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Published by Reuters By Eric Beech and Moira Warburton WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A New York Democrat who campaigned on abortion rights and the future of U.S. democracy won a special congressional election in a swing district on Tuesday, a victory that Democrats hope could signal a fundamental shift in national voter sentiment ahead of the November midterm elections. Democrat Pat Ryan defeated Republican Marc Molinaro 51.3% to 48.7%, with 99% of the vote counted, Edison Research said, after a hard-fought contest for an open seat in New York’s 19th Congressional District, which spans part of the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains region and is known as a bellwether. The election took on outsized national importance and became a testing ground for both parties’ campaign strategies. Ryan made the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn abortion rights a centerpiece of his campaign, mobilizing Democrats outraged by the ruling. Molinaro focused on crime and soaring inflation that voters say is their most pressing concern. The district voted for Barack Obama in 2012, Donald Trump in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. Ryan’s victory, coming after voters preserved abortion protections in Republican-dominated Kansas, will boost Democrats’ hopes that opposition to the Supreme Court ruling could help them to hold on to the House of Representatives and Senate in a tough election year. Ryan will serve only until January, when the seat will disappear due to state redistricting. Both he and Molinaro are also running for different seats in the November midterms. Voters also cast ballots in state primaries in New York, Florida, and Oklahoma to choose party nominees for the Nov. 8 elections, which will determine the balance of power in Congress in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. U.S. Representative Charlie Crist emerged as the Democrat who will try to unseat sitting Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in November. Crist, 66, bested state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, Edison Research projected. With 78% of the vote counted, Crist had 59.1% vs. 35.4% for Fried. Crist, who served as a Republican Florida governor from 2007 to 2011 before switching parties, portrayed himself as a candidate ready to unify the state after DeSantis’ focus on culture war issues. He drew endorsements from Democratic leaders including U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. DeSantis is seen as a potential 2024 presidential candidate, and Democrats hope they can derail any White House bid by denying him reelection in Florida. “When we defeat him on Nov. 8, that show is over,” Crist told cheering supporters. Recent polling data shows DeSantis leading Crist by several percentage points. Running as a Democrat, Crist lost the 2014 governor’s race against Republican Rick Scott. Meanwhile, Val Demings, another House Democrat, will square off against Republican Marco Rubio in Florida’s Senate race, after defeating three rivals in the state’s Democratic primary election, according to a projection by Edison Research. Most opinion polls show Rubio leading Demings by several points to double digits, according to the tracking website FiveThirtyEight.com. DeSantis and Rubio, a former presidential hopeful, had no primary opponents. In a Republican Senate primary run-off in Oklahoma, U.S. Representative Markwayne Mullin beat former state House Speaker T.W. Shannon for the party nomination to replace retiring Senator Jim Inhofe, Edison projected. With 32% of the vote in, Edison said Mullin defeated Shannon by 66.6% to 33.4%. SHOWDOWN OVER ABORTION Democrats have been widely seen as the underdog party up to now in the midterm elections for House and Senate, with their prospects weighed down by historical trends, inflation, and President Joe Biden’s low job approval numbers. Republicans are favored to take control of the House, putting them in a position to scupper Biden’s legislative agenda. But their chances of capturing the Senate have been cast into doubt by the weakness of Trump-endorsed candidates in the key swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In recent weeks, Biden’s approval rating has recovered somewhat from its low of 36% to reach 41%, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, as inflation has shown signs of easing and Democrats have celebrated a series of legislative wins in Congress. The New York special election was the first competitive contest since the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling in June. But other special House elections in conservative districts in Nebraska and Minnesota saw Republicans prevail by much narrower margins than expected. Also in New York, an unusual intraparty contest saw House Democrat Jerry Nadler defeat fellow Democratic incumbent Carolyn Maloney, ending her 30-year career in Congress in a redrawn district that pitted the two longtime politicians against each other. Nadler, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, won with 55.8% of the vote, vs. 24.2% for Maloney, who chairs the House Oversight Committee. U.S. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, a five-term Democratic incumbent, defeated challenger Alessandra Biaggi in a primary contest in suburban New York. With 48% of the vote counted, Maloney won 66.3% to Biaggi’s 33.1%, according to Edison Research. The contest was seen as a proxy battle between the party establishment and its progressive wing. Biaggi was endorsed by Democratic Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, a leading House progressive. (Reporting by Eric Beech and Moira Warburton; Writing by David Morgan; editing by Ross Colvin and Rosalba O’Brien) View the full article

