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Published by BANG Showbiz English Alan Cumming admits that it was a “complicated” decision to hand back his OBE. The 58-year-old actor announced on Friday (27.01.23) that he was to return the honour he was awarded in 2009 over the “toxicity” of the British Empire. Alan is grateful for the “incredible” reaction to his decision as he elaborated on his choice. He told People: “I mean, first of all, I didn’t ever expect so much attention about it. “It’s been really positive. People really understood why it’s complicated, it’s complex, it’s not a black or white thing.” The ‘X-Men’ star added: “I tried to say that in my statement, and people have really responded to that. I think times are changing and things change, and you change how you feel about something.” Cumming received the honour from Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace in 2009 but revealed his decision to hand back the award after a period reflection following Queen Elizabeth’s passing in a social media post to mark his 58th birthday. ‘The Traitors’ host wrote: “The Queen’s death and the ensuing conversations about the role of monarchy and especially the way the British Empire profited at the expense (and death) of indigenous peoples across the world really opened my eyes. “Also, thankfully, times and laws in the US have changed, and the great good the award brought to the LGBTQ+ cause back in 2009 is now less potent than the misgivings I have being associated with the toxicity of empire (OBE stands for Officer of the British Empire).” Alan continued: “So I returned my award, explained my reasons and reiterated my great gratitude for being given it in the first place. I’m now back to being plain old Alan Cumming again. Happy birthday to me!” View the full article

Published by Raw Story A right-wing group thinks it has hit upon a legal loophole that it can use to force Michigan public schools to “erase” any sign of openly LGBTQ people from classrooms, reported Judd Legum for his Popular Information blog on Monday. “The effort, organized by the Great Schools Initiative (GSI), seeks to exploit a Michigan statute)/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=mcl-380-1507) that allows parents to opt their children out of sex education,” reported Legum. “Michigan law allows schools to offer courses in sex education. The nature of this instruction is quite traditional” — stressing the bene… Read More View the full article

Published by The San Diego Union-Tribune Beyoncé or Adele? Kendrick Lamar or Bad Bunny? Willie Nelson or Buddy Guy? Wet Leg or Maneskin? Dave Chappelle or Louis C.K.? Regardless of who wins or loses at the 65th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 5, its honcho Harvey Mason Jr. knows exactly what the perfect edition of the Grammys should be like. “Everyone wins every award they were nominated for!” he said, laughing heartily. Mason is himself a five-time nominee as a songwriter and producer whose first nomination came for co-writing “He Wasn’t Man Enough, a 2000 hit for Toni Braxton. As of May 2021, Mason is also the first Black CEO in the h… Read More View the full article

“ Published by BANG Showbiz English Julie Bowen propositioned Harry Styles at his LA concert. The 52-year-old actress showed up to Harry’s ‘Love On Tour’ show at The Forum in Inglewood last week, clutching a homemade heart-shaped sign which read “Harry I’m old, but I know what I’m doing.” Julie shared a reel of herself with the sign on Instagram and tagged Harry’s official Instagram account in the video. The ‘Modern Family’ actress was previously married to Scott Phillips from 2004 to 2018 and they share sons Oliver McLanahan, 15, and 13-year-old twins John and Gustav. However, she insisted she would come out of “dating retirement” for Harry, 28. Speaking previously, she said: “You’re asking me if I’d come out of [dating] retirement for Harry Styles? Oh, hell yeah. Him? Look at him! “He’s just bringing the joy and the light and the ‘Watermelon Sugar.’ You just feel good about the whole experience.” Julie added during the show’s ‘Five Second Rule’ game her three celebrity crushes were Harry, Timothée Chalamet, and guest host Adam DeVine. She also revealed she once fell in love with a gay woman who didn’t like her “in that way”. She told Becca Tilley on her ‘Quitters’ podcast: “I’m straight. I’ve always been straight. I was in love with a woman for a while but she didn’t love me back. “She liked women, but she didn’t like me in that way. “It never really took off so I never really had to challenge my concept of my sexuality.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Jeff Richmond and Tina Fey want the ‘Mean Girls’ musical movie to have a “fresher palette”. The pair are adapting their musical for the big screen and composer Jeff revealed his hopes that the songs will attract a wider audience. He explained to The Hollywood Reporter: “Right now, the day-to-day is more about the movie adaptation that we’re working on. We’re super involved with that. What we’re trying to do [with the movie] is take the score that sounds like a Broadway score — in a good way — and [give] the movie a fresher palette. To make it sound more like stuff you want to listen to on Spotify, as opposed to when you’re sitting eighth row at a Broadway show or the Pantages. It’s kind of making it a fresher, younger take on the whole thing. We’re kind of reinvented the music for the movie, so it’s really fun.” Lorne Michaels is producing the movie for Paramount Pictures, with Tina penning the script and Jeff and lyricist Nell Benjamin working on the music. Angourie Rice, Auli’i Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey and Reneé Rapp will star, with Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. directing. And Jeff revealed he and wife Tina love working together. He said: “We know when to get out of each other’s way when we’re working together. Like who’s taking this part? Who’s doing that? Who needs to push harder on getting the script done for this? We’re just around each other all the time. Same office, all the time. She’s a hilariously fun person to be around.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Jennifer Coolidge went to the wedding of Billie Eilish’s parents. The 61-year-old actress had been friends with Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell – who are the parents of pop star Billie, 21, and music producer FINNEAS, 25, – for ” for a really long time” when they tied the knot in 1995 and explained that she had the “most fun” at the “natural” ceremony. She said: “I think the best wedding I’ve ever went to was… I got this invite when I was in this comedy group, The Groundlings, and all of us got it. It was sort of this potluck wedding where you brought a dish. It was the most fun I’ve ever had at a wedding. I’ve gone to all of these fancy weddings where people spend millions of dollars and things like that … it was just the most unique, natural wedding. This is the cool part of the story — it was two people that [have] known each other for a really long time that married. They knew each other for 12 years. They gave birth to two children after they got married … their daughter is Billie Eilish, and their son is Finneas.” The ‘White Lotus’ star went on to add that she will “never forget” that day because it was the most “romantic thing” she had ever been to. Speaking on ‘Hits Radio’, she added: “I’ll never forget that wedding. A family of deer showed up while they were doing the nuptials [and] stood in the background. It was the most romantic thing I’ve ever been to.” View the full article

