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Published by OK Magazine tiktok Meri and Kody Brown‘s only child, Leon, took to TikTok to reveal they’d had gender-affirming top surgery, nearly seven months after announcing they were transgender and used they/them pronouns. In a video re-shared by another user on the social media platform on Sunday, January 22, Leon was shirtless and talking about enjoying the quiet moments of life while making coffee. tiktok “When I was little and I saw the movieClick for the first time, I was mortified to see Adam Sandler‘s character fast forwarding through these little moments of his life,” they said in a voice over. “It is the little moments that become the big moments, and missing them is like missing your whole life.” WHO IS LEON BROWN? LEARN MORE ABOUT ‘SISTER WIVES’ STAR MERI BROWN’S CHILD WHO RECENTLY CAME OUT AS TRANSGENDER They provided no further details on the procedure or when they had underwent surgery. This comes eight months after Leon’s longtime partner, Audrey Kriss, who also identifies as transgender, revealed they had a similar procedure done. ‘SISTER WIVES’ STAR MYKELTI BROWN CONFIRMS MERI WILL NEVER BE A PART OF HER KIDS’ LIVES ‘BECAUSE OF THE TRAUMA’ SHE ENDURED AS A CHILD “Crazy what some self love and time to yourself can do sometimes,” Audrey previously captioned a series of photos comparing the difference between how they looked and where they were in life in 2020 and 2022. “These past few years have been hard but I have been fortunate to have had some amazing moments of growth and joy along the way,” they concluded. tiktok As OK! previously reported, Leon came out as trans in a candid Instagram post that was shared last June. “Someone recently told me that i didn’t have to have all of my s**t figured out in order for me to share myself with the world,” they wrote at the time. “So here’s me, definitely not having almost any of my s**t figured out, to let you know that I am trans.” “I remember the first time that I knew I wasn’t a girl. I was pretty young & unfortunately I grew up in a context that was incredibly gendered & restrictive,” they continued of their conservative upbringing. “so i continued to be socialized as a girl & later a woman.” Leon began dating Audrey in 2017 and in 2019 the couple confirmed they were engaged. View the full article

Published by Radar Online mega Pope Benedict XVI is posthumously spilling deep, dark secrets of the Catholic Church in a shocking, tell-all tome that he ordered to be published after his death. In the pages of What Christianity Is, the religious leader, who passed away on December 31, 2022, accused the Vatican of allegedly being “radically” manipulated by the “distortion of sexes be gender ideology.” mega “In various seminaries, homosexual clubs were formed which acted more or less openly and which clearly transformed the atmosphere in the seminaries,” the late Pope Benedict wrote in the 190-page book. He also claimed some bishops broke the Church’s longstanding rules by allowing trainees seeking the priesthood to watch pornography “with the intention of rendering them capable of resisting behaviors contrary to the faith.” mega “There were individual bishops, and not only in the United States, who rejected the Catholic tradition as a whole, aiming in their dioceses to develop a kind of new, modern catholicity,” Benedict explained in the book, per an outlet who obtained excerpts of the bombshell memoir. He also appeared to hint at his feud with his successor, Pope Francis, who is notorious for being less conservative when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights. Most recently, Francis distinguished that while homosexuality may be a “sin” in the eyes of the Church, it is not a “crime” in the eyes of the law. mega In Benedict’s 2016 book, The Last Conversations, he insisted that a “gay lobby” consisting of “four or five” members in the Vatican had attempted to influence him. He also purported that Francis had confirmed the alleged lobby continued to exist after Benedict stepped down from his role as pope in 2013. He further penned that in quite a few seminaries, students that were “caught reading” this book were deemed “unfit for the priesthood” and his books were supposedly hidden away as “harmful literature” that could only be perused privately by those whose beliefs aligned with his own. Prior to his passing, Pope Benedict told others that he did not want What Christianity Is published until after his death to protect both himself “and Christendom” from the backlash his biting words would surely cause. “For my part, in life, I no longer want to publish anything,” he wrote at the time. “The fury of the circles against me in Germany is so strong that the appearance of every my word immediately causes a murderous shouting from them.” The Herald Sun reported the excerpts of Benedict’s final book. View the full article

