Lady Gaga was inside her giant latex egg vessel she turned up to the 2011 Grammys in for “three days”.

The ‘A Star is Born’ actress famously hatched out of a giant egg-shaped enclosure on stage at the glitzy awards ceremony after a dramatic red carpet arrival a decade ago.

And in a new interview with British Vogue in a video titled ‘Life in Looks’, Gaga has revealed she wanted to get a feel for being inside the Hussein Chalayan-designed prop days prior to performing ‘Born This Way’ at the awards.

The 35-year-old Oscar-winner also revealed how her team went to extreme lengths to track down some latex and ended up purchasing the material, which was typically only available at sex shops at the time, in vast quantities from a bus company.

She spilled: “We would call this an outfit.

“Everyone calls this the egg but it’s actually a vessel that was designed by Hussein Chalayan.

“I was very particular about the way the fashion looked for this performance in so much as the night before the performance I said, ‘The fashion’s wrong, we don’t have it. We need it to be latex. We need nude latex.’

“And if you know anything about looking for latex, years ago it was very difficult to find latex anywhere other than a sex shop, or – where we found this latex was a bus company had latex that they were using to cover the seats of their busses and we found the latex and we asked if we could buy it from them. So everybody’s fashion that’s made here was made from the fabric from seats for a bus.”

Gaga added: “I was in the egg for three days.

“To be honest, at award shows, especially during this time, I didn’t like to talk to people. I always felt that it threw me off with my performance so this in a lot of ways is really representative of my devotion to my craft in that I really wanted to be with myself.”

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday is set to weigh the legality of a decades-old congressional decision to exclude Puerto Rico from a federal program that provides benefits to low-income elderly, blind and disabled people.

The justices are hearing the U.S. government’s appeal of a lower court ruling that deemed Puerto Rico’s exclusion from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program unlawful.

The appeal originally was filed by Republican former President Donald Trump’s administration. His Democratic successor Joe Biden has continued the appeal while at the same time urging Congress to extend SSI to Puerto Rico.

Many Puerto Ricans have long complained that the Caribbean island’s residents are treated worse than other Americans despite being U.S. citizens. Puerto Rico, which is not a state, is the most-populous of the U.S. territories, with about 3 million people.

The case involves a Puerto Rican resident named Jose Luis Vaello-Madero who received SSI benefits when he lived in New York but lost eligibility when he moved to Puerto Rico in 2013.

The Supreme Court has been instrumental in defining the legal status of Puerto Ricans dating to a series of rulings starting more than a century ago called the Insular Cases, some suffused with racist language. The rulings endorsed the notion that the people of newly acquired U.S. territories could receive different treatment than citizens living in U.S. states. Vaello-Madero’s case gives the justices an opportunity to revisit those rulings.

The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year in favor of Vaello-Madero, deciding that Puerto Rico’s SSI exclusion violated a provision of the U.S. Constitution that requires that laws apply equally to everyone.

Vaello-Madero, who is 67 years old and disabled, mounted his constitutional challenge after the government sued him in federal court in Washington in 2017 seeking more than $28,000 for payments it made to him after he moved to Puerto Rico.

The government’s lawsuit was filed a month before Vaello-Madero lost the roof of his home in Hurricane Irma, which was followed weeks later by the devastating Hurricane Maria.

SSI benefits are available to U.S. citizens living in any of the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and the Northern Mariana Islands, but not the territories of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam.

Congress decided not to include Puerto Rico when it enacted the program in 1972. Puerto Ricans are eligible for a different government program, called Aid to the Aged, Blind and Disabled, that allows for more local control but not as much federal funding, the Justice Department said in court papers.

The Supreme Court’s ruling is due by the end of June.

Biden said in June that the existing law’s denial of SSI benefits to residents of Puerto Rico is “inconsistent with my administration’s policies and values” and asked lawmakers to amend the statute to extend the benefits to the territory.

After passing infrastructure legislation on Saturday, congressional Democrats are working to finalize a massive social spending bill, the latest draft of which includes a provision extending the benefits to Puerto Rico. If that legislation passes, it would limit the importance of the Supreme Court’s eventual ruling.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)

Hand signals that went viral on TikTok helped a missing teenager be found.

A 16-year-old girl was reported missing by her parents in North Carolina last week and she was spotted inside a car in Kentucky two days later, having gestured to surrounding vehicles using movements designed to help domestic abuse victims signal they needed help.