Published by AFP The US city of Memphis, Tennessee, on January 27, 2023, released footage of the fatal police beating of a 29-year-old Black man, Tyre Nichols Washington (AFP) – The shocking death of Tyre Nichols after a police beating has reopened anguished debate across the United States about police violence, fueling a sense that the huge, nationwide demonstrations of 2020 have done little to solve the problem. Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, died in a hospital on January 10, three days after a brutal beating by five Black police officers in the southern city of Memphis, Tennessee. The five have since been charged with second-degree murder. Memphis police released body-cam footage of the incident — after starkly warning viewers of its brutality — late Friday. “I’m just sad for where we are in America; we’re still here,” said Lora King, whose father Rodney King sustained a violent beating by police in Los Angeles in 1991, also caught on camera. The incident fueled lethal and destructive riots in that city and elsewhere. “I’m in disbelief.” “We have to do better,” she told CNN. “This is unacceptable.” Deaths at 10-year high Nichols’ death left many Americans questioning how much real progress had been made since 2020. The killing that year in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a Black man whose videotaped death under the knee of a white officer was viewed millions of times, reignited the historic Black Lives Matter movement across the US and abroad. In the wake of Floyd’s death, promises of police reform swept across the country. And yet two years later, the number of people who have died during interactions with police hit a 10-year high in 2022, at 1,186 deaths, according to the website Mapping Police Violence. “They say it’s a new year, but same old, same old,” said Robert Jones, a 26-year-old salesman in Memphis. African Americans accounted for 26 percent of those deaths, though Black people represent only 13 percent of the US population. By way of comparison, fewer than 20 people die in France each year during police interventions. A huge factor explaining the difference is the enormous number of privately owned firearms in the United States — there are more guns than there are people — which sharply increases the sense of vulnerability police feel during interactions with the public, making them much quicker to draw their own arms. Last year, 66 police officers were killed by gunfire while on duty, according to a fund created to honor them. But attorney Ben Crump, who represented Floyd’s relatives and is now working with Nichols’ family, sees a deeper dynamic at work. “We have to talk about this institutionalized police culture that has this unwritten law that you can engage in excessive use of force against Black and Brown people,” he said during a press conference Friday. ‘Unnecessary and aggressive’ The tumult of 2020 led, among other things, to efforts to curb the considerable legal immunity granted to American police, or to establish a register of officers who have been found to use excessive force. Proposed federal legislation, initially supported by both political parties, ultimately failed in Congress at a time when homicides were rising sharply, with Republicans falling back on their traditional appeals for “law and order.” In the absence of progress on the federal level, the push for reform advanced primarily on the local level — modestly and unevenly, producing a patchwork of different approaches. Across the United States, there are nearly 18,000 autonomous policing entities — city police, county sheriffs, state highway patrols — each with its own rules for recruitment, training and on-the-job practices. Some of them have reviewed and revised their rules, notably banning strangleholds, such as the one killed George Floyd, requiring greater use of body-cams and increasing the penalties for unjustified violence. The Memphis police were among those adopting reforms. Officers were barred from forcing their way into homes unannounced; were told they must step in to stop colleagues engaging in violence; and were given additional training in de-escalating dangerous confrontations. Despite all that, the officers who stopped Nichols for a simple traffic violation were “riled up” from the beginning, and “the escalation was already at a high level,” said Cerelyn Davis, the Memphis police department’s first Black female chief. For activists, the central problem is the extensive arrest powers American police have, even over minor infractions. “We must stop relying on police to respond to issues related to poverty and disinvestment,” said Kathy Sinback, director for Tennessee of the American Civil Liberties Union. That approach, she said in a statement, “leads to more frequent, unnecessary and aggressive actions by law enforcement toward community members.” US police have killed nearly 600 people during traffic stops since 2017, according to Human Rights Watch. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Christina Ricci has slammed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ upcoming review of nominees as “backward”. The 42-year-old actress responded to the news that the awards body – which is set to be conducting a review of the campaign procedures around this year’s nominees” following Andrea Riseborough’s surprise nomination in the Best Actress category for her role in ‘To Leslie’ – noting that the action taken following their “surprise nomination” following a campaign as a “hilarious” movie. She wrote on Instagram: “Seems hilarious that the ‘surprise nomination’ (meaning tons of money wasn’t spent to position this actress) of a legitimately brilliant performance is being met with an investigation. So it’s only the films and actors that can afford the campaigns that deserve recognition? Feels elitist and exclusive and frankly very backward to me. And I’msure she had nothing to do with the campaigning. These things aren’t controlled or decided by the actors themselves and yet now her nomination will be tainted by this. And it’s taken away shame on them. The comments come just a day after the Academy revealed it was attempting to “ensure that guidelines were violated” with the campaign that took place to get Andrea Riseborough her nomination. In a statement, they said: “It is the Academy’s goal to ensure that the Awards competition is conducted in a fair and ethical manner, and we are committed to ensuring an inclusive awards process,. We are conducting a review of the campaign procedures around this year’s nominees, to ensure that no guidelines were violated and to inform us whether changes to the guidelines may be needed in a new era of social media and digital communication.” View the full article

