WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives select committee probing the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol said on Thursday it would convene a business meeting on Tuesday to vote on adopting a contempt report against Steve Bannon, a longtime advisor to former President Donald Trump.

The committee said Bannon had declined to cooperate.

“The Select Committee will not tolerate defiance of our subpoenas, so we must move forward with proceedings to refer Mr. Bannon for criminal contempt,” the committee’s Democratic chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson, said in a statement.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Chris Reese)

Jamie Lee Curtis honoured her late mother, Janet Leigh, at the premiere of ‘Halloween Kills’.

The 62-year-old actress attended the costume party screening of her latest movie – in which she reprises her role as Laurie Strode – at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on Tuesday (12.10.21) and turned heads by dressing as her mom’s ‘Psycho’ character, Marion Crane.

As well as a dress and hair style that matched the character from the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic, Jamie accessorised her look with a blood-splattered shower curtain, paying homage to the movie’s famous stabbing scene.

Sharing a photo of her outfit on Instagram, the actress captioned her post: “Honoring my mother in ALL her gory…I meant glory!

“PREMIERE PARTY TIME! (sic)”

Jamie became known as a scream queen for her roles in other horror flicks ‘Prom Night’ and ‘Terror Train’ and praised the Venice Film Festival, where ‘Halloween Kills’ had its premiere, for giving a chance to horror movies.

She said: “I think the horror genre has been culled from the herd. When I was first coming up, we called them B-movies and they were dismissed as being not very good.

“But the Italian audience, the critics, their cinema community and the Venice Film Festival have always supported that genre.”

Jamie was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the festival but admits there is plenty that she still hopes to accomplish.

She said: “It does seem weird to me because I have so much I still want to do, fingers crossed – back off, Covid!

“I feel incredibly vibrant and excited about all the opportunities that have come to me and the opportunities I have manifested.”

Julianna Margulies has hinted she’s had “gay experiences”.

The 55-year-old actress – who married lawyer Keith Lieberthal in 2007 and previously dated Ron Eldard from 1991 to 2003 – was asked if she had any reservations portraying lesbian news reporter Laura Peterson on ‘The Morning Show’ but suggested there were “assumptions” behind the question.

She said: “Who’s to say I haven’t had my own gay experiences? We’re making assumptions.”

Julianna – who has 13-year-old son Kieran with her spouse – admitted she knew her casting could have sparked a backlash but she didn’t feel there should be.

Speaking on the ‘Just for Variety’ podcast, she said: “I know there was some trepidation of ‘will lesbian actresses be angry?’ and I can tell you I would never, ever be angry if a lesbian played a straight woman.”

The actress jumped at the chance to be a part of the programme because she knew the writers “get women”.

She said: “You’ve got Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon playing these two very strong characters, and in the second season instead of bringing a man in to upset that balance they brought in a woman. Hats off to that, because the truth is women are more afraid of women.

“They dress for women. We don’t dress for men. We dress for each other. We want to impress each other much more. … It made so much sense, and I thought, ‘Ah, a show that gets women. This is great.’”

And Julianna was delighted with the backstory showrunner Kerry Ehrin provided for Laura, including detailing how her career was derailed 20 years prior when she was outed.

She said: “It’s rare to get such a rich 20-year history of who this character was before you get to play her. That’s usually the homework I do on my own.”

Colin Kaepernick is hopeful of playing in the NFL again.

The 33-year-old civil rights activist and former San Francisco 49ers quarterback hasn’t played in the professional American football league since 2016 after speaking out against racial and social injustice, but he has been training hard in the hope a team will sign him up at some point.

When asked if he is ready to return to the NFL, Colin – who became the first player to take the knee during the national anthem – said: “Absolutely.

“I am still up at 5am training five, six days a week making sure I’m prepared to take a team to a Super Bowl again.

“That’s not something I will ever let go of, regardless of the actions of 32 teams and their partners to deny me employment.

“The same way I was persistent in high school is the same way I’m gonna be persistent here.”

Colin is putting in the hours of training to ensure he will be ready if a football team come calling.

He added to Ebony magazine: “And you’re gonna have to continue to deny me and do so in a public way. And you’re gonna expose yourself by that, but it won’t be because I’m not ready or not prepared.

“But in that process, I’m also not gonna let you bury my future.

“I’m gonna continue to do work on the acting and producing side, continue to do the work with Know Your Rights, and make sure we are having an impact.

