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Published by AFP The US Capitol on August 6, 2022, as Democratic senators worked to pass a major climate and health bill sought by President Joe Biden Washington (AFP) – After months of negotiations, the US Senate looks poised to pass Joe Biden’s grand climate and health care plan, channeling billions toward ambitious clean energy goals in a hard-won victory for the president ahead of midterm elections. “I think it’s going to pass,” the Democratic president, who recently recovered from a second bout of Covid-19, told journalists Sunday morning in a brief appearance on the White House lawn. The $430 billion plan, crafted in arduous talks with members on the right wing of his Democratic Party, would include the biggest US investment ever on climate — $370 billion aimed at effecting a 40 percent drop in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. That would give Biden a clear victory on one of his top agenda items and go some way toward restoring US leadership in meeting the global climate challenge. Democrats hold a razor-thin majority in the Senate — just enough to pass spending bills like this with no Republican support. If the package is approved, likely within days, it will move on Friday to the House of Representatives, where the majority Democrats expect to pass it. It would then go to Biden’s desk for his signature. Electric cars The bill would provide ordinary Americans with a tax credit of up to $7,500 when purchasing an electric car, plus a 30 percent discount when they install solar panels on their roofs. It would also provide millions to help protect and conserve forests — which have been increasingly ravaged in recent years by wildfires during record heat waves that scientists say are linked to global warming. Billions of dollars in tax credits would also go to some of the country’s worst-polluting industries to help their transition to greener methods — a measure bitterly opposed by some liberal Democrats who have, however, accepted this as a least-bad alternative after months of frustration. Biden, who came to office with promises of sweeping — and expensive — reforms, has seen his hopes dashed, then revived, then dashed again. Democrats’ narrow edge in the Senate has given a virtual veto to moderates like Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who earlier had used that power to block Biden’s much more expansive Build Back Better plan. But in late July, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer managed to wangle a compromise with the West Virginian, whose state’s economy depends heavily on coal mining. And on Saturday, senators finally opened their debate on the text. ‘Vote-a-rama’ Late in the day, senators kicked off a marathon procedure known as a “vote-a-rama,” in which members can propose dozens of amendments and demand a vote on each one. That has allowed both Republicans, who view Biden’s plan as too costly, and liberal Democrats, who say it does not reach far enough, to make their opposition clear. Influential progressive senator Bernie Sanders used that platform through the evening to propose several amendments aimed at strengthening social planks in the legislation, which were considerably weakened during the months of negotiation. As it stands, the bill would provide $64 billion for health care initiatives and ensure a lowering of some drug costs — which can be 10 times more expensive in the US than in some other rich countries. But progressive Democrats long ago had to give up their ambitions for free preschool and community colleges and expanded healthcare for the elderly. “Millions of seniors will continue to have rotten teeth and lack the dentures, hearing aids or eyeglasses that they deserve,” Sanders said from the Senate floor. “This bill, as currently written, does nothing to address it.” But fellow Democrats, eager to pass the legislation well ahead of November midterms when control of Congress is much at stake, have rejected any change in the text. To help offset the plan’s massive spending, it would reduce the US deficit through a new 15-percent minimum tax on companies with profits of $1 billion or more — a move targeting some that now pay far less. View the full article

Published by Reuters (Reuters) – A sinkhole in Chile has doubled in size, growing large enough to engulf France’s Arc de Triomphe and prompting officials to order work to stop at a nearby copper mine. The sinkhole, which emerged on July 30, now stretches 50 meters (160 feet) across and goes down 200 meters (656 feet). Seattle’s Space Needle would also comfortably fit in the black pit, as would six Christ the Redeemer statues from Brazil stacked head-to-head, giant arms outstretched. The National Service of Geology and Mining said late on Saturday it is still investigating the gaping hole near the Alcaparrosa mine operated by Canadian company Lundin Mining, about 665 km (413 miles) north of Santiago. In addition to ordering all work to stop, the geology and mining service said it was starting a “sanctioning process.” The agency did not provide details on what that action would involve. Lundin did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The company last week said the hole did not affect workers or community members and that it was working to determine the cause. Lundin owns 80% of the property and the rest is held by Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation. Initially, the hole near the town of Tierra Amarilla measured about 25 meters (82 feet) across, with water visible at the bottom. The geology and mining service said it has installed water extraction pumps at the mine and in the next few days