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Published by BANG Showbiz English Reese Witherspoon, Naomi Campbell and Diane Keaton are among the stars sending love to Jane Fonda after her cancer diagnosis. Jane, 84, has been secretly battling non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma for the past six months and after she took to Instagram to share the news, her famous friends rushed to send their best wishes. Reese wrote: “Sending you all my strength! Love you Jane,” and Naomi said: “GRACEFUL QUEEN. @janefonda thank you, even at this difficult time you are sharing with [us]. It’s so important to have a positive mindset!! And you do, GOD BLESS [you]!! My thoughts and prayers are with you.” Diane added: “We love you, Jane. You are my hero. You are a warrior. All of my life I have been in awe of all that you do. I will continue to admire the crusader you have always been and always will be.” Debra Messing commented: “Sending you healing light, love and strength,” and Chelsea Handler wrote: “Love you, Jane. Thinking of you, always.” This is Jane’s third time being diagnosed with cancer. In 2010, she discovered she had breast cancer and underwent a lumpectomy to have it removed. Then in January 2018 she had a cancerous growth removed from her lower lip and pre-melanoma growths taken from her skin. Jane wrote on Instagram: “Almost every family in America has had to deal with cancer at one time or another and far too many don’t have access to the quality health care I am receiving and this is not right. “Cancer is a teacher and I’m paying attention to the lessons it holds for me. “One thing it’s shown me already is the importance of community. Of growing and deepening one’s community so that we are not alone. “And the cancer, along with my age – almost 85 – definitely teaches the importance of adapting to new realities.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Maren Morris has raised $100,000 for transgender charities. The 32-year-old singer has launched a range of T-shirts to benefit trans rights groups Trans Lifeline and GLAAD’s Transgender Media Program and took to social media on Saturday (03.09.22) to alert fans that they had already raised thousands by purchasing the new merchandise. She wrote on Instagram: “ATTN LUNATICS* New shirt in the shop. All proceeds will be split between @translifeline the @glaad Transgender Media Program. “ The ‘Chasing After You’ hitmaker gave an update to fans soon after the launch of the t-shirts – which feature the words “Lunatic Country Music Person” in a nod to the title given to her by Tucker Carlson on his Fox News show when he interviewed Brittany Aldean after her trans-sceptic comments about merely having a “tomboy phase” as a teenager faced backlash. Maren added: “63K in 2 hours. Y’all are insane (or lunatic). We’re at over $100K raised.” Maren and Brittany began a spat on Twitter when Brittany posted a makeup video and detailed in the caption that she was “thankful” to her parents for not allowing her to transition when she was a “tomboy.” She wrote: “I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life. Advocating for the genital mutilation of children under the disguise of love and calling it ‘gender-affirming care’ is one of the worst evils.” In response, Maren said: “It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie!” View the full article

Published by AFP Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in support of Doug Mastriano for Governor and Mehmet Oz for US Senate at Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on September 3, 2022 Wilkes-Barre (United States) (AFP) – Donald Trump branded Joe Biden an “enemy of the state” Saturday as he hit back at the US president’s assertion that the Republican and his supporters are undermining American democracy, and slammed last month’s FBI raid of his Florida home. Making his first public appearance since the August 8 raid, Trump told a rally in Pennsylvania that the search was a “travesty of justice” and warned it would produce “a backlash the likes of which nobody has ever seen.” “There can be no more vivid example of the very real threats from American freedom than just a few weeks ago, you saw, when we witnessed one of the most shocking abuses of power by any administration in American history,” Trump claimed, despite long-standing protocols by which the Justice Department and the FBI act independently of the White House. Trump told cheering supporters at the “Save America” gathering in the city of Wilkes-Barre that the “egregious abuse of the law” was going to produce “a backlash the likes of which nobody has ever seen.” He also hit back at Biden’s speech this week in which the president said his predecessor and Republican supporters “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” Speaking in Philadelphia, the cradle of US democracy, on Thursday, the president launched an extraordinary assault on those Republicans who embrace Trump’s “Make America Great Again” ideology — and urged his own supporters to fight back in what he billed as a “battle for the Soul of the Nation.” Trump slammed it as the “most vicious, hateful and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president.” “He’s an enemy of the state. You want to know the truth. The enemy of the state is him,” Trump said. “Republicans in the MAGA movement are not the ones trying to undermine our democracy,” continued Trump, who has repeatedly claimed the 2020 presidential election, which he lost, was rigged; and whose party has made unfounded claims of voter fraud a central plank of their platform. “We are the ones trying to save our democracy, very simple. The danger to democracy comes from the radical left, not from the right,” Trump added. He was appearing at the rally ahead of November’s midterm elections, which could see Biden’s Democrats lose control of both houses of Congress. ‘Top secret’ files Even although Trump is not on the ballot, Biden, 79, is seeking to turn the vote into a referendum on his predecessor in a bid to hold on to the Senate and House of Representatives. At the Wilkes-Barre rally — where Trump took to the stage to support his candidate in the Senate race, TV physician Mehmet Oz — Trump supporter Edward Young said he had been “disgusted” by Biden’s speech. “He declared war on me. He declared war on half of America,” Young told AFP. The duelling visits by Biden and Trump to Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, come as the Republican is under increasing legal pressure over the documents found by the FBI at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The Justice Department has said in court filings that highly classified government documents, including some marked “Top Secret,” were discovered in Trump’s personal office during the raid. A detailed list of what was seized also showed Trump held on to more than 11,000 unclassified government records that he claims are his to keep — but legally are owned by the National Archives. Among the papers seized were 18 documents labelled “top secret”, 53 labelled “secret” and another 31 marked “confidential.” Of those, seven top secret files, 17 secret files and three confidential files were retrieved from Trump’s private office. Agents also found several dozen empty folders labelled “classified” in the office, raising speculation that sensitive documents may have been lost, destroyed or moved. Trump, who is keeping supporters and commentators guessing about whether he intends to run for president again 2024, has sued to have the documents turned over to a neutral “special master,” a move that could slow the government’s probe. View the full article

