BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Thousands of people joined an LGBTQ pride march in Bucharest on Saturday for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, ahead of planned legislation that would chip away at minority rights.

Socially conservative Romania, which decriminalised homosexuality in 2001, still bars marriage and civil partnerships for same-sex couples.

Lawmakers from two different parties – the junior ruling coalition ethnic Hungarian party UDMR and the opposition ultra-nationalist Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR) – said they plan to introduce legislation to ban so-called gay propaganda in schools when parliament reconvenes in September.

An estimated 8,000 people joined the march on Saturday, dancing and waving rainbow flags. Riot police fined the organisers for exceeding the number of participants allowed at civic protests. The organisers will challenge the fine.

“We have a long way to go as a country until we come to accept everyone,” said Daria, 16, at her second pride parade.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by David Holmes)

Los Angeles (AFP) – Olympic athlete, transgender reality TV star and now wannabe politician; Caitlyn Jenner kicked off her campaign to become California’s next governor on Thursday.

It was a low-key and scrappy launch for the Republican, who is among a crowded field looking to unseat incumbent Democrat Gavin Newsom.

Jenner, a wealthy socialite and step-parent to Kim Kardashian, chose the Venice area of Los Angeles, where the tarp-covered tents of hundreds of homeless people line the streets, and drug deals take place in plain sight.

“Today, we’re here about this homeless issue,” she told an assortment of journalists in the garden of an apartment building.

“We have to solve this issue because it’s a very, very complicated issue….And it’s not going to be easy.”

The solution, Jenner suggested, was not just to “throw money at it.”

“We need boots on the ground,” she said.

It was a phrase she repeated several times during the 30-minute stand-up, but not one that got fleshed out.

During an earlier walkabout, wearing skinny jeans and a white polo shirt, she was variously cheered, harangued and gawked at by bemused passers-by.

“I didn’t even know she was running for governor,” one twenty-something skater told reporters. Another man muttered darkly about there being a “dead body” a few streets away.

Recall

The 1976 Montreal Olympics gold medallist — as Bruce Jenner the decathlete — is trailing opponents in the September 14 vote, triggered after Newsom’s opponents collected enough signatures to try to recall him.

Newsom, a suave and well-manicured former mayor of San Francisco, has governed California since 2019, mostly riding high in the polls.

But his initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic — where some derided him as too quick to lock down, and others said he was too slow to reverse those lockdowns — finally gave opponents their in.

Voters will be asked two questions next month: should Newsom be ejected, and who should replace him. The second question is only relevant if the first one passes.

But in that case, whichever candidate garners the most votes — however small their percentage of the total — wins.

While there have been dozens of attempts in the past, the only successful recall in California’s gubernatorial history brought cigar-chomping action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger to power.

Team Newsom is campaigning solely on the first question, urging a “no” vote, and no big-name Democrats have put themselves forward for the second. (Newsom himself cannot be a candidate.)

Jenner is one of a large handful of Republicans, and Republican-leaning, contenders, in a field led by conservative talkshow host Larry Elder.

But despite her national profile, spanning cereal boxes in the 1970s to a role in “Keeping up with the Kardashians”, she has so far failed to sparkle, and began her campaign Thursday only after returning from a trip to Australia, where she said she had been fulfilling television commitments.

Jenner deflected questions over whether her dalliance with politics was related to a reality TV show or a book deal, insisting she was motivated by a desire to fix the state she has lived in for 48 years.

“If you don’t like what’s going on, not only in this state, but around the nation: stand up. 

“We have to break the cycle of what I call that political club that runs our state, runs our nation.”

Trash

On the streets of Venice, where flies swarmed around piles of trash, the media pack meandered with Jenner on a tour that appeared to have no real destination.

It didn’t stop at the tent of 53-year-old Albert Martinez, who said he has lived rough in the town for more than 20 years.

He worries not about the recall, but about keeping his diabetes medicine cool enough in the hot sun, and whether he will be able to find a bathroom.

Not that she asked him as he sat in an old office chair outside his tent, but Jenner’s candidacy is irrelevant to Martinez.

“We’re worried they are going to throw us out,” he said.

Nor did she ask Colin McCabe, a 64-year-old Scot who has been in California since 1978 but became homeless a few years ago.

“If you’re interested in solving problems, you should be over there (asking the police) if they have a court order” for moving on the homeless, he said, gesturing to an area he said had recently been cleared.

