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Published by BANG Showbiz English Jonathan Majors hopes to play the “unbridled” Dennis Rodman. The 33-year-old actor is in talks to play the basketball maverick in the movie ’48 Hours in Vegas’, which tells the story of the sports star’s infamous trip to Las Vegas during the 1998 NBA Finals. Jonathan explained that he is desperate to take on the part of the “eclectic” athlete to test himself as an actor and compared it to his role as the trailblazing Navy pilot Jesse Brown in the film ‘Devotion’. He told Variety: “His character as a man is one that is unbridled. “He’s eclectic. He’s an open mind. He’s an open heart. And, selfishly, you want to play a role like that, because it’s gonna push you to that place. “Jesse Brown teaches me things about my soul and spirit. I know Rodman’s going to too, and I’m just looking forward to getting into it.” Jonathan will arrive in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as Kang the Conqueror in the forthcoming movie ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ and he can barely believe that he is starring in the popular superhero films. He said: “Every time they call and say, ‘Hey, we need you for this’, it’s another miracle. “Every time there’s an event about it or something breaks about it, I go, ‘Yeah this is real.'” The ‘Jungleland’ star explained that he felt a sense of disbelief when her first saw himself as the supervillain on screen. Jonathan said: “He looks different than I do. He is a different man than I am. He used all my material, but he’s a different cat. “When I first heard the trailer, I didn’t recognise the voice, and he was narrating the whole thing. I was like, ‘What is that?’ I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a great line. That’s a bar; that is a bar.’ “And then they showed who it is and I was like, ‘Oh, oh, oh, okay, cool’.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Thebe Magugu is collaborating with Dior for a charity project. The South African designer has been tasked by Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri to create a new interpretation of Christian Dior’s New Look – which caused a sensation back in 1947. The task mirrors a second-year assignment he had as a fashion student in Johannesburg and is in aid of the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project, a charity that aids young people in South Africa. Magugu explained that he is honoured to be working with Dior and explained how the brand’s fashion legacy has reached across Africa. The 29-year-old designer said: “I’m from a small mining town called Kimberly, a place which sometimes is completely overlooked on certain maps. But even there people are very familiar with Christian Dior. It sort of revolutionised how women dress.” Magugu also quipped: “It’s like I completed my homework eight years ago.” The designer made his jacket in red with “very small, rounded shoulders” and the skirt a swirling, full-circle style. He has reimagined the New Look’s cinched jacket as a cotton T-shirt, with straps included that allow the wearer to highlight the waist to a degree of their choice. Magugu described the T-shirt as a “universally understood item” that is fronted by two females holding hands in a “powerful symbol of sisterhood”. The designer revealed that the flaring skirt pays homage to the work of Chiuri. He said: “At Dior, I’ve always loved when she’s done the full-circle skirts. I’ve looked at those things forever.” Magugu praised Chiuri for her interest in South Africa and for her attempts to create links with a new generation of fashion designers. He said: “I think it’s quite exciting seeing how two brands from such completely different heritages, histories and geographies come together to sit down and have a visual conversation.” View the full article

Published by Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. consular official spoke on Tuesday with Britney Griner and Paul Whelan, Americans detained in Russia, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said. “There was a substantial proposal on the table earlier this summer to facilitate their release. Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal, and the Russians should take that deal,” he said at a news briefing. A consular officer spoke briefly on the phone with both detainees on Tuesday, he said without elaborating. (Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chris Reese) View the full article

Published by Reuters MOSCOW (Reuters) – American WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner, whose appeal against a Russian jail term is due to be heard next week, sent her supporters a message of thanks on Tuesday, her 32nd birthday. The two-time Olympic gold medallist was arrested on Feb. 17 at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage, and was sentenced on Aug. 4 to nine years in a penal colony on drug smuggling charges. Her appeal is due to be heard next Tuesday. “All the support and love are definitely helping me,” Griner was quoted as saying by her lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, who spent several hours with her in the Moscow pre-trial detention centre where she is being held. Griner pleaded guilty at her trial but said she had made an “honest mistake” and not meant to break the law. Cannabis is illegal in Russia for both medicinal and recreational purposes. “Today is of course a difficult day for Brittney,” said Blagovolina, who is representing Griner in court. “Not only is this her birthday in jail away from her family, team mates and friends, but she is very stressed in anticipation of the appeal hearing on Oct. 25.” Washington says Griner was wrongfully detained and has offered to exchange her for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States. It said last week it had had no consular access to her since August. Moscow has also suggested it is open to a prisoner swap. Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who travelled to Moscow in September, has said he believes Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan could both be released by the end of the year. (Reporting by Filipp Lebedev; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Angus MacSwan) View the full article

Published by Taste of Country Dolly Parton made a trip to New York to officially accept her 2022 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy trophy, which celebrates her decades of charitable efforts, especially her Dolly Parton Foundation and its creation of the Imagination Library. As she accepted her award, the country legend delivered a nearly five-minute acceptance speech that packed in plenty of her signature light-hearted, down-home humor, and also conveyed the sincere gratitude she felt for the award. “I’m proud to have this. I was afraid I was gonna have to take my hair off to get this on,” Parton joked at the beginning of her… Read More View the full article

