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Published by Reuters By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law on Tuesday at a jubilant celebration that featured U.S. singer Cyndi Lauper performing “True Colors” in front of thousands of supporters on the White House lawn. The new law provides federal recognition to same-sex marriages, a measure born out of concern that the Supreme Court could reverse its legal support of such relationships. Cheers erupted from the crowd as Biden signed the bill. “Marriage is a simple proposition. Who do you love? And will you be loyal to that person you love? It’s not more complicated than that. The law recognizes that everyone should have the right to answer those questions for themselves,” Biden said. “Today’s a good day.” The event featured performances by pop icons Lauper and British singer Sam Smith. “Well, this time, love wins,” Lauper said before starting to sing. Made famous by her 1983 song “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” Lauper, 69, said the act offered peace of mind to families like hers and Americans nationwide. “We can rest easy tonight because our families are validated and because now we’re allowed to love who we love, which sounds odd to say, but Americans can now love who we love,” Lauper, an activist on LGBT issues who has been married to actor David Thornton since 1991, told reporters at a briefing prior to the performance. Addressing the crowd before the signing, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the bill promoted equality. “Everyone deserves to bask in the magical blessing of building a union with the person you love,” she said. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose daughter and her wife are expecting a child, called it “a day of jubilation.” (Reporting by Steve Holland, Andrea Shalal, Katharine Jackson; Editing by Howard Goller and Josie Kao) View the full article

Published by The Philadelphia Inquirer This year was a big one for name-brand pop stars, and out-of-the-blue success stories — some of which made songs from the not-so-recent past ever present in the here and now. The best-of song list below contains its fair share of superstars like Harry Styles and Kendrick Lamar along with personal favorites, Philly standouts and 2022 discoveries of mine, some of which will hopefully also be new to you, dear reader and listener. The tracks are numbered, but not ranked. The 28 songs are sequenced as a playlist below. Feel free to hit shuffle though, I won’t be offended. 1. Steve Lacy, “Bad Habit”… Read More View the full article

Published by uInterview.com Grant Wahl, the journalist who died while covering the World Cup on Saturday, had an aortic aneurysm, his family revealed. He collapsed in his seat at Lusail Stadium during the match between Argentina and the Netherlands and emergency service workers took him out on a stretcher. His death resulted from a rupture in a blood vessel leading to the heart, according to an autopsy of Wahl, who was 49 at the time of death. IN MEMORIAM 2022: 100 GREAT CELEBRITIES WHO DIED THIS YEAR! Wahl’s wife, Dr. Celine Gounder, publicly confirmed his cause of death amid speculation that it was due to vaccine compl… Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet The hate crime mass shooting during a drag show at Club Q, a Colorado Springs nightclub that catered to LGBTQ people and their friends and families, left five people dead, 25 people injured, and a suspect with 305 criminal charges. Club Q co-owner Matthew Haynes testified before Congress Wednesday, telling lawmakers that LGBTQ people are being “slaughtered and dehumanized,” as he read a few excerpts from what he says are the “hundreds” of messages of hate he received in the wake of the attack. On December 1, the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security published its latest terrorism threat report, and … Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Janet Jackson has announced her first tour in four years. Her ‘Together Again’ gigs will mark her 50 years in entertainment and the singer, 56, told fans she could not “wait” to see them again when she announced it on Instagram on Monday. (12.22.22) Revealing she was going back on the road in April 2023 in North America, as well as cities including New York, Atlanta, Austin and Seattle, she said in a video: “You guys, I miss you so much, I am so excited to see you. You guys have no idea, I’ve missed you so much, so much, and I can’t wait to be with you. I’m so excited.” ‘Together Again’ will also marks the 25th anniversary of her ‘Velvet Rope’ album and 30 years since the release of her 1993 record ‘Janet’. Ludacris, 45, will also join the tour as a special guest. Janet’s last album was ‘Unbreakable’ released in 2015, and she last toured from September to November of 2019 for the ‘Janet Jackson: A Special 30th Anniversary Celebration of Rhythm Nation’ shows. Janet, who has had 10 US number one hits, and estimated global record sales of 100 million, will start her new tour on April 14 in Hollywood at the Hard Rock Live Arena and end on June 20 at Portland, Oregon’s Moda Center. She has recently been focusing on family after having a son in 2017 with husband Wissam Al Mana. Tickets for her upcoming tour go on sale from Friday December 16 at 11am local time on LiveNation.com. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Nate Raymond (Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Monday allowed New York to restrict the carrying of firearms on private property under a new law adopted in wake of a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling that expanded gun rights. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put on hold a judge’s order from last month that barred officials from enforcing part of the new law making it a felony to carry a gun on private property without the property owner’s express consent. It marked the latest instance of the New York-based federal appeals court staying a ruling that had blocked large parts of the Concealed Carry Improvement Act, passed this year by the Democratic-led state legislature. The law was enacted after the Supreme Court in June struck down the state’s strict gun permitting regime and declared for the first time that the U.S. Constitution protects a person’s right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense. The new law made obtaining a firearms license more difficult as of Sept. 1 and barred firearms from a long list of “sensitive” public and private places. Two firearms owners and two gun rights groups including Firearms Policy Coalition sued to challenge a provision that made it a felony for a licensed gun owner to possess a firearm on any private property unless the property owner allowed it with a sign or by giving express consent. U.S. District Judge John Sinatra, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump in Buffalo, in a Nov. 22 decision concluded that provision violated the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.” Sinatra said the provision was unconstitutional under the Supreme Court’s gun rights precedents and would “interfere with the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens who seek to carry for self-defense outside of their own homes.” (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by David Gregorio) View the full article

