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Published by BANG Showbiz English Robbie Williams will be the subject of a new Netflix documentary series. The former Take That singer – who has four children with wife Ayda Field – has given filmmakers “exclusive access” for the project, which promises a “no-holds-barred” look at his lengthy career, as well as scrutinising his well-publicised issues with addiction and his troubled relationship with fame. A synopsis for the programme stated: “The multi-part series which will launch in 2023 will be an unfiltered, in-depth examination of a global icon and natural-born-entertainer who had to navigate the highs and lows of being in the limelight for more than 30 years. “It will cover Robbie navigating media scrutiny throughout his career, adulation and addiction, professional and personal break-ups, reunions, recovery, and the impact they have had on his mental health. “Featuring 25 years’ worth of intimate, never-before-seen archive, and exclusive access to Robbie; this definitive series is a no-holds-barred look at the entertainer and will reveal a more nuanced and multifaceted character.” Asif Kapadia, who won an Oscar for his work on Amy Winehouse documentary ‘Amy’, will serve as executive producer while Joe Pearlman, who made ‘Bros: After the Screaming Stops’, will direct. The project is the first from RSA Unscripted, the new label from Ridley Scott Creative Group’s RSA Films. Robbie recently admitted he has lost his desire to have sex with strangers since finding love with Ayda, who he married in 2010 after four years together. He said about his love for her and their four kids: “It’s amazing for somebody built like me – to put it in vulgar terms – a sh*****. She gives me everything I want. “I don’t mean sex-wise. My thing in the ’90s was sex with strangers, I didn’t know whether I’d be able to give that up… I was saying to her (Ayda) last night, it’s really special that we’re around a lot of really good looking people, all the way through the summer – and I feel no longing to be up to the nefarious stuff. “She’s really empathetic, really kind, incredibly smart and very, very funny – and I trust her. “The thing with sex with other people is very much like cocaine. I’m not looking for cocaine anymore and therefore I don’t find it.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Tom Balmforth and Max Hunder KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine’s president urged the world to act much faster to force Russian troops to vacate Europe’s largest nuclear power plant after the site was cut from electricity for hours in an incident he said risked an international radiation disaster. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian shelling on Thursday had sparked fires in the ash pits of a nearby coal power station that disconnected the Zaporozhzhia plant from the power grid. A Russian official said Ukraine was to blame. Back-up diesel generators ensured power supply vital for cooling and safety systems at the plant, Zelenskiy said, praising the Ukrainian technicians who operate the plant under the gaze of the Russian military. “The key thing is…international pressure is needed that will force the occupiers to immediately withdraw from the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” he said in a video address on Thursday evening. “The IAEA and other international organizations must act much faster than they’re acting now. Because every minute the Russian troops stay at the nuclear power plant is a risk of a global radiation disaster,” he said, referring to the United Nations nuclear watchdog. Residents in Zaporozhzhia city, 50 km northeast of the plant and some 435 km (270 miles) to the southeast of Kyiv, expressed alarm at the situation. “Of course I am scared. Everyone is scared, we don’t know what will happen next, what is waiting for us every next minute, second,” said social media manager, Maria Varakina, 25. School teacher Hanna Kuz, 46, said people were afraid that the Ukrainian authorities might not be able to warn residents in time in case of radiation fallout. Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom said one of the plant’s two functioning reactors had been reconnected to the grid and was again supplying electricity after it fully disconnected on Thursday. Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in the occupied town of Enerhodar near the plant, blamed Ukrainian armed forces for Thursday’s incident, saying they caused a fire in a forest near the plant. “This was caused by the disconnection of power lines from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station as a result of provocations by Zelenskiy’s fighters,” Rogov wrote on Telegram. “The disconnection itself was triggered by a fire and short circuit on the power lines.” Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Friday its forces had destroyed a U.S.-made M777 howitzer which it said Ukraine had used to shell the Zaporizhzhia plant. Satellite images showed a fire near the plant but Reuters could not verify its cause. HOTSPOT Energoatom said Thursday’s incident had been the first complete disconnection of the plant, which has become a hotspot in the six-month-old war. Regional authorities in Zaporizhzhia said more than 18,000 people across several settlements remained without electricity on Friday due to damage caused to power lines. A Reuters cameraman said there was electricity as normal on Friday in the city of Zaporizhzhia. Russia invaded Ukraine in February, captured the plant in March and has controlled it since, though Ukrainian staff still run it. Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling the site, fuelling fears of a nuclear disaster. Zaporizhzhia city remains controlled by Ukrainian authorities. The United Nations is seeking access to the plant and has called for the area to be demilitarised. Germany on Friday condemned Russia’s continued occupation of the plant, calling the situation “very, very dangerous”. Paul Bracken, a national security expert and professor at the Yale School of Management, said the concern was that artillery shells or missiles could puncture the reactor walls and spread radiation far and wide, much like the 1986 accident involving the Chornobyl reactor. A failure at the Zaporizhzhia plant could “kill hundreds or thousands of people, and damage environmentally a far larger area reaching into Europe,” Bracken said. “Russian Roulette is a good metaphor because the Russians are spinning the chamber of the revolver, threatening to blow out the brains of the reactor all over Europe,” he said. FIGHTING Russia’s ground campaign has stalled in recent months after its troops were repelled from the capital Kyiv but fighting continues along the frontlines to the south and east. Russian forces control territory along Ukraine’s Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts, while the conflict has settled into a war of attrition in the eastern Donbas region. Explosions were heard early on Friday in the southern city of Mykolaiv, a battleground as Russian forces try to push westwards along the coast to cut Ukraine off from the Black Sea. The immediate cause of the blasts was unclear, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said. Ukraine said it had repulsed Russian assaults on Bakhmut and Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region and struck ammunition depots and enemy personnel in the southern Kherson region. Ukrainian forces fired some 10 rockets from a U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launcher at the town of Stakhanov in the eastern Donbas region, pro-Moscow breakaway officials in Luhansk were quoted by Russia’s TASS news agency as saying. Russian state news agency TASS said the deputy traffic police chief in the occupied Ukrainian city of Berdiansk was killed on Friday in a bombing. Its Russian-installed administration blamed the blast on “Ukrainian saboteurs”. Ukraine’s Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The Odesa regional administration said the officer was wounded in an explosion carried out by what it called unidentified partisan fighters in Berdiansk. Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports of either side. The Kremlin says its aim is to “denazify” and demilitarise Ukraine and remove perceived security threats to Russia. Ukraine and the West say this is a baseless pretext for a war of conquest. ($1 = 1.9548 marka) (Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Gareth Jones and William Maclean; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Angus MacSwan) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Noah Schnapp was asked to make his voice higher after going through puberty. The 17-year-old actor — who was just ten years old when he started filming his role as Will Byers in ‘Stranger Things’ – admitted the directors of the Netflix series “were not loving” the changes his body was going through so urged him to try and recapture his “innocence” in order to play down the increasing age gap between his real self and his character. He told Flaunt magazine: “It was the peak time of change, and puberty and growing up and just everything was changing with all of us, and the directors were just not loving it. “And I remember one of the producers coming up to me and telling me, ‘Noah, is there any way you could just speak in a higher tone and just slouch a little bit? Like, we need you to keep that Season 1 innocence that you had.’ “That was like, ‘I don’t know what to tell you. My voice is dropping. I don’t sound young anymore.’” Despite the fame the show has brought him, Noah has spent this summer working as a life guard after graduating from high school because he enjoys doing “normal” things. He said: “It’s kind of a ‘just for fun thing’. “I’ve kind of grown up with a normal life and normal friends and stuff outside of ‘Stranger Things’, so it’s kind of kept me grounded.” Later this year, Noah will be sharing a dorm with other freshmen at the University of Pennsylvania, where he will attend the college’s business school. He explained about his choice of major: “I was thinking of going for acting. [But] acting was just kind of repetitive, and I wanted to try something new. “Millie [Bobby Brown] is doing the same thing with her schooling—she’s kind of learning about other things. I thought it would make more sense to do something different. And business was a pretty clear next thing for me. ” View the full article

Published by AFP Moderna has launched lawsuits against Pfizer and its partner BioNTech over coronavirus vaccine technology Washington (AFP) – Moderna said Friday it is suing rival vaccine makers Pfizer and BioNTech, alleging the partners infringed on its patents in developing their Covid-19 shot administered to hundreds of millions around the world. The lawsuits set up a high-stakes showdown between the leading manufacturers of Covid-19 shots that are a key tool in the fight against the disease. “Moderna believes that Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine Comirnaty infringes patents Moderna filed between 2010 and 2016 covering Moderna’s foundational mRNA technology,” the US-based biotech firm said in a statement. “Pfizer and BioNTech copied this technology, without Moderna’s permission, to make Comirnaty,” Moderna said. Pfizer and BioNTech said they have not fully reviewed the complaint, but expressed surprise over the litigation. “The Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine was based on BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA technology,” a statement said. “We will vigorously defend against the allegations of the lawsuit.” The mRNA technology used in the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech shots differs from that in traditional vaccines, which rely on injecting weakened or dead forms of a virus to allow the immune system to recognize it and build antibodies. Instead, mRNA vaccines deliver instructions to cells to build a harmless piece of the spike protein found on the surface of the virus that causes Covid-19. After creating this spike protein, cells can recognize and fight the real virus, hailed as a major advancement in development of vaccines. Key tool against deadly pandemic The shots have repeatedly been the subject of inaccurate claims that they are dangerous, but health authorities say they are both safe and effective. The lawsuits — in US district court in Massachusetts, and in regional court in Dusseldorf, Germany — are not seeking the removal of the rival vaccine or an injunction on future sales. Moderna said it had begun building up the technology in 2010 and patented work on coronaviruses in 2015 and 2016, which allowed for rollout of its shots in “record time” after the pandemic struck. The virus has killed at least 6.48 million people worldwide since 2020 and made nearly 600 million ill, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker. In addition to death and suffering, the disease has led to a re-shaping of life ranging from a change in norms on working from home to a scrambling of supply chains and workforces. Moderna said it pledged in October 2020 not to enforce its Covid-19-related patents while the pandemic continued, but less than two years later changed that stance as the fight shifted gears. “Moderna expected companies such as Pfizer and BioNTech to respect its intellectual property rights and would consider a commercially reasonable license should they request one for other markets,” it said. “Pfizer and BioNTech have failed to do so,” the firm added. These types of lawsuits are not unheard of in the pharmaceutical industry, where patents can be worth billions of dollars, and can take years to resolve. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Ted Hesson and Alexandra Alper WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly a month after arriving with their 1-year-old daughter on a bus sent by the governor of Texas to Washington, D.C., Colombian couple Noralis Zuniga and Juan Camilo Mendoza are unsure how long they will be allowed to stay in their city-funded hotel room. The couple, who said they left Colombia in May after their house in Medellin collapsed due to heavy rains, have tried unsuccessfully to find medical care for their baby, Evangeline. She has welts on her skin since the family’s arduous 10-day trek on foot through the Darien Gap, a mountainous jungle between Colombia and Panama. Beyond the difficulties of navigating a new country and language, the uncertainty of how long the local D.C. government will permit them to stay in the hotel makes it hard to plan for the future. “You go downstairs and you ask them, ‘How long can we stay here?'” said Zuniga, who spoke to hotel staff not affiliated with the government. “They don’t tell you.” The family is among the more than 7,000 migrants bused from Texas to the U.S. capital since April, part of an initiative by Texas’ Republican Governor Greg Abbott to put pressure on Democratic President Joe Biden over border policies. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, another Republican, has sent about 1,500 from his state to Washington. More recently Abbott began busing migrants to New York City, too. Abbott is seeking a third term in November midterm elections and immigration is a motivating issue for Republican voters, Reuters polling shows. Around 85%-90% of migrants arriving in Washington on the buses continue to other U.S. destinations within hours or days, according to volunteers who assist them. Some of the arrivals like Zuniga and Mendoza crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with no U.S. family or destination, alarming Democratic mayors of Washington and New York as the migrants turn to city resources and volunteers for essential services. “If there isn’t a solution that comes up permanently, these families are going to be stuck in limbo,” said Ashley Tjhung, a volunteer aiding the migrants. U.S. Border Patrol has made more than 1.8 million arrests of migrants crossing illegally in fiscal year 2022, which began Oct. 1, 2021 – the highest number on record, though it includes some repeat crossers. Most Mexicans and Central Americans are returned quickly to Mexico under COVID restrictions in place at the border but hundreds of thousands of migrants – including many from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Colombia – have been allowed into the country in part because Mexico refuses to accept returns of certain nationalities. Some will try to seek asylum in the United States. Abbott has said other cities far from the border should share the burden of receiving migrants and blames Biden’s policies for encouraging crossers. Both Texas and Arizona have spent several million dollars on the busing efforts, according to news reports and data from Arizona. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser asked the Pentagon twice in the past two months to deploy military troops to aid the migrants but was denied both times. In response on Monday to Bowser’s second request, the Pentagon said the District of Columbia National Guard did not have the relevant training and that non-profit organizations appeared to have the capacity to manage the situation. Bowser’s office did not respond to requests for comment. New York City officials in recent weeks have also grappled with new migrant arrivals, including some moving on from Washington, and is seeking to rent thousands of hotel rooms for future arrivals, according to the Department of Social Services. NEXT STEPS Since arriving in late July, the Colombian couple has been staying at a Hampton Inn, one of two hotels being used by the nation’s capital to house about 50 migrant families. The families, many of whom come from Venezuela, receive three meals a day and crucial shelter. The number of single adults in the Washington shelter system remains unclear. Zuniga and Mendoza, who want to consult with an immigration lawyer before deciding whether to apply for U.S. asylum, said they are deeply grateful for the opportunity to stay in the hotel rooms, but have also run into challenges, from the lack of information about how long the temporary shelter will last to basic tasks like setting up a cell phone. The efforts to welcome migrants in Washington have largely fallen to an ad-hoc coalition of volunteers and one non-profit organization that is receiving federal funding from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The volunteers currently greet the buses arriving from Texas, bring migrants to local churches, conduct medical screenings and help book travel to other parts of the United States, including New York City. But some advocates say they need longer-term solutions, particularly as frigid winter months approach and concerns rise that migrants could end up sleeping on the street. Migrant families have struggled to enroll their kids in school and access city-funded health care because they lack a government-issued letter to prove residency, according to volunteers aiding them. A parent in the Hampton Inn echoed the concerns about school enrollment. On Wednesday, the chancellor of D.C. public schools said the migrant children would be allowed to enroll in city schools and public school staff visited the hotels on Thursday to sign them up, a school system spokesperson said. Keiberson Soto, a 19-year-old Venezuelan migrant, was also staying at the Hampton Inn after arriving last month at the U.S.-Mexico border with his father, his father’s second wife, their three teenage children and a grandchild. He said he left Venezuela for Colombia in 2019 after he was shot in the stomach by an assailant who targeted him because a cousin allegedly owed money for drugs. In Colombia, he had trouble finding work and decided to head to the United States with his father’s family last November on a journey that took months. Reuters was not able to independently confirm the account. Soto says he is relieved to be in such comfortable circumstances but is worried about next steps. “What can I do to study? I want to take an English class,” he said. “We don’t have anyone who can help us answer those questions.” Despite the struggles, some families are making strides forward. Noralis Zuniga took an entrance exam on Tuesday for a free class offered by a local community health center and a charter school to become an early childhood teacher, a departure from her work in a beauty salon in Colombia. In the hours before the exam, the couple scrambled to find a ride to the center, which was several miles away from the hotel and not easily walkable. Eventually, a Spanish-speaking hotel employee showed them how to find the bus route on Google Maps. They boarded without bus fare, they said, but told the driver they had no money and he let them pass. (Reporting by Ted Hesson and Alexandra Alper in Washington; Additional reporting by Leah Millis in Washington; Editing by Mica Rosenberg and Lisa Shumaker) View the full article

Published by Al-Araby A Turkish court Thursday jailed a pop star famous for her racy outfits and support for LGBTQ rights on charges of “inciting hatred” over a comment about religious schools. Singer Gulsen Bayraktar Colakoglu — a 46-year-old known by her first name on stage — was detained at home in Istanbul and taken to court. A judge then remanded her in jail pending an investigation into remarks she made on stage in April about Imam Hatip religious schools. The schools raise children to be Muslim preachers and remain highly controversial among secular Turks. A clip of the comments went viral and created outr… Read More View the full article

Published by Radar Online Walker County Sheriff’s Office A popular TikTok and Onlyfans couple were arrested earlier this month and charged with murder in connection to the shooting death of a Georgia man, Radar can confirm. Johntae Collier and Eric Dodds, both 23, were arrested on August 10 and August 16, respectively, in connection to the murder of 29-year-old Dakota Bradshaw on August 1. Johntae CollierWalker County Sheriff’s Office The couple went viral on TikTok for their pro-LGBTQ+ content before being arrested and placed behind bars earlier this month. Dodds, who was ultimately named as a second suspect in the murder of Bradshaw, initially claimed Collier was innocent and even went so far as to create a GoFundMe page in an effort to prove his boyfriend’s innocence. Before Dodds spoke out online in defense of Collier, there was confusion and speculation on social media that Collier was actually arrested for murdering Dodds – although that was not the case. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s press release, which was released on Thursday, Collier was arrested on Wednesday, August 10, after the GBI obtained a murder warrant for the social media personality on August 8. Eric DoddsWalker County Sheriff’s Office The United States Marshals Task Force, special agents with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, and the Huntsville Police Department SWAT team executed the search warrant and took Collier into custody after raiding his Huntsville, Alabama home. The GBI then obtained murder warrants for Dodds on Monday, August 15, before the warrant was executed by the United States Marshals Task Force in Huntsville, Alabama one day later on August 16. The news was first reported by Hollywood Unlocked. Collier was initially taken to Alabama’s Madison County Jail before being extradited to Georgia’s Walker County Jail where he reportedly still remains. Dodd was initially taken to Alabama’s Limestone County Jail, where he will reportedly remain as he awaits extradition to Walker County Jail. Mega Prior to the couple’s recent arrests, Major Mike Freeman of the Walker County Sheriff’s Office contacted the GBI for help in investigating Bradshaw’s August 1 death after the sheriff’s office received reports of shots fired at Bradshaw’s Rossville, Georgia home. Bradshaw was found shot inside of his home when the authorities arrived to the scene, and was officially pronounced dead after being taken to a nearby hospital. According to witnesses nearby at the time of the shooting, a red truck and a blue Dodge Challenger – suspected to be driven by Collier and Dodd – were seen speeding away from Bradshaw’s home shortly after the initial reports of gunfire. