MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday announced a gender equality law that will require more equal representation of women and men in politics, business and other spheres of public life. The Equal Representation Law will apply gender parity measures to electoral lists, the boards of directors of big companies and governing boards of professional associations. Sanchez made the announcement during a Socialist party rally ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8. It will be approved during Tuesday’s cabinet meeting before going for debate in parliament. He said …

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Comedian Jon Stewart did not mince words with his recent remarks condemning Republican lawmakers’ support of measures that would ease restrictions on gun violence. During the recent segment of his Apple TV show, “The Problem with Jon Stewart,” Stewart laid out his concerns in an intense exchange with Oklahoma State Sen. Nathan Dahm (R). In addition to expressing concern about the latest Republican proposal, Stewart asked Dahm why lawmakers had not considered incorporating a more extensive gun registry and more restrictions and requirements for gun ownership. READ MORE: ‘This is blowing my mind…

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Luke Evans is a Welsh actor and singer. He is best known for his roles in Dracula Untold, Beauty and the Beast and Echo 3. LUKE EVANS BIOGRAPHY: AGE, EARLY LIFE, FAMILY, EDUCATION Luke Evans was born on April 15, 1979 (Luke Evans: Age 43) in Pontypool, Wales to Yvonne and David Evans. When Evans was 17 he left school and moved to Cardiff to study under the singing coach Louise Ryan. In 1997 he won a scholarship to London Studio Centre and graduated three years later. LUKE EVANS BIOGRAPHY: CAREEREvans started his career on the stage in productions of La Cava, Taboo, Rent, Avenue Q and Small Cha…

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Avoiding Fox News is my self-care. (Time is tight. You do what you can.) But a friend recently shared an article about the network’s hosts losing their marbles over a new line of Legos, and I couldn’t resist. I clicked. Legos were such a formative part of my kids’ childhood. Rainbow Loom and Orbeez and Play-Doh and slime (dear God, the slime) all came and went. But Legos? Legos stayed the course. Year after year after year. I still find little bricks in a couple of my purses. My mom still puts Legos in my brother’s Christmas stocking. He’s 52. Anyway, the new line of Legos includes characters …

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By Hazel Gandhi A doctored video showing US President Joe Biden mocking transwomen and making derogatory transphobic remarks at a recent address is circulating with claims that he has come out against the trans community. Several Facebook posts have lauded Biden for the comments that he can be heard making in the morphed video. BOOM found that the video has been edited and overlaid with an audio where Biden is heard making the transphobic remarks; in the original clip, Biden is talking about the aid offered to Ukraine by US and NATO. In the morphed viral video, Biden can be heard saying, “You …

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By Aikansh Chaudhary Magic Johnson explains why he is extremely proud of his son, EJ. Magic Johnson is one of the biggest superstars to ever play in the NBA. He was the heart and soul of the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers and helped them win five NBA Championships during his career. Following his career in the NBA, like most NBA players, Magic Johnson decided to shift his focus toward his family. Speaking of his family, Magic recently revealed to ‘PEOPLE’ how he is extremely proud of his son EJ. “I love EJ’s career,” Magic revealed. “I think that EJ is really taking charge of his career and makin…

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U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a far-right Christian nationalist extremist, kicked off her speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Friday morning by telling the room filled with many empty seats that the left is “coming for our children,” in her hate-filled, lie-filled, fear-mongering, anti-LGBTQ speech portraying her cause as virtuous because, she preached, “our God is bigger.” That God, she promised, would help her pass anti-transgender legislation that “will make it a felony to perform anything to do with gender-affirming care on children.” “The left has told…

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By Gram Slattery, Tim Reid and Alexandra Ulmer

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – In Las Vegas, Nevada, Republican activists want to recapture the party from a local leader who backs former President Donald Trump’s false election fraud claims. In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a battle for control of the local Republican party’s assets has wound up in court. In North Carolina, party activists are seeking to punish Republican Senator Thom Tillis for his support for same-sex marriage rights.

As the 2024 presidential race kicks into gear, local Republican party organizations in many parts of the United States are consumed by rebellions, infighting and court battles that some officials and strategists said could damage the party’s chances of winning back the White House.

Reuters spoke to more than 50 operatives, activists and party officials in competitive states Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, which Trump narrowly lost in 2020; North Carolina, which he won; and in the key early primary state of South Carolina. Nevada also holds an early presidential nominating contest.

While Republican divisions in Congress have been widely covered, Reuters looked at grassroots battles, especially in the small handful of states that remain truly competitive, that have not been closely examined.

