Princes Charles has commissioned paintings of Holocaust survivors to pay tribute to their generation.

The Prince of Wales – who is patron of the National Holocaust Memorial Day Trust – commissioned seven artists to paint people who survived concentration camps, and they will be featured in an upcoming BBC Two documentary ‘Survivors: Portraits of the Holocaust’.

In a statement, he said: “As the number of Holocaust survivors sadly, but inevitably, declines, my abiding hope is that this special collection will act as a further guiding light for our society, reminding us not only of history’s darkest days, but of humanity’s interconnectedness as we strive to create a better world for our children, grandchildren and generations as yet unborn; one where hope is victorious over despair and love triumphs over hate.”

The 73-year-old royal also gave an interview for the film, which will air on Holocaust Memorial Day (January 27), while the pieces will be on public displayed in Buckingham Palace.

All seven people feautred in the artwork are survivors of concentration camps, now in the 90s and still living in the UK.

Paul Benney has painted Helen Aronson, Ishbel Myserscough painted Lily Ebert and Clara Drummond painted Mandfred Goldberg.

Other survivors and artists in the project include Arek Hersh (painted by Massimiliano Pironti), Anita Lasker Wallfisch (Peter Kuhfeld), Rachel Levy (Stuart Pearson Wright) and Zigi Shipper (Jenny Saville).

Holocaust Educational Trust chief executive Karen Pollock added: “Holocaust survivors endured the very worst. They were rounded up into ghettos, sent to concentration camps and enslaved as forced labourers.

“To survive the concentration and death camps and 77 years later see their portraits displayed in Buckingham Palace is very special indeed, and a poignant and fitting testament to their lasting contribution to this country.”

Ben Affleck has said that the poor response to ‘Gigli’ was depressing.

The 49-year-old actor starred in the romcom alongside popstar Jennifer Lopez – who was his girlfriend at the time and is again following his 2018 divorce from Jennifer Garner – admitted that the poor response to the film left him “questioning” things.

He said: “I thought my job was to be a cipher. I can see now how people looked at me and thought of this person as some callow frat guy who’s cavalier, or has too much.”

The actor-turned-director went on to explain how he felt the movie – which grossed $7.2 million against a $75.6 million budget – left fans with “negative feelings” towards him.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, he explained: “[That movie] engendered a lot of negative feelings in people about me. There’s that aspect of people that I got to see that was sad and hard, it was depressing and really made me question things and feel disappointed and have a lot of self-doubt.”

Ben went on to claim that for being such a “famous bomb” at the box office, in actual fact, “very few people” have even seen it.

He said: “The truth about that movie and what it taught me was how much everything around a movie sort of dictates the way people see it. But for being a movie that’s such a famous bomb and a disaster, very few people actually saw the movie. It doesn’t work, by the way. It’s a sort of horse’s head in a cow’s body. And the studio at the time, because I had begun having this relationship with Jennifer Lopez, which was selling a lot of magazines and appeared to generate a lot of enthusiasm, they just predictably latched onto, ‘They want a romantic comedy. They want the two of them together. More of that!’ And it was just like that ‘SNL’ sketch.”

Washington (AFP) – Former US president Donald Trump expressed support for getting vaccinated against Covid-19 but said it should be up to individuals, in an NPR interview aired Wednesday that he cut short after again falsely claiming election fraud.

In a rare alignment with President Joe Biden, Trump said he does “recommend taking” vaccines. But the Republican former leader, whose administration oversaw development of the coronavirus vaccines, said he opposed mandating them for Americans.

“The mandate is really hurting our country,” Trump told National Public Radio, adding that “a lot of Americans aren’t standing for it.”

Getting vaccinated “has to be an individual choice,” he said, “but I recommend taking them.”

The US Supreme Court is currently considering two Biden rules: a Covid vaccination-or-testing mandate for larger businesses, and an administration requirement that healthcare workers at facilities receiving federal funding get their shots.

The United States has recorded more coronavirus deaths than any other country, and the latest highly infectious Omicron strain is running rampant, sending infections skyrocketing and pushing hospitals to their limits.

The telephone interview was a rare appearance by Trump on mainstream media, which he largely shunned during his presidency, preferring the relative safety of right-leaning outlets.