Published by WINgg Valorant developers have just confirmed a popular ship between two popular agents, Raze and Killjoy. There have been some hints in Valorant lore as of late that Raze and Killjoy are romantically involved. But it was never explicitly stated nor confirmed. That all changed on December 11, however. Raze and Killjoy are both very outspoken and sarcastic agents on the roster and a lot of interactions between the two have been very fiery. Killjoy can be heard telling her partner that she’s good at “driving people crazy” in one interaction, showing their spicy dynamic. Another voice line has Raze ask… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Natalie Grover LONDON (Reuters) -Increased drug resistance in bacteria causing bloodstream infections, including against last-resort antibiotics, was seen in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, a World Health Organization report based on data from 87 countries in 2020 showed. The overuse and/or misuse of antibiotics has helped microbes to become resistant to many treatments, while the pipeline of replacement therapies in development is alarmingly sparse. High levels (above 50%) of resistance have been reported in bacteria that typically cause life-threatening bloodstream infections in hospitals such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter spp, report authors highlighted on Friday. These infections often require treatment with ‘last-resort’ antibiotics, drugs that are used when all other antibiotics fail. About 8% of bloodstream infections caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae grew resistant to a vital last-resort group of drugs called carbapenems, the report said. Rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remain very high, but last-resort antibiotics are only just starting to lose potency, said Dr Carmem Pessoa-Silva, the lead for WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System, in a media conference. The message of hope, she said is, “we have a very narrow window of opportunity…for responding to the threat.” While there is a concerted push to limit the unbridled use of antibiotics, the pace of new research remains grim. The effort, cost and time it takes to get an antibiotic approved and the limited return on investment have deterred drugmakers, as treatments must be priced cheaply and are designed to be used as little as possible to limit drug resistance. As a result, the lion’s share of antibiotic development is taking place in a handful of labs of small biopharma companies as a majority of their larger counterparts focus on more lucrative markets. Only a few big pharmaceutical companies remain in the space — including GSK and Merck — down from more than 20 in the 1980s. A landmark global analysis published earlier this year found that 1.2 million people died in 2019 due to antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, making AMR a leading cause of death worldwide, higher than HIV/AIDS or malaria. “Political commitment (on AMR) must now urgently move from aspiration into action,” said Thomas Cueni, director general at International Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations. The authors of the WHO report said more research is needed to identify the reasons behind the jump in AMR in the period studied, and to what extent it is linked to the accelerated use of antibiotics during the pandemic. AMR rates also remain difficult to interpret due to insufficient testing and weak laboratory capacity, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, the authors wrote. (Reporting by Natalie Grover in London; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Arun Koyyur) View the full article