Published by DPA Pope Francis speaks during the general audience at the Pope Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. Michael Kappeler/dpa Pope Francis has clarified his earlier comments on homosexuality following confusion in recent days, saying: “I wanted to clarify that it is not a crime, in order to stress that criminalization is neither good nor just.” The pope originally called homosexuality a sin but conceded later that his comments during an interview might have been misunderstood. “When I said it was a sin, I had simply referred to Catholic moral teaching, which says that every sexual act outside marriage is a sin,” Francis wrote to Father James Martin who edits a Catholic publication. “Of course, one must consider the circumstances, which may decrease or eliminate fault.” Martin, a Jesuit priest in the US, published the pope’s letter in the Catholic magazine Outreach, which is for a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer readership. The pope explained that the interview was an oral conversation and that it was “understandable” if certain nuances were lost in the transcript. In his letter, written in Spanish, Francis underlined that for him, homosexuality is not a crime. “I would tell whoever wants to criminalize homosexuality that they are wrong,” he said. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Rick Astley says he “wasn’t born” to be a pop star. The 56-year-old singer shot to fame in the late 1980s when he signed a deal with industry giants Stock Aitken Waterman – which saw him become labelmates with the likes of Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, and Sonia – and sold more than 12 million records worldwide with hits such as ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ and ‘Together Forever’ but decided to quit the industry altogether in the 1990s because he “didn’t want to do any of it” anymore. “He said: “I don’t think being a pop star is a very natural thing for anybody but some people, some people manage to do it and some people are born to do it perhaps. I don’t think I was really. I had developed a fear of flying, I didn’t want to go and promote records. I didn’t want to do any of it, really. “ The ‘Take Me To Your Heart’ singer – who went on to have daughter Emilie with then-partner Lene Bausager but eventually returned to showbusiness in the early 2000s and remains active in music today – went on to add that he was “super lucky” to have made a lot of money during his heyday which at the time enabled him to walk away after from the top. Speaking on Channel 5 documentary ‘Stock Aitken Waterman: Legends of Pop Music’, he added: “I was super lucky that I had a massive amount of success in a very short period of time, somebody gave me a truckload of money for it and I could say ‘Okay, I’m done!'” View the full article