The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office explained a driver had called police after noticing “a female passenger in the vehicle making hand gestures that are known on the social media platform TikTok to represent violence at home – I need help – domestic violence.”

The caller told police the girl “appeared to be in distress” while being driven by an older male.

The teenager told cops she had travelled through North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio.

James Herbert Brick, 61, of Cherokee, North Carolina, was subsequently arrested.

The “signal for help” campaign – which features a one-handed gesture whereby the victim holds up their hand with their palm facing out, then tucks their thumb in before closing their fingers on top of the thumb – was launched went viral early in the coronavirus lockdowns of 2020 in an attempt to address a rise in domestic violence.

By Valerie Volcovici

GLASGOW (Reuters) -The United States has returned to global climate negotiations with a new approach rather than just picking up where it left off, U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Tuesday.

The New York congresswoman arrived at the COP26 summit in Glasgow with U.S. representatives that came to support U.S. efforts to show renewed leadership at UN climate negotiations after a four-year absence under former president Donald Trump.

“We’re just here to say that we’re not just back. We’re different and we’re more just. And we are more open minded to questioning prior assumptions of what is politically possible,” she told a side event at the climate conference.

“And I would argue that it’s a fundamentally different approach.”

Ocasio-Cortez and other Democratic lawmakers said that key to proving U.S. leadership will be the passage of a comprehensive social and climate spending bill called Build Back Better that needs to win support from moderate Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate.

“As we fly back to the United States later this week, it will be with the intent to finish the job next week. Failure really is not an option,” said Colorado Representative Joe Neguse.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici, writing by William James, editing by Elizabeth Piper and Barbara Lewis)

Washington (AFP) – New evidence shows China may be “committing genocide” against the Uyghur minority, the US Holocaust Museum said Tuesday, the latest accusation that Beijing is carrying out the most serious of crimes.

The United States has already declared that actions against the mostly Muslim group and other Turkic people in China’s western region of Xinjiang amounts to genocide, an assertion rejected by Beijing.

The US Holocaust Museum, which last year said that crimes against humanity have been committed, in a new report pointed to accounts of forced birth control of Uyghurs as well as forced transfer to labor in other parts of China.

“Additional recently surfaced information signals that the Chinese government’s conduct has escalated beyond a policy of forced assimilation,” the report said.

“The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is gravely concerned that the Chinese government may be committing genocide against the Uyghurs,” it said.

“The seriousness of the assault on the Uyghur population demands the immediate response of the international community to protect the victims.”

The report, however, noted that previous determinations of genocide have often been based on findings of efforts to kill off a community.

“Given the limited reports of Uyghur deaths in detention, there is insufficient evidence at this time of the intent of the Chinese government to systematically kill living Uyghurs,” it said.

But the report said that forced sterilizations and forced contraception raise “legitimate questions about the existence of the intent to biologically destroy the group, in whole or in substantial part.”

It said that there was not enough verifiable data, which was a deliberate decision by China to limit information.

Quoting previous accounts, the report estimated that anywhere between one million and three million people, mostly Uyghurs, are detained in Xinjiang in a policy to forcibly assimilate them into China’s majority Han culture and prevent Islamic practices.

China rejects the allegations and say it is offering vocational training aimed at reducing the allure of Islamic extremism following attacks attributed to Uyghur militants.

Former US secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a staunch critic of China, announced the determination of genocide on his final day in office in January.

His successor Antony Blinken has said he agrees with the finding, and the parliaments in a number of Western countries — Belgium, Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and The Netherlands — have since passed motions declaring that China is committing genocide.

US actor Matthew McConaughey’s outlaw bona fides are well established in his new book

Los Angeles (AFP) – Matthew McConaughey’s transformation from rom-com heart-throb to serious Oscar-winning actor for “Dallas Buyers Club” was so remarkable it earned its own neologism.

Could another “McConaissance” be on the cards, as the category-defying A-lister mulls a run for governor of his home state of Texas, potentially as a third-party candidate next year?

“Look, it’s been discussed. It’s a possible avenue,” McConaughey, 52, told AFP in an interview via Zoom.

“I would call myself aggressively centrist. Not because that’s the place of gray and compromise… I think today it’s a daring space. It’s the space of outlaws.”

McConaughey’s outlaw bona fides are well established in his new book “Greenlights,” with anecdotes including the time he “bongoed naked until the cops arrested me” for disturbing the peace, drug possession and resisting arrest.