“I think that’s the beauty of us collectively – we are not one-dimensional.”

Colin has since been working with his non-profit group, Know Your Rights Camp, in his fight against racial and social injustice.

In June last year, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey donated $3 million to the campaign.

He wrote on Twitter: “More #startsmall grants. $3mm to Colin @Kaepernick7’s @yourrightscamp to advance the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization to elevate the next generation of change leaders. (sic)”

James Gunn and Charlie Kaufman wanted to reboot ‘Gilligan’s Island’ as a dark, cannibalistic movie.

The ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ filmmaker has revealed he tried to bring back the classic 1960s sitcom – which featured a group of people stranded on a deserted island – in a more sinister way based on a script ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ writer Kaufman penned in the late 1990s.

Taking part in a Twitter trend urging people to “pitch a movie in two pictures, no caption”, he shared snaps of the ‘Gilligan’s Island’ crew alongside an image showing cannibalism.

He added underneath the post: “A true story: In the late 90’s screenwriting GOAT Charlie Kaufman pitched a movie version of Gilligan’s Island where the islanders, starving & desperate, started killing & eating each other.

“Warner Bros wanted to do it – but Sherwood Schwartz, the creator, said no way. (sic)”

He then tried to bring back the idea after the first ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movie in 2014, but again the pitch was met with some resistance after Schwartz’s death in three years earlier.

Gunn continued: “After Guardians I tried to resurrect the idea & wanted to direct.

“It seemed Warners & Charlie were interested but, this time, the estate of the late Sherwood Schwartz nixed it.

“Anyway, if the Schwartz estate changes their mind, I’m here.”

Meanwhile, Gunn – who was at the helm of ‘The Suicide Squad’ for DC this year and will release a third ‘Guardians’ film for Marvel in 2023 – recently teased another top secret DC Extended Universe project.

When an Instagram user asked James on his recent post if he’s “developing a new DCEU project”, he responded: “Yes.”

However, the director insisted there will be no reveal at DC FanDome this week, as it’s early days yet.

Another suggested it could be a “Deadshot vs Bloodsport” flick, but James replied: “It’s something else but not it won’t be revealed at Fandome. It’s not ready yet. (sic)”

Lil Nas X has hailed Doja Cat as his “biggest inspiration”.

The 22-year-old star has taken to Twitter to heap praise on the ‘Juicy’ hitmaker, admitting that he’s been inspired by her career success and also described Doja as “hot”.

Nas – who recently released his long-awaited debut album, ‘Montero’ – wrote on the micro-blogging platform: “doja cat has become my biggest inspiration. she puts so much effort into everything she does. and she’s hot. (sic)”

Doja, 25, made a guest appearance on Nas’ new album.

And Nas previously admitted that he loved working with the chart-topping star.

He shared: “She’s a fun person, she takes things seriously but doesn’t take things seriously – you know what I mean?

“She takes what she does seriously like you can tell she puts a lot of effort into everything she does.”

Asked what he particularly likes about Doja, Nas added: “Her music, her videos, her personality is very colourful.”

Meanwhile, Doja previously confessed that she’s become more restrained on social media since finding fame.

The rapper was hugely enthusiastic about social media before she released her debut album ‘Amala’ in 2018, but Doja admits she’s become more cautious with her posts over recent years.

She explained: “I used to be on Periscope a lot. I’d be live for 10 or 12 hours at a time. I’d be making beats, and they weren’t any good, but it was fun.

“I would just be yelling at and roasting people, and they would be like, ‘Damn, why are you so mad?’ But then some people would think it was funny and go along with it. That was me back then, and I love going in on people, but I stopped because with a big platform, you don’t want to hurt anybody.

“You have power and you’re looked at a certain way, and if you go in on people and s***, it doesn’t help you or them, and they can tear you down more than you can tear them down.”

By Tim Reid

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A group of anti-Trump Republicans on Thursday will endorse a slate of Democratic lawmakers facing tough races in next year’s midterm elections, in a bid to stop the Republican Party from retaking control of Congress.

The officials, dismayed that most elected Republicans now embrace former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, told Reuters they are also backing vulnerable Republicans, including Representative Liz Cheney, who have rejected Trump’s voter fraud allegations.