Published by AFP Donald Trump's recent activity on Truth Social shows the nature of the platform and the limits of its reach Washington (AFP) – Donald Trump promised his Truth Social platform would offer a home for free speech, an unfiltered way to reach people. Six months later, the former US president’s amplification of conspiratorial memes and messages after the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago estate indicates that extremist content has flourished. Still, with midterm elections looming, an AFP analysis shows his new bullhorn may be far less politically relevant than his past pronouncements on Twitter and Facebook. “His reach is much smaller,” said Mike Rothschild, the author of a book on the QAnon conspiracy theory. “Truth Social is pretty much MAGA-only territory.” Trump’s August 30 posting spree on Truth Social indicates a lurch toward the darkest corners of conspiracy theory, almost two years after he lost the presidency to Joe Biden. Trump interacted with a meme that was shared in reply to a post highlighting the writings of “Q,” the anonymous persona whose posts on fringe forums gave rise to QAnon and its baseless claims about a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles including Hillary Clinton. “Trump has certainly amplified Q content before. He had retweeted Q believers or memes over 300 times on Twitter,” Rothschild said. “But he had never shared something directly connected to a Q drop before.” The meme Trump shared referenced “the storm,” a mass unsealing of indictments promised in QAnon lore that would culminate in his return to the White House. He also re-posted images that put the words “your enemy is not in Russia” over the faces of top Democrats, including Biden. It was a sign of what Truth Social — and Trump’s potential 2024 campaign — could look like as the November 8 midterms approach. “Trump’s most ardent supporters will follow him wherever he goes,” said Caroline Orr Bueno, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Maryland. “So although his messages may be reaching a smaller audience, those who are still following him are likely a more hardcore group of supporters who may be more easily incited to violence.” Echo chamber Truth Social launched in February 2022 as Trump’s response to his ban from Twitter and two-year-suspension from Facebook following the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. But Trump has just four million followers on Truth Social — a far cry from the 88.8 million he had on Twitter or the 35.4 million he had on Facebook. “It’s almost entirely Trump supporters,” said David Thiel, a researcher at the Stanford Internet Observatory, of Truth Social’s user base. Trump’s Truth Social posts are regularly promoted on other platforms popular with his supporters, such as Telegram and the far-right forum “The Donald,” as well as on mainstream sites. Major Republican Party players also repeat his talking points. But the direct pipeline to the public he had as president is gone. Truth Social had 1.19 million monthly active users on Apple iPhones in July, according to data.ai, a company that tracks app metrics, compared with the 237.8 million daily active users Twitter counted in its latest quarterly report. The app has been downloaded 3.08 million times globally since February, while Twitter and Facebook have logged 97 million and 341 million downloads respectively in the same time frame — and billions more in their existence. “Even though Trump has this megaphone and is able to get attention for whatever new crazy thing he posts on Truth Social, it is several multiples less powerful than Twitter, several multiples less powerful than Facebook,” said Jared Holt, senior research manager at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit London-based think tank focused on extremism. “It is a very closed feedback loop.” A loyal base of Truth Social users who express support for Trump and share misinformation about topics such as the 2020 election remains. “Truth Social has become a refuge of sorts for people and content that have been banned from other platforms,” Orr Bueno said. NewsGuard, a service that tracks online misinformation, found 88 QAnon-promoting accounts with over 10,000 followers on Truth Social, including 32 that were previously booted off Twitter. Forty-seven of those accounts were verified by the Trump platform. At least one app provider seems to have taken note. Google has not approved Truth Social for its store used by Android smartphone users, citing problems with content moderation. “It appears to attract people with extremist views and then provides a safe haven where they can feed off each other without worrying about being reported or banned,” Orr Bueno said. “It’s an environment that can be easily exploited by those seeking to incite violence or radicalize people.” Truth Social did not immediately reply to a request for comment. View the full article

Published by AFP Former US president Barack Obama attends the premiere of the Netflix film Washington (AFP) – Hollywood newcomer Barack Obama was awarded an Emmy for narrating his Netflix documentary series “Our Great National Parks,” the Television Academy announced Saturday. The former two-term US president had already won a pair of Grammy Awards — for audio versions of his memoirs “The Audacity of Hope” and “Dreams from My Father” — so he now only needs an Oscar and a Tony to complete the estimable EGOT. According to an Entertainment Weekly tracker, only 17 people have achieved an EGOT, including Mel Brooks, Whoopie Goldberg, Audrey Hepburn and — most recently — Jennifer Hudson. One other president had already been awarded an Emmy — Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 — although his was an honorary award. After leaving office in 2017, both Obama and his wife Michelle have each written best-selling memoirs, and in addition to their non-profit foundation, have established a production company which has inked a major deal with Netflix, reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars. Their company’s first documentary for the streaming service, “American Factory,” won the Oscar for best documentary feature and an Emmy for directing, though the awards went to the filmmakers and not to the Obamas themselves. Obama’s successor to the presidency, Donald Trump, did not win an Emmy for his reality competition show “The Apprentice,” although he was nominated twice. Other nominees in Obama’s narrator category included former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (“Black Patriots: Heroes Of The Civil War”), Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o (“Serengeti II“) and veteran naturalist David Attenborough (“The Mating Game”). Obama also received the Nobel Peace Prize after his 2008 