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Published by BANG Showbiz English Greta Thunberg says that teenagers have been “betrayed” by those in power. The 19-year-old activist – who became known around the world when she staged regular school strikes outside the Swedish Parliament in 2018 to protest against climate change and has gone on to become a figurehead of the movement – recently announced her decision to avoid COP27 this month in Egypt, having accused the United Nations of “green-washing” their annual summit but when asked how she felt about UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also choosing to also skip the event, she noted that it was a sign of government failure. She said: “All these individual cases have many different reasons why they made these decisions, so of course we shouldn’t be focussing ourselves blindly to just one example. “The people in power do not really prioritise the climate crisis and have proven time and time again that their priorities are somewhere else entirely, they would rather stay in power and serve the forces of greed.” Greta insisted people needed to keep “demanding this change”. She continued: “The change is going to come from the outside when enough people are demanding this change, because they are most likely going to do what they can, as long as they can get away with it. So we have to make sure that they do not get away with it.” Meanwhile, she admitted she goes for “long walks” to “clear her head” and deal with the idea of being a frontrunner in the campaign. She said: “I usually go for very, very long walks, to try to clear my head. It shouldn’t have to be like this, this responsibility shouldn’t have to fall on teenagers at all. The fact that there are young people, mostly, who have to take up this fight is a sign of betrayal and failure from those in power.” Greta also explained that there has been a “difference” in activism since her rise to fame because “millions” have joined her in protest but claimed that the action taken has been “not nearly” enough and we need “everyone” to play a part in managing the crisis. Speaking on UK TV show ‘This Morning’ on ITV, she said: “You could look at it in a way that emissions are still on the rise and we are speeding in the wrong direction. We are still expanding fossil fuels for infrastructure and so on. There is no sense of urgency whatsoever. No one is acting if we are in a crisis. But on the other hand, of course, we have had millions of people flooding the streets and demanding action. “So, it depends on how you see it. Of course, there has been a difference but not nearly enough. It’s very difficult to describe. We never thought that it would be possible to do anything like that. In the beginning, it was just me, and then it was a handful of others – schoolchildren. “We just thought that since we had the opportunity to do something, it was our moral duty to go out and act. Someone needed to take action so we just did it. We didn’t count on any consequences or so on, we just did it.” View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega Hillary Clinton recently demanded Donald Trump pay upwards of $1 million to cover her legal fees following a failed racketeering lawsuit against her, RadarOnline.com can confirm. The surprising request came on Monday when lawyers for the former first lady-turned-2016 presidential candidate filed a motion in federal court demanding sanctions be imposed upon ex-President Trump. Mega Clinton’s lawyers also called the racketeering lawsuit, which was thrown out of court in September, nothing more than a “political stunt.” “A reasonable attorney would never have filed this suit, let alone continued to prosecute it after multiple Defendants’ motions to dismiss highlighted its fundamental and incurable defects,” Clinton’s lawyers wrote, according to the Post. Mega Her legal team requested Trump pay a whopping $1.06 million to cover all the legal fees accrued by the numerous defendants named in the failed lawsuit. As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Trump filed a civil lawsuit in March and accused Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and numerous others of conspiring to undermine his 2016 presidential campaign with accusations Trump’s team colluded with Russia. British ex-spy Christopher Steele, who made headlines in 2016 over claims he had a “dirty dossier” proving Russia had blackmail against then-candidate Trump, was also named as a defendant in the civil suit. Trump claimed he lost $24 million as a result of the Russian collusion rumors – although US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, who was appointed by Bill Clinton in 1997 and oversaw the lawsuit, threw the suit out of court in September due to “deficiencies in the plaintiff’s argument.” Mega Trump’s legal team, led by his lawyer Alina Habba, have since appealed the dismissal of the $24 million civil suit. Habba has also accused Clinton of having “political reasons” for Monday’s motion demanding sanctions against Trump. “This motion, conveniently filed one week prior to election day, is nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to score political points,” Habba said on Monday after Clinton’s team demanded $1.06 million from Trump. “This motion is particularly inappropriate, given that our client’s case will soon be reviewed by the Eleventh Circuit,” Habba continued. “We will oppose this motion and trust that the Court will see through this ruse.” View the full article

Published by AFP Election denialism — the rejection of President Joe Biden's certified victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election — is potential fuel for political violence in the 2022 midterm vote Washington (AFP) – The shocking assault of top Democrat Nancy Pelosi’s husband at their home has heightened concerns that unconstrained disinformation and toxic political partisanship could spill over into violence around next week’s US midterm elections. US security officials say unconstrained disinformation and political vitriol is volatile fuel for attacks, like the one in which a follower of right-wing conspiracy theories apparently sought to kidnap Nancy Pelosi over alleged election “lies.” David DePape, who allegedly assaulted Pelosi’s 82-year-old husband Paul in their San Francisco home when he found she wasn’t there, posted conservative conspiracy theories on his website on election fraud, Covid vaccines, climate change, the Holocaust and trans people in schools. The attack came one week before midterm congressional elections, as politicians and poll workers have reported a surge in threat messages and intimidation. Those include, in Arizona, armed men patrolling ballot drop boxes, alarming people attempting to vote. On Friday, the day of the Pelosi attack, US security agencies issued a warning that domestic violent extremists (DVE) pose “heightened threats” around the November 8 vote. “Election-related perceptions of fraud and DVE reactions to divisive topics will likely drive sporadic DVE plotting of violence and broader efforts to justify violence in the lead up to and following the 2022 midterm election cycle,” the agencies said in a joint intelligence bulletin. Trump rhetoric Talk of political violence climbed after former president Donald Trump refused in November 2020 to accept his election defeat by Joe Biden, leading to the assault on the US Capitol by Trump supporters two months later, on January 6, 2021. Since then the political rhetoric has not dampened, in part because Trump himself still dominates the Republican Party and tells supporters that Biden’s Democrats are bent on stealing the upcoming elections. In Robstown, Texas last week, Trump urged voters not to trust the polls, called Pelosi “crazy” and said “Biden and the far left lunatics are waging war on Texas,” among other accusations made without evidence. “Biden and his left wing handlers are turning America into a police state,” he asserted, repeating his unfounded claim that “January 6th was caused because of a crooked stolen election.” Democratic, Republican officials targeted Nothing like January 6 has recurred. But there are enough incidents and social media-fuelled disinformation to give officials cause for worry. In June an armed man traveled to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home just outside Washington, unhappy about the high court’s opposition to abortion rights. In July a man with a gun threatened Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal at her home in Seattle. The same month a military veteran, later described as suffering from alcoholism and PTSD, tried to knife Republican New York governor candidate Lee Zeldin. And Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell has been the target of numerous violent threats. Swalwell placed the blame directly on Trump’s fiery “Make American Great Again” movement. “MAGA political violence is at peak level in America and it’s going to get someone killed,” he wrote in August, urging Republican leaders to denounce it. Rampant disinformation In addition, poll workers have reported widespread threats after Trump and his followers blamed them for his 2020 election loss. Some areas say they now cannot recruit enough poll workers. In Arizona — where tensions over the allegedly “stolen” 2020 presidential election have been particularly high — armed people wielding video cameras have shown up at ballot drop boxes. Such actions “raise serious concerns of voter intimidation,” the Justice Department said in a filing to the Arizona federal district court, where a lawsuit has been filed over the issue. Underpinning the worries of violence is an atmosphere of copious disinformation online that angers readers and can lead them to launch attacks, as with Pelosi’s attacker. On Sunday the US government’s top cybersecurity official Jen Easterly said there was “a very complex threat environment helped by “rampant disinformation” and “threats of harassment, intimidation and violence against election officials, polling places and voters.” Disinformation “can undermine confidence in election integrity and that can be used to incite violence,” Easterly said on CBS. View the full article