When NPR reporter Steve Inskeep pressed Trump on his debunked theory that he lost the 2020 election due to fraud, the billionaire insisted he — and not the many judges and some Republican lawmakers who rejected his claims — was right.

“You know the real truth, Steve. This election was a rigged election,” Trump said, citing without evidence the conditions in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin where he said major election fraud occurred.

“Go into Detroit and just ask yourself: is it true that there are more votes than there are voters?” Trump said.

“It is not true,” Inskeep pushed back.

But Trump was undeterred, saying it was “an advantage” to keep discussing 2020 because voters remained concerned about potential mischief in this year’s midterms and in the 2024 presidential election.

“The only way it’s not going to happen again is you have to solve the problem of the presidential rigged election of 2020,” Trump said before hanging up.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration on Wednesday awarded $105 million in grants to nonprofit groups and state and local governments in 29 states to protect children and families from home health hazards such as lead-based paint, mold and carbon monoxide.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development said the grants would help recipients identify and address health and safety hazards in some 7,400 homes of families with incomes at or below 80% of the area median income level.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. judge has rejected a bid by Britain’s Prince Andrew to dismiss Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit accusing the Duke of York of sexually abusing her when she was 17 and being trafficked by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.

In a decision made public on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said it was premature to consider the prince’s efforts to cast doubt on Giuffre’s accusations, though he would be allowed to do so at a trial.

Kaplan said it was also too soon to decide whether Giuffre and Epstein intended to release people like Andrew in their 2009 settlement agreement. Such settlements can restrict plaintiffs from pursuing further litigation, even against third parties.

Lawyers for Andrew and Giuffre did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Andrew has denied Giuffre’s accusations that he forced her to have sex more than two decades ago at the London home of former Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and abused her at two other Epstein properties.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

By Gloria Dickie

(Reuters) – Thawing permafrost could put as much as 50 percent of Arctic infrastructure at high risk of damage by 2050, requiring tens of billions of dollars in maintenance and repairs, scientists warned on Tuesday.

The world’s permafrost — land that remains frozen year-round — has been warming at between 0.3 and 1.0 degree Celsius per decade since the 1980s, with some areas of the High Arctic having increased by more than 3°C over four decades, according to a scientific review of research from the last two decades published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment.

That’s enough to thaw much of the long-frozen ground. Already, some roads are buckling and building foundations are cracking in northern Russia, Alaska, and Canada.

“Infrastructure is in trouble,” said report co-author Dmitry Streletskiy, a geographer at George Washington University. “But it’s not like an earthquake. It’s a relatively slow process, which gives us enough time” to prevent some damage.

Scientists say this trend will continue as climate change escalates. From satellite imagery, they estimate that at least 120,000 buildings, 40,000 km (24,850 miles) of roads, and 9,500 km (5,900 miles) of pipelines could be at risk, highlighting threats to some Canadian highways, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, and the Russian cities of Vorkuta, Yakutsk, and Norilsk.

But people are still building in the Arctic. Satellite images show that coastal infrastructure has increased by 15 percent, or 180 square km (70 square miles), since 2000, according to another study published last year in the journal Environmental Research Letters. About 70 percent of that growth is linked to the oil and gas industry, especially on Russia’s Yamal Peninsula and near the Yamburg gas field, according to that study’s lead author, Annett Bartsch, a polar researcher with the Austrian-based b.geos research and consultancy group.

“There are a lot of new roads and rail tracks,” Bartsch said.

Engineers use several costly strategies when building on permafrost. For example, they place heat-diverting pipes along roads and building foundations to help keep the frozen ground stable.

Maintenance costs for major infrastructure could increase by $15.5 billion by mid-century, but would still be unable to prevent some $21.6 billion in damages, according to the review paper’s most conservative estimates.

For decades, researchers have focused on monitoring the carbon long locked in permafrost https://graphics.reuters.com/CLIMATE-CHANGE/PERMAFROST/oakveelglvr, worrying that the release of climate-warming carbon dioxide and methane could push the world toward runaway global warming.

But “the impact on infrastructure is already happening today,” said Vladimir Romanovsky, a geophysicist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks whose research was among the more than 160 studies assessed in the review. “It’s much more urgent for people who live and work on permafrost.”