At the peak of his fame, the actor ditched Los Angeles for an ecstasy-fueled hike through the Amazon, and at other times would ask film directors to fly out and meet him at provincial airports as he spontaneously criss-crossed the United States in an RV.

But soon after becoming a father in 2008, the “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” star told his agent to turn down future rom-coms, no matter how lucrative the offers, as he pursued grittier, more challenging fare. 

“Rom-coms are built to be light. They’re Saturday afternoon characters,” he said.

“I became a father. My life takes on sincere and deep meaning right then. I was in the Monday morning of life, not the Saturday afternoon,” added McConaughey.

Now McConaughey’s political ambitions have caused excitement in liberal circles, and particularly those appalled at Texas governor Greg Abbott, who signed a highly restrictive law banning most abortions. It is now being challenged before the US Supreme Court.

A recent University of Texas, Tyler poll found McConaughey would fare better against Abbott than potential Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.

But McConaughey, hailing from a small town in deep Texas and raised in a religious family, does not seem any more enamored with the Democrats than Republicans such as Abbott.

“Each party is claiming to be democracy itself, and in doing so can’t much tell you what they’re about,” said McConaughey.

He added: “You got to go ‘left’ sometimes, you got to go ‘right.’ There are people on the so-called right and the so-called left that are better people for the job at hand at different times.” 

‘That was wrong’

McConaughey’s book — part memoir, part self-help manual — recounts his remarkably fast rise to stardom.

Having dropped out of law school in Texas, McConaughey was quickly cast in coming-of-age classic “Dazed and Confused,” before hitting the big time with the lead role in courtroom drama “A Time To Kill.”

“I wouldn’t say I’ve been interested in politics since a very early age. I’ve been interested in justice,” he said.

The book also reveals darker moments, including how at 18 he was sexually abused by a man “while knocked unconscious in the back of a van.”

The crime is only mentioned in passing because “people would have become voyeurs over that, and that’s not what the book is about,” he told AFP.

Without discussing details, McConaughey says the incident “affected me” but he was helped by his “clear sense that it was wrong.”

“Maybe if I’d have been younger, and I’d been like ‘Is that an okay reality? Is that kind of how the world is supposed to work sometimes?'”

He added: “Was I a victim in that circumstance? You’re damn right.

“But I haven’t been victimized from it, and I think part of the reason is it was very clear — that was wrong, that was an aberration.

“That’s not true intimacy. That’s not two people saying yes to each other. That’s not right.”

‘Another chapter’

If McConaughey does decide to run for the Lone Star State’s top office, he will need to file by a December 13 deadline.

Pressed on whether he has taken key early steps such as hiring campaign staff or fundraising, he responds with a stock line: “I’m not, until I am.”

“It’s something I’m giving great consideration… there’s some wonderful sacrifices for the awesome position.”

For McConaughey, who continues to act and run his Just Keep Livin’ foundation for high school students, the decision will come down to “where and how can I be most useful?”

“I’m not afraid of risk. But I really need to ask that question and answer that question for myself,” he said.

When McConaughey gambled by turning his back on rom-coms, his agent’s phone stopped ringing for nearly two years — to the point that he seriously considered quitting acting.

Eventually Hollywood took his new aspirations seriously, with a string of acclaimed hits such as “Mud” and “True Detective” leading to his Oscar for “Dallas Buyers Club” — a politically charged drama about the AIDS pandemic.

McConaughey says he coined the term “McConaissance” himself, figuring his recent career run “needed a campaign slogan.”

So, does he have a slogan for his next chapter, in politics or otherwise?

“It’s still the McConaissance,” he said. “It’s just going to be another chapter.”

KENOSHA, Wis. (Reuters) – Here is a timeline tracing the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, a U.S. teenager who is on trial for killing two men and wounding a third with a military-style rifle during protests last year in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Aug. 23, 2020 – A white police officer responding to a domestic dispute in Kenosha shoots Jacob Blake seven times at close range, paralyzing the Black man and setting off protests.

Aug. 25, 2020 – As Kenosha braces for a third night of protests, Rittenhouse, then 17, takes his rifle and joins other armed men on the streets. Rittenhouse says he was asked to help guard a used-car dealership. Shortly before midnight, Rittenhouse fatally shoots Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, after Rosenbaum appears to have chased him and tried to grab his rifle, according to video evidence. As he runs down the street, Rittenhouse shoots and kills Anthony Huber, 26, who was swinging a skateboard at him, and shoots Gaige Grosskreutz, now 27, in the arm. Grosskreutz, who was holding a pistol at the time of the shooting, survives.