Published by New York Daily News Benoit Blanc is here and apparently queer. The Stephen Sondheim-loving Southern sleuth that Daniel Craig portrays in the “Knives Out” films has been outed. During a press conference Sunday at the London Film Festival, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” director Rian Johnson confirmed the sexuality of the beloved character. The filmmaker was asked whether Blanc was queer after a scene in the film appears to show him living with another man. “Yes, he obviously is,” Johnson replied. In the sequel to the 2019 star-studded blockbuster, set to start streaming on Netflix Dec. 23, the dapper detectiv… Read More View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega An advisor to Vladimir Putin revealed Brittney Griner’s release and return to the United States is not currently a top priority for Russia, RadarOnline.com has learned. Yury Ushakov, one of Putin’s top advisors and who previously served as Russia’s ambassador to the United States for ten years from 1998 and 2008, also suggested President Joe Biden’s vow to free the 31-year-old imprisoned WNBA star is nothing more than PR stunt to help booster the upcoming midterm elections. Mega “In this tense situation, I think that he is thinking first and foremost about the upcoming midterm elections so he keeps emphasizing the need to bring back home the basketball player who was detained for drug smuggling,” Ushakov said on Sunday. “However, it’s not the main issue that we are concerned about,” he added. As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Ushakov’s comments come shortly after Griner’s lawyer, Alexandr D. Boykov, revealed the WNBA star is “struggling” in prison and she is skeptical she will be released and allowed to return home. “She has not been in as good condition as I could sometimes find her in,” Boykov told the New York Times. Mega “She is not yet absolutely convinced that America will be able to take her home,” he continued. “She is very worried about what the price of that will be, and she is afraid that she will have to serve the whole sentence here in Russia.” Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison on August 4 after she pleaded guilty to drug smuggling. She was initially arrested in February after she was caught with two vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in a Moscow airport. Although Boykov plans to appeal Griner’s sentencing, the WNBA star is also reportedly worried about the conditions of the new jail she will likely be transported to should her appeal be denied. Mega “Perhaps the verdict will somehow be changed and, perhaps, the sentence will be reduced, because the decision taken by the first court is very different from judicial practice,” Boykov explained. “Considering all the circumstances, taking into account my client’s personality traits and her admission of guilt, such a verdict should be absolutely impossible,” Griner’s lawyer added. Both President Biden and Putin will be attending this year’s G20 summit in Bali next month, although Biden previously revealed he has no plans to speak with Putin unless the discussion is about Griner’s release. “It would depend on specifically what he wanted to talk about,” Biden told reporters. “I don’t see any rationale to meet with him now.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Ezra Miller has pleaded not guilty to stealing three bottles of alcohol from their neighbour’s home. The troubled 30-year-old actor, who faces 26 years in prison if they are found guilty of the charges, as well as more than $2,000 in fines, appeared remotely at a hearing at Vermont Superior Court, and was told to stay away from neighbour Isaac Winokur. They allegedly took a bottle of gin, vodka and rum from Winokur’s pantry on May 1 at around 5pm, and Miller spoke only to confirm that they understood the conditions of their bail, including a ban on contacting Winokur and another Vermont resident Aiden Early. Miller, who goes by they/them pronouns, was also charged with petty larceny over the three bottles, it was reported on Monday. (17.10.22) Vermont Police charged Miller with felony burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, with the actor claiming they were in the house to look for ingredients for a recipe for their mother. Miller’s lawyer Lisa Shelkrot said: “Ezra Miller this morning pled not guilty to one count of burglary and one count of petit larceny in Vermont Superior Court and accepted the court-imposed conditions of not contacting or entering the home of the inhabitants. “Ezra would like to acknowledge the love and support they have received from their family and friends, who continue to be a vital presence in their ongoing mental health.” Miller has been hit with allegations of grooming after the parents of Native American activist Tokota Iron Eyes, 18, filed a protection order against the actor. Her parents accused Miller of grooming their child and other inappropriate behaviour with her as a minor from the age of 12, which has been disputed by Tokota. Miller was also arrested twice in Hawaii in March and charged with disorderly conduct and second-degree assault. They were accused of shouting and swearing at customers as they sang karaoke at a bar, as well as grabbing a microphone from a 23-year-old woman. Miller pleaded no contest to one count of disorderly conduct and paid a $500 fine over the incident. A married couple also took out a restraining order against them after Miller burst into their bedroom and threatened to kill them then left, stealing her passport and his wallet. And in April the star was accused of throwing a chair at a 26-year-old woman and hitting her at a private party. A video of Miller appearing to choke a woman at a bar in Reykjavik, Iceland, also surfaced in April 2020, but did not result in any charges. In August Miller announced that they were seeking treatment for “complex mental health issues”, saying in a statement: “Having recently gone through a time of intense crisis, I now understand that I am suffering complex mental health issues and have begun ongoing treatment. “I want to apologise to everyone that I have alarmed and upset with my past behaviour. I am committed to doing the necessary work to get back to a healthy, safe, and productive stage in my life.” View the full article

Published by AFP A Congressional report says that the administration of former US president Donald Trump actively prevented health officials from providing a full picture of the Covid-19 outbreak Washington (AFP) – Former US president Donald Trump’s administration prevented health officials from providing accurate information about Covid-19 in a bid to back up his overly optimistic view of the outbreak, according to a congressional report released Monday. Senior staff at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told investigators Trump aides bullied staff and tried to rewrite their reports in a bid to align guidance with the president’s public downplaying of the crisis. Officials took “unprecedented steps to insert political appointees into the publication process and rebut CDC’s scientific reports, including drafting op-eds and other public messaging designed to directly counteract CDC’s findings,” the report said. Investigators interviewed a dozen current and former CDC officials as well as senior administration figures for the 91-page document released by the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis. The panel describes