presidential election win, for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English John Boyega would be ‘”very surprised” to see a black James Bond. The 30-year-old actor was asked if he would ever consider taking on the role of the 007 spy in the legendary movie franchise – which has so far only been played by white men such as the late Sir Sean Connery and Sir Roger Moore as well as Daniel Craig throughout its 60-year history – but “doesn’t believe” that producers will ever cast a black man in the part. Speaking on the ‘Happy Sad Confused’ podcast, he told host Josh Horowitz: “I’m sorry but I’m black – I don’t know how. When you’re black, I don’t know how that goes. You as a white man grew up in a society as a white man and that’s normal. That’s normal to you. Even the mention of a black Bond is like ‘Oh, okay’. I don’t necessarily believe that but if that’s what they’re doing then that is very surprising to me. As an actor you kind of just stay out of that conversation. But if it’s for you then maybe. But if not then you just enjoy it in a movie theatre like everyone else.” Meanwhile, the London-born star – who made his name on the West End stage before shooting to global fame as Finn in the ‘Star Wars’ franchise – explained that he would “love” to do Broadway in New York but teased he has to do a “few more movies” first. He said: “I’d love to do Broadway but I’d love to go back on stage in the UK too. The last time I was on stage was in 2018 was at the Old Vic and I’d done that during the ‘Star Wars’ movies. It was tiring but I needed it. If it’s the right piece I’d love to go back on stage again. I’ve just got to do a few more of these films. Even if I was Off-Broadway, I’d do it.”. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Janelle Monáe says ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’ is its own “unique, fun, weird thing”. The 36-year-old star plays tech entrepreneur Cassandra ‘Andi’ Brand in Rian Johnson’s upcoming sequel to the 2019 whodunnit, and she’s hailed the director for creating something unlike anything else in the murder-mystery sphere. She told the latest issue of Empire magazine: “We don’t have a lot of murder-mystery films out that innovate in that space. “So that within itself makes it its own unique, fun, weird thing.” Her co-star, Kate Hudson (Birdie Jay), agrees. She said: “Rian does an incredible job in the execution of taking it outside of where the first one was and making the audience feel like they’re in a completely different world.” Daniel Craig is returning as the lead Detective Benoit Blanc. He said of the new movie: “There’s definitely more Blanc, but it’s not very interesting to me, the notion of building out Benoit’s life. “Like with Poirot and Miss Marple, what’s fun is how the elements of Benoit’s character reveal themselves through his act of solving each one of these mysteries.” Having starred as James Bond in five films, Daniel admits that he has no fear about turning ‘Knives Out’ into a successful series. He explained: “I’ve spent the past 15 years of my life trying to do that in a franchise, so I’m not afraid of it. “If you’ve got the right people in the room and the right talent, then you can do it. Rian’s a genius writer and doesn’t want to repeat (himself). Neither do we want to let people down, we want audiences to enjoy the world that we created in the first one and believe in this one.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Britney Spears’ ex-husband Kevin Federline thinks her estranged father Jamie’s controversial conservatorship “saved her life”. The 44-year-old former backup dancer turned DJ made the claim in a rare interview with 60 Minutes Australia that was shown in the country on Sunday night. (03.09.22) He said the legal move, which lasted 13 years, was best for Britney, now 40, even though it left her without control over her life, career or finances. Asked if Britney’s 70-year-old father Jamie Spears made the right decision in enacting the conservatorship, Kevin said: “One hundred percent I feel like he saved her back then.” But he admitted: “I wasn’t involved in any of it how the conservatorship came about. I don’t know. They were worried about their daughter and trying to do whatever they can to help her. That’s all that I knew.” He also said the sons he shares with Britney – Sean, 16, and 15-year-old Jayden – were “happy” for their mother when her conservatorship ended. Kevin added: “Both of them were so happy for her, you know? Because it’s not always about what’s right. It’s about this is what mum wanted, you know, mum got.” He said he wanted his boys to have a close relationship with their grandparents, Britney’s dad Jamie and mother, Lynne, 67, as well as their uncle. Kevin went on: “They’re my kids’ immediate family, you know? That’s their grandfather and their grandmother and their uncle. “I feel that it’s very important that they have relationships with all of them, regardless of what happens.” In 2019, Kevin was granted 70% custody of his and Britney’s sons while Spears was downgraded to 30%, according to TMZ. He and Britney dated for only three months in 2004 before they got engaged in July and married in September of the same year. Britney had their boy Sean in September 2005, with Jayden following in 2006. But a year later Britney filed for divorce, which was finalised in July 2007. Six months afterwards, the ‘Toxic’ singer she was placed under an involuntary psychiatric hold. In November, a Los Angeles judge finally agreed to end her former building contractor dad’s conservatorship that controlled Britney’s life and her $60 million (£52 million) fortune. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Kanishka Singh and Akriti Sharma (Reuters) -Bed Bath & Beyond Inc’s chief financial officer fell to his death from New York’s Tribeca skyscraper known as the “Jenga” tower on Friday afternoon, police said on Sunday, days after the struggling retailer announced it was closing stores and laying off workers. Gustavo Arnal, 52, joined Bed Bath & Beyond in 2020. He previously worked as CFO for cosmetics brand Avon in London and had a 20-year stint with Procter & Gamble, according to his LinkedIn profile. On Friday at 12:30 p.m. ET (1630 GMT), police responded to a 911 call and found a 52-year-old man dead near the building who suffered injuries from a fall. Police identified the man as Gustavo Arnal. The police statement did not provide further details on the circumstances leading to Arnal’s death and said the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office would determine the cause of death. Bed Bath & Beyond confirmed his death in a press statement on Sunday but gave no details. The big-box chain – once considered a so-called “category killer” in home and bath goods – has seen its fortunes falter after an attempt to sell more of its own brand, or private-label goods. Last week, Bed Bath & Beyond said it would close 150 stores, cut jobs and overhaul its merchandising strategy in an attempt to turn around its money-losing business. It forecast a bigger-than-expected 26% slump in same-store sales for the second quarter and said it would retain its buybuy Baby business, which it had put up for sale. Arnal sold 55,013 