Aug. 27-28, 2020 – Kenosha County district attorney charges Rittenhouse with six criminal counts, including reckless and intentional homicides. Rittenhouse, who turned himself in on Aug. 26, is held in custody in his home state Illinois. Atlanta-based attorney Lin Wood says video evidence would vindicate Rittenhouse, showing he acted in self-defense. Wood begins soliciting donations through a non-profit and within a month collects nearly $2 million. Wood and another lawyer portray Rittenhouse as a patriot and tie him to the issue of gun rights.

Oct. 30, 2020 – Rittenhouse is extradited to Wisconsin.

Nov. 20, 2020 – John Pierce, then an attorney for Rittenhouse, posts $2 million cash bail. Rittenhouse is released.

Jan. 5, 2021 – Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley finds officer Rusten Sheskey acted in self-defense in shooting Blake, saying Blake was armed with a knife and had resisted arrest. That same day Rittenhouse pleads not guilty to all counts in a video appearance at Kenosha County Circuit Court.

Nov. 1, 2021 – Jury selection begins in the Rittenhouse trial.

Nov. 2, 2021 – Trial begins with opening statements.

Nov. 3, 2021 – Jurors see graphic videos showing the chaotic moments after Rittenhouse shot three protesters.

Nov. 4, 2021 – One juror is dismissed for telling a joke to a sheriff’s deputy outside the courtroom about the police shooting of Blake.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Kenosha, Wisconsin; Editing by Howard Goller and Lisa Shumaker)

Sarah Jessica Parker still has all of her ‘Sex and the City’ clothes and props.

The 56-year-old actress has reprised her role as writer Carrie Bradshaw in the upcoming HBO Max reboot, ‘And Just Like That…’, and she’s revealed she has held onto “every single solitary thing” used or won by her character in the hit series and two spin-off movies.

Speaking to the December 2021 issue of Vogue magazine – of which she is the cover star – she said: “I had all of the original stuff in my own storage. Furniture, clothes, everything, packed according to season and episode and scene.

“I kept every single solitary thing.”

The iconic tutu skirt Carrie wore in the ‘Sex and the City’ is set to go under the hammer this week.

The auction is in aid of Housing Works’ annual Fashion for Action fundraiser, and the show’s former costume designer Patricia Field has donated the sweet tulle-style skirt to benefit the non-profit working to support those living with HIV/AIDS and the homeless.

Bidding kicks off at Housing Works’ Manhattan HQ in New York on Wednesday (10.11.21).

Meanwhile, Patricia previously shared how Sarah Jessica “spoke the same language” as her when they worked on ‘Sex and the City’.

The 80-year-old costume designer found it much “more interesting” working alongside someone who is “innovative in her own way” on set.

Patricia said: “We kind of spoke the same language. She was innovative in her own way. I say, if I’m a good tennis player, I want to play with another good tennis player. It makes it more interesting.”

She also revealed that Sarah’s alter ego’s popular oversized studded belt was worn more than once because she’s obsessed with belts.

She said: “I love belts. I use them a lot.

“The main thing about a belt is it defines the waist and can be worn over a coat, dress or pant.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – White House economic adviser Brian Deese on Monday said he expects lawmakers to work through issues with Democrats’ social spending bill this week and vote on the measure in the U.S. House of Representatives next week.

“We’ll move this process forward,” Deese, director of the National Economic Council, told CNBC in an interview.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey)

Washington (AFP) – The United States reopens its land and air borders Monday to foreign visitors fully vaccinated against Covid-19, ending 20 months of restrictions on travel from around the globe that separated families, hobbled tourism and strained diplomatic ties.

The ban, imposed by former president Donald Trump in early 2020 and upheld by his successor Joe Biden, has been widely criticized and become emblematic of the upheavals caused by the pandemic. 

The restrictions were particularly unpopular in Europe and US neighbors Canada and Mexico.

In an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, US borders were closed after March 2020 to travelers from large parts of the world, including the European Union, Britain and China, India and Brazil. Overland visitors from Mexico and Canada were also banned.

The months of restrictions affecting hundreds of millions of people helped fuel both personal and economic suffering brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It’s been so hard,” Alison Henry, 63, told AFP. “I just want to see my son.”

The British woman plans to fly Monday to see her son in New York, after 20 months of separation.

Families on both sides of the Atlantic are eager to finally reunite with their loved ones. 

