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Published by Reuters By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An appeals court put on hold U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham’s scheduled testimony for Tuesday before a grand jury in Georgia probing efforts by Donald Trump to overturn the former president’s 2020 election defeat, with the case returning to a lower court for another look. A federal judge on Monday had rejected Graham’s challenge to the subpoena to testify before the grand jury. Graham, a Republican, had argued his position as a U.S. senator provided him immunity from having to appear before the investigative panel. Sunday’s order by the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes as a temporary reprieve for Graham who otherwise would have had to testify on Tuesday. Testimony from Graham, a close ally of Trump, could shed further light on the coordinated effort by Trump’s team to reverse the 2020 results. The appeals court gave Graham a new chance to challenge the subpoena based on protections for lawmakers under the U.S. Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause. That provision can protect lawmakers from being compelled to discuss legislative activity. “The district court shall expedite the parties’ briefing in a manner that it deems appropriate,” Sunday’s order said. The grand jury wants to question Graham about at least two phone calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff in the weeks following the November 2020 presidential election, in which Graham explored the possibility of re-examining absentee ballots, according to prosecutors. The Georgia probe is one among several legal troubles faced by the former president, whose Florida home was searched by federal agents this month and whose role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol is being investigated separately by a congressional panel. Trump has falsely claimed that rampant voter fraud caused his loss in Georgia, a battleground state where President Joe Biden’s victory helped propel him to the White House. The special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, is undertaking a criminal investigation into alleged wrongdoing. Trump was recorded in a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call pressuring a top state official to “find” enough votes to overturn his loss to Biden in the state. He has denied any wrongdoing. The grand jury had also subpoenaed members of Trump’s former legal team. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s onetime personal lawyer, testified before the special grand jury in Atlanta on Wednesday. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Mike Scarcella, Mary Milliken and Lisa Shumaker) View the full article

Published by Reuters By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Liz Cheney vowed on Sunday to oppose Republican candidates who back former President Donald Trump’s falsehoods about a stolen 2020 election and declared Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley “unfit” for office after they voted to overturn the presidential results. Cheney, who is Trump’s leading critic and vice chair of the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters, told ABC’s “This Week” that a broad movement of election denial could undermine the U.S. constitutional order if left unchecked. The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney has already said she will spend the next two years trying to stop Trump from returning to the White House in 2024, possibly with her own presidential bid. She declined to tell ABC whether she would run inside or outside the Republican Party, should she decide to make a presidential bid. “I’m going to be very focused on working to ensure that we do everything we can not to elect election deniers,” Cheney said in an interview recorded last week, days after she lost her Republican primary race to a Trump-backed candidate. “We’ve got election deniers that have been nominated for really important positions all across the country. And I’m going to work against those people. I’m going to work to support their opponents.” Cheney did not say which Republican candidates she would oppose but acknowledged that they would include some of her fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives. Republicans are favored to take control of the House but could face a bigger challenge capturing a Senate majority in the Nov. 8 midterm elections, which will determine the balance of power in Congress for the next two years. As one of two Republicans on the House Jan. 6 committee, Cheney has been able to draw a direct connection between the deadly melee and Trump’s repeated false claims that he won the 2020 election against President Joe Biden. “Donald Trump is certainly the center of the threat,” Cheney said. “What he’s created is a movement on some level that is post-truth.” The Jan. 6 assault forced Congress to temporarily suspend its certification of Trump’s loss to Biden, during which Hawley, Cruz and other Republican members of Congress voted against certification of election results. Cheney said the actions of Hawley, Cruz and other Republican lawmakers “fundamentally threatened the constitutional order and structure” and concluded that “they both have made themselves unfit for future office.” A Cruz spokesperson responded with a statement saying the senator does not want or need Cheney’s endorsement. Hawley’s office was not immediately available for comment. Neither Cruz nor Hawley is up for re-election in November. She also criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for campaigning on behalf of election deniers including Republican gubernatorial candidates Kari Lake of Arizona and Doug Mastriano of Pennsylvania. “That is something that I think people have got to have real pause about. You know, either you fundamentally believe in and will support our constitutional structure, or you don’t,” Cheney said. Like Trump himself, DeSantis has flirted with voters about the possibility of his own 2024 presidential run, while he seeks reelection in Florida this year. The DeSantis campaign was not immediately available for comment. Cheney’s re-election loss in Wyoming last week was widely seen as a victory for Trump’s revenge campaign against House Republicans who voted to impeach him after the Jan. 6 riot. She told ABC she heard from Biden afterwards: “We had a very good talk, a talk about the importance of putting the country ahead of partisanship.” (Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Mary Milliken and Lisa Shumaker) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Chen Lin SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Singapore will decriminalise sex between men but has no plans to change the legal definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Sunday. LGBTQ groups welcomed Lee’s decision to repeal Section 377A of the penal code, a colonial-era law that criminalises sex between men, but also expressed concern that ruling out same-sex marriage would help to perpetuate discrimination. In his annual national day rally speech, Lee said Singaporean society, especially young people in the city-state, were becoming more accepting of gay people. “I believe this is the right thing to do, and something that most Singaporeans will now accept,” he said. It was unclear when exactly Section 377A would be repealed. Singapore becomes the latest Asian country to move toward ending discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community. In 2018, India’s highest court scrapped a colonial-era ban https://www.reuters.com/article/india-lgbt-verdict-idINKCN1LM0O6 on gay sex, while Thailand has recently edged closer to legalising same-sex unions. Under Singapore’s Section 377A, offenders can be jailed for up to two years under the law, but it is not currently actively enforced. There have been no known convictions for sex between consenting adult males for decades and the law does not include sex between women or other genders. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) groups have brought multiple legal challenges attempting to strike down the law, but none has succeeded. On Sunday, several LGBTQ rights groups said in a joint statement they were “relieved” by Lee’s announcement. “For everyone who has experienced the kinds of bullying, rejection and harassment enabled by this law, repeal finally enables us to begin the process of healing. For those that long for a more equal and inclusive Singapore, repeal signifies that change is indeed possible,” they said in the statement. But the groups also urged the government not to heed calls from religious conservatives to enshrine the definition of marriage in the constitution, saying this would signal that LGBTQ+ citizens were not equal. RESISTANCE In February, Singapore’s highest court had ruled that since the law was not being enforced, it did not breach constitutional rights, as the plaintiffs had argued, and it reaffirmed that the law could not be used to prosecute men for having gay sex. Some religious groups including Muslims, Catholics and some Protestants continued to resist any repeal of the law, Lee said. An alliance of more than 80 churches expressed strong disappointment on Sunday over the government’s decision. “The repeal is an extremely regrettable decision which will have a profound impact on the culture that our children and future generations of Singaporeans will live in,” it said. Singapore is a multi-racial and multi-religious society of 5.5 million, of whom about 16% are Muslim, with bigger Buddhist and Christian communities. It has a predominantly ethnic Chinese population with sizeable Malay and Indian minorities, according to the 2020 census. Stressing his government’s continued support for the traditional definition of marriage, Lee said: “We believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, that children should be raised within such families, that the traditional family should form the basic building block of society.” Singapore will “protect the definition of marriage from being challenged constitutionally in the courts”, he said. “This will help us repeal Section 377A in a controlled and carefully considered way.” (Reporting by Chen Lin, editing by Kanupriya Kapoor and Gareth Jones) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English JoJo Siwa and Kylie Prew have split up after their reconciliation. The former ‘Dance Moms’ star and the 18-year-old social media influencer have called it quits after they briefly got back together. In a live video posted to TikTok, Kylie told her followers: “Someone asked me, just now, if I was single. I am. I been single for almost two months, and it’s OK, it’s not deep, I promise. Everything’s fine. Not everything has to be messy and gross. Because it’s not. And I just wanted to clear the air.” She added: “We’re both safe and happy and healthy and that’s all that matters. It doesn’t need to be drama because that just gives everyone unwanted anxiety, especially if they’re like me.” JoJo has not publicly addressed Kylie’s comments or divulge any details about their breakup. This is not the first time that the pair have ended things as they first called it a day in October last year before Kylie and ‘Dancing With the Stars’ alum declared they reunited in an adorable Instagram post. On a social media post of them at Disneyland, the 19-year-old YouTuber wrote: “If you love something let it go, if it comes back…. [white heart emoji] [infinity emoji]” The ‘Boomerang’ hitmaker also spoke on the record about her love for Kylie, calling being in love “very nice”. JoJo said: “I am in a relationship and I’m very happy and very lucky to be loved. It’s been very nice.” She continued: “I think something that’s been great, is it’s been so honest, and I think that’s a mistake that I’ve made in the past, is maybe trying to be something that I maybe wasn’t. But this is just so pure and so honest, and it’s so real and it just feels like I/we got it right.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Randi Love NEW YORK (Reuters) – A museum in New York City that told the story of the 9/11 attacks from the perspectives of the people affected has closed its building and ended its walking tours, a co-founder said Thursday. After shuttering the doors of the 16-year-old 9/11 Tribute Museum Wednesday evening, volunteers spent Thursday morning coordinating the pickup of a World Trade Center steel beam that was heading for storage, along with other artifacts such as first responders’ gear and parts of the two planes that crashed into the buildings. Attendance has decreased from nearly 300,000 a year prior to a six-month closure in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic to a record low of 26,000 in 2021, said Jennifer Adams-Webb, a co-founder of the museum and CEO of the non-profit September 11th Families’ Association, which helped start the museum. “The visitors just aren’t back,” she said, saying the only way the museum would have been able to stay open was with government support. It had been unable to secure that, despite months of conversations with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and other offices, she said. The Department of Cultural Affairs did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The main difference between the tribute museum and the larger, nearby 9/11 Memorial & Museum at Ground Zero was her program’s focus on first-hand stories from people who were directly affected, Adams said. Among the volunteer tour leaders was Peter Bitwinski, a worker for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Bitwinski said he was at his desk in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers slammed airplanes into the twin towers. The Sept. 11 attacks – which also saw planes downed at the Pentagon outside Washington and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania – killed nearly 3,000 people. Bitwinski said he and others