The Renew America Movement (RAM), formed by centrist Republicans after a mob of Trump supporters stormed Congress on Jan. 6 to try to stop lawmakers from certifying Democratic President Joe Biden’s election victory, concedes that Trump and his conspiracy theories now have an iron grip on the party.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll from August, 30% of U.S. adults agreed that the “2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.” That included 61% of Republicans, 19% of independents and 10% of Democrats.

Trump, for his part, has endorsed several candidates mounting primary challenges to Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach him on a charge of inciting insurrection in a fiery speech ahead of the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.

He has also backed a challenger to Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, one of seven in her party who voted to convict Trump on the charge. He was ultimately acquitted by the Senate.

RAM, whose leadership includes former Republican Governors Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey and Bill Weld of Massachusetts, said supporting moderate candidates is vital to safeguarding American democracy.

“With the mounting threats to our democracy and Constitution, we need people who work proactively to lead their party and the country away from the political extremes,” Joel Searby, the group’s national political director, told Reuters.

RAM will endorse and in many cases campaign for 11 moderate Democrats, nine moderate Republicans and one independent running for the House of Representatives and Senate in the November 2022 elections, the officials said.

Democrats have a narrow majority in the House, while the Senate is tied 50-50. Party insiders are increasingly nervous about losing both chambers next year, which would derail Biden’s agenda.

The lawmakers to be backed by RAM include Representative Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, and Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, all Democrats locked in close contests.

The group is also supporting Republican House members such as Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger from Illinois, who are among a handful of elected Republicans to denounce Trump and his baseless voter fraud claims. Trump’s allegations were rejected by dozens of courts, state election officials and members of his own administration.

(Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Peter Cooney)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The commission formed by President Joe Biden to study potential U.S. Supreme Court changes such as expanding the number of justices or imposing term limits on them is set to release preliminary public material on Thursday.

The White House has described the information as “draft preliminary discussion material” that it has not edited. The material is expected to be released at about 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on the White House website.

Biden signed an executive order in April creating the 36-member bipartisan commission, which held its first meeting the following month. The commission is looking at the issue of expanding beyond the current nine justices or creating a fixed term for justices instead of lifetime appointments.

The Supreme Court currently has a 6-3 conservative majority after Biden’s Republican predecessor Donald Trump made three appointments during four years in office.

Trump in 2017 was able to fill a vacancy opened up when his predecessor Barack Obama was in office because Senate Republicans in 2016 blocked consideration of Obama’s nominee to the post, current Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Opinion polls indicate that Americans’ confidence in the court is on the decline, and some experts have said its legitimacy is under threat. The Supreme Court during its current term is considering major cases in which its conservative majority could restrict abortion rights and widen gun rights, alarming many Democrats and political independents.

Republicans have opposed the idea of expanding the number of justices, which they call “court packing.” Democrats have said the current makeup of the court no longer represents the will of the U.S. electorate.

The last time court expansion was seriously pursued was in the 1930s by Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt after a conservative court impeded his policies aimed at lifting America out of the Great Depression.

Biden first proposed formation of a commission during his presidential campaign last year, when he said he wanted “recommendations as to how to reform the court system because it is getting out of whack – the way in which it’s being handled – and it’s not about court-packing.” Biden proposed the idea at a time when Senate Republicans were rushing to confirm the last of Trump’s three appointees, Amy Coney Barrett, in the run-up to last year’s election.

A group of liberal Democratic lawmakers in April proposed expanding the Supreme Court by four justices, aiming to end its conservative majority, but the plan drew an unenthusiastic response from the White House and top Democrats and was denounced by Republicans.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Will Dunham and Heather Timmons)

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The U.N. General Assembly on Thursday elected the United States to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, more than three years after the Trump administration quit the 47-member body over what it called chronic bias against Israel and a lack of reform.

The United States, which was unopposed, received 168 votes in the secret ballot by the 193-member General Assembly. It begins a three-year term on Jan. 1 – pitting Washington against Beijing and Moscow, who began council terms this year.

U.S. President Joe Biden took office in January pledging that human rights would be the center of his foreign policy and his administration has not shied away from criticizing China over Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan and calling out Russia.

But a Reuters review of the Biden administration’s record so far showed concerns over human rights in other countries had several times been pushed aside in favor of national security priorities and engagement with foreign powers.

“The U.S. will have an opportunity to demonstrate just how serious the Biden administration is about making human rights central to its domestic and foreign policies,” said Human Rights Watch U.N. Director Louis Charbonneau. “With a lot of missteps so far, they should use their time on the council to promote human rights among friends and foes alike.”

