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Published by Euronews (English) In 2021, fashion photographer and activist, Emmie America, was detained and fined by Russian authorities, after organising a politically charged photo shoot in Moscow, where 25 participants dressed in police uniforms surrounded the word ‘Freedom’ written in the snow. The Russian-born photographer, who has worked with brands such as Vogue, Urban Outfitters, Guess and Calvin Klein, was charged by police for “organising a protest”. Coming from Russia, it’s been an important part of my journey to figure out how to use the talent and the voice I have to talk about things that really matter and that… Read More View the full article

Published by OK Magazine mega On December 29, 2021, Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of multiple federal sex trafficking charges stemming from her personal ties with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Following her guilty conviction, Maxwell was incarcerated for six more months at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York as she awaited sentencing. A judge ruled on Tuesday, June 28, that the disgraced socialite would serve 20 years behind bars, and a month later, Maxwell was transferred to Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee in Florida. mega GHISLAINE MAXWELL’S VICTIMS REPORTEDLY OUTRAGED CONVICTED SEX TRAFFICKER GETTING FREE TRAUMA THERAPY The minimum security facility is a mixed-gender prison that first opened its doors in 1938. It is considered to be a fairly relaxed location offering a broad array of extracurricular activities including yoga, educational classes, and arts and crafts. The facility also allows inmates the option to participate on an intramural softball team. The Federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that the embattled convicted sex trafficker was transferred due to several reasons, including the prison’s security levels and in consideration of any other programming or medical related needs Maxwell may have throughout her 20 year sentence. The low security facility is also home to Jaelyn Delshaun Young, who was sentenced to serve 12 years behind bars in 2016 after pleading guilty to terrorism-related charges connected with her attempts to join the terrorist military group ISIS. Young is currently scheduled to be released on October 28, 2024. mega As OK! previously reported, Maxwell will have access to an assortment of name brand hygiene and skincare products including Pantene shampoo, Secret deodorant and Dove bar soap. She will also be able to buy other personal items such as Band-Aids, chapstick, lotion, and baby powder from the commissary. Recreational items available for purchase include headphones, a Timex watch and an MP3 player. Although the commissary has assorted snacks for sale, the embattled sex trafficker is said to have meager options when it comes to prison meal times as Maxwell keeps a vegan diet. The first night of her incarceration at FCI Tallahassee, a report revealed she was given the options of eating chicken cheese steak or a three bean salad. mega GHISLAINE MAXWELL ‘HATED’ PRINCESS DIANA, WOULD MAKE LATE ROYAL ‘CRY’ & LAUGH ABOUT IT, SPILLS SOURCE Following her prison sentence, Maxwell will not be allowed to go near minor children unless she gets formal approval from the U.S. Probation Office. “It is hard for me to address the court after hearing the pain and anguish based on statements we have heard today. I want to acknowledge their suffering,” the 60-year-old said at her sentencing hearing. “It is the greatest regret of my life that I ever met Jeffrey Epstein. I believe that Jeffrey Epstein was a manipulative, cunning and controlling man who lived a profoundly compartmentalized life and fooled all of those in his orbit.” Maxwell will be around 80-years-old at the time of her scheduled release. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Margot Robbie will be “eternally grateful” to ‘Neighbours’ for launching her Hollywood acting career. The 32-year-old, who began her TV work playing Donna Freedman from 2008 to 2011 on the Australian soap, also appeared in the show’s finale, which aired Friday. (29.07.22) She filmed scenes in LA but sent 37 bottles of champagne to the Melbourne set, and said she felt the finale was “the end of an era”. Now Hollywood’s highest-paid actress, the double Oscar-nominee told today’s (31.07.22) The Sun on Sunday: “I owe so much to Neighbours. There are so many of us that owe them for giving us a big break. “It wasn’t just about giving me a break either – it gave me a real chance to work on my craft. It was the perfect training for Hollywood, and I will always be eternally grateful. Friday’s finale after 37 years and almost 9,000 episodes saw Margot’s comeback accompanied by returns by actors including Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce, Holly Valance and Natalie Imbruglia. Anne Charleston, who played Ramsay Street veteran Madge Bishop, also made an appearance with her late character popping up as a ghost. Margot said she only realised how popular the soap was globally when she moved to London. The ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ actress added: “It really is an end of an era for fans. “When I lived in London, I understood at its peak how big it was. People would come up to me and tell me how they watched it every day after school.” Margot has now swapped living in the city to put down roots in Hollywood with film producer husband Tom Ackerley, 32, but said the decision to move was difficult. She added: “It was such a hard decision to leave but I just couldn’t keep living out of a suitcase.