evacuated, helping a wheelchair-bound co-worker and taking more than an hour to descend nearly 70 flights of stairs. Once they finally exited and cleared the area, Bitwinski said they saw smoke, debris and “people jumping from the highest floors of the towers.” In addition to helping people understand what happened that day and honoring the victims and first responders, the 9/11 Tribute Museum “helped me individually to continue to heal,” Bitwinski said. “I had psychological counseling, but each time I share and talk, it’s a healing experience for me, too.” The museum plans to continue offering online educational resources and community support, but has ceased guided walking tours. More than 500,000 people took the tours since the opening of the museum in 2006, Adams-Webb said. Artifacts are set to be moved to the New York State Museum in Albany. (Reporting by Randi Love in New York. Editing by Donna Bryson and Rosalba O’Brien) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Frances Bean Cobain “wasn’t sure” she was going to hit 30. The daughter of the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and Hole lead singer Courtney Love, 58, celebrated getting to three decades on planet Earth with after proving herself “wrong” that she could reach “radical gratitude” after coping through many dramatic life events, such as the death of her father by suicide, addiction struggles, and her divorce from Isiah Silver in 2016 and so on. She wrote on Instagram on Thursday (18.08.22): 30 !!! [fiery red heart emoji] [sunshine emoji] [blue butterfly emoji]. “I made it! Honestly, 20 year old Frances wasn’t sure that was going to happen. At the time, an intrinsic sense of deep self loathing dictated by insecurity, destructive coping mechanisms more trauma than my body or brain knew how to handle, informed how I saw myself and the world; through a lens of resentment for being brought into a life that seemingly attracted so much chaos and the kind of pain tied to grief that felt inescapable. Then, an event on a plane which brought me closer in proximity to death is ironically the event that catapulted me towards running at this lived experience with radical gratitude. I’m glad to have proven myself wrong to have found ways to transform pain into knowledge. Frances – who revealed she was dating Riley Hawk, 29, the son of pro skateboarder Tony Hawk, 54, earlier this year – shared a “sentiment” expressed by thinker Dr Jaiya John. She said: “There’s a quote by @jaiyajohn I hold closely, which is “the softer she became with herself, the softer she became with the world”. It’s a sentiment I try to remember daily.” The former model outlined her intention “to stay soft” despite the harshness people encounter daily. Frances said: “Entering this new decade I hope to stay soft no matter how hardening the world can feel at times, bask in the present moment with reverence, shower the people I am lucky enough to love with more appreciation than words could ever do justice hold space to keep learning, so the growth never stops.” I’m happy to be here I’m happy you’re here too. [fiery red heart emoji] [sunshine emoji] [blue butterfly emoji].” View the full article

Published by AFP PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, were first developed in the 1940s and are now found in a variety of products, including nonstick pans, water-resistant textiles and fire supression foams Washington (AFP) – “Forever chemicals” used in daily items like nonstick pans have long been linked to serious health issues –- a result of their toxicity and extreme resistance to being broken down as waste products. Chemists in the United States and China on Thursday said they had finally found a breakthrough method to degrade these polluting compounds, referred to as PFAS, using relatively low temperatures and common reagents. Their results were published in the journal Science, potentially offering a solution to a longstanding source of harm to the environment, livestock and humans. “It really is why I do science — so that I can have a positive impact on the world,” senior author William Dichtel of Northwestern University told reporters during a news conference. PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, were first developed in the 1940s and are now found in a variety of products, including nonstick pans, water-resistant textiles and fire suppression foams. Over time, the pollutants have accumulated in the environment, entering the air, soil, groundwater and lakes and rivers as a result of industrial processes and from leaching through landfills. A study published last week by Stockholm University scientists found rainwater everywhere on the planet is unsafe to drink because of PFAS contamination. Chronic exposure to even low levels has been linked to liver damage, high cholesterol, reduced immune responses, low birth weights and several kinds of cancer. Although PFAS chemicals can be filtered out of water, there are few good solutions for how to dispose of them once they have been removed. 10 down, thousands to go Current methods to destroy PFAS require harsh treatments, such as incineration at extremely high temperatures or irradiating them with ultrasonic waves. And incineration isn’t always foolproof, with one New York plant found to still be releasing some of the compounds into the air through smoke. PFAS’ indestructability comes from their carbon-flouride bonds, one of the strongest types of bonds in organic chemistry. Fluorine is the most electronegative element and wants to gain electrons, while carbon is keen to share them. PFAS molecules contain long chains of these bonds, but the research team was able to identify a glaring weakness common to a certain class of PFAS. At one end of the molecule, there is a group of charged oxygen atoms which can be targeted using a common solvent and reagent at mild temperatures of 80-120 degrees Celsius, decapitating the head group and leaving behind a reactive tail. “Once that happens, that provides access to previously unrecognized pathways that cause the entire molecule to fall apart in a cascade of complex reactions,” said Dichtel, ultimately making benign end products. A second part of the study involved using powerful computational methods to map out the quantum mechanics behind the chemical reactions the team performed to destroy the molecules. The new knowledge could eventually guide further improvements to the method. The current study focused on 10 PFAS chemicals including a major pollutant called GenX, which for example has contaminated the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, a water source for 350,000 people. But it represents just the tip of the iceberg, since the US Environmental Protection Agency has identified more than 12,000 PFAS chemicals. “There are other classes that don’t have the same Achilles’ heel, but each one will have its own weakness,” said Dichtel in a statement. “If we can identify it, then we know how to activate it to destroy it.” View the full article