Published by Radar Online A man undergoes plastic surgery.MEGA The COVID-19 pandemic has created the perfect environment for change. And for many, that meant enhancing their bodies via plastic surgery, Radar has learned. Demand for breast augmentation, face lifts and tummy tucks during the pandemic. Some experts believe disposable income and self-esteem issues are responsible for the surge in plastic surgery. According to researchers at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 76 percent of the United States’ plastic surgeons have seen an increase in people seeking their services compared to pre-pandemic times. Nearly a fourth of the doctors have said their business has doubled. Liposuctions, facelifts, breast augmentation, tummy tucks and breast lifts were the most common procedures that went up in demand. According to doctors, more than 75 percent of patients are open to spending money on plastic surgery than before. Part of the reason for the increase in such surgeries is that many people skipped vacations and doing other activities, creating more disposable income. Also, experts have said that people staring at themselves on video calls while working from home has caused some self-esteem issues. Some doctors feared they would go out of business because of the pandemic. However, the opposite has happened. “With COVID, we prepared for the worst. But when we were able to reopen our office, we were pleasantly surprised with the incredible surge of demand for our cosmetic services, both surgical and noninvasive,’ Dr. Bob Basu, a plastic surgeon based in Houston, Texas, who serves as vice president of finance for ASPS, “Now that the worst is hopefully behind us and people are traveling again and getting back to normal life, I initially thought that we would see some of that demand drop off, and that’s not been the case. We’re actually still seeing very high demand,” he added. More than 300 representatives from plastic surgery companies in the U.S. took part in the study. Forty-seven percent of those said they were seeing “slightly” more business than before the COVID-19 pandemic started to plague the U.S. in March 2020. View the full article

Published by AFP US President Joe Biden announced limited relief for student loan debt, meeting a major priority for Democrats Washington (AFP) – President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced that most US university graduates still trying to pay off student loans will each get $10,000 in relief, addressing a decades-old headache of massive educational debt across the country. “In keeping with my campaign promise, my administration is announcing a plan to give working and middle class families breathing room,” Biden said in a statement issued less than three months before midterm congressional elections, where the issue is seen as a vote winner for Democrats. The proposed debt relief falls far short of some Democrats’ goal of securing complete forgiveness, but is opposed by Republicans who argue that shaving any amount from graduates’ loans is unfair to those who have spent years saving to pay off their own debts. US colleges can often cost anywhere between $10,000 and $70,000 a year, leaving graduates with crushing debt as they enter the workforce. According to government estimates, the average debt for US college students when they graduate is $25,000, a sum many spend years or even decades to pay back. In total, some 45 million borrowers nationwide owe a collective $1.6 trillion, according to the White House. Under the relief plan, $10,000 will be cut from all loans owed by people earning a salary of less than $125,000. For former students who went to university with need-based government assistance known as Pell grants, the relief will be $20,000. ‘Giant step forward’ Meanwhile, a moratorium on loan repayments that was instituted during the Covid pandemic will be extended to the end of the year, with installments restarting on December 31. The plan was announced after months of consideration in the White House on how to thread the needle on an issue that has bedeviled successive administrations. Among the worries is that the program will feed already rampant inflation in the wake of the Covid-19 shutdown and subsequent economic recovery. But Biden has been under heavy pressure for months from the senior Senate Democrat, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and lawmakers from the left of the party to take action. “With the flick of a pen, President Biden has taken a giant step forward in addressing the student debt crisis by cancelling significant amounts of student debt for millions of borrowers. The positive impacts of this move will be felt by families across the country, particularly in minority communities,” said a joint statement by Schumer and leading liberal Senator Elizabeth Warren. Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel called the plan a “bailout for the wealthy. As hardworking Americans struggle with soaring costs and a recession, Biden is giving a handout to the rich.” “Biden’s bailout unfairly punishes Americans who saved for college or made a different career choice, and voters see right through this short-sighted, poorly veiled vote-buy,” she said. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and some media organizations filed a lawsuit over an Arizona law that would bar recording video of law enforcement within eight feet. The law was signed in July by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, a Republican, and makes it a crime to record law enforcement activity within that distance. Violators would face a potential misdemeanor charge after being warned once to move away. The lawsuit seeks an injunction ahead of the law’s September effect date. It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the district Of Arizona. In recent years, the act of filming law enforcement officials has become a way of exposing misconduct. The most high-profile example of such filming is cellphone video footage taken by bystanders of the arrest and murder of George Floyd, a Black man, who died after his neck was pinned to the ground by a police official for nine minutes in May 2020. Floyd’s death sparked demonstrations against racism and police brutality in the United States and across the world. The lawsuit argues that the Arizona law violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment right to record and would negatively impact a reporter’s ability to work on stories related to law enforcement due to the risk of arrest and prosecution. Among the ten news media groups that joined the lawsuit were local news stations and media broadcasting companies, including NBC Universal Media, the parent company of NBC News. The New York University’s First Amendment Watch says that over 60% of the U.S. population lives in states in which federal appeals courts have recognized the First Amendment right to record police officers performing their duties in public. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Bernadette Baum) View the full article

Published by Reuters (Reuters) -Pope Francis and the head of the Russian Orthodox church, who backs the war in Ukraine, will not meet when both men attend a gathering of religious leaders in Kazakhstan next month, RIA news agency cited a senior Orthodox official as saying on Wednesday. Francis, due to be in the capital Nur-Sultan from Sept. 13-15 to attend the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, has said in several recent interviews he hopes to meet with Patriarch Kirill when in Kazakhstan. But Bishop Anthony, the Russian church’s second most powerful bishop, told RIA there was no question of the two religious leaders meeting on the sidelines. “It (a meeting) must be an independent event by virtue of its importance,” said Anthony, in charge of foreign relations, who held talks with Francis in early August. Francis has met Kirill once before, in Cuba in 2016. Kirill, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has given enthusiastic backing to the invasion of Ukraine. In June, Francis implicitly accused Russia of “armed conquest, expansionism and imperialism” in Ukraine. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Alistair Bell) View the full article

Published by Radar Online MEGA Rudy Giuliani’s ex-wife claims that the former New York City mayor fell into a tailspin in 2008 and it was a stay at Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago that helped him recover, Radar has learned. The details of the struggle were detailed in a new book “Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America’s Mayor,” by Andrew Kirtzman, that is set to arrive in bookstores on Sept. 13. The Guardian got a sneak peak at the contents, and one of the more shocking revelations tracks back to Giuliani’s attempts to secure the Republican nomination for president in 2008. It’s easy to forget that chapter in Giuliani’s life, with all the more recent and subsequent Trump-tinged headlines. But according to Giuliani’s third wife Judith, now ex, who spoke to Kirtzman, the failed 2008 run sent her husband into a tailspin. He was drinking to excess, she claims, and spiraling into depression. “We moved into Mar-a-Lago and Donald kept our secret,” she says in the book. As The Guardian notes, the only time Giuliani has spoken about this episode was to “The New York Times” in 2018, when he put a rather different spin on it, calling it a month of “relaxing.” According to the book, Giuliani and wife Judith moved into a bungalow across the street from Mar-a-Lago connected by a tunnel that runs under South Ocean Boulevard. During their stay, the Giuliani’s could come and go to Mar-a-Lago, without being spied by the media. When Giuliani finally ended his public absence with a stint as a Saturday Night Live guest host, discerning viewers may have noticed a large scar above his right eyebrow that makeup couldn’t entirely hide. According to Judith, this was the result of a fall he suffered during his dark days while getting out of a car. Kirtzman has covered Giuliani for decades and previously wrote a 2000 book about him, “Emperor of the City.” In this latest tome, he chillingly frames the relationship between Trump and the former NYC mayor. “What’s clear is the two men’s friendship survived when a hundred other Trump relationships died away like so many marriages of convenience,” Kirtzman writes. “Giuliani would never turn his back on Trump, much to his detriment.” View the full article

