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Published by Reuters By Guy Faulconbridge and Humeyra Pamuk LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns was expected to caution President Vladimir Putin’s spy chief at talks on Monday about the consequences of any use of nuclear weapons, and to raise the issue of U.S. prisoners in Russia, a White House official said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to Russian news agencies that a U.S.-Russia meeting had taken place in the Turkish capital Ankara but declined to give details about the participants or the subjects discussed. The White House spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Burns was meeting Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service. It was the first known high-level, face-to-face U.S.-Russian contact since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. “He is not conducting negotiations of any kind. He is not discussing settlement of the war in Ukraine,” the spokesperson said. “He is conveying a message on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, and the risks of escalation to strategic stability … He will also raise the cases of unjustly detained U.S. citizens.” Burns is a former U.S. ambassador to Russia who was sent to Moscow in late 2021 by President Joe Biden to caution Putin about the troop build-up around Ukraine. “We briefed Ukraine in advance on his trip. We firmly stick to our fundamental principle: nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” the spokesperson said. Putin has repeatedly said Russia will defend its territory with all available means, including nuclear weapons, if attacked. He says the West has engaged in nuclear blackmail against Russia. MANY OUTSTANDING ISSUES The remarks raised particular concern in the West after Moscow declared in September that it had annexed four Ukrainian regions that its forces partly control. The U.S.-Russian contact in Turkey was first reported by Russia’s Kommersant newspaper. The SVR did not respond to a request for comment. Beyond the war, Russia and the United States have a host of outstanding issues to discuss, ranging from the extension of a nuclear arms reduction treaty and a Black Sea grain deal to a possible prisoner swap and the Syrian civil war. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, asked at a summit of the Group of 20 (G20) leading economies in Indonesia about the meeting in Turkey, said the United Nations was not involved. Biden said this month he hoped Putin would be willing to discuss seriously a swap to secure the release of U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, who has been sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony on drugs charges. Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who holds American, British, Canadian and Irish passports, was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in a Russian jail after being convicted of spying, a charge he denied. Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer jailed in the United States, has been mentioned as a person who could be swapped for Griner and Whelan in any prisoner exchange. (Reporting by Reuters; Additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer in Turkey; Editing by Gareth Jones) View the full article

Published by AFP Former US vice president Mike Pence, right, at a November 4, 2022, campaign appearance in Michigan Washington (AFP) – Former president Donald Trump’s inflammatory words before and during last year’s US Capitol insurrection endangered Americans including his own deputy Mike Pence, the former vice president said in a television interview set to air Monday. “The president’s words that day at the rally (before the riot) endangered me and my family and everyone at the Capitol,” Pence told ABC News. Pence reportedly is laying the groundwork for a presidential run in 2024. It would pit him against his former boss, who has convened the media to his palatial Florida home on Tuesday night reportedly to announce his own White House bid. Pence’s interview to be broadcast on ABC’s “World News Tonight” coincides with the release Tuesday of his memoir, “So Help Me God.” The veteran Republican told the network that Trump, speaking on January 6, 2021 at a park near the White House, incited the crowd before it marched toward the Capitol: “The president’s words were reckless. It was clear he decided to be part of the problem.” Pence said he was “angered” when he read a Trump tweet that day asserting that the vice president “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done” to keep Trump in office by blocking Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. “I turned to my daughter, who was standing nearby, and I said, ‘It doesn’t take courage to break the law. It takes courage to uphold the law,'” Pence told the network. The vice president was on Capitol Hill at the time, and US Secret Service officers evacuated him from the US Senate chamber where he narrowly avoided an encounter with rioters who had stormed into the complex. Pence has largely kept mum about his interactions with Trump in the run-up to the January 6 mob attack — until this month. In an excerpt from his memoir, published last week by the Wall Street Journal, Pence said he spoke with Trump by phone on New Year’s Day 2021 and conveyed his refusal to take part in a plan to keep Trump in power. “‘You’re too honest,'” Pence said Trump told him. “Hundreds of thousands are gonna hate your guts…. People are gonna think you’re stupid.'” View the full article

Published by Radar Online mega Ivanka Trump cropped out her brother Don Jr.’s fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, in what some perceived as a social media snub, RadarOnline.com has discovered, before reposting the same image with the TV personality included. The former first daughter sparked rumors of a family feud after sharing a photo on her Instagram grid captured at sister Tiffany Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago wedding this weekend — sans Guilfoyle. MEGA In the portrait, Tiffany stood front and center in her sparkling Elie Saab gown with her mother Marla Maples dressed in mauve on her right. Next to Marla was Tiffany’s sister-in-law Lara Trump, who could be seen wearing a gold sparkly dress. Melania Trump was in a creme colored dress to Tiffany’s left and Ivanka could be seen alongside Melania in a baby blue gown. Next to Ivanka in the original image was Guilfoyle, who wore a black dress to the event. The Trump ladies were gathered to watch Tiffany exchange vows with 25-year-old billionaire Michael Boulos. Within moments, several social media users noticed the image was cropped. Some questioned if Ivanka cut the portrait because Guilfoyle was wearing black. MEGA Wedding etiquette expert Elaine Swann said wearing black to weddings has been viewed as a fashion faux pas in past years, but that it’s now being more widely accepted if done with the proper style. Instead, the rule of thumb is to “always avoid wearing anything that’s too low cut, too short, or too tight,” Swann told Brides Magazine last year. Interestingly, Ivanka later reposted the uncropped photo to her Instagram Stories with heart emoji, ensuring that Guilfoyle was back in it. Although some called the move savage on Twitter, an insider told Daily Mail there is no ill will between them. mega Ivanka and Guilfoyle spent a “lot of time together at the wedding and really have a wonderful relationship,” claimed the insider, confirming it was just a terrible mistake. “Ivanka loves Kimberly and in no way would crop her out,” added the source. “The two women are very close and Kimberly has really become part of the Trump family. When Ivanka realized what had happened, she immediately reposted the photo.” View the full article