Published by AFP The report sounded the alarm on the scale of land needed for countries' climate plans Paris (AFP) – The world needs to set aside an area bigger than the United States for tree planting and other measures to meet climate pledges, according to research published Tuesday that warned against “unrealistic” carbon-cutting plans. Almost 200 nations will begin high-stakes UN climate talks in Egypt from November 6, as increasing damage from floods, heat waves and droughts are being felt across the world. Recent UN assessments conclude that current policies and plans are not nearly enough to limit global warming and avoid catastrophic climate impacts. They may also be unattainable, new research showed Tuesday on the planned use of land-based schemes such as tree planting to offset fossil fuel pollution. An assessment of plans from 166 countries and the European Union, released by the University of Melbourne, estimated that the total area implied was almost 1.2 billion hectares (2.9 billion acres) — bigger than the United States, or four times the size of India. “Servicing all of the land-based carbon removal pledges is unrealistic because it would require a land mass half the size of current global cropland, putting potential pressure on ecosystems, food security and indigenous peoples’ rights,” the report said. The research looked at countries’ targets, particularly longer-term commitments, and if the land needed was not explicitly stated, they calculated using information about the types of activity as well as carbon removal data from UN climate experts. They found that while over 550 hectares were earmarked for restoring degraded land and protecting primary forests, some 630 million hectares were estimated for carbon capture schemes, like tree planting. “Land-based carbon removals have to be considered together with deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions, not as a replacement,” said Anne Larson, of the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry, who was a co-author of the report. ‘Dangerous overreliance’ Larson said governments might see tree planting as “easy, compared to other options”, but cautioned that these projects can cause their own problems. If there is no long-term management plan or if the species are not native, the trees can simply wither. Tree plantations imposed on communities risk being “neglected, burned, cut down”, she said. Such expansion is also seen as incompatible with the rights of many indigenous peoples, who are increasingly being recognised as crucial custodians of nature, as the world faces a human-caused extinction crisis as well as climate change. The Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, representing 35 million people living in forest territories in Asia, Africa and Latin America, on Tuesday said: “dangerous overreliance on land-based methods to capture carbon would gobble up much of our ancestral lands, which we desperately need for food production and nature protection”. “Simply put, we cannot plant trees to escape climate disaster, there is not enough land. Instead, we need to protect and restore existing forests and you can only do that with us,” the alliance said. UN climate scientists have said the world needs to slash carbon emissions 45 percent by 2030 in order to limit global heating to the more ambitious Paris Agreement goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Melbourne University report said any tree planting schemes would be simply unable to meet the urgent challenge of reducing greenhouse gas pollution. “Countries need to reduce their expected reliance on land-based carbon removal in favour of stepping up emissions reductions from all sectors and prioritising ecosystem-based approaches,” the report said. View the full article

Published by Al-Araby As the 2022 World Cup fast approaches, a wave of false and misleading news targeting host country Qatar has intensified across websites, newspapers, and social networking sites. Below is a sample of false or misleading news stories published in the last few weeks, debunked by the Misbar.com fact-checking website. Claim 1: A graphic entitled “Qatar Welcomes You” was circulated on social media. It claimed to contain official instructions from the State of Qatar for visitors coming to the 2022 World Cup, suggesting the Qatari authorities planned to restrict fans’ personal freedoms during the tour… Read More View the full article

Published by The Detroit News As Halloween comes to a close, the candles are blown out inside the pumpkins on your porch and the trick-or-treaters are safely tucked in bed, Mariah Carey will be waiting in the wings somewhere, ready to kick off Christmas season once again. Nov. 1 has become the official start of the holiday season, the day we put away everything orange and black and bring out everything red and green. And it starts the two-month run in which Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” is inescapable wherever you go. The four-minute, one-second burst of joy will be blasted from cars, bars, dentist’s off… Read More View the full article

Published by New York Daily News NEW YORK — Nearly 70 years after her death, the world’s fascination with Frida Kahlo continues to flourish — generating popular culture conversations in ways the groundbreaking Mexican artist would likely not even understand. That includes exhibitions chronicling her life and work; an upcoming Broadway musical exploring the artist’s intercontinental career; and even the alleged burning of an estimated $10 million Frida Kahlo drawings as part of an NFT launch, which has sparked a criminal investigation by Mexican authorities. Now, a new Brooklyn exhibition described as an “immersive biography” … Read More View the full article

Published by Euronews (English) Taylor Swift has made history by landing a perfect 10 in the charts after the release of her tenth studio album ‘Midnights’. After Swift released Midnights on 21 October, the top 10 positions on the US Billboard Music charts are all taken up by songs from the album. It’s a feat that’s never been achieved before in US chart history. The person to come closest was Drake, with nine of the top 10 spots in September 2021. “10 out of 10 of the Hot 100??? On my 10th album??? I AM IN SHAMBLES,” the pop star tweeted Monday. The number one spot was taken by ‘Anti-Hero’. The song has immediately gained t… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story By Sky Palma During a segment on his livestream show, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk slammed news outlets and journalists who say the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband this weekend is a sign that right-wing rhetoric is sparking real-world violence, saying “of course” Republicans should reject Democrats’ attempts to link them to the attack. “Why is the conservative movement to blame for gay schizophrenic nudists that are hemp jewelry maker breaking into someone’s home — or maybe not breaking into someone’s home. Why are we to blame for that exactly,” Kirk said. “And why is he still in j… Read More View the full article