(Reporting by Gloria Dickie; Editing by Katy Daigle and Jonathan Oatis)

(Reuters) – Canada’s Quebec province is working on a plan to require a “health contribution” from residents who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccinate for non-medical reasons, Premier Francois Legault said on Tuesday.

Hospitals in Quebec are stretched after the highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant brought in more COVID-19 patients and took healthcare workers off their jobs.

“The vaccine is the key to fight the virus. This is why we’re looking for a health contribution for adults who refuse to be vaccinated for non-medical reasons,” Legault told reporters at a briefing.

“We need to focus our efforts on two things : getting the first, second and third doses of a vaccine and reducing our contacts especially with older people.”

Legault said even though the province has about 10% unvaccinated people, they account for about 50% of those in intensive care units.

People who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons would be exempt under the proposal, Legault said.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese and Grant McCool)

By Lisa Shumaker

(Reuters) – The United States reported at least 1.13 million new coronavirus infections on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, the highest daily total of any country in the world as the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant showed no signs of slowing.

The previous record was 1.03 million cases on Jan. 3. A large number of cases are reported each Monday due to many states not reporting over the weekend. The seven-day average for new cases has tripled in two weeks https://tmsnrt.rs/2WTOZDR to over 700,000 new infections a day.

Not all states have yet reported on Monday and the final figure is likely to be even higher.

The record in new cases came the same day as the nation saw the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients also hit an all-time high, having doubled in three weeks, according to a Reuters tally.

There were more than 135,500 people hospitalized with COVID, surpassing the record of 132,051 set in January last year.

While the Omicron variant is potentially less severe, health officials have warned that the sheer number of infections could strain hospital systems, some of which have already suspended elective procedures as they struggle to handle the increase in patients and staff shortages.

The surge in cases has disrupted schools, which are struggling with absences of staff, teachers and bus drivers.

Chicago canceled classes for a fourth day as the district and teachers failed to agree on how to deal with increased infections.

New York City suspended service on three subway lines due to a large number of workers out sick, according to its Twitter account. Companies’ plans for workers to return to office have also been derailed.

Deaths are averaging 1,700 per day, up from about 1,400 in recent days but within levels seen earlier this winter.

A redesigned COVID-19 vaccine that specifically targets the Omicron variant is likely needed, Pfizer Inc’s CEO said on Monday, adding his company could have one ready to launch by March.

(Reporting by Lisa Shumaker in Chicago; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jarrett Renshaw

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday will begin an effort to weaken rules that allow a minority group of senators to kill proposed laws, arguing democracy is in peril unless new voting-rights legislation passes, the White House said. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday will speak in Atlanta, a city with a majority Black population and capital of the battleground state of Georgia, where Democrats won two crucial U.S. Senate seats in January 2021.

Since then, Republican state lawmakers have passed dozens of state voting laws https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republicans-erect-voting-barriers-politically-crucial-us-states-2021-06-16 around the country in response to former President Donald Trump’s false allegations he lost the 2020 election because of voting fraud. Democrats say the state laws will make it harder for minorities to participate in elections.

“Tomorrow is an opportunity to speak about what the path forward looks like,” said White House spokesperson Jen Psaki, before confirming that Biden is expected to address changing Senate rules.

Atlanta was the home of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader slain in 1968, who is remembered in a national U.S. holiday on Jan. 17.

Biden is expected to support changing filibuster rules https://www.reuters.com/world/us/what-is-us-senate-filibuster-why-is-everyone-talking-about-it-2021-10-06 that require 60 senators to back most legislation, including voting rights bills that do not have that many supporters. The specifics of Biden’s plans were not clear.

Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema, who represent the more conservative states of West Virginia and Arizona, say they want to protect the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to ensure bipartisanship.

Republicans have said they support keeping the filibuster because it gives minority lawmakers a voice in policymaking.

In October, Biden said the United States should “fundamentally alter” https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-wants-fundamentally-alter-senate-filibuster-some-issues-2021-10-22 the Senate filibuster on certain issues.

He has signaled he would support requiring dissenting members to speak on the floor to delay a vote on a bill, a step up from the current system where they can just note their opposition.

