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Published by Reuters UK By Alvise Armellini and Chiara Rodriquez ROME (Reuters) – The LGBT community has “very real fears” after a conservative bloc dominated by the far-right won Italy’s general election, a leading gay rights campaigner told Reuters. The nationalist Brothers of Italy group, led by Giorgia Meloni, emerged as the largest party in the ballot and will lead the most right-wing government in Rome since World War Two. “Unfortunately there are very real fears” about an erosion of civil rights under the new administration, Fabrizio Marrazzo of the Gay Party said. Meloni is allied with the League, another far… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate will take an initial vote on a stopgap spending measure on Tuesday to keep federal agencies running past the end of this week, while Congress continues to negotiate bills to fund the government through the next fiscal year. President Joe Biden’s Democrats control both chambers of Congress and are expected to avoid an embarrassing partial government shutdown just six weeks before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, when control of Congress will be at stake. The bill, which would extend overall government funding through Dec. 16, calls for $12.3 billion in new money to help Ukraine turn back Russia’s invasion, House of Representatives Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro said in a statement. This includes new military and economic assistance. In addition, the measure authorizes Biden to direct the drawdown of up to $3.7 billion for the transfer to Ukraine of excess weapons from U.S. stocks. In early September, Biden requested $11.7 billion in military and economic aid. Amid reports of Russian forces threatening the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and Russian President Vladimir Putin hinting that he might use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, the legislation would appropriate $35 million “to prepare for and respond to potential nuclear and radiological incidents in Ukraine,” according to a summary of the bill. Congress has resorted to this kind of last-minute temporary spending bill in 43 out of the past 46 years due to its failure to approve full-year appropriations in time for the Oct. 1 start of a federal fiscal year, according to a government study. A Tuesday evening Senate procedural vote is designed to speed action once Democrats and Republicans put the finishing touches on legislation. MANCHIN’S PERMITTING BILL A BARRIER The first vote’s outcome was unclear because of a fight over an add-on by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who pressed to include an unrelated measure to speed up the government’s permitting process for energy projects. The proposed legislation includes permitting reform provisions and directs $250 million from the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act to “improve and accelerate reviews for designated projects.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged his fellow Republicans to vote against the temporary funding bill because of the Manchin provision, Politico reported. A McConnell aide did not respond to requests for comment. Some Democrats and environmentalists also are opposed, fearing it would spark more development of fossil fuel projects at a time when the effects of climate change from carbon emissions are accelerating. While Republicans normally favor quicker government reviews of fossil fuel projects, they have been angry at Manchin since he helped Democrats pass a bill this summer addressing climate change and lowering some healthcare costs. “This is a positive movement. And I would hope my friends would look at it that way,” Manchin said in an interview with CNN, referring to the inclusion of his permitting reforms in the temporary funding bill. But Senator Richard Shelby, the senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement: “If the Democrats insist on including permitting reform, I will oppose” advancing this temporary funding bill.” SPENDING BILL STILL EXPECTED TO PASS Even if Tuesday’s procedural vote fails, House and Senate leaders are expected to switch gears to promptly pass the spending bill by their Friday midnight deadline. That is when government agencies run out of money with Saturday’s start of a new fiscal year. Also included is a five-year renewal of Food and Drug Administration user fees being collected from drug and medical device companies to review their products and determine whether they are safe and effective, the bill summary showed. The law authorizing the collection of fees expires on Friday. Fresh funding for coronavirus aid and monkeypox vaccines that had been sought by Democrats did not make it into the legislation. DeLauro said she would continue pushing for such funding. With cold winter weather looming across the United States, the legislation provides an additional $1 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program “to help address pressure on low-income households’ pocketbooks due to inflation,” DeLauro said. The last time Congress allowed funding to lapse was in December 2018, when Democrats balked at paying for then-President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall. Following a record, 35-day impasse and partial government shutdown, Trump found ways to circumvent Congress to some degree, but the wall never was completed. (Reporting by Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey and Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Scott Malone, Josie Kao and Jonathan Oatis) View the full article