how Trump appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) tried to take over the CDC’s weekly scientific journal, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), editing or blocking articles they believed might prove harmful to Trump. Trump appointees had sought to “alter the contents, rebut, or delay the release” of 18 MMWRs and a health alert, succeeding on at least five occasions. The report quoted a CDC communications officer who complained that a Trump ally in HHS had used “bully-ish behavior” that made CDC officials “feel threatened.” Jay Butler, the CDC’s deputy director of infectious diseases, said he was “not really asked back to do telebriefings” after his statements were deemed “too alarming.” “The Select Subcommittee’s investigation has shown that the previous administration engaged in an unprecedented campaign of political interference in the federal government’s pandemic response, which undermined public health to benefit the former president’s political goals,” panel chairman Jim Clyburn, a Democrat, said in a statement. “As today’s report shows, President Trump and his top aides repeatedly attacked CDC scientists, compromised the agency’s public health guidance, and suppressed scientific reports in an effort to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus.” A previous report outlined the Trump administration’s bid to block government health officials from speaking publicly about the pandemic. And another described its pressure on the US Food and Drug Administration to reissue emergency authorization for hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug Trump was promoting despite its ineffectiveness in treating Covid-19. Republicans dismissed the latest report as partisan and have vowed to conduct their own inquiry if they win back the House or the Senate in November’s midterm elections. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Helen Coster, Tiyashi Datta and Nivedita Balu (Reuters) -American rapper Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, has agreed in principle to buy Parler, the social media platform popular among U.S. conservatives, parent company Parlement Technologies said on Monday. Nashville-based Parler, which has raised about $56 million to date, said it expects the deal to close during the fourth quarter of 2022. It did not give a deal value. Parler, which launched in 2018, has been reinstated on Google and Apple Inc’s app stores after being removed following the U.S. Capitol riots in January 2021. Parler is one of several social media platforms, including Gettr, Gab and Truth Social, that position themselves as free-speech alternatives to Twitter Inc. Last month, Parler created a new parent company, Parlement Technologies Inc, as part of an overhaul. In an interview with Reuters Monday, Parlement Technologies Chief Executive Officer George Farmer said the deal talks with Ye began recently, after Paris Fashion Week. In Paris on Oct. 3, Ye, who is also a fashion designer, wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase: “White Lives Matter.” Four days later, he made Instagram posts that several Jewish groups called anti-Semitic. Meta Platforms, which owns Instagram and Facebook, locked Ye out of his Instagram account for the posts. Ye then moved to Twitter, posting on Oct. 8 for the first time in two years; Twitter soon locked his account. The Parler deal came together quickly, CEO Farmer said, and Parlement was “presented with an opportunity.” “The motivating factor with him was the discussion about Instagram blocking him.” Farmer declined to comment on whether the deal includes a break-up fee if either party terminates it. Ye in September terminated his partnership with apparel retailer Gap Inc, while German sporting goods maker Adidas on Oct. 6 said it is reviewing its business partnership with the rapper. Farmer said Monday he is not concerned about Parler’s advertising prospects under Ye. “I see this as a warning shot across the bow for companies that want to de-platform people,” Farmer said. “There are increasingly advertisers who want to advertise to this space.” Ye seemed to have joined Parler on Monday and had about 91 followers at the time of the announcement. He now has 3,900. “In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” he said in a statement. Farmer says Parler has 16.5 million registered users. Research firm Apptopia estimates the platform has been installed 11.7 million times since launch, with an estimated 40,000 daily active users. Forbes estimates Ye to have a net worth of $2 billion. (Reporting by Tiyashi Datta and Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru and Helen Coster in New York; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Dhanya Ann Thoppil) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Ruth Negga and Luke Evans are to star in Dan Levy’s feature film directorial debut. The ‘Passing’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’ stars will be joined by David Bradley, Celia Imrie, Himesh Patel, Arnaud Valois, and Jamael Westman in Netflix film ‘Good Grief’. ‘Schitt’s Creek’ star Levy, who will write, direct and star in the romantic-comedy movie, admitted the project has been “bittersweet” and helped him through his own grief. He said in a statement: “‘Good Grief’ is a cautionary tale about friendship and loss and all the mess that comes with it when the truth is something you’ve evaded for most of your life. “It’s funny, it’s bittersweet, it’s a project that has helped me work through my own grief. And I hope it does the same for other people as well.” The film will tell the story of Levy’s character Marc Dreyfuss, who tries to avoid the grief of his mother’s death with a comfortable marriage. However, he is later forced to face up to his mum’s passing after his husband unexpectedly dies. In order to do so, Marc joins two of his pals on a Parisian weekend of self-discovery. Levy – whose father is ‘American Pie’ actor Eugene Levy – is no stranger to directing on the small screen, after scooping an Emmy for ‘Schitt’s Creek’ episode ‘Happy Ending’. His Not A Real Production Company partner and president Megan Zehmer will also be part of the movie’s production, and Stacey Snider, Kate Fenske, and Debra Hayward will also produce the film. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Harrison Ford has joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The ‘Indiana Jones’ actor will be taking over the role of General Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross in the movie ‘Captain America: New World Order’. Harrison replaces William Hurt in the role following the actor’s death at the age of 71 in March. The 80-year-old star’s casting has been rumoured of late and he will join Anthony Mackie in the movie after he assumed the mantle of the superhero in the hit Disney+ series ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’. Shira Haas, Tim Blake Nelson and Carl Lumbly are also among the ensemble cast for the film, which is scheduled for release in 2024. General Ross is a top-ranking military official who was first introduced in the Marvel comics in 1962 and he leads the team of anti-heroes known as the Thunderbolts. ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ creator Malcolm Spellman wrote the script for the superhero movie with the show’s staff writer Dalan Musson producing with Marvel chief Kevin Feige. Harrison had previously claimed that Marvel had “killed” the success of its superhero films by releasing too many of them. Discussing his return as Indiana Jones in the upcoming fifth film, he said: “I don’t really want to give them what they wanna see, I want to give them something they didn’t anticipate seeing. The Marvel movies are a spectacular example of a success that worked the other way round – they killed it.” Ford hinted that he wouldn’t let the franchise follow the same path as the Marvel blockbusters. The ‘Star Wars’ actor said: “We’re not going to make another ‘Indiana Jones’ unless we’re in a position to kill it. We want it to be the best.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Patti LuPone has left the Actors’ Equity union and hinted an end to her Broadway career. The 73-year-old actress – who infamously stopped production of ‘Gypsy’ she was starring in in 2009 when an audience member was on their phone – has spent decades on the New York stage starring in acclaimed productions of musicals such as ‘Les Miserables’, ‘Sunset Boulevard’ and ‘Sweeney Todd’ but is “no longer part of that circus” just days after seeing her name “bandied about” in connection to a more recent incident, which saw an audience member at ‘Hadestown’ reprimanded for using a captioning device. She tweeted: “Quite a week on Broadway, seeing my name being bandied about. Gave up my Equity card; no longer part of that circus. Figure it out.” The multi-Tony Award-winner later revealed that she had in fact resigned from the Actors’ Equity Association – which strives to negotiate fair wages and provide performers with reasonable working conditions – earlier this year after starring in a production of Stephen Sondheim musical ‘Company’ and warned she would not be on stage for a “very long time.” In a statement, she said: “When the run of Company ended this past July, I knew I wouldn’t be on stage for a very long time. And at that point I made the decision to resign from Equity.” Her comments come just days after the alleged incident at ‘Hadestown’ – which Patti is not involved in -, after which deaf audience member Samantha Coleman alleged that actress Lillias White mistakenly believed she was recording the show. In a video posted to Instagram, she said: “I was sitting in the front row of ‘Hadestown’ tonight and Lillias White not once but twice at least reprimanded me from the stage because she thought my captioning device was a recording device. For Lillias, because I don’t think this is inherently her malice, I think it’s a misunderstanding, but we still need to talk about it. “There is a systemic issue in the theatre community and the theatre industry specifically with Broadway about accessibility and inclusion, and some of that has been changed by the creation of technology like captioning devices so that people can be able to experience a show that may not have been able to before.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden, under renewed pressure over high inflation with key elections coming up fast, will seek to turn attention back to the issue of abortion rights in a speech on Tuesday. Biden’s Democrats could lose control of the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate too, in November midterm elections. He is trying to rally the party and its supporters around abortion rights, which were sharply curtailed by the Supreme Court’s decision nearly four months ago to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling. “The president will speak about the choice that voters face this November between Republicans who want to ban abortion nationwide, and Democrats who want to codify Roe into law to protect women’s reproductive freedom,” the Democratic National Committee said of Biden’s speech at the historic Howard Theatre in Washington on Tuesday. Biden and top White House officials this month announced new guidelines and grants to protect abortion and contraception rights. He has said he would not “sit by and let Republicans throughout the country enact extreme policies.” Abortion bans have gone into effect in more than a dozen states since the Supreme Court’s ruling on June 24. The issue had created some momentum for Democratic candidates ahead of the November elections, but recent polls still show Republicans are likely to retake control of the House of Representatives with many voters concerned about inflation. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Jeff Mason; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Gabriella Borter (Reuters) – An abortion rights vote in Kentucky on Nov. 8 will determine if the conservative state becomes Kansas 2.0. Kentucky voters are being asked to amend the state’s constitution to say residents do not have a right to abortions, three months after voters in Kansas soundly rejected a similar ballot question. The upcoming vote is a test of public support for Kentucky’s strict abortion laws, which took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade’s federal abortion protections in June. A defeat of the proposed amendment could pave the way for the state’s highest court to invalidate a ban on all abortions except in rare medical emergencies. Five states have put abortion-related measures on their November midterm election ballots, allowing voters to direct the future of abortion access in their states. Kentucky is the only one of those states to have voters weigh in on abortion rights while enforcing a near-total ban. The campaign against the ballot measure in Kentucky, a deeply conservative state with a Republican supermajority in its statehouse, has drawn millions of dollars and some of the same personnel who helped defeat the Kansas effort. A coalition of state and national abortion rights groups called Protect Kentucky Access aims to win support from conservatives who disagree with the overturn of the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling and the state’s abortion ban. “There’s a decent chance that we’ll see some relatively conservative Republican voters, even people that you’d call generally anti-abortion…looking like they’re relatively pro-choice in this vote because of the current circumstances,” said Steve Voss, a political scientist at the University of Kentucky. There is no public opinion polling on the ballot question. Yes for Life, a coalition of state religious groups campaigning in support of the amendment, also is seeking to galvanize conservative, anti-abortion voters to avoid a repeat of the Kansas outcome. “We’re working very hard night and day to make sure that doesn’t happen,” said Addia Wuchner, the group’s campaign director. KANSAS ABORTION BALLOT CONNECTIONS The coalition opposing the Kentucky measure has raised $2.7 million this year, according to an Oct. 12 financial report, surpassing the $510,000 raised this year by Yes for Life in support of the amendment. Leticia Martinez, a consultant who has advised both opposition campaigns, said while the Kansas win informed the Kentucky efforts, the current strategy was tailored to