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Washington would initially focus on “what we can accomplish in situations of dire need, such as in Afghanistan, Burma, China, Ethiopia, Syria, and Yemen.”

“Our goals are clear: stand with human rights defenders and speak out against violations and abuses of human rights,” she said in a statement, adding that the United States would also “oppose the council’s disproportionate attention on Israel.”

U.S. Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, blasted the decision by Biden, a Democrat, to rejoin what he called a “flawed body,” citing the body’s focus on Israel.

“The United States should not be lending its legitimacy to a body that includes perpetrators of human rights abuses like China, Venezuela, and Cuba,” he said in a statement.

Human Rights Council candidates are elected in geographical groups to ensure even representation. There were no competitive races on Thursday to elect 13 new members and re-elect five members. Members cannot serve more than two consecutive terms.

The General Assembly also elected Kazakhstan, Gambia, Benin, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Paraguay, Honduras, Luxembourg, Finland, Montenegro and Lithuania and re-elected Cameroon, Eritrea, Somalia, India and Argentina on Thursday.

The United States received the second lowest number of votes, beating out only Eritrea, which received 144 votes.

(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle;Editing by Alistair Bell)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Vaccination rates rose by 20 percentage points after private businesses, healthcare systems, social institutions, state and local governments adopted COVID-19 vaccine requirements, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said on Wednesday.

Zients told reporters at a press briefing that 77% of eligible Americans have received at least one shot of the vaccine.

U.S. Centers Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr Rachel Walensky said at the same briefing that the seven-day average of daily COVID-19 cases fell 12% from last week and that the seven-day average of daily deaths was down 5%.

(The story has been refiled to say “one shot”, not “on shot”, in 2nd paragraph)

(Reporting by Christopher Gallagher, Jeff Mason, and Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

The David Bowie Estate has announced two pop-up experiences to celebrate his 75th birthday.

The late icon – who sadly died aged 69 in 2016 after a cancer battle – is being celebrated ahead of what would have been his milestone birthday on January 8, 2022.

As part of the Bowie 75 event, two “curated experiential pop-up shops” are being launched in London and New York City.

The 14 Heddon Street site is the London location where the cover of ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’ was shot, while 150 Wooster Street is steps away from the star’s longtime downtown NYC neighbourhood where he recorded his final album ‘Blackstar’.

Both locations – which will be open from October 25 until late January – will feature immersive audio and HD video screening rooms, giving fans a chance to experience Bowie’s music in a new way.

There will also be “hours of video content” including previously unseen behind-the-scenes footage, as well as rare material from the ‘Heathen’ and ‘Reality’ eras.

Fans will also have the chance to buy exclusive merchandise and limited edited records.

Both sites will house “fine art photography” and gallery installations documenting his iconic career and ever-changing style.

There will be an opportunity for fans to also take photos in iconic costumes and set pieces, with plenty more planned over the coming months.

Laura Thursfield, Customer Partnership Manager at The Crown Estate, said: “We want our spaces to be engaging and exciting, bringing new concepts and brands which complement the destination and give people new reasons to come to London’s West End.

“This pop up is not only an opportunity to build on Heddon Street’s history, as the location of the album cover shoot for ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’, but a really interactive, creative approach to retail.”

For store hours, events calendars and other announcements and information, sign up and stay tuned to www.bowie75.com.

By Elizabeth Culliford

(Reuters) – Facebook will now count activists and journalists as “involuntary” public figures and so increase protections against harassment and bullying targeted at these groups, its global safety chief said in an interview this week.

The social media company, which allows more critical commentary of public figures than of private individuals, says it is changing its approach on the harassment of journalists and “human rights defenders”, who it says are in the public eye due to their work rather than their public personas.

Facebook is under wide-ranging scrutiny from global lawmakers and regulators over its content moderation practices and harms linked to its platforms, with internal documents leaked by a forming the basis for a U.S. Senate hearing last week.

How Facebook, which has about 2.8 billion monthly active users, treats public figures and content posted by or about those figures has been an area of intense debate. In recent weeks, the company’s “cross check” system, which the Wall Street Journal reported has the effect of exempting some high-profile users from usual Facebook rules, has been in the spotlight.

Facebook also differentiates between public figures and private individuals in the protections it affords around online discussion: for instance, users are generally allowed to call for the death of a celebrity in discussions on the platform.