Published by AFP A three year old receives his Covid-19 vaccination in Needham, Massachusetts San Francisco (AFP) – Facebook-owner Meta said Thursday it had kicked one of the most influential US anti-vaccination groups off the social media network for spreading Covid-19 misinformation. The Children’s Health Defense (CHD), which has been a critic of Covid vaccines, immediately accused Meta of stifling its free speech rights. “Facebook is acting here as a surrogate for the federal government’s crusade to silence all criticism of draconian government policies,” CHD founder Robert Kennedy Jr., nephew of late president John F. Kennedy, said in a press release. Meta spokesperson Aaron Simpson told AFP that the group’s accounts at Facebook and Instagram were shuttered on Wednesday. The ban came after repeated violations of Meta’s misinformation rules. CHD said its social media accounts were followed by hundreds of thousands of people, and claimed the action by Meta came as a surprise. In a release, the group shared a screen capture showing messages stating the accounts were suspended for violating Meta policies regarding “misinformation that could lead to real world harm.” CHD contended that the ban could be related to a lawsuit it filed against Meta accusing the tech giant of infringing free speech rights by relying on US Centers for Disease Control regarding what Covid-19 information is scientifically backed. The anti-vaccine group has appealed a lower court ruling against it in the litigation, according to legal filings. View the full article

Published by DPA Visitors check out sculptor Sarah Pratt’s butter cow at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press/dpa The Illinois State Fair’s butter cow is back in all its creamy glory. Sculptor Sarah Pratt spent 90 hours over five days crafting the cow. The unsalted spectacle, first whipped up in 1922, has been a part of the state fair for a century. Governor J.B. Pritzker unveiled the silky, glistening, yellow-white sculpture last week. Before the governor pulled blues drapes aside to unshroud the bovine bust, he said he was “gobsmacked” by Pratt’s artistry. “She doesn’t just craft us a cow. She creates an entire scene,” Pritzker said. Visitors can get their own butter cows 3D printed at the fair, he added. The annual sculpture celebrates the state’s dairy farmers. But it’s also taken on a life of its own to become an essential stop at the Illinois fair. Pratt found inspiration for this year’s iteration while sitting between her chicken coop and pasture, thinking about the plants in her garden and the way we connect with the earth. In her sculpture, a nod to the fair’s “Grow with us” theme, a farmer tends to plants as a mischievous Jersey cow stands behind him. “She’s snatched up a sunflower and it’s hanging out of her mouth,” Pratt said. The silky, glistening cow weighs between 650 and 700 pounds, she said. The farmer adds another hundred. The concoction doesn’t squander much, though. Pratt’s cows have been built from the same glob of Prairie Farms butter, stored in an ice cream factory freezer, for the last 17 years. “That’s important to me, that we’re not wasting it. It also molds better the older it is,” Pratt said. The sculptor, who also crafts the Iowa State Fair’s butter cow, creates her masterpieces inside the display cases where they’re exhibited. “I have tried to transport a miniature butter cow in my vehicle and, yes, I can say that that is quite terrifying,” she said. She bundles up to piece the beast together with the temperature set to 42 degrees (5.5 degrees Celsius): warm enough to let her work the fat, but cold enough to keep things together. She uses tools similar to those needed for clay sculpting alongside a mix of mechanic-like utensils she and her predecessors have found necessary. The livestreamed butter cow stands on a spinning platform. Pratt encourages visitors to check out every part of it. “Get it from all angles, because it really does look so different,” she said. Each year’s cow begins to come to life as Pratt watches dairy shows online. With a feel for what the animals look like and how they move, the artist sketches a plan and builds a steel-frame armature. Then it’s time to slap on the butter. She starts with the ribs, and the legs go on last. “The udder attachment on the backside of a dairy cow should be high and wide,” Pratt said. “The back is straight, with just a short incline up to the neck. You don’t want it to be bowed.” Pratt inherited her artistic sensibilities from her mentor, Norma “Duffy” Lyon. Lyon became Iowa’s official butter cow sculptor in 1960, The Washington Post wrote when she died in June 2011. The titan of food-based art had wanted to become a veterinarian, but Iowa State University wasn’t letting women into that college when she was in school, Pratt said. So Lyon took her sculpting classes and anatomy coursework and churned her passion for animals into something else. The two joined forces when Pratt failed miserably at showing dairy cows at the Iowa State Gair as a teenager. “To get me out of the barn during the day, where I wasn’t as helpful, I got to help in the butter cooler,” she said. Pratt worked as Lyon’s apprentice for the next 14 years. This fair’s cow features 13 hidden hearts to symbolize the 13 essential nutrients in milk, she said. Hidden even deeper inside is the armature Lyon used, which Pratt recently refurbished. “Building on that firm foundation is very symbolic for me,” Pratt said. Pratt now mentors her twin daughters in butter cow sculpting. A few years ago, one had to write an essay about a famous Iowan and picked her mother. As Pratt’s daughter interviewed her, Pratt told her that she had really wanted to spend her life going on archaeological adventures like Indiana Jones. “And she was like, ‘Mom, you did it … you get to do these adventures in the summer,’” Pratt said. She fought tears as she mentioned that her twins will go off to college next week, where one will work in costume design and another will study ceramics. “Your plans end up coming together in such a different way than you thought possible,” she said. The artist loves to see grandparents bringing their grandkids to see her sculpture. The students from kindergarten to third grade that Pratt teaches during the school year dote over the dairy diorama too, she said. The state fair is in many ways about the newest things in technology and agriculture, Pratt said. There’s always something new, something bigger and better, she said. But the butter cow has been there for 100 years, and it hasn’t melted away. “It is a time-tested tradition,” Pratt said. “A constant in a world that is ever-changing and evolving in good and confusing ways.” You can see the butter cow at the Illinois State Fair’s Dairy Building. The fair runs through Sunday. More information can be found online. Visitors check out sculptor Sarah Pratt’s butter cow at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press/dpa View the full article