Published by Raw Story By Matthew Chapman On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that former President Donald Trump is privately scared of the FBI investigation against him — whatever he might say and do publicly. The investigation, the scope of which first became publicly known after the FBI executed a search at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Florida, centers on classified documents the former president removed improperly, possibly including high-level nuclear secrets. “If the investigation into Mr. Trump’s possible connection with Russia was convoluted or hard for Americans to grasp, this one is n… Read More View the full article

Published by DPA The Allianz Arena lights up in rainbow colors. Brazilian FIFA referee Igor Benevenuto believes "an infinite number" of people in football are keeping their homosexuality hidden. Sven Hoppe/dpa Brazilian FIFA referee Igor Benevenuto believes “an infinite number” of people in football are keeping their homosexuality hidden. “If we take all those involved – officials, coaches, players, referees together – 30 to 40% are homosexual, bisexual or once had something with a man,” the 41-year-old, who made his homosexuality public in mid-July, told Germany’s Spiegel magazine on Wednesday. “Even people outside the football world notice that there are secret homosexual partnerships between footballers or sham marriages. You’d be surprised who is homosexual in this industry.” Benevenuto criticized homophobia in football and his native South America. “In Brazil, homosexuals have to fear being attacked not only with words but also physically. Attitudes haven’t changed yet.” Very few people in men’s professional football are openly gay. Whether he would advise others to come out would depend on the situation and the person’s environment, he said. “It shouldn’t just burst out of you, then the damage could be greater than the benefit. It took me a long time to find myself,” Benevenuto said. “It’s a process, but when you get there, then you can – to stay in football jargon – play freely. I hope everyone can free themselves – because there is nothing worse than living for others and not for yourself.” The Brazilian is on FIFA’s international list of video referees, but has missed out on making it to the World Cup in Qatar. View the full article

Published by New York Daily News The Spirit Awards, one of the nation’s most prominent awards celebrating the best in independent film and television, will no longer divide its acting awards categories into male and female performances. On Tuesday, Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization behind the prestigious awards, announced major changes to its 38th annual edition, set to take place on March 4. “We’re thrilled to join the other festivals and award shows that are already moving to celebrate great acting without reference to gender,” the organization’s president, Josh Welsh, said in a statement. “We’re also happy … Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Conditions for religious freedom in Afghanistan have “drastically deteriorated” since the Taliban seized power last year as the last U.S.-led foreign troops pulled out after 20 years of war, a bipartisan U.S. commission said on Tuesday. The Sunni Muslim extremists’ “harsh enforcement” of their hardline version of Islam “violates the freedom of religion or belief” of a wide range of Afghans, said the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The congressionally created panel issued its report nine days after the Taliban marked a year since they overran Kabul, returning to power almost two decades after their ouster by the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. The report noted that the Taliban pledged to protect all ethnic and religious groups. Yet, it said, “Religious freedom conditions in Afghanistan have drastically deteriorated,” with the militants reintroducing “harsh restrictions on all Afghans” based on their hardline interpretation of Islam. Those negatively affected include religious minorities, Afghans “with differing interpretations of Islam,” women, the LGBTQ community and those who follow no faith, the report said. The Taliban, the report said, are responsible for the deaths of dozens of Hazaras, an ethnic minority that follows Shiite Islam, and failed to protect them from attacks by the regional branch of Islamic State, a Taliban rival. They re-established a ministry that includes morality police who have targeted women by enforcing a strict code of dress and behavior, including covering their faces, and limited their movement, education, participation in sports and right to work, it said. The Taliban and Islamic State have both targeted sufis, practitioners of mystical Islam, it said. “The Taliban’s seizure of Afghanistan has led to a rapid decline and near extinction of the already small Afghan Hindu and Sikh communities” and the militants deny “the existence of a Christian community,” which must worship in hiding, the report added. (Reporting by Jonathan Landay; editing by Richard Pullin) View the full article