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) – Monkeypox cases in some large U.S. cities appear to be declining, matching trends seen in Europe, and experts are cautiously optimistic the outbreak may have peaked in places hit hardest hit by the virus. The World Health Organization earlier on Thursday said monkeypox cases reported globally declined 21% last week, after a month-long trend of rising infections, but noted that U.S. cases continued to rise. Nevertheless, some U.S. experts believe cases are starting to decline based largely on immunity from prior infection and behavior changes as awareness of the disease has grown. That does not mean the disease will be contained, they cautioned. Since late May, the United States has recorded nearly 17,000 monkeypox cases. The outbreak, which so far has reached 80 countries outside of Africa, where the virus is endemic, is largely being transmitted among gay and bisexual men. Monkeypox, which is spread through close contact with an infected individual and the pus-filled sores common to the disease, is rarely fatal. Rollout of Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos vaccine has been slow because of low supplies of the shot, which is also approved to prevent smallpox. But heightened awareness of the risks and increased immunity appear to be slowing the spread. “It’s very likely that the epidemic peaked as of last week,” said Dr. Gerardo Chowell, an infectious disease modeler at Georgia State University School of Public Health. Chowell’s latest model, released on Thursday, forecasts a continued slowdown in new infections in the United States over the next four weeks. The declines may not be enough to extinguish the outbreak, but should bring infections to “very low levels,” he said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not respond to requests for comment about the apparent trend. Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease epidemiologist and an editor-at-large at Kaiser Health News, said she believes behavior change is driving down monkeypox transmission, but cautioned that “people get fatigued by behavior change” and transmission may go up again. “I suspect behavior change will stick only until folks get two doses of the Jynneos vaccine,” she said. For the moment, cases appear to be dropping in some large U.S. cities hardest hit by the outbreak. New York City’s health commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, in a tweet on Thursday acknowledged the declining cases. “We are cautiously optimistic about this data, but will be closely following to ensure it is a sustained trend.” Likewise, data tracking monkeypox infections in San Francisco and Chicago show cases starting to drop over the past few weeks. Chicago Department of Public Health spokesman James Scalzitti said the city may be turning a corner but that more data is needed to confirm a downward trend. There are other signs as well. According to data on the CDC’s website, the percentage of positive tests in public health and some commercial labs – an indicator of transmission rates – has fallen sharply, from 55% positive on July 16 to 24% on Wednesday. “I think there likely has been some bending of the curve,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. He too attributes the change to a combination of increased immunity, particularly among high-risk individuals who got infected early in the outbreak, behavior changes and increased awareness. Howard Brown Health, a system of 10 federally-funded clinics in Chicago that has treated a third of Illinois’ monkeypox cases, has seen decreases in both the number of cases and percentage of positive tests. “I think that reflects a true decrease in incidence,” said Laura Rusie, Howard Brown’s director of epidemiology. “It’s hard to say it’s going to stick, but it’s promising.” (Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot) View the full article

Published by AlterNet By Brandon Gage Teachers in Florida are growing increasingly frustrated over how to manage their classrooms following Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s signing of House Bill 1557 – the Parental Rights in Education Act, otherwise known as the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation – into law this past March that took effect in July. “HB 1557 is at the epicenter of a raging debate over what should be taught to children in America’s public school systems. Debates over teaching the nation’s history of systemic racism have roiled school districts and elections, and a now growing number of states are consider… Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet By Alex Henderson Although Democrats have won the popular vote in seven of the United States’ last eight presidential elections, the U.S. Supreme Court certainly doesn’t reflect that. Six of the High Court’s nine justices were appointed by Republican presidents, and three of those six were appointed by one-term former President Donald Trump — who lost the popular vote in 2016 and lost both the popular vote and the electoral vote in 2020. Moreover, the Court’s socially conservative supermajority is way to the right of such GOP-appointed justices of the past as Sandra Day O’Connor and libertaria… Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet By Alex Henderson In 2022, the political divisions in the United States run so deep that some mobile/wireless companies are trumpeting their political views in order to draw customers. The San Francisco-based Credo Mobile, formerly Working Assets Wireless, specifically markets itself as a wireless provider that supports liberal and progressive causes. But the Texas-based Patriot Mobile, on the other hand, openly markets itself as “America’s only Christian conservative wireless provider” — and its conservatism isn’t libertarian right, but Christian fundamentalist/theocrat/MAGA far right. Patrio… Read More View the full article

[This post contains video, click to play] Published by OK Magazine chemicalXrecords/youtube Blazing her own trail! Madonna’s 25-year-old daughter Lourdes Leon proved that musical talent most definitely runs in the family, releasing her debut single and accompanying music video for “Lock&Key” on Wednesday, August 24. A dreamy pop song with callbacks to Lady Gaga, Leon, who released the single under the moniker “Lolahol,” can be seen throughout the video sporting several futuristic outfits, including a skin-tight neon pink dress and a bikini made of what appears to be rope. chemicalXrecords/youtube Garnering nearly 100,000 views in its first few hours on YouTube, Madge took to social media to congratulate her daughter on her musical debut. “I Am So Proud of You Lola !” the “Material Girl” songstress wrote on her Instagram Story shortly after the single went live. GIVING MOM A RUN FOR HER MONEY!: LOURDES LEON TOP SOCIAL MEDIA THIRST TRAP MOMENTS: PHOTOS chemicalXrecords/youtube The star’s introduction to the music world comes just shy of a year after she teased expanding her career horizons in a conversation with actress Debi Mazar for InterviewMagazine. “I don’t have a specific goal,” Leon explained when probed about her professional aspirations, adding that she “probably should” have clear-cut objective. “Financially, modeling is a smart decision,” she continued. “I enjoy being very hands on with the campaigns I do.” chemicalXrecords/youtube But it seems Leon was well aware that she was more than just her modeling chops. LOURDES LEON INDULGES MOM MADONNA SPORTING SEXY COSTUMES DESPITE OBJECTING TO QUEEN OF POP SHOWING TOO MUCH SKIN “I dance, I have a very specific sense of style, and I’m interested in aesthetics, so I like to incorporate all those parts of myself into my projects,” she said. While at the time, Leon said she was unsure of how she felt about acting — “I think it’s about finding a role that wouldn’t be too far off from who I am already,” she spilled at the time, adding that “honestly, actors really annoy” her — she said she felt indifferent when it came to releasing music of her own. “As for music, I can sing. I just don’t care about it,” she shared. “Maybe it’s too close to home,” she continued, seemingly referencing her famous family. View the full article