Published by AlterNet U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is continuing his campaign of obfuscation, just one day after amending his campaign finance report telling the Federal Elections Commission on Tuesday the half-million dollars he claimed to have personally loaned his campaign was not actually from his personal funds. Calling it a “tense exchange,” CNN’s Manu Raja reports Santos “would not explain to us why he amended his public filings to show that $500K from his contributions did not come from his personal funds.” “Sir — let’s make it very clear: I don’t amend anything, I don’t touch any of my FEC stuff, right?”… Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-NY) allegedly made a social media post appearing to praise Adolf Hitler while referring to “the Jews and Black” people, and frequently made pejorative “jokes” about being Jewish according to friends interviewed by Patch and screenshots of now-deleted social media posts. In 2011, Santos “commented on a Facebook post with what appear to be intended-jokes about Hitler, a phrase that appears to salute Hitler and observations about ‘the Jews and black[s],’ exclusive screenshots obtained by Patch show.” Patch, which published a screenshot of what appear to be Santos’ comme… Read More View the full article

Published by DPA German Bundestag President Baerbel Bas speaks at the hour of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism in the German Bundestag. Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa On International Holocaust Memorial Day, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas called for people who were persecuted and murdered during the Nazi era because of their sexual orientation or gender identity to be remembered. “Anyone who did not conform to National Socialist [Nazi] norms lived in fear and mistrust,” the politician said during a memorial hour in parliament on Friday. “The hardest hit were the many thousands of women and men who were deported to concentration camps – sometimes under pretexts – because of their sexuality.” Many of these people were exposed to pervasive violence, according to the report. “Many were abused for medical experiments,” Bas said. “Most died or were murdered after only a short time.” It is the task of every generation to deal anew with the crimes of history and to tell the story of all those persecuted, she said. Sexual minorities had waited a long time in vain for recognition as victims of the Nazi regime. Bas also urged people to take a closer look at discrimination against queer people today. “Anti-queer crimes are on the rise,” she said. “Gays, lesbians and trans people are insulted, harassed and attacked.” Rozette Kats (L), contemporary witness of the Holocaust, walks past Peter Tschentscher (R-L), First Mayor of Hamburg and acting President of the Bundesrat, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Klaus Schirdewahn, representative of the queer community, and Bundestag President Baerbel Bas after her speech at the hour of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism in the German Bundestag. Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa German Bundestag President Baerbel Bas (C) speaks at the hour of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism in the German Bundestag. Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa View the full article