Published by The Seattle Times SEATTLE —The Archdiocese of Seattle has paid nearly $2.3 million since August to settle five claims brought by people who alleged they were sexually abused decades ago by clergy and parish school personnel. The settlements, for allegations of abuse occurring in the 1950s, 1970s, and 1980s, were announced by the archdiocese in November. Three of the five cases involve alleged perpetrators who have since died. They are the only individuals named in an archdiocesan news release. The settlements, collectively totaling $2,285,000, are the latest of more than 450 cases the archdiocese has paid more … Read More View the full article

Published by PsyPost A new study has uncovered a link between high levels of Catholic collective narcissism and acceptance of myths about child sexual abuse. The findings, which were published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, could help inform efforts to combat prejudice against underaged victims of sexual abuse. “Even though sexual relations between priests and minors have taken place inside the Catholic Church for centuries, the Catholic hierarchy was not always prone to fight against pedophilia in an official way,” said study author Marta Marchlewska, an associate professor and the head of the Poli… Read More View the full article

Published by OK Magazine mega Cher‘s mother, Georgia Holt, passed away at the age of 96-years-old. The “Turn Back Time” singer took to social media on Saturday, December 10, to confirm the heartbreaking news to friends and followers. “Mom is gone,” she wrote, followed by a sad face emoji. mega Celebrities and fans alike immediately flooded to the comments section to offer their condolences to the 76-year-old superstar during this difficult time. ‘SHE’S JUST NOT INTO MEN HER AGE’: CHER’S NEW ROMANCE WITH MUCH YOUNGER ALEXANDER EDWARDS HAS GIVEN HER A ‘BOOST’ Hillary Clinton replied, “So sorry for your loss, my friend. Sending you all the in the world,” while Perez Hilton said, “My deepest condolences. The biggest hug to you and your family! Your mother was a gem!” “It doesn’t matter how old we are… or they are, there’s nothing like losing your mother,” Wonder Woman voice actress Susan Eisenberg commented. “So very sorry for the loss of your amazing Mom.” mega Holt’s tragic passing comes three months after she was hospitalized with pneumonia. Cher updated her followers on her mother’s health in September, writing: “Sorry I’ve Been Mia. Mom’s Been Sick Off & On. She Just Got Out Of Hosp. She Had Pneumonia.” CHER REPORTEDLY SUING EX-HUSBAND SONNY BONO’S WIDOW OVER ROYALTIES, SEEKING AT LEAST $1 MILLION IN DAMAGES Two years prior, the multi Grammy Award winner opened up on the struggles of the pandemic and the steps she was taking to protect her elderly mother from Covid, including testing frequently and masking up. mega “We have a little bubble that we’ve had all this time,” she explained at the time. “We wear masks, and there’s not very many of us. It’s my sister, my brother-in-law, my mom, my assistant. And we stay far apart from each other.” “I have to be careful too because I have asthma,” she continued of their precautions. “I have different health problems.” Holt was born in Arkansas in 1926 and later became known as a singer, songwriter and actress. Other than Cher, she is survived by her daughter Georganne LaPiere, her grandchildren Chaz Bono and Elijah Blue Allman, as well as her longtime partner, Craig Spencer. Cher spoke to People in 2020 on her mother’s health during the pandemic. View the full article

Published by uInterview.com On Monday morning, Selenis Levya and George Lopez‘s daughter, Mayan Lopez, announced the 2023 Golden Globe nominations. Mayan stepped in for George after the comedian tested positive for Covid-19. Dark comedy The Banshees of Inisherin was the most nominated film of the year, receiving eight nods. Biopic Elvis, the popular sci-fi movie Everything Everywhere All At Once, and Steven Spielberg‘s coming-of-age drama, The Fabelmans, all followed close behind with several nominations. >WATCH KERRY CONDON’s uINTERVIEW NOW! As far as the TV portion of the awards, satirical drama The White Lotus, Quinta… Read More View the full article