Published by Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A watchdog group on Monday asked the U.S. Federal Election Commission to probe a $20 million transfer between two groups tied to former President Donald Trump, alleging the money was illegally sponsoring Trump’s aim to return to the White House. Trump has repeatedly hinted that he plans to run for president again in 2024 and has invited media to his Florida estate on Tuesday for what he says will be a “major announcement.” Since leaving office in 2021, the former president has aggressively raised money for his Save America group. But under campaign finance rules he is barred from spending Save America funds on his own campaigns. In October, Save America transferred $20 million to a Trump-aligned group called Make America Great Again Inc, which is registered with the Federal Elections Commission as an independent super PAC. The group spent more than $11 million supporting Republican candidates in the midterm elections and last reported having more than $23 million in the bank on Oct. 19. The legal complaint filed on Monday by the Campaign Legal Center, a non-partisan group, said the FEC is obliged to investigate the transfer because the money is “obviously intended to fund support for Trump’s 2024 presidential candidacy.” An FEC spokesperson said the commission does not comment on litigation. (Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Chizu Nomiyama) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Andrew Chung WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away another challenge to a federal ban imposed under former President Donald Trump on devices called “bump stocks” that enable a semi-automatic weapon to fire like a machine gun. The justices declined to review an appeal by a group of firearms dealers and individuals in Minnesota, Texas and Kentucky after a lower court rejected their argument that the government had violated the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment “takings clause” by effectively taking their private property without just compensation. Trump’s administration moved to reclassify bump stocks as machine guns, which are forbidden under U.S. law, in a rare firearms control measure prompted by a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. The Supreme Court in 2019 declined to block the ban from going into effect. The justices last month rejected appeals by a Utah gun lobbyist and firearms rights groups of lower court rulings upholding the ban as a reasonable interpretation of a federal law prohibiting machine gun possession. Bump stocks use a gun’s recoil to bump its trigger, enabling a semiautomatic weapon to fire hundreds of rounds per minute to let it shoot like a machine gun. Trump pledged to ban them after a gunman used semiautomatic weapons outfitted with bump stocks in a shooting spree that killed 58 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a U.S. Justice Department agency, reversed a previous conclusion and classified bump stocks as machine guns under a 1934 U.S. law called the National Firearms Act. The policy took effect in 2019. Two sets of plaintiffs filed lawsuits seeking compensation for having to destroy or surrender their bump stocks in the Court of Federal Claims, which hears monetary claims against the U.S. government. A judge dismissed the actions, finding the policy to be a lawful exercise of the federal government’s power to outlaw dangers to public health and safety. The Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld those decisions last year for a different reason, ruling that a property right in the devices was inherently limited given the existing federal prohibition on machine guns. In a nation divided over how to limit firearms violence, gun rights are becoming increasingly expansive. Legal experts have said a variety of gun control measures are at risk since the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in June recognizing for the first time a right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense under the Constitution’s Second Amendment guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms. That ruling, powered by the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, struck down New York state limits on carrying concealed handguns outside the home. (Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham) View the full article

Published by Reuters By William James and Valerie Volcovici SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed on Monday to resume cooperation on climate change and other issues, offering a boost to bogged down and behind schedule negotiations at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt The leaders of the world’s two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases met at the G20 summit on the Indonesian island of Bali where climate change will be competing for time with issues such as the global economy and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Their agreement to talk again about climate thawed relations frozen earlier this year after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi angered China by visiting Taiwan. News of the rapprochement came just as COP27 climate negotiators at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh were looking for a sign that G20 nations were willing to stump up more cash and fresh commitments in the fight against rising global temperatures. Teresa Ribera, Spain’s climate minister, said she was hopeful that the rapprochement would energise negotiations. “The two biggest emitters need to be cooperative and ambitious,” she told Reuters. Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council, called it “essential”. “This unequivocal signal from the two largest economies to work together to address the climate crisis is more than welcome; it’s essential,” Bapna said. Heading into the last week of the two-week conference progress has been slow, frustrating negotiators who are struggling to find consensus on how rich countries should help developing nations meet the cost of climate-fuelled disasters. The outcome on that issue, referred to in climate talks as “loss and damage”, could define the perceived success or failure of the COP27 talks. One senior negotiator, who could not be named due to the sensitivity of the talks, said that after an opening week heavy on promises but light on new cash commitments, many developing nations were watching Bali closely for a signal that the richest economies were taking concrete actions. Progress from the G20 group of the world’s wealthiest economies – and also its largest emissions producers – could come in the form of both cash and political signalling. One issue some delegates and observers in Egypt were looking for progress on was the provision of climate finance to developing countries by multilateral development banks – the international financial institutions whose sovereign shareholders sit mostly within the G20. “It’s important that they do that, and that will provide support and momentum for COP,” Avinash Persaud, special envoy on climate finance to Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, told Reuters. The United States is expected to announce an energy transition plan with Indonesia on Tuesday which will also involve other G7 nations – essentially a funding package to help switch from coal power to clean energy. G20 leaders may also look to agree a statement on addressing environmental concerns, providing some relief after officials in August failed to agree a joint communique, amid objections over language used on climate targets and the war in Ukraine. (Reporting by