Published by Chicago Tribune Transgender and nonbinary teens and young adults — who experience anxiety and depression at higher rates than others — often feel less mental distress after surgery to remove their breasts, according to a study out of Northwestern Medicine published Monday. It’s a finding that comes as a number of states are attempting to ban gender-confirming surgery for people younger than 18, and as hospitals, including in Chicago, have been criticized, and sometimes threatened, for the care they provide to transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming children. “Our findings are that top surgery (to remo… Read More View the full article

Published by New York Daily News “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams’ recent announcement that his popular comic strip exploring the office culture grind was being trimmed out of dozens of newspapers is drawing renewed attention to the 65-year-old creator’s many controversies and sometimes NSFW politics, which have taken on a life of their own over the years. “Dilbert was cancelled in 77 newspapers this week,” the Windham, New York, native tweeted last week. The papers said to have cut ties with Dilbert are owned by Lee Enterprises, which reportedly revamped its funny pages in print and did away with numerous comic strips. Adams… Read More View the full article

Published by The Spun By Matt Hladik A pair of Kim Mulkey’s former players at Baylor are speaking out about their head coach’s silence on Brittney Griner. Asked by a reporter Monday for comment on Griner, who remains in a Russian prison, Mulkey declined to speak. The two-time national champion coach and her former star had a falling out after Griner accused Mulkey of telling players to remain quiet about being gay. Queen Egbo closed out her Baylor career this past season and played for Mulkey for three seasons before the coach left for LSU. The 2022 WNBA first-round pick blasted her former leader on Twitter. “A pla… Read More View the full article

Published by Miami Herald Six decades after Fidel Castro imprisoned gay men in forced labor camps and later sent them to Florida during the Mariel boatlift, Cuban same-sex couples will be able to marry and adopt children, after voters on the island ratified a new family code with 67% of the vote in a controversial referendum Sunday. The new code was ratified with only 47% of eligible voters casting a Yes vote, or 3,936,790 ballots out of the 8,447,467 eligible voters. Total participation, the government said, was 74%, an unusually high abstention rate for Cuba, where the government traditionally pressures citizens to v… Read More View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott are reportedly in the midst of a heated GOP rivalry following DeSantis’ controversial Martha’s Vineyard stunt earlier this month, RadarOnline.com has learned. In a surprising development to come after the two governors were seemingly on good terms, the two men’s political relationship has started to crumble after DeSantis failed to inform anyone on Abbott’s team of his plan to collect nearly 50 migrants in San Antonio and fly them to Massachusetts on September 14. Mega That is the revelation made in a newly published New York Times report that indicated DeSantis not only annoyed those in Martha’s Vineyard with his widely condemned stunt, but also fellow Republicans in Texas – particularly some of Abbott’s closest allies and aides. The new rivalry seemingly comes because Abbott was already in the process of relocating upwards of 11,000 Texas migrants to New York, Washington and Chicago in a well-orchestrated “relocation program” meant to protest the Biden Administration’s allegedly lax immigration policies. But months later, and after spending millions of Texas tax dollars on his efforts, Abbott was forced to sit and watch as the “national spotlight” shined on DeSantis’s Martha’s Vineyard stunt – despite the fact DeSantis only relocated a small margin of the number of migrants Abbott has relocated in recent months. Even more shocking is the fact that both governors have reportedly been engaged in “an increasingly high-stakes contest of one-upmanship” for years, with one governor introducing new policies in their state only for the other governor to follow suit in their state shortly after. Mega For example, Abbott proposed new legislation in August 2020 that would punish cities in Texas that chose to decrease funding for the police by stopping those cities from raising property tax revenue. One month later, DeSantis followed suit and threatened to cut state funding to Florida cities that cut funding for the police. Then, in June 2021, DeSantis signed into law a bill that prevents transgender girls from playing on female-only sports teams in his state’s public-school districts. That October, Abbott signed a nearly identical bill into law in Texas. But despite DeSantis and Abbott’s apparent rivalry and “high-stakes contest of one-upmanship,” others have suggested both men’s newfound animosity towards each other is a result of the quickly nearing 2024 presidential election. Mega “No one has ever been elected governor of even a small state who didn’t, somewhere deep in their heart, start dreaming about being president,” Chris Wilson, a pollster who has previously worked for both governors, recently said. “So it’s not shocking to see both Abbott and DeSantis jockeying at least a little toward 2024 or beyond,” Wilson added. View the full article