Published by AFP Billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk (L) and Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious disease expert and chief medical advisor to the US president Washington (AFP) – The White House on Monday condemned billionaire Elon Musk’s call for Anthony Fauci, the US infectious disease expert who is a hate figure for many on the right, to be prosecuted over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. “These are incredibly dangerous, these personal attacks that we are seeing,” said White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, in response to the weekend tweet by Musk that subsequently went viral. “They are disgusting and they are divorced from reality,” she said. Musk, the owner of Twitter, took to the site Sunday to urge punishment for Fauci, who led the government’s approach to the pandemic when it hit the country in early 2020. “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Musk said, tauntingly playing on the growing practice for people to indicate their preferred gender pronouns. Musk also posted a meme showing Fauci telling US President Joe Biden, “Just one more lockdown, my king,” in apparent criticism of the coronavirus mitigation measures initially taken in parts of the country in the first year of the pandemic. Conservatives including former president Donald Trump have made Fauci a focus of their criticisms of the government campaign to battle Covid, and he has faced death threats and had a security team assigned to protect him. “These personal attacks that we’ve been seeing are dangerous on Dr. Fauci and other public health professionals as well,” said Jean-Pierre. “Dr. Fauci has served under seven Republican and Democratic presidents. We cannot forget that…. His work on infectious disease from HIV Aids to COVID has saved countless lives,” she said. “We are fortunate, I should say, that he has devoted his career and his life and his exceptional talent to America’s public health.” Republican lawmakers have pledged to grill Fauci when they take control of the House of Representatives in January, after locking horns repeatedly with the top immunologist over Covid vaccines, mask mandates and other pandemic-related issues. Fauci, 81, is due to step down this month from his roles in government as Biden’s chief medical advisor, as well as director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, which he has headed since 1984. In what was likely his final White House appearance in November, Fauci slammed the proliferation of bad health advice online and said the most difficult thing he had to deal with while helming America’s fight against Covid was the country’s polarization along political lines. View the full article

Published by uPolitics.com New Twitter owner Elon Musk declared on Sunday, “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” simultaneously swiping at the famous immunologist and offending Queer advocates. Musk made the jab on his social media site, where he has a history of lambasting Covid protocols and the expansion of pronoun use. Musk’s jab at Dr. Anthony Fauci was preempted by new CDC guidance to resume masking in public. “Truth resonates,” Musk tweeted on Monday, implying the outrage around his tweet indicates his accuracy. The tweet has 1.1 million likes and 176,000 retweets. “Elon, please don’t mock and promote hate toward al… Read More View the full article

Published by New York Daily News NEW YORK — Broadway actor Jaquel Spivey has landed his first feature movie role. The Tony-nominated star of “A Strange Loop” has been cast to play the role of gay best friend Damian Hubbard in the film adaptation of the “Mean Girls” musical, based on Tina Fey’s 2004 high school comedy. Spivey will join Renée Rapp, who reprises her role as superficial teen queen Regina George during the musical’s Broadway run, which ended in March 2020, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “Little Mermaid Live” star Auli’i Cravalho has been cast as Janis and “Spider-Man” movie franchise star Angourie Rice is se… Read More View the full article

Published by Euronews (English) A museum devoted to Russia’s LGBTQ history in St Petersburg has opened and closed in the space of a few days after Russia’s tough new ‘gay propaganda’ law came into force. Pyotr Voskresensky is the founder of the museum. He dedicated years to amassing the collection of Russian-made statues, jewellery, vases, books and other art objects that showcased the history of the country’s LGBTQ subculture However, the collection fell foul of the law that completely bans what the authorities regard as the promotion of “non-traditional” sexual relations. On the 5th of December, Russian president Vladimir … Read More View the full article

Published by Euronews (English) Indonesia’s new ban on extramarital sex has sent shockwaves through its digital nomad community. On Tuesday, Indonesia’s parliament approved a new criminal code banning sex outside of marriage, prohibiting unmarried couples from living together, and criminalising adultery. The laws – which take effect in three years – will apply to locals and tourists alike, with a punishment of up to one year in prison. Indonesia has long been the destination of choice for digital nomads – those who take advantage of remote working to head to another country. The community has had mixed reactions to the new … Read More View the full article

Published by Fadeaway World By Gautam Varier LeBron James reacted to the passing of journalist Grant Wahl, who had written the iconic “Chosen One” cover story on James for Sports Illustrated. The sports world suffered a devastating loss on the 10th of December when renowned journalist Grant Wahl passed away while covering the FIFA World Cup. Wahl had been in the business for over two decades and while he primarily covered soccer, he was very much into college basketball in his early years. It was, in fact, Wahl who wrote that iconic Sports Illustrated cover story of LeBron James as the “Chosen One” back in 2002. It is so… Read More View the full article