William James and Valerie Volcovici; Additional reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Alison Williams) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Nate Raymond and Andrew Chung WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for a congressional panel to obtain phone records from Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, rejecting her request to block a subpoena issued in the investigation into the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack by former President Donald Trump’s supporters. Ward, a Trump ally, had asked the Supreme Court to intervene after lower courts declined to bar telephone carrier T-Mobile from complying with the subpoena from the Democratic-led House of Representatives select committee seeking three months of her telephone records. The committee sought Ward’s records as part of its probe into events surrounding the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters who sought to block Congress from certifying his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. The committee on Oct. 22 sent Trump himself a subpoena to testify under oath and provide documents. Trump filed a lawsuit on Friday in a bid to block the subpoena. Trump, who is considering another run for the presidency in 2024, has accused the panel of waging unfair political attacks on him. The panel has said Ward participated in multiple aspects of the attempts to interfere with the 2020 electoral count as Trump allies acted on his false claims that the election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud. The records of the calls and text exchanges sought by the lawmakers spanned from Nov. 1, 2020, to Jan. 30, 2021, and covered a period when Ward was part of a group of Republicans who falsely presented themselves as Arizona’s presidential electors. The potential use of false electors was part of a scheme to foil congressional certification of the election results. Ward’s lawyers argued that providing the committee with access to her telephone and text message records would violate the constitutional right to free association by giving the lawmakers access to names of Republican party members who spoke with her. U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa in Arizona on Sept. 22 backed the subpoena, finding that Ward provided no evidence to support her claims that producing the records would chill such rights or result in harassment of those who interacted with her. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 22 declined to put the subpoena on hold while Ward appealed. The House committee also has subpoenaed Ward herself as one in a group of people who it said had knowledge of or participated in efforts to send false “alternate electors” to Washington for Trump as Congress prepared to certify the election results. Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, both signed their names on one of the slates of alternate electors for Trump. Congress certified the election results in the hours after the pro-Trump rioters attacked police with a variety of weapons and stormed the Capitol. The future of the committee after the Nov. 8 midterm elections is uncertain. If Republicans gain control of the House, they are expected to shut down the committee’s work. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan had temporarily put the subpoena on hold on Oct. 28 while the full court decided how to proceed. Kagan is the justice assigned to handle certain emergency requests from a group of states including Arizona. (Reporting by Andrew Chung in Washington and Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Tom Hals WILMINGTON, Del (Reuters) -A trial over shareholder allegations that Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package was based on easy to achieve performance targets and that investors were duped into approving it began on Monday, with Musk slated to take the stand later this week. A Tesla shareholder hopes to prove during the five-day trial that Musk used his dominance over the electric vehicle maker’s board to dictate terms of the 2018 package, which did not require him to work at Tesla full-time. Musk, the world’s richest person, will testify on Wednesday, Greg Varallo, an attorney for shareholder Richard Tornetta, told a court in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday. The trial began with Ira Ehrenpreis, a Tesla board member since 2007 and chair of the committee that oversaw the pay package, describing the thinking behind the record-breaking compensation deal. “I wanted to make sure that Elon remained as the leader of Tesla over a longer period of time,” Ehrenpreis testified, adding that he had been leading other ventures from rocket company SpaceX to tunneling firm The Boring Company. The court was shown a brief video clip of Musk’s deposition in the case. He described how Ehrenpreis called him to discuss creating a pay package to replace his 2012 pay deal. Musk said he suggested to Ehrenpreis “a larger amount but with much harder milestones” than the 2012 deal. Tornetta has asked the court to rescind the pay package, which is six times larger than the top 200 CEO salaries combined in 2021, according to Amit Batish of research firm Equilar. Musk and Tesla’s directors, who are also defendants, have denied the allegations, arguing that the pay package ensured the entrepreneur would guide Tesla through a critical period, which helped drive the stock tenfold higher. The lawsuit argues that the pay package should have required Musk to work full-time at Tesla. The company’s shareholders have become concerned that Musk is distracted by Twitter, which he bought for $44 billion last month. Musk told a business conference on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, on Monday that he had too much on his plate at the moment. The case will be decided by Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of Delaware’s Court of Chancery, who also oversaw the legal dispute between Twitter Inc and Musk. WIDE LATITUDE TO SET PAY Legal experts said Musk is in a better legal position in the pay case than he was in Twitter’s lawsuit, which prevented him from walking away from the takeover. Boards have wide latitude to set executive compensation, according to legal experts. However, directors must meet more stringent legal tests if the pay involves a controlling shareholder. Part of this trial is likely to focus on whether that description fits Musk. While he owned 21.9% of Tesla in 2018, plaintiffs are likely to cite what is seen as his domineering personality and ties to directors. “There is no case in which a 21.9% shareholder who is also the chief executive has received a structured payout plan of this magnitude,” Lawrence Cunningham, a corporate law professor at George Washington University, said of the lack of precedent. A pay battle between The Walt Disney Co and a shareholder shows how much deference Delaware courts give boards in setting compensation. A Disney shareholder sued in 1997 over a $130 million severance payment to former president Michael Ovitz, who was with the company less than two years. The shareholder lost at trial in 2005, and the Delaware Supreme Court upheld the ruling in 2006. The disputed Tesla package allows Musk to buy 1% of Tesla’s stock at a deep discount each time escalating performance and financial targets are met. Otherwise, Musk gets nothing. Tesla has hit 11 of the 12 targets as its value ballooned briefly to more than $1 trillion from $50 billion, according to court papers. A decision will likely take around three months after the trial and could be appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court. (Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco and Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Noeleen Walder and Bill Berkrot) View the full article