Published by OK Magazine mega Universal Pictures had reportedly already poured a ton of cash into Madonna‘s cancelled biopic by the time they made the decision to pull the plug. The production company greenlit the flick back in 2020 and according to a source, they paid both Madonna and her manager, Guy Oseary, “millions” to license the rights to the “Like A Virgin” singer’s life story and millions more on “writing and directing fees” to the pop star and the movie’s co-writer, Oscar winner Diablo Cody. mega The film initially was slated to be co-written and directed by the Queen of Pop, however, it saw early bumps in the road when the Juno writer quit the project in April 2021 after finding Madonna too difficult to work with on the coveted project. Aside from what Universal allegedly paid Diablo and Madonna, the source noted that there was also “the dancing and ‘boot camp’ elements” of casting which “took months of everybody’s time.” mega “When you spend millions and millions on a project without a final script, there’s going to be a gut-check moment, and that’s what happened here,” the source continued, revealing that overall, Universal probably lost between $10 million and $12 million dollars on the failed film. Added the source, “It means that if another studio wants to pick the movie up, they would have to reimburse Universal for their expenses just to have the right to start again from square one.” mega This comes after OK! reported that the studio allegedly decided to scrap the project over Madonna’s demands for the tone of the script — Universal wanted something “pop and light” while the singer wanted something “grittier” — combined with her bizarre behavior on social media. “Basically, they don’t like it,” the insider explained, referring to Universal’s opinion on the script. “…and it’s come to a stalemate.” “Madonna did herself no favors by acting weird on social media during this entire process,” the insider also pointed out. “She signed a contract to make this film and that should have been the signal to her to stop the circus antics, stop chasing likes, and just buckle down and get this movie into shape.” The source spoke with The Sun on Universal Pictures’ financial losses. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English The Spice Girls are reportedly set to reunite for King Charles’ coronation. The multi-million-selling girl group – which consists of Geri Halliwell, Mel B, Victoria Beckham, Melanie C, and Emma Bunton – met the then-Prince Charles several times during their heyday in the 1990s and while they have not performed as a five-piece since the closing ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012, royal organisers are said to be “super keen” to bag the whole band for a performance at the upcoming coronation celebrations in May. A source told The Sun newspaper’s Fabulous magazine: “Royal organisers are super keen to secure Britain’s biggest girl band and the Spice Girls are seriously pondering a return to the stage as a five-piece for such a historical event. Certainly, the reality is that the Coronation is as special as The Olympics – a one-off celebration and unique performance.” At the height of their careers, the ‘Wannabe’ hitmakers met the then-Prince Charles, and Mel B and Geri famously broke royal protocol by kissing him on the cheek and patting his bottom while also telling him he was “very sexy”. Following her shock departure from the group in 1998, Geri – who was also known as Ginger Spice – performed ‘Happy Birthday To You’ to the then-heir to the throne at his 50th birthday party. The insider went on to explain that there is a “sense” that the reunion could happen for an event this “significant” – which has not taken place in Britain since the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 – and claimed that group members Melanie C and Mel B are the ones “trying to make it happen.” The claims come just days after ‘I Want You Back’ hitmaker Mel teased that a new project was on the horizon for the band – who last reunited for a stadium tour in 2019 without Victoria – but was unable to say exactly what it was. She said: “I can’t tell you exactly, but there’s going to be something that is going to be announced pretty soon. I am probably going to get told off. It is a project that we’re very excited about. It will be all five of us.” View the full article

Published by OK Magazine mega Earlier this week, news hit headlines that Madonna‘s highly anticipated biopic — which the “Like a Virgin” singer had been set to pen and potentially direct — had been scrapped by Universal Pictures. Now, sources have revealed that Madonna’s demands for the tone of the flick and her bizarre behavior on social media didn’t help her out when it came to the decision. mega An insider spilled Madonna and Universal had secretly been at war over the script. The production company wanted it to be “pop and light” while Madonna wanted “something much grittier.” “Basically, they don’t like it,” the insider added. “…and it’s come to a stalemate.” mega Another source claimed Madonna also wanted “near-total” control over the project, but higher ups at Universal were left confused and concerned as they watched the singer’s increasingly strange social media posts, from sharing wildly racy photos to using uncomfortably creepy filters. “Madonna did herself no favors by acting weird on social media during this entire process,” the source explained. “She signed a contract to make this film and that should have been the signal to her to stop the circus antics, stop chasing likes, and just buckle down and get this movie into shape.” @madonna/instagram “Her funny Instagram posts are always catnip for her die-hard fans but they didn’t play well at Universal,” the source noted. “The studio bosses were watching what Madonna posted over these months where she was supposed to be writing and were left scratching their heads.” As OK! previously reported, the Queen of Pop recently wiped her Instagram account after months of facing backlash from critics accusing her of being too “attention-seeking” with her overly photoshopped snaps. “Producing any actual work lately or overdosing on more heavily filtered face pics? ,” a user commented on one of her risqué photos, while another added, “So sad you’ve reduced yourself to this .” The insider spoke with Page Six on Madonna and Universal’s arguments over the script. The source told The Sun about Universal’s criticism of her social media antics. View the full article

Published by PopCrush A “transphobic” woman was roasted on Reddit after she told the groom, whose Best Man (“now his Best Woman”) has been “medically transitioning for about a year,” to pick someone else for the role so as not to offend her conservative family. The bride-to-be explained that she and her fiancé, Kevin, were supposed to get married a few years ago, but decided to postpone due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’ve now set a date for this coming August and as we get closer more and more thoughts keep coming to me about how it should go. My biggest issue is that Kevin’s best man is no longer his best man and… Read More View the full article