Published by OK Magazine mega Former Playmate Holly Madison is letting everyone in on what really went down behind closed Playboy Mansion doors. In the premiere episode of her and ex-Playmate Bridget Marquardt‘s podcast, “Girls Next Level,” the former dished on the cringe-worthy details about what it was like to be intimate with late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Madison, 42, admitted that when it came to sleeping with Hefner — who passed in 2017 — she and the other girls tried to get it over “with as quickly as possible” since no one wanted to actually participate. “We thought of it as a chore that we had to do or else we’ll get kicked out of the house,” she confessed. “He wouldn’t move. He would be like a bump on the log in the middle of the bed.” Making matters worse, other Playmates were asked to be in the room while it was happening. HUGH HEFNER’S FORMER GIRLFRIENDS KRISTINA & KARISSA SHANNON REVEAL LIFE IN THE PLAYBOY MANSION LEFT THEM WITH PTSD & SEVERE DEPRESSION “I can’t explain to you how embarrassing the whole routine was,” she insisted. “You’re literally sitting there naked having sex in front of a group of people who hate you and talk s**t about you while you’re having sex — and you can hear it. It was just like hell.” mega The mom-of-two summarized her entire experience as a Playboy bunny as “traumatic,” having previously revealed that things went downhill the very first time she went out with Hefner. “I wasn’t necessarily expecting to have sex that night. I thought it would be more of a first date — even though, obviously, it’s not a very traditional first date,” she recalled. “I thought it would be more the type of thing where I saw what happened, saw what was going on. If I wasn’t comfortable with it, I wouldn’t have to do anything and I could make my decision on whether I wanted to come back for date No. 2 or not.” After sleeping together the Girls Next Door star felt like she had to stay the night, as she knew it would improve her chances of being allowed to live at the swanky pad. “I felt like, ‘There’s no taking that back, so I might as well get what I came for,'” said Madison. “I felt like by moving myself in and getting what I wanted from the situation, that was demanding respect in a way. I felt like if I didn’t do that, I was just going to be haunted by this experience.” View the full article

Published by OK Magazine mega Donald Trump may be in crisis mode after his Mar-A-Lago home was raided by the FBI, but daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner seemed free of any worry while going for a walk in Miami. On Saturday, August 20, the pair — whether intentional or not — wore very similar outfits: the mom-of-three wore a black tank and grey shorts while her beau donned a black tee and coordinating shorts. They both tired to hide their identities via a pair of sunglasses and baseball caps, but of course, they couldn’t escape the paparazzi. NEW BOOK CONTAINS PHOTOS OF THE DOCUMENTS DONALD TRUMP ALLEGEDLY TRIED TO FLUSH DOWN TOILETS The outing comes shortly afterOK! reported that the blonde beauty, 40, pleaded with her father, 76, to not run for the White House in 2024. mega “Ivanka pulled Donald aside at a family gathering and had a heart-to-heart with him. She said, ‘Please dad, don’t do it.’ Ivanka detests the fact the spotlight is on her family and worries the impact it could have on her three children,” the source explained. “Soon, the kids will be old enough to ask all about what’s going on with their grandfather. Ivanka cannot fathom having to answer their questions. It’s really sad.” Ivanka’s begging went into overdrive after it was reported that Trump may have illegally brought home multiple classified documents. “Ivanka thinks the raid on their Mar-a-Lago home is just the start As someone who has lived in D.C., and witnessed the viciousness of politics, Ivanka is convinced the establishment won’t rest until her dad is silenced,” shared the insider. “She just can’t keep upbeat about the prospect of a 2024 bid (for the White House), especially with all that is going on.” mega AnotherOK!insider revealed Ivanka “basically dumped her brothers,” Eric, 38, and Donald Jr., 44, as “she doesn’t want to be part of the family business anymore or even the controversial family.” Added the source, “Her future is with her husband and her kids. They are out of politics and won’t be campaigning with her father anymore or defending him on TV.” Daily Mail obtained the photos. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have adopted a new rescue dog. Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex have taken in a seven-year-old beagle named Momma Mia who was rescued from a US breeding centre owned by an animal research company last month and the couple have been praised for opting for an older dog rather than a puppy. Animal rights attorney Shannon Keith who helps run the Beagle Freedom Project told People.com: “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are the most loving, sensitive and caring adopters I have ever met! We were so honoured that they have been supporting Beagle Freedom Project and chose to adopt a dog who has been abused. “They made a point to adopt a rescue named Mia, who most would overlook because she is older, has health issues and is traumatised by her past. I was so impressed by their commitment to animal welfare! They have been following up letting us know how well Momma Mia is doing in her new, amazing home!” Shannon went on to reveal she got a personal phone call from Meghan asking about adopting a beagle – but she mistook her for another actress – Megan Fox – and it took her half an hour to realise the mistake. She told the Los Angeles Times: “The duchess called me personally. She calls on my cell with no Caller ID and says, ‘Hey Shannon, this is Meghan’. We talked for 30 minutes, and I thought, ‘Is this Megan Fox?'” She went on to reveal Meghan visited the Beagle Freedom Project rescue centre in the San Fernando Valley, California and was determined to give a home to the older dog rather than her puppies, adding: “The duchess is holding Mia and was like, ‘We’re adopting her’. She was like ‘No, we don’t want a Christmas puppy … We want ones we can help who are older’.” The Duchess previously adopted another Beagle named Guy back in 2015 after he was taken in by a rescue centre called A Dog’s Dream Rescue. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Vanessa Bryant has been awarded $16 million in damages after a jury found graphic photos of the helicopter crash which killed her husband Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna Bryant were shared. The pair died in the January 2020 incident along with seven others, and a Los Angeles jury has now found the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) and Fire Department (LAFD) shared photos of Vanessa and her co-plaintiff Chris Chester’s loved ones’ bodies, and caused emotional distress by doing so. According to PEOPLE, the LASD were told to pay Vanessa $10 million and Chris – who tragically lost his wife Sarah and their 13-year-old daughter Payton in the crash – $9 million, and the LAFD were ordered to fork out $6 million each. After the verdict was reached on Wednesday (24.08.22), Vanessa shared a picture of herself alongside basketball legend Kobe and her daughter Gigi on Instagram, and she added the caption: “All for you! I love you! JUSTICE for Kobe and Gigi! #Betonyourself #MambaDay 8 24 22 #MambaMentality (sic)” The verdict also happened to come on Kobe Bryant Day, also known as Mamba Day, on August 24th, due to his shirt numbers for the Los Angeles Lakers being eight and 24. Vanessa got emotional as the verdict was read, and she embraced her attorneys. Her attorney Luis Li said in a statement: “This case has always been about accountability. And now the jury has unanimously spoken.” Attorney Mira Hashmall, the lead outside counsel for the county, said in a statement: “While we disagree with the jury’s findings as to the county’s liability, we believe the monetary award shows that jurors didn’t believe the evidence supported the plaintiffs’ requests for $75 million for emotional distress. “We will be discussing next steps with our client. Meanwhile, we hope the Bryant and Chester families continue to heal from their tragic loss.” In October, Vanessa revealed she first learned of Kobe’s death online. Vanessa was asked during a deposition by a county attorney when she was first made aware of the accident, and confirmed that a family assistant informed her that Kobe and Gianna had been in an incident, but she suspected that they were among the survivors. However, the tragic truth was revealed as messages popped up on her phone. According to a transcript of the deposition, Vanessa said: “I was holding onto my phone, because obviously I was trying to call my husband back, and all these notifications started popping up on my phone, saying ‘RIP Kobe. RIP Kobe. RIP Kobe’. “My life will never be the same without my husband and daughter.