Published by AlterNet By David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement Political experts are warning about a group of nearly 60 far-right wing politicos including Ginni Thomas, Matt Schlapp, and Cleta Mitchell who reportedly will issue a letter calling for the House and Senate to delay votes on leadership positions including Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader. Axios’ Jonathan first reported the news, posting at least part of the letter and the list of signatories (below). Some of the other more recognizable names on the letter include Mark Meadows, the former Trump White House chief of staff; Cleta Mitch… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story Kari Lake, the Republican candidate in the unresolved race for governor in Arizona, has issued a steady drumbeat of accusations that the Maricopa County elections office is “slow-rolling” the ballot count since Election Day. Lake and her allies are also weaving in a claim that local election administrators are somehow manipulating the count to ensure front-load Democratic ballots to make her campaign look bad. The claim ignores the fact that since Donald Trump attacked mail-in voting in 2020, Republican voters have traditionally favored voting in person on Election Day — a pattern reinforced b… Read More View the full article

Published by Ultimate Classic Rock Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo will appear as special guests at several shows with Pink. Pink’s Summer Carnival tour will kick off on July 24 in Toronto, where Brandi Carlile will serve as the support act. A week later, on July 31, Benatar and Giraldo will join the tour and perform at Boston’s Fenway Park. They’ll then appear on five more tour dates: Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee and Los Angeles. (Carlile will open the tour’s other dates.) Tickets will go on sale Nov. 21. You can view a complete list of concert dates down below. Pink and Carlile were on hand when Benatar and … Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English BTS star Jungkook is to perform at the World Cup in Qatar. The decision to host the football tournament in the Gulf state has caused deep controversy due to Qatar’s stance on homosexuality – which is illegal in the country – but the 25-year-old K-Pop singer will be amongst the names who take to the stage during the football tournament. A tweet from the boyband’s official account read: “Proud to announce that Jungkook is part of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Soundtrack will perform at the World Cup opening ceremony. Stay tuned!” The ‘Butter’ hitmaker will join the likes of former Take That star Robbie Williams as well as Craig David and Tinie Tempah when the tournament kicks off later this month but pop singer Dua Lipa recently slammed rumours that she would be taking to the stage and vowed never to visit the country until “all human rights” are granted. She said: “There is currently a lot of speculation that I will be performing at the opening ceremony of the world cup in Qatar. I will not be performing and nor have I ever been involved in any negotiation to perform. will be cheering England on from afar and I look forward to visiting Qatar when it has fulfilled all the human rights pledges it made when it won the right to host the World Cup.” FIFA has issued a plea to the 32 competing nations to “let football take the stage” at the tournament in Qatar but England manager Gareth Southgate said it is “highly unlikely” that the team will adhere to the governing body’s request. He said: “We have always spoken about issues we think should be talked about, particularly the ones we feel we can affect. Contrary to one or two observations in the last few weeks, we have spoken in the same way other nations have spoken about this tournament, the human rights challenges. We’ve been very clear on our standpoint on that. So, look I think we would like to focus primarily on the football. For every player, every coach and everybody travelling to a World Cup, this is a carnival of football. So regarding the LGBT community, we stand for inclusivity and we are very, very strong on that. We think that is important in terms of all our supporters. We understand the challenges this tournament brings within that, If it wasn’t for the strength of that community, we wouldn’t be women’s European champions. So it’s very, very important to us.” View the full article

Published by Reuters (Reuters) – Republican Doug Mastriano conceded defeat on Sunday in his run for Pennsylvania’s governorship in a statement that contrasted with the far-right candidate’s sharp, divisive rhetoric during the race. “Josh Shapiro will be our next Governor, and I ask everyone to give him the opportunity to lead and pray that he leads well,” Mastriano said in a statement posted on his Twitter feed. In his page-long message, Mastriano also thanked his wife and followers and pledged to work on election reform for Pennsylvania from his seat in the state Senate. The retired Army colonel, who was backed by former President Donald Trump, alienated some Republicans with his defense of Trump’s false claims of a stolen presidential election in 2020 and his views on legal abortion as “a national catastrophe.” Mastriano attended Trump’s rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021 that preceded an attack on the U.S. Capitol. The governor race was called for Shapiro on November 8. Mastriano lost by more than 750,000 votes. (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Bradley Perrett) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Matthias Inverardi and Tom Sims DUESSELDORF (Reuters) – Taylor Swift walked away with four prizes at MTV’s Europe Music Awards on Sunday, including best video for her 10-minute “All Too Well”. Double-award winners included Nicki Minaj for best song and best hip-hop, and the French DJ and record producer David Guetta won the best electronic award and best collaboration. The event, broadcast on MTV from Duesseldorf in western Germany, honoured musicians from Brazil to South Korea. It featured an appearance by Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra, the winner of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, which performed “Stefania” in an arena glowing with Ukraine’s national colours of blue and yellow. The U.S. pop singer Swift, wearing a dress of bejewelled mesh, won best artist, best pop, best video and best long form video. “I felt like I learned so much about how making film can be a natural extension of my storytelling,” Swift said as she accepted the long form video award. In “All Too Well”, Swift draws inspiration from 1970s Hollywood and recounts a fraying romantic relationship that disintegrates, leaving behind only a scarf and memories. “It was rare, I was there, I remember it all too well”, Swift sings. Minaj’s winning song “Super Freaky Girl” incorporates the 1981 hit “Super Freak” with lyrics “I can lick it, I can ride it while you slippin’ and slidin'”. British pop star Harry Styles won in the “best live” category and the Thai-born Lalisa ‘Lisa’ Manoban won best K-pop. South Korea’s BTS, the global K-pop sensation, won the biggest fans category. The hosts for the show were British pop star Rita Ora and the film director Taika Waititi, who married this year. Ora herself won for “best look”. Duesseldorf has a musical heritage as home to the pioneering German electronic band Kraftwerk, which influenced generations of pop and dance musicians with mesmerising tracks such as “Autobahn”. The city also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011. Screaming teens watched the stars walk down a red carpet before the event was broadcast from the PSD Bank Dome. Julian Lennon, the son of the Beatles’ John Lennon, said as he entered that he had not seen a concert in years and was looking forward to it. The rock band Muse, which won the best rock award, said it was dedicating its victory to the people of Ukraine and Iran. Kalush Orchestra’s frontman Oleh Psiuk, donning a pink hat, said before the performance that he hoped more Ukrainian bands would be present next year. (Reporting by Matthias Inverardi in Duesseldorf and Tom Sims in Frankfurt. Editing by Jane Merriman) View the full article