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Will Dunham (Reuters) -Nichelle Nichols, whose portrayal of starship communications officer Lieutenant Uhura in the 1960s sci-fi TV series “Star Trek” and subsequent movies broke color barriers and helped redefine roles for Black actors, has died at age 89, her family said. Nichols, whose fans included Martin Luther King Jr. and a young Barack Obama, “succumbed to natural causes and passed away” on Saturday night, her son, Kyle Johnson, wrote on Facebook. “Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from and draw inspiration,” Johnson wrote. The series, which became a pop culture phenomenon, shattered stereotypes common on U.S. television at the time by casting Black and minority actors in high-profile roles on the show. In 1968 she and “Star Trek” star William Shatner broke a cultural barrier when they engaged in U.S. television’s first interracial kiss. She had planned to quit “Star Trek” after one season, but King, the 1960s civil rights leader, convinced her to stay because it was so revolutionary to have a Black woman playing an important senior crew member at a time when Black people were fighting for equality in American society. Nichols also helped break color barriers at NASA, whose leaders were “Star Trek” fans. After she criticized the space agency for failing to pick qualified women and minorities as astronauts, it hired Nichols in the 1970s to help in recruiting. Her efforts helped attract, among others, the first woman U.S. astronaut, Sally Ride; the first Black woman astronaut, Mae Jemison; and the first Black NASA chief, Charlie Bolden. Nichols “symbolized to so many what was possible” and “inspired generations to reach for the stars,” NASA said on Twitter. Nichols’ portrayal of the competent, level-headed Uhura also helped inspire future Black actors, including Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg. Nichols recalled Goldberg telling her of watching “Star Trek” as a 9-year-old, seeing her playing Uhura, and yelling out to her mother: “Come quick! There’s a Black lady on television and she ain’t no maid!'” The original “Star Trek” series, tracking the adventures of the crew of the starship USS Enterprise in the 23rd century, ran for only three seasons on the NBC network from 1966 to 1969. But it became hugely popular in syndication in the 1970s, inspiring first an animated series that reunited the cast from 1973 to 1975 and then a succession of feature films and shows. Nichols appeared in six “Star Trek” films ending with “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” in 1991. Uhura deftly handled the starship Enterprise’s communications with allied spaceships and alien races while interacting with Captain James T. Kirk (Shatner), Vulcan first officer Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and the starship’s helmsman, Sulu (George Takei). Takei wrote on Twitter that he and Nichols “lived long and prospered together,” describing her as trailblazing and incomparable. “(My) heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among.” Nichols’ best-known scene featured the first scripted interracial kiss on U.S. television, although it was not a romantic one. In an episode called “Plato’s Stepchildren,” Uhura and Kirk were compelled telekinetically to smooch by aliens toying with the feeble humans. In real life, Nichols disliked Shatner, who she considered arrogant. “She was a beautiful woman & played an admirable character that did so much for redefining social issues both here in the US & throughout the world”, Shatner said on Twitter. She felt differently about “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry, who cast her after she had acted in a previous show he produced. Nichols had a romance with him in the 1960s and sang a song called “Gene” at his 1991 funeral. VISIT TO THE WHITE HOUSE Obama, the first Black U.S. president, who was 5 years old when the “Star Trek” series made its debut, also was a fan. Nichols visited him at the White House in 2012 and posed for a photo in the Oval Office, with the president smiling and putting his hand on her shoulder while both made a “Star Trek” Vulcan hand gesture meaning “live long and prosper.” In a 2011 interview with Smithsonian magazine, Nichols recalled meeting King at a civil rights group’s fundraiser. Nichols said