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Jonathan Knight has married his boyfriend Harley Rodriguez. The New Kids on the Block star has confirmed he’s a married man after tying the knot with his longtime partner in secret after getting engaged but they were unable to celebrate with a lavish wedding reception due to restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jonathan confirmed the happy news to Etonline.com when asked if the ring on his left hand meant the couple had exchanged vows, with the star admitting: “We did (get married). But everybody just assumed we’re married, so, I never say yes or no ’cause I don’t wanna lie.” Despite being unable to celebrate the nuptials in style, Jonathan revealed they are planning to throw a big wedding part soon. He added of the celebration: “It’s coming.” Jonathan and Harley have been together since 2008 and took part in a reality show called ‘The Amazing Race’ together in 2015. They got engaged a year later in 2016 when the singer-turned-TV star proposed during a holiday in Africa. The 53-year-old former pop star is currently working on a TV show called ‘Farmhouse Fixer’ in which he can indulge his passion for property renovations. He told Etonline.com of the project: “It’s such a passion of mine, fixing up houses. I would post on Instagram pictures of projects I did, and fans would always ask me, ‘What is your other job besides the New Kids?’ and I just think it’s so great to be able to showcase what I do, and people can watch.” Jonathan added that he’s currently in a very happy place in his life, saying: “I’m about to turn 54, and I would have never thought in my 20s that at 54, I’d still be touring with the New Kids, and I would have a hit TV show on HGTV.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Thursday will stage his first political rally in the final stretch to the November midterm congressional elections, looking to give Democrats a boost and prevent Republicans from taking control of Congress. The Democratic National Committee event at Richard Montgomery High School, located in a Maryland suburb of Washington and featuring a host of Maryland political leaders, will begin for Biden what the White House has billed as a coast-to-coast tour to help Democratic candidates. He is to speak at 7 p.m. EDT. A party official said Biden will be “highlighting the choice voters will have in the upcoming midterms.” Republicans are hoping to ride voter discontent with inflation and high gasoline prices to victory in November, and they have history on their side. The party that controls the White House usually loses seats in Congress in a new president’s first midterm elections, and political analysts are predicting Republicans have a solid chance to take control of the House of Representatives and possibly even the Senate. Democrats hold only a thin majority in the House while the Senate is evenly divided, with the vice president’s tie-breaking power giving Democrats control. Republican control of one or both chambers could thwart Biden’s legislative agenda for the second half of his four-year term. Heavy losses could also intensify questions about whether Biden, 79, should run for re-election in 2024 or hand over to a younger generation. But Biden and his team hope that a string of recent legislative successes, and voters’ outrage at the Supreme Court’s overturning of the 1973 ruling that recognized women’s constitutional right to abortion, will generate strong turnout among Democrats. A White House memo circulated to Democratic activists earlier in August said the midterms will offer a choice between Democrats working to overcome the influence of special interests like the gun lobby and the pharmaceutical industry and Republicans devoted to former President Donald Trump. Democrats want the trip to boost the president’s poor poll numbers and draw attention to his achievements. But some candidates for Congress worry that campaigning with Biden will hurt them in the Nov. 8 election. Biden, whose latest approval rating is 41%, is polling lower than most, if not all, Democratic candidates in competitive races, often by double digits, Democratic pollsters said. (Editing by Leslie Adler) View the full article

Published by Reuters By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican hopes of taking control of the U.S. Senate in November could hinge on former football star Herschel Walker, a first-time candidate endorsed by Donald Trump, whose campaign appears to be lagging behind other Republicans in Georgia. A sports legend, the 60-year-old Walker secured the Republican nomination to run for the Senate for the state in May, seeing off five contenders. Republicans hoped his popularity and name recognition would translate into victory in what is likely to be a close race. But he has been trailing Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock in most opinion polls, his campaign rocked by repeated policy gaffes and a string of controversies about his past, including allegations of domestic violence. Walker is one of a handful of Trump-endorsed first-time Republican Senate candidates, also including TV personality Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and author J.D. Vance in Ohio, who even senior Republicans say are weighing on the party’s changes of recapturing Senate control. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, without naming individuals, has cited “candidate quality” as a reason why Republicans may struggle to capture the Senate, putting his party’s odds of winning a Senate majority at 50-50. Analysts say Walker has made himself an easy target for political attacks, with disjointed comments on issues from COVID-19 to climate. For instance, he attacked the recently-passed $430 billion climate and drug bill on Sunday, saying a lot of the money is “going to trees” and asking, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Don’t we have enough trees around here?” “Every time he opens his mouth about a policy issue, it sounds like a word salad. It’s very convoluted and doesn’t make sense sometimes,” said Trey Hood, a political science professor at the University of Georgia. The Republican Accountability political action committee, run by anti-Trump Republicans, has tried to put domestic violence allegations front and center in the campaign. It released a 30-second ad in which Walker’s ex-wife Cindy DeAngelis Grossman says “he held the gun to my temple and said he was going to blow my brains out.” Walker responded with his own video, saying Grossman’s comments were taken out of context but that he was “glad they did this ad, because it gives me an opportunity to end the stigma around mental health.” The Walker campaign and local Republican Party leaders say the former sports star has been the target of unfair news coverage, insisting that his interactions with voters at campaign events have been overwhelmingly successful. “The whole situation is quite aggravating to me, because Herschel Walker is an extremely intelligent man who has a full grasp of the issues,” said Salleigh Grubbs, who chairs the Republican Party in Cobb County, just outside Atlanta. With the 100-seat Senate currently split 50-50, Republicans need only a net one-seat gain to take the majority. Georgia was Republican territory until Biden won the state by a thin margin in 2020, and Warnock and fellow Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff unseated two Republican incumbents in a 2021 run-off. Opinion polls suggest the gap between Walker and Warnock is