Published by PopCrush Dylan Mulvaney’s face reveal is finally here — and she looks happy, glowing and gorgeous! The trans TikTok star and social media influencer unveiled the results of her facial feminization surgery Friday (Jan. 27) in a two-part fashion editorial video. “Facial feminization part 1,” Mulvaney, who uses she/they pronouns, captioned the video, which sees them transform into a high-fashion peacock soundtracked by Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake theme, as well as an Old Hollywood bombshell. Watch below: In the comments section, many celebrated Mulvaney’s results and shared their compliments with the influenc… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story Newly revealed police records threw open the long-dormant murder case of a Buffalo monsignor, and show evidence of a possible coverup. Monsignor Francis J. O’Connor’s body was found floating in Scajaquada Creek on March 13, 1966, and the following day detectives interviewed Robert Armbruster, a young reporter who had worked for the priest at the diocese newspaper and admitted to being physically attracted to him but had fantasized about hitting his head with an ax, reported The Buffalo News. “He admits that he has had homosexual inclinations toward the monsignor and has had occasions when he p… Read More View the full article

Published by OK Magazine @louistommo_org/twitter;mega Don’t worry, Harry! Maybe Jennifer Aniston didn’t notice… Harry Styles was flushed with embarrassment when his pants split down the middle during is Thursday, January 26, concert — and to make matters worse, the singer’s first “celebrity crush” just so happened to be in attendance. MEGA The famed musician was performing his hit song “Music at a Sushi Restaurant” when he attempted to squat down to get closer to his doting fans — except all they were given was a better view of the hilarious mishap. Just as Styles assumed his position, a gaping whole ripped directly in the crotch area of his brown leather pants. @louistommo_org/twitter The 28-year-old was immediately stunned when he realized the shocking wardrobe malfunction, and covered the torn area with his hand before grabbing LGBTQ+ pride flags from nearby concert goers and wrapping them around his private area before heading off stage for a quick change of his clothing. HARRY STYLES HUGS MYSTERY BRUNETTE IN LONDON 2 MONTHS AFTER SPLIT FROM OLIVIA WILDE MEGA Styles returned in a timely fashion, wearing a — hopefully — more durable pair of pants, and proceeded to say sorry to the entire crowd —including the famous Friends star — at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif. LICKING HER WOUNDS? OLIVIA WILDE SHARES CRYPTIC MESSAGE ABOUT LOVE FOLLOWING HARRY STYLES SPLIT “My trousers ripped. I feel I must apologize to a certain few of you right down in the front there. I mean this is a family show,” the “As It Was” singer quipped as he attempted to make light of the laughable situation. “I promise it’s not part of the show … It’s a family show… or is it? It is. Or is it?” As expected, social media users quickly flooded Twitter with hilarious memes and videos of the accidental wardrobe malfunction, with some reactions including comical comparisons to SpongeBob SquarePants’ classic song “Ripped Pants” that dates all the way back to 2001. “Nobody tell Harry that Jennifer Aniston just watched him rip his pants,” one fan tweeted, as they pointed out the beloved 53-year-old actress’ attendance at the show, while another added, “Harry ripping his pants in front of Jennifer Aniston is most likely a traumatic moment for him.” View the full article

Published by Reuters (Reuters) – The U.S. health regulator on Friday proposed new blood donation guidelines for men who have sex with men that are based on individual risk rather than across-the-board requirements, a move it said is in line with other countries and will help ensure the U.S. blood supply. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the rules aim to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted HIV and are similar to those in the UK and Canada. The proposed rule comes several years after the FDA reversed a 1980s guideline, which banned men who have sex with men from donating blood, but said they had to abstain from sex for at least a year before donating. In 2020, the agency shortened the abstinence period to three months amid a pandemic-driven shortage of blood supply. The removal of time-based deferrals also applies to women who have sex with the men who have sex with other men, the FDA said. Under the new proposal, any prospective donor – regardless of gender or sexual orientation – other than those who report having a new sexual partner or multiple partners and having anal sex in the past three months, will be eligible to donate blood, provided all other eligibility criteria are met. The regulator has also proposed new time limits for people taking pre-exposure prophylaxis or post-exposure prophylaxis treatments used for HIV prevention to reflect data showing that these medications may delay the detection of HIV and result in false negatives. People taking oral medication would be deferred for three months after the most recent dose and those receiving injections by two years from the last dose. The FDA will review public comments before finalizing the proposal. (Reporting by Bhanvi Satija and Aditya Samal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva) View the full article