Published by DPA Rozette Kats, contemporary witness of the Holocaust, speaks at the hour of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism in the German Bundestag. Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa Holocaust survivor Rozette Kats has called for all groups of victims of the Nazi era to be recognized equally, as Germany holds its national remembrance day with a focus on queer victims. “Every person who was persecuted at that time deserves to be remembered with respect,” the 80-year-old Dutchwoman said on Friday at a Bundestag memorial service. In her emotional speech, Kats referred to people who were persecuted by the Nazis because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Queer people were massively persecuted by the Nazis under laws that remained in force in Germany for many decades after the war. However, memorial services in the past have at times refrained from commemorating LGBTQ victims, Kats said. She thinks this is wrong. “If certain groups of victims are seen as less valuable than others, then in the end that only means one thing – that the Nazi ideology lives on and unfortunately continues to have an effect today,” she said. Rozette Kats (L), contemporary witness of the Holocaust, walks past Peter Tschentscher (R-L), First Mayor of Hamburg and acting President of the Bundesrat, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Klaus Schirdewahn, representative of the queer community, and Bundestag President Baerbel Bas after her speech at the hour of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism in the German Bundestag. Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Sam Smith was “spat at” by a stranger after publicly changing their pronouns. The ‘Stay With Me’ star came out as non-binary and adopted the gender pronouns of they/them back in 2019 and the singer has now revealed they were bombarded with abuse and even harassed on the street after bravely made their true identity known – and Sam says the constant hatred was just “exhausting”. Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Sam said: “I think all the only negatives in the struggle have been in my public life and my job. And just the amount of hate and s******** that came my way was just exhausting. “It was in the f****** news. Someone spat at me in the street. It’s crazy. What I find hard about it is it’s like, if that’s happening to me and I’m famous, I’m a pop star, can you imagine what other kids, like queer kids are feeling?” Sam added: “It’s just so sad that we’re in 2023 and it’s still happening. It’s exhausting and especially in England.” However, Sam is adamant they have no regrets because changing pronouns helped them feel “comfortable”. They went on: “So we’ve got two sides, really. My personal life and then my public life. And in my personal life, there’s not one negative. “My family, they can communicate with me. They always did. But they communicate with me now in an even better way. My love life has become better from it. I feel lovable. I feel comfortable in my skin, but I wear what I want to wear. “Since changing my pronouns, it felt like a coming home. I wish I knew what the words were when I was in school, because I would’ve identified as that in school. Because it is who I am and it’s who I’ve always been.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) – A coalition of 25 U.S. states led by Texas and Utah filed a lawsuit seeking to strike down a Biden administration rule allowing retirement plans to consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors such as climate change and racial justice when selecting investments. The states filed a complaint in a federal court in Amarillo, Texas, on Thursday arguing that the rule finalized in November will lead many retirement plans to focus on a social agenda rather than long-term financial stability for investors. The rule, which takes effect on Monday, reverses restrictions on socially conscious investing that were adopted by the Trump administration. The states in Thursday’s lawsuit said the new rule fails to justify the departure from Trump-era regulations, in violation of the federal law governing rulemaking. And, the states said, it violates the U.S. law that regulates employee benefit plans by failing to protect retirement assets. The U.S. Department of Labor, which adopted the rule, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, in a statement called the rule “insulting and illegal.” “For generations, federal law has required that fiduciaries place their clients’ financial interests at the forefront, and I intend to fight the Biden Administration in court to ensure that they cannot put hard-working Americans’ retirement savings at risk,” Paxton said. The lawsuit was assigned to U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who has struck down Biden administration rules on immigration and healthcare protections for LGBT people. The case is Utah v. Walsh, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, No. 2:23-cv-00016. (Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Jonathan Oatis) View the full article