shares in Bed Bath & Beyond in multiple transactions on Aug. 16-17, Reuters’ calculations showed based on SEC filings. The sales amounted to about $1.4 million, and Arnal still had almost 255,400 shares remaining. On Aug. 23, the company, Arnal and major shareholder Ryan Cohen were sued over accusations of artificially inflating the firm’s stock price in a “pump and dump” scheme, with the lawsuit alleging Arnal sold off his shares at a higher price after the scheme. The class action lawsuit listed Arnal as one of the defendants and was brought by a group of shareholders who claimed they lost around $1.2 billion. The filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleged that Arnal “agreed to regulate all insider sales by BBBY’s officers and directors to ensure that the market would not be inundated with a large number of BBBY shares at a given time.” The lawsuit also alleged that he issued materially misleading statements to investors. The company said it was “in the early stages of evaluating the complaint, but based on current knowledge the company believes the claims are without merit.” Shares in Bed Bath & Beyond have been highly volatile in recent months, being viewed as a so-called “meme” stock, which trade more on social media sentiment than economic fundamentals. Cohen, a billionaire investor, disclosed a stake of nearly 10% in early March. Cohen’s RC Ventures disclosed plans to sell its stake on Aug. 17. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Deepa Babington) View the full article

Published by Taste of Country The saga continues between Maren Morris and Jason Aldean‘s wife, Brittany: In fact, they’ve now each launched a T-shirt that nods to their feud, and both will benefit charities of their choosing. Morris debuted her tee on her social channels on Friday (Sept. 2): A black shirt that reads “Maren Morris: Lunatic Country Music Person,” along with the phone number for the Peer Support & Crisis Hotline for trans youth, which is 877-565-8860. If you haven’t been following the events that transpired between Morris and Aldean over the past week, the shirt’s message may need some context. The phrase “Lu… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story By Sky Palma The Trump-endorsed GOP candidate for Wisconsin governor called for people to take up “pitchforks and torches” in reaction to a story that detailed his giving to anti-abortion groups and churches, News8000 reports. Tim Michels, who faces Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, slammed a story published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel detailing charitable giving by he and his wife’s foundation to anti-abortion and anti-LGBT causes. “I believe people should just, just be ready to get out on the streets with pitchforks and torches with how low the liberal media has become,” Michels said Thursda… Read More View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega; @DanRapoport/Facebook The anti-Putin businessman found dead outside his apartment building last month reportedly criticized the Russian army weeks before his suspected suicide, Radar has learned. As RadarOnline.com previously reported, 52-year-old Dan Rapoport was found dead outside his Washington, D.C. apartment building on August 14 after allegedly jumping from the roof. @DanRapoport/Facebook Although the businessman from Moscow was in the United States alone at the time, he was reportedly working to bring his wife and their young daughter over from Ukraine prior to his death. Now, according to Daily Mail, a podcast featuring Rapoport from June 15 has resurfaced in which the outspoken Vladimir Putin critic mocked the Russian strongman and lambasted the Russian army’s capabilities in fighting Ukraine. “We all see the poor state of Russian equipment and technology,” Rapoport said during the podcast with Ukrainian journalist Olena Sharpanska. “I doubt anything can even fly from Russia.” Rapoport also suggested the Russian army was becoming “weaker every day” in their fight against Ukraine. Mega Later in the recorded interview, the 52-year-old Latvian-born businessman expressed his excitement to bring his wife and daughter over from Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv. “I left Kyiv in May. I have to arrange my family, so I returned to America,” he told Sharpanska eight weeks before his death. “I spent the first two weeks in Florida, then I went to New York, and now I am in Washington.” As RadarOnline.com reported, Rapoport’s wife and friends have disagreed with investigators’ claims his death was a suicide. “I think the circumstances of his death are extremely suspicious,” Bill Browder, a financer who also once lived and worked in Moscow, stated. “Whenever someone who is in a negative view of the Putin regime dies suspiciously, one should rule out foul play, not rule it in.” @DanRapoport/Facebook “He was a well-known critic of Putin in the West and had been an effective critic,” Browder continued during an interview with Politico. “He was also an open supporter of Alexei Navalny, and he had all these connections in the elite of Washington, D.C.” After Rapoport’s body was found, the DC Metropolitan Police immediately ruled the businessman’s death a suicide with no foul play suspected in the case. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Lea Michele has “an edge to [her]” personality. The 36-year-old actress admits that her “perfectionist” mentality may have previously had a negative impact. Lea – who is best known for playing Rachel Berry in the hit TV series ‘Glee’ – said: “I have an edge to me. I work really hard. I leave no room for mistakes. That level of perfectionism, or that pressure of perfectionism, left me with a lot of blindspots.” Lea was previously accused by her former ‘Glee’ co-star Samantha Ware of tormenting her with “traumatic microaggressions”. The actress subsequently apologised for her past behaviour, and she now insists that her attitude has changed. She told The New York Times newspaper: “I really understand the importance and value now of being a leader. It means not only going and doing a good job when the camera’s rolling, but also when it’s not. “And that wasn’t always the most important thing for me.” Samantha slammed Lea on social media in 2020, after the actress expressed her support for the Black Lives Matter movement. In response to Lea’s comments, Samantha wrote on Twitter: “LMAO REMEMBER WHEN YOU MADE MY FIRST TELEVISON GIG A LIVING HELL?!?! CAUSE ILL NEVER FORGET. I BELIEVE YOU TOLD EVERYONE THAT IF TOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY YOU WOULD “‘S*** IN MY WIG!’ AMONGST OTHER TRAUMATIC MICROAGRESSIONS THAT MADE ME QUESTION A CAREER IN HOLLYWOOD… (sic).” Lea subsequently issued an apology, although she admitted she couldn’t specifically remember making hurtful remarks towards her co-star. The actress said in a statement: “What matters is that I clearly acted in ways which hurt other people. “One of the most important lessons of the last few weeks is that we need to take the time to listen and learn about other people’s perspectives and any role we have played or anything we can do to help address the injustices that they face.” View the full article