Published by Radar Online mega Popular TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney fired back at Caitlyn Jenner over comments she made on Twitter that included misgendering the transgender star. Mulvaney slammed Jenner, condemning her for the cruel remarks, RadarOnline.com has learned. Mulvaney acknowledged Jenner as a courageous trans woman, while she called out the former athlete’s hypocritical tweets. Although Jenner publicly came out as transgender in April 2015, the ex-Olympian has remained staunch in her far-right beliefs, often publicly praising Republican legislators even in the wake of controversial bills pushed by the party, including Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Jenner started the drama in a series of tweets about the TikTok star. mega In one tweet from Jenner, which quoted an article from the New York Post about the ongoing drama between the two celebs, she wrote of Mulvaney, “There is a difference between acceptance and tolerance, and normalizing exposing your genitals in a public way and a public place. I do not support that at all, in the slightest.” “Dylan…congrats your trans with a penis,” Jenner concluded the tweet. In a video from Mulvaney’s Days of Girlhood TikTok series, where she openly shares her transition with followers, she started by addressing Jenner, saying, “We are two of the most privileged trans women in America at the moment, and with that comes a lot of responsibility.” Mulvaney continued her remarks by stating while she disagreed with Jenner on other issues, “A few days ago I probably would have still been willing to sit down with you and try to connect with you in some way.” “Because I automatically have a lot of respect for you as a fellow trans woman,” Mulvaney continued in her video, “but then you decided to ridicule me very publicly.” The TikToker then referenced Jenner’s now-deleted tweet, which misgendered Mulvaney and stated, “He is talking about his penis!” The exchange that sparked the fired-up TikTok — as well as the article by the New York Post and subsequent tweet from Jenner — was in reference to a video Mulvaney made at the beginning of her transition, where she later explained she was learning how to “tuck.” mega Resurfacing a months-old video made by Mulvaney, in which she calls to “normalize” women with bulges, Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn reshared Mulvaney’s content to her Twitter followers, prompting a response from Jenner. “@MarshaBlackburn thank you for speaking out and having a backbone — one of the best senators we have,” Jenner wrote in a tweet quoting Sen. Blackburn’s tweet. “Let’s not ‘normalize’ any of what this person is doing. This is absurdity!” Jenner added in the tweet. Mulvaney said, “it felt like I got outed,” in regard to Jenner’s tweets. Mulvaney asked Jenner to reflect on her own transition while explaining her series was meant to bring light to a situation many in the trans community face when embarking on their own transitions. Mulvaney was quick to tell Jenner that “the call is coming from inside the house,” meaning the Olympian’s remarks were hypocritical and lacked substance to the much greater issue at hand: transgender rights and the acceptance of trans individuals in communities. mega “I still have so much to learn,” Mulvaney shared in her TikTok response to Jenner. The TikTok star added that the two are from “very different generations” and stated that she “cheered” Jenner on “from the second you came out.” Mulvaney added that she’s “so happy” for Jenner to be able to receive gender-affirming surgery but added that she’s not eligible for surgery due to hormone therapy. Mulvaney also revealed that due to Jenner’s remarks, she’s uncomfortable sharing her future plans for surgery. “It doesn’t make them any less of a woman,” Mulvaney told Jenner. “Funny enough, one of the only things we do have in common is that I’m going to one of your surgeons,” she added. Mulvaney pleaded for Jenner to be “patient” as she navigates her public transition. She concluded her video by calling Jenner out for gatekeeping transgender identification: “Is no one else allowed to be trans?” Mulvaney called for her followers to not attack Jenner in the same way Jenner’s followers have spewed hateful comments against her. Mulvaney also warned Jenner that her political “cohorts” may not have her best interest in mind as Jenner promotes their anti-transgender agenda. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Paresh Dave and Steve Gorman SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -The man accused of bludgeoning U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer after breaking into the couple’s home threatened to take her hostage and break her kneecaps if she lied under his questioning, according to a federal criminal complaint filed on Monday. David Wayne DePape’s alleged intentions emerged as federal prosecutors charged the 42-year-old suspect with assault and attempted kidnapping in Friday’s predawn break-in at the Pelosis’ San Francisco home. Several state charges were filed separately in San Francisco Superior Court, including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, elder abuse and threatening a public official, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced at a news conference. An arraignment was set for Tuesday, her office said. The 82-year-old speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a Democrat who is second in the line of succession to the U.S. presidency, was in Washington at the time of the assault. Her husband, Paul Pelosi, 82, a real estate and venture capital executive, has undergone surgery for skull fractures and injuries to his hands and right arm, and he remained hospitalized on Monday. “Paul is making steady progress on what will be a long recovery process,” the speaker said in a statement on Monday. The attack, which Jenkins called “politically motivated,” has stoked fears about partisan extremist violence just over a week ahead of the midterm elections, on Nov. 8, that will decide control of Congress during one of the most vitriolic and polarized U.S. campaigns in decades. Democrats’ continued control of both the House and the Senate is at stake. As one of the highest-ranking Democrats in Washington and a longtime representative of one of America’s most liberal cities, Nancy Pelosi has been a frequent lightning rod for expressions of conservative criticism and contempt. Her office was ransacked during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of supporters of Republican President Donald Trump, some of whom hunted for her during the melee, following a fiery speech by Trump featuring false claims that his defeat in the 2020 presidential election was the result of fraud. AWAKENED BY STRANGER DePape was arrested by police officers dispatched to the Pelosis’ home after Paul Pelosi placed an emergency-911 call reporting an intruder, according to an FBI affidavit filed as part of the federal criminal complaint. The San Francisco Police Department recovered zip ties in the bedroom and in the hallway near the front door. Police also found a roll of tape, rope, a second hammer, a pair of gloves and a journal in DePape’s backpack, the affidavit said. The intruder had broken in through a glass door to the residence. Paul Pelosi, who was initially left unconscious from the attack, later told police that he was asleep when a stranger, armed with a hammer, crept into his second-floor bedroom and awakened him, demanding to speak with his spouse, the complaint states. According to Paul Pelosi’s account in the affidavit, he told the intruder that his wife would be away for several days and the intruder responded that he would stay and wait for her. Pelosi’s husband recounted that he managed to slip away to the bathroom to place the 911 call, the affidavit said. The suspect told police in an interview following his arrest that he planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage for questioning, and that if she told the “truth” he would let her go but if she “lied” he would break her kneecaps, according to the FBI affidavit. He told police he did not flee the Pelosi home after Paul Pelosi’s 911 call because, according to the affidavit, “much like the American founding fathers with the British, he was fighting against tyranny without the option to surrender.” Authorities said police officers arriving at the Pelosi home saw DePape and Pelosi struggling over a hammer. As the officers shouted at both men to drop the tool, DePape yanked the hammer away and struck Pelosi in the head before officers subdued DePape and took him into custody. DePape was charged in federal court with one count of assault on a family member of a U.S. official and one count of attempted kidnapping of a U.S. official. Prosecutors alleged the offenses stemmed from the suspect’s intent to retaliate against the House speaker for her “performance of official duties.” The federal charges carry a combined maximum sentence of 50 years in prison, the Justice Department said in a statement announcing the charges. The state charges are punishable by a prison sentence of 13 years to life, Jenkins said. Online messages recently posted to several websites by an internet user named “daviddepape” expressed bigoted sentiments against minorities, Jews, women and transgender people while embracing the cult-like, right-wing conspiracy theory QAnon. Older online messages promoted quartz crystals and hemp bracelets. Reuters could not confirm the posts were created by the suspect charged on Monday. Experts on extremist ideology have said Friday’s attack appeared to be an example of a growing trend they call “stochastic terrorism,” in which sometimes-unstable individuals are inspired to violence by hate speech and scenarios they see online and hear echoed by public figures. (Reporting by Paresh Dave in San Francisco and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington, Brendan O’Brien in Chicago and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Howard Goller, Rosalba O’Brien and Leslie Adler) View the full article