Published by AFP Members of the Buffalo Bills lay flowers at a memorial near where 10 people were killed in May 2022 in Buffalo London (AFP) – A British teenager was on Friday sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for videos promoting racist violence that have been linked to two mass killings in the United States. Judge Patrick Field called Daniel Harris, 19, “highly dangerous” and a “propagandist for an extremist right-wing ideology”. “You were in close touch with other right-wing extremists online and there can be little doubt that you shared ideas between you,” Field told Harris in court. Harris was found guilty in December of five counts of encouraging terrorism and one count of possession of material for terrorist purposes, for trying to make a gun with a 3D printer. The judge at Manchester Crown Court in northern England sentenced Harris to 11 and a half years, with a further three years under supervised probation. The court heard that the teenager from Derbyshire in central England posted videos online for over a year, from the age of 17. Harris reportedly posted under the name BookAnon on a platform called World Truth Videos. His videos were shared by self-declared white supremacist Payton Gendron, who has pleaded guilty to murdering 10 black people in the United States. ‘Exterminate sub-humans’ Field told Harris “at the very least, the material you produced and published has had some influence upon the young man (Gendron)”. Gendron was 18 when he shot dead his victims in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York in May 2022. Prosecutors said a link was also found between Harris’s videos and Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, the sole suspect in a shooting in a gay nightclub in the US city of Colorado Springs in November 2022. The prosecutor said that one of Harris’s videos was posted on a “brother site” to one showing a livestream of Aldrich before the attack, which left five people dead. The court was told one of Harris’s videos, titled “How to Achieve Victory”, called for “total extermination of sub-humans once and for all”. Another video paid homage to the white supremacist murderer of British MP Jo Cox in 2016. He also praised the Australian white supremacist who murdered 51 Muslim people in New Zealand mosques in 2019 as a “saint”. Harris was arrested by counter-terrorism police at his home in the town of Glossop last May, two days after the attack in Buffalo. He had been previously convicted for vandalising a Manchester memorial to George Floyd, whose suffocation by a white police officer in Minneapolis triggered the worldwide “Black Lives Matter” protests. ‘Radicalising others’ Harris was placed in a government deradicalisation programme, but Counter-Terrorism Policing detective inspector Chris Brett said he continued to post extremist material. “Harris was ultimately deemed not to have been groomed, rather his provocative words and inflammatory films were potentially radicalising others,” Brett said. He warned other extremists that police would find them even if they “hide behind usernames, avatars and other technical blockers”. UK intelligence agencies, police and lawmakers have stepped up warnings about right-wing extremism. Domestic security agents have been investigating teenagers as young as 13 with suspected white supremacist beliefs, MI5 chief Ken McCallum said last year. Of 29 “late-stage” attack plots disrupted in the four preceding years, 10 were by extreme right-wingers, he said. The House of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee said in a December report that the online threat was driven by “predominantly young men, many of them still in their teens”. Few belong to organised groups and so are difficult to identify and monitor, the report said, and experts warn that online radicalisation only worsened during pandemic lockdowns. Harris’s lawyer said he was withdrawn from mainstream schooling aged seven and said there had been “quite disgraceful failings” by his family and the local authority. View the full article

Published by Reuters UK LONDON (Reuters) – Scottish actor Alan Cumming said on Friday he was giving back his OBE – Officer of the Order of the British Empire – award, saying his eyes had been “opened” over “the toxicity of empire”. Writing on his Instagram page, the “Instinct” and “The Good Wife” actor, who also has U.S. citizenship, said that while he had been “incredibly grateful” to receive the recognition in the 2009 Queen’s birthday honours list, he had recently changed his mind. Cumming said he was awarded the OBE for his work as an actor as well as “for activism for equal rights for the gay and lesbian communi… Read More View the full article

Published by Radar Online Rebel Wilson found herself at the center of controversy after attending the grand opening of Atlantis The Royal Resort in Dubai with her fiancée, Ramona Agruma, over the weekend, RadarOnline.com has discovered. Critics have blasted the Pitch Perfect star for making an appearance at the luxurious hotel event, citing the United Arab Emirates’ strict anti-LGBT laws. “The hypocrisy of it all,” one social media user commented after Wilson came out to the world last year in June 2022. In the months before, Wilson teased that she was “happily” in a relationship but did not reveal the identity of her new love. RadarOnline.com has learned that Wilson and Agruma served as co-hosts during the hotel’s opening of Nobu by the Beach on Sunday. Image Press Agency / MEGA “Gee Rebel. You do know that it’s the death penalty in Dubai for homosexuality?? Supporting such a country is really really poor form, especially as a member of that community,” another wrote. “Human rights? LGBTQ? Unfollowing now,” a third added. Several naysayers claimed her posts promoted tourism in the country after she took to Instagram to document her trip, which included an extravagant Beyoncé concert. “Atlantis The Royal is BEYond! What a weekend with BEY! @atlantistheroyal,” Wilson captioned a video shared via Instagram, documenting their fun-filled stay while enjoying the hotel’s amenities. APEX / MEGA Although some of her followers showed love to the photos, others continued to speak out about their issues with the excursion. “A nice free trip, to a place that you can’t be gay in,” a fourth sounded off via her comments section. “I had friends who were homosexual in Dubai, they had to get a two bedroom apartment just in case the authorities knocked on their door.” RadarOnline.com has reached out to a rep for Wilson for comment. JOCE/Bauergriffin.com / MEGA The backlash involving Wilson comes months after the Senior Year actress announced that she welcomed her first child, a baby girl named Royce Lillian, via surrogate last November. “I can’t even describe the love I have for her, she’s a beautiful miracle!” gushed Wilson, adding that she will be “forever grateful” for the people who supported her journey to motherhood, including the “gorgeous surrogate” who carried her baby girl and birthed her “with such grace and care.” View the full article