very narrow, and some have had Walker ahead. But he is considerably less popular in surveys than other Georgia Republicans, including Governor Brian Kemp, who is up for re-election this year. That, analysts said, suggests that some Republican voters who cast ballots for Kemp could just opt not to vote for a Senate candidate — or to back Warnock instead. Warnock was well known in the state, too, before he was elected to the Senate, as senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King once preached. Strategists say that could appeal to Georgia’s large Christian electorate. Warnock has also used recent Democratic legislative victories to fortify his appeal to voters. “Reverend Warnock is focused on fighting for hardworking Georgia families, leading the effort to successfully cap the cost of prescription drugs for seniors, protect Georgia jobs and hold corporations accountable for price gouging,” Warnock campaign communications director Meredith Brasher said in a statement. Democratic strategists expect Warnock to emphasize his policy message to try to overcome Walker’s name recognition as a former NFL player who led the University of Georgia to its first national football title in 1980. Both Walker and Warnock are Black. And Atlanta-based Democratic strategist Fred Hicks said Warnock could improve his ground game against Walker by driving up turnout among Black male voters with concrete appeals on policy issues including jobs and healthcare. But Republicans argue that the close poll numbers bode well for Walker, given the controversies and political attacks he has weathered. “Beating an incumbent senator is never easy. But Herschel is a good candidate and is he going to win,” said Walker campaign communications director Will Kiley. The Georgia Senate race is already expected to be the nation’s most expensive, according to research firm AdImpact, which forecasts $276 million in ad spending. Spending could intensify even further if the Nov. 8 election proves inconclusive and a Georgia run-off becomes the deciding factor for Senate control. (Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Rosalba O’Brien) View the full article

Published by OK Magazine mega August 31 marks the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana’s tragic death — and her only brother, Charles, proudly spoke out about his sister! “I’m always surprised by how difficult August 31 is each year actually,” he said. “I always slightly brace myself for it and it does take me out at the knees. It is a very poignant time. “Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. All over the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity.” Charles, who is the 9th Earl Spencer, is Diana’s younger brother by three years. They share dad John Spencer, the 8th Earl (who died in 1992), and mother Frances Shand Kydd (who died in 2004), along with two older sisters, Jane, 65, and Sarah, 67. Although they were immensely wealthy, titled and lived on the 13,000-acre Althorp Estate, the Spencers had a troubled marriage and their kids suffered through a heart-breaking childhood. Their mother left and gave up custody of her four kids to marry her lover. Charles was two and Diana was five. The older sisters were at boarding school. “When she was packing her stuff to leave, she promised Diana she’d come back to see us,” said Charles, 58. “Diana used to wait on the doorstep for her, but she never came. She could hear me crying down the corridor but was too scared of the dark to come to me. Our father was a quiet and constant source of love, but our mother wasn’t cut out for maternity. Not her fault, she couldn’t do it.” Spencer said even in his earliest memories of Diana, “she always had a sort of natural star quality,” but “it would be wrong to think of Diana as a saintly child. I mean, she was quite naughty, never with malice, you know, just sort of pushing the boundaries.” mega Diana, a shy 18-year-old teenager, met Prince Charles, who had dated older sister Sarah a few years before. They became engaged after only 12 dates, but a day before the July 29, 1981, nuptials, she tried to call it off when she realized he was in love with Camilla Parker-Bowles. When she told sisters Sarah and Jane, they allegedly urged her to go through with it, and told her it was too late to “chicken out.” Her younger brother, Charles, held his tongue, but years later got into a “massive fight” with Prince Charles. The two almost came to blows just days after Diana’s shocking death at age 36 after the 1997 car crash in Paris. Her brother was outraged that Diana’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, were going to walk behind their mother’s casket in her funeral procession. “Spencer felt quite sure that Diana would have been horrified at the idea of her sons having to endure such an ordeal,” said an insider. “He had already told Charles as much.” When the argument continued, Prince Charles made a “particularly offensive comment” about Diana, and her brother couldn’t bear to hear another word. “That all but sealed the ill-fated label on his [Prince Charles] relationship with the Spencers,” added the insider. Charles Spencer was later proven right. Prince Harry says the 34-minute march, which he did alongside Spencer, dad Prince Charles, grandfatherPrince Philip and brother Prince William, was excruciating. “I don’t think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don’t think it would happen today,” said Prince Harry, now 37. Prince William, now 40, added that it was “one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.” Spencer said it wasn’t easy for him either, even as a grown man. While he walked, “I could hear people in the crowds sobbing, wailing and shouting messages of love to Diana … I still have nightmares about it today.” Publicly, Spencer won’t say which of Diana’s lovers was the man she loved the most, but says Diana’s true love was not for one man, but two — her sons, William and Harry — and after she died, he said, “I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative and loving way in which you were steering these two boys.” Privately, insiders say out of all of Diana’s affairs — including Dodi Fayed, who died with her — there was only one man she fell head over heels for: Hasnat Khan, a Pakistani heart surgeon, who she called “The One.” “I found my peace,” Diana told a friend after falling for him. “He has given me all the things I need.” mega But Khan dreaded being in the public eye and had no desire to live the high life. He always refused Diana’s generous gifts, including a new car. As for the blame for Diana’s death, Spencer puts that squarely on the shoulders of “deceitful” Martin Bashir, who “tricked” his sister into her most explosive TV interview with fake bank statements saying those close to her were blabbing about her so she should be the one to talk. Spencer says Bashir’s lies made her lose faith in those around her after taking part in the 1995 BBC television news bombshell. Diana sat down with the then-unknown journalist and famously revealed, “There were three of us in this marriage.” She also admitted to her infidelity with Army captain James Hewitt, and questioned Charles’ suitability as the future king. Fumes Spencer: “This is a young girl in her mid 30s who has lived this extraordinarily difficult and turbulent time in the public eye — she didn’t know who to trust — and in the end when she died two years later, she was without any form of real protection.” Later, Bashir admitted his duplicity. Spencer has said he still feels “very passionately” that he has an obligation to “honor her memory.” “I feel it is my duty to stand up for her when I can,” he said about correcting inaccuracies about her life. “If you grow up with somebody they are still that person — it doesn’t matter what happens to them later.” Diana is buried on the Althorp estate on a small island that Spencer and his sisters can visit — and speak to her — privately. For more on the royal family’s trials and tribulations, tune into the new podcast “The Firm: Blood, Lies and Royal Succession.” Listen below! View the full article