But Jenner had already moved on.

Washington (AFP) – Thousands of American soldiers being sent to Afghanistan to evacuate embassy staff from Kabul as the Taliban push towards the city has revived painful US memories of the fall of Saigon.

A photo that immortalized America’s defeat in Vietnam, showing evacuees boarding a helicopter on the roof of a building, spread fast on social networks after the United States announced the emergency deployment on Thursday.

“The latest news of a further drawdown at our Embassy and a hasty deployment of military forces seem like preparations for the fall of Kabul,” leading Republican lawmaker Mitch McConnell said.

“President (Joe) Biden’s decisions have us hurtling toward an even worse sequel to the humiliating fall of Saigon in 1975.”

Back in June, as the Taliban advance built momentum, Biden himself addressed the Saigon parallels — and dismissed them out of hand.

“There’s going to be no circumstance where you’ll see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan,” he said.

The same month — since when the Taliban’s lightning offensive has surprised many US military officials — the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff General Mark Milley also rejected comparisons to the desperate exit from Saigon.

“I do not see that unfolding,” Milley said. “I may be wrong, who knows, you can’t predict the future, but I don’t see Saigon 1975 in Afghanistan. The Taliban just aren’t the North Vietnamese Army. It’s not that kind of situation.”

‘Not walking away’

To carry out the evacuation of American staff from its embassy in Kabul, 3,000 US troops will secure the airport, 1,000 will be sent to Qatar for technical and logistical support, while 3,500 to 4,000 will be positioned in Kuwait to deploy if needed.

On Thursday, US officials scrambled to answer questions about the mission, with Pentagon spokesman John Kirby declining to describe it as a NOE (Noncombatant Evacuation Operation).

He indicated it had no name, and avoided talking about evacuations.

The most famous “NOE” mission was Operation Frequent Wind, during which more than 7,000 Vietnamese civilians were evacuated from Saigon on April 29 and 30, 1975 by helicopter.

Asked about the image of American diplomats departing under military protection and the inevitable comparisons with the fall of Saigon, Kirby tried to underline the differences.

“We are not completely eliminating our diplomatic presence on the ground,” he said.

“Nobody is abandoning Afghanistan, it’s not walking away from it. It’s doing the right thing at the right time to protect our people.”

The Taliban on Friday claimed they had captured Afghanistan’s second city Kandahar, capping an eight-day blitz that has left only the capital and pockets of other territory in government hands.

By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Jamie Spears has agreed to step down from his 13-year role as conservator of his daughter Britney’s estate, in what the pop star’s attorney on Thursday called a major victory.

“We are pleased that Mr Spears and his lawyer have today conceded in a filing that he must be removed,” the singer’s lawyer Mathew Rosengart said in a statement.

Spears, who has controlled much of his daughter’s affairs since she suffered a mental health breakdown in 2008, agreed to step aside in court documents filed on Thursday.

The “Toxic” pop star has been seeking for months to remove her father from any say in her life. A court hearing to discuss the matter had been set for late September in Los Angeles.

Rosengart called the decision by Jamie Spears “a major victory for Britney Spears and another step toward justice.”

Thursday’s court document did not say when Jamie Spears would step down from his role in handling his daughter’s $60 million estate and said that he felt there were no grounds for immediately removing or suspending him.

But it added: “Even as Mr Spears is the unremitting target of unjustified attacks, he does not believe that a public battle with his daughter over his continuing service as her conservator would be in her best interests.”

“Mr Spears intends to work with the court and his daughter’s new attorney to prepare for an orderly transition to a new conservator,” the court filing added.

Britney Spears, 39, remains under the care of professional Jodi Montgomery, who mangers her medical and personal affairs. The nature of the singer’s mental health issues have never been publicly revealed.

Spears spoke out emotionally in June and July against the court-appointed conservatorship, calling it humiliating and abusive and accusing her father of ruining her life. Spears has not performed since 2018 and has said she will not return to the stage while her father retains control over her career.

The singer, who posts frequently on social media, made no immediate reference on Thursday to her father’s decision to step aside.

Thursday’s court document said Jamie Spears has always had his daughter’s best interests at heart and has not coerced her to do anything.