Published by Orlando Sentinel ORLANDO, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a series of proposals Monday aimed at school boards and teachers unions, the latest salvo in his battles over education policy in the state. DeSantis unveiled what he called a “Teachers Bill of Rights” at an event in Jacksonville that would give teachers the go-ahead to oppose their school boards if they believed their policies were against state law. He also proposed banning teachers unions from automatically deducting dues from paychecks, imposing stricter term limits on school board members and changing the state constitution to allow school board … Read More View the full article

Published by Radar Online mega GOP congressman George Santos has been accused of proposing to a former teenage boyfriend while he was still legally married to his wife, RadarOnline.com has learned. The controversial Republican congressman has been the source of several scandals since his election win, which included accusations of lying about his claim that his grandparents were Holocaust survivors and that his mother was in the South Tower during 9/11. Santos, 34, ran as an openly-gay GOP candidate but failed to disclose his former marriage to a woman during his successful campaign. A recent report claimed that in addition to allegedly proposing to his then-teenage boyfriend while he was married. Santos allegedly planned and announced an engagement party, without his former partner’s blessing or acceptance of his proposal. mega The 34-year-old congressman allegedly proposed to his then-boyfriend in 2014, five years before his divorce from ex-wife, Uadla Vieira Santos, which was finalized in 2019. Pedro Vilarva was 18 years old when he first met then-26-year-old Santos, the same year as the alleged proposal, in 2014. Vilarva claimed that even though he never accepted Santos’ multiple proposals, the then-future congressman invited their friends to celebrate their engagement that November —and even made a Facebook invite for the occasion. mega “Good evening everyone! As you all may already know Pedro and I have decided to join our toothbrushes! Lol and a very few friends have been selected to share this special moment with us!” Santos wrote in the Facebook post, shared by his former roommate, Greg Morey-Parker, to The Daily Beast. “Thanks for sharing this very important day in our lives.” The celebration was set for November 23, 2014, at La Bonne Soupe in Manhattan. The only problem was that Viarva claimed he never said yes. mega “He asked me 3x but I didn’t accept it,” Vilavra shared via text message to the Beast. “There was never a party [or] anything in regards to it.” Adding to the increasingly bizarre claims about the newly elected congressman’s former life, was the fact that his proposal came two years into his marriage with Uadla, the Brazilian woman Santos’ inner circle knew only as “a friend.” Santos’ former roommate alleged that the congressman even “tried to get me to marry some Brazilian woman so she could get citizenship,” at one point. The ex-roommate claimed the New York republican was going to make money off of the union, however, the report did not elaborate on any specific details of the alleged arrangement. mega Uadla actually filed for divorce in May 2013, almost a year prior to Santos’ alleged proposal. However, she withdrew the filing and remained married to Santos until September 2019. The divorce was finalized two weeks before Santos submitted paperwork for his initial 2020 campaign. View the full article

Published by Raw Story Antifa are “the fascists” rather than the far-right demonstrators they are fighting, argued Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday evening — in part, she said, because they support drag queens. The remarks came in an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, as she discussed a protest in Georgia against a new police training center that turned violent, with activists torching a police car and an officer fatally shooting one of the demonstrators. “They are not anti-fascists. They are the fascists,” said Greene. “Not only do they attack police, but they defend the drag queens targeting our childre… Read More View the full article