would investigate the mine’s underground chambers for potential over-extraction. Local officials have expressed worry that the Alcaparrosa mine could have flooded below ground, destabilizing the surrounding land. It would be “something completely out of the ordinary,” Tierra Amarilla Mayor Cristobal Zuniga told local media. (Reporting by Marion Giraldo; Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Kevin Bacon insists it “takes a lot of work” to be scared every day on a horror film shoot. The 64-year-old actor portrays the villainous Owen Whistler in new movie ‘They/Them’ and has previously had parts in classics of the genre including ”Friday the 13th’, ‘Stir of Echoes’, ‘Tremors’, and he explained he much prefers the high stakes and physical action of such movies than “sitting around having a conversation and eating a sandwich” in a drama. Asked why he likes making horror films, he told website Slash Film: “Well, the joy is that the stakes are so high. It’s good stuff for me to play. If you’re running for your life, or you’re trying to destroy some kind of evil force, or stabbing somebody or getting stabbed, whatever that happens to be, that’s just good stuff. That’s just stuff that you want to play. “I’d rather be doing that than sitting around, having a conversation and eating a sandwich. Also, sometimes in horror, there’s a lot of physical stuff, which I also really like to get into. There’s not so much in ‘They/Them’. “But it’s also, the challenge is different levels of fear because, especially if you’re a lead and you have to go through this step by step, to try to find a new way to be scared every day is really — that can be a lot of work.” ‘They/ Them’ is set in a gay conversion camp and Kevin loved the way his character slowly revealed his true self throughout the film. He said: “Well, I think that he’s a manipulator, for one thing. He knows that group of people, they’re not there — maybe a couple of them are there because they kind of want to be there. I guess maybe the Stu character kind of wants to become more macho or whatever, but they’re also, at the very least, terrified to be there. “He’s going to try to put them at ease as much as possible, and then see an opening, and then come in with the terror of it he ends up coming in with. “It’s also a good exercise, because it means that if it gives me as a character development, a place to go, when you start to see just a little hint of the darkness, the anger, the fear, the dangerous nature of this character, when you see you can just put a little hint in there. And then just add a little bit more, a little bit later, and then just have it explode. It’s a fun place to go.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) – The United States declared monkeypox a public health emergency last week, an effort to bolster the U.S. response to contain the outbreak. The virus continues to be largely transmitted among gay and bisexual men, but experts say the disease could spill over into other populations, especially due to vaccine shortages. Monkeypox is spread by contact with puss-filled sores and is rarely fatal. Here is the state of monkeypox now and some other the populations U.S. experts believe may be at risk: WHO IS GETTING MONKEYPOX NOW? Last month, the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global public health emergency. So far, 80 countries where the virus is not endemic have reported 26,500 cases of monkeypox, according to a Reuters tally. In the United States, 99.1% of U.S. monkeypox cases occurred among those assigned the male sex at birth as of July 25, according to a technical report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Among male patients, 99% reported having sexual contact with other men. About 38% of cases occurred in among white, non-Hispanic males. Another 26% were in Black males and 32% in Hispanic males. The pattern of sexual transmission in men is not typical. In Africa, where monkeypox has been circulating since the 1970s, 60% of cases are in men, and 40% occur in women. One reason may be that the virus appears to be “very efficiently transmitted through anal receptive intercourse and to some degree oral sex,” said Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease epidemiologist and an editor-at-large at Kaiser Health News. WHO ELSE IS AT RISK? Although the current explosion of cases has occurred in men, experts say there is no biological reason the virus will remain largely within the community of men who have sex with men. “We certainly know it’s going to spread to family members and to other non-male partners that people have,” said Dr. Jay Varma, director of the Cornell Center for Pandemic Prevention and Response. He said the virus could also spread through massage parlors or spas. The real question, he said, is whether it spreads as efficiently in those groups as it does among close sexual networks of men who have sex with men. Experts point to the way HIV spread as a possible indicator for where the virus will go next. “My greatest fear is that as we try to contain this, it’s going to seep along the fractures in our social geography and go where HIV did, and that’s going into communities of color in the rural South,” said Dr. Gregg Gonsalves, an associate professor of epidemiology at Yale University and a leading HIV/AIDS activist. Those are places with limited infrastructure for testing, vaccines and treatments. Gounder is especially concerned about infections among Black women, who account for the largest share of new HIV infections in the United States, and already suffer significantly higher rates of maternal complications and deaths. WHO ELSE MIGHT BE AT RISK? Other at-risk