Published by New York Daily News When the Supreme Court begins its new term Monday, one of the most consequential cases involves not guns, abortion, gay rights or COVID-19 mandates, but the way states determine how legislative lines are drawn and votes are counted. If the conservative supermajority embraces the radical “independent state legislature” theory, it will deal a body blow to the integrity of American elections. Last year, after North Carolina legislators engaged in an extreme partisan gerrymander favoring Republicans, the state’s Supreme Court, citing clear violations of the state constitution, struck down the map…. Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet By David Badash,The New Civil Rights Movement A far right Republican state lawmaker in Pennsylvania who has worked to get prayer into schools is pushing a “Don’t Say Gay” bill and bragging that it goes even “further” than Florida’s, but wants it to be even broader. Republican state Rep. Stephanie Borowicz denies her legislation is a “Don’t Say Gay” bill, but as PennLive reports it states public and charter schools “may not offer instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity to a student in kindergarten through fifth grade.” Rep. Borowicz admits that although her bill expands on Florida’… Read More View the full article

Published by BOOM Live By The Conversation The rise of far-right politician Giorgia Meloni has left many outside Italy asking how her brand of what many argue is fascism can achieve such prominence in a country that has experienced life under the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini. The answer can be traced back to a recent normalisation of reactionary politics. In truth, the existence of a far-right government in Italy is not entirely without precedent in the post-war era. Between 1994 and 2011 a speciously labelled “centre-right” alliance – consisting of Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI), various iterations of a … Read More View the full article

Published by Chicago Tribune “The movie I want to make?” Billy Eichner, co-writer and star of “Bros,” asked that in a conversation he recalls having during the development phase of “Bros.” with his director and co-writer Nicholas Stoller and producer Judd Apatow. “I said to Nick right off the bat,” Eichner is telling me, “even before we knew what the story was going to be: As much as I love ‘When Harry Met Sally’ we can’t just do ‘When Harry Met Sally,’ slip in two gay guys and have that be authentic to gay men’s experience.” Their response? “We don’t want you to hold back.” A year or so later, there they were, pitching t… Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Normani hopes to “inspire” people through her music and her sense of style. The 26-year-old star – who shot to fame as a teenager as part of Fifth Harmony – wants to be remembered as someone who “didn’t play by the rules”. Asked how she sees herself, Normani replied: “That I really did my best to make a difference and really inspire. I feel like anytime that I talk about music, I always come back to representation. The passing of the baton, of passing of the torch. “I just pray that I do enough in order to make enough strides for the next generation to be able to start where I finish, and make the experience a bit easier, the way that those before me have for me. Not to say that I haven’t been doing anything, because it’s going to be a challenge of some sort, but I hope that I can make it a little bit easier.” The ‘Motivation’ hitmaker believes black women have been underrepresented in the entertainment industry for far too long. She told Girls United: “Representation has always been important to me and growing up, I didn’t always feel like I had that, to be able to look at the TV and see myself. “This is why the artists that I look up to mean so much to me and carry so much weight, but especially in the beauty space, I would say that it was sparse.” Normani also conceded that she’s gone through a personal evolution since she embarked on her solo career. The singer explained: “Me at 15 is fairly different than me at 26, and granted that comes with time and just evolution and experience.” View the full article

Published by Radar Online netflix Joe Exotic‘s former attorney is accusing the imprisoned reality star of becoming a drug dealer behind bars. Francisco Hernandez claimed the Tiger King star — real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage — admitted to him that he is using his Netflix earnings and fan donations to buy illicit substances. Hernandez discussed the alleged confession in a 147-page court filing, where he also addressed Exotic’s accusations that the lawyer had mismanaged his case. mega “Unbeknownst to Mr. Hernandez, some payments that Mr. Maldonado-Passage directed Mr. Hernandez to make [from his account] were cloaked payments for drug transactions in the prison,” Hernandez’s lawyer Roland Johnson said in the court documents. “Indeed, Mr. Maldonado-Passage would lie to Mr. Hernandez, referring to the payments as expenses for tiger food, among other descriptions.” The lawsuit further stated that Hernandez did not discover how the payments were truly being used until September 2021 — just over two years after the beginning of his 2019 trial — after the Netflix star was caught with a burner phone and later told Hernandez the truth about his alleged drug dealing. “Of course, Mr. Hernandez told Mr. Maldonado-Passage to cease facilitating the drug payments,” the court filing read. mega As Radar previously reported, Exotic was found guilty of over a dozen counts of wildlife crimes as well as two counts of hiring hitmen to kill his business rival Carol Baskin. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2020. However, the sentence was later adjusted to 21 years in January 2022, after a judge ruled they had used “improper sentencing guidelines” in the initial trial. Prior to the resentencing, the 59-year-old had been attempting to campaign for his release to get proper medical treatment following his diagnosis with prostate cancer. Exotic was fearful that between his already failing health and the ongoing pandemic, he would die in prison. mega “All medical treatment has been canceled. We now have Delta Covid in here. We are on lockdown,” the television personality explained at the time. “They pulled some positive inmates out of my unit. With this many guards going home, no mask in the community, and coming back – there is no way to avoid this.” Exotic is currently scheduled to be released from prison in 2037. The Sun was first to report Hernandez’ claims about Exotic’s alleged drug dealing. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Meghan, Duchess of Sussex dreamed of being “the Beyonce of the UK” when she married Prince Harry, it has been claimed. The former ‘Suits’ actress was shocked by the rules and restrictions that governed royal life and even after she and her husband decided to step back from official duties in January 2020, they were still told they would need to abide by a strict code of conduct. A source told Valentine Low for his new book ‘Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown’: “I think Meghan thought she was going to be the Beyoncé of the UK. Being part of the royal family would give her that kudos. Whereas what she discovered was that there were so many rules that were so ridiculous that she couldn’t even do the things that she could do as a private individual, which is tough . . . “It just required the decision-makers to sit around a table and say, ‘OK, what are we going to do about this? What do you need to feel better? And what can we give?’ ” According to the book – an extract from which was published by the Sunday Times newspaper – royal staff came up with five scenarios for Harry and Meghan after they voiced their intention to quit, ranging from continuing as working royals but with a month a year off, to spending most time privately but agreeing to a select number of official duties. However, it was said to be ultimately down to Queen Elizabeth that the idea of compromise was removed entirely. The book stated: “By the end of the week, the five scenarios had been worked through. The view from the palace establishment was that, however much time Harry and Meghan spent away from royal duties, anything they did would reflect on the institution. That meant that the normal rules about royal behaviour would apply. They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. “But the Sussexes wanted their freedom: freedom to make money, freedom to dip their toes into American politics. There was no way for the two sides to reach an agreement on that point. “Crucially, it was the Queen who took the view that unless the couple were prepared to abide by the restrictions that applied to working members of the royal family, they could not be allowed to carry out official duties. “One source said: ‘There was a very clear view: you can’t be in and out. And if you’ve got such clarity of view, it’s very difficult to say, “Why don’t we go 10 per cent this way instead of 20 per cent?” ‘ Compromise was off the table, removed by the Queen.” Despite the criticism Harry and Meghan – who have children Archie, three, and Lili, 15 months, together – have faced for their decision to start a new life in the UK, one insider thinks it is the best thing that could have happened to the 38-year-old prince. A source “who knows Harry well” but is “upset” about their move said: “There is a part of me that thinks Meghan did Harry the greatest kindness anyone could do to him, which was to take him out of the royal family, because he was just desperately unhappy in the last couple of years in his working life. We knew he was unhappy, but we didn’t really know what the solution would be. She came along and found the solution.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic U.S. Representative Val Demings enters the final weeks of her campaign to unseat Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio in a stronger position than many observers had expected in conservative-leaning Florida. Demings, a former Orlando police chief, is the underdog against Rubio, who is seeking his third six-year term in the Senate and ran unsuccessfully for the 2016 Republican U.S. presidential nomination. But recent polls show Demings pulling close to Rubio ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm election, even as the state’s Republican Governor, Ron DeSantis, maintains a wide lead over Democratic challenger Charlie Crist. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, plans on Tuesday to make his first trip of this election cycle to Florida, where much of his attention is expected to be focused on DeSantis, a potential rival for the White House in 2024. Demings will not be joining Biden, whose job approval ratings remain near the lowest of his presidency. Her campaign said this is due to her commitments in Congress, though some embattled Democrats have expressed concern that joining Biden on stage could hurt their campaigns. While DeSantis is expected to easily fend off Crist’s challenge, some political observers have said that Rubio faces a closer race with Demings. Control of Congress is at stake on Nov. 8, with Democrats holding slim majorities in both the House of Representatives and Senate. Democrats currently hold the Senate by the narrowest possible margin, through Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote in a chamber split 50-50 between the parties. While Republicans are favored to win a majority in the House, competitive races in states including Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona have increased the chances for Biden’s party to successfully defend its Senate majority. Demings is hoping to add Florida to that list. Rubio has sought to link Demings closely to Biden, saying on Twitter last month that she is “just another blame-America-first rubber stamp” and accusing Democrats of allowing a rise in urban crime. “This race is about Val Demings versus Marco Rubio,” said Christian Slater, communications director for Demings’ campaign. “We have a clear contrast in this race: A cop on the beat who is a no-nonsense, straight-shooter with voters versus a career politician.” Demings has raised more campaign funds than Rubio, pulling in $47.2 million to the incumbent’s $36.5 million as of Aug. 3, the latest figures available. “I see both running hard – anything is possible,” said a Republican strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Rubio will need a strong turnout in Florida’s heavily conservative northwestern panhandle, the strategist added. Republicans nominated untested Senate candidates including former football star Herschel Walker in Georgia, television doctor Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and venture capitalist and author J.D. Vance in Ohio, as well as far-right candidate Don Bolduc in New Hampshire. Holding seats like Rubio’s is thus all the more important for them. Allies of Demings acknowledge that she faces political headwinds in Florida including Biden’s low popularity. Biden lost the key election battleground state to Trump by 3 percentage points in 2020. An average of opinion polls published in the past month places Demings within about 3 percentage points of Rubio, according to RealClearPolitics. Demings has leaned hard on her 27-year career in law enforcement, identifying herself in ads as “the chief” rather than playing up her six years in the House. Demings also served as one of the Democratic House managers in Trump’s first Senate impeachment trial in 2020. If elected, Demings would become the first Black U.S. senator from Florida. There are no Black women currently serving in the Senate. Jose Parra, an adviser to the Florida Democratic Party, said that for Demings to win, she would need to boost turnout among voters in south Florida, including Rubio’s birthplace Miami, and lure independents in a vote-rich corridor traversing central Florida. “It’s going to be all about the independents,” Parra said. (Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott Malone) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Britney Spears says Jennifer Lopez would “never” be treated the way she was during her conservatorship. The 40-year-old pop star regained control of her multimillion-dollar fortune and various aspects of her life when a conservatorship that had been governed by her family for 13 years was terminated back in 2021 and took to social media on Sunday (25.09.22) to allege that someone of similar stature like the ‘Hustlers’ actress would never have to endure the kind of rules she had to. She wrote on Instagram: “I’d like to see somebody tell Jennifer Lopez to sit down eight hours a day seven days a week … no car. I’d like to see a management team tell Jennifer Lopez to go through what I went through … what the f*** do you think she would do … her family would NEVER allow that.” The ‘Womanizer’ hitmaker went on to allege that her family had “locked her up” before reposting an old post where she referenced the lyrics of her deubt single ‘…Baby One More Time’ as she claimed rules of her conservatorship meant that she was forbidden from performing remixes of her signature song on tour. She added: “After 14 years of telling me no to what I wanted … it’s ruined for me … but that wasn’t the worst part … the worst part was my family locking me up in that place for four months. Jesus Christ. “Here’s me playing at my house with a different version of “Baby One More Time” … the WORD as in WORDS … Show me how you want it to be … tell me baby cause I need to know … give me a f****** sign … HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME !!! The first three tours I ever did EACH song was a remix so the sound was new for my fans … it was what I was known for … for 13 years I wanted remixes to my songs during the conservatorship … to make the songs and feel new.