Published by Euronews (English) Spare a moment, no matter how painful it may be, to think about Tucker Carlson. The American conservative political commentator has been on a mission for a while now about “liberal woke agendas,” specifically regarding M&M’s and how outraged he was with the makeover the Green M&M underwent last year. The Fox News personality condemned the changes made to Green – essentially a change of footwear – because they made the character “less sexy.” The unhinged reaction included Carlson stating that “M&M’s will not be satisfied until every last cartoon character is deeply unappealing and totally andro… Read More View the full article

Published by OK Magazine mega Though it’s been 17 years since Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump allegedly had an affair, the world is still fascinated by the incident — except the former stripper. “It’s exhausting and eye rolling, but it’s not surprising, especially since he’s still around. Every time he pops out, I wish he would go away,” the 43-year-old exclusively tellsOK! while promoting OUTtv’s new show For The Love of DILFs. “But you know what? If it keeps my name out there and helps me promote things like For The Love of DILFs, maybe that is why I was put here. I hope seeing Trump naked was not for nothing. I can hopefully spin it and bring attention to other things, like this incredible new show.” OUTtv “I am not going to sit here and act all holier-than-thou. I did get paid, the check cleared, thank you very much,” the former stripper, who made headlines when she claimed she and Trump met in 2006 while attending the American Celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe and later got down and dirty, adds. “But like I said, I can bring awareness to other important things.” One of the reasons the actress signed on to do the reality show, which premieres on Tuesday, January 31, is she wants to change people’s views about certain groups. “The contestants on this show had some very important and frank conversations — it doesn’t matter what your sexual orientation is. The things that made this show different and struck a chord is yes, it’s the first show showcasing gay men and does so in a way that isn’t just the stereotypical one dimension version that a lot of people have of gay men. I can identify with that from being a porn star where people just see big boobs and blonde hair — that one character. I am that, obviously, but I am more than that. A lot of people are not familiar with accepting gay people or trans people, who are also human beings.” The blonde beauty hopes that by appearing on this new series, some of her haters and fans will join in, too. “I want them to watch so they can trash me — who cares? I used to say that when I did stand-up. I know half of you are here to hope that I fail and look stupid, but you paid anyway! I am hoping I can bring in a different set of viewers and a new pair of eyes to this community. They will be pleasantly surprised by what they see and learn.” STORMY DANIELS SAYS ‘PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS KNOW ME AS THE GIRL WHO F**KED’ DONALD TRUMP DURING ‘SURREAL LIFE’ PREMIERE: ‘WORST 90 SECONDS OF MY LIFE’ As for how Daniels deals with the naysayers, she has an interesting tactic. “We all know Twitter is my favorite sport. The trolls can’t go anywhere if you agree with them. A lot of times I disagree with them and then they go away. I also learned that people are entitled to their own opinion even if it sucks,” she says. outTv In the meantime, Daniels’ previously wrote Full Disclosure about what went down between her and Trump, in addition to touching upon her childhood and career, but she understands she still has more to say. “When the first book ends, there’s still all the court stuff that needs to be addressed,” she says, referring to when she appealed in her failed defamation suit against Trump. “I still want to wait because as soon as I release it, something else will happen! I also want to write a book for my husband because he’s got such a great story. He came from music, but he’s a rockstar and porn star, and I would talk all about our love story.” It’s been a whirlwind year for the star, as she was featured in The Surreal Life, which debuted on VH1, and is now appearing on this new reality show. In the future, Daniels has a lot more planned: she’s writing, directing and working on more books. However, she admits she hasn’t tuned into The Surreal Life ever since it aired. “I don’t know what’s worse: having to watch myself have sex all the time or that show!” she quips. “The producers did everything they said they were going to do, but I still haven’t brought myself to watch it. From what I’ve read, people said I didn’t come off crazy. I am like, ‘I showed up with a haunted doll, and I came off the least crazy?’ OK, I’m good with that!'” JIMMY KIMMEL, SOPHIA BUSH AND MORE CELEBS REACT TO TRUMP’S COVID-19 DIAGNOSIS Outtv For The Love of DILFs, which airs on January 31, will be on OUTtv and is produced by popular queer production company Daddy TV. OUTtv is the world’s first LGBTQ+ television network and the leading LGBTQ+ streaming service. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Sam Smith is obsessed with McDonald’s. The 30-year-old pop star can’t get enough of the fast food giant’s menu and loves “every single thing” they serve – insisting the burger chain’s meals are “fabulous” and they go to their local branch so often all the staff there know the singer by name. The Sun newspaper reports Sam told an Australian radio station: “I love McDonald’s. I love all of it. I think every single thing on the menu is genius. The world’s addicted, but it is fabulous. There’s a drive-thru near my house in England and they know me by name now.” However, Sam does’t always come home with a full meal – they often pop in just to pick up a hot drink. The singer added: “I sometimes turn up and just get a coffee, it’s not always food, it’s a lifestyle.” Sam previously admitted struggling during the COVID-19 lockdowns because the fast food chain’s outlets closed. In a post online, the pop star declared they just wanted a fast food dinner and a fun night out, writing: “I just cannot wait for McDonald’s. McDonald’s and a gay bar. That’s all I need.” They also shared a video in which they confessed to being part of a Whatsapp group full of McDonald’s fans who try and rate the company’s food. In a video posted online, Sam revealed: “I had to sample the double quarter pounder yesterday because it’s new. I love McDonald’s I have a Whatsapp group where we compare McDonald’s around the world because it’s different everywhere around the world. It should have a Michelin star.” View the full article