settings include college dormitories, health clubs and sports teams. Gounder is aware of some sports leagues that are preparing for possible infections, noting that sports such as wrestling involve close skin-to-skin contact. Wrestling, football, rugby and other sports teams have previously had outbreaks of the superbug MRSA, according to the CDC. “I think it is something we need to be thinking about and prepared for,” she said. Employers may also need to start preparing. Gounder said some theaters in New York, for example, are considering how they might protect their workers from possible monkeypox infections through contact with shared costumes. “We’re still in the beginnings of that, but I am encouraged to see that some are already thinking about that.” (Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Caroline Humer and Josie Kao) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Rosie O’Donnell says her teenage daughter Vivienne is “allowed to express her feelings” after branding her upbringing abnormal. 19-year-old Vivienne claimed in a recent TikTok video that she didn’t have a normal upbringing and after some back and forth, Rosie, 60, admitted she’s right. Speaking in her own TikTok video, Rosie said: “I knew what she was talking about. It’s not normal to have three lesbian mothers and have one of them be famous and get in a fight with the president for five years or more. “She’s right to say that it wasn’t a normal upbringing like all of her friends and it’s okay, you’re allowed to express your feelings in our family, even if you do it online in a funny manner. I replied, I thought in a funny manner, saying I was going to tell all her secrets. But I don’t have any secrets! She’s a great kid, always has been.” This came after Rosie initially responded with videos claiming that Vivienne’s childhood was totally normal. She asked: “Vi Vi, what do you mean I didn’t do anything normal? “I did normal things. I’m normal. I’m totally normal. Jeez, Viv, I’m going to tell some secrets about you! She put a caption on the video that said: “Love your vibe with your Moms.” In another video, she said: “A hater? Come on, I thought I was pretty nice. I didn’t think I was hateful at all. Just my review of the show. That’s all. Bye bye.” Vivienne, is the youngest of Rosie’s four children that she adopted with her 55-year-old ex-wife Kelli Carpenter, from whom she split in 2007. They also share sons Parker, 27, and Blake, 22, and daughter Chelsea, 24. O’Donnell adopted her fifth child, daughter Dakota, nine, with former partner Michelle Rounds in 2013 before Rounds died of an apparent suicide in 2017 aged 46. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Tom Daley will be “really sad” when he eventually quits diving. While the 28-year-old sports star currently has his sights set on the 2024 Olympics in Paris, he knows retirement is inevitable and is already looking ahead to his future. He said: “I love diving and the moment I choose to stop is going to be really sad. It’s only two years until the Olympics in Paris. It is a short cycle. It has been weird watching the World Championship scores and comparing them to what I’ve done in the past. The score I got for bronze in Tokyo was 40 points more than the gold medal score.” However, Tom’s current break from competing has allowed him to spend more time with his husband Dustin Lance Black, 48, and their four-year-old son Robbie, along with focusing on his other passions. He told Big Issue magazine: “But it has been nice to set different goals this year. I spend three nights in Pakistan, three nights in Jamaica but otherwise, I’ve just been with Robbie and Lance and it’s been so special. “Between my family, knitting and fighting for LGBT rights this year has been really nice. My priorities and perspectives have been massively shifted in terms of what matters most. I feel like I’m going to look back at this as one of the most important years of my life and the one where I really started to be active in the movement.” Meanwhile, the diver acknowledged that no person’s coming out story is the same as anyone else’s. He said: “There’s no one size fits all. My big advice is making sure you come out in your own time and that it has to be safe. And just being able to be yourself with one person is better than never being able to be yourself with anyone. “I came out back in December 2013. Initially I was just doing it because I didn’t want to feel like I had to hide any more. Since then, I mean, I’ve been married for five years, I’ve got a son that starts school in September, it’s all gone very quickly.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Michelle Visage thinks she was a “gay British man” in a former life. The 53-year-old radio DJ – who has daughters Lillie, 22, and Lola, 20, with husband David Case – is good friends with her fellow ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ stars Alan Carr and Graham Norton, but the star is unable to explain why she feels she was a homosexual guy in a past life, admitting the comment makes her sound “like a nutter”. She told Britain’s Closer magazine: “I feel like in a former life I was a gay, British man. I can’t explain it. “I sound like a nutter but that’s the way that I feel.” But in her present life, Michelle and David celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in June, and she believes the secret to a happy marriage is “not becoming too codependent”. She said: “I surprised him with a day at a spa and we had facials, massages and sat by the pool sipping lovely drinks and enjoying each other’s company. He is a wonderful man. And handsome. I like to think I did well! “I do believe the secret is having time to ourselves and not becoming too codependent.” While Michelle has always been the main breadwinner, she admits author and screenwriter David is still “very much the man of the household”, and despite their quarter of a century together, he isn’t always a big fan of her straight-talking. She added: “My husband sometimes says, ‘Maybe you could say that a little softer. But I’ve always been that way. “Whether it hurts or not, honest communication is how you work through it.” View the full article