Published by Raw Story By Travis Gettys A Texas police officer temporarily removed a book from a high school library after a woman filed a criminal complaint over it. The woman sent an email July 21 to Katy Independent School District police and accused the school of violating a state law prohibiting the distribution of harmful material to minors, and officers briefly removed the book, “Flamer,” by Mike Curato, while investigating her claims, reported the Houston Chronicle. “Per Governor Abbott and the [Texas Education Agency], the book ‘Flamer’ should have been removed from KISD library shelves but it still remains… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story By Travis Gettys The documents that Donald Trump hoarded at Mar-A-Lago could have caused a “massive firestorm” and gotten people killed if they had somehow leaked out, according to new reports. The New York Times reported that more than 300 documents with classified markings have been recovered from the former president’s home, including some marked with the highest level of classification, and NBC News reporter explained the seriousness of those to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “In terms of a lot of people might be looking at this and going, he was president, he had access to all the secrets, so wha… Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Harry Styles says he has gone on a journey to figure out and get comfortable with his sexuality. The singer and actor, 28, dressed in a gender-fluid outfit of feathers and fur to make the admission in a cover interview with the new issue of Rolling Stone magazine. Ex-One Direction member Harry, who is dating actress Olivia Wilde, 38, said while discussing playing gay policeman Tom Burgess in the new romantic drama ‘My Policeman’: “I think everyone, including myself, has your own journey with figuring out sexuality and getting more comfortable with it. “To him (Tom), ‘My Policeman’ is a very human story. It’s not like, ‘This is a gay story about these guys being gay’. “It’s about love and about wasted time to me.” The singer added even though he is hard working he isn’t perfect, saying: “I’d like to think I’m open, and probably quite stubborn, too, and willing to be vulnerable. I can be selfish sometimes, but I’d like to think that I’m a caring person.” Harry said one of his struggles with fame is dealing with fans who try to get close to him when he simply wants to be a musician. He added: “It’s obviously a difficult feeling to feel like being close to me means you’re at the ransom of a corner of Twitter or something. “I just wanted to sing. I didn’t want to get into it if I was going to hurt people like that.” View the full article

Published by Raw Story By Sky Palma A GOP candidate in Oklahoma’s Republican primary runoff election tomorrow is facing backlash after comments he made several years ago have emerged, LGBT Nation reports. Scott Esk, 56, who is running for a seat in the state’s House, commented on a Facebook post back in 2013 where he quoted a bible verse and later added that “we would be totally in the right” to execute gay people. “Ignoring as a nation things that are worthy of death is very remiss,” he wrote. When a journalist asked him a year later about his comments, he replied that it’s “totally just” to kill gay people. IN OTH… Read More View the full article

Published by Radar Online @anthonyjohnson520/tiktok Three Arkansas police officers were suspended and are now under investigation after a video emerged showing the officers brutally beating a detained suspect, Radar has confirmed. The shocking video went viral shortly after the three officers detained a suspect – since identified as 27-year-old Randall Worcester – in Mulberry, Arkansas on Sunday morning. In the video, the three officers – two being deputies with the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office and the third being an officer with the Mulberry Police Department – are seen holding Worcester down on the ground. As the video continues, the officers take turns punching and kneeing Worcester in the face and chest while periodically slamming his head into the pavement. “I have spoken with Col. Bill Bryant of the Arkansas State Police and the local arrest incident in Crawford County will be investigated pursuant to the video evidence and the request of the prosecuting attorney,” Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said in a statement on Twitter. Crawford County Sherriff Jimmy Damante also released a statement after the disturbing video went viral, calling for an investigation into the violent incident. Mega “In reference to the video circulating social media involving two Crawford County Deputies, we have requested that Arkansas State Police conduct the investigation and the Deputies have been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation,” Sherriff Damante said. He added, “I hold all my employees accountable for their actions and will take appropriate measures in this matter.” Damante further explained that the altercation began after the officers received a report involving Worcester and the employee of a local convenience store. Worcester allegedly spat at the employee before threatening to “cut off their face.” The suspect then reportedly fled the scene on a bicycle before being stopped by the three officers, which is when, according to the officers, Worcester attempted to attack one of the deputies. @anthonyjohnson520/tiktok Not only are the three officers involved in the incident now under investigation and suspended from the force, but they are also facing substantial backlash on social media for what many believe is a clear example of unnecessary and excessive force. “This video sickens me,” one user wrote on Instagram. “They were trying to kill him. So glad it was on video. Completely unjustified.” “Not sure what needs to be investigated when it’s clearly on video already!” another user wrote. “That’s the excuse they use to get their lies together. Fire these low lifes ASAP.” “Glad this video got out and viewed by the right people,” yet another Instagram user fumed. “Hold them clowns accountable by arresting them. Let them see how it feels.