“By her own admission, Ms Spears is strong and stands up for what she wants. Mr Spears has tried to do everything in his power to accommodate Ms Spears’ wishes, whether regarding her personal life, family, or career, while fulfilling his duties and obligations as conservator (and) protecting her from others seeking to take advantage of her,” the document said.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant;Editing by Dan Grebler and Stephen Coates)

By Manas Mishra and Michael Erman

(Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized a third dose of COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer Inc-BioNTech and Moderna Inc for people with compromised immune systems.

The amended https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-additional-vaccine-dose-certain-immunocompromised emergency use authorization on Thursday paves the way for people who have had an organ transplant, or those with a similar level of weakened immune system, to get an extra dose of the same shot they have initially received. Mixing of mRNA vaccines is permitted for the third shot if their original vaccine is not available.

Patients will not need a prescription or the sign off of a health care provider in order to prove they are immunocompromised and receive the additional dose, according to an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) speaking before a panel of advisers that will vote on the extra doses later on Friday. Patients can attest to their status themselves.

“After a thorough review of the available data, the FDA determined that this small, vulnerable group may benefit from a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines,” Janet Woodcock, U.S. FDA’s acting commissioner, said in a tweet https://twitter.com/DrWoodcockFDA/status/1426019820445868033 on Thursday.

“Others who are fully vaccinated are adequately protected & do not need an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine at this time.”

The vulnerable group makes up less than 3% of U.S. adults, Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, had said before the authorization.

The FDA’s decision does not apply to people who received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the CDC said, because there is not enough data to support additional doses yet.

“We think that at least this is a solution for the very large majority of immunocompromised individuals, and we believe that we’ll probably have a solution for the remainder in the not-too-distant future,” FDA official Peter Marks told the CDC panel.

The FDA and the CDC are working to ensure that immunocompromised recipients of the J&J vaccine have optimal protection, the CDC said.

Supporting the move to approve an additional shot, Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said it would be important for the CDC to provide clear recommendations about who should receive it.

“Most clinicians are not going to know what an equivalent level of compromise is for solid organ transplant patients,” Offit said. “Hopefully the CDC will be more specific about that.”

BOOSTERS FOR YOUNG, HEALTHY

Scientists are still divided over the broad use of COVID-19 vaccine boosters among those without underlying problems as benefits of the boosters remain undetermined.

Pfizer has previously said the efficacy of the vaccine it developed with partner BioNTech drops over time, citing a study that showed 84% effectiveness from a peak of 96% four months after a second dose.

Moderna has also said it sees the eventual need for booster doses, especially since the Delta variant has caused “breakthrough” infections in fully vaccinated people.

Reports of infections among vaccinated people and concerns about diminishing protection have galvanized wealthy nations to distribute booster shots, even as many countries struggle to access first vaccine doses.

The World Health Organization last week called for a moratorium on COVID-19 vaccine booster shots until at least the end of September.

Still, Americans have already started getting additional shots, even before the FDA has authorized them. According to the CDC, more than 1.2 million people have already received one or more additional doses of a COVID-19 vaccine already.

Wall Street analysts expect the authorization of a booster dose for a broad population to bolster profits of COVID-19 vaccine makers.

Shares of Pfizer, Moderna and U.S.-listed shares of BioNTech rose between 1% and 2% in early trading.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Shinjini Ganguli and Aurora Ellis)

Dolly Parton is releasing her first novel.

The ‘9 to 5’ singer has teamed up with author James Patterson on ‘Run Rose Run’ and the book – which will be released on 7 March 2022 – will be accompanied by a new album from the 75-year-old country legend.

She said: “All-new songs were written based on the characters and situations in the book.

“I hope you enjoy the book and the songs as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it all together.”

The book will also incorporate lyrics from the 12-song album in a story which follows a young woman who moves to Nashville, Tennessee in a bid to make her musical dreams come true.

The ‘Alex Cross’ author – who has previously co-written two books with former US President Bill Clinton – hailed teaming up with Dolly “an honour” and promised the book and music collaboration will be a hit with fans.

He said: “It’s an honour – and a hell of a lot of fun – to work with the inimitable Dolly Parton, whom I’ve long admired for her music, her storytelling, and her enormous generosity.

“The mind-blowing thing about this project is that reading the novel is enhanced by listening to the album and vice versa.

“It’s a really unique experience that I know readers (and listeners) will love”.