Published by Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House called on China on Thursday to immediately cease “atrocities” against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities and urged Beijing to allow unfettered access to Xinjiang. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the United States welcomed a report from the United Nations’ human rights chief on Wednesday that said China’s “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of Uyghurs and other Muslims in its Xinjiang region may constitute crimes against humanity. “We will call on China to immediately cease committing these atrocities,” she told reporters, urging China to allow independent investigators full and unhindered access to the region. (Reporting by Jeff Mason and Steve Holland; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military experienced its highest recorded level of sexual assault among women last year, in findings the Pentagon on Thursday described as tragic, disappointing and devastating. The U.S. military, which is already struggling to meet recruiting goals after decades of war, revealed the gloomy data just months after announcing new reforms that critics said were too slow and too limited to resolve the crisis. Reports of sexual assault increased by roughly 13% in 2021 compared with the previous year. A staggering 8.4% of active-duty women are estimated to have experienced some form of unwanted sexual contact in fiscal-year 2021, while the figure for men roughly doubled to 1.5%, according to a survey in a Pentagon report published on Thursday. While the report said the results could not be scientifically compared to previous years because of a government-directed change in metrics, one senior Pentagon official said it was the highest rate for women since 2006 and the second-highest level for men. “These numbers are tragic, and extremely disappointing. On an individual level, it is devastating to conceptualize that these numbers mean that over 35,000 service members’ lives and careers were irrevocably changed by these crimes,” Elizabeth Foster, executive director of the Pentagon’s Office of Force Resiliency, told reporters. “Every incident has a ripple effect across the unit and impacts unit cohesion, ability to trust and distracts from the critical mission at hand,” Foster added. The Marine Corps had a 13.4% sexual assault prevalence rate among women in 2021, up from about 10.7%, according to the survey. U.S. Representative Jackie Speier, who is also co-chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, said the results were disturbing and she would hold a hearing in the coming weeks for more answers. “The watchful eye of Congress is needed to ensure that military leadership is held to account and any additional changes deemed necessary to address this national embarrassment and crisis are made,” Speier said in a statement. This year President Joe Biden signed an executive order to make sexual harassment an offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. In December, lawmakers passed the National Defense Authorization Act which included an overhaul of the military justice system. It would take decisions on whether to prosecute cases of rape and sexual assault out of the hands of military commanders. Still, some lawmakers and activists said it does not go far enough, particularly given the extent to which sexual assault victims tend to have a lack of faith in the military justice system. Only 39% of women in the military said they trusted the system to treat them with dignity and respect after an incident, compared with 66% in 2018. Only 34% of them trusted the military to protect their privacy after reporting an incident, down from 63% in 2018. Six out of 10 women did not express trust in the military to ensure their safety after an incident, the data showed. (Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Felix Light (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin is to miss the funeral of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, denying the man who failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet empire the full state honours granted to Boris Yeltsin. Gorbachev, idolised in the West for allowing eastern Europe to escape Soviet communist control but unloved at home for the chaos that his “perestroika” reforms unleashed, will be buried on Saturday after a public ceremony in Moscow’s Hall of Columns. The grand hall, within sight of the Kremlin, hosted the funerals of Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and Leonid Brezhnev. Gorbachev will be given a military guard of honour – but his funeral will not be a state one. State television on Thursday showed Putin solemnly placing red roses beside Gorbachev’s coffin – left open as is traditional in Russia – in Moscow’s Central Clinical Hospital, where he died on Tuesday aged 91. Putin made a sign of the cross in Russian Orthodox fashion before briefly touching the edge of the coffin. “Unfortunately, the president’s work schedule will not allow him to do this on Sept. 3, so he decided to do it today,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He said Gorbachev’s ceremony would have “elements” of a state funeral, and that the state was helping to organise it. Nevertheless, it will be a marked contrast to the funeral of Yeltsin, who was instrumental in sidelining Gorbachev as the Soviet Union fell apart and hand-picked Putin, a career KGB intelligence officer, as the man most suited to succeed him. When Yeltsin died in 2007, Putin declared a national day of mourning and, alongside world leaders, attended a grand state funeral in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Russia’s intervention in Ukraine appears aimed at reversing at least in part the collapse of the Soviet Union that Gorbachev failed to prevent in 1991. Gorbachev’s decision to let the countries of the post-war Soviet communist bloc go their own way, and East and West Germany to reunify, helped to trigger nationalist movements within the 15 Soviet republics that he was powerless to quell. Five years after taking power in 2000, Putin called the breakup of the Soviet Union “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century”. It took Putin more than 15 hours after Gorbachev’s death to publish a restrained message of condolence that said Gorbachev had had a “huge impact on the course of world history” and “deeply understood that reforms were necessary” to tackle the problems of the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Gorbachev’s foundation said the funeral would begin at 12 noon (0900 GMT), not 10 a.m. (0700 GMT) as previously announced. (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Peter Graff) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Gloria Estefan felt “overjoyed” to learn that she’d inspired a new Barbie doll. The 65-year-old singer has been a fan of the “American icon” since her childhood, and she’s thrilled that she’s inspired the new doll. She explained: “Overjoyed is pretty much the word. I’ve gotten every award that you could possibly imagine. But somehow this was so incredibly special for me, maybe because I played with Barbie since I was a kid, a little girl, and she’s an