Published by uPolitics.com Last month, the Moms For Liberty political action committee (PAC) received a massive donation from a surprise donor, Julie Fancelli, the heiress of the supermarket chain Publix. The $51,000 check was the PAC’s first large donation. Their organization is fairly new in the conservative PAC scene. The organization was started by former school board members, Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich Fancelli is a widely known Republican donor. Before the Capitol Riot began, she was a significant donor to right-wing groups organizing the events. The donation was made on June 23, according to the financial… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Sofia Ahmed and Ted Hesson NEW YORK (Reuters) -Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said on Friday he has started to send buses carrying migrants to New York City in an effort to push responsibility for border crossers to Democratic mayors and U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat. The first bus arrived early on Friday at the city’s Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan. Volunteers were putting groups of migrants in taxis headed to a nearby intake center, where they said some would be processed for admission to city homeless shelters. Abbott, who is running for a third term as governor in November elections, has sent more than 6,000 migrants to Washington since April in a broader effort to combat illegal immigration and call out Biden for his more welcoming policies. Abbott said New York City Mayor Eric Adams could provide services and housing for the new arrivals. “I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief,” Abbott said in a statement. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, another Republican, has followed Abbott’s lead and bused another 1,000 to Washington. U.S. border authorities have made record numbers of arrests under Biden although many are repeat crossers. Some migrants who are not able to be expelled quickly to Mexico or their home countries under a COVID-era policy are allowed into the United States, often to pursue asylum claims in U.S. immigration court. New York City Mayor Adams’ office has in recent weeks criticized the bussing efforts to Washington, saying some migrants were making their way to New York City and overwhelming its homeless shelter system. On Friday the mayor’s Press Secretary Fabien Levy said Abbott was using “human beings as political pawns,” calling it “a disgusting, and an embarrassing stain on the state of Texas.” Levy said New York would continue to “welcome asylum seekers with open arms, as we always have, but we are asking for resources to help do so,” calling for support from federal officials. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser has also said her city’s shelter system has been taxed by migrant arrivals and last month called on the Biden administration to deploy military troops to assist with receiving the migrants, a request that has frustrated White House officials. A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had declined a request for D.C. National Guard to help with the transportation and reception of migrants in the city because it would hurt the troops’ readiness. (Reporting by Sofia Ahmed in New York and Ted Hesson in Washington; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington; Editing by Mica Rosenberg and Daniel Wallis) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Jamie Foxx convinced Cameron Diaz to return to acting. The 49-year-old star last appeared on screen in 2014 movie-musical ‘Annie’ and had since announced her retirement from acting but is due to return in the upcoming film ‘Back In Action’ and co-star Jamie, 54, said that he just had to explain to her how “fun” the project would be. He told ETOnline: “Cameron is such an incredible force and she has done so much in this business, We love her. Getting her to come on board basically involved asking her, ‘Do you wanna have some fun? Just have some fun!’ And I think that’s what brought her to it.” Back in 2021, the ‘Charlie’s Angels’ actress – who has been married to Benji Madden since 2015 and has two-year-old daughter Raddix with him – admitted that she had stepped away from the business in order to “manage” different aspects of her life. She said:” When you do something at a really high level for a long period of time, there are parts of your life that end up being handed off to other people. For me, I just really wanted to make my life manageable by me,” she shared of her decision. “My routine in a day is literally what I can manage to do by myself. “I just went, ‘I can’t really say who I am to myself.’ Which is a hard thing to face up to,” she shared. “I felt the need to make myself whole It was previously reported that Cameron was feeling “anxious” but “excited” upon her return to the big screen. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Christina Ricci learned about homosexuality from Johnny Depp. The 42-year-old actress was starring alongside Johnny, 59, and his then-girlfriend Winona Ryder in ‘Mermaids’ back in 1990 and revealed that the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star explained to her nine-year-old self what homosexuality was during an on-set conflict. Speaking on SiriusXM, she told Andy Cohen: “There was something going on on set and someone was not being nice to someone else. And they were like, ‘Oh, well, he might be homophobic. And then I was like, ‘Well, I don’t understand what that is.’ And I was in Winona’s trailer and she was like, ‘I don’t know how [to explain].’ So she put me on the phone with Johnny, and Johnny explained it to me! “He was like, ‘It’s when a man wants to have sex with a man and when a woman wants to have sex with a woman.’ And I was like, ‘Ah, okay!'” Almost a decade later, Christina had teamed up with Johnny again and was paired up with him for her first sex scene in ‘Sleepy Hollow’ but joked that it was “weird” because she thinks of him “like a brother.” She said: “I’ve known Johnny so long, he’s protective of me as an older brother and it’s weird to think of having sex with him. So we know enough about each other to laugh at it. He said it was ‘like we were rooting around together like pigs. But the decision was made early on that Johnny and I would never be unclothed because in gypsy culture women are forbidden to be nude.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Kevin Spacey has been ordered to pay ‘House of Cards’ producers $31 million. The 63-year-old actor was dropped from the Netflix series in 2017 after being accused of sexual misconduct by multiple young men and he was later sued by programme makers MRC for breach of contract after they said he had violated the company’s sexual harassment policy, and on Thursday (04.08.22), a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered him to pay £29.5 million in damages and an additional $1.5 million in legal fees and costs, People magazine reports. When MRC first took action against Spacey – who they alleged cost millions in lost profits after they were forced to remove him from the show and cut its sixth and final season short by five episodes – the disgraced star’s lawyers filed an opposition asking for the motion to be set aside. They argued: “The truth is that while Spacey participated in a pervasive on-set culture that was filled with sexual innuendoes, jokes, and innocent horseplay, he never sexually harassed anyone. “In fact, as the evidence established and the Arbitrator recognized in the Award, the few times Spacey was told that his conduct made someone feel uncomfortable or was in any way unwanted, he stopped.” But the production company quietly won the arbitration award in 2020, with the ruling coming to light in November the following year when MRC filed a petition in civil court to confirm the award. Spacey’s lawyers disagreed with the findings of the arbitrator – who ruled MCR had a right to the money, which should be paid by the ‘American Beauty’ actor and his companies M. Profitt Productions and Trigger Street Productions – as they argued external allegations against their client couldn’t be considered because Netflix were unaware of many of the claims when they fired him from the show. They wrote: “As the Arbitrator recognised, the reduction in episodes was a foregone conclusion once Netflix dictated to Petitioners that Spacey could not and would not be a part of Season 6. “But what the Arbitrator ignored is that the conduct he found to be in breach of the Agreements was not even known by Netflix at the time it made this decision. In other words, the breaches found by the Arbitrator could not have been related to Petitioners’ damages because those damages had already been caused by the time the breaching conduct was known.” MRC are happy with the outcome at the Superior Court. Their attorney, Michael Kump, said: “We are pleased with the court’s ruling.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Jane Fonda made her famous workout video with “no money”. The 84-year-old star released ‘Jane Fonda’s Workout’ on VHS 40 years ago and she admitted the exercise class was filmed on “spit and a prayer” so she was stunned by just how successful it went on to be. She said: “I mean, we spent no money on it. I wrote the script myself on a hotel-room floor. We did our own makeup. It was spit and a prayer. “Eventually the video came out, and of course it remains the number one selling home video of all time. Nobody’s ever broken that record!” The ‘Grace and Frankie’ initially rejected multiple approaches for the video because she “didn’t even know” what a VCR was at the time. She told Vogue: “I know that the world is full of women who can’t afford to go to a gym or feel self-conscious about being in a gym or can’t go to a gym because they have a young child. So doing it in the privacy of their home was an answer for that. “I’d like to claim that I’m a brilliant, strategic businesswoman. If people wanted it, I didn’t know it, [but] I provided it and at a time, it was just perfect. “[Founder of Karl Video Corp.] Stuart Karl’s wife read my first workout book and said to her husband, ‘This could be a video.’ “He was sort of the king of home videos, which didn’t mean much at the time because nobody had a VCR. I didn’t even know what a VCR was. Literally nobody I knew had a VCR. He made the first do-it-yourself home-improvement videos. “So he came to me and pitched the idea of doing a workout video. I said no. I just didn’t get it. “But then the money was going to a political organisation that my then-husband, Tom Hayden, and I had founded called the Campaign for Economic Democracy. Stuart Karl kept coming back and kept coming back. “Finally, I realised maybe this could make money. So I said, ‘Okay, let’s try it.’ “ View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Kathy Bates and Liza Koshy have joined the cast of a currently-untitled star-studded Netflix rom-com. Nicole Kidman, 55, Joey King, 23, and Zac Efron, 34, were previously announced for Richard LaGravenese’s flick, which he penned with Carrie Solomon. The movie, as reported by Deadline, tells the tale of a “surprising romance which kicks off comic consequences for a young woman, her mother and her movie star boss as they face the complications of love, sex, and identity.” The ‘American Horror Story’ star and 26-year-old YouTube personality-and-actress Liza’s roles are not known at this time. Kathy’s other upcoming movies include starring alongside Dame Maggie Smith and Laura Linney in ‘The Miracle Club’. Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s flick tells the story of a riotous group of women who go on a pilgrimage from Dublin to France. The journey allows them to discover their friendship and their own personal miracles. The 74-year-old star will also star in ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’, Kelly Fremon Craig’s adaptation of Judy Blume’s best-selling novel. She plays the titular character’s grandmother, Sylvia. The Oscar-winner, John Malkovich and Lewis Pullman also lead the cast of ‘Thelma’ by Ken Kwapis. The film “recounts the true story of the mother of John Kennedy Toole (Pullman), the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’. Toole died by suicide before finding a home for his masterpiece, and his mother Thelma (Bates) made it her life’s mission, through outrageous gamesmanship, to see the book published. She eventually succeeded in getting the manuscript into the hands of writer Walker Percy (Malkovich), who became the novel’s champion. It would be published in 1980, eleven years after Ken’s death, thereafter becoming a widely celebrated cult classic.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Angelica Ross is set to become the first transgender actress to play Roxie Hart in ‘Chicago’. The 41-year-old ‘Pose’ star will make her Broadway debut in the long-running musical later this year, playing murderous vixen Roxie for eight weeks from September 12. Actresses who have previously played Roxie include Pamela Anderson, Melanie Griffith, Christie Brinkley, Marilu Henner, Brooke Shields and Lisa Rinna. While Angelica can’t wait to get started, she admitted the announcement was bittersweet as it came on the same day that US basketball star Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison after being found guilty of narcotics possession and smuggling for bringing cannabis-infused vape cartridges into the country. Angelica tweeted: “This day is full of mixed feelings for me! I want to celebrate being on Broadway, but I don’t feel like celebrating with #BrittneyGriner sentenced to 9 years in prison. This world is messed up. She doesn’t deserve this.” The 31-year-old basketball star – who normally lives in Houston, Texas with wife Cherelle Griner – was arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling in Russia just days before the country launched the ongoing invasion on Ukraine and has now been found guilty and sentenced to almost a decade behind bars. However, her lawyers told PEOPLE that the verdict was “absolutely unreasonable” and intend to appeal the decision. Brittney – who is also said to have been fined the equivalent of $16,600 for the offence – was found to have taken less than one gram of cannabis oil into the country and insisted her actions were “inadvertent” but she decided to plead guilty. She said: “That’s why I pled guilty to my charges. I understand everything that’s been said against me, the charges that are against me and that is why I pled guilty but I had no intents to break any Russian [law].” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Harry Styles gave Olly Murs one of his Brit awards. The ‘Watermelon Sugar’ hitmaker was unable to attend the 2018 ceremony so the 38-year-old singer – who has been nominated for six prizes at the event over the years but never won – accepted the Video of the Year accolade for ‘Sign of the Times’ on his pal’s behalf. And Olly was left stunned a few weeks later when he opened a mysterious parcel to discover he’d finally received his very own Brit from the former One Direction singer. Speaking to Heart Bingo’s blog, Olly said: “I love Harry’s Styles’ new album and I love Harry. Harry gave me his first Brit for ‘Sign Of The Times’. “He couldn’t make the Brit Awards ceremony, so I accepted it on his behalf. I jokingly said, ‘I will take it because I’ve never won a Brit’. “I didn’t think anything of it because as you walk backstage you have to give it back to one of the producers. “About two weeks later a gift came to my house and I opened it. It was from Harry saying, ‘All my love mate. Here he is’. “And it has my name on it. And of course, Harry’s name and ‘Sign Of The Times’. But I am like, ‘I have got a Brit award from Harry Styles!’” Olly previously spoke of how “dangerous” it was when he supported One Direction on tour because fans were constantly throwing things on stage that they hoped would be passed on to Harry and his bandmates. He said:”When I was on the One Direction tour, we were getting all sorts of things thrown up to us on stage. I think the weirdest things I was getting thrown was like passports, lipsticks and there were quite a few mobile phones. “They wanted you to pick up the phone, like take a photo and give it back to them. Fans were so obsessive, especially on tours with the One Direction boys. The fans just wanted one of them to touch their possessions. “But when you have got 15 phones flying towards you, it was starting to get dangerous at one point. I think they had to say to the fans could you stop throwing things on stage because someone got quite hurt by something thrown at them. I can’t remember, it might have even been me.