(sic)” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English ‘Schitt’s Creek’ star Dan Levy says fashion is “just like acting”. The 39-year-old actor – who plays David Rose in the CBS sitcom – has teamed up with British designer Steven Stokey-Daley to create an eyewear collection for his label SS Daley and he loves being able to express himself through clothes and accessories, because it is an extension of playing a character. In an interview with GQ, Dan – whose father is ‘American Pie’ star Eugene Levy – said: “I grew up in a house where my parents would give me one pair of jeans and a T-shirt to wear to school, but I’d be in the stores picking loads of different things off the racks. “I didn’t really have access to clothes until I got jobs and could buy for myself. Now to get close to designers I love is a joy. “Fashion is a variation on a theme and, just like acting, it’s a way someone expresses themselves and I love it.” SS Daley has already been worn by a host of celebrities, including Harry Styles and Josh O’Connor, and Dan feels proud to have contributed to Steven’s label. Dan – who regularly impresses with his fashion choices on the red carpet, including the 2021 Met Gala – hopes this eyewear collection will be the beginning of a long-running collaboration between the pair. He said: “Although he doesn’t need my support as he’s already doing so well, we’re playing a small part in a moment in a designer’s career which is meaningful as he ascends to greatness. “The collaboration came through Harry Lambert. We got introduced and he knew that I had an eyewear line and following that was six months of sampling, choosing acetate colours, figuring out the shapes with Steven. “I really hope we continue with the partnership, I’ve long been a fan of Steven’s work and it’s really fun to get involved.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Kanye West has compared his divorce to the death of Queen Elizabeth. The ‘Stronger’ rapper split from Kim Kardashian – the mother of his children North, nine, Saint, six, Chicago, four, and three-year-old Psalm – in February 2021 after six years of marriage, and he claimed losing his own “queen” has given him an understanding of how British people feel following the death of the 96-year-old monarch earlier this month. He wrote on his Instagram Story using his signature all-capital letter style: “London I know how you feel. I lost my queen too.” Shortly after Buckingham Palace announced the death of the queen, Kanye claimed the historical moment had given him a new perspective and he vowed to “release all grudges”. He shared photos of the monarch when she was younger and captioned his post: “Life is precious. Releasing all grudges today. Leaning into the light.” Last week, the 45-year-old rapper apologised for causing his ex-wife any “stress”. He said: “This is the mother of my children. I apologise for any stress that I have caused.” Kanye has often turned to social media platforms to discuss his issues with Kim – including repeated criticism of her then-boyfriend Pete Davidson – in recent months. But the ‘Bound 2’ hitmaker rubbished the suggestion that social media is inherently negative. Asked if platforms such as Instagram and Twitter are more “hurtful or beneficial” overall, Kanye replied: “Oh, that’s one of my favourite questions this interview. “I mean, we can use a car to rush somebody to a hospital – or we could use a car and accidentally hit somebody while we’re rushing somebody to the hospital. So it’s all in how we use it.” View the full article

Published by DPA Laughing gas, which has become a party drug sold in balloons for inhaling in some places such as Amsterdam, comes with health risks of which many users are unaware. Annette Birschel/dpa Doctors have sounded the alarm over the dangers of laughing gas, warning users it could lead to spinal injuries. Experts said that nitrous oxide, which is known as laughing gas, or balloons, has become increasingly popular but many users are unaware that it can potentially lead to spinal injury and nerve damage. Alastair Noyce, professor in neurology and neuroepidemiology at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health at Queen Mary University of London, and consultant neurologist at Barts NHS Trust, said he had seen a steep rise in spinal injuries among young people due to use of the drug. He is working with other neurologists to develop national guidance to treat people whose nerves have been damaged through use of the drug. “We are seeing more patients than even a year or so ago, and often the cases are more severe,” he said. “We used to see people with tingling and numbness in their legs or difficulty walking but this year we’ve had several people who literally can’t walk at all when they come to hospital.” The 2019/20 Crime Survey for England and Wales found that almost 9% of 16 to 24-year-olds said they had taken nitrous oxide in the previous year, up from 6.1% in 2012/13. As a result of the rise in cases, medical students at Queen Mary University have launched a campaign – N20: Know The Risks – to try to highlight the dangers of the drug. Fourth year medical student Devan Main, who is leading the campaign, said: “We want to empower people with the knowledge of the risks of nitrous oxide to inform them if faced with the decision to take balloons.” A 33-year-old man from Essex described how he felt “really ill and sick” after becoming addicted to the drug. The man, known only as Liam, said: “I was addicted to them. They were sold at #5 a balloon, but no one knew the risks, they were very understated as a drug. “I was running around playing football, but my legs were just weak, but I didn’t realise it was balloons. “I had pins and needles in my hands, and tingling. I used to feel really ill and sick. I had days where I couldn’t eat, it felt like you were bloated with gas. “Since I’ve stopped using, I’ve noticed a big increase in my energy and mood.” View the full article