Published by City AM By Adam Bloodworth From Rebel Spending to Modern Family Travel, a new report from travel trend forecasting agency Globetrender has revealed a vision of what travel will be like in the year ahead, where people will be going to and what will be motivating their booking decisions. Download the full report here, but read on for the seven biggest takeaways. CHINA BOOMGlobetrender’s number-one travel trend for 2023 is “China Boom”. After three years of closure during the pandemic, the country has finally dropped its ‘zero Covid’ restrictions and opened its borders to international travel. This promi… Read More View the full article

Published by ValueWalk Guaranteed income plans have gained prominence since the COVID-19 pandemic. Several states and local governments have come up with similar programs targeting specific groups over the past couple of years. Last year, the city of San Francisco also introduced a guaranteed income program for eligible transgender residents. The program offers guaranteed stimulus checks to transgender residents for 18 months, and the first check under the program goes out this month. Q4 2022 hedge fund letters, conferences and more GIFT Program: What Is It?In November, Mayor London Breed announced the Guaranteed In… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters UK (Reuters) – Three men were arrested following reports of alleged homophobic chanting at the goalless draw between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield, Merseyside Police said on Tuesday. The men, aged 23, 37 and 49, were arrested on suspicion of homophobic intentional harassment alarm and distress in Saturday’s game, the police said in a statement to Reuters. In three separate incidents, two arrests took place outside the stadium on Anfield Road and one inside the ground, it added. “Merseyside Police will not tolerate hate crime of any form, and we will bring to justice anyone found responsible fo… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Diane Bartz and Moira Warburton WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee opened a hearing Tuesday on ticket industry competition issues after lawmakers raised concern about the disrupted sale of Taylor Swift concert tickets. The president of Ticketmaster parent Live Nation, Joe Berchtold, told the committee in written testimony that “industrial-scale ticket scalping” was to blame for the company’s problems late last year in the Swift sale. Ticketmaster, which has been unpopular with fans for years, has drawn fresh heat from U.S. lawmakers over how it handled ticket sales for Swift’s “Eras” tour, her first in five years. Experts say that Ticketmaster commands more than 70% market share of primary ticket services for major U.S. concert venues. “In hindsight there are several things we could have done better – including staggering the sales over a longer period of time and doing a better job setting fan expectations for getting tickets,” Berchtold said. SeatGeek Chief Executive Jack Groetzinger said in written testimony that “innovation in live event ticketing has been stunted” because Live Nation “controls the most popular entertainers in the world, the ticketing systems, and even many of the venues.” Groetzinger added that 12 years after the merger “Ticketmaster’s stranglehold on the primary ticketing market endures, insulated from meaningful competition despite a highly unpopular product offering whose failings have become front page headlines.” Ticketmaster has argued that bots used by scalpers were behind the Taylor Swift debacle, and Berchtold is expected to ask for more help in fighting bots that buy tickets for resale, sometimes at astronomical prices. Other