Published by Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden will visit Florida on Tuesday, seven days ahead of U.S. midterm elections, to contrast Democratic healthcare plans to those of Republicans while taking on potential 2024 rival Ron DeSantis during a campaign event. In his first political event in a state he lost in 2020, Biden is expected to take aim at Florida Republican Governor DeSantis during a campaign event for Democratic candidate for governor Charlie Crist, and then attend a fundraiser. The president will also go after Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott, who has proposed to “sunset” Social Security and Medicare if the U.S. Congress does not pass new legislation to extend them, according to a White House official. The president is expected to offer his most sharply targeted attack yet on DeSantis, administration officials told Reuters. Biden and DeSantis have clashed over multiple issues including COVID-19 vaccines, abortion and LGBT rights. Biden met DeSantis last month during a trip to the state to assess devastation from Hurricane Ian. They greeted each other warmly and stood shoulder to shoulder as they met with victims of the hurricane. A lot has changed since Tuesday’s trip had to be rescheduled from late September due to the hurricane. In recent weeks, the White House has lowered its earlier optimism about the midterm elections and administration officials say they are now worried Democrats could lose control of both chambers of Congress. Recent polls have shown Democrats, who once had comfortable leads in some Senate races, on a knife’s edge. Senate elections that were considered toss-ups between the two parties are now leaning Republican as high inflation persists. Losing control of one or both houses of Congress would profoundly shape the next two years of Joe Biden’s presidency, with Republicans expected to block legislation on family leave, abortion, policing and other Biden priorities. The last time a Democrat won a presidential or Senate election in Florida was 2012, with Republicans holding an advantage in registered voters in the state, 5.2 million versus 4.9 million. But unaffiliated voters stands at 3.9 million and represent an increasingly important part of the electorate. (Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Tom Hogue) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Julia Roberts says the late Martin Luther King Jr and his wife Coretta Scott King paid the hospital bill for her birth. The actress, 55, revealed the couple made the gesture as her parents couldn’t afford the fee, and said her mum and dad befriended the Kings while living in Atlanta running a theatre school. She told Gayle King, in a clip showing her in conversation with the journalist last month that has now been shared online by a fan: “One day Coretta called my mother and asked if her kids could be part of the school because they were having a hard time finding a place that would accept her kids. “My mom was like, ‘Sure, come on over,’ and so they all just became friends, and they helped us out of a jam.” It has been reported that a Ku Klux Klan member blew up a car outside one of Julia’s parent’s Betty and Walter Roberts’ plays in 1965 in response to King Jr’s daughter Yolanda being cast in a role in which she kissed a white actor. Gayle hailed Julia’s parents’ decision “extraordinary” because people didn’t see “little black children interacting with little white kids in acting school” at the time. Julia celebrated her 55th birthday on Friday (28.10.22) by sharing a selfie of herself on Instagram sipping a mug of coffee surrounded by pink and gold balloons. She captioned the photo: “Feeling the love and magic on my 55th Birthday! My cup runneth over.” Julia has also paid tribute to her husband Danny Moder and their life with their children, 17-year-old twins Hazel and Phinnaeus and son Henry, 15, saying: “The life that I have built with my husband, [and] the life that we’ve built with our children, that’s the best stuff. To come home at the end of the day, triumphantly, to them.” View the full article

Published by DPA A woman takes a picture with her smartphone of the dish “Drop it like it’s hot” at the Coccodrillo restaurant in Berlin. Monika Skolimowska/dpa In more than 20 years at his family’s restaurant, Joel Gonzalez had never seen anything like it. Around 6 p.m. on March 25, 2021, he looked up to find a line stretching out the door of Mariscos Corona, the Van Nuys restaurant he runs with his sister. For the next two hours, the siblings did their best to manage the surge of customers eagerly requesting the restaurant’s signature dishes: aguachile-stuffed avocados and surf-and-turf burritos. “Oh my God, we had such a rush” until closing time, Gonzalez says. “We had never seen a line out the door like that before.” The next day, a Friday, there was another line, and the onslaught of customers continued through the weekend. The restaurant’s Instagram account gained 5,000 followers. Gonzalez ran out of avocados; eventually, his refrigerator was empty. He couldn’t open on Monday. What Gonzalez didn’t know, when the crush started, was that Ashley Rodriguez, 29, a food influencer also known as @firstdateguide on her social channels, had posted a 42-second TikTok video featuring his soon-to-be-in-demand dishes earlier in the day. Viewers got a glimpse of avocados overflowing with citrus-drenched seafood and a giant grilled burrito stuffed with shrimp, carne asada and French fries. At one point, Rodriguez poured an entire cup of red salsa onto the burrito, took a big bite and nodded enthusiastically — just like a trusted friend who wants you to know about a new restaurant you have to try. The video attracted more than 200,000 views overnight and hit 1 million views in a week. Eventually, “one of the customers that [first] day told me that he had seen our restaurant on @firstdateguide,” Gonzalez says. “That’s when we put it together.” This is the food influencer effect — or, what it can be. If the right influencer posts a video of your food and it hits, it can lead to a larger social following and a noticeable increase in revenue. It’s a phenomenon that’s causing a paradigm shift in the restaurant world, transferring the power of influence from traditional media to anyone with a cellphone and a love for food. And these days, sometimes seemingly spontaneous expressions of restaurant fandom are actually well-planned, calculated business transactions. That’s exactly what happened at Mariscos Corona. Gonzalez had hired Rodriguez to promote his restaurant — he just didn’t know when her video would be posted. A few weeks before the surge, Gonzalez had DM’d Rodriguez on Instagram, inviting her to try his food. Rodriguez explained that her rates range from $1,500 to upwards of $10,000 — depending on her following and the platform where a business is looking to be featured. Gonzalez agreed to pay Rodriguez $1,500 for one video that she posted to TikTok and, later, Instagram. Gonzalez says he spent an additional $40 for her food. “If I could tell any other restaurant owner — it was worth it,” he says. Food influencers come in many varieties: There are the home cooks who post how-to videos of dishes, mukbangers who livestream themselves eating, newbies looking for free food, marketing professionals with restaurant clients, gourmands who review food in their cars, and food obsessives who just like to share what they’re eating. Some influencers have agents and make a living through brand and restaurant deals. Others do it for the free products and perks. Most of the restaurants they work with are not the kinds of places you’ll find on a critic’s best-restaurants lists. Rodriguez, along with influencers Paul Castro, 28, and Hugh Harper, 39, founded the L.A. branch of a Las Vegas-based marketing company called JMPForce. They work with about 20 local restaurants, handling their social channels and creating content. While the three regularly post non-work-related photos and videos, Rodriguez estimates that about 60% of the restaurants featured on her channels are clients. If it were up to Rodriguez and the rest of the JMPForce crew, they wouldn’t be labeled influencers. “I always say ‘food blogger’ because it makes me feel better than ‘food influencer,’” Rodriguez says, seated at a table at Craft by Smoke and Fire, a restaurant client in Arcadia. She was there to film content with Castro, who is also her boyfriend. “There are too many influencers trying to take advantage, so I don’t want to be intertwined with them,” Castro adds. Earlier this year, an incident involving a Los Angeles food influencer and Corner 17, a Chinese restaurant in St. Louis, blew up online when owner Xin Wei posted screenshots of the interaction on Instagram. The influencer requested $100 to pay for food he wanted to feature in a video, but the restaurant declined. Antonio Malik, known online as @antonio_eats_la, visited anyway and posted an Instagram story review to his hundreds of thousands of followers. He complimented the service but had some not-so-nice things to say about the food: “Worst dumplings ever!” Wei responded in an Instagram post: “An intentionally bad write-up from a large-following influencer because of our refusal to accept their collaboration is unprofessional and such a hostile manner can simply ruin their businesses. I want to step up because we felt threatened by this media influencer.” The incident raised questions around the ethics of “collaborations,” the term used for an exchange of free food or other goods for social media content. Rodriguez and Castro say that requesting free food from restaurants that are not actively seeking social promotion is common among influencers who are just starting out. Pim Techamuanvivit, the chef and owner of Nari and Kin Khao in San Francisco (temporarily closed), says she receives at least a couple of Instagram messages a week from influencers asking for free meals. “They sort of code it and say, ‘We’d like to collaborate,’ but it doesn’t mean we’re going to collaborate on anything,” she says. “It means, ‘I don’t want to pay for my food.’