Published by AFP A man sits at his workstation within the Mission Operations Center for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spaceship, which is fast approaching its target Laurel (United States) (AFP) – NASA will on Monday attempt a feat humanity has never before accomplished: deliberately smacking a spacecraft into an asteroid to slightly deflect its orbit, in a key test of our ability to stop cosmic objects from devastating life on Earth. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spaceship launched from California last November and is fast approaching its target, which it will strike at roughly 14,000 miles (22,500 kilometers) per hour. “It’s the final cosmic collision countdown,” tweeted mission control at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. To be sure, neither the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, nor the big brother it orbits, called Didymos, pose any threat as the pair loop the Sun, passing about seven million miles from Earth at nearest approach. But NASA has deemed the experiment important to carry out before an actual need is discovered. If all goes to plan, impact between the car-sized spacecraft, and the 530-foot (160 meters, or two Statues of Liberty) asteroid should take place at 7:14 pm Eastern Time (2314 GMT), viewable on a NASA livestream. By striking Dimorphos head on, NASA hopes to push it into a smaller orbit, shaving ten minutes off the time it takes to encircle Didymos, which is currently 11 hours and 55 minutes — a change that will be detected by ground telescopes in the days or weeks to come. The proof-of-concept experiment will make a reality of what has before only been attempted in science fiction — notably in films such as “Armageddon” and “Don’t Look Up.” Technically challenging As the craft propels itself through space, flying autonomously for the mission’s final phase, its camera system will start to beam down the very first pictures of Dimorphos. Minutes later, a toaster-sized satellite called LICIACube, which already separated from DART a few weeks ago, will make a close pass of the site to capture images of the collision and the ejecta — the pulverized rock thrown off by impact. LICIACube’s pictures will be sent back in the next weeks and months. Also watching the event: an array of telescopes, both on Earth and in space — including the recently operational James Webb — which might be able to see a brightening cloud of dust. Finally, a full picture of what the system looks like will be revealed when a European Space Agency mission four years down the line called Hera arrives to survey Dimorphos’ surface and measure its mass, which scientists can currently only guess at. Being prepared Very few of the billions of asteroids and comets in our solar system are considered potentially hazardous to our planet, and none are expected in the next hundred years or so. But “I guarantee to you that if you wait long enough, there will be an object,” said NASA’s Thomas Zurbuchen. We know that from the geological record — for example, the six-mile wide Chicxulub asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago, plunging the world into a long winter that led to the mass extinction of the dinosaurs along with 75 percent of all species. An asteroid the size of Dimorphos, by contrast, would only cause a regional impact, such as devastating a city, albeit with greater force than any nuclear bomb in history. How much momentum DART imparts on Dimorphos will depend on whether the asteroid is solid rock, or more like a “rubbish pile” of boulders bound by mutual gravity — a situation that’s not yet known. The shape of the asteroid is also not known, but NASA engineers are confident DART’s SmartNav guidance system will hit its target. If it misses, NASA will have another shot in two years’ time, with the spaceship containing just enough fuel for another pass. But if it succeeds, the mission will mark the first step towards a world capable of defending itself from a future existential threat. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) – Cubans approved gay marriage and adoption overwhelmingly in a Sunday referendum backed by the government that also boosted rights for women, the national election commission said on Monday. More than 3.9 million voters voted to ratify the code (66.9%), while 1.95 million opposed ratification (33%), Alina Balseiro Gutierrez, president of the commission, said on state-run television on Monday. “Justice has been done,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote in a tweet. “It is paying off a debt with several generations of Cuban men and women, whose family projects have been waiting for this law for years,” he said. The 100-page “family code” legalizes same-sex marriage and civil unions, allows same-sex couples to adopt children, and promotes equal sharing of domestic rights and responsibilities between men and women. Preliminary results from the electoral commission showed 74% of 8.4 million Cubans eligible to vote participated in the Sunday referendum. There are no independent observers of Cuban elections, although citizens may observe the count at their precincts. Scattered local reports of district counts on social media appeared to tally with the official results. The announcement of the results came as Diaz-Canel presided over an emergency meeting as the Caribbean island prepared for Hurricane Ian to pass over its western tip early on Tuesday. Official Twitter accounts showed the room erupting in applause and the president leaning back and smiling at the news. The Cuban president led the campaign for the adoption of the code. By Cuban standards Sunday’s turnout was relatively modest, and a 33% ‘no’ vote relatively large in the communist-run country, where previous referendums have seen the government position receiving near unanimous approval. The dissent is an indication of both how Cuba is changing and the current dire economic circumstances, which have seen long power outages and lines for food, medicine and fuel. Sunday’s vote was also the first of its kind since mobile internet was legalized in 2018, which has let dissenting views spread more widely. (Reporting by Marc Frank, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien) View the full article

[This post contains video, click to play] Published by BANG Showbiz English Tokischa felt an “instant connection” when kissing Madonna. The 26-year-old rapper – who also has a platform on adults-only subscription service OnlyFans – teamed up with the Queen of Pop, 64, for the remix single ‘Hung Up on Tokischa’ and explained that although locking lips was a natural occurence between them, there is nothing “sexual” about their bond. Speaking on ‘Ebro in the Morning’, she said: “As soon as we met, like, because it’s Madonna, you know, it’s somebody that’s been expressing herself her entire life, not caring. That’s actually what I do, too. It was instant — we connected right away. We were doing this together and rehearsing for the show and talking all the time, so we got really close… We were in the mic recording and all of a sudden we was kissing already, and it’s like, it’s so natural for both of us. We just kiss, just like talking… It’s not something that is, like, ‘Oh, we are so sexual…’ It’s more like a vibe.” The ‘Linda’ hitmaker – whose real name is Tokischa Altagracia Peralta Juárez – went on to stress that she and the ‘Material Girl’ songstress are simply “friends with kissing” and explained that she also loves to lock lips with her fans. Asked if she was in a relationship with Madonna, she said: “No, we are friends. With kissing. Her breath smells so good! “I did this song that talks about how I have this best friend and we kiss. After I did that song all my fans are like ‘Oh I’m gong to your show, I hope you kiss me.’ How am I gonna tell them no? No, f*** that. They’re my fans, they’re literally there to see me. The least I can do is hug them or kiss them. I love to go to my fans when I’m on the show. That’s my favourite part.” View the full article

Published by Kaiser Health News Promise: “I’m never going to raise the white flag and surrender. We’re going to beat this virus. We’re going to get it under control, I promise you.” President Joe Biden caused a stir in a “60 Minutes” interview on Sept. 18 when he declared that the covid-19 pandemic is over. “We still have a problem with covid — we’re still doing a lot of work on it,” Biden said. “But the pandemic is over.” Critics countered that the U.S. is still averaging about400 deaths daily from the virus, that nearly 30,000 Americans remain hospitalized, and that many others are suffering from “long covid” symptoms stem… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters (Reuters) – Rihanna will perform at the Super Bowl halftime show in February in Glendale, Arizona, the National Football League announced on Sunday. The Grammy-winning Barbadian singer is filling one of the most coveted slots in the U.S. music calendar, watched by millions of television viewers annually. Previous halftime performers have included Michael Jackson, Prince, Beyoncé, Missy Elliott, Lady Gaga, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and the Who. The Super Bowl, the biggest event in American football, takes place at Glendale’s State Farm Stadium on Feb. 12. Rihanna’s fans have waited for years for the promised follow-up to her eighth studio album “Anti” from 2016, which included the hit single “Work.” (Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Will Dunham) View the full article

Published by NJ.com The Miss’d America pageant returned to Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Atlantic City Saturday night to crown a new queen of the runway for 2023. After being named first runner-up of the 2022 Miss’d America contest, Miss Elaine vowed to come back this year with a vengeance — and that she did, beating out seven other contestants to take home the top prize. The Miss’d America pageant — “the one with the D” — is a pageant for drag queens and has raised approximately $500,000 over 31 years for the LGBTQ+ community in South Jersey, Philadelphia, and nationwide. Miss Elaine, born Scott McMaster, of Pennsy… Read More View the full article