Published by Radar Online mega Beyonce tried her best to hide from the paparazzi at the Van Nuys Airport on January 26, when she and her husband Jay-Z returned to the United States following her controversial performance in Dubai, RadarOnline.com has learned. As this outlet reported, the Break My Soul singer was criticized over her decision to perform at the grand opening of the Atlantis The Royal Grand Hotel in Dubai due to the UAE’s anti-LGBTQ policies. Many felt Beyonce’s acceptance of $24 million for the gig placed profits before her loyal fanbase. mega Wearing a casual travel chic outfit, Beyonce was seen exiting the private plane in a matching black sweatsuit. The former Destiny’s Child singer wore a mask and had her sweatshirt hoodie pulled over her head as she attempted to discretely leave the aircraft. The 41-year-old was accompanied by her husband, who also donned a black sweatsuit for their journey home. The billionaire couple also had their 5-year-old fraternal twins with them, daughter Rumi and son Sir, and Blue Ivy, 11. While a Beyonce sighting typically includes swarms of doting fans, the singer’s return to California was met with backlash. mega According to the Daily Mail, Bev Johnson, the co-founder of the British advocacy group LGB Alliance, shared why so many were outraged at Beyonce’s overseas performance and what the concert represented to her supporters who are members of the LGBTQ+ community. Johnson claimed that Beyonce’s performance in Dubai “casts a shadow over her support for lesbians and gay people.” The activist shared more about why the Beyhive was deeply hurt by the singer’s actions. mega “Beyoncé is a huge icon for many gay people,” Johnson told The Telegraph. “LGB Alliance is deeply therefore disappointed that Beyoncé has agreed to give a lucrative concert in Dubai, where same-sex sex acts are a criminal offense, potentially punishable by death.” The issue of human rights and Dubai has been debated before, even as recently as the 2022 World Cup when players and fans were allegedly not allowed to wear clothing items that featured gay pride slogans or rainbow artwork. During the 2022 World Cup, Nicki Minaj faced criticism for teasing the release of her new song at the event. The performance was supposed to be an exclusive event that prohibited guests from recording; however, as is often the case on social media, video clips were leaked. mega Beyonce looked every bit the part of someone who had cashed in on a $24 million payout. The legendary singer was dressed to the nines for the incredible performance, which even featured a special on-stage moment with her oldest daughter. The mother-daughter duo performed the song Brown Skinned Girl for the crowd. The exclusive concert was Beyonce’s first public performance in four years and was said to have lasted one hour. View the full article

Published by Raw Story The anti-LGBT sentiment from religious conservatives has reached a new high with a Jacksonville, Florida Baptist Church making members sign an oath of confirmation in anti-LGBT relationships as part of church membership. First Baptist Church in Jacksonville’s Senior Pastor Heath Lambert has been an outspoken proponent of ‘traditional’ family values and now the church has given members until March 19 to sign the ‘Biblical Sexuality Agreement’ oath or to immediately resign their membership. Lambert says he doesn’t care what members do, and that real Christians do not have a problem with it. Acco… Read More View the full article

Published by NJ.com EDITOR’S NOTE: NJ Cannabis Insider, NJ.com’s B2B cannabis industry trade journal and events vertical, is hosting a business conference March 8. Tickets are limited. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, who played a major role in unsuccessful efforts to pass significant cannabis legislation in the last Congress, says he will try again this year, but admits the chances of success had dropped significantly. “It is my intention to try to drive it as far as we can go but the dynamics have shifted pretty dramatically,” Booker told NJ Advance Media. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators worked until the end of the 1… Read More View the full article

Published by AFP The US Food and Drug Administration is further easing AIDS-era restrictions on blood donations by gay and bisexual men Washington (AFP) – American health authorities proposed a further easing on Friday of AIDS-era restrictions on blood donations by gay and bisexual men. Under the current policy, gay and bisexual men, even those in monogamous relationships, must abstain from sex for three months to be eligible to donate blood. The new proposed rules from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would do away with the 90-day requirement in favor of an individual risk assessment. All blood donors are tested for HIV, but the virus may not always show up right away if someone is taking pre-exposure prophylaxis drugs. At the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, the FDA imposed a lifetime ban on blood donations by gay men to prevent the spread of the HIV virus through blood products. That was lifted in 2015, but gay and bisexual men were required to abstain from sexual relations for at least one year to be eligible to donate blood. That period was reduced in April 2020 to the current three months because of blood shortages during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. But it still prevented men in monogamous relationships from donating blood unless they abstained from sex for 90 days. Under the new guidelines, all prospective blood donors would be asked in a questionnaire whether they had new or multiple sexual partners in the past three months. Prospective blood donors will be eligible if they have not had anal sex with new or multiple sexual partners in the past three months. Those who have will be deferred for a donation. The FDA said individuals who have tested positive for HIV or taken medication to treat an HIV infection would continue to be banned from donating blood. ‘Important step forward’ “Maintaining a safe and adequate supply of blood and blood products in the US is paramount for the FDA,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement. “This proposal for an individual risk assessment, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, will enable us to continue using the best science to do so,” Califf said in a statement. The FDA said the new guidance is in line with similar rules in place in Canada and Britain. Representative Mark Pocan, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, welcomed the revised FDA guidance. “This is an important step forward towards ensuring our blood donation guidelines are grounded in science, not stigma against certain communities,” Pocan said. “I look forward to taking a closer look at the proposed guidelines once they are published and working with the FDA to ensure that any unnecessary barriers are removed.” The FDA guidance will be subject to public comment for 60 days after which it will be reviewed and finalized. View the full article