‘” The Federal Trade Commission has guidelines in place for influencers, though the process is still very much self-regulated. In a document titled “Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers,” accessible on the FTC website, there are clear instructions for when and how users should disclose a relationship with a brand partner on social media. If you have any familial, financial, employment or personal relationship with a brand, you must disclose it. A financial relationship includes money and free or discounted products, as well as other perks. “If a significant portion of a food influencer’s audience doesn’t expect that the influencer is being paid or given free food and would give the influencer’s endorsement less weight if they knew about the incentives that the influencer received, then the incentives should be disclosed,” a spokesperson for the FTC told The Times in an email. But the general consensus among the half-dozen food influencers interviewed for this story is that consumers don’t care if — and probably assume — the food is free. Nkechi Ahaiwe, 32, who goes by the name @eatwhateveryouwant on Instagram, has more than 63,000 followers. A former beauty blogger and Enterprise Car Rental employee, Ahaiwe says she pays for all her food unless a restaurant invites her to come in; then she allows them to comp her meal, but she always tips her servers. “If a restaurant says I need to disclose that something was free, then I’ll do it,” she says, “but if not, no, because when you put sponsored, paid, gifted, I noticed … my reach is lower.” Do Ahaiwe and Rodriguez worry that accepting free meals might put them in a compromising position when it comes to posting about the restaurant? What if they don’t like the food? Ahaiwe says she turns to another user-generated resource — Yelp reviews — to vet restaurants ahead of time. “I never had an experience where I couldn’t find anything I liked, but I know eventually it will happen. I would have to apologize and just tell them that this is not going to work.” Rodriguez says she doesn’t do reviews. “I just educate people on what there is to order and try to highlight things.” “This is Corona Mariscos in Van Nuys, California,” Rodriguez says in her voice-over on TikTok. “Trust me, aguachiles is way better than ceviche. … Well, if you like spicy, that is. … Oh, did I mention this place has been around since 1999 and now run by two siblings? They’ve definitely kept up the quality of their father’s recipes.” Though Rodriguez and Ahaiwe won’t knock a restaurant’s food, there are plenty of influencers who will. The hashtag #foodreview is connected to at least 1.6 million posts on Instagram and 13.4 billion on TikTok. Fear of upsetting influencers has created an unofficial code of silence among some traditional publicists and restaurant owners, who sometimes field dozens of requests from influencers for free food and restaurant tables. “Restaurants operate on tiny margins,” Techamuanvivit says, “and we have payroll, insurance, all those things, and you’re asking us to fund your Instagram story content? It’s just not right.” Last summer, a major-label musician with more than 1 million followers on Instagram reached out on that platform to Isaias Hernandez, chef-owner of Craft by Smoke and Fire. The celebrity — Hernandez won’t name him because he fears retaliation — asked if the Downey-based chef would be willing to supply food for 100 people at his home that evening. The celebrity told the restaurateur that he’d exchange a social media post or Instagram story for the food. Hernandez and his partner cooked more than $400 worth of barbecue. They hand-delivered the food to the celebrity’s home, and even threw in some T-shirts in various sizes for guests. When he arrived, someone from the celebrity’s entourage took the food and the merch. Hernandez never met the celebrity or received a thank-you. There was no Instagram post. “I messaged him later asking if he liked the food, and he never responded,” Hernandez says. He decided to eat the cost and just keep quiet. With multiple Michelin stars and a busy dining room, Techamuanvivit says, she’s in a position to speak up for the restaurants that can’t. “I’m sure some of these influencers that we told to go away probably have written something bad on Yelp or Google reviews, but I don’t really care,” she says, adding, “I don’t fault the restaurants who work with them. People do what you have to do to survive.” The power to make or break a restaurant once was reserved for the authoritative voice of the restaurant critic, a long-standing figure of traditional media; at many publications, taking freebies continues to be grounds for firing. (Los Angeles Times restaurant critic Bill Addison reviews anonymously and the newspaper pays for his meals.) When Yelp was established almost two decades ago, it launched a new community-participant phase and expanded the opinion pool. Today’s food influencer further democratizes food media with posts that sometimes feel like the creators are sitting across the table from you. Despite his experience, Hernandez, for the most part, is not only pro-food influencer, he’s built them into his restaurant’s marketing plans. He’d hired Rodriguez, Castro and Harper in March 2020, as he was getting ready to open a restaurant in La Habra, California. The influencers strategize and host events for Hernandez’s restaurants, participate in quarterly meetings and provide feedback on everything, from the atmosphere to the food. Hernandez’s grilled cheese sandwich now includes barbecue sauce because Harper thought it was too dry. Rodriguez’s suggestion for a bone-in short rib sandwich led to a 15% increase in sales the week that it was introduced. “In general,” Hernandez says, “people perceive social influencers as snake-oil salesman of the past, but social media marketing is probably our strongest pillar in terms of sales growth.” Kristin Diehl, a professor of marketing at USC Marshall School of Business, categorizes influencers as a part of marketing that falls under a larger communications umbrella. Though she does recognize that influencers with larger followings can have a big impact on brands, she says it’s micro-influencers, people with around 10,000 to 50,000 followers and high engagement, who tend to have the most influence when it comes to restaurants. “These micro-influencers are particularly effective and applicable to the restaurant industry, which is more localized,” she says. Ahaiwe is a full-time micro-influencer with a full business plan and a media kit that explains her rates. She tailors her pitches to specific companies and says her rates have more to do with how much effort she’ll need to put in to make something look beautiful versus her number of followers. “If I have to go out of my way to do a shoot, it can easily be $825. If the brand wants me in the photo smiling with the food,” she says, “that’s going to amp it up to $1,000 because now I have to find someone to be my plus-one to take photos.” Ahaiwe travels with a car full of trays, silverware, changes of clothing and other props, ready to style food or other products for shoots. She schedules her social media posts months in advance. On a recent afternoon, Ahaiwe visited Hollywood Burger in West Hollywood to take some photos and film some video. In addition to the milkshake and the burger she ordered, director of operations Kevin Shea brought out a tray full of chicken wings, a soon-to-be-released menu item he wanted to promote. Ahaiwe, in turn, carefully styled her photos, arranging the wings in a row, dunking some into condiments and taking selfies with the chicken. Shea said he expected to see an immediate boost in terms of followers and engagement for the restaurant when Ahaiwe eventually posts her photos on Instagram. And she isn’t the only influencer Shea works with. “We have influencers DM-ing us like three to four times a week, saying, ‘Hey, can we “collab” and give us food,’ and we say no problem,” he says. Hernandez estimates that $1 out of every $5 made at his restaurants goes to marketing, which includes the fee and free food given to influencers. “I will never understand TikTok, but as a business owner you need to do your due diligence and find someone who does and bring them on board,” Hernandez says. “But social marketing is just a foot in the door; then you have to convince people to keep coming back.” For some, photographing food has become part of the appeal of going to restaurants. For food influencers, it’s a job. Andrea Warnecke/dpa-tmn Klaus Glaetzner, better known as cult griller Klaus, is filmed by his wife Melanie for a new YouTube video at the grill. Food influencers are transforming the business of eating. Patrick Pleul/dpa TikTok and Instagram posts can transform a restaurant’s fortunes and now, owners are integrating the platforms into their social media strategies. Jens Kalaene/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa View the full article