Published by Euronews (English) Day 11 of our Cultural Advent Calendar, in which we’re counting down our highlights of 2022 day-by-day all the way to Christmas and beyond. Our top TV and streaming picks continue with ‘And Just Like That…’, the revival and sequel of the HBO television series ‘Sex and the City’. There’s a certain generation of people for whom ‘Sex and the City’ was so formative that rewatching the show is like a journey deep into your own psyche. I’m talking about myself, obviously. When the sequel ‘And Just Like That…’ was announced, I was equal parts apprehensive and excited. After nearly two decades of … Read More View the full article

Published by New York Daily News NEW YORK — A Manhattan man who tangled with anti-Drag Story Hour protesters at a Midtown library was arrested after a confrontation with a cop, police said Sunday. Chase Catapano, 28, can be seen on video ripping a “Leave Our Kids Alone” sign out of the hands of one of the protesters at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library on Fifth Avenue at West 40th Street. “You’re a f—ing disgrace, a f—ing disgrace,” he yells, video posted to Twitter shows. Moments later, a plain-clothed cop can be seen putting a finger to Catapano’s chest. Catapano then hits the cop in the chest before the officer leads… Read More View the full article

Published by The Kansas City Star Twenty-four hours after the tragic and shocking death of Grant Wahl, an American journalist who died while reporting on the World Cup in Qatar, his brother Eric is imagining a moment from their childhood — more specifically, the basement of the Mission, Kansas house in which they grew up. In the memory, Grant is sitting at a table, his ankles tied to his chair. He’d done it to himself, Eric clarifies quickly with a slight laugh. Grant had wanted to ensure that he wouldn’t stop working on his homework until it had all been completed, so he borrowed some twine from the garage and tied his feet t… Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Daniel Craig is set to star in ‘Queer’. The ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’ is attached to star in director Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ seminal 1985 novel of the same name, Deadline reports. ‘Queer’ follows the self-conscious and insecure Lee, who befriends and pursues a recently-discharged American Navy serviceman called Allerton. The novel is a sequel to the author’s semi-autobiographical novel ‘Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict’ and the writer – who penned the book between 1951 and 1953, decades before it was published – previously explained it represented his life off heroin. Steve Buscemi previously planned to direct a different adaptation of the book in 2011, which had Stanley Tucci, Ben Foster and John Ventimiglia in line to star. Meanwhile, Daniel recently admitted he knew he wanted James Bond to die as soon as he saw the “enormity” of his first outing of the spy, ‘Casino Royale’ in 2006. He said: “I was driving away from the Berlin premiere of ‘Casino Royale’ with Barbara Broccoli. “I had genuinely thought I would do one Bond movie, then it would be over. But by then we knew we had a hit on our hands. I realised the enormity of it, so I said to Barbara, ‘How many more? Three? Four?’ She said, ‘Four!’ I said, ‘OK. Then can I kill him off?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ “ Despite the agreement, Daniel returned for a fifth movie, 2021’s ‘No Time To Die’, but he admitted planning for Bond’s death had to be kept secret because studio bosses weren’t thrilled at the idea of killing off the iconic character. He recalled: “I said, ‘This is it. I don’t want to do any more.’ “If we kill Bond, we can begin again. I think Barbara thought that too. But, bless them, the studio, MGM, were, like, ‘What are you talking about? Are you out of your minds?’ There was reluctance. So we had to do it in secret, really.” View the full article

Published by The Philadelphia Inquirer PHILADELPHIA — As a thumping bass beat shook the floor, Gregory Pierce praised the good people and good vibes at Level Up, a Center City club. The past two months, though, there’s been another attraction. On a recent visit, the DJ interrupted a set for a public service announcement: In a lounge, upstairs from the bar where beams of primary colored light swept over people drinking and dancing, health workers were delivering vaccines for mpox, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recently renamed the virus long called monkeypox in an effort to reduce stigma associated with the n… Read More View the full article

Published by Computer World By Preston Gralla Back in April, two days after Elon Musk announced his plan to buy Twitter, Musk had a private phone call with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. One might have expected Musk to ask Nadella for advice on how to turn around the flailing Twitter — after all, Nadella had engineered perhaps the most successful tech turnaround in history. In 2014 he took the helm of a directionless Microsoft riven by discord and stagnation and whose stock price had dropped by more than half during what is generally called Microsoft’s lost decade. Today, thanks to Nadella’s guidance, Microsoft has the thi… Read More View the full article