Dolly had hinted she may have a book on the way earlier this week when she told her fans on Twitter that writing a novel was a “dream” of hers alongside a winking emoji while promoting her non-profit organisation The Imagination Library – which gifts free books to children from birth until they reach five years of age to encourage early reading – on Book Lovers’ Day.

She wrote: “The seeds of dreams are often found in books, and the seeds you help plant in your community can grow across the world. I dream of writing my own novel one day [wink emoji] #BookLoversDay http://imaginationlibrary.com (sic)”

Washington (AFP) – Tens of thousands of leather-clad bikers roared into a small town in South Dakota this week for a mass motorcycle rally, despite a renewed surge in coronavirus cases across the United States.

Health officials have warned that the annual rally — set to draw as many as half a million people — could turn into a Covid-19 “superspreader” event, as was the case last year, with the more infectious Delta variant heightening concerns.

But organizers said the 10-day event, held in Sturgis for the 81st time, was too important for the local community and economy to pass up. 

Asked about health concerns, town spokeswoman Christina Steele emphasized the ready availability of vaccines and the fact most events are being held outdoors — with the city letting bikers consume alcohol outside to avoid crowding in bars.

“This year people are just happy to be out and to be traveling again and having fun and meeting up with their friends they haven’t seen in a while,” Steele told AFP.

“People are not concerned about Covid right now,” she said.

The rally has no vaccine, testing or masking requirements — but it is providing visitors with free tests and vaccines, even though it takes several weeks for immunity to kick in. 

Sanitizer and face masks were available on request, though most participants were choosing to stay mask-free.

“There are free masks available, but I don’t think anybody is coming to get one,” Steele said. 

Last year, the rally drew 445,000 visitors from around the country and was blamed for a large outbreak of the virus.

According to a study published in the Southern Economic Journal in December, the event may have been responsible for more than 260,000 new Covid cases in the United States.

While South Dakota has stabilized infections in recent weeks, there are fears that attendees coming from out-of-state will bring the virus with them.

This year, authorities expect even more visitors and Steele said the crowd already looks bigger than in 2020.

As motorcycles hummed through the streets of Sturgis, Kristi Noem, South Dakota’s Republican governor donned a black leather jacket, got on a bike and joined the rally.

In the Midwestern state’s Meade County, where Sturgis, a town of 6,600 people, is located, only 37 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, compared to some 50 percent nationwide. 

President Joe Biden’s top infectious disease advisor Anthony Fauci warned last week that holding the rally was too risky given the surge in Covid cases. 

“This could be a superspreader. We don’t want it to be but that’s the reality,” Dr Shankar Kurra, vice president of medical affairs at Monument Health Rapid City Hospital, told CBS News.

Kurra said his entire hospital team would be staying in place through the rally, with vacations put on hold and extra staff hired in anticipation of a rise in Covid cases.

Washington (AFP) – An asteroid known as Bennu will pass within half the distance of the Earth to the Moon in the year 2135 but the probability of an impact with our planet in the coming centuries is very slight, scientists said Wednesday.

OSIRIS-REx, a NASA spacecraft, spent two years near Bennu, an asteroid that is about 1,650 feet (500 meters) wide, observing its size, shape, mass and composition and monitoring its orbital trajectory around the sun.

Using its robotic arm, the spacecraft also collected a sample from the surface of the asteroid that will help researchers determine the future trajectory of Bennu.

The rocks and dust collected by OSIRIS-REx are scheduled to return to Earth on September 24, 2023.

Bennu was discovered in 1999 and is classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid.

It will make a close approach with Earth in September 2135.

Scientists want to figure out how Earth’s gravity and a phenomenon known as the Yarkovsky effect will affect its future trajectory and the potential for an impact on a subsequent orbit.

“The OSIRIS-REx data give us so much more precise information, we can test the limits of our models and calculate the future trajectory of Bennu to a very high degree of certainty through 2135,” said Davide Farnocchia, a scientist with the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

“We’ve never modeled an asteroid’s trajectory to this precision before,” said Farnocchia, lead author of a study published in the journal Icarus.

“The impact probability overall is very small,” he stressed. “We shouldn’t be worried about it too much.”

Farnocchia said the risk from Bennu “is smaller than from the undiscovered population of objects of similar size.”

Researchers determined Bennu’s total impact probability between now and the year 2300 at about one in 1,750, or 0.057 percent.

“We are still looking for what we don’t know out there — the objects that haven’t been found yet,” said Lindley Johnson of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.