Published by DPA Australia is the land of kangaroos, koalas – and camels, boasting the world’s largest wild population. The animals were brought by the Europeans when they colonized the continent to transport goods across the arid outback. Today, Australians are no longer as keen on their camels, often seen as a nuisance. Petah Devine/Silverton Outback Camels/dpa A caravan of camels plods steadily through the desert, majestic despite the blazing heat. That may make you think of the Sahara but in fact, Australia is home to the world’s largest population of wild camels. Valued for their endurance, they were brought by the Europeans when they colonized the continent. Nowadays, they tend to be used for recreational purposes. “There have always been camels out here,” says Shelley Lorensen, president of the Boulia Camel Races that are held in the middle of the outback. Boulia in Queensland has only about 300 to 400 inhabitants, but some 3,500 people descend on the village in July, when it hosts the race. Many arrive in caravans or sleep in tents, ready to watch the camels as they race through the red desert sand. The three-day spectacle also features a lawnmower race, music and fireworks, but the camels are the main attraction, says Lorensen. But the animals are unpredictable. Their riders cannot steer them or control them. “You can train them,” she says. “It could be a perfect camel, win every race one day and on the next day.” But when race day comes, the camel might just sit down, Lorensen says. Australia’s camels helped the colonialists explore the outback and transported goods and people alike, after they were brought from India, Afghanistan and the Arabian Peninsula starting in the 1840s. Camels also provided much of the muscle when it came to major projects such as the Trans-Australian Railway and the Overland Telegraph Line. Settlements in the outback were dependent on the animals, nicknamed “desert ships,” as camels carried food to the most remote areas of the country. Camels have been in Silverton on the border between New South Wales and South Australia since the town was founded in the 1880s, says Duncan Pickering. “They transported a lot of the original building materials out here and supplied the local stores,” he says. Pickering and his partner Petah Devine offer camel tours in the area. They had always dreamed of having a farm in the middle of the outback, living entirely off the land. The camel tours came about by chance. “We got our first two camels back in March 2017 – the family who used to do camel rides in Silverton, they stopped doing camel rides,” Pickering tells dpa. Now, the couple has 13. All camels have different personalities and that’s what interests Pickering the most, he says. “They’re all individuals and just very affectionate.” The troubles start when you train a new one. You have to begin by “learning about their personalities, getting warm with the camels,” he says. But Australians are no longer as keen on their camels, seeing them as a nuisance. Many were released into the outback at the start of the 20th century, when they were no longer needed for transport as people switched to cars. The camels proliferated in the wild, with a population of 1 million according to the Department of the Environment in 2010. There were 1.2 million by 2020, ABC broadcasting station reported, though the exact number is not known. When the weather is very hot and dry, camels often head to settlements in search of water. In the process, they wind up tearing down fences to try and reach the condensation in air-conditioning systems. That often causes extensive damage. That has led officials to allow people to shoot the animals regularly and in large numbers. Local governments and landowners hire snipers and some use helicopters. The camels should be killed as quickly and painlessly as possible, according to the Australian Action Plan for Wild Camels. Meanwhile estimates suggest that 3,600 to 4,000 camels are killed every year to make animal feed out of their meat. A further 400 animals are exported live, while 1,000 are killed for human consumption. The main challenge is “trying to save camels and finding a use for their products,” says Paul Martin, who founded Summer Land Camels in 2015, a 324-hectare farm in Harrisville, Queensland. He and his team have tamed some 400 to 500 camels that they captured in the outback. Alongside sunrise rides and cocktail evenings with the camels, visitors can try cheese and ice cream made from camel milk or a camelccino in the farm café. The aroma is slightly sweet, and camel milk is packed with vitamin C and iron. Martin says it has many additional health benefits, including that people who are lactose intolerant can enjoy it too. “It doesn’t curdle in the stomach. It doesn’t create an inflammatory situation like other types of milk do.” Demand for camel products is slowly increasing, he says. Alongside the milk products, Summer Land Camels also sells hand creams, body lotion and the world’s first camel vodka, and consumers can buy the products online in some Asian countries. More is to come. “We are just working on an EU strategy at the moment,” says Martin. A female camel with two foals on the Summer Land Camels farm in Queensland, Australia. The country is home to the world’s largest population of wild camels. The animals were brought by the Europeans when they colonized the continent to transport goods across the arid outback. Today, Australians are no longer as keen on their camels, often seen as a nuisance. Tim Vermey/Summer Land Camels/dpa Camels racing in the 2022 Boulia Camel Races in Queensland, Australia. Matt Williams/Boulia Camel Races/dpa Petah Devine (l) and her partner Duncan Pickering offer camel tours in Silverton on the border between New South Wales and South Australia. Petah Devine/Silverton Outback Camels/dpa Paul Martin is the founder of Summer Land Camels, a 324-hectare farm in Harrisville, Queensland. He and his team capture and tame wild camels from the outback. Summer Land Camels/dpa View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Jeff Goldblum is to play The Wizard in the pair of ‘Wicked’ films. According to Variety, the ‘Jurassic Park’ legend will join Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in the two-parter. Pop megastar Ariana has just dyed her hair blonde ahead of shooting the flick. The 29-year-old pop star has taken on the role of Glinda the Good Witch in the upcoming adaptation of the smash hit Broadway musical – which tells the backstory of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and explains how the witches of Oz came to be both good and wicked – and has changed her signature dark locks to blonde in an apparent effort to match her character. Alongside a snap of her new look, she wrote on Instagram: “new earrings.” Cynthia plays the misunderstood green girl Elphaba, while ‘Bridgerton’ star Jonathan Bailey is set to play Fiyero, who finds himself in a love triangle with the witches. Principal photography is due to begin in London this November, and US-born superstar Ariana is said to have rented a “stunning” eight-figure mansion in the capital city to live in while she works on the project. Director Jon M. Chu decided to make the movie into two parts because it would be “impossible” to put the complex story into a single film. He said: “Thank you for all the support these past several months in anticipation of the ‘WICKED’ movie. Here’s what happened: as we prepared this production over the last year, it became increasingly clear that it would be impossible to wrestle the story of ‘WICKED’ into a single film without doing some real damage to it. With more space, we can tell the story of WICKED as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys of these beloved characters.” ‘Wicked: Part One’ is set to be released in December 2024, with the second following in 2025. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Prince Harry “stunned” his friends by asking them to contribute to his upcoming memoir. The Duke of Sussex asked his pals and some former girlfriends to talk to his ghost writer, JR Moehringer, about his upbringing, life and relationships, for new book ‘Spare’ but it is believed many of them turned down the request, having spent years being warned not to speak about their bond with the prince. It has been claimed that Harry – who has children Archie, three, and Lili, 16 months, with wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex – got in touch with some of his old flames over the summer, though it is unknown which of his former partners were asked. A source told The Sun online: “Harry did reach out. Friends and girlfriends were polite and said they would think about it but ultimately most said no. “It was felt to be kind of ironic that Harry would hit the roof if he ever had an inkling they spoke to the media, but now he wants them to when he needs their help.” ‘Spare’ was originally supposed to be released this year, but it was announced a few days ago it will hit shelves on 10 January, with publishers said to have asked the 38-year-old royal to offer “more detail” in several areas of the tome, while Harry also wanted to reflect on the passing of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, in the book. A source said: “The book has been back and forth between Harry and JR Moehringer and the publishers a few times. “They wanted more than was in the first draft, and then Harry wanted to refine things after the Queen passed away. “But there has been extra toing and froing that people don’t know about. This is because the publishers wanted more areas covered and more detail on some things that were already included. “There is a real concern that that means Harry has had to sex up the book and include revelations that even he might not even be that comfortable with.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Rich McKay (Reuters) – A man exonerated last year in the 1965 slaying of Black activist Malcolm X and the estate of a second man cleared posthumously reached a settlement totaling $36 million with New York City and state, their attorney said on Sunday. Muhammad Aziz, 84, had sought $40 million after serving about two decades in prison and more than 55 years after being wrongly blamed in the case that raised questions about racism in the criminal justice system. Aziz is married and has six children. Khalil Islam, who died in 2009 at age 74, also spent more than 20 years in prison and was exonerated in November 2021. His estate had also filed a $40 million suit. The city has agreed to pay $26 million and the state will pay $10 million, attorney David Shanies told Reuters. The survivor and the man’s estate will split the settlement. “Muhammad Aziz, Khalil Islam, and their families deserve this for their suffering,” Shanies said. “They suffered a lifetime under the cloud of wrongly being accused of killing a civil rights leader.” Nick Paolucci, a spokesman for the New York City Law Department, told the New York Times on Sunday that, “this settlement brings some measure of justice to individuals who spent decades in prison and bore the stigma of being falsely accused of murdering an iconic figure.” A representative for the state attorney general’s office was not immediately available for comment. Malcolm X became prominent as the voice of the Nation of Islam, which espoused Black separatism, before leaving the organization in 1964 and angering some of its followers. He was shot dead at age 39 in February 1965 while preparing to speak at New York’s Audubon Ballroom. A third man, Mujahid Halim, was also convicted for the shooting. He testified that Aziz and Islam were innocent. Halim was paroled in 2010. (Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; editing by Donna Bryson and Sandra Maler) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Nate Raymond and Andrew Chung WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Monday in two major cases involving Harvard University and the University of North Carolina that could imperil decades-old affirmative action policies that factor race into student admissions to boost Black and Hispanic enrollment on American campuses. The arguments are set to begin at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT) in appeals by a group founded by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum of lower court rulings upholding programs used at the two prestigious schools to foster student diversity. The court confronts this divisive issue four months after its major rulings curtailing abortion rights and widening gun rights. The court’s 6-3 conservative majority is expected to be sympathetic toward the challenges to Harvard and UNC. The cases give the court an opportunity to overturn its prior rulings allowing race-conscious admissions policies. They also give it a chance to embrace an interpretation favored by conservatives of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment promise of equal protection under the law that would bar governments and other institutions from using race-conscious policies – even those crafted to benefit people who have endured discrimination. The suits were filed separately against the two schools in 2014. One accused Harvard of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination based on race, color or national origin under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. The other accused UNC violating the 14th Amendment. Blum’s group said UNC discriminates against white and Asian American applicants and Harvard discriminates against Asian American applicants. The universities have said they use race as only one factor in a host of individualized evaluations for admission without quotas – permissible under Supreme Court precedents – and that curbing the consideration of race would result in a significant drop in the number of students from under-represented groups. Many institutions of higher education place a premium on achieving a diverse student population not simply to remedy racial inequity and exclusion in American life but to bring a range of perspectives onto campuses. Blum’s group told the justices in court papers that the Constitution requires colorblind admissions, quoting a famous line by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts from a 2007 ruling: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” It added that “any marginal loss in ‘cross-racial understanding’ could be remedied with alternatives far narrower than racial preferences, like making students take a class on the topic.” The two schools and President Joe Biden’s administration, backing them, said categorically banning any consideration of an individual’s race would be inconsistent with equal protection. UNC said there is a difference between a racist policy like segregation that separates people based on race and race-conscious policies that bring students together. The challengers’ arguments to equate the two “trivialize the grievous legal and moral wrongs of segregation,” the U.S. Justice Department said in a brief. Affirmative action has withstood Supreme Court scrutiny for decades, including in a 2016 ruling involving a white student, backed by Blum, who challenged the University of Texas after being rejected for admission, though the justices have narrowed its application. The Supreme Court has shifted rightward since 2016 and now includes three justices who dissented in the University of Texas case and three new appointees by former Republican President Donald Trump. That shift has experts predicting that the conservative justices may be poised once again to reverse a decades-old precedent just as they did in June when they overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling recognizing a constitutional right to abortion. Blum’s group asked the Supreme Court to overturn a 2003 Supreme Court ruling in a case called Grutter v. Bollinger involving the University of Michigan Law School that held that colleges could consider race as one factor in the admissions process because of the compelling interest of creating a diverse student body. The Supreme Court first upheld affirmative action in college admissions in a 1978 ruling in a case called Regents of the University of California v. Bakke that held that actions to achieve diversity were permissible but racial quotas were not. (Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Lisandra Paraguassu and Anthony Boadle SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly defeated President Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff election, but the far right incumbent had not conceded defeat by Monday morning, raising concerns he might contest the result. Tens of thousands of jubilant supporters took to the streets of Sao Paulo to celebrate a stunning comeback for the 77-year-old former metalworker who, following his previous two-term 2003-2010 presidency, served prison time for corruption convictions that were later annulled. Bolsonaro is the first Brazilian incumbent to lose a presidential election and Lula has vowed to overturn his legacy, including pro-gun policies and weak protection of the Amazon rainforest. Pitching the contest as a battle for democracy after his rival made baseless claims the electoral system was open to fraud, Lula called the election a sign Brazilians “want more and not less democracy,” in a victory speech that celebrated what he called his “resurrection.” He promised to unite a deeply divided country. “I will govern for 215 million Brazilians, and not just for those who voted for me,” Lula said at his campaign headquarters. “There are not two Brazils. We are one country, one