Although travel from the United States to Europe has been possible since the summer, foreign US residents holding certain visas have had no guarantee of being able to reenter the country.

To cope with surging demand, airlines have increased the number of transatlantic flights and plan to use larger planes, as they work their way out of the pandemic crisis.

Along the border with Mexico, many cities in the US states of Texas and California have faced economic struggles due to anti-Covid trade restrictions. 

Meanwhile, Canadian seniors will be able to resume their annual car trips to Florida to escape the bitter northern winters.

But the cost of the PCR tests Canada is requiring for cross-border travel — up to $250 a pop — can be prohibitive. 

Ann Patchett, an Ontario resident, told the Ottawa Citizen that it will cost $500 for her and her husband to go south to visit family.

“Do you want to hug your children? Do you want to tuck your grandchildren into bed?… It’s very frustrating,” she said.

New York congressman Brian Higgins, whose district touches the Canadian border and includes the US side of Niagara Falls, plans to hold a news conference Monday with mayors from both countries to urge Canada to drop its testing requirement.

Lifting the travel ban will affect more than 30 countries. But entry into the United States will not be totally unregulated: US authorities plan to closely monitor travelers’ vaccination status and will still require them to present negative Covid-19 tests.

The United States, from Monday, will require air passengers to be fully vaccinated and be tested within three days before travel. Airlines will be required to put in place a contact tracing system.

The land border opening will happen in two phases.

Starting Monday, vaccines will be required for “non-essential” trips — such as family visits or tourism — although unvaccinated travelers will still be allowed into the country for “essential” trips, as they have been for the last year and a half.

A second phase, beginning in early January, will require all visitors to be fully vaccinated to enter the United States by land, no matter the reason for their trip.

US health authorities have said all vaccines approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization would be accepted for entry by air.

At the moment, this includes the AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, Covaxin, Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines.

The United States has not yet commented on the increase in Covid-19 cases in Europe.

The WHO has expressed “grave concern” over the rising pace of infections in Europe, warning that the current trajectory could mean “another half a million Covid-19 deaths” by February.

But speaking for the United States, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Sunday on ABC that he’s “cautiously optimistic about where we are,” while adding: “We can’t take our foot off the accelerator until we’re at the finish line.”

But in Berlin, 51-year-old Elisabeth Zours is ready to hit the gas — or as Mick Jagger would say, the “gas, gas, gas.”

A lifelong Rolling Stones fan, Zours had to miss a St. Louis show by the rock supergroup in September due to Covid-19 restrictions and was “frustrated” by the slow US reopening.

Now she plans to make up for lost time. “I’ve got tickets for four (US) concerts,” she said.

“Their music,” Zours added, “is like a good friend.” 

Instagram post previews have made a return to Twitter.

The photo-sharing platform has brought back support for Twitter to preview a snippet of a post when shared on the rival social media site, nine years after it was removed.

Instagram controversially took the feature away when it was acquired by Facebook – which is now known as Meta – in 2012, but it has begun to return to some users this week, according to BBC News.

The feature shows a small preview of the Instagram post when it is shared on Twitter, and both platforms have confirmed the reinstated feature will be available to everyone soon.

A tweet on Twitter’s official support account read: “If you want to share your latest Instagram post on the Twitter timeline too, you’re in luck: now when you share a link to an IG post in a tweet, it’ll show up as a card with a preview of the photo (sic)”

Instagram sparked controversy with users when it removed support for Twitter cards in 2012, and said at the time it wanted to take back control of its content following its merger with social media site Facebook.

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom insisted at the time that the mandate came from himself, and not Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg.

He said Instagram was attempting to grow its web platform and shared hopes that the move would help increase traffic.

Washington (AFP) – President Joe Biden’s administration on Sunday issued a vocal defense of a controversial Covid-19 vaccine mandate for large companies despite a court challenge that temporarily freezes the program.

“The president and the administration wouldn’t have put these requirements in place if they didn’t think they were appropriate and necessary,” Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said on ABC talk show “This Week.”

“The administration is certainly prepared to defend them.”

And White House chief of staff Ron Klain, citing earlier court rulings that upheld state-level mandates, said he was “quite confident” that the mandate would ultimately be upheld. 

“It’s common sense,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The federal mandate, designed to push millions of workers at businesses with more than 100 employees into getting Covid-19 shots — or submit to weekly testing — is key to administration efforts to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control.

But on Saturday, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said several petitioners opposing the mandate had raised “grave statutory and constitutional issues.” It granted a temporary stay. 