Published by AFP British actor Ralph Fiennes performs in 'Straight Line Crazy' at The Shed theater in New York City in October 2022 New York (AFP) – Was he a visionary or a corrupt racist with a god complex? The troubled legacy of Robert Moses, the master builder who shaped New York, comes under scrutiny this fall in a new play starring Ralph Fiennes. Robert Moses was an urban planner who, despite never holding elected office, launched building projects in the early 20th century which transformed New York and inspired cities across the United States. While his vision lives on in New York’s vast network of parks, roads and bridges, Moses’ name became synonymous with the racist undertones of “urban renewal.” The city’s ambivalence about Moses gets a fresh airing in “Straight Line Crazy,” a two-act dramatization of Moses’ decades-long tenure atop the New York power jungle. Fiennes depicts a Moses who cajoles politicians, outmaneuvers opponents, and shrugs off doubters in his insatiable quest to fulfill his ambitious vision for the city. “Our job is to lead, not to follow,” Moses tells an underling who worries about pleasing the public. “People don’t know what they want until they have it.” Corruption of power? Written by the British playwright David Hare, “Straight Line Crazy” was originally presented in London. It marks the latest effort to reckon with Moses, who amassed unparalleled authority from holding posts on as many as a dozen municipal bodies simultaneously in a career that spanned four decades. Moses was celebrated for much of his professional life for his building projects and the leading role he played in bringing the United Nations to New York and in developing the Lincoln Center. But in 1974, the journalist Robert Caro lifted the veil on the underside of Moses’ imperial-like reign in a book that won the Pulitzer Prize. He depicted him as a ruthless and corrupt dictator who held grudges, smeared opponents and hoodwinked allies while running a municipal machine of monumental proportions. Caro exposed how Moses marshaled massive public funds to favor suburban elites. Poorer, non-white communities were displaced from condemned neighborhoods and suffered from Moses’ lack of support for public transit as he promoted mammoth highway projects that championed the car. Hare has called Caro the authoritative expert on Moses, but views his subject differently. “Caro believes that… what corrupted Moses was power and that he became sort of crazed with power,” Hare said at a panel discussion at The Shed theater, where the show runs through December 18. However, Hare believes his life “was about pursuit of an idea that was too rigid.” Compared with Caro’s monster-like figure, the play humanizes Moses, while still zeroing in on significant character flaws. Dan Doctoroff, a former deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding and a board member of the Shed, said Moses’ story offers some clues for policy makers on how to tackle ambitious projects, such as the need to back up a vision with detailed plans. “He did magnificent things. He did terrible things, and the reality is you’re never going to get everything right,” Doctoroff said during the panel conversation. “But at the end of the day, his disdain for the common person tarnishes the legacy forever.” What ‘democracy couldn’t deliver’ The play, based on real events but with invented dialogue and some fictionalized characters, spotlights two moments in Moses’ career, riffing on a rise-and-fall narrative arc. In the first act, he casually flouts governance norms as he outwits Long Island gentry to push through the construction of the Jones Beach State Park in 1926. However, Moses meets his match in the second act, when grassroots opponents mobilize in 1955 to ultimately derail his plan for an expressway in lower Manhattan. A longtime aide warns of waning patience with Moses’ autocratic style and calls out his favoritism of “clean people… well-off people… white people.” But Moses says he knows that “people may not like me, but they need me.” “Now, of course, it’s suddenly fashionable to dislike me, because I’m the dirty bastard who pushed through the things democracy needed but which democracy couldn’t deliver.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Nandita Bose PHNOM PENH (Reuters) -Joe Biden said on Sunday he was “incredibly pleased” with the turnout in the U.S. election after Democrats clinched control of the Senate, a major victory for the president as he looks to his next two years in office. Speaking to reporters in Cambodia ahead of an East Asia Summit, Biden said the turnout was a reflection of the quality of candidates his party was fielding, after Senator Catherine Cortez Masto was projected to win re-election in Nevada, narrowly beating Republican challenger Adam Laxalt. A Democratic victory in a Georgia runoff next month would then give the party outright majority control of a 51-49 Senate, while a Georgia defeat would still keep Democrats in charge of a 50-50 Senate, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris able to break tie votes. The additional seat would mean Democrats could spare a vote on key nominations and bills. “We’re focusing now on Georgia. We feel good about where we are. And I know I’m a cockeyed optimist. I understand that,” Biden told reporters. “Again, I’m not surprised by the turnout. I’m incredibly pleased. And I think it’s a reflection of the quality of our candidates.” Control of the House of Representatives has still not been decided. Biden acknowledged such a victory would be “a stretch” for the Democrats, but Republicans have fallen well short of predictions they would sweep to power in Washington. Biden had framed the midterm election as a test of U.S. democracy at a time when hundreds of Republican candidates embraced former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Trump has repeatedly used his appeal among hard-right conservatives to influence candidates nominated by the Republican Party for congressional, gubernatorial and local races. He has, however, been blamed for boosting candidates who were unable to appeal to a broad enough electorate, resulting in a lacklustre performance for the Republicans. The results have also signalled exhaustion with the kind of chaos fomented by the Republican former president, raising questions about the viability of his possible 2024 White House run. Laxalt, who lost in Nevada, was a former state attorney-general endorsed by Trump. Biden told reporters the elections showed the Republican Party “is going to have to decide who they are”. Some Republicans expressed discontent as they faced at least another two years in the minority. “The old party is dead. Time to bury it. Build something new,” Sen. Josh Hawley tweeted. (Reporting by Nandita Bose; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Ed Davies and William Mallard) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Kylie Minogue’s family are “delighted” she’s back in Australia. The ‘Spinning Around’ singer had lived in London for several