Kentucky voters specifically. There are roughly equal numbers of registered Republicans and Democrats in Kentucky. In Kansas, registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by about 350,000. One message that swayed moderates in Kansas – that rejecting the amendment would prevent government interference with personal medical decisions – also seems to resonate with Kentucky voters, Martinez said. “That is a message that really crosses party lines,” she said. The campaign is emphasizing the impact abortion bans can have on women with pregnancy complications, noting their lives could be at stake if doctors fear repercussions for providing abortion care. The campaign’s first television advertisement featured a woman discussing how she had to terminate a wanted pregnancy to save her own life. “It’s an impossible decision,” the woman says in the ad, which is airing in Kentucky metropolitan areas. “I can’t imagine a politician making it for me.” Denise Finley, a 64-year-old retired teacher in Lexington, said she would vote “no” on the amendment. She lost a baby to a fatal medical condition, she said. Though she had not known about the condition before giving birth, she felt any decision related to her child should not involve the government. “This is personal,” said Finley, a registered Republican who has often voted for Democrats. “Unless you’re in that situation, you don’t know how you really will feel.” Kentucky’s Supreme Court has allowed two restrictive abortion laws to take effect: a ban on abortions after six weeks and a near-total ban triggered by the overturn of Roe. A hearing on challenges to those bans is set for Nov. 15, the week after the election. The fate of abortion services in the state hangs in the balance. The Kentucky anti-abortion coalition is hosting rallies in rural areas and leaning on church communities, said Wuchner, the Yes For Life campaign director who also serves as executive director of Kentucky Right to Life. Despite being outspent in Kentucky and having far less than the nearly $5 million raised by Kansas’ anti-abortion campaign, Wuchner said her team is counting on turnout from “family-values, pro-life voters” to achieve victory. “This amendment will shore up the constitution and allow the lawmakers to make the laws,” she said. (Reporting by Gabriella Borter; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Josie Kao) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) – Lauren Nichols, a 34-year-old logistics expert for the U.S. Department of Transportation in Boston, has been suffering from impaired thinking and focus, fatigue, seizures, headache and pain since her COVID-19 infection in the spring of 2020. Last June, her doctor suggested low doses of naltrexone, a generic drug typically used to treat alcohol and opioid addiction. After more than two years of living in “a thick, foggy cloud,” she said, “I can actually think clearly.” Researchers chasing long COVID cures are eager to learn whether the drug can offer similar benefits to millions suffering from pain, fatigue and brain fog months after a coronavirus infection. The drug has been used with some success to treat a similar complex, post-infectious syndrome marked by cognitive deficits and overwhelming fatigue called myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Drawing on its use in ME/CFS and a handful of long COVID pilot studies, there are now at least four clinical trials planned to test naltrexone in hundreds of patients with long COVID, according to a Reuters review of Clinicaltrials.gov and interviews with 12 ME/CFS and long COVID researchers. It is also on the short list of treatments to be tested in the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s $1 billion RECOVER Initiative, which aims to uncover underlying causes and find treatments for long COVID, advisers to the trial told Reuters. Unlike treatments aimed at addressing specific symptoms caused by COVID damage to organs, such as the lungs, low-dose naltrexone (LDN) may reverse some of the underlying pathology driving symptoms, they said. Naltrexone has anti-inflammatory properties and has been used at low doses for years to treat conditions such as fibromyalgia, Crohn’s disease and multiple sclerosis, said Dr. Jarred Younger, director of the Neuro-inflammation, Pain and Fatigue Laboratory at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. At 50 milligrams – 10 times the low dose – naltrexone is approved to treat opioid and alcohol addiction. Several generic manufacturers sell 50mg pills, but low-dose naltrexone must be purchased through a compounding pharmacy. Younger, author of a scientific review of the drug as a novel anti-inflammatory, in September submitted a grant application to study LDN for long COVID. “It should be at the top of everyone’s list for clinical trials,” he said. Still, the drug is unlikely to help all patients with long COVID, a collection of some 200 symptoms ranging from pain and heart palpitations to insomnia and cognitive impairment. One 218-patient ME/CFS study found 74% had improvements in sleep, reduced pain and neurological disturbances. “It’s not a panacea,” said Jaime Seltzer, a Stanford researcher and head of scientific outreach for the advocacy group MEAction. “These people weren’t cured, but they were helped.” ‘HUMAN AGAIN’ Dr. Jack Lambert, an infectious disease expert at University College Dublin School of Medicine, had used LDN to treat pain and fatigue associated with chronic Lyme disease. During the pandemic, Lambert recommended LDN to colleagues treating patients with lingering symptoms after bouts of COVID. It worked so well that he ran a pilot study among 38 long COVID patients. They reported improvements in energy, pain, concentration, insomnia and overall recovery from COVID-19 after two months, according to findings published in July. Lambert, who is planning a larger trial to confirm those results, said he believes LDN may repair damage of the disease rather than mask its symptoms. Other planned LDN trials include one by the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and a pilot study by Ann Arbor, Michigan-based startup AgelessRx. That study of 36 volunteers should have results by year-end, said company co-founder Sajad Zalzala. Scientists are still working on explaining the mechanism for how LDN might work. Experiments by Dr. Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik of the National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases in Australia suggest ME/CFS and long COVID symptoms arise from a significant reduction in function of natural killer cells in the immune system. In laboratory experiments, LDN may have helped restore their normal function, a theory that must still be confirmed. Others believe infections trigger immune cells in the central nervous system called microglia to produce cytokines, inflammatory molecules that cause fatigue and other symptoms associated with ME/CFS and long COVID. Younger believes naltrexone calms these hypersensitized immune cells. Dr. Zach Porterfield, a virologist at the University of Kentucky who co-chairs a RECOVER task force looking at commonalities with other post-infectious syndromes, said it has recommended LDN be included in RECOVER’s treatment trials. Other therapies under consideration, sources said, were antivirals, such as Pfizer Inc’s Paxlovid, anti-clotting agents, steroids and nutritional supplements. RECOVER officials said they have received dozens of proposals and could not comment on which drugs will be tested until trials are finalized. Dr. Hector Bonilla, co-director of the Stanford Post-Acute COVID-19 Clinic and a RECOVER adviser, has used LDN in 500 ME/CFS patients, with about half reporting benefits. He studied LDN in 18 long COVID patients, with 11 showing improvements, and said he believes larger, formal trials could determine whether LDN offers a true benefit. Nichols, a patient adviser to RECOVER, was “ecstatic” when she learned LDN was being considered for the government-funded trials. While LDN has not fixed all her COVID-related problems, Nichols can now work all day without breaks and have a social life at home. “It has made me feel like a human again.” (Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot) View the full article