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House has a dim view of former American pro basketball player Dennis Rodman’s reported plan to travel to Russia and gain the release of American basketball star Brittney Griner, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. Griner, 31, is a two-time Olympic champion and star player in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WBNA). Earlier this month she convicted by a Russian court and given a nine-year sentence on drug charges. U.S. President Joe Biden has condemned the verdict, calling it “unacceptable.” The United States has offered to exchange her for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States. Rodman told NBC News on Saturday that he plans to visit Russia to seek Griner’s release. “I got permission to go to Russia to help that girl,” Rodman said. “I’m trying to go this week.” The NBC story did not explain who he received permission from. A senior administration official, who asked to remain anonymous, made clear the White House does not approve. “It is public information that the administration has made a significant offer to the Russians and anything other than negotiating further through the established channel is likely to complicate and hinder release efforts,” the official said. The official also noted the State Department has issued a travel advisory warning Americans not to travel to Russia. Rodman has sought to inject himself into international diplomacy in the past. He is one of a handful of Westerners to have met North Korean head of state Kim Jong Un. (Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Josie Kao) View the full article

Published by Reuters By David Morgan (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Monday gave his own party a 50-50 chance of taking control of the Senate in the November midterm elections, and predicted that the chamber will remain closely divided whatever the outcome. Speaking at a business luncheon in Georgetown, Kentucky, McConnell also said the U.S. Congress would find ways to work with Democratic President Joe Biden, if Republicans manage to capture both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The remarks came a week after he suggested that Republicans could stand a better chance of gaining a majority in the House than in the Senate, citing candidate quality as a reason for tempered expectations. “Flipping the Senate, what are the chances? It’s a 50-50 proposition. We’ve got a 50-50 Senate right now. We’ve got a 50-50 nation. And I think the outcome is likely to be very, very close either way,” McConnell told the Scott County Chamber of Commerce on Monday. “If both the House and the Senate flip, I think the president will be a moderate. He won’t have any choice. And so, we’ll try to find ways to make some progress for the country during the last two years of his term … but not big dramatic change.” At a time when polls show that most Republicans believe former President Donald Trump’s falsehoods about a stolen 2020 election, McConnell urged his audience not to be concerned about election fraud. “Election fraud, there is some,” McConnell said. “It happens occasionally. But our democracy is solid. And of the things we need to worry about, I wouldn’t be worried about that one.” Republicans entered the 2022 campaign hopeful of capturing both chambers of Congress, with Democrats under pressure from inflation, Biden’s anemic job approval numbers and historical political trends. While the party is still favored to win a majority in the House, its prospects for flipping the Senate have been dimmed by lackluster performances among first-time Republican candidates in key swing states including Arizona, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. (Reporting by David Morgan in Washington; Editing by Tomasz Janowski) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Julie Steenhuysen (Reuters) -Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease official who became the face of America’s COVID-19 pandemic response under Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, announced on Monday he is stepping down in December after more than five decades of public service. Fauci, whose efforts to fight the pandemic were applauded by many public health experts even as he was vilified by Trump and many Republicans, will be leaving his posts as chief medical adviser to Biden and director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. Fauci, 81, has headed the institute since 1984. Fauci has served under seven U.S. presidents beginning with Republican Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, focusing on newly emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats including HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Zika, monkeypox and COVID-19. Fauci endured criticism from Trump and various conservatives and even death threats from people who objected to safeguards such as vaccination, social distancing and masking that he advocated to try to