years before returning to her native land earlier this year and she admitted her parents Ron and Carole, and siblings Brendan and Dannii couldn’t be happier to have her nearby again. She told Britain’s HELLO! magazine: “They are delighted that Oz is now my base and I love being able to be close to them “Even if I’m not there all the time, it’s a state of mind. Australia has always been my home, but I have lived in so many places – mostly, of course, London.” The 54-year-old singer still misses the UK but is a regular visitor. She said: “There is so much to miss but I’ve been back for enough visits to keep any longing at bay.” As well as her successful music career, Kylie also has her own Especially For You wine range and recently launched a non-alcoholic sparkling rose, which she has been enjoying with her pals. She said: “I’ve shared a champagne glass of the nought per cent sparking rose with friends and we get that same celebratory feeling as we would with alcoholic bubbly. “I love hearing that people are enjoying the wine and making it part of their celebrations or dinners.” Kylie’s sister Dannii recently spoke of how much she and her 12-year-old son Ethan have loved having the former ‘Neighbours’ actress living nearby. She said: “It’s great [having Kylie home]. We have a lot of family time. Our grandma is turning 103 in December so it’s just really nice to have that time for Kylie to spend with her nieces and nephews. Our cousins have just had babies. “Kylie loves hanging out with my son. We love watching the movies, we go to the farm and see the animals and I like to cook for her – she loves my risotto and Kylie does these beautiful roasted tomatoes on bruschetta.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Lindsay Lohan is “excited” about a potential ‘Freaky Friday’ sequel. The ‘Falling For Christmas’ actress confirmed Jamie Lee Curtis – who played her mother in the 2003 body-swap comedy – had been in touch to discuss the possibility of a follow-up to the film while she was back working on her festive comeback project. She told ‘Tonight Show’ host Jimmy Fallon: “I was on set filming at the time and Jamie Lee Curtis writes you, you just get excited and distracted immediately. “So I had to bring myself down to Earth and be like, ‘OK, I’m on set, I have to focus.’ And then she said ‘Freaky Friday 2’ and I got more excited.” She then confirmed both she and Jamie “would both be into” making a sequel. And that’s not all because Jimmy also asked Lindsay if she’d be interested in a ‘Mean Girls’ sequel. But the 36-year-old star insisted it wasn’t her decision to make as any follow-up would be “in Tina Fey’s hands”. Jamie spoke in October about her desire to make a ‘Freaky Friday’ sequel, where Lindsay would get to play a “hot grandma”. She said: “Let me be the grandma, let me be the old grandma who switches places, so then Lindsay gets to be the sexy grandma who’s still happy with Mark Harmon in all the ways you would be happy with Mark Harmon. “And simply, I would like to see Lindsay be the hot grandma, and I would like to see me try to deal with toddlers today. I wanna be a helicopter parent in today’s world, as an old lady.” She confirmed she had pitched the idea to Disney, but there has been no confirmation as to whether the project could become reality as yet. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Taylor Lautner has got married. The ‘Twilight’ actor tied the knot with 24-year-old Taylor Dome in front of around 100 guests at Epoch Estate Wines, outside of Paso Robles, California, on Friday (11.11.22) evening, exactly a year after they got engaged after three years of dating. The couple exchanged vows at the winery shortly before sunset, with photos obtained by MailOnline showing the blonde beauty wore a flowing white wedding dress with lace overlay and long train, with her blonde hair loose and topped by a veil. Meanwhile, the 30-year-old groom looked smart in a black tuxedo and bow tie, matched by his groomsmen, and the five bridesmaids wore different styles of dresses in the same olive green hue. The ‘Abduction’ star previously confirmed Taylor, who is a nurse, was going to take his surname after their marriage, despite the potential confusion. He said: “[I was] like, are you into this last name? Because we already share one name. So it’s gonna be extra complicated. “We’re literally going to be the same person.” Despite this, the actor can’t wait to tie the knot and Lautner admits that he’s a “very lucky” man. Speaking earlier this year, he said: “I knew when I first met her that I wanted to get to know her more, and I really, really could see a future with her. She’s a fantastic woman and I’m very lucky that she chose me.” The loved-up couple began dating in 2018 and they announced their engagement to the world via social media in 2021. The Hollywood star even posted some behind-the-scenes photos of the special moment on his Instagram account. Taylor – who played Jacob Black in the ‘Twilight’ film series – captioned his post: “11.11.2021. And just like that, all of my wishes came true (sic)” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Tom Daley’s son begs him to stop knitting. The Olympic diver loves making woolly garments for four-year-old Robbie – who he has with husband Dustin Lance Black – but admitted his enthusiasm isn’t always shared by the little boy. He said: “I love making stuff for my son Robbie. “I’ve made him so many jumpers and cardigans. “It has got to a point where I sometimes get the needles out and he’s like, ‘Papa, no more knitting.’ “Bu he’s been asking for a hat for a while so that’s my next project.” Tom is looking forward to teaching his skills to his son and believes it’s a pursuit all children should be taught. He said: “I can’t wait to teach Robbie to knit. He does want to but as he’s only four, I don’t think he has the dexterity just yet. “I’d love to get knitting to become part of the extracurricular programme. “It’s such a good thing for kids to learn – to get them doing something with their hands, making something themselves.” The 28-year-old sportsman dreams of showing his wares professionally one day. He said: “I’m excited about the possibilities knitting and crochet can bring. “One day I’d love to have my own Fashion Week show, but mostly I want to pass on my passion for knitting, to get people back into the joys of slow fashion and making things for themselves.” But first, Tom needs to persuade Lance to give more space in their home to his hobby. He told Prima magazine: “I would love my own craft room. “I have a yarn stash in my wardrobe and I’ve kind of taken over the kitchen table, much to my husband’s dismay.” View the full article