Getty images Imagine it is 2030. Doctors in a regional hospital in country X note an expanding cluster of individuals with severe respiratory disease. Rapid whole-genome sequencing identifies the disease-causing agent as a novel coronavirus. Epidemiological investigations suggest the virus is highly infectious, with most initial cases requiring hospitalisation. The episode bears a striking resemblance to the COVID outbreak first detected in December 2019. Regional and national health authorities are notified quickly. The national contact point for the International Health Regulations 2024 (a major revision to the current IHR 2005) sends a description to the World Health Organization (WHO). After an intense exchange of information and risk assessment, it declares a public health emergency of international concern. The outbreak is assigned a response strategy of “elimination”. This designation initiates a well-rehearsed procedure, including mobilising expertise and resource stockpiles. The elimination response results in localised quarantine measures at the epicentre and its surrounds and a travel freeze across a wide radius within country X and at its borders. It also prompts intensified local and international surveillance. Case numbers rise rapidly but plateau after three weeks, and then fall until no new cases are detected in the community. After eight weeks of intensive efforts the outbreak is over – similar to the experience of New Zealand, which terminated its initial COVID outbreak in eight weeks using an elimination strategy. The outbreak had spread regionally within country X, but not internationally. This is how we propose, in The Lancet, the world should respond to future pandemic threats. An upgraded pandemic response to eliminate at source The process by which the WHO currently decides whether to declare a public health emergency of international concern (under the International Health Regulations 2005) has drawn criticism for being too slow. The upgraded response framework we propose would enhance the existing risk assessment by routinely requiring WHO to assign a high-level response strategy for managing this risk. For potential pandemics, we consider this strategy should be elimination rather than suppression or mitigation, which have been the usual default options in the past. In simple terms, “if in doubt, stamp it out”. The idea of eliminating novel emerging infectious diseases at the earliest possible stage is intuitively appealing and not new. It has been proposed for eliminating novel pandemic influenza outbreaks. This approach successfully eliminated and then eradicated the SARS pandemic in 2003 (caused by SARS-CoV). It also proved successful in China during early containment of COVID in Wuhan. We have described this concept previously. Whether this approach could have eliminated and ultimately eradicated COVID, if pursued early and in a co-ordinated way globally, remains a topic of speculation. An elimination strategy also slows the spread of infection There is a second broad reason for the WHO assigning an explicit strategic goal of elimination to pandemic diseases with sufficient severity. It can also slow or interrupt the global spread of a new infectious disease. This action buys time for interventions to be developed, building on rapidly accumulating scientific knowledge. Some countries in the Asia-Pacific region adopted elimination and strong suppression strategies. This approach largely prevented widespread COVID circulation for the first one to two years of the pandemic, keeping mortality rates low. It allowed time for vaccine development and roll-out and for jurisdictions to prepare their health systems for managing large numbers of infected people. Notable examples are New Zealand, Australia and Singapore. They have been able to keep their cumulative mortality low by international standards. New Zealand, Australia and Singapore have lower cumulative numbers of deaths than other countries. Our World in Data, CC BY-NDIf elimination is ultimately not successful or justifiable, an organised transition to another strategy (suppression or mitigation) should be considered. Processes for managing these transitions can draw on experience from the current pandemic. Elimination makes sense for other potential pandemics The most recently declared public health emergency of international concern is mpox (formerly known as monkeypox). Under our proposed change to the International Health Regulations, the WHO would have been required to assign a response strategy to this disease. Elimination again makes sense as a default approach. That is what countries around the world have effectively been doing. And this approach appears to be working. The other current public health emergency of international concern is poliomyelitis. Unlike COVID and mpox, this disease is already subject to a global eradication goal. A further benefit of the elimination strategy is that it supports strengthening of health system infrastructure in low and middle-income countries. This capacity building has contributed to the elimination of periodic Ebola outbreaks in Africa, which have been designated as public health emergencies of international concern in 2014-16 and 2019-20. It could also support elimination of mpox, an increasing threat in Africa. Upgraded International Health Regulations could stimulate a huge global investment in infrastructure to stop epidemics at source and improve surveillance capacity. These capacities are critical given the range of future pandemic scenarios, including the threat from bioweapons with advances in synthetic biology. Let us hope that when the world is next confronted by the spark of a new emerging infectious disease with pandemic potential, the WHO rapidly declares a public health emergency of international concern and assigns an elimination strategy. And the international community reacts vigorously to extinguish the spark before it becomes an inferno. Michael Baker, Professor of Public Health, University of Otago; David Durrheim, Professor of Public Health Medicine, University of Newcastle; Li Yang HSU, Vice Dean of Global Health, National University of Singapore, and Nick Wilson, Professor of Public Health, University of Otago This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega Ryan Reynoldsand Jake Gyllenhaal used to be besties but sources revealed the two barely speak, RadarOnline.comhas learned. “It’s a scratcher for their mutual friends,” an insider revealed about the bizarre fallout. The pair met on the 2017 sci-fi thriller Life and immediately hit it off. “It’s rare in our industry to meet someone, a contemporary and there’s no competition,” Ryan once gushed about his friendship with Jake. “There are just some friends you meet at a certain time in your life.” Mega But that may have been part of the problem. “Ryan was something of a mentor to Jake back then,” continued the source. “Friends think it was Jake who stepped away to be is own man.” Mega Not to mention how their personal lives diverged. Family man Ryan, 46, is expecting his fourth child with wife Blake Lively, while 42-year-old Jake, who’s dated everyone in Hollywood from Kirsten Dunst to Reese Witherspoon, is still dragging his feet in popping the question to his model girlfriend Jeanne Cadieu. “Jake and Ryan have gone their separate ways,” added the insider. “It’s sad because they used to be so close.” Ryan and Jake’s bromance isn’t the only one to end in Hollywood. Mega As RadarOnline.com reported, Jennifer Lopez put a kibosh on her new husband Ben Affleck‘s budding friendship with divorcée Tom Brady after his split from supermodel Gisele Bundchen. “Jennifer’s insecurity is off the charts right now,” a separate source spilled in December, just months after Bennifer’s wedding. “She’s never been needier, and if Ben thinks he’s going to have her approval to party with Tom, he can forget it!” However, if the boys want to talk about making money, J Lo allegedly won’t interfere. Mega “She won’t stand in the way if they want to do business projects together — with her input — but as far as boys’ time in Florida or New York, which is what Ben’s proposing, it’s a nightmare scenario for Jennifer and she’s not going to sand for it,” they said. While pals can’t figure out why Ryan and Jake’s bromance went south, insiders say it’s J Lo who forced the spark to burn out in Affleck’s friendship with Brady. View the full article