limit the lethality of the COVID-19 pandemic. “As he leaves his position in the U.S. Government, I know the American people and the entire world will continue to benefit from Dr. Fauci’s expertise in whatever he does next,” Biden said in a statement. “The United States of America is stronger, more resilient and healthier because of him.” In July, Fauci told Reuters he would retire by the end of Biden’s first term, which runs to January 2025, adding that his departure could come much earlier than that. “While I am moving on from my current positions, I am not retiring,” Fauci said in a statement on Monday. “After more than 50 years of government service, I plan to pursue the next phase of my career while I still have so much energy and passion for my field.” In the first months of the pandemic in 2020, Fauci helped lead scientific efforts to develop and test COVID-19 vaccines in record time and took part in regular televised White House briefings alongside Trump. Fauci became a popular and trusted figure among many Americans as the nation faced lockdowns and rising numbers of COVID-19 deaths, even inspiring the sale of cookies and bobblehead dolls featuring his likeness. However, Fauci drew the ire of Trump and many Republicans for cautioning against reopening the U.S. economy too quickly and risking increased infections and for opposing the use of unproven treatments such as the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. Democrats accused Trump of presiding over a disjointed response to the pandemic and of disregarding advice from public health experts including Fauci. Trump in October 2020, weeks before his re-election loss, called Fauci “a disaster” and complained that Americans were tired of hearing about the pandemic. Trump even made fun of Fauci’s off-target ceremonial first pitch at a Washington Nationals baseball game. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has exceeded one million https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home, with more than 93 million recorded cases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Asked in a July 2020 interview how he coped with the attacks on his character and allegiance to Trump as president, Fauci told Reuters, “I don’t let it bother me. What we’re doing with vaccines, what we’re doing with therapeutics, what we’re doing with clinical trials is the real substance.” Attacks against Fauci by Republican Senator Rand Paul became a regular feature of Senate hearings on the pandemic, with heated exchanges over vaccine boosters and public funding of research. Fauci accused the senator of spreading misinformation. Paul on his website accused Fauci of “ignoring good advice, and lying about everything from masks to the contagiousness of the virus.” At one hearing, the senator accused Fauci of smearing other scientists who disagreed with him. “He’s doing this for political reasons,” Fauci told the hearing, citing fundraising appeals on Paul’s website next to a call to have Fauci fired. Fauci will also step down as chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation. (Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru and Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Editing by Will Dunham and Sriraj Kalluvila) View the full article

Published by The San Diego Union-Tribune A couple of things are happening in the recent controversies about the use of ableist lyrics in popular music. One is the inherent and systemic ableism in our culture that normalizes the use of language that stigmatizes people with disabilities. Another is the way that the response to these recent uses of ableist language are seen through the lens of race. Over the past couple of months, Lizzo and Beyoncé were both called out for their use of a word that is considered a slur in the disability community that refers to people with spastic paralysis or cerebral palsy. Both artists quickly took th… Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Virginia Patton has died aged 97. The ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ actress – who played Ruth Dakin Bailey in the 1946 comedy classic – is said to have passed away at an assisted living facility on August 18 in Albany, Georgia. The Hollywood star’s passing was listed by Mathews Funeral Home. Virginia’s co-star Karolyn Grimes has led tributes. She wrote on Facebook: “We have another angel! Virginia Patton Moss. She was 97 years old. She is now with her beloved Cruse. She will be missed!” Virginia was born in Cleveland, Ohio in June 1925, and graduated from Jefferson High School in Portland, before she relocated to Los Angeles to study at the University of Southern California. The movie star went on to land leading roles in 1947’s ‘The Burning Cross’ and 1948’s ‘Black Eagle’ after her role in ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’. However, she decided to step back from acting to look after her family in the 1940s, with her big-screen finale being 1949’s ‘The Lucky Stiff’. She tied the knot with automotive executive Cruse W. Moss in 1949, with whom she had three children, and the pair were married for almost seven decades. However, he sadly died in 2018. Away from the acting world, Virginia would go on to become a docent at the University of Michigan’s Museum of Art and president and director of the real estate and investment firm Patton Corp. The businesswoman was the niece of General George S. Patton. View the full article