Some strategists and officials warned the spectacle of a party at war with itself in electoral battlegrounds and early primary states risks turning off voters and donors.

“The degree to which we can manage this will determine how well our presidential candidate does,” said Maurice Washington, the chair of the Republican Party in South Carolina’s Charleston County, a regular campaign stop for presidential candidates, and himself a target of right-wing challengers.

“There’s always that potential of behavior patterns turning off middle-of-the-road voters,” Washington said.

Although it is too early in the election cycle to see a direct impact of these fights, and these feuds could subside once a presidential nominee is chosen, Ronna McDaniel, the head of the Republican National Committee, the party’s central governing body, has called for unity.

Larry Hogan, a Trump critic who left office in January after serving two terms as the Republican governor of Maryland, told Reuters it was crucial for the party to move beyond the former president if it wanted to win the 2024 elections.

Democrats outperformed expectations and avoided a Republican “red wave” in the November 2022 midterm elections, in part because voters shunned a slew of Trump-backed, hard-right candidates.

“Voters sent a clear message in the last three elections: they want competence and common sense solutions, not more crazy,” Hogan said. “If we want to start winning again, then we have to start listening.”

Not everyone agrees. North Carolina State Representative Mark Brody, who supports censuring Sen. Tillis, says it is better to address differences directly.

“I think one of the things that we fight against is that there is a tendency to say: Maybe we should just leave this alone. One side says: don’t bring this up because some people might turn away,” he said. “My side is: Let’s address that, and let’s set the record straight.”

IN NEVADA, A PARTY REVOLT

In Nevada’s Clark County, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the state’s population, Margaret White, a former chief of staff for county Republicans, is leading about 50 current and former party members in a rebellion against the current county party leader Jesse Law in the swing state.

White said that Law’s support for Trump’s false election fraud claims and his backing for far-right candidates in last November’s midterm elections are damaging Republicans’ prospects in 2024. Most state and local candidates backed by Law lost in the midterms.

The activists filed paperwork last month to launch a non-profit organization called “Las Vegas Voices of Reason.” White and Drew Hirsty, the county party member who made the filing, told Reuters that formalizing the structure will allow them to raise funds among independent voters as well as Republicans.

The group is contacting 400 Republicans, who resigned or were expelled from the party since Law took over in 2021, asking them to register to vote so they can remove him in the summer leadership contest, White said.

“We want normal people in charge who can appeal to moderates, independents and minorities, and that’s not Jesse Law,” White told Reuters.

White said the party needs to appeal to a broader set of voters; otherwise it will keep losing elections. About half of White’s core group of 50 are Black, Hispanic or Asian, reflecting the diverse demographics of Nevada. Law backed several far right candidates that lost in November’s midterms.

Law, who served as a senior member of Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns in Nevada, and the county party did not respond to requests for comment.

John Bruchhagen, a Republican podcaster who says he is friends with people in both factions, said Law has worked hard to boost voter turnout and promote candidates but has an “impossible” job because the local party has become so factionalized.

The fighting in Clark County escalated in January when White was involved in a standoff with party members at the county party’s central committee meeting in Las Vegas.

White, who quit her post last year in protest at Law’s leadership, showed up with two bodyguards, one of whom was retired Las Vegas Police Lieutenant Randy Sutton, who told Reuters he carried a concealed firearm to the meeting.

White was ordered to leave by a security guard. Sutton told Reuters he was challenged to a fight by one Republican at the meeting who was part of a group that objected to White’s presence.

Law and the county party did not respond to questions about the standoff.

ARIZONA: A BID TO CHANGE PRIMARY RULES

In Arizona, a former conservative stronghold that is now a swing state, a group of Republicans dismayed by hard-right candidates who deny the 2020 election are raising money and gathering signatures to force a referendum on an amendment to the state constitution that would open primary elections to all voters, according to Beau Lane, a Republican businessman who is involved in the effort.

Lane, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for Arizona Secretary of State last year, said his Save Democracy AZ group wants more moderate, less polarizing figures to emerge from the primary process.

SOUTH CAROLINA: FIGHTING OVER PARTY ASSETS

In one of South Carolina’s most populous counties, a breakaway far-right faction of the party led by Roger Slagle and Chad Caton who support the former president’s false claims of election fraud, reject candidates they say are insufficiently conservative.

These include former two-term South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who announced in February she was running for president; South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who is widely expected to run for the presidency as well; and the former Vice President Mike Pence.

When the party prepared to host Pence at an event – which the former vice-president subsequently canceled – Caton criticized the effort in a text message to Reuters as part of a “plan to push Trump out.”