American icon.” Gloria celebrates her 65th birthday on Thursday (01.09.22), and she admits that the new doll is a huge honour. She told PEOPLE: “To have them celebrate my image and my career and my culture on my birthday … it’s really special. “They were really, really sticklers about making sure that I was very involved in choosing her image, the clothes. I actually sent them my thigh-high boots and my jacket so that they could see the detail. That jewellery, the microphone, we made sure the hair was right, that she represented me in the way that was important to me. And I’m just beyond thrilled. “What can I tell you? I’m a Barbie.” The new doll has been specifically inspired by Gloria’s outfit in her music video for ‘Get On Your Feet’. And despite everything she’s achieved in her career, the singer continues to be amazed by her own success. The seven-time Grammy Award winner said: “I’ve got a Christmas album that I did with my daughter and my grandson that is coming out in a month – and to have Barbies celebrating my life right at this moment is just … there’s a lot going on and it’s all great and I’m thrilled about it.” View the full article

Published by AFP Steven Silverman, Senior Technical Program Manager and Manager of Imagery Solutions for Google, says the array of camera gear used to create a 360-degree map of the world positions the company to be a player in the metaverse Mountain View (United States) (AFP) – Fifteen years after its launch, a Google Maps feature that lets people explore faraway places as though standing right there is providing a glimpse of the metaverse being heralded as the future of the internet. There was not yet talk of online life moving to virtual worlds when a “far-fetched” musing by Google co-founder Larry Page prompted Street View, which lets users of the company’s free navigation service see imagery of map locations from the perspective of being there. Now the metaverse is a tech-world buzz, with companies including Facebook parent Meta investing in creating online realms where people represented by videogame-like characters work, play, shop and more. “Larry Page took a video camera and stuck it out the window of his car,” Google senior technical program manager Steven Silverman said, while showing AFP the garage where the company builds cameras for cars, bikes, backpacks, and even snowmobiles dispatched to capture 360-degree images worldwide. “He was talking to some of his colleagues at the time, saying, ‘I bet we can do something with this.’ That was the start of Street View.” Street View lets people click on locations in Google Maps to see what it might look like were they at that spot, and even look around. Now, the internet behemoth is introducing an “immersive view” that fuses Street View images with artificial intelligence to create “a rich, digital model of the world,” Miriam Daniel, Google Maps Experiences vice president, said in a post. “You’ll be able to experience what a neighborhood, landmark, restaurant or popular venue is like — and even feel like you’re right there before you ever set foot inside,” Daniel said. “With a quick search, you can virtually soar over Westminster to see the neighborhood and stunning architecture of places, like Big Ben, up close.” Google will start rolling out immersive view later this year, starting in Los Angeles, London, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo. From maps to metaverse Street View imagery has been gathered in more than 100 countries and territories, ranging from places such as Mount Fuji and Grand Canyon National Park to the Great Barrier Reef. “If you want to see what it’s like to go down a ski slope, you can see where that snowmobile has gone,” Silverman said, nodding toward a maroon snowmobile in the garage in the Silicon Valley city of Mountain View, California. “That trike was really funny because it went around Stonehenge; and we put it on a barge and went down the Amazon River,” he said of another vehicle. He pointed to a backpack camera system taken for a zip-line ride in the Amazon, to provide a bird’s-eye perspective. Years spent capturing the real world in 360-degree imagery bodes well for Google when it comes to a future in which internet life shifts to immersive digital worlds, said Creative Strategies tech analyst Carolina Milanesi. “It absolutely plays into the metaverse,” Milanesi said. “The idea of a digital twin of the world is certainly one aspect of it that Google will solve.” Silverman reasoned that, in a sense, Street View has been giving users a virtual experience for more than a decade, and the imagery naturally lends itself to depicting the real world in virtual settings. “Ideally, that metaverse, that world that we move into, we’re going to be there,” Silverman said. Scores of tech firms have been rushing to invest in building the metaverse, a loose term covering the growing ecosystem of interactive online worlds, games and 3D meeting places that are already attracting millions of users. Facebook renamed its parent company to Meta last year to emphasize its virtual reality vision, and opened Horizon World virtual reality platform to the North American public. Earlier this year, Japanese giant Sony and Lego’s Danish parent firm announced a $2 billion investment in US gaming powerhouse Epic Games for its work toward joining the metaverse vision for the internet’s future. In the form of video games such as Epic’s hit Fortnite, the precursors of the metaverse already exist in minimalist ways, with people coming together not only to play, but also to interact and participate in events. What started as a “far-fetched idea” by Page is “critical to our mapping efforts — letting you see the most up-to-date information about the world, while laying the foundation for a more immersive, intuitive map,” Google Maps product director Ethan Russell said in a blog post. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Kanye West has aimed a blistering rant at Kim Kardashian raging about a “porn addiction” which “destroyed” his family and comparing the men to “sperm donors”. The rapper posted a series of messages online which appeared to be part of a disagreement with Kim over where to send their four children – North, nine, Chicago, four, Saint, six, and Psalm, three – to school with Kanye suggesting he wanted the kids to attend the institution he founded – the Donda Academy – instead of the private Sierra Canyon school in Los Angeles. In one of the notes posted online, Kanye wrote: “It’s not up to Calabasas or Hulu where my kids go to school I’m not the crazy one here It’s up. I won’t stop until I have a say so on my kids no matter what it legally takes.” Another post referred to Tristan Thompson, Scott Disick, and Travis Scott – who have all dated Kardashian sisters – and compared them to sperm “donors”. The star added: “We’re in this together.” Tristan has two kids with Khloe Kardashian, while Scott has three children with Kourtney, and Travis is dad to a son and daughter with Kylie Jenner. Kanye also shared a screen shot which appeared to show an exchange between him and his ex Kim, with the reality TV star writing: “Can u please stop (sic)” and Kanye replied: “No … We need to talk in person. You don’t have say so of where the kids go to school. Why get say say. Cause you half white?” Another screen shot appeared to show Kim passing on a message from her mum Kris Jenner. She wrote: “‘From my mom – PLEASE. Tell him to please stop mentioning my name. I’m almost 67 years old and I don’t always feel great and this stresses me to no end.” Kanye responded: “Y’all don’t have so so over my black children and where they go to school.” In another message, Kanye seemingly referenced Kim’s infamous sex tape and a shoot she did for Playboy as well as another shoot for the magazine by her sister Kylie. The musician wrote: “Don’t let Kris make you do playboy like she made Kyle and Kim do Hollywood is a giant brothel Pornography destroyed my family I deal with the addiction Instagram promotes it. Not gonna let it happen to (daughters) Northy and Chicago.” ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ star Kim and Kanye married in 2014 and became parents to four kids before they split in early 2021. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Denise Richards’ husband Aaron Phypers helps her shoot her saucy OnlyFans content. The 51-year-old ‘Wild Things’ star joined the raunchy website in June just days after her 18-year-old daughter Sami signed up for the service, and Denise has now recruited her partner to help her take the sexiest shots for the adult platform – admitting she values his opinion. During an appearance on Sirius XM’s ‘Jeff Lewis Live’, she explained: “Aaron takes a lot of my content for me. He knows what guys like. I ask him, I show him things, and say, ‘What do you think?’” Denise went on to reveal she takes pictures in bikinis and lingerie and isn’t afraid to show off her body – insisting pictures of her semi-naked already exist on the internet, She told host Jeff: “I do bikini, I do lingerie, I do stuff that is sexier ’cause I also think, ‘Why not?’ if I’m able to do stuff outside of some of the more conservative stuff that’s on my Instagram. I do show my boobies, my tush,” she explained. “They’re already out there if you Google them.” The actress said she first joined the site to show support for her daughter, but she grew to understand why it feels “empowering”. She went on: “I did it to support my daughter, being a mom who is an actress who has done stuff, and I just thought it was empowering too as a woman … to take control,” she said. “You own all of the content and (on) a lot of the other platforms, you don’t own the content. So, it’s nice to be able to control it.” Sami previously faced opposition from her actor dad Charlie Sheen, who wasn’t happy with her decision to join OnlyFans, and she recently revealed he still hasn’t been won over. The teenager told TMZ: “(My mom) has been incredibly supportive from the jump. I’m grateful to have to her in my corner. But my dad hasn’t seen the light yet. “ Charlie is also dad to another daughter, Lola, 17, with ex-wife Denise. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Jennifer Coolidge thought she was too fat to star in ‘The White Lotus.’ The 60-year-old actress stars as Tanya McQuoid on the HBO comedy series about a group of holidaymakers at a vacation resort in Hawaii but had gained so much weight during the COVID-19 lockdowns that she almost turned down the part. She said: “It was COVID, [I was] locked up with this very nice girl that I knew in New Orleans. She was sort of a friend [and] my house sitter. It was just very lonely times … and so she and I got obsessed with these vegan pizzas and we were eating a lot of them each day. The number kept increasing. You can sort of numb out any worry you have in the world if you just eat another pizza. … And not that I was 110 pounds before, but somehow it led to my demise.” The ‘American Pie’ star went on to explain that when show creator Mike White presented her with the project, she didn’t feel as if she was in “fighting shape” and only changed her mind when a friend told her she would be “out of her mind” to reject the part. She told PEOPLE: “I was like, ‘I just don’t think I can do that.’ I had no time, I can’t work out!’ It was sort of weird, it was not that big a difference from what I usually looked like, but somehow it became my excuse not to do it. For whatever reason, I didn’t feel like I was in fighting shape. “A girlfriend just gave me this [pep talk and said], ‘You are out of your mind. I don’t even think you know what this is. This is self-sabotage. I’ve been your friend all these years, this is incredible opportunity for you. Are you really going to f*** this up? Are you really going to f*** this up, Jennifer? This is the worst thing you could do to yourself. Just go, just f****** do it. So, for once in my life, I listened.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By David Kirton SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) -The main districts of Chinese tech hub Shenzhen shut down public transport and extended curbs on public activities on Friday as cities across China battled COVID-19 outbreaks that have dampened the outlook for economic recovery. Six districts comprising the majority of the city’s population of almost 18 million announced that all residents would be tested twice for COVID-19 over the weekend as subway and bus services were suspended. Employees should work from home, with the exception of those in self-contained “closed-loop” operations, essential supplies and public services. In the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu, which put its 21 million people under lockdown on Thursday, factories including plants run by auto giants Toyota and Volkswagen kept production running under closed-loops. Curbing movements of tens of millions of people intensifies the challenge for China to cushion the economic impact of a “dynamic-zero” COVID policy that has kept its borders mostly shut to international visitors and made it an outlier as other countries learn to live with the coronavirus. China has given little indication of any plans to pull back on its stringent controls. Economists at Nomura said in a Friday report that market expectations for easing once China’s ruling Communist Party completes a once-in-five-years Congress in October are optimistic. Nomura expects COVID curbs to remain at least until March, when the annual parliamentary session takes place. Even then “we expect the economy and markets to experience a difficult period, as people will be either disappointed about no real opening or be overwhelmed by a surging COVID infection”, the economists wrote. The world’s second-biggest economy slowed sharply in the second quarter due to widespread lockdowns, and a nascent third-quarter recovery appears in danger of stalling. “We believe markets still underestimate the severity of this round of (COVID),” Nomura wrote. China’s blue-chip stocks sagged on Friday. ‘CAN’T JUST GIVE UP’ In Shenzhen on Thursday, city officials sought to quell rumours that a full lockdown was imminent. In March, the city swiftly locked down for a week to fight community infections. They said people could leave and return to their homes with proof of a test result less than 24 hours old. “We need to get the virus under control, we can’t just give up like some