Published by Reuters By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Justice Department on Wednesday released under court order all of a 2019 memo https://www.justice.gov/file/1528466/download in which two top officials advised then-Attorney General William Barr not to charge then-President Donald Trump with obstructing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Barr’s decision to clear Trump after receiving the memo drew criticism from many Democrats and some former Justice Department lawyers, who accused the top U.S. law enforcement official of protecting his boss. Mueller himself did not exonerate Trump of committing obstruction of justice in trying to impede the probe. The department had released parts of the nine-page memo while keeping other portions secret. The government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued to challenge those redactions, leading a federal appeals court in Washington last week to order its full release. “The memo presents a breathtakingly generous view of the law and facts for Donald Trump,” CREW said in a statement. “Among many other problems, it is premised on the fact that there was no underlying criminal conduct, which is not what Mueller found, and waives its hand at there being no exact precedent to compare it to.” The March 24, 2019, memo was written by Steven Engel, then head of the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, and Edward O’Callaghan, another top department official. They wrote that charging Trump with obstruction would be problematic because the entire first section of Mueller’s report did not find sufficient evidence that Trump or any member of his campaign team had illegally conspired with Russia. “Given that conclusion, the evidence does not establish a crime or criminal conspiracy involving the President toward which any obstruction or attempted obstruction by the President was directed,” the memo concludes. It also said Mueller’s investigation was not “similar to any reported case that the department has previous charged” using obstruction statutes. “The memo supports the chilling conclusion that any president can interfere with any investigation if they believe it could damage them politically,” CREW said. Mueller, a former FBI director appointed as special counsel by then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, released a 448-page report documenting Russia’s election interference to sow U.S. discord, boost Trump’s chances and disparage his Democratic opponent Clinton. The report detailed numerous contacts between Trump campaign figures and Russians. It also laid out 10 episodes in which Trump sought to impede Mueller’s probe including firing then-FBI Director James Comey and directing then-White House counsel Don McGahn to tell Rosenstein that Mueller must be dismissed, which McGahn declined to do. After reading Mueller’s report, Barr decided it was up to him as attorney general to decide whether to charge Trump with obstruction, and he sought input from Engel and O’Callaghan, leading to the memo. Barr also has faced criticism from U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who first ordered the department to release the memo after concluding he had been “disingenuous” in the way he described Mueller’s findings to the public when he issued his own summary of the special counsel’s findings ahead of the full public report. Trump, considering another presidential run in 2024, is facing a slew of federal and state investigations into other matters including his removal of classified records after leaving office in 2021. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Will Dunham) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English The Queen is said to love DJs as long as they obey the order of ending their sets with the National Anthem. Her Majesty hires them for the enormous parties she throws for her staff at Buckingham Palace, William Orbit has revealed. The DJ and music producer for Madonna claimed he has spun tunes for Her Majesty for her Christmas staff party at the Palace, and said she was “evidently fascinated”. But the 65-year-old told the Daily Mail on Thursday (25.08.22) DJs who aspire to perform for her will have to agree to end their set with the National Anthem. William also said the monarch, 96, does not take to the dance floor herself, and she “goes to bed at nine because she’s a bit old for dancing”. He added: “Then everyone starts going nuts.” William said about the conversations he’s had with the Queen: “She’s lovely. She always chats to you. She’s so beautiful and charismatic. We had a nice chat about DJing. “At the end, I had my own butler. He says, ‘Mr Orbit, sir, I’m going to give you this CD of the National Anthem and when you play that, on my signal, the party’s over. “‘Because the Queen is in the house, you play the whole thing and the flag rises, but when she’s not there they only play half it’.” Elaborating on bashes at Buckingham Palace, he added: “Her parties for Palace staff are enormous. Every gardener, every security guard – it’s all in the Palace, in the ballroom. “You have to be working for Her Majesty for a year to be invited, and two years if you want your spouse to come.” It comes after the Duchess of Kent, 89, revealed she enjoyed gangster rap music, with Ice Cube among her favourites, along with Eminem. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Sir Rod Stewart has taken another cheeky dig at his long-time pal Sir Elton John by doing an impersonation of him on stage. The 77-year-old ‘Maggie May’ singer stuck on a spangly pink jacket and wacky sparkling sunglasses more suited to Elton’s wardrobe, stuck out his front teeth and mimed playing the piano. He shared the moment as a meme to his 1.2 million Instagram followers just after midnight on Wednesday (24.08.22) but affectionately captioned the clip of his gag: “Still love you, Elt.” During the live performance, Rod giggled to the audience after his mockery. It marks the latest in a series of pranks and ‘feuds’ between Rod and Elton, which have stretched over their 55-year friendship. The friendly rivalry appears to have started when Rod put up billboards to promote his 1970s ‘Blondes ’ave More Fun Tour’ – prompting Elton to place rival boards opposite them showing his face and the message: “But Brunettes make more money.” The humour came to a head in 2018 and threatened to turn nasty when Rod branded Elton’s tour “dishonest” and said it “stunk of selling tickets”. He made the remarks during an appearance on ‘Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen’. It led to the pair not being on speaking terms, with Elton raging in his autobiography ‘Me’: “I thought he had a f****** cheek, complaining about me promoting a tour while he was sat on a TV show promoting his own tour.” Rod later apologised and said he had been “bang out of order”. View the full article

Published by Orlando Sentinel The dust from Florida’s primary elections hasn’t yet settled. But to hear Marco Rubio tell it, his November campaign is already in trouble. On Monday, the eve of the primary elections, Florida’s senior GOP U.S. senator sent supporters an email saying his current campaign situation was “a disaster.” Rubio said his opponent, Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Demings, had raised more money last month than he’d raised in the past three months combined and cited a recent poll that showed Demings beating him. “My opponent is gaining momentum and I desperately need your support,” Rubio said before ending the … Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story By Travis Gettys A data hack reveals the right-wing Liberty Counsel may have violated IRS rules against political activity. The hacktivist site Enlace Hacktivista released a 25-gigabyte Liberty Counsel database containing nearly seven years of donor records, which show that 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations controlled by the evangelical organization encouraged supporters to vote for Donald Trump — an apparent violation of IRS rules prohibiting those entities from endorsing political candidates, reported The Intercept. “Noticing a worrying trend of far-right and anti-abortion activists alignin… Read More View the full article