Scott’s office declined to comment. Ken Farnaso, a spokesperson for Haley, did not respond to a request for comment.

HAVE REQUESTED PENCE COMMENT

The split dates back to last September when Slagle and his allies briefly quit the party but maintained control of the county party’s website, bank account, and folding tables and chairs. A judge last month ordered Slagle’s group to hand over the chairs.

Both sides acknowledge a legal fight over the bank account is likely. “Is it something you want to spend party funds on? No,” said Reese Boyd III, who is the recognized party county leader. “We’re all inside the big tent, and we’re shooting machine guns at one another. It’s not productive for anyone.”

CENSURE FOR NORTH CAROLINA SENATOR

In North Carolina, Republican party committees in about a third of the state’s counties have voted to censure Republican Senator Tillis for his support for same-sex marriage rights. They are now seeking a state-wide condemnation, which would block Tillis’s access to party resources and funds in a potential Senate primary.

Although Tillis retains support among the party establishment, Jim Womack, a county party chair, says the Senator’s critics are gaining strength. “The North Carolina Republican party will eventually be decentralized to the point where the grassroots will actually run the party,” Womack said.

Tillis did not respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery in Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Tim Reid in Las Vegas and Alexandra Ulmer in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Nathan Layne in Hillsdale, Michigan. Editing by Ross Colvin and Suzanne Goldenberg)

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A man appointed to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Disney oversight board has a history of making anti-LGBTQ comments, including a claim that tap water could be turning people gay, CNN reported. Ron Peri, an Orlando-based former pastor and the CEO of a Christian ministry, is one of five people who will oversee the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the government body that has given Disney unique powers in Central Florida for more than half a century, according to CNN. In a January 2022 Zoom call, Ron Peri asked, “So why are there homosexuals today?” “There are any number of reasons, you know, that …

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In a largely-empty room at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, now running against her former boss for the Republican presidential nomination, told base voters that Donald Trump lost the last election, and Republicans have lost the popular vote in the last seven out of eight presidential elections, America is not racist, and “wokeness is a virus” more dangerous than COVID. Haley’s campaign is built on numerous falsehoods she apparently believes will resonate enough with the base that Trump built that she can grab the nomination. “America is not…

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Parents would be allowed to kidnap their children and take them out of state if they are receiving gender-affirming care or are considered “at risk” of receiving such care under a proposed Florida law, Vice News reports. Under the bill Republican state Sen. Clay Yarborough introduced Friday, any court could intervene if a child is receiving gender-affirming care, the report said. The bill is part of a package of so-called “parental empowerment and child safety legislation” that includes a ban on instruction of sexual orientation or gender identity for students through Grade 8, and requiring li…

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The House Ethics Committee voted unanimously to launch a probe into Rep. George Santos (R-New York) for a multitude of potential legal and ethical violations. The committee, split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, released a statement that their probe will address allegations pertaining to potentially “unlawful activity” during his 2022 congressional campaign, lying about or omitting key information on forms for new House members, conflicts of interest, and a sexual misconduct accusation. Santos is fully cooperating, according to his social media team. Santos has received heavy critici…

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House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, who infamously refused to honor a lawful subpoena from the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack requiring his testimony last year, on Friday issued a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray demanding 16 FBI agents testify before his committee or face subpoenas to do so. The letter is officially from the Judiciary Committee but was tweeted out by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which is also chaired by Jordan. That new subcommittee has been the subject of scrutiny and mockery over the past 24 hours after Jorda…

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NEW YORK — The New York City Hall version of fire and brimstone rained down Friday as protesters blasted Mayor Eric Adams over his remarks dismissing the separation of church and state. Local religious leaders and community activists criticized Adams in a protest outside the mayor’s Manhattan office, insisting the city’s top elected official was way off base with his remarks dismissing the notion of a clear line of demarcation laid out by the nation’s Founding Fathers. “He said that he was a servant of God,” said Rabbi Emily Cohen. “And I wanted to assert that Mayor Adams was a servant of thos…

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Do you expect me to talk? No Mr. Bond, I expect you to REDACTED. Reports indicate that Ian Fleming’s James Bond books are to be republished and rewritten to accommodate 21st century sensitivities. The spy thrillers – from 1953’s ‘Casino Royale’ to 1966’s ‘Octopussy and The Living Daylights’ – will be re-released in April to coincide with the 70th anniversary celebrations this spring, after Ian Fleming Publications Ltd commissioned a review by “sensitivity readers.” A number of racial references will be removed, as well as the omission of references to ethnicities of a number of characters. The…