Published by AFP Director Ryan Coogler (L), poses with 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' cast members (L-R) Lupita Nyong'o, Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira and Winston Duke at a SiriusXM event in New York on November 7, 2022 Los Angeles (AFP) – Disney and Marvel’s highly anticipated “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” had a huge opening this weekend, taking in an estimated $180 million in North American theaters, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday. That domestic opening — the 13th highest all-time, according to BoxOfficePro.com — came as the film was raking in an impressive $330 million worldwide, a major boost for Hollywood after a lackluster October. “This is a sensational opening,” said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. “Reviews and audience scores are excellent — Wakanda should dominate moviegoing… into December.” The film pays heartfelt tribute to the star of the original “Black Panther,” Chadwick Boseman, who died from cancer in 2020 at age 43. He makes several flashback appearances as the fictional Wakanda fights against an underwater kingdom after the death of Boseman’s character, King T’Challa. Letitia Wright, as T’Challa’s sister Shuri, and Angela Bassett, as Queen Ramonda, struggle to fill the king’s shoes. Also starring are Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira and Winston Duke. The original “Black Panther,” the first major black superhero movie, became a cultural phenomenon, with a $202 million opening and a best-picture Oscar nomination. Far, far behind in second place this weekend was Warner Bros.’ “Black Adam,” at $8.6 million — not even one-twentieth the “Wakanda” total. The Dwayne Johnson vehicle, a spinoff from 2019’s “Shazam!,” has now taken in $141.1 million domestically. Universal’s rom-com “Ticket to Paradise,” powered by mega-stars Julia Roberts and George Clooney, managed to defy the superhero trend to place third, taking in $6.1 million in its fourth week out. A family-friendly film, Sony’s live-action/computer animated musical comedy “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,” placed fourth at $3.2 million. And Paramount’s horror movie “Smile” continued to find viewers in its seventh week out, coming in fifth. With an estimated take of $2.3 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, its domestic total bumped up to $102 million. Rounding out the top 10 were: “Prey for the Devil” ($2.0 million) “The Banshees of Inisherin” ($1.7 million) “One Piece Film: Red” ($1.4 million) “Till” ($618,000) “Armageddon Time” ($352,000) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Marvel Studios adventure “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” brought crowds to movie theaters around the globe over the weekend, selling an estimated $330 million in tickets and setting a November record in the United States and Canada. The sequel to 2018 Oscar-nominated blockbuster “Black Panther” racked up roughly $180 million at domestic theaters Thursday night through Sunday, distributor Walt Disney Co said. That marked the highest total ever for a film opening in November, topping the $158.1 million for 2013 film “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.” Outside the domestic market, “Wakanda Forever” pulled in an estimated $150 million from Wednesday through Sunday. It ranked as the top-grossing Hollywood release in all markets. The results provided a boost to movie theaters, which have struggled to return to pre-pandemic levels of ticket sales. The domestic total ranked as the No. 13 movie debut of all time. “One of the top 15 openings of all time tells me the box office is pretty healthy when there is something audiences what to see,” said Jeff Bock, senior media analyst at Exhibitor Relations Co. “Marvel time and time again offers something audiences want to see.” The original “Black Panther,” starring Chadwick Boseman as King T’Challa, broke ground as the first superhero movie with a predominantly Black cast. The film took in $1.3 billion at worldwide box offices over its run and became the only superhero movie ever nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards. Marvel had to rework “Wakanda Forever” after Boseman died of cancer in 2020 just before filming was supposed to begin. The studio decided not to cast another actor in the role of T’Challa. Instead, writer and director Ryan Coogler crafted a new film that centers around T’Challa’s younger sister Shuri (Letitia Wright), his mother Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and other women who step up to help lead the grieving nation. Film critics praised the sequel, saying Marvel had succeeded in paying tribute to Boseman while offering a compelling film despite the loss of the popular lead character. The movie scored an 84% positive rating from movie critics, and 95% positive from audiences, in reviews collected on the Rotten Tomatoes website. Bock said his local theater was buzzing with a packed crowd for one of the first “Wakanda Forever” screenings. “I hadn’t seen that for months,” he said. Box office year-to-date ticket sales stand at $6.5 billion through Sunday in the domestic market, according to Comscore. That is 33% below the pre-pandemic year of 2019. The problem is a thin slate of films, Bock said. Many Hollywood studios are still dealing with COVID-induced production delays. The number of wide releases in 2022 is 37% lower than in 2017. Theaters are looking ahead to Disney’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” in December, and a larger number of films in 2023, to increase ticket sales. (Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Tim Reid and Kanishka Singh PHOENIX (Reuters) -Democrats held onto control of the U.S. Senate while limiting projected losses in the House, handing a major victory to President Joe Biden and extinguishing hopes of the “red wave” that Republicans had expected leading into the midterm elections. Democratic leaders described the outcome – sealed late Saturday with a win for the incumbent senator in Nevada – as both a vindication of their agenda and a rebuke of Republican candidates, many of whom had parroted former president Donald Trump’s false claims about widespread election fraud. “We were on the edge of autocracy and, thank God, the American people pulled us back in this election,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a news conference on Sunday. The better-than-expected performance gave Biden, who struggled with low approval ratings ahead of Tuesday’s elections amid persistently high inflation, a political lift ahead of what are expected to be intense talks on a range of geopolitical issues with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday in Indonesia. Republicans, however, remained close to seizing control of the House of Representatives as officials continued counting ballots, with returns still flowing in for several races, including many in liberal-leaning California. As of late on Saturday, Republicans had won 211 seats and the Democrats 205, with 218 needed for a majority. It could take several days before the outcome of enough House races is known to determine which party will control the 435-seat chamber. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 82, told ABC News and CNN that she would not make any announcements about whether she planned to remain in House leadership until after control of the chamber was decided. There had been speculation she would resign if Democrats lost the majority, especially after her husband was attacked by an intruder at their San Francisco home last month. House Republicans, should they prevail, have pledged to try to roll back Biden-led legislation to battle climate change and want to make permanent a series of 2017 tax cuts set to expire. They also have vowed investigations into Biden administration activities and probes of the president’s son, who has had business dealings with Ukraine and China. Jim Banks, a Republican congressman from Indiana, said on Sunday that he expected his party to win a slim majority in the House and serve as “the last line of defense to block the Biden agenda,” while launching investigations into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the origin of COVID and pandemic lockdowns. “That has to be a focal point of every single committee in the Congress, especially in the House under Republican control,” Banks said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday”. FOCUSING ON GEORGIA The Democrats will control the Senate, as they have for the past two years, with 50 of its 100 seats, by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote. Their majority was clinched by Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, who