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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

Published by Raw Story By Jordan Green, Staff Reporter https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/the-proud-boys-whipped-up-vitriol-against-a-drag-brunch-in-a-small-town-in-north-carolina-on-sunday/More than a dozen Proud Boys in tactical gear and gang colors harassed patrons attending a drag show in Sanford, NC on Sunday by calling them “groomers” and “pedophiles” as they filed into a local brewpub for the brunch event. The 16 Proud Boys, mainly from the Cape Fear chapter and almost entirely wearing masked, massed outside the front entrance of Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford at around 11:30 a.m. The group … Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Andy Sullivan and Jacqueline Thomsen WASHINGTON (Reuters) -In the months leading up to the U.S. midterm elections, lawyers for Democrats and Republicans are already squaring off in a wave of lawsuits challenging state rules on how to vote and the counting of ballots. Here is a summary of significant cases filed ahead of the Nov. 8 election and where they stand. POLL WATCHERS The Republican National Committee in November reached a settlement in a lawsuit against officials in Clark County, Nevada, that requires election officials to release poll workers’ partisan affiliations. The party filed a similar lawsuit this month seeking information on poll workers in Maricopa County, Arizona. The RNC also successfully sued authorities in North Carolina and Michigan to roll back new restrictions on partisan poll watchers. Meanwhile in Arizona, voting rights groups have sued over “drop box watchers” in Maricopa County, claiming their actions, including allegedly carrying weapons and tactical gear, are intimidating voters who visit the boxes to deposit their ballots. That case is pending. COUNTING VOTES, QUESTIONING VOTERS The American Civil Liberties Union sued to challenge the counting of votes by hand in Nevada’s rural Nye County, arguing that the process violates federal and state law. County election officials halted the hand count in response to a ruling by the Nevada Supreme Court late Thursday, the ACLU said. Also this month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to take up a Republican National Committee lawsuit seeking to throw out undated mail-in ballots on a fast-tracked schedule. A Phoenix judge in August blocked a bid by Republican Arizona governor candidate Kari Lake to stop the use of electronic vote tabulators. Lake claimed the machines created “unjustified new risks” of fraud. The decision is on appeal. In Colorado, the state chapter of the NAACP and other voting-rights groups lost a bid in April to stop a conservative group called the U.S. Election Integrity Plan from canvassing individuals about their voting activity in the 2020 election. The group claims the effort is an attempt to root out voter fraud, and the case is ongoing. MAIL BALLOT BATTLES Rules that concern voting by mail have been a particular flash point this year. After many states expanded mail voting in the 2020 election in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Republicans and conservative groups have sought to roll it back, arguing that it leads to fraud. They have had success in some states, including Delaware, where the state Supreme Court this month overturned a law that allowed people to vote by mail for any reason. In July, the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty won a challenge to ban drop boxes in the state. Other Republican efforts have faltered. Earlier this month, a judge rejected a bid by America First Legal, a group founded by former Trump aides, to require that drop boxes in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh County be physically monitored to ensure that voters are only delivering their own ballots. The group has appealed. In Arizona, where mail-in ballots have been widely used for decades, a state court in June dismissed a lawsuit by the state Republican party seeking to ban the practice. The party has appealed. And in North Carolina, Republicans lost a bid to shorten the deadline for election officials to receive mail ballots from Nov. 14 to Nov. 11. Another lawsuit in Illinois, challenging the counting of mail ballots up to two weeks after election day, is pending. VOTER OUTREACH Civil rights groups and, in some cases, the Biden administration are challenging new Republican-backed state laws that seek to limit voter registration and outreach. Civil-rights groups in Florida won a ruling that struck down most of a new law restricting voter-registration activity and limiting the use of drop boxes, but the provisions remain in effect while the state appeals. In Arizona, a judge in September temporarily blocked a 2022 law allowing the cancellation of voter registrations of people suspected to be registered to vote in another county, following a challenge by a civil rights group. The U.S. Justice Department and several Hispanic groups have separately challenged the state’s proof of citizenship requirement. In Texas, the Justice Department and civil-rights groups are challenging a wide-ranging 2021 state law that criminalizes many voter outreach efforts. That litigation is ongoing. The Justice Department and civil-rights groups have also sued Georgia to overturn a state law that criminalizes efforts to help people who are waiting in line to vote, among other restrictions. (Reporting by Andy Sullivan and Jacqueline