countries,” said a woman surnamed Tang volunteering to help food deliveries at a locked-down housing compound in Futian, Shenzhen’s hardest-hit district. “But I don’t know when it will end, it’s really hurting businesses.” On Friday, officials reported 87 new locally transmitted COVID infections in Shenzhen for Thursday, up from 62 a day earlier. Eight of the new cases were outside quarantine areas. CLOSED LOOPS In Chengdu, uncertainty remained over whether the lockdown would be lifted after daily mass testing ends on Sunday. The city reported 150 new local cases for Thursday, compared with 157 a day earlier. Non-essential employees in Chengdu were told to work from home, while manufacturers capable of managing on closed campuses were exempted from work-from-home requirements. Toyota Motor’s Chengdu plant, which has an annual production capacity of 105,000 vehicles, was “operating normally” and inside a closed loop at the request of the Sichuan province government, a company official told Reuters. A Volkswagen plant in Chengdu that makes the Sagitar and Jetta models has been operating in a closed loop since Thursday, a VW China representative told Reuters. Foxconn was continuing to operate a plant that makes Apple iPads in the city, Bloomberg reported. However, Sweden’s Volvo Cars, majority owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, has shut its Chengdu plant, a company spokesperson said on Thursday. (Reporting by David Kirton, Ryan Woo, Norihiko Shirouzu and Liz Lee; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Tomasz Janowski, Tony Munroe, John Stonestreet and Nick Macfie) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Michael Jackson’s ex-wife Debbie Rowe felt she “should have done something” to help him battle his addictions. The King of Pop died aged 50 in 2009 after suffering a cardiac arrest following an overdose of heavy sedative propofol and Debbie – who was married to him between 1996 and 1999 – now looks back on his drug problems with regret that she didn’t do more to help the singer as he struggled. Speaking in a new documentary for Fox TV, Debbie got emotional as she said: “I should have done something and I didn’t. There is a number of people that died from addictions and in some way I was part of it.” Debbie previously worked as an assistant to Jackson’s dermatologist Arnold Klein – who had provided the star with strong pain relief – and admitted she felt sorry for her part in the tragedy. She said: “I was basically as bad as him (Klein) and I am so sorry I participated in it.” Klein died in 2015 at the age of 70. Debbie and Jackson married in 1996 and she was the surrogate mother of his two eldest children, Prince and Paris. They’d previously met 15 years earlier while the singer was being treated for a skin condition. She rarely talks about her relationship with the star, which was shrouded in secrecy from the very start. During an appearance in 2003 TV ‘Michael Jackson: The Footage You Were Never Meant To See’, Debbie spoke about her relationship with the kids – insisting she was determined to help the ‘Thriller’ star fulfil his dream of becoming a dad. She said: “I did it for him to become a father, not for me to become a mother. You earn the title parent. I have done absolutely nothing to earn that title. That is because Michael did all the parenting. “I didn’t do it to be a mother. I didn’t change diapers. I didn’t get up in the middle of the night, even when I was there, Michael did it all.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Catherine Deneuve has declared she was “never a sex symbol”. The 78-year-old actress opened up about her life and career as she was presented with the Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival in Italy on Wednesday (31.08.22) and she insisted she felt it was a “challenege” to be attractive despite being considered one of the most beautiful women in the world. She said: “I was never a sex symbol. You won’t find me in very sexy photos … It was a challenge to be good-looking, but it’s not something which has been too important for me these past few years, of course. And it’s much better to be old in Europe than it is in America, especially as a woman.” She also gave a modest observation of her 65-year career, insisting: “There was a lot of luck.” Catherine also dismissed herself being labelled an “icon”, retorting: “No! That’s a word that can be used, but I’m not, no.” The screen star has been returning to work recently since suffering a stroke in 2019. She fell ill while filming the movie ‘De Son Vivant’ in France and spent several weeks in hospital before being allowed to return to her home in Paris to continue her recovery. In the film she plays a mother whose son is dying of cancer, and she since admitted it felt important to go back to set to finish the film after her health scare. She told Variety: “After my accident, I simply went back on the shoot of Emmanuelle Bercot’s film because it was important for me to finish it; I thought it would bring me some satisfaction.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York City agency overseeing workplace affairs said on Friday it sued Starbucks Corp because the coffee chain illegally fired a longtime barista and union organizer shortly after employees in his store voted to join a union. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection called the case on behalf of Austin Locke, a Starbucks employee for 5-3/4 years, the city’s first for violating “just cause” protections under a 2017 law meant to protect fast-food workers. The Fair Workweek Law prohibits fast-food employers from firing or laying off workers, or reducing their hours by more than 15%, without just cause or legitimate economic reasons. According to a petition filed with the city’s Office of Administrative Trails and Hearings, Starbucks fired Locke on July 5, one month after employees in his store in the Astoria section of the borough of Queens decided to unionize. The lawsuit seeks Locke’s reinstatement and back pay, as well as civil penalties. A Starbucks spokeswoman said the Seattle-based company does not discuss pending litigation, but plans to defend against claims it violated the law. The petition said Starbucks claimed it fired Locke because he failed to complete a questionnaire required by its COVID-19 protocols, and falsely reported that a supervisor made unwanted contact during a dispute by placing his hand on Locke’s chest. Both incidents took place two days after the unionization vote, the petition said. In a statement provided by the city, Locke said “Starbucks continues to wrongfully fire pro-union workers nationwide in retaliation for union organizing.” He called on Starbucks to negotiate a contract with Starbucks Workers United, which represents employees at more than 200 stores. Last month, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc agreed to pay $20 million to about 13,000 workers to settle city claims it violated the Fair Workweek Law. Chipotle was accused of failing to give workers their schedules two weeks in advance, award premium pay for unscheduled shifts, and let workers use accrued sick leave. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Josie Kao) View the full article