Johnson said researchers were studying ways to redirect the orbit of an asteroid should it ever become necessary to do so.

He said an asteroid impacting Earth would cause a crater about 10 to 20 times the size of the object and spawn an area of devastation about 100 times the size of the crater.  

But, Johnson added, “We really don’t think we need to do anything about Bennu.”

Karamo Brown met his new boyfriend after “accidentally” liking an Instagram post.

The ‘Queer Eye’ star – who split from fiance Ian Jordan in summer 2020 – has found love with Carlos Medel and revealed they connected after he was browsing the photographer’s work and mistakenly clicked on one of his pictures, prompting the 29-year-old art director to get in touch.

He explained: “Let me tell you something. The day I deleted Tinder, I went to Instagram and was looking at beauty things. I like to watch makeup and hair things because they relax me, even though I’m bald and he’s a beauty photographer.

“So he shoots the make-up for Kylie Cosmetics, all these big brands. I saw his and it was like, these are some beautiful shots and I accidentally clicked a photo.

“He saw it and said, thank you for liking my work and that’s how we met.”

The 41-year-old star had been an avid Tinder user when he first split from Ian.

He admitted: “I was on Tinder swiping. I was on a date every single day while I was in Austin. I went on at least 40 dates with 40 guys in a matter of time, I’m not joking.”

The culture expert also opened up on his split from Ian and admitted the couple’s therapy they had been undergoing made him realise they weren’t “aligned”.

Speaking to Catt Sadler on her virtual talk show ‘A Drink With Live!’, he said: “The break-up with my ex, luckily he and I are still friends. We were together for nine years. We were planning our wedding. Our engagement got drawn out for two years, and the reason I would tell people like, oh, all these things.

“The reason that was, was because he didn’t want me to tell that we were going through therapy because there was a lot of things that I was just like, before I walked down this aisle, we have to figure out.

“We have to figure out, are we in line for the next 40 years? Are we in line with our values of how we are going to raise our family, our grandkids, if we have them? How are we going to align with what do we want to do with our finances, even more?

“But in the therapy, it just became abundantly clear to me that we weren’t aligned.”

Although his relationship with Ian didn’t work out, Karamo found therapy was still helpful for his future as it helped him determine what he wants and deserves in a relationship.

He said: “Because I’d already did the work on myself. I was like, let me go out there and find someone.”

Lil Nas X thinks it is “dangerous” for him to speak about homophobia within rap.

The ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’ hitmaker is one of very few openly LGBTQ artists working within the genre and he admitted he has to be careful about criticising others for anti-gay remarks – including DaBaby, who was recently embroiled in a scandal over remarks he made on stage at Rolling Loud Miami – because he’s concerned about his safety.

Asked about such comments, he told Variety: “The honest truth is, I don’t want to speak on a lot of the homophobia within rap because I feel like this is a very dangerous playing field. It’s more for my own safety rather than anything else.”

And pressed as to whether the comments made him feel unsafe, the 22-year-old star said “absolutely” and admitted he’s had to hire security because of a backlash to his ‘Montero’ video.

He said: “[There was] literally someone who chased my car a few days after that video came out, yelling, ‘F*** you!’ or something. And that’s when I actually started getting security.”

The ‘Industry Baby’ singer – whose real name is Montero Lamar Hill – had a crisis of confidence during lockdown but is in a much better place now and has vowed to be “even more authentic” than ever.

He said: “Honestly, I believe the pandemic helped me get out of the idea of trying to please everybody, and the idea of ‘He’s a cool gay person; he’s an acceptable gay person.

“I used to see things like that as a compliment, but it’s not. It just means you’re a people pleaser, and they never become legends. I wanted to be even more authentic in my music and let people into my life. I’m much more confident now — in my music, myself, my sexuality, the things that I believe that I stand for.”

Los Angeles (AFP) – An American father charged with killing his two children with a spear fishing gun claims he was “enlightened” by QAnon and other conspiracy theories and was saving the world from “monsters” who had “serpent DNA,” a federal complaint said.

Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, told authorities in California he knew he was doing wrong, but that “it was the only course of action that would save the world,” the complaint prepared by federal agents said.

Coleman was charged Wednesday with taking his children, aged two years and 10 months, to Mexico and killing them there before returning to the United States, where he was arrested.

The children’s mother first raised the alarm on August 7 when Coleman took them from the home they shared. He had said he was taking them camping, but refused to tell her where and did not answer calls or text messages. He also did not have a child car seat with him. 