Thomsen; Editing by David Bario, Noeleen Walder, Daniel Wallis and Rosalba O’Brien) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Moira Warburton WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. judge has rejected a request for a temporary restraining order against a group accused of alleged voter intimidation, according to a ruling released on Friday. Judge Michael Liburdi, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump to the federal court in Arizona, rejected the request against Clean Elections USA and its founder, Melody Jennings. The lawsuit was filed on Monday by the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans (AARA) and Voto Latino, an organization that educates Latinos on voting, alleging that Clean Elections USA is purposely trying to intimidate voters with its campaign for “dropbox watches,” which encourages individuals to monitor drop boxes for alleged suspicious behavior. A lawyer who represented Clean Elections USA and Jennings in a hearing earlier this week did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The suit was filed after two individuals were seen wearing tactical military gear and allegedly carrying weapons while monitoring a drop box in Maricopa County, Arizona. Jennings called the pair “our people” in a now-deleted post on Truth Social, the social media platform launched by Trump. Liburdi said in his ruling Voto Latino and the AARA did not present evidence that Clean Elections USA represented “a true threat,” adding that he could not “craft an injunction without violating the First Amendment” rights of the defendants. He also dismissed Voto Latino from the case, stating he did not think the organization proved it would be harmed financially by Clean Election USA’s actions. “Today’s decision is truly disappointing for our members and all older Arizonans,” Saundra Cole, president of the AARA, said in a statement. “We continue to believe that Clean Elections USA’s intimidation and harassment is unlawful.” A notice of appeal has been filed, with a request for emergency relief. (Reporting by Moira Warburton in Washington; Editing by Josie Kao) View the full article

Published by AFP The Supreme Court is to hear oral arguments about race-conscious admissions to US universities Washington (AFP) – After abortion and guns, the US Supreme Court tackles another controversial and sensitive issue on Monday — the use of race in deciding who gets admitted to some of America’s top universities. And the conservative-dominated court may be poised to make another historic U-turn, like it did in June when it overturned the landmark 1973 “Roe v. Wade” decision guaranteeing a woman’s right to abortion. The court is to hear two hours of oral arguments on the use of race in admissions to Harvard and the University of North Carolina (UNC) — respectively the oldest private and public institutions of higher education in the country. Harvard and UNC, like a number of other competitive schools, use race as a factor in trying to ensure representation of minorities, historically African Americans, in the student body. The policy known as “affirmative action” emerged from the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1960s to “help address our country’s long history of discrimination and systemic inequality in higher education,” said Yasmin Cader, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). It has been controversial from the start, drawing fire mostly from the right, and a number of white students have mounted legal challenges over the years, claiming “reverse discrimination.” Nine states have banned affirmative action at public universities including California, where voters did so in a ballot proposition in 1996 and rebuffed an attempt to revive the policy in 2020. Students for Fair Admissions The Supreme Court has previously upheld affirmative action, most recently in 2016 by a single vote, but its opponents believe the current right-leaning bench will lend a more sympathetic ear to their arguments. “If they overturned Roe, I think they are equally likely to overturn Bakke,” said Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think-tank. In a landmark ruling in 1978 — Regents of the University of California v. Bakke — the Supreme Court banned the use of quotas in admissions as unconstitutional. But the court said race or ethnic origin can be considered as one factor among others in admitting students to ensure a diverse student body. With six justices — three of whom were nominated by former president Donald Trump, a Republican — conservatives wield a solid majority on the nine-seat high court. And those in favor of “color-blind” admissions policies believe they may have an ally in Chief Justice John Roberts. “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” Roberts wrote in a ruling in a 2007 school integration case. A group known as Students for Fair Admissions, which claims more than 20,000 members and was founded by Edward Blum, a long-time conservative opponent of affirmative action, is behind the latest attack on the policy. In 2014, the group filed suits against Harvard and UNC claiming that their race-conscious admissions policies discriminate against equally qualified applicants of Asian-American origin. Asian-American students are underrepresented at the schools considering their record of superior academic achievement, according to the complaints. “In a multi-racial, multi-ethnic nation like ours, the college admissions bar cannot be raised for some races and ethnic groups but lowered