Petitioners — including five conservative US states as well as several private employers and religious groups — have questioned the federal government’s authority to issue such a nationwide order.

Murthy, in defending it, cited a long history of such requirements — going back to George Washington requiring his troops to be inoculated against smallpox — and said that with the country still seeing 75,000 Covid cases a day, “it’s important to take every measure possible to make our workplaces safer.”

And with the new mandate not set to take effect until January, Klain expressed confidence courts would by then uphold it.

The traditionally conservative Fifth Circuit court, based in New Orleans, Louisiana, ordered the government to reply to petitioners’ motion for a permanent injunction by Monday evening.

Senior Biden advisor Cedric Richmond said he was “absolutely” convinced the new rule would survive judicial scrutiny.

“We’re very confident we’re on statutory and legal grounds,” he told CBS. “This is about keeping Americans safe.”

Should the suspension be upheld it would represent a major setback to one of Biden’s most far-reaching efforts to secure the immunization of American workers, amid predictions of a Covid-19 winter resurgence.

Around 58 percent of the total US population was fully vaccinated as of early November, up from half in August as state, local and company mandates were announced.

Los Angeles (AFP) – Marvel’s new superhero film  “Eternals” took in an estimated $71 million this weekend to top the North American box office, a strong pandemic-era opening if a bit below expectations, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said Sunday.

Written and directed by Chloe Zhao, fresh off her best-director Oscar win for “Nomadland,” the film faced some of the worst reviews of any Marvel film — the only one to draw a “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes — but has fared well overseas, taking in an impressive $91 million. 

Led by actors Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Richard Madden and Gemma Chan, “Eternals” tells the tale of an immortal race of aliens who emerge from several millennia in hiding to save the Earth from the evil Deviants.

With “Eternals” gobbling up the biggest chunk of box office pie for the Friday-through-Sunday period, previous leader “Dune” dropped to a very distant second place, at $7.6 million.

The Warner Bros. sci-fi thriller, based on the classic Frank Herbert opus, stars Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya and Oscar Isaac. It follows a family in the distant future fighting for survival on a desert planet plagued by monstrous sandworms.

United Artist’s James Bond film “No Time to Die” again placed third, at $6.2 million. The studio says it is Daniel Craig’s last time playing the suave spy. 

It will be offered on digital platforms starting Tuesday, a quick turnaround after its October 8 release.

Sony superhero film “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” moved up a place this weekend, to fourth spot, taking in $4.5 million. Its domestic total is now close to $200 million.

And in fifth was 20th Century’s computer-animated sci-fi comedy “Ron’s Gone Wrong,” at $3.6 million. Its voice cast includes Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Olivia Colman.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

“The French Dispatch” ($2.6 million)

“Halloween Kills” ($2.4 million)

“Spencer” ($2.1 million)

“Antlers” ($2 million)

“Last Night in Soho” ($1.8 million)

Tickets for the event cost up to $500, and attendees were promised the chance to get ‘up close and personal’ with the cadaver

Los Angeles (AFP) – The organizer of a pay-to-view autopsy in the United States defended the event Wednesday, after an outcry by the family of the dead man who did not know he would be dissected in front of a live audience.

Around 70 people forked over up to $500 each to watch in person an anatomist cut up the body of 98-year-old David Saunders in a hotel ballroom in Oregon last month.

Over the course of several hours, Saunders’ organs — including his brain — were removed by Dr. Colin Henderson, a retired professor of anatomy, in a procedure he said he had performed frequently during his teaching career, local broadcaster King 5 reported.

Video filmed by the channel shows audience members donning surgical gloves and appearing to touch the body.

“It was very educational,” the outlet quoted an attendee named Monica as saying. “It was very respectful to the person that donated their body.”

The event was organized by Death Science, which calls itself “an independent education platform that works with educators to teach beyond the classroom.”

Tickets for the double-header event said the morning would be “a forensic autopsy on a full human cadaver.”

That would be followed in the afternoon by “a formal anatomical dissection (which) will offer us a unique look at what is under our skin, through our bodies and how it all works together.”

“There will be several opportunities for attendees to get an up-close-and-personal look at the cadaver,” the ticketing page said. “Cadaver access before, after and during breaks.”

In a statement to AFP, Death Science founder Jeremy Ciliberto said the aim of the event “was to create an educational experience for individuals who have an interest in learning more about human anatomy.”