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In 2011, a New York City businessman identified by Esquire Magazine as “three-time bankrupt Donald Trump” made a speech on the stage of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). It helped launch his political career. Trump returns Saturday to keynote this year’s CPAC annual event, a gathering that starts Wednesday afternoon and will bring together thousands of conservatives eager to “preserve and protect the values of life, liberty, and property.” This year’s meeting is already being ducked by many big-name right-wingers, overshadowed as it is by groping acusataions against its foun…

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The Texas Republican state lawmaker, a former pastor, who authored an anti-drag bill appeared in a video, in drag, while skipping and running to the song “Sexy Lady.” NBC News reports the editor of Living Blue in Texas, the “premier outlet for Democratic, Liberal, and Progressive news and opinion,” posted video of GOP state Rep. Nate Schatzline that shows him with three other people in costumes or drag, “skipping, running and dancing in a park while donning a black sequined dress and a red eye mask.” “At the end of the roughly 90-second video — which plays over the song ‘Sexy Lady’ by Javi Mul…

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HILLSDALE, Mich. — Hours after Michigan state legislators advanced a historic bill that would bar discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, former Vice President Mike Pence called on religious conservatives to stand up for causes like “the sanctity of marriage” during an event at Hillsdale College. “At a time when our most cherished values and traditions seem maligned by popular culture on a daily basis, I say speak without apology about the institution of traditional marriage and above all else never give up the right to life,” Pence told the audience gathered inside the …

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LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Senate voted Wednesday to ban discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, marking a legislative turning point that came after decades of debate in state government. Democrats, who took control of the chamber for first time in nearly 40 years in January, made the bill to expand the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include protections for gay and transgender residents an early priority. Republicans had previously blocked similar proposals, arguing the protections infringed on religious rights. The bill passed 23-15 with three Republicans joinin…

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CHICAGO — Nearly a year after being sentenced to five months in jail, only to be released on bond days later, former actor Jussie Smollett has filed his long-awaited appeal claiming his indictment by a special prosecutor was invalid due to double-jeopardy concerns and that the trial judge was biased against him. The 102-page brief filed Wednesday with the Illinois Appellate Court tread mostly familiar ground in the well-worn case against Smollett, the onetime “Empire” star who was convicted by a jury in December 2021 of paying two acquaintances to fake a racist and homophobic attack on him to …

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A GoFundMe campaign has been launched with the goal of purchasing billboards of Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to splash his 1977 yearbook photo across the state, RadarOnline.com has learned.

As we previously reported, Lee was confronted last week with the decades-old portrait from page 165, which showed him in women’s clothing including a dress and pearls alongside the caption “Hard Luck Woman.”

The interaction took place not long before he is set to put into effect a bill that would restrict drag performances in Tennessee.

“What a ridiculous question that is! Conflating something like that to sexualized entertainment in front of children, which is a very serious subject,” Lee fired back at the reporter during the event in Memphis.

RadarOnline.com has learned that nearly $50,000 has since been raised to put up billboards featuring the photo next to foster care statistics in the state.

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“A National Advertising agency will be designing these ads,” the bio read. “All funds received will go towards this project to help advertise a beautiful photo of Governor Bill Lee as well as the statistics for the foster care system here in Tennessee.”

“The goal is to have billboards in the large cities of Tennessee on main interstates or highways. There will be video updates posted about this journey along the way on my social media platforms. @zacharyheath21,” the description noted.

Press secretary Jade Byers previously issued a statement on behalf of Lee, highlighting how the bill “specifically protects children from obscene, sexualized entertainment” and “any attempt to conflate this serious issue with lighthearted school traditions is dishonest and disrespectful to Tennessee families.”

The legislation that Lee will make law specifically bans “adult-oriented entertainment” that is deemed “harmful to minors” from public property and places where they might be seen by children. The law specifically mentions “go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers” and “male or female impersonators.”

The bill makes the first offense a Class A misdemeanor and subsequent offenses a Class E felony.

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It has been met with both praise and criticism. It’s been claimed this law is not meant to target the LGBTQ community but rather to protect children.

Critics, however, fear the rules may lead to discrimination, arguing that drag is an art form and not the same as exotic dancing.

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A new study on what makes conservative brains tick suggests it may come down to a proclivity to view reality as “inherently hierarchical,” according to researchers. Initial research indicated that conservatives tend to view the world as more dangerous, but subsequent studies have failed to replicate that finding. Now, psychologists Nick Kerry and Jer Clifton at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered in their research that the “main difference between the left and right is the belief that the world is inherently hierarchical,” Clifton writes in Scientific American. “Conservatives, our w…

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