people, one great nation.” The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) declared Lula won 50.9% of votes, against 49.1% for Bolsonaro. Lula’s inauguration is scheduled for Jan. 1. Graphic: Lula wins Brazilian election https://graphics.reuters.com/BRAZIL-ELECTION/myvmomjrzvr/graphic.jpg The result in Latin America’s largest nation means the left will govern all the region’s major economies after a string of electoral successes from Mexico to Argentina in recent years. A source in the Bolsonaro campaign told Reuters the president would not make public remarks until Monday. The Bolsonaro campaign did not respond to a request for comment. “So far, Bolsonaro has not called me to recognize my victory, and I don’t know if he will call or if he will recognize my victory,” Lula told supporters on Sao Paulo’s Paulista Avenue. In contrast to Bolsonaro’s silence, congratulations for Lula poured in from foreign leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron. Biden congratulated Lula for winning “free, fair and credible elections,” joining the chorus of compliments from European and Latin American leaders. Markets braced for a volatile week ahead, with Brazil’s real currency and international listings of Brazilian stocks falling as investors gauged speculation about Lula’s cabinet and the risk of Bolsonaro questioning results. One close Bolsonaro ally, lawmaker Carla Zambelli, in an apparent nod to the results, wrote on Twitter, “I PROMISE you, I will be the greatest opposition that Lula has ever imagined.” The vote was a rebuke for the fiery far-right populism of Bolsonaro, who emerged from the back benches of Congress to forge a conservative coalition but lost support as Brazil ran up one of the worst death tolls of the coronavirus pandemic. International election observers said Sunday’s election was conducted efficiently. One observer told Reuters that military auditors did not find any flaws in integrity tests they did of the voting system. Truck drivers believed to be Bolsonaro supporters on Sunday blocked a highway in four places in the state of Mato Grosso, a major grains producer, according to the highway operator. In one video circulating online, a man said truckers planned to block main highways, calling for a military coup to prevent Lula from taking office. PINK TIDE RISING Lula’s win consolidates a new “pink tide” in Latin America, after landmark leftist victories in Colombia and Chile’s elections, echoing a regional political shift two decades ago that introduced Lula to the world stage. He has vowed a return to state-driven economic growth and social policies that helped lift millions out of poverty during two terms as president from 2003 to 2010. He also promises to combat destruction of the Amazon rainforest, now at a 15-year high, and make Brazil a leader in global climate talks. “These were four years of hatred, of negation of science,” Ana Valeria Doria, 60, a doctor in Rio de Janeiro who celebrated with a drink. “It won’t be easy for Lula to manage the division in this country. But for now it’s pure happiness.”A former union leader born into poverty, Lula’s two-term presidency was marked by a commodity-driven economic boom and he left office with record popularity. However, his Workers Party was later tarred by a deep recession and a record-breaking corruption scandal that jailed him for 19 months on bribery convictions, which were overturned by the Supreme Court last year. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito in Brasilia, Brian Ellsworth and Lisandra Paraguassu in Sao Paulo; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel, Editing by Brad Haynes, Lincoln Feast, Nick Macfie and Angus MacSwan) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Karen Freifeld and Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) – Opening statements are set for Monday in the criminal case accusing former President Donald Trump’s real estate company of a 15-year tax fraud. The case is among the mounting legal troubles facing the 76-year-old Trump, a Republican, as he considers another bid for the presidency after losing in 2020. The Trump Organization is accused of defrauding tax authorities between at least 2005 and 2021 by providing “off the books” benefits to company executives and paying bonuses as non-employee compensation. If convicted, the company – which operates hotels, golf courses and other real estate around the world – could face up to $1.6 million in fines. It could also further complicate the real estate firm’s ability to do business. Trump himself has not been charged in the case. A panel of 12 jurors and six alternates were chosen last week for the case, which will be heard in New York state court in Manhattan. The trial is expected to last over a month. A unanimous verdict is required for conviction on each count of tax fraud, scheming to defraud, and falsifying business records. Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer, agreed to testify as a prosecution witness at trial as part of a plea agreement for him to receive a sentence of five months in jail. Weisselberg, who was charged along with the company last year, admitted in August to scheming with the Trump Organization and others not to report or to misreport substantial amounts of his and other employees’ income. Weisselberg avoided taxes on $1.76 million in personal income himself through luxury perks, such as rent for a Manhattan apartment. A prosecutor told potential jurors last week Weisselberg worked for the defendants and may be “reluctant” to answer questions. Weisselberg stepped down as CFO when he was indicted but remained on the payroll as a senior advisor. After his guilty plea, he went on paid leave, a source has told Reuters. The day he pleaded guilty, the Trump Organization called Weisselberg a “fine and honorable man” who had been harassed by law enforcement in a “politically motivated quest” to get Trump. But in a pretrial hearing this month, a Trump Organization lawyer accused Weisselberg of lying, an indication of the bind the company finds itself in. Justice Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing the case, has rejected the argument that the Trump Organization was targeted for selective prosecution. Two top prosecutors on the case resigned in February, with one saying felony charges against Trump were warranted but that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicated doubts. Bragg, a Democrat, has said the investigation is ongoing. The case is separate from a $250 million civil lawsuit filed by New York’s attorney general against Trump, three of his adult children and his company in September, accusing them of lying to banks and insurers by overvaluing his real estate assets and Trump’s net worth. While that case is pending, the attorney general is seeking to appoint a monitor to oversee the company’s financial practices, a move the company is challenging. Trump also faces a federal criminal investigation into the removal of government documents from the White House when he left office last year. (Reporting by Karen Freifeld and Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Alistair Bell) View the full article

Published by Kaiser Health News It’s fall again, meaning shorter days, cooler temperatures, and open enrollment for Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance — sign-ups begin this week for coverage that starts Jan. 1, 2023. Even though much of the coverage stays the same from year to year, there are a few upcoming changes that consumers should note this fall, especially if they are having trouble buying expensive policies through their employer. In the past year, the Biden administration and Congress have taken steps — mainly related to premiums and subsidies — that will affect 2023 coverage. Meanwhile, confusion caused by c… Read More View the full article

Published by Miami Herald Cuban Americans in Miami are proving Donald Trump right on one issue. He could, as the Republican presidential front-runner famously boasted in 2016 Iowa, stand in the middle of New York’s Fifth Avenue “and shoot somebody,” and he wouldn’t lose voters. In Miami, make that famous corridor Calle Ocho, and make the target of Trump’s narcissistic wrath democracy itself. The ex-president’s assault on democracy, apparently, means nothing to the majority of Cuban Americans in Miami-Dade, a new poll confirms. They’re as blind as their forebears who supported Fidel Castro in 1959. President Trump knowi… Read More View the full article

Published by New York Daily News A new streaming service focused on LGBTQ women and nonbinary people is set to launch globally later this year. DivaBoxOffice.tv — the result of a partnership between the Diva Media Group (DMG), A Baker Production and Tello Films founder Christin Baker — will be available on major platforms including iTunes, Google Play, Roku and Amazon Firestick starting on Dec. 1. “The demand for queer programming is only growing with each generation becoming increasingly more fluid in their sexual orientations and gender identities than ever before,” Baker, who will serve as the streamers’ president and CEO,… Read More View the full article