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English ‘The Flash’ will still go ahead with Ezra Miller. The 29-year-old actor, who played Barry Allen aka the Flash in 2018’s ‘Justice League’ and the 2021 Zack Snyder cut, has faced a number of headline-making controversies in recent times. Just last month, it was reported that they will no longer face legal trouble in Germany after prosecutors reportedly dropped a trespassing investigation. The star had been accused of refusing to leave the Berlin home of a woman named only as Zara after she invited them there one evening in February – with the woman alleging the star became verbally abusive and only left after she called the police. Variety.com reported she filed a criminal complaint against Miller but dropped the case when it emerged they had left Germany. Miller was also accused of sheltering teenage runaway Tokata Iron Eyes, whose parents filed a restraining order against the star. However, despite the run-ins with the law, Warner Bros. confirmed the film is still on track for a June 23, 2023, with Miller in tow. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said at the firm’s Q2 earnings call this week: “We have seen ‘The Flash,’ ‘Black Adam’ and ‘Shazam 2.’ “We are very excited about them. We’ve seen them. We think they are terrific, and we think we can make them even better.” Zaslav also spoke out to defend the studio’s decision to axe the $90 million ‘Batgirl’ movie starring Leslie Grace as the titular superhero. He said: “We’re not going to launch a movie until it’s ready. We’re not going to launch a movie to make a quarter, and we’re not going to put a movie out unless we believe in it.” View the full article

Published by AFP A 2018 photo shows the statue of Andrew Jackson, with the White House behind it, in Lafayette Square in Washington, where four people were struck by lightning on August 4, 2022 Washington (AFP) – Two people were killed and two more were in critical condition on Friday after a lightning strike near the White House the night before, police in the US capital said. The lightning hit Lafayette Square, a small park across the street from the White House, shortly before 7:00 pm (2300 GMT) Thursday, leaving two men and two women with “critical life-threatening injuries,” according to a statement from Washington’s fire and emergencies department. All the victims were taken to local hospitals, but on Friday morning the Metropolitan Police confirmed that two of them — 75-year-old Donna Mueller and 76-year-old James Mueller, both from Janesville in Wisconsin — had been pronounced dead. The other two adults remain in critical condition, police said. A White House spokeswoman said the Biden administration was “saddened by the tragic loss of life.” “We are praying for those still fighting for their lives,” added Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement. US Secret Service and park police rushed to help the four after witnessing the strike, fire and emergency services department spokesman Vito Maggiolo said in a statement posted on social media. Photos posted by the department on social media showed multiple ambulances and at least one fire truck with flashing lights working at the scene. Witness David Root told NBC he heard a “horrific boom.” “I just couldn’t believe it,” he was quoted as saying. “Was surreal. I have never seen anything like this in my entire life.” He said he had been sheltering beneath a tree when he saw the lightning strike across the park. The people “weren’t moving,” he said, so he and others ran over to give help. The Washington Post said the four were found some 100 feet from the statue of former US president Andrew Jackson which marks the center of the square. The strike was part of a severe thunderstorm that hit the American capital on Thursday evening. “Trees are not safe places,” Maggiolo told the Post. “Anybody that goes to seek shelter under a tree, that’s a very dangerous place to be.” View the full article

Published by Raw Story By Matthew Chapman On Thursday, Florida Politics reported that Andrew Warren, the Democratic state prosecutor of Hillsborough County, Florida, is hitting back at Gov. Ron DeSantis after he moved to suspend him from office. “People need to understand this isn’t the Governor trying to suspend the one elected official,” said Warren. “This is the Governor trying to overthrow democracy here in Hillsborough County.” Florida is unusual among states in that county prosecutors are elected directly, but that the governor has the authority to suspend them from office. DeSantis took this action against Wa… Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet By David Badash Authoritarian dictator Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, was invited to speak to CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference. On Thursday he delivered an anti-LGBTQ attack on same-sex marriage and same-sex families, echoing the false “groomer” claims increasingly prevalent on the right by demanding same-sex couples must “leave our kids alone.” “Hungary shall protect the institution of marriage as a union of one man and one woman,” he decreed, to cheers. “Family ties shall be based on marriage or the relationship between parents and children. To sum up, the mot… Read More View the full article