Published by DPA Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a residential building destroyed by a Russian drone strike. -/Ukrinform/dpa A series of Russian attacks starting early last week has “destroyed” 30% of Ukraine’s power stations, resulting in “massive blackouts across the country,” President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted on Tuesday. Zelensky added that there was “no space left for negotiations with Putin’s regime.” Russia has been hitting Ukrainian cities with missile and drone strikes for the past week, with fresh impacts on Tuesday knocking out power and water supplies to eastern parts of Kiev. Mayor Vitali Klitschko called on all residents to save electricity and stock up on drinking water. Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a residential building destroyed by a Russian drone strike. Oleksii Chumachenko/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English A judge dismissed part of the sexual misconduct lawsuit against Kevin Spacey. Before the ‘House of Cards’ actor – who has been accused of assaulting Anthony Rapp at a party in 1986 when Rapp was just 14 years old and Spacey was more than a decade older – testified in court, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress. The judge – who wasn’t convinced by the evidence presented by Rapp’s lawyers – allowed his accusations of battery to proceed. Testifying against the claims on Monday (17.10.22), Spacey said: “They are not true. Everything about what was happening in that house was something I had to keep to myself. “We never, ever, talked about it. I have never talked about these things publicly ever.” Rapp filed a civil suit against Spacey after a 2020 criminal charge of sexual assault was dismissed by a judge and has been seeking compensation for mental and emotional suffering, medical expenses and loss of work. During his own time on the stand Rapp, now 50, was asked whether he lied about his accusations. He responded: “I have not. It was something that happened to me that was not okay.” Earlier this month, Spacey’s lawyer claimed Rapp made the allegations “for attention, for sympathy and to raise his own profile” because he was jealous of the success the ‘American Beauty’ star enjoyed while his own acting career floundered. Jennifer Keller said in opening arguments: “One of the cardinal rules of the so-called MeToo movement (is) that you have to believe the victim. You’ll see that Mr Spacey said ‘This didn’t happen, I don’t remember it’. “They told him to apologise. It was cleverly set up by Mr Rapp… He’s been telling this story to raise his own profile. “He never became the international star Kevin Spacey did. He has been simmering with resentment. It’s not easy to defend this, after 30 years. “As Mr Spacey’s star rose, Mr Rapp grew resentful. ‘Rent’ (the musical) was the apex of his career. He peaked in 2000 and grew bitter. So he became an out gay actor. I don’t know if he would have been a leading man anyway.” According to court documents, Rapp claimed that during a party in Manhattan, Spacey lifted him up and his hand “grazed” his buttocks as he did so. He then alleged the actor placed him back down on a bad and “briefly placed his own clothed body partially beside and partially across” his. He said the alleged incident lasted no more than two minutes and there had been “no kissing, no undressing, no reaching under clothes, and no sexualised statements or innuendo.” Spacey has previously offered his “sincerest apology” to the ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ actor for any “deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour” but said he did not recall the incident. And he previously pleaded not guilty to charges of sexually assaulting three men between March 2005 and April 2013 in the UK, while in 2019, charges of indecent assault and sexual assault were dropped in Massachusetts. View the full article

Published by Relaxnews By Chris DELMAS / AFP Meta has developed measures and implemented rules to ban content considered hateful, including so-called “groomer” rhetoric. This theory, which propagates the myth that people in the LGBTQ community pose a threat to minors, violates Meta’s hate speech policies. However, the tech group is reportedly benefiting from ads featuring this kind of message. Meta has developed measures and implemented rules to ban content considered hateful, including so-called “groomer” rhetoric. This theory, which propagates the myth that people in the LGBTQ community pose a threat to minors, vi… Read More View the full article

Published by New York Daily News NEW YORK — Embattled actor Kevin Spacey took the witness stand Monday at his Manhattan trial, where he launched into his testimony by revealing his rocky relationship with a “neo-Nazi” father who verbally abused him because he suspected his son was gay. Spacey, who is being sued in Manhattan federal court by actor Anthony Rapp in a $40 million civil lawsuit that claims the older actor aggressively came on to him in 1986 when he was 14, told jurors that his father was a white supremacist who ”used to yell at me about the idea I might be gay because I was interested in theater, and he didn’t enc… Read More View the full article