Published by Reuters (Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has asked Pfizer Inc to test the effects of an additional course of its antiviral Paxlovid among people who experience a rebound in COVID-19 after treatment, the regulator said on Friday. The drugmaker must produce the initial results of a randomized controlled trial of a second course of the antiviral by Sep. 30 next year, the FDA told Pfizer in a letter dated Aug. 5. The directive follows reports of recurrent viral infection or symptoms, or both, after the first course, including in President Joe Biden and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci. The incidents, which Pfizer says are rare, prompted the FDA to start talks with the company about the trial in May. The regulator said a protocol for the study is expected to be finalized this month. Pfizer is “working with the FDA to finalize a protocol to study patients who may be in need of retreatment” and will provide details when available, a company spokesperson said. (Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Steps’ Ian ‘H’ Watkins once went on a secret date with NYSNC’s Lance Bass. The 46-year-old singer revealed that former boyband heartthrob Lance, 43, invited him on a date many years ago and H brought his bandmate Faye Tozer along as “wingman”. Speaking on Fearne Cotton’s Radio 2 show ‘Sounds Of The 90s’, he said: “I went on a little bit of a date with Lance from NYSNC. Faye came along with me as my wingman.” However, H admitted that the date turned a little strange when David Hasselhoff showed up. He said: “And then when we were out, Lance invited David Hasselhoff out, and his children. “David let his children sleep on the nightclub benches while we all partied.” Faye, 46, added that Steps enjoying partying with many celebrities in the US, during their heyday. She said: “We went into a bar and Gwen Stefani was there and then we met Engelbert Humperdinck’s son. And then we went back to his house.” H is dad to six-year-old twin boys, Macsen and Cybi, who were born via egg donor and surrogate the year before he split up with his long term partner Craig Ryder. Last year, he split from new boyfriend Tom Hope after just three months of dating. He said: “I’ve done the tough love thing from day one, that’s just something I had to do because I’ve been a single parent from the start and they’re little boys and they’re challenging. It was survival.” Meanwhile, Lance is married to actor and visual artist Michael Turchin and the couple welcomed twins Alexander and Violet in 2021. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska and Kuba Stezycki WIDUCHOWA, Poland (Reuters) – As thousands of dead fish neared the banks of the Oder River in the village of Widuchowa in western Poland on Aug. 11, local people realised an ecological disaster that started in late July in the country’s south-west was heading towards the Baltic Sea. As Widuchowa’s residents searched for tools to remove the lifeless bodies from the the river, the government began crisis response that many scientists say came too late. “It’s been the hardest five days of my life,” said Pawel Wrobel, the mayor of Widuchowa, which is around 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the town where dead fish had first been spotted. “I’d never imagined experiencing such a catastrophe, it is something you see in disaster movies.” With the help of the local community, he gathered dozens of pitchforks, used to lift potatoes, to remove dead fish from the river, which marks part of the Polish-German border. “We don’t know how to do it and what tools to use, we learn from our mistakes,” Wrobel said. On Aug. 12, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki fired the head of Poland’s national water management authority and the head of the general environmental inspectorate, saying that their institutions should have reacted earlier. Despite numerous tests of fish and water samples conducted by Polish and foreign laboratories, and a 1-million-zloty ($211,775) reward for information on the source of contamination, it is still unclear what poisoned the Oder, Poland’s second largest river. “We are focused on, on the one hand, stopping what is happening, and on the other hand, finding the reason for this situation,” said climate ministry spokesman Aleksander Brzozka. Researchers in Germany and Poland’s climate ministry have pointed to a large overgrowth of toxic algae as a possible cause for the mass die-off. “The most likely hypothesis is that it was a combination of various natural factors,” said Brzozka. ‘SOMETHING IS WRONG’ Local people told Reuters that firefighters and territorial defence forces deployed by the government to remove tonnes of dead fish were not prepared for what awaited them in the river. The stench around the waters was so bad that most of them vomited during their work, according to residents of the village. Local businesses have also been hit. When Piotr Bugaj, a passionate angler and owner of boats, a slip and rooms to rent on the Oder heard what was coming, he knew that it was time to put his business on hold. He asked his guests from the Czech Republic to leave the water and cancelled all future reservations from clients, who flock to Widuchowa from around Europe for its wilderness and diverse population of large fish such as catfish and pike-perch. “If it’s possible with such a tragedy, I would really like to learn that only what was on the surface died out and not more. But for the moment, no one has checked what is currently at the river bottom,” he said. The government has promised support for those affected by the crisis. Piotr Piznal, a local activist, has dedicated his life to photographing wildlife around the Oder. For the past week he has been documenting the disaster. “It is hard because in fact, the world we’ve observed and photographed with my friend for the past few years is disappearing,” he says. “I think that after what has happened in the Oder it will take years to rebuild the ecosystem… It will all have to be reborn to function the way it has until now.” Meanwhile, among Widuchowa’s residents fear and uncertainly prevail. “The dead fish have warned us that something is wrong,” said Sylwia Palasz-Wrobel, wife of Widuchowa’s mayor, standing next to her husband at the foul Oder shore. “When the fish are gone, who will inform us next time when a disaster happens? We would like to know who is responsible for this.” ($1 = 4.7220 zlotys) (Reporting by Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska and Kuba Stezycki, Editing by Alan Charlish and Alex Richardson) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Paramount Pictures is working on a ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ spin-off. The 1986 teen movie written, co-produced, and directed by John Hughes and starring Matthew Broderick as a high school slacker who skips school, with two of his friends is set for an update, from the creators of ‘Cobra Kai’, according to Deadline. The upcoming film ‘Sam and Victor’s Day Off’ will follow two new characters on the same day that Ferris (Broderick) and his pals Cameron (Alan Ruck) and Sloane (Mia Sara) skipped school. ‘Cobra Kai’s Jon Hurwtiz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald are producing the film, while their head of development Dina Hillier executive produces. Bill Posley is set to write the screenplay, while a director has yet to be announced. Meanwhile, Matthew, 60, previously revealed he almost turned down the starring role in the classic movie. He said: “I thought [the script] was great, and I had a teeny hesitation because having just done [the plays] ‘Brighton Beach Memoirs’ and ‘Biloxi Blues’. “I was like, ‘Wow, I’m talking to the audience, just like in these plays’ … and even in [the 1985 movie] ‘Ladyhawke’ he talks to the camera a bit. “You know, when you’re young or starting out you think, “I have to do something different. ‘My memory is, before I had hung up the phone, my agent was like behind me in the room, saying, ‘Yes, you should do it.’ “He flew to New York. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow. Let’s just not talk about it anymore now, I’ll see you tomorrow,’ and he came and was suddenly in the room with me, saying, ‘Yeah, I do think you should do it.'” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Diane Keaton was “kind and gracious” about her ‘Mack Rita’ kissing scene with Dustin Milligan. Dustin, 37, revealed that Diane, 76, put him at ease for the kiss between their characters by acting as if she was as nervous as he was. He told Collider: “Usually, these things are somewhat technical. You have to figure out who’s gonna tilt on one side or the other, and how far you lean in. Those kinds of technical conversations always happen. And then, there’s this awkward thing where you have 40 to 50 people watching you do it, making sure you do it right, and judging whether or not you’re doing a good job. And then, you know that there’s an entire audience, in multiple theaters, that are gonna also be doing the exact same thing. That’s a lot of pressure sometimes. “This was good though because Diane was very kind and gracious about it, and she was acting as though she was as nervous as I was. I don’t know if she actually was, but she was giving off that vibe, which made it more relaxing for both of us.” In the movie, Diane plays the future version of Elizabeth Lail’s Mack Martin, with Dustin playing their love interest. Elizabeth previously played ‘Frozen’s Anna in the fantasy adventure series ‘Once Upon a Time’ and admitted that the pressure of portraying a character also played by Diane was much greater. She said: “I think that the pressure of embodying Diane is a little higher. Although, at the time, it felt like the pressure to embody Anna was extremely high because it was important to all 12-year-olds everywhere. “It’s so funny, it’s such a joy to get to do that. I love that aspect of the homework, to get to study someone and take on a rhythm, or a hand gesture, or whatever it is. That’s really fun for me. I love doing it. I didn’t even think about that. I watched ‘Frozen’ maybe a hundred times, and I watched all of Diane’s movies. It was maybe a tad more entertaining to watch Diane’s movies, but I love ‘Frozen’, don’t get me wrong.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has urged the 10 largest U.S. airlines to do more to help stranded and delayed passengers, calling the level of disruption travelers have faced this summer as “unacceptable.” Buttigieg, who has faced pressure from U.S. lawmakers who want airlines to offer better service or face stiff fines, has clashed with major U.S. airlines over who is to blame for tens of thousands of flight delays and cancellations this summer. In letters to major, regional and low-cost carrier chief executives made public Friday, Buttigieg said his department (USDOT) is “contemplating options” to write new rules “that would further expand the rights of airline passengers.” He urged airlines to ensure adequate services for passengers facing delays and cancellations, asking them “at a minimum” to provide meal vouchers for delays of 3 hours or more and lodging for those who must wait overnight because of disruptions within the carrier’s control. “Regardless of the cause of the delays or cancelations, the Department expects airlines to provide timely and responsive customer service during and after periods of flight disruptions,” Buttigieg wrote. Most U.S. airlines provide meals or hotel rooms if they cancel or delay flights if they are to blame for disruptions, but they are not legally required to do so. Passengers are often not aware of airline policies. Trade group Airlines for America said carriers would work with the department to provide transparency for travellers. “Airlines want travelers to have a safe, seamless and positive travel experience and are working toward that goal every day,” it said in a statement. In his letter, Buttigieg said he appreciated steps airlines had taken to improve service but that the level of disruption U.S. travellers have faced this summer is “unacceptable”. He said that in the first six months, roughly 24% of the domestic flights of U.S. airlines were delayed and 3.2% were canceled. Complaints to USDOT from airline passengers have soared this year. USDOT plans by Sept. 2 to create an “interactive dashboard” for air travelers to compare services or amenities that each of the large U.S. airlines provide when the cancellation or delay was due to circumstances within the airline’s control. Buttigieg met virtually with airline CEOs ahead of the busy July 4 travel weekend to pressure them to perform better, set more realistic schedules and said the airline industry is largely responsible for the travel woes. Airlines say they have voluntarily reduced flights to improve service, ramped up hiring and argue that inadequate air traffic control staffing has routinely impacted flights. The airline trade group cited data saying 63% of the cancelations for the first five months of 2022 were caused by weather or national airspace issues. On Monday, hundreds of flights were delayed at three major New York City area airports after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported staffing issues and said delays could “approach two hours”. USDOT is drafting a number of new airline consumer rules, including requiring refunds for delayed baggage. In June, the agency warned it may prohibit airlines from charging extra fees to allow young children to sit next to accompanying family members. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Mike Harrison and Deepa Babington) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Brendan Pierson (Reuters) – A Utah judge on Friday blocked a state law banning transgender girls from participating in girls’ school sports from being enforced while he considers a lawsuit by three transgender students challenging the law. Utah’s state legislature passed the law earlier this year, arguing that it would help protect athletes and ensure women were not edged out of their sport. But Judge Keith Kelly of the Third Judicial District Court in Salt Lake City ruled that transgender girls did not necessarily have an automatic advantage over other girls, since puberty-blocking treatments can prevent them from developing the physical advantages for sports that boys can have. With the ban blocked for now, Utah law states that transgender girls’ eligibility to participate in girls’ sports will be decided by a state-created commission on a case-by-case basis. “The negative impact of the ban on these girls has been profound, and they are all breathing much easier now that it has been blocked,” said Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which represents the plaintiffs. “We are very grateful for the court’s decision and looking forward to putting an end to this law once and for all.” A spokesperson for Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes declined to comment on the ruling. Following a series of sporting victories by trans women athletes, including a collegiate swimmer, some conservatives and women’s sports advocates have called for more restrictive legislation. Utah’s ban was passed over the veto of Governor Spencer Cox, a Republican, in March, who argued that it applied to very few students. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in 2019 that just 1.8% of high school students in the country are transgender, and the Human Rights Campaign has said that, according to surveys, only about 12% play on girls’ sports teams. (Reporting by Brendan Pierson and Tyler Clifford in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Rosalba O’Brien) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Courtney Act was left sobbing writing about her first kiss with a boy for her autobiography. The ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ star put pen to paper to tell her life story in her memoir ‘Caught In The Act’. The tome features a retelling of a “cute little happy memory” of the 40-year-old Australian drag queen’s first same-sex snog – but she found herself breaking down in tears as she relived the emotional moment during the writing process. In an interview with new! magazine, Courtney said: “(Writing the book was) definitely cathartic. It was the most deep childhood regression therapy of my life. For example, my first kiss with a boy is like a cute little happy memory. “But as I was writing about it, I just started breaking down sobbing because for the 18 years that came before that, where I didn’t understand who I was, I didn’t understand anything about queer identity.” Penning the book was like therapy for her. Courtney went on: “There was such shame and such silence surrounding it. Writing my book was a real form of therapy.” Courtney lifted the lid on growing up in Australia in the 1990s, calling it a “completely desolate wasteland of heteronormativity” and insisting it took a long time to finally understand her sexuality. Courtney wrote: “No one ever explicitly explained anything about queerness; no one really even alluded to it, not directly at least. I could see trees blowing but no one told me what the wind was. There was no concept in my mind of what being gay, lesbian, bi or trans was … “ Courtney added: “If only someone had told me. Laid it out in simple terms. I wish there’d been honest and frank conversations going on as well as visible queer people in the world and on TV. I can’t explain what a significant difference that would have made.” View the full article

Published by AFP Writers gather in New York to read selected works of British author Salman Rushdie, one week after he was stabbed while on stage New York (AFP) – Prominent literary figures including Paul Auster and Gay Talese gathered Friday in Manhattan for a reading of Salman Rushdie’s works, in solidarity with the author seriously injured in a stabbing attack. More than a dozen acclaimed writers, including friends and colleagues of Rushdie, spoke at the steps of the New York Public Library for the event, which organizers said the novelist had been invited to watch from the hospital. One week ago Rushdie was about to be interviewed as part of a lecture series in upstate New York, when a man stormed the stage and stabbed the 75-year-old writer repeatedly in the neck and abdomen. In Rushdie’s honor the American literary journalist Talese, sporting his signature fedora and three-piece suit, read an excerpt from “The Golden House” novel, while Irish writer Colum McCann read from the 1992 New Yorker essay “Out of Kansas.” A.M. Homes — the American author whose own works including “The End of Alice” novel have triggered controversy over the years — read from Rushdie’s piece “On Censorship,” which was drawn from a lecture he gave in 2012. “No writer ever really wants to talk about censorship,” she read. “Writers want to talk about creation, and censorship is anti-creation, negative energy, uncreation, the bringing into being of non-being.” Rushdie spent years under police protection after Iranian leaders called for his killing over his portrayal of Islam and the Prophet Mohammed in his 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses.” Hari Kunzru, the British novelist and journalist, read the opening of that book. “Salman once wrote that the role of the writer is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it from going to sleep,” Kunzru said. “That’s why we’re here.” ‘A hero’ Rushdie’s suspected assailant, 24-year-old Hadi Matar from New Jersey, was wrestled to the ground by staff and audience members before being taken into police custody. Matar answered to a grand jury indictment Thursday, pleading not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges. Rushdie’s condition remains serious after emergency surgery but he has shown signs of improvement, and no longer requires assisted breathing. “Not even a blade to the throat could stifle the voice of Salman Rushdie,” said Suzanne Nossel, head of the US branch of PEN, an international organization that defends free speech and which hosted the rally. “Salman spoke for scores of writers who’ve been persecuted and tormented, and did not want their ordeals to subsume their identities or to drown out their imaginations.” Prior to her reading English writer Tina Brown addressed Rushdie directly, saying “you never asked for the role of a hero.” “You just wanted to be left alone to write,” she continued. “But in the tenacity with which you’ve defended free speech, you are a hero and have paid a terrible price.” ‘Hold up the sky’ Writer and historian Amanda Foreman said Friday’s turnout “shows people are not afraid.” “No matter what, we and they, we are all willing to stand up for what we are believing,” she told AFP. Among the attendees was Raymond Lotta, an author and spokesperson for the Harlem shop Revolution Books, who told AFP the stabbing of Rushdie was “an attack on critical thinking, on dissent, on creativity.” Rushdie, who was born in India in 1947, moved to New York two decades ago and became a US citizen in 2016. In an interview given to Germany’s Stern magazine days before last Friday’s attack, he had described how his life had resumed a degree of normality following his relocation from Britain. “Dearest Salman, and dearest family of Salman, this past week so many of us realized we’d been counting on you to hold up the sky,” said author Kiran Desai at the rally, before reading a passage of Rushdie’s “Quichotte.” “I hope you know that you can count on us too. We’re here for you, and we’re here for the long haul.” View the full article