A day later police tracked him using the Find My iPhone app, which showed his last known location as being in Rosarito, Mexico.

When he crossed back in to the United States the next day he was detained by the FBI at the border.

Coleman confessed to shooting both his children with the spear fishing gun and leaving their bodies in Mexico, where they were found by Mexican authorities. 

He “stated that he believed his children were going to grow into monsters so he had to kill them,” according to the complaint. 

He told agents that he was “enlightened by QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories and was receiving visions and signs revealing that his wife … possessed serpent DNA and had passed it on to his children,” it continued. 

He told federal law enforcement he believed he was “saving the world from monsters,” the complaint said. 

Coleman was charged with the foreign murder of US nationals.

Actress/singer Jennifer Hudson was hand-picked by Aretha Franklin to play her in musical biopic

Los Angeles (AFP) – Aretha Franklin decided Jennifer Hudson was the natural woman to play her in musical biopic “Respect,” personally hand-picking the singer-actress a few years before her death in 2018. 

The late “Queen of Soul” shared not just a phenomenal vocal ability with the “Dreamgirls” star, but also a deep vein of personal tragedy.

As the movie shows, Franklin’s childhood was shattered at just nine years old by her mother’s death, and her own pregnancy at the age of 12. She later battled a controlling father, a violent husband and alcohol addiction.

Hudson, who rose to fame on “American Idol” and won an Oscar at age 25, dealt with her own horrors when her mother, brother and nephew were murdered by her sister’s estranged husband in 2008.

“I needed to be in a certain place, and to have gone through what I’ve experienced in life, to be able to portray her,” Hudson told a Los Angeles screening ahead of the film’s release this Friday.

“At least at this point that’s how I feel.”

Hudson’s own tragedy had not yet struck when she first nervously met with her idol Franklin to discuss the nascent film project some 15 years ago.

Eight years would pass before Franklin — having considered other contenders including Halle Berry — called and told Hudson she had the part.

“To play the Queen of Soul is nothing you’re ever going to get used to. I’m still taking it in doses,” said Hudson.

The choice of Hudson has been a hit, with her soaring performance already tipped for awards recognition, even if the film itself has drawn lukewarm early reviews.

In a departure from most musical biopics, Hudson sang and recorded live on set Franklin’s hits such as “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” and of course “Respect.”

Hudson also learned to play piano for the part, which involved 83 costume changes and 11 different wigs — including Franklin’s signature beehive look. 

‘Translate her pain’

The movie spans two decades of Franklin’s life, beginning with her childhood and then chronicling the years spent working on her first nine albums, each of which failed to land a single hit.

Franklin was dropped by Columbia Records before finding her gospel-inflected voice through sessions at a remote Alabama recording studio during which she drew on her own dark past.

“I think it was her ability to translate her pain for an audience of millions,” the film’s screenwriter Tracey Scott Wilson told AFP at its Los Angeles premiere.

“She was able to take her own personal pain and sing all types of songs about it — songs of empowerment, sexy-romantic songs. She was always able to live her life through her music.”

The movie also covers Franklin’s long involvement with the civil rights movement, having grown up the daughter of an influential Baptist minister (played by Forest Whitaker) who counted Martin Luther King Jr among his family friends.

Franklin often sang at political rallies, and performed at King’s 1968 funeral — just as Hudson would ultimately perform at the diva’s own memorial.

“Being in her position at a time like that — being a Black woman, and then being as close as she was to Dr King — and then having to get out there and still lift everyone else up… think about the pain she was going through in that moment,” said Hudson.

“I think of moments like that,” added Hudson, who — like Franklin — began singing in gospel choirs, and has credited her faith with helping her get through tragedy.

“Because too often people forget icons and legends are human beings too and they have a life.”

Lil Nas X is in a relationship with “someone special”.

The 22-year-old musician has revealed he has a new boyfriend after dating several “emotionally unavailable” men in the past, and now believes he has found “the one” in his new mystery man.

He said: “I’ve had some good boyfriends and some bad ones. A lot of them were emotionally unavailable or had a lot of insecurity and whatnot. I’ve found someone special now. I think this is the one. I can’t explain it – it’s just a feeling.”

Nas also opened up on discovering he was gay when he was five, after he realised he had a crush on his half-sister’s cousin.