for others,” according to Blum. “Our nation cannot remedy past discrimination and racial preferences with new discrimination and different racial preferences.” ‘Diverse leaders’ After losing in lower courts, the group is seeking a ruling from the Supreme Court that the Constitution prohibits any form of discrimination — a decision that could also impact hiring, for example, or government contracting, where preference is sometimes given to minority-owned businesses. The Supreme Court will hear one hour of argument in each case with Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s first African-American woman, sitting out the Harvard case because she has served previously on the Board of Overseers of the school. The administration of Democratic President Joe Biden and a number of major American companies have weighed in on the side of the universities. “Our Nation’s future depends on having diverse leaders who are prepared to lead in an increasingly diverse society,” the Department of Justice said. Apple, General Motors and Starbucks joined a brief arguing that “diverse workforces” improve business performance “and thus strengthen the American and global economies.” The ACLU’s Cader warned that a decision by the court overturning its previous support for affirmative action policies would have wide-ranging and long-lasting repercussions. “We face the threat of the generations behind us having less rights than we had ourselves,” Cader said. “And I can say that as an African American woman who went to law school under that precedent.” View the full article

Published by AFP Former US president Barack Obama casts his vote at an early voting venue on October 17, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois Washington (AFP) – Former US president Barack Obama said Friday that democracy is at stake in next month’s midterm elections in the United States, as he hit his first stop on the campaign trail. The Democratic power player, who remains a hugely popular figure in his party, told a boisterous rally in Georgia that everyone had to get out and vote to prevent election conspiracy theorists getting their hands on the levers of power. “It’s not enough to elect Democrats at the top of the ticket,” a fired-up Obama told the crowd in the suburbs of Atlanta. “We need to elect good people up and down the ballot. Across the country, some of the folks who tried to undermine our democracy are running for offices that will oversee the next election. “And if they win, there’s no telling what might happen.” Obama, who has kept a relatively low profile since leaving office in 2017, was guest of honor at the rally in Georgia, where two extremely close contests, fueled by tens of millions of dollars, are captivating America. Democrat Raphael Warnock, the first Black US senator elected in the southern state with a long history of segregation, is seeking re-election against Herschel Walker, a former American football star backed by Donald Trump. The contest could well decide which party gets control of the US Senate — and the ability to advance or frustrate President Joe Biden’s agenda. There is also a fierce battle for the governor’s office, where Republican Brian Kemp is up against influential Democratic figure Stacey Abrams. As well as hammering the Republican Party on electoral integrity and the Trump-driven false claims that the 2020 presidential ballot was rigged, Obama also touched on abortion rights, which have been threatened since the Supreme Court overturned the long-standing Roe vs. Wade. “Women everywhere should be able to control have a say in what happens with their own bodies,” he said. “It shouldn’t be controversial to say that the most personal of healthcare choices should be made by a woman and her doctor. Not by a bunch of mostly male politicians.” Americans have already begun voting in elections that will decide control of both houses of Congress, as well as who gets the governors’ mansions in dozens of states. Hundreds of other positions at county and state level will also be decided in the November 8 polls. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Adele admits it’s unlikely she’ll achieve EGOT status because she’s not keen on Broadway. The 34-year-old singer is just a Tony award away from the full set (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) after she added an Emmy to her Grammys and Oscar in September. Adele took home the Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) gong for her CBS special ‘Adele One Night Only’ at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. And while she admits she’s happy to settle with an EGO as Broadway has never interested her and she’s too “lazy” to do two shows a day, there is one role she wouldn’t mind taking on, Rose from ‘Gypsy’. She told fans at an event to launch her new music video for ‘I Drink Wine’: “I saw [Gypsy] in London and I did love the role of the mum in it. She has a song [Rose’s Turn] when she was like, ‘I wanted to do all of this’ and she’s jealous of her own daughter and she’s really caught up about it. At one bit, she was just a b**** in it which I could nail.” The ‘Hello’ hitmaker joked she could move her delayed Las Vegas residency to Broadway and cheat. She continued: “I don’t think I’ve seen enough [Broadway] as a grownup to know if I would want to do it. I was wondering, do I just move the show from Vegas to Broadway and win the Tony? I actually prefer the sound of an EGO than an EGOT. EGO is fun. But never say never. If I move to New York, I get bored, I’ll be on that stage in a hot second.” Name-dropping musical legend Bette Midler, she added: “I actually know Bette Midler which is a big flex, right? Because she’s one of my idols. She was like, ‘You would never be able to keep up with the schedule on Broadway.’ Because I’m so lazy. I’m so notoriously lazy … I would not be able to do matinees and all that. I don’t have the stamina for that.” Adele quipped that she “officially has an EGO” after being honoured with her Emmy. View the full article