narrowly defeated Republican Adam Laxalt. “When the national pundits said I couldn’t win, I knew Nevada would prove them wrong,” Cortez Masto said in a victory speech on Sunday morning. For the Senate, attention will now shift to Georgia, where Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker face off in a runoff on Dec. 6. If Warnock were to win, the Democrats’ 51-49 majority would give them an additional edge in passing the few bills that are able to advance with a simple majority, instead of the 60 needed for most legislation. Hovering over the 2022 midterm elections all year has been Trump, who used his continued popularity among hard-right conservatives to influence the candidates the Republican Party nominated for congressional, gubernatorial and local races. With Republicans’ lackluster performance – even if they win a narrow majority in the House – Trump has been blamed for boosting candidates who were unable to appeal to a broad enough electorate. A Republican loss in Georgia could further dampen Trump’s popularity as advisers say he considers announcing this week a third run for the presidency in 2024. The outcome may increase the chances that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who routed his Democratic opponent on Tuesday, opts to challenge Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination. Democrats had portrayed Republicans as extremist, pointing to the Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate a nationwide right to abortion and the hundreds of Republican nominees who promoted Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. Pelosi attributed her party’s performance to Democratic candidates knowing their districts and maintaining focus on the issues voters cared about even as pundits in Washington predicted big losses and called for a change in approach. “They knew the value of a woman’s right to choose. They knew how important it was to protect our democracy. They knew the contrast between themselves and their opponents,” Pelosi told ABC. Continued control of the Senate means Democrats will still be able to approve Biden’s nominees such as federal judges. That would include appointees to the Supreme Court should any vacancies open in the next two years on the bench with a 6-3 conservative majority. (Reporting by Tim Reid in Phoenix and Kanishka Singh, Richard Cowan and Jason Lange and Joel Schectman in Washington; Writing by Kanishka Singh and Nathan Layne; Editing by William Mallard and Bill Berkrot) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Tim Reid (Reuters) – Republicans who back former President Donald Trump’s false claim the 2020 election was stolen were their party’s nominees for secretary of state in battleground states where if elected they stood to play a decisive role in choosing a U.S. president. Voting rights groups were focused on secretary of state races in Arizona, Nevada and Michigan, and said victory by these Republican candidates could have threatened both the integrity of the next presidential election and U.S. democracy itself: MARK FINCHEM, ARIZONA Finchem is a state legislator, has claimed membership in the far-right militia group the Oath Keepers, and has parroted false conspiracy theories propagated by the QAnon movement, including that leading politicians are part of a pedophile ring. He was defeated by Democrat Adrian Fontes, Edison Research predicted late on Friday. Finchem supported the “Stop the Steal” movement that falsely claimed the 2020 election was fraudulent and attended Trump’s rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, that preceded the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Finchem says he did not go from Trump’s rally to the Capitol that day. Finchem has said he would not have certified Biden’s 2020 victory in Arizona. He supported an audit of Arizona’s election results and co-sponsored a bill that would give the state’s Republican-controlled legislature the power to overturn election results. After the 2020 election, he also called for the arrest of the state’s Democratic secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, who is running for governor in this election. KRISTINA KARAMO, MICHIGAN Edison Research projected that voters have re-elected Democrat Jocelyn Benson over Karamo. Karamo was a little-known political figure in Michigan but soared to prominence – and onto Trump’s radar – when she claimed in 2020 that she had witnessed fraud at Detroit’s absentee counting board as a poll observer. A community college professor who opposes the teaching of evolution in schools, Karamo testified before the state legislature that she had seen sacks of votes being mysteriously dropped off in the middle of the night, and that voting machines flipped votes to Biden. No evidence has ever emerged supporting those claims. JIM MARCHANT, NEVADA A former state assemblyman, Marchant opposed certification of Biden’s win in Nevada. He was a member of Nevada’s bogus alternative slate of presidential electors that sought to overturn Biden’s victory in the state. Democrat Cisco Aguilar defeated him to win the secretary of state race, Edison Research projected late on Saturday. Marchant ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020 but lost. He unsuccessfully sued to have that result overturned, basing his case on unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. Marchant is a member of the America First Secretary of State Coalition, a group supporting a slate of candidates supporting Trump’s baseless claims about the 2020 election. In Nevada, the secretary of state does not have the power to certify results but can set and enforce election rules. (Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Ross Colvin, Howard Goller, Jonathan Oatis and Daniel Wallis) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Rich McKay (Reuters) – Country music star and philanthropist Dolly Parton received a $100 million prize from the “Bezos Courage & Civility Award” given by Amazon.com founder, billionaire Jeff Bezos, an honor that recognizes leaders who “pursue solutions with courage and civility,” he said online. Bezos, who is also the owner of the space rocket company Blue Origin, announced the award on Friday along with his longtime partner, news anchor Lauren Sanchez. Sanchez said on Instagram that Parton is “a woman who gives with her heart and leads with love and compassion in every aspect of her work.” “We can’t wait to see all the good that you’re going to do with this $100 million award,” she said. Parton, in a video clip of the ceremony posted online, said, “Wow! Did you say $100 million?” “I think people who are in a position to help should put their money where their heart is. I will do my best to do good things with this money,” she said Parton, 76, a county, pop and gospel singer-songwriter, whose songs include, “I Will Always Love You,” “Jolene,” and many other hits over the decades, has been a longtime philanthropist. She donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University’s Medical Center to help develop a vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parton, who this month was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, also has founded a number charities including the Dollywood Foundation, which focuses on education as well as poverty relief. Bezos’ award was started in 2001, with prizes first going to activist Van Jones, who served as founding CEO of the REFORM Alliance and Dream Corps, and chef and humanitarian Jose Andres, who established World Central Kitchen, which provides food in the immediate aftermath of disasters. (Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Bill Berkrot) View the full article