The so-called “talking filibuster” would require senators to physically take the floor and likely speak for hours to halt legislation.

Democrats have also discussed voting on rule changes that would only apply to the voting rights bills or requiring at least 41 senators in the 100-member chamber to block legislation.

Biden and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have huddled over the legislative strategy for months, starting before Biden publicly acknowledged his support for weakening the filibuster on voting rights during an October CNN town hall.

Reverend Al Sharpton, a prominent civil rights activist who is traveling to Atlanta to attend the Biden speech, said he has warned the White House that half-measures on voting rights will not work.

“This is a defining moment, not just for the president, but for the country and the future of democracy,” Sharpton told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Moira Warburton and Merdie Nzanga; Editing by Heather Timmons, Alistair Bell and Cynthia Osterman)

New 25-cent pieces with Maya Angelou have been minted and are going into circulation

New York (AFP) – Maya Angelou, the African American poet and activist, has officially joined a select group of Americans to appear on the currency of the United States government, US authorities announced Monday.

Angelou, author of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” will be the first figure commemorated through the American Women Quarters Program, which was signed into law in January 2021.

The US Mint “has begun shipping the first coins” with Angelou’s likeness on the American quarter, a 25-cent piece, according to a press release from the agency.

“It is my honor to present our nation’s first circulating coins dedicated to celebrating American women and their contributions to American history,” said Mint Deputy Director Ventris Gibson.

“Each 2022 quarter is designed to reflect the breadth and depth of accomplishments being celebrated throughout this historic coin program. Maya Angelou, featured on the reverse of this first coin in the series, used words to inspire and uplift.”

The program directs the US Mint to issue quarters each year between 2022 and 2025 featuring five different female trailblazers who have contributed to the country.

The quarter has for the last 90 years shown the nation’s first president, George Washington, on one side, and an eagle on the other.

The new quarters — which have been minted in Philadelphia and Denver — show Washington on one side and Angelou on the other.

The other figures to receive the honor in 2022 are: Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation; Nina Otero-Warren, a New Mexico suffrage leader and Anna May Wong, a Chinese American film star.

Angelou, who was born in Missouri in 1928, was a well-known essayist and poet who worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X during the Civil Rights Movement. 

Angelou, who delivered the poem at former President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration, died in 2014.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has also signaled support for recognizing former slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman on US currency.

Former president Barack Obama launched a project to put Tubman’s face on the $20 bill but it stalled under the administration of Donald Trump.

Putting Tubman, a Black woman who escaped slavery and became a leader of the pre-Civil War abolitionist movement, on the $20 bill would be an “honor” but designing banknotes takes time, Yellen said in September.

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – The Biden administration announced on Monday that it will reverse a Trump-era policy that opened up vast swathes of Arctic Alaska land to new oil development.

The U.S. Department of the Interior said it will scrap the Trump administration’s decision that authorized expanded leasing and development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, or NPR-A. Even though Trump took several steps to try to boost oil-and-gas development in Alaska, production in the state fell to a 43-year low in 2020, as drillers focus their attention in Texas and other lower 48 states.

Official notice of the change will come in a notice to be filed on Monday in federal court in Alaska, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a division of Department of the Interior, said in a statement.

“This decision reflects the Biden-Harris administration’s priority of reviewing existing oil and gas programs to ensure balance on America’s public lands and waters to benefit current and future generations,” it said.

The Trump administration in its waning days approved a plan to allow oil leasing and development in more than 80% percent of the 23-million-acre (9.3-million-hectare) reserve. That replaced a 2013 Obama administration plan issued that protected about half of the reserve.

One of the most controversial elements of the Trump administration’s Cplan was the approval of future oil development in Teshekpuk Lake, the largest lake on the North Slope and the site of important habitat for migratory birds, caribou and other Arctic wildlife.

Plans and policies dating back to the Reagan administration had kept Teshekpuk Lake off-limits to development. The Obama-era plan expanded protections in the wetlands near the lake.

Located on the western side of the North Slope, the NPR-A has been the site of important new oil discoveries and developments. None of those projects will be affected by the decision to revert to the Obama-era management plans; all the existing projects are on leases sold in past years.