Published by New York Daily News NEW YORK — LBGTQ+ history will be made on the Great White Way. Angelica Ross has been cast as Roxie Hart in “Chicago,” becoming the first openly transgender woman to play a leading role on Broadway. Earlier this year, “A Strange Loop” breakout L Morgan Lee made history as the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for a Tony Award. Producers of Broadway’s longest-running Tony Award-winning musical revival announced Thursday that Ross is scheduled to perform an eight-week limited engagement at the Ambassador Theatre from Sept. 12 though Nov. 6, 2022. “Chicago” marks the “Pose” star’s … Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Lady Gaga is to star in ‘Joker: Folie à Deux.’ The 36-year-old superstar will take on reportedly take on the role of henchwoman Harley Quinn opposite Joaquin Phoenix in the title role of the musical sequel to the DC Comics movie ‘Joker’ and took to Instagram on Thrusday (04.08.22) to confirm the news. Alongside a video of the trailer, Gaga captioned the post: “Joker: Folie à Deux, 10.04.24.” In the background of the video, a laugh could be heard alongside an instrumental of the Frank Sinatra hit ‘Cheek to Cheek’. The ‘Poker Face’ hitmaker – who has found success in the acting world with acclaimed roles in blockbusters such as ‘A Star is Born’ and ‘House of Gucci’ – previously admitted that she had “something in mind” when it comes to creating her own musical and explained that when it comes to acting she will always want to tell the stories of women. She said: “I do have something in mind for [a musical] , but I’m not going to reveal it. I think I’ll always tell the stories of women because I am a woman and women have so many stories to share. Women are powerful, and women are vulnerable. And to be vulnerable and strong at the same time, I think, is a special thing.” The Clown Prince of Crime’s notorious first lady has previously been played by ‘Barbie’ star Margot Robbie – who took on the role in the 2016 movie ‘Suicide Squad’ and 2020’s ‘and Birds of Prey’ – while ‘Big Bang Theory’ actress Kaley Cuoco provided her voice in the HBO Max animated series ‘Harley Quinn.’ ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ is due for release on October 4 2024. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jack Queen (Reuters) – A Texas judge denied Alex Jones’s motion for a mistrial on Thursday as jury deliberations resumed in a defamation case over the U.S. conspiracy theorist’s false claims about the Sandy Hook mass shooting. The mistrial request followed the disclosure at trial that Jones’s lawyer accidentally sent two years of the U.S. conspiracy theorist’s text messages to the plaintiffs. Federico Andino Reynal, an attorney for Jones, told Judge Maya Guerra Gamble that attorneys for the plaintiffs should have immediately destroyed the records. An attorney for the parents, Mark Bankston, used the texts to undercut Jones’ testimony during cross-examination on Wednesday. Jones, founder of the Infowars radio show and webcast, is on trial to determine the amount of damages he owes for spreading falsehoods about the killing of 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012. Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of slain six-year-old Jesse Lewis, are seeking as much as $150 million from Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems LLC, for what their lawyer has called a “vile campaign of defamation.” Heslin told jurors on Tuesday that Jones’ falsehoods had made his life “hell” and led to a campaign of harassment and death threats against him by people who believed he lied about his son’s death. Jones previously claimed that the mainstream media and gun-control activists conspired to fabricate the Sandy Hook tragedy and that the shooting was staged using crisis actors. Jones, who later acknowledged that the shooting took place, told the Austin jury on Wednesday that it was “100% real.” Gamble issued a rare default judgment against Jones in the case in 2021. Free Speech Systems declared bankruptcy last week. Jones said during a Monday broadcast of Infowars that the filing will help the company stay on the air while it appeals. Jones faces a similar defamation suit in Connecticut state court, where he has also been found liable in a default judgment. The Sandy Hook gunman, Adam Lanza, 20, used a Remington Bushmaster rifle to carry out the massacre. It ended when Lanza killed himself with the approaching sound of police sirens. (Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Amy Stevens and Howard Goller) View the full article

Published by Reuters (Reuters) -The United States has declared a monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday, a move expected to free up additional funding and tools to fight the disease. The World Health Organization has also declared monkeypox a “public health emergency of international concern,” its highest alert level. The WHO declaration last month was designed to trigger a coordinated international response and could unlock funding to collaborate on sharing vaccines and treatments. Biden on Aug. 2 appointed two top federal officials to coordinate his administration’s response to monkeypox, following declarations of emergencies by California, Illinois and New York. Cases have crossed 6,600 in the United States, as of Wednesday’s data, almost all of them among men who have sex with men. First identified in monkeys in 1958, the disease has mild symptoms including fever, aches and pus-filled skin lesions, and people tend to recover from it within two to four weeks, according to the World Health Organization. (Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru, Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Leela de Kretser; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Deepa Babington) View the full article