The company declined to share a list of other involuntary public figures but said they are assessed on a case-by-case basis. Earlier this year, Facebook said it would remove content celebrating, praising or mocking George Floyd’s death, because he was deemed an involuntary public figure.

Facebook’s Global Head of Safety Antigone Davis said the company was also expanding the types of attacks that it would not allow on public figures on its sites, as part of an effort to reduce attacks disproportionately faced by women, people of color and the LGBTQ community.

Facebook will no longer allow severe and unwanted sexualizing content, derogatory sexualized photoshopped images or drawings or direct negative attacks on a person’s appearance, for example, in comments on a public figure’s profile.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford in Birmingham, England; additional reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas; editing by Richard Pullin)

Jesy Nelson is “open” to dating a woman.

The ‘Boyz’ singer – who has previously dated Chris Hughes, Sean Sagar, and Harry James – would rather date a “masculine” female than a “girly girl” but thinks her options are limited.

Speaking on an Instagram Live with Nicki Minaj, the ‘Super Bass’ hitmaker asked her if she’d consider dating a woman and Jesy replied: “With the way my love life’s going I’d be open to it, to be honest.

“My sister is gay and I’d say my sister’s the more masculine one in the group and her wife is the more feminine one…if I was dating a girl I wouldn’t want a girly girl, I’d want more masculine, there aren’t many masculine girls that I can say…”

And the former Little Mix star thinks Nicki – who has a 12-month-old son with husband Kenneth Petty – is “so sexy” and was blown away by her “sex appeal” when they shot the video for ‘Boyz’.

She gushed: ““You’re sexy, even when I was on set with you I was like ‘Jesus Christ this woman is so sexy.’ You ooze sex appeal.”

When she dates a guy, Jesy, 30, likes to find a man who is “big” because they make her feel “cute and small”.

She said: “When’s someone big I feel looked after and I am a curvy girl so when the man is bigger it makes me feel cute and small.”

The IG Live session also saw Nicki launch an attack Leigh-Anne Pinnock, branding her a “jealous clown” following reports the singer had slammed Jesy in leaked text messages, criticising her former bandmate for allegedly “blackfishing” and darkening her skin with fake tan for the ‘Boyz’ video.

By Rajesh Kumar Singh and Sanjana Shivdas

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Rebuffing the Texas governor, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines said on Tuesday they would comply with U.S. President Joe Biden’s executive order to require that their employees be vaccinated for COVID-19 by a Dec. 8 deadline.

The two Texas-based carriers said the federal mandate superseded an order by Republican Governor Greg Abbott barring https://www.reuters.com/world/us/texas-governor-bars-all-vaccine-mandates-state-2021-10-11 COVID-19 vaccine mandates by any entity, including private employers.

Southwest said it “would be expected to comply with the President’s Order to remain compliant as a federal contractor.” American said while it was reviewing Abbott’s executive order, “this does not change anything” for the company.

Both carriers have asked U.S.-based employees to submit proof of vaccination by Nov. 24.

Biden issued his mandate last month as his administration struggled to control the pandemic, which has killed more than 700,000 Americans. It covers all federal contractors.

While supporters of vaccine mandates see them as necessary to pull the country out of the nearly two-year-old pandemic, critics are calling them unconstitutional and authoritarian.

Six employees of United Airlines, which became the first U.S. carrier in August to require vaccinations for all domestic employees, have filed a class action in federal court in Texas claiming that workers who sought exemptions from the vaccine mandate were subjected to intrusive inquiries about their medical conditions or religious beliefs, including a requirement that they obtain letters from pastors.

The court, which is due to hear the case on Wednesday, issued an order on Tuesday restraining the airline until Oct. 26 from placing on unpaid leave any employee who receives religious or medical exemptions from the company for COVID-19 vaccinations.

The court also temporarily restrained United from denying any late requests for religious or medical accommodations.

In his executive order, Abbott said the Biden administration was “bullying” many private entities into imposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates, causing workforce disruptions.

In its response, the White House said on Tuesday that Abbott’s order was out of step with businesses in the state. Press secretary Jen Psaki said the governor’s decision was motivated by politics, not science.

(Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh in Chicago and Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Howard Goller and Sandra Maler)

Tan France says he received DMs “filled with such venom” after sharing an ad about formula feeding.

The ‘Queer Eye’ star and his husband Rob welcomed their first child, Ismail, into the world on July 10 via a surrogate, and the new father has revealed he was shamed for choosing formula to feed the newborn as opposed to breast milk.