No lease sales had been conducted under the Trump administration’s plan, as the last NPR-A lease sale held by the BLM was in 2019.

The state last year produced 448,000 barrels of oil day, according to the U.S. Energy Department; production in the state peaked in 1988 at more than 2 million barrels per day.

(Reporting by Yereth Rosen; Editing by David Gaffen and Sandra Maler)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Insurance companies will be required to cover eight over-the-counter at-home coronavirus tests per person each month starting Saturday, the Biden administration said, expanding access to highly sought-after kits as Americans grapple with a surge in coronavirus cases.

The White House also said on Monday that there is no limit to the number of COVID-19 tests, including at-home tests, that insurers must cover if they are ordered or administered by a health care provider.

The measures are part of a bid by President Joe Biden to make testing more widely available to Americans facing soaring coronavirus cases due to the highly infectious Omicron variant.

In a speech in December, Biden outlined plans to distribute 500 million at-home coronavirus test kits and stand up new federal testing sites, adding to the 20,000 already in existence. However, experts decried the announcement as “too little too late” amid testing shortages nationwide.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday that Americans should be able to order the tests online later this month, noting that all contracts for 500 million rapid tests should be awarded over the next two weeks. The first two were signed last week, with two more announced on Monday.

Under the insurer coverage plan announced Monday, the administration said that insurers are still required to reimburse tests purchased by consumers outside of their network, at a rate of up to $12 per individual test.

It was not immediately clear what incentives were offered to insurers to agree to the plan. The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Monday, the Defense Department said it had awarded contracts to Atlantic Trading, LLC, of Austin, Texas, and Medea Inc. of Pleasanton, California, for a combined total of 27 million at-home test kits.

The contract awards bring the total of test kits ordered to over 50 million, a White House official said.

(Reporting by Eric Beech, Alexandra Alper and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Chris Reese and Cynthia Osterman)

By Daniel Trotta and Tyler Clifford

(Reuters) – Robert Durst, the multimillionaire real estate heir who was serving a life sentence for murder in California and was the prime suspect in two other murders over the past four decades, died in prison at age 78, his lawyer’s office said on Monday.

The law office of Chip Lewis told Reuters he died of natural causes, while Lewis told the New York Times that Durst went into cardiac arrest and died at the San Joaquin General Hospital, where he had been taken for testing.

Durst had once been groomed to take over The Durst Organization, one of New York City’s premier real estate companies, but instead spent many of his formative years evading law enforcement and the last several years of life in jail.

Durst mostly stayed one step ahead of the law until he told on himself during the making of the 2015 HBO documentary series “The Jinx,” in which Durst was caught on a hot microphone saying to himself, “What the hell did I do? … Killed them all, of course.”

Durst was arrested just before the final episode aired.

His wife Kathleen McCormack Durst went missing in New York in 1982, but no charges were filed until after a Los Angeles County in September found Durst guilty of murdering his best friend Susan Berman in 2000.

Prosecutors said Berman was about to reveal she helped Durst create a cover story about his wife’s disappearance.

In New York, after the Los Angeles trial ended, a Westchester County grand jury indicted him for his wife’s murder.

Prosecutors also said Durst killed his neighbor Morris Black in Galveston, Texas, in 2001 because Black discovered his identity at a time when Durst was hiding from the law, sometimes disguising himself as a mute woman.

A Galveston jury acquitted Durst, who argued self-defense, even though Durst also admitted to dismembering Black’s body.

Durst listed his many health problems on the witness stand including surgeries for esophageal and bladder cancer, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, neuropathy, chronic kidney disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. A shunt relieved pressure on his brain.

Shortly after his Los Angeles sentencing, his lawyer disclosed he had also contracted COVID-19.

Los Angeles County prosecutor John Lewin, who had pursued Durst for years, credited “The Jinx” filmmakers Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling for their revealing interviews with Durst, telling reporters after the verdict: “Without them having conducted the interviews, we wouldn’t be where we are.”

Durst’s story was also depicted in the 2010 film “All Good Things,” starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Jarecki.

Durst is the grandson of Joseph Durst and son of Seymour Durst, who built The Durst Organization into one of New York City’s premier real estate companies and developed some of Manhattan’s signature skyscrapers.