He added: “I had feelings for my sister’s cousin – we have different dads. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, he’s really cute,’ and thought that about a lot of other boys my age.”

But the ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’ singer didn’t get into his first committed relationship until he turned 18.

Speaking to Variety magazine’s Power of Young Hollywood issue: “I was 18, I believe. Before that, there was a guy who wasn’t my boyfriend, but we met in middle school and we talked, after we both found out that each other were gay. But I didn’t act on anything until high school – well, middle school, but then high school.

“Once I was 17 or 18, I finally accepted [I was gay] – like, for sure accepted it, slowly, more and more – and now I’ve grown into a person that is 100 percent open with it.”

The ‘Industry Baby’ hitmaker previously revealed he was dating someone in October last year, but it is unclear if the mystery man is the same person as his current partner.

He explained at the time: “I’m dating someone right now. We’re not in a relationship yet, but it’s been on and off for the past few months. I’m maybe going to try to go steady this time.”

Andrew Cuomo is far from the only powerful man accused of sexual misconduct to owe his behavior to not knowing better

New York (AFP) – New York’s soon-to-be ex-governor Andrew Cuomo is the latest politician to blame inappropriate behavior on shifting cultural norms, a defense critics see as a tactic to shirk responsibility in the face of scandal.

Prior to his dramatic downfall and resignation, Cuomo was well-known for ruling with a mix of paternalism and pugnacity. He has insisted he always acted within bounds, even as women including former staffers began speaking out against him.

But on Tuesday, one week after the release of a bombshell report from the state attorney general’s office — allegations included inappropriate touching and intimidating accusers — the now politically ostracized 63-year-old said he now realized the boundaries had shifted.

“I have been too familiar with people. My sense of humor can be insensitive and off-putting,” the governor said in a lengthy address announcing he would step down.

“In my mind, I have never crossed the line with anyone,” said the nearly three-term state leader once tapped as a national political contender.

“But I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn. There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate.”

Cuomo — who frequently touted his own efforts to end workplace discrimination, including signing legislation to that effect — is far from the only powerful man accused of sexual misconduct to attribute his behavior to not knowing better.

Former senator Al Franken, who resigned from US Congress in 2017 after snowballing allegations of unwanted touching and kissing, said he “learned from recent stories” that “I crossed a line for some women.”

And President Joe Biden has faced a number of accusations of inappropriate physical contact, which he and his supporters attributed to his touchy-feely style.

“So I invaded your space. I’m sorry this happened,” Biden said, when asked to apologize during the 2020 race. 

“I’m not sorry in the sense that I think I did anything that was intentionally designed to do anything wrong or be inappropriate.”

‘Power grab’

For Jean Sinzdak, an associate director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, such a defense is “a disingenuous argument and missing the point.”

“This behavior has always been inappropriate,” she told AFP. “There’s nothing new about the fact that it’s inappropriate.”

“It’s just now our society’s understanding that it’s inappropriate, that women have been suffering with this for so long, and it’s no longer acceptable that they suffer.”

Audrey Nelson, a Colorado-based expert in gender communication, called Cuomo’s blame on a generational disconnect “a scapegoat.”

“Personal space is personal space,” she told AFP. “It is not generational.”

And invading that space? “If you want to reduce it to one simple concept, it’s about power,” Nelson said.

She recalled the tenure of Bill Clinton — a former US president who multiple women in the 1990s accused of sexual harassment — who Nelson said “was known for pulling people in” when greeting them.

“You’d shake hands, then he’d grab your upper arm and pull you in,” Nelson said. “The power grab.”

The same was true in Cuomo’s case, she added: “It’s about conquering.”

Different political standards?

A number of the US politicians who’ve resigned in recent years in the face of harassment accusations have been Democrats, including Franken, one-time New York State attorney general Eric Schneiderman, and now Cuomo.

Conversely many Republicans, including former president Donald Trump and Supreme Court judge Brett Kavanaugh, have declined to step down despite accusations of sexual assault. Alabama Republican Roy Moore ran twice for Senate office — both times unsuccessfully — despite claims he had sexually assaulted multiple women including several minors.

Sinzdak said the responses to sexual harassment allegations don’t necessarily fall along party lines — “every case is different,” she said — but that Democrats may “have a harder time looking away” given their frequent support of causes like anti-harassment laws. 