Published by AFP Elon Musk fired some of Twitter's senior executives shortly after taking over San Francisco (AFP) – Twitter formally became the private property of Elon Musk on Friday, steering the social media giant down an uncertain path under the stewardship of one of its most vocal critics. Scrutiny quickly turned to how the platform will operate under a self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist who some users fear will turn Twitter into a global stage for hate speech and disinformation. In a nod to such concerns, Musk’s first policy act was to tweet that he will form a “content moderation council” embracing “widely diverse viewpoints.” “No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” he said. Musk’s sealing of the on-again, off-again $44 billion deal ended a months-long soap opera of corporate chicanery, involving insults, threats and lawsuits. “The bird is free,” tweeted the billionaire Tesla founder and space pioneer in reference to the company’s logo. “Let the good times roll.” The deal drew contrasting reactions, with former US president Donald Trump cheering the change of leadership on a platform that had banned him, while activists warned of a surge in harassment and misinformation. European politicians were quick to signal to Musk that the continent had regulations for social media companies. “In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules,” tweeted Thierry Breton, the EU internal market commissioner. Musk had vowed to dial back content moderation and was expected to clear the way for Trump to return to the platform. The then-president was blocked over concerns he would ignite more violence like the 2021 deadly attack on the US Capitol to overturn his election loss. Taking to his own Truth Social platform, Trump said he was “very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands” — but gave no commitment to rejoin if allowed. Far-right users were quick to rejoice at Musk’s ownership, posting comments such as “masks don’t work” and other taunts, under the belief that moderation rules would now be relaxed. ‘A huge responsibility’ Yale University philosophy professor Jason Stanley, who has characterized Trump’s rise as a sign of mounting fascism in the United States, said he would alter his approach to posting. “For the moment I am staying on Twitter. But I am going to try to be much more careful about what I say now that Elon Musk is in charge. Cascading hate speech targeting can destroy your week,” he said. Right-wing political commentator Ben Shapiro said he gained 40,000 Twitter followers Friday, while the actor Mark Hamill, a liberal, said he had lost almost 6,000 followers over the last three days. Musk reportedly fired Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal and other senior officials — though the company did not reply to a request for comment and Agrawal still listed himself as CEO on his Twitter profile. But Ned Segal, Twitter’s chief financial officer since 2017, announced his departure. “At its best, (Twitter) democratizes communication and knowledge, ensuring accountability and equal distribution of info,” Segal said. “It’s a huge responsibility for everyone that shares in the work. I wish them strength, wisdom and foresight.” On Friday, employees filled the San Francisco headquarters. “There were more people in the office today than I’ve ever seen since Covid,” said an employee who asked to remain anonymous. “Elon brought in teams of engineers from Tesla to do some evaluations. “I would be very surprised if there were not some reductions of the workforce soon.” Musk, who is using a combination of his own money, funds from wealthy investors and bank loans to finance the deal, has conceded he is overpaying for a company that has regularly posted eye-watering losses. How to monetize? Twitter says it has 238 million daily users — dwarfed by the likes of Facebook’s nearly two billion — and has not been able to monetize in the same way as its rivals. But it holds an outsized influence on public debate because it is the favored platform for many companies, politicians, journalists and other public figures. Though he has vowed that Twitter will not become a “free-for-all hellscape,” Musk reportedly plans deep staff cuts that would gut teams that oversee content. Despite Musk posting a letter to advertisers saying he wants Twitter to be a forum where rival viewpoints can be debated in a “healthy manner”, US auto giant General Motors said Friday it has “temporarily paused” paid ads on the platform. “We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership,” said a GM spokesman. Media watchdog Media Matters for America sounded the alarm over the future of a Musk-led Twitter, particularly the impact on imminent US midterm elections. The platform “is now on a glide path to becoming a supercharged engine of radicalization” and a “fever swamp of dangerous conspiracy theories, partisan chicanery, and operationalized harassment,” the organization’s head Angelo Carusone said. View the full article