Published by The Philadelphia Inquirer PHILADELPHIA — For the past two years, college and university administrators have welcomed the start of the fall semester with a mix of excitement and trepidation about the coronavirus pandemic. This year, even as COVID-19 continues to spread, colleges are confronting another public health threat: Monkeypox, which so far has predominantly afflicted men who have sex with men but can spread through skin-to-skin contact to anyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. It’s unclear whether the college social scene will hasten monekypox’s spread. Yet on several college campuses in Pe… Read More View the full article

Published by uInterview.com Linebacker Carl Nassib, who made history in 2021 as the first active NFL player to come out as gay publicly, is returning to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the 2022/2023 season. Nassib announced he was gay in June of last year and received an outpouring of support from NFL and college football organizations. Nassib’s announcement happened when he was playing for the Las Vegas Raiders, and he has previously played for the Bucs from 2018 until 2019 and the Cleveland Browns. He also donated $100,000 to the LGBTQ charity The Trevor Project at the same time as coming out. Nassib said in the video he … Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Dustin Lance Black reportedly called the police after getting into an altercation with an events promoter in London on Thursday (18.08.22). The 48-year-old screenwriter and director was enjoying a romantic date night with his husband, Olympic diver Tom Daley, 28, when he allegedly got into an argument with Teddy Edwardes, 32, and threw a drink on her. Lick events founder Teddy – who stars in BBC3 show ‘The Big Proud Party Agency’ – claims she responded with a “a little tap on the head” but Dustin called it a “targeted attack” and called the police. Tom and Dustin – who have son Robbie, four, together – had dinner at Avo Mario and watched a drag show at Chinatown’s Ku Bar before going to Freedom, a gay bar in Soho. According to Teddy, she invited them to sit with her but Dustin became upset after she asked a stranger who joined their table to leave. In a series of videos on her Instagram Stories, Teddy alleged: “I went out for a couple of quiet drinks with some friends last night, nothing crazy and I bumped into Tom Daley and his husband in Soho, who pretty much unprovoked he threw an entire drink over me in Freedom. “I didn’t have a drink to throw back so I did choose violence, but I wasn’t that violent he got a little tap on the head. “Tell me why he is crying outside saying it’s a targeted attack and he’s traumatised and called the police, so I have to wait for hours and now I have been cautioned and have to go in for interviews.” She added: “For everyone asking what happened, we basically invited them to where we were sitting and I bought them some drinks etc, everything was fine. “And then this random guy came and sat with us and my friend said they felt uncomfortable because they didn’t know who it was so I asked security if they could move them on. “The security came to move them on and Tom’s husband started going mad saying how unwelcome I’ve made him feel and that he was leaving, so I was like OK? If that’s what you want? Then got straight drink to the face. “I have to add that Tom Daley was lovely throughout he was just trying to diffuse the situation.” However, a source close to Tom and Lance claimed that Lance was “punched in the back of the head”. The insider told The Sun newspaper: “Tom and Lance were out on a date night without Robbie. They went to Freedom after dinner. “Someone punched Lance in the back of the head, the person who punched him was removed from Freedom by security who checked CCTV, it was reported to police who are looking into it.” A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police told The Sun that they were called to the venue just before 12.30am on Thursday, “following reports of an altercation involving a man in his 40s and a woman in her 30s”. They added that no arrests have been made. View the full article

[This post contains video, click to play] Randy addresses the obvious Trump meltdown and makes the case for Garland. okay everyone welcome back to the january 6th hearings which will finally determine the criminal culpability of former fake president donald jessica trump now let’s go to some behind-the-scenes dvd extras from his pre-recorded address to the nation on january 7th okay whenever you’re ready sweetie and we are rolling everyone please clear this up we’re rolling thank you okay mr president you’re on in five you got this three two i would like to begin by addressing the heinous attack yesterday sing out louise but this election is now over congress has certified the results i don’t want to say the election’s over i just want to say just say you’re a big fat loser my only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote i would like to begin by addressing the heinous attack yesterday yesterday’s a hard word for me yesterday such a complicated word to say when his dentures start to slip away he’s not okay plain to see how he screwed with our democracy binging big macs while he watched tv this just stayed on our history when the lords came through they were blue instead of [Music] this guy does it really take the fbi to verify i’m joined now by the man everyone’s talking about attorney general garland judy seditious conspiracy espionage bad hair what the hell is it gonna take to nail this guy no pressure the justice department has been doing the most wide-ranging investigation in its history well step on it sis cause he’s getting ready to announce and we cannot let him be president again i’m running out of show tunes the justice department has from the beginning been moving urgently to bring to justice everybody who’s criminally responsible for interfering with the peaceful transfer of power [Music] [Music] grab the wheel and try to crash the country history on that awful january [Applause] when they broke into his property for [Music] this country down the toilet yesterday please don’t take us back to yesterday get your together dlj and prosecute like yesterday please we will have the evidence step on it Words of wisdom from Randy Rainbow’s Grandmother and Alan Menken View the full article