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Published by DPA Rosalia, born and raised in Catalonia — home to a separatist movement that’s been fighting for autonomy from Spain for over a century — has been embraced by many in Spain as a poster girl for the country’s burgeoning cultural renaissance. Álex Zea/EUROPA PRESS/dpa “It was like I almost drowned!” Inside one of Mexico City’s posh five-star hotels, Rosalía sinks into a cushy office chair across from me, already winded on the third day of her Latin American tour, in support of her universally acclaimed album, “Motomami.” If it wasn’t from the altitude sickness that reared its head during her first night in Mexico — “I thought I needed an oxygen tank,” she said — it was from the reception the 29-year-old Spanish pop star received inside the capital city’s Benito Juárez International Airport, where she was ambushed by a swarm of screaming fans and photographers. For what felt like hours, she said, she hid behind her curtain of dark tresses, as her bodyguard pushed through the crowd and shuffled her into a black car. “It just hit me,” she said, “what it meant to my fans that I came from so far away.” Donning a space bun hairdo, baggy blue jeans and a Harley-Davidson shirt with flames on the sleeves, Rosalía cradled a fan-bespoke Dr. Simi plush doll, which Mexican fans have taken to toss at their favorite singers during concerts. My Chemical Romance, the Killers and Gorillaz have all amassed their own Dr. Simi collections; last month, Lady Gaga narrowly dodged a Dr. Simi to the face. Rosalía had collected at least five so far. “This one has my tattoos,” she said, comparing the inside of the doll’s hands to her own — inked with fashionably worn, scraggly letters spelling out “Motomami.” On the doll’s thigh, a fan reproduced Rosalía’s garter belt tattoo, a tribute to the Austrian feminist performance artist Valie Export. The concept of “Motomami,” Rosalía explained, was first inspired by her mother Pilar Tobella: her chief business adviser, as well as an avid biker, who could expertly zip through the alleys and hills of Sant Esteve Sesrovires, Rosalía’s birthplace, in Catalonia. Moreover, Rosalía added, “Motomami” is the incarnation of her own “drive for artistic and sexual liberation.” Released in March, “Motomami” put the gas on Rosalía’s ascent to worldwide pop stardom. A survey of flamenco and Caribbean heritage music like bachata and reggaetón, modulated through a glitchy funhouse filter of hyper-pop, the record debuted on the top of Spotify’s global albums chart. Featuring guest stars the Weeknd, James Blake and the Neptunes, “Motomami” became the year’s most critically acclaimed album on Metacritic — even topping Beyoncé’s celebrated “Renaissance.” Rosalía already set the bar high with her 2018 sophomore release, a rousing flamenco-pop fusion dubbed “El Mal Querer,” which loosely translates to “a toxic love.” Released on Sony Latin, it actually began as her baccalaureate thesis project at the Superior Catalonia School of Music: a musical retelling of the 13th century Occitan romance “Flamenca.” In 2019, “El Mal Querer” won the Latin Grammy for album of the year; in 2020, Rosalía claimed the Grammy for Latin rock, urban or alternative album, beating out reggaetón superstars Bad Bunny and J Balvin, who, with the advent of streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, have led an unprecedented Hispanic takeover of pop charts around the world. Rosalía’s accolades grabbed the attention of Grammy-winning producer and composer Noah Goldstein, who oversaw the Kanye West albums “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” and “Yeezus.” He first met Rosalía in 2019, while she recorded a track for one of his clients at Electric Lady Studios in New York; after he sat in on a session with one of her producers, David Rodríguez, Rosalía’s manager, Rebeca León, asked Goldstein to work on “Motomami.” “Rosalía is the truth,” Goldstein told the Los Angeles Times. “I was floored when I first heard her sing. She can go light and airy, or sometimes, beautiful and aggressive.” As an example, he cites her vocal melisma on the flamenco track, “Bulerías” — “nobody else in pop can touch that,” he said. “She’s a creative genius,” he added. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years, so at this point, I just know when I see it. The artists that I work with fight to find the balance between something that can be appreciated by a mass audience, but also challenge them and push things forward. They don’t compromise their vision. Kanye’s the same way. To me, the best art makes all of us question traditions. Rosalía is a progressive artist.” At the first of two sold-out concerts at Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City, the buzz of 10,000 fans, some festooned in leather biker chic, swelled to a roar as Rosalía emerged in a blue dress outfitted with shoulder pads, smacking on an invisible piece of chewing gum. This has become her go-to performance routine for the song “Bizcochito,” a plinky feminist communique of a reggaetón track that inspired a chewing gum challenge on TikTok. On behalf of the objectified female subjects of hip-hop songs, she declared in Spanish, “I am not, nor will I ever be, your babycakes!,” as thousands shrieked along. TikTok has served as the artist’s primary canvas as of late. It’s where she tests many of her looks, and where in March she broadcast a sensational live performance of “Motomami,” a popular strategy among the most internet-savvy of pop stars. The social platform directly inspired her Mexico City stage setup: a stark white background that heightened the contrast of her undulating silhouette, as she and her dancers swanned, twerked and wrestled each other into knots. Rosalía’s backup dancers — an international, all-male modern dance crew, choreographed by Mecnun and the Jacob Jonas company — circled one another with cameras in hand, making sure to zoom in on the beads of sweat emanating from each others’ pores. Their images were projected onto large screens designed to look like iPhones; in turn, fans recorded the scenes on their own camera phones. “People who see the world through their eyes now see the world through their screens,” she explained after the show. At the core of the record’s identity, said Rosalía, is the fragmented chaos of the internet that she grew up on. If a bolero like “Delirio de Grandeza” seems discordant when juxtaposed with the industrial furor of “CUUUUuuuuuute,” that’s because it’s supposed to be; she says the microblogging site Tumblr was in part her inspiration for the diaristic sound collage that became “Motomami.” “It’s because of the internet that the world today is so globalized,” said Rosalía, who herself took inspiration from her online discovery of records by Bjork and M.I.A. “Globalization [means] artists are being exposed to so many things from so many different places. It makes art more about the journey than the destination. … I really identify with that.” Like its creator, “Motomami” is well-traveled. In the three years she spent writing and recording the album, Rosalía jetted between studios in Miami, Puerto Rico and Los Angeles, where she lived through most of the pandemic. She also passed some time in New York with enigmatic singer-songwriter Frank Ocean, who, as she recalls in the track “Saoko,” told her to “crack open the world like a nut.” She then stayed with rapper Tokischa in the Dominican Republic, where they wrote the songs “Linda” and “La Combi Versace” and enjoyed a plantain lasagna dish called pastelon, courtesy of Tokischa’s mother. Some of those travels were shared with her boyfriend of almost three years, Puerto Rican pop star Rauw Alejandro. Although Rosalía and Alejandro collaborate on music often — like her made-for-TikTok earworm “Chicken Teriyaki,” on which Alejandro is a co-writer — she says they’re holding off on releasing anything as a duo. “To get feelings mixed up in business is so tricky,” she says. “Our connection is very strong, but we’re still learning each other and building a foundation.” Although she was born and raised in Catalonia — home to a separatist movement that’s been fighting for autonomy from Spain for over a century — Rosalía has been embraced by many in Spain as a poster girl for the country’s burgeoning cultural renaissance. She made her first movie appearance by singing in “Pain and Glory,” the 2019 film from Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, who frequents her concerts. Musicians such as Don Patricio, as well as Catalan artist Rigoberta Bandini, have also lauded her for elevating the country’s music to new heights. Yet to her critics, Rosalía has become an avatar for Spanish colonization, which has left behind an unrelenting caste system in Latin America and its other former colonies — one that continues to privilege artists and others with white European ancestry. Whereas Rosalía cites the differences between people as points of inspiration for her art — take her interest in flamenco, which she says was sparked from the Andalusian communities in her hometown, or the distinctly Black Caribbean genres like reggaetón and bachata, which she reveled in at parties as a teen girl — others point out that the very groups she’s inspired by are still not afforded the same level of institutional support or commercial value as white artists. These are observations that Rosalía does not contest, but during her time in Latin America, she’s been forced to face them more soberly. “I don’t feel proud of what my ancestors have done, or proud at all of that past,” she said. “I think we should be conscious about that past. I want us to look forward to a better future. I come here with the utmost respect and will to learn from people.” It’s this mind-set that moved bachata superstar Romeo Santos to collaborate with Rosalía on his new album, “Formula Vol. 3.” She and Santos co-wrote the latest single, “El Panuelo,” a classic bachata number suffused with Rosalía’s nimble, vocal acrobatics. “I respect [her] creative space, her interpretation, her essence,” Santos told the L.A. Times. “We don’t need to change our language, our rhythms, or our essence to fit in. Artists like Bad Bunny and Rosalía, they make me proud.” To her credit, Rosalía rarely accepts such praise without citing her sources. Much like an academic, she peppers most of her songs with the names of her influences, as if to build a bibliography for her listeners, in hopes that they may absorb what she has from them. For example, she shouts out the Puerto Rican reggaetón duo Plan B on “Candy,” and credits Dominican singer Omega for inspiring the “violent mambo” of her latest single, “Despechá.” “I wouldn’t have gotten where I am had I not studied flamenco,” she said. “Or boleros, soul, jazz, bossa nova. I tried singing in Portuguese to better understand bossa nova. Then I tried singing in English to better understand American jazz standards. I studied bachata for years before I got lucky enough to record with Romeo Santos!” Rosalía’s world tour continued in the US and Puerto Rico, starting with a show in San Juan. “I study, and I bring my personal point of view into what I’ve learned,” she concluded. “That’s why I do this job. That’s why I make music in many styles, from other places — it leads to more expressions. It makes me a better artist. To learn from people is the biggest blessing. And to share it, too.” Spanish singer Rosalia, here in Fuengirola, in Spain. Álex Zea/EUROPA PRESS/dpa View the full article

Published by PopCrush Madonna is in her TikTok era. The Queen of Pop went viral Oct. 9 for participating in a TikTok trend where she seemingly came out. She also joined TikTok personality Terri Joe on a live stream Oct. 13. Now, she’s back again with a video set to the viral “Period Ahh Period Uhh” song. @madonna ♬ original sound – #1 Hottie In the video, Madonna is seen wearing fish net tights and harnesses in what appears to be her bathroom while dancing to the track that spawned a slew of memes after going viral. She also lip syncs the lyrics and flashes the camera her middle finger. “Period Ahh Period Uhh” is a… Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Emma Corrin believes Prince Diana was “so queer” in “many ways”. The 26-year-old star – who came out as queer last year and later revealed they are non-binary and use gender neutral pronouns -is best known for portraying the late royal in season four of ‘The Crown’, a part also taken on by bisexual actress Kristen Stewart in ‘Spencer’. Emma declared: “In many ways Diana was so queer.” Emma believes Diana – who had sons Princes William and Harry with ex-husband King Charles – was the definite “other” within the royal family and always embraced “outsiders”. Meanwhile, the ‘My Policeman’ star reflected on how they felt like they were “being born” when embarking on their first queer relationship. They told the Sunday Times Style magazine: “[It felt] like being born a bit. Opening my eyes to this whole other way of life that felt so right. And so beautiful. And in quite a terrifying way it called into question everything I’d been assuming about myself and about the way I loved people before and how I felt.” Emma thinks people are “normally quite good” about referring to them using the right pronouns, but admitted it matters less with people they know well because it is about “feeling seen”. Asked if people are respectful or if they have to do a lot of correcting, they said: “It’s half and half. People are normally quite good at it. But pronouns are a strange thing in themselves. It’s a weird little bit of language that comes to mean so much, and really struggles to reflect anyone’s true feeling of self.” The ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ star admitted there are “always those voices” that advised them not to talk about their gender identity so openly but they would rather be “boldly” themself. They said: “There are always those voices. “Luckily none of them I work with closely, but you are aware of them. I notice there’s always that voice in your head that’s, like, if I come out of this, if I define myself as this thing, will it mean that people won’t trust me with certain parts? But you can dig yourself into such a hole of hypotheticals … “I would much rather be boldly myself and comfortable than not.” Emma thinks being non-binary has helped them stay sane in their career. They explained: “It really gives some distance in between the two things, you’re right. And it makes me feel separate in a way that keeps me sane, I think. It’s a really interesting one and one that I’m just kind of figuring out, because it has all been so recent and it’s still this journey that I’m on. “I feel so different in my life every day and in my body every day to the roles that I depict normally, especially these two recent ones, because yes, they’re very, very straight, very feminine. “I think I’m drawn to the feminine characters I’m drawn to because it’s an exploration of what, especially in Connie’s case, makes them female and it’s almost a critique of that. “The majority of my experience my whole life has been with femininity and I consider my gender and sexuality not a rejection of that, but an embrace of fluidity and more parts of me, the masculine parts as well and everything in between.” View the full article