Robert Durst long ago left the company, now run by his estranged brother Douglas Durst, who testified at trial and said of his sibling: “He’d like to murder me.”

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta and Tyler Clifford; Editing by Susan Heavey and Howard Goller)

Cassandra Peterson claims she lost 11,000 followers after coming out last year.

The ‘Elvira: Mistress of the Dark’ star revealed in September she had been in a relationship with fitness trainer Teresa ‘T’ Wierson for 19 years and she’s now revealed her decision to speak publicly about her decision drove away many of her “old men” fans.

Speaking on David Yontef’s ‘Behind the Velvet Rope’ podcast, she said: “I knew that there were going to be some horny old men out there who were just not going to like the fact that they didn’t have a chance with me anymore. And I hate to tell them they already didn’t have a chance with me anyway.”

The 70-year-old actress – who gained 60,000 new followers after speaking out – admitted her revelation came as a shock to a lot of people.

She said: “[It] flipped everybody out. Nobody was ready for that. People just said, ‘Elvira, you lied to me. I don’t respect you anymore. Goodbye.’ “

Cassandra previously admitted it had been a “little scary” but “very liberating and a real relief” to open up about her relationship and sexuality, and she praised the LGBTQ community for being “so supportive and sweet”.

She said: “It’s been fantastic. Everybody is happy and thrilled about it.

“I felt the strangest and most worried about my LGBTQ fans because I was thinking, ‘Are they going to think I’m a big hypocrite?’ And that I talk about coming out, being who you are, and then I’m hiding this gigantic secret.”

Cassandra opened up about her relationship with Teresa in her memoir ‘Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark’, explaining how they had met at Gold’s Gym in Hollywood – but she thought she was a man at first.

She wrote: “I couldn’t help noticing one particular trainer, tan, tattooed, and muscular, stalking across the gym floor, knit cap pulled so low over his long brown hair that it nearly covered his eyes.

“Dark and brooding, he gave off such intense energy that when he crossed the enormous gym floor, the waters parted and people stopped in their tracks to stare.

“A typical sexy bad boy, he was unaware he was so charismatic that he garnered his own unofficial fan club.”

The “bad boy” turned out to be Teresa.

Cassandra was married to her manager, Mark Pierson, at the time, but they later split.

It wasn’t until later when Teresa became Cassandra’s trainer and the two developed a friendship, which eventually turned romantic.

By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden will travel to Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthplace of Atlanta on Tuesday to jump-start efforts to reform U.S. voting rights after some states passed new laws that activists say will deter Black voters from the polls.

Biden, along with Vice President Kamala Harris, will speak at Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College, two historically Black schools, as Democrats gird themselves https://www.reuters.com/world/us/first-months-2022-crucial-biden-agenda-november-midterms-loom-2022-01-10 for tough 2022 congressional elections that could strip them of their majority and the chance to change federal voting laws.

The speech will be Biden’s second in as many weeks warning about the health of democracy in the United States. On Jan. 6, he targeted https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-call-trump-threat-democracy-us-capitol-attack-anniversary-2022-01-06 former President Donald Trump’s “web of lies” about the 2020 election, blaming his Republican predecessor for the deadly attacks on the U.S. Capitol a year before.

Trump continues to say that the 2020 election was stolen by Biden’s Democrats through voter fraud, despite recounts and investigations that found no evidence of the claim. Since then, Republican lawmakers in 19 states have passed dozens of laws https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republicans-erect-voting-barriers-politically-crucial-us-states-2021-06-16 making it harder to vote. Critics say these measures disproportionately affect minorities.

Biden wants to build public support for proposed reforms to strengthen voting rights, particularly the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Both have so far withered under opposition from Republicans, who argue they would impose questionable national standards on local elections.

“The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning point in this nation,” Biden plans to say Tuesday, according to excerpted remarks provided by the White House.

“Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice? I know where I stand. I will not yield. I will not flinch. I will defend your right to vote and our democracy against all enemies foreign and domestic. And so the question is where will the institution of United States Senate stand?”

Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday: “Leading Democrats say they want to break the Senate because of a sinister anti-voting plot that is sweeping America. Of course this is totally fake. It does not exist.”