“It would be hard for them as a party, with the platform that they have, to look the other way. In that sense, the Democrats are held to a higher standard,” she said.

Sinzdak praised the #MeToo movement for “putting a spotlight on the issues of harassment and abuse, and giving women a voice and a platform to share their stories.”

“It’s been the equivalent of a cultural earthquake in the political world, and we’re going to feel the reverberations for a long time,” she said.

Part of that earthquake for Nelson means “intentions” — which politicians including Cuomo have cited in explaining that they never meant harm — are no longer a valid excuse to justify bad behavior.

“Be aware. Pay attention,” she said. “Hell is full of people with good intentions.”

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate will make another attempt to pass a bill promoting voting rights next month, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday, even as he acknowledged it is likely that “Republicans won’t join us.”

Schumer said he had huddled with nine Democratic senators ranging from moderates to progressives, and they will produce legislation to be the first order of business when the Senate returns to session in mid-September.

He did not rule out making an exception to Senate rules, such as the filibuster, to advance the measure. The Senate is divided 50-50 between the parties, so Republicans are able to stop Democratic initiatives under the filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes for most legislation to advance.

In June, Republicans blocked debate on the Democrats’ proposed elections overhaul, which was aimed at combating a wave of voting restrictions https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republicans-erect-voting-barriers-politically-crucial-us-states-2021-06-16 passed by Republican-led state legislatures.

“We have made progress and we are showing very clearly to every one of our 50 senators that Republicans won’t join us. And yet the importance of voting rights, if anything, has strengthened in the minds of everybody,” Schumer told a news conference. “Republicans refusing to support anything on voting rights is not an excuse for Democrats to do nothing.”

But if the next attempt is to avoid the same fate as the previous one, some Democrats, including Senator Patty Murray, have suggested carving out an exception to the filibuster rule. Still, other Democrats could be an obstacle to such a move, like moderate Senator Joe Manchin who has said he opposes any exception to the filibuster.

Currently, there are 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats and two independents who align themselves with Democrats in the Senate. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has said that voting rights are not a federal issue and should be left to the states.

The Democratic measure that Senate Republicans blocked in June would have ended partisan gerrymandering and overhauled campaign finance laws, as well as created national standards for voting registration and early voting. It passed the House of Representatives earlier this year.

Civil rights groups say Republican-led efforts to enact restrictions in a number of states would make voting more difficult for many Black and Hispanic citizens, many of whom are supporters of Democrats.

The state restrictions follow Republican former President Donald Trump’s false claim that voting fraud was widespread in the 2020 election that he lost to Biden, a Democrat.

(additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

By Jan Wolfe

(Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Wednesday ordered Donald Trump’s accounting firm Mazars to turn over some of the former president’s financial records to a U.S. House of Representatives committee but not all of the documents sought by the congressional panel.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta came in a long-running lawsuit brought by the Democratic-controlled House Oversight Committee, which first issued a subpoena for Trump’s financial records in 2019.

Mehta said Mazars should turn over documents relating to Trump’s hotel in Washington, D.C., saying the committee proved that it needed them to evaluate potential legislation and conduct government oversight.

But the judge did not allow House investigators to see disclosure forms Trump submitted to the government that outlined his assets and liabilities.

Mehta said he was “left wondering about the necessity (or even unique usefulness) of President Trump’s personal papers.”

The lawsuit is back in Mehta’s courtroom after a trip to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a July 2020 decision, the high court said Mehta needed to redo his legal analysis.

In that 7-2 decision, the justices said that in Mehta’s courtroom House Democrats needed to further explain their need for the records, and that Mehta should weigh that stated justification against the burdens placed on Trump by complying with the subpoena.

Unlike other recent presidents, Trump refused to release his tax returns and other documents that could provide details on his wealth and the activities of his family company, the Trump Organization.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has separately obtained Trump’s tax returns, but that does not mean the public will see them.

The records were obtained in connection with a grand jury investigation, and New York law requires that grand jury materials be kept confidential.

In a statement, House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney said she was pleased the court recognizes the panel is “entitled to a broad set of President Trump’s financial records as part of our critical investigation aimed at preventing presidential conflicts of interest, self-dealing, and constitutional violations.”

She added that she is also disappointed the ruling “narrowed the subpoena” in some respects and said the panel is “actively considering next steps.”

(Reporting by Jan WolfeEditing by Jonathan Oatis and Alistair Bell)