witnesses include Jerry Mickelson, president of JAM Productions, who has been among critics of Ticketmaster. In November, Ticketmaster canceled a planned ticket sale to the general public for Swift’s tour after more than 3.5 billion requests from fans, bots and scalpers overwhelmed its website. Senator Amy Klobuchar, who heads the Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, has said the issues that cropped up in November were not new and potentially stemmed from consolidation in the ticketing industry. In November, the company denied any anticompetitive practices and noted it remained under a consent decree with the Justice Department following its 2010 merger with Live Nation, adding that there was no “evidence of systemic violations of the consent decree.” A previous Ticketmaster dispute with the Justice Department culminated in a December 2019 settlement extending the consent agreement into 2025. (Reporting by Diane Bartz, Moira Warburton and David Shepardson) View the full article

Published by Wayarc Daily MET Police Chief Sir Mark Rowley last night admitted hundreds of officers from his own force should be “thrown out” for criminal and nefarious conduct. Sir Mark spoke of his “disgrace” after a landmark report released today revealed how police officers got away with breaking the law and keeping their jobs. reports revealed how 1,800 serving police officers and staff were allowed to continue despite multiple misconduct rapes. Baroness Casey of Blackstock’s report branded the London Armed Forces’ system of misconduct as racist, misogynistic and unfit for purpose. It revealed how 1,800 serving po… Read More View the full article

Published by Chicago Tribune Romantic comedies have been in a slump for the last decade-plus, but a small batch featuring recognizable stars are set to premiere over the next few weeks. This seems as good a time as any to take a state-of-the-union look at the genre. This week, “Shotgun Wedding” starring Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel premieres on Amazon. It’s an action rom-com about a couple’s destination wedding in the Dominican Republic that turns chaotic when they and their guests are taken hostage. Feb. 10 is something of a mini-bonanza with “Your Place or Mine” on Netflix (Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher as lon… Read More View the full article

Published by Euronews (English) Beyoncé performed her first live show in more than four years in an exclusive, invite-only concert in Dubai. The Grammy-winning star, who last performed live in December 2018, gave a 1 hour+ performance on Saturday (21 January), complete with fireworks, to help launch the city’s new luxurious hotel: The Atlantis Royal. Attendees included her parents, husband Jay-Z and her three children, as well as celebrity guests (Kendall Jenner, Ellen Pompeo, Winston Duke, Letitia Wright), influencers and business people. Attendees were not allowed to record video or take photos of the concert. Nevertheless… Read More View the full article

Published by California Healthline For Tammy Rainey, finding a health care provider who knows about gender-affirming care has been a challenge in the rural northern Mississippi town where she lives. As a transgender woman, Rainey needs the hormone estrogen, which allows her to physically transition by developing more feminine features. But when she asked her doctor for an estrogen prescription, he said he couldn’t provide that type of care. “He’s generally a good guy and doesn’t act prejudiced. He gets my name and pronouns right,” said Rainey. “But when I asked him about hormones, he said, ‘I just don’t feel like I know enough … Read More View the full article