No laws broken

King 5 reported that family of the dead man had no idea his body would be cut up in front of a paying audience.

The news outlet cited the Louisiana funeral director who handled the corpse as saying the family thought it would be used for medical research when it was passed on to Med Ed Labs, a company that solicits corpse donation for “the advancement of medicine and science,” according to its website.

Bodies donated for medical science, typically to universities that train medical professionals, are cremated after use and the ashes are returned to next-of-kin. The process removes burial and other costs typically incurred with a funeral.

Ciliberto said his company was not privy to any agreement between the dead man’s family and Med Ed Labs, but that the company had confirmed to him “that the provided cadaver was donated for research, medical and educational purposes.”

Obteen Nassiri of Med Ed Labs told AFP his company had been unaware of the commercial audience for the autopsy-dissection, and would not have provided the cadaver if they had known.

“We were under the impression this donor would be used to train students interested in science, paramedics, medical examiners, coroners offices in anatomical dissections and the study of the human body,” he said.

Nassiri said he had spoken with the family. “We’re taking full responsibility and assuming full costs for the return of the body to the family for cremation.”

Ciliberto said while he had no further pay-per-view autopsies scheduled at this time, he would take “additional steps” in future collaborations.

“We understand that this event has caused undue stress for the family and we apologize for that,” he said.

A spokesman for police in Portland, where the event took place, said detectives had consulted with prosecutors and determined no laws had been broken.

Little Mix singer Jade Thirlwall has refused to perform in Russia due to the country’s laws which discriminate against the homosexual community.

The 28-year-old pop star – who is joined in the band by Perrie Edwards and Leigh-Anne Pinnock – wants to perform for her group’s fans in the country but she would not compromise her morals.

Passed in 2013, Russia’s “gay propaganda” law bans materials that would “[present] distorted ideas about the equal social value of traditional and non-traditional sexual relationships,” and has been condemned by the likes of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

During an appearance on the ‘Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware’ podcast, Jade was asked if she would play a concert in Russia, to which she replied: “I would initially say no. But then for instance we got a gig in Dubai one time, in my mind it either was I don’t go or I go and make a statement and give my fee to a charity.

“It’s case by case. I’ve got no intention of going to somewhere like Russia any time soon because I obviously don’t believe in what’s going on there.”

Despite her stance, Jade insists that places like Russia need the support of LGBTQ+ allies “more than anywhere else”.

She said: “Those places, more than anywhere else, need someone to turn up as an ally and fly that flag for them so they don’t feel so alone.

“I think as an Arab woman as well, it’s very important for me with my Middle East fans to show them that they can have someone to look up to and realise they’re not alone in it.”

Jade – who has Egyptian-Yemeni heritage from her mother Norma Badwi – went on to discuss her relationship with the LGBTQ+ community and said that being an ally was always a part of her life, but that it wasn’t until recently she understood what it truly meant and how to do it properly.

The root of it all was her love for drag culture in early childhood and family holidays to Benidorm where she and her family would go and watch drag shows.

She said: “But I suppose if I was to go right to the root of it, my first love was drag culture. I didn’t obviously understand what that was, I would just see these divas like Diana Ross and Cher and be obsessed with them.

“I’d always associate Benidorm with this magical land where everyone was accepted. But then we’d come back home and it would be like ‘oh we’re not into that.”

Jade says it’s still hard to be openly homosexual in the North of England as outdated prejudices still exist.

She said: “For a lot of people they are willing to listen but they just don’t understand it as it’s just passed through generations. So if your grandad is being brought up to be homophobic, of course their son will listen to that, unless they’re gay.

“That toxic masculinity will seep through each generation until somebody tries to change it.

“It was very much like that growing up, and from a young age I didn’t agree with it, but I didn’t know how to express that I didn’t agree with it.”

By Andrew Chung

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared skeptical that a Texas community college violated the free speech rights of a former member of its board of trustees by censuring him for “reprehensible” behavior during his stormy tenure.

The justices heard nearly 90 minutes of oral arguments in Houston Community College’s appeal of a lower court decision to revive a lawsuit by David Wilson that claimed that the school’s censure – a formal act of discipline – violated the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protection from government abridgement of free speech.

Questions posed by the justices indicated that they may be reluctant to limit the ability of publicly elected bodies to respond to a member’s speech or conduct with censure. Wilson was publicly elected to the school’s board of trustees.

Censure has been employed by democratic institutions throughout U.S. history. Members of the U.S. Congress have faced censure on occasion dating back two centuries, including in recent decades.