The ad posted on Instagram read: “It’s National Breastfeeding Awareness Month, where one type of feeding is put on a social pedestal and those who can not or chose not to are made to feel second best for formula feeding.

“No one should ever feel guilty for feeding their baby formula. ‘How is feeding going?’ as opposed to ‘How is Breast Feeding going.’ A fed baby is what matters most.”

Tan insisted he and his spouse would much prefer their son to be breastfed but it just wasn’t an option for them.

Speaking on Parents’ ‘We Are Family’ podcast, he said: “Our surrogate wasn’t able to pump for us, and we didn’t want to use donor milk. We did a lot of research into donor milk, and for us, it just wasn’t right for us.

“I want to make it clear to everyone listening: I 100 per cent believe that breastmilk is the gold standard, so does [Rob]. We all understand that. If I could breastfeed my child, 100 per cent I would. I can’t. Therefore, I need to not be shamed for that.”

The 38-year-old star says shaming parents for how they choose to feed their child needs to stop.

He continued: “Of course they should be given every support they need. We also need to not shame the people who cannot breastfeed their child or give their child breastmilk and have to formula feed, or just choose to formula feed.”

And while he received plenty of nasty comments, Tan’s DMs were also filled with “positivity between moms” and “beautiful support”.

He added: “There was absolutely a lot of hate. It didn’t bother me, because there was also so much love between women, between moms on these comments … One of them would say, ‘I felt such guilt. I struggled with this for so many years.’ And other women would comment such beautiful support.

“There are thousands of comments on that post. If ever you just wanna feel like there’s some good in the world and that there is some positivity between moms, please just look through those DMs. It’s actually quite beautiful.”

After weeks of hype, headlines and memes, the South Korean show “Squid Game” is now officially the most successful show Netflix has ever launched.

“‘Squid Game’ has officially reached 111 million fans — making it our biggest series launch ever,” the streaming platform said on Twitter on Wednesday.

The brutal show, about several hundred people competing in a gameshow-like fight to the death for a pile of cash, managed to break this record in just 27 days since its premiere on September 17.

The previous record holder was the British drama “Bridgerton”, which was streamed by 82 million viewers in the 28 days after its launch in December 2020.

If you aren’t one of the 111 million to have watched: The show centres on around 500 people from a wide variety of backgrounds – all of them apparently in debt and all competing against each other in what appear to be harmless children’s games to win millions in prize money. But soon it turns out that the losers won’t make it out alive.

So how is it that a show about a violent rat race where people are murdered every few minutes now trumps Netflix’s cheerful period romance?

In its home country, “Squid Game” struck a chord primarily because of its overt social criticism.

“One reason why Netflix’s record-breaking hit drama resonated with so many people is that it is also a social commentary on real-life incidents in Korea,” writes the daily Korea Herald.

Growing inequality, discrimination against social minorities and extreme pressure to perform: almost all major social problems are addressed in “Squid Game.”

In an interview, director Hwang Dong Hyuk said he wanted to portray the “survival game as a metaphor, a parable for modern capitalist society.”

It’s no coincidence that this year’s most successful show comes from South Korea, of all places. Since the end of the 1990s, the government in Seoul has been specifically promoting cultural exports as an economic growth industry. Most recently, the country has produced major international successes, above all with the boy band BTS.

Internationally, the series has attracted a huge audience, not only in the West, but also in China. On the online platform Weibo, a microblogging service comparable to Twitter, more than 2 billion users have clicked on the hashtag for “Squid Game,” according to media reports.

This is despite the show not being officially available on China’s strictly regulated internet.

This betrays the levels of content piracy with “Squid Game” in China, something that has turned into something of a diplomatic dispute between Beijing and Seoul.

Jang Ha Sung, South Korea’s ambassador in Beijing, has demanded that the Chinese authorities intervene against file-sharing sites that illegally distribute the series, according to Korean broadcaster KBS.

Globally, the Netflix series has also led to a significant increase in interest in learning Korean. In early October, the company “Duolingo,” which offers online language courses, announced that since the series launch of “Squid Game” in September, it had registered 40 per cent more users for Korean language courses in the United States than in the same period last year.

However, the show is also making waves in schools, and students at a school in Erquelinnes, Belgium, reportedly acted out their own version of the series, with the losers getting downright beaten up. The school administration eventually had to turn to the students’ parents on Facebook.