends before his recent passing.

They said: “I do know they did make up, that their relationship was repaired recently — after everything that happened.”

In her statement, Anna added: “The loss of Andre is felt by so many of us today: the designers he enthusiastically cheered on every season, and who loved him for it; the generations he inspired to work in the industry, seeing a figure who broke boundaries while never forgetting where he started from; those who knew fashion, and Vogue, simply because of him; and, not forgetting, the multitude of colleagues over the years who were consistently buoyed by every new discovery of Andre’s, which he would discuss loudly, and volubly — no one could make people more excited about the most seemingly insignificant fashion details than him.”