Wilson’s lawyer, Michael Kimberly, told the justices that censures like the one meted out by the college have a chilling effect on the speech of elected members, prompting skepticism from some of the justices.

Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts said siding with Wilson would cause “a chilling effect the other way.”

“A majority of a board wants to say something about what they regard as whatever reprehensible or offensive conduct – and yet their speech is going to be chilled if you prevail today,” Roberts told Kimberly.

Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer expressed concern about the Supreme Court attempting to “oversee” other branches of government.

Wilson served from 2013 to 2019 on the board at the college, a public institution in the largest city in Texas, with an enrollment of more than 50,000 students.

Some justices expressed discomfort with certain other punishments doled out to Wilson beyond the actual censure, including denying reimbursement for travel expenses.

Wilson is described in local media accounts as a longtime anti-LGBT activist. He previously mounted a petition to amend Houston’s city charter to bar men “who perceive or express themselves as women” from entering women’s restrooms, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Wilson said he ran for a board seat to expose college mismanagement. He criticized board decisions in the news media and through robocalls, hired a private investigator to uncover alleged corruption, claimed on his website that other board members had engaged in unethical or illegal conduct and sued the board twice for actions he opposed.

The board voted to censure him in 2018, finding that his conduct was “not only inappropriate, but reprehensible.” The discipline also revoked his privileges as a trustee to access certain funds for college-related travel and other activities.

Wilson sued to stop the censure’s enforcement, seeking monetary damages including for mental anguish.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2020 overturned a federal judge’s decision to throw out the case, allowing it to proceed. The 5th Circuit ruled that a “reprimand against an elected official for speech addressing a matter of public concern is an actionable First Amendment claim.”

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)

‘Eternals’ director Chloé Zhao says she has “kept tabs” on Harry Styles since ‘Dunkirk’.

Chloe admitted that Harry and Eros were very much a “package deal” and she only wanted to introduce the character to her movie if he was portrayed by Harry.

She told Deadline: “Harry as Eros was very much a package deal for me. I pitched the idea of Pip the Troll [voiced by Patton Oswald in Eternals] and Eros to Kevin [Feige, Marvel Studios President] a while back, and I love the idea of exploring an Eternal who is beyond Titan and who may have influenced Thanos throughout the years the same way Eternals influenced us, earthlings.

“And then, it wasn’t like I suggested Eros, and let’s go find actors. I kept tabs on Harry since Dunkirk, I thought he was very interesting. After meeting him I saw he is that character—the same way I cast the rest of my cast. There’s so much of Eros in him. For me, if he says yes, and Kevin says yes, then it’s a go. And I’m very happy they both did.”

Harry appears in a post-credits scene alongside Patton, in which their characters meet up with Thena (Angelina Jolie), Druig (Barry Keoghan), and Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), who are left confused and need assistance after Arishem the Judge (David Kaye) takes Sersi (Gemma Chan), Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), and Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry).

And Richard Madden, who plays Ikaris, admitted he is excited to see how their characters fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

He said: “It’s all still a mystery. I want to know more about that little goblin that popped up. Who is that guy?”

Idris Elba thinks ‘Luther’ can be on the level of a James Bond film.

The 49-year-old actor is set to reprise the role of DCI John Luther in a Netflix movie based on the hit BBC detective drama, and he thinks they can keep fans of the TV show happy while taking the story and characters “into a new sphere”.

He told Collider: “‘Luther’ – we have an incredible appetite to satisfy the audience that love Luther in its current form as a TV show, but also bring it into a new sphere with the film version.

“I don’t wanna be controversial, but people imagine me as Bond, and that’s great, but I can’t wait to see them, as Luther, in this movie. Really, our ambition is to take it there.”

Before the ‘Luther’ film, Elba features in Netflix’s new all-Black Western ‘The Harder They Fall’, and while he wasn’t surprised by the quality of the film, he was delighted with the timing and response to the release.

He said: “We expected this, you know? I can say this to [writer and director Jeymes Samuel] and all of us – we didn’t expect it to hit in the way it has. This film has been brewing for a long time, but the climate of where the world is, and the appetite for something like this, we could not have written.

“It’s Black History Month in the UK, and here you have a Western with Black characters that people don’t even know about and forgot about. It hit so hard here.

“We couldn’t have expected that but everything that he envisioned, from the first time when he’s telling you about a scene, takes his guitar and starts singing the score. We expected it to be what it is.”