Biden will be joined in Atlanta by Bernice King and Martin Luther King III, two of the slain civil rights leader’s children, as well as top civil rights activists, including Reverend Jesse Jackson, Reverend Al Sharpton, NAACP President Derrick Johnson and National Urban League President Marc Morial.

But some advocacy groups have been frustrated with a lack of progress and will boycott https://www.reuters.com/world/us/some-black-hispanic-voting-rights-groups-boycott-bidens-atlanta-speech-2022-01-10 the president’s visit.

“We, along with other Georgia-based groups, told the president this is not the time and that we don’t need a photo op,” said April England-Albright, legal director for Black Voters Matter in Atlanta. “There has not been any real movement around voting rights legislation.”

Notably absent will be Stacey Abrams, a former Georgia lawmaker and voting rights activist who is seeking the Democratic nomination in Georgia’s governor’s race this year. Representatives for Abrams could not be immediately reached for comment, although she backed Biden’s efforts in a post on Twitter on Monday.

“The fight for voting rights takes persistence,” wrote Abrams, who narrowly lost the 2018 gubernatorial election. “Thank you, @POTUS, for refusing to relent until the work is finished. Welcome back to Georgia where we get good done.”

‘NATIONAL IMPERATIVE’

Georgia was a battleground state in the 2020 election, and Democrats won two crucial U.S. Senate seats in runoff contests in January 2021 that gave them effective control of the chamber. Later in the year, the Republican-led state legislature approved sweeping voting restrictions https://www.reuters.com/world/us/big-changes-under-georgias-new-election-law-2021-06-14. The U.S. Justice Department sued, saying the law infringes the rights https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-sue-georgia-over-restrictive-new-state-voting-law-source-2021-06-25 of Black voters.

King, who agitated for voting reforms and civil rights in the then-segregated South, was assassinated in 1968 and is remembered with a national U.S. holiday that will fall on Jan. 17 this year. Democrats have set the holiday as a deadline for action on voting rights.

Biden, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top Democrats have for months been honing a strategy to pass bills that would expand early voting and strengthen federal oversight in states with a history of racial discrimination at the polls, according to people familiar with the matter.

Biden and Democrats “believe that passing federal legislation is a national imperative,” a White House official said.

The president will support changing filibuster https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-biden-filibuster-idUSKBN2JK1L8 rules https://www.reuters.com/world/us/what-is-us-senate-filibuster-why-is-everyone-talking-about-it-2021-10-06 that currently require 60 senators to support most legislation, the White House has said, but those changes do not have the support of all Democratic lawmakers.

Amid the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, McConnell this month signaled interest in changing the Electoral Count Act, an 1887 law that allows members of Congress to dispute presidential election results. But Democrats have said such reforms do not ensure voting rights.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Merdie Nzanga, Richard Cowan and Susan Heavey; Editing by Heather Timmons, Cynthia Osterman and Paul Simao)

Jennifer Hudson would “love” to have her own talk show.

The 40-year-old singer-and-actress – who shot to fame when she competed on ‘American Idol’ back in 2004 – was reportedly pitching a daytime chat show to television stations in 2021 and would jump at the chance to front one because she “loves talking.”

She said: “I would love to do a talk show. That would be a whole new interesting world to walk into. I do love talking as you could probably already tell, and I love to Jennifer-ise people. So maybe I will make it into your living room, 2022 is definitely going to let us know for sure.”

The ‘Cats’ star – who heads up her own company, Jhud Productions – claimed there is “always a plan” behind the scenes and told fans that they will always see her “try to grow” throughout her career.

She added: “Here at Jhud Productions, we always got a plan. And we never stop working and, as I always say, you will always see me try and grow so there’s always a plan, I can tell you that much.”

The ‘Dreamgirls’ actress had reportedly been negotiating a deal with Warner Bros television to launch her own show, the same company behind ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’, which is due to come to an end after almost two decades and even shot a pilot on the same stage used by the 63-year-old comedienne.

Upon quitting her flagship talk show, Ellen told The Hollywood Reporter: “It’s going to be really hard on the last day, but I also know it’s time. When you’re a creative person, you constantly need to be challenged – and as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it’s just not a challenge anymore. I need something new to challenge me.”