Published by AFP Madison Square Garden is home to the New York Knicks and New York Rangers New York (AFP) – The heated debate over facial recognition technology has a new flashpoint: Manhattan’s celebrated Madison Square Garden, home to the New York Knicks basketball team and countless Billy Joel concerts. The operator of the arena, where Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali in 1971’s “Fight of the Century,” is under fire for using the software to identify and eject certain lawyers from events at the venue — because they are associated with ongoing litigation involving MSG. Local lawmakers want to halt the crackdown, which rights campaigners say is a gross abuse of a technology that is already raising fears about privacy and control from America to China. “When the rich and powerful are free to use facial recognition to track the public it puts everyone else at risk,” said Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of STOP, a non-profit that advocates for privacy. “Here we see a chilling example of how petty the retaliation can be,” he told AFP. Last October, Barbara Hart and her husband were approaching their seats at “The Garden” for a Brandi Carlile concert to celebrate their wedding anniversary when security guards stopped them. She said the guards identified her without seeing her ID card, and despite the tickets being in her husband’s name, before removing the couple from the venue. The attorney believes the guards used technology to match her face with an image of herself taken from her company’s website. Hart said she was targeted because her firm is engaged in a lawsuit against the venue’s parent company, MSG Entertainment, even though she is not on the case. “It was bewildering and upsetting. Bullying with fancy tools,” the 62-year-old told AFP. Hart is among at least four lawyers removed recently from MSG Entertainment venues because their firms are locked in legal disputes with the company. Kerry Conlon told local media she was refused entry to Radio City Music Hall in November while trying to see dancers the Rockettes with her 9-year-old daughter. Two other attorneys said they were denied entry to MSG to watch the Knicks and NHL team the Rangers respectively. Billionaire businessman James Dolan’s MSG Entertainment says it has a “straightforward policy that precludes attorneys from firms pursuing active litigation against the company from attending events at our venues until that litigation has been resolved.” New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, warned him Tuesday that the policy “may violate” state civil rights legislation. State senators this week proposed closing a loophole in the law, which prohibits the “wrongful refusal of admission” of patrons with a valid ticket to entertainment venues. ‘Orwellian’ For rights advocates, the proposed amendment, while welcomed, doesn’t deal with the crux of the issue — growing surveillance in the age of the algorithm. Facial recognition technology is legal in New York. It is used by police and at airports. In 2020, the state government temporarily banned its use in schools. Campaigners like Cahn support a total ban. He says the Madison Square Garden example shows that private business can use facial recognition “to exclude anyone whose voice you want to silence.” MSG has deployed facial recognition technology since 2018. A New York Times report that year said the venue uses an algorithm to compare images taken by a camera to a stored database of photographs. “The facial recognition technology system does not retain images of individuals, with the exception of those who were previously advised they are prohibited from entering our venues, or whose previous misconduct in our venues has identified them as a security risk,” an MSG Entertainment spokesperson told AFP. The United States and the European Union are among those grappling with how to regulate the use of biometric data, facial recognition and artificial intelligence. Supporters say facial recognition bolsters security, but critics say the imperfect technology is prone to false matches among ethnic minorities and discriminatory. Detractors also highlight Chinese police’s use of it to track down and detain recent protesters. MSG’s use “paints an Orwellian picture of the society we’re in right now,” Daniel Schwarz of the New York Civil Liberties Union told AFP. View the full article