she was approached by one of the event’s promoters, who told her, “There’s someone who wants to meet you and he says he’s your biggest fan, so I’m thinking of a young kid. I turn around and standing across the room, walking towards me, was Dr. Martin Luther King with this big smile on his face.” After Nichols told King she planned to quit “Star Trek,” she said he implored her to stay. She said King told her: “This is a God-given opportunity to change the face of television, change the way we think. We are no longer second-class, third-class citizens. He (Roddenberry) had to do it in the 23rd century but it’s the 20th century that’s watching.'” She rescinded her resignation. Like other “Star Trek” cast members, she had a hard time finding work due to typecasting after the original series ended. It was during this time when she played a foul-mouthed madam in the film “Truck Turner” (1974) starring Isaac Hayes. She was a recurring character on the television show “Heroes” in 2007. She was born on Dec. 28, 1932 in Robbins, Illinois, trained as a singer and dancer and toured with jazz greats Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton before her acting career took off. Nichols, who was married twice and had one child, suffered a mild stroke in June 2015. (Reporting and writing by Will Dunham; Additional reporting by Rami Ayyub and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Bill Trott, Diane Craft and Christopher Cushing) View the full article

Published by New York Daily News NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul, noting that New York state is now home to more than 25% of U.S. monkeypox cases, declared a state disaster emergency to secure additional vaccines and slow the spread of the virus. “We need to utilize every tool in our arsenal as we respond,” said Hochul on Friday night as the number of statewide cases hit 1,345. “It’s especially important to recognize the ways in which this outbreak is currently having a disproportionate impact on certain at-risk groups.” According to the governor, her executive order will allow the state to amp up its response to the monkeypox c… Read More African nations ‘relegated to a footnote’ in monkeypox vaccine efforts. Monkeypox: Fears of repeat of Covid-19 vaccine inequity Published by Al-Araby Moves by rich countries to buy large quantities of monkeypox vaccine, while declining to share doses with Africa, could leave millions of people unprotected against a more dangerous version of the disease and risk continued spillovers of the virus into humans, public health officials are warning. Critics fear a repeat of the catastrophic inequity problems seen during the coronavirus pandemic. “The mistakes we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic are already being repeated,” said Dr. Boghuma Kabisen Titanji, an assistant professor of medicine at Emory University. While rich countries have ordered m… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Joan Faus MADRID (Reuters) -Spain reported its second monkeypox-related death on Saturday, in what is thought to be Europe’s second death from the disease and only the third outside of Africa in the current outbreak. Spain had reported its first death as recently as Friday, shortly after Brazil reported the first monkeypox-related death outside the African continent in the current wave of the disease. According to a World Health Organization report from July 22, only five deaths had been reported, all in the African region. The WHO last Saturday declared the rapidly spreading outbreak a global health emergency, its highest level of alert. In its latest report on Saturday, the Spanish Health Ministry said 4,298 cases had been confirmed in the country. Of the 3,750 patients on which it had information, 120 or 3.2% had been hospitalised, and two had died, it said without providing further details. The first death occurred in the northeastern Valencia region and the cause was encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain associated with the infection, local media reported, quoting the regional health department. (Reporting by Joan Faus; Editing by Hugh Lawson and David Holmes) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Beyonce dedicated the release of her new album ‘Renaissance’ to her late uncle Johnny. The pop superstar dropped the highly-anticipated new album on Friday (29.07.22) and described her late relative – who was gay – as the inspiration behind the new record. Beyonce, 40, wrote on her website: ” A big thank you to my uncle Johnny. He was my godmother and the first person to expose me to a lot of the music and culture that serve as inspiration for this album. “Thank you to all of the pioneers who originate culture, to all of the fallen angels whose contributions have gone unrecognised for far too long. This is a celebration for you.” The ‘Break My Soul’ hitmaker’s mother Tina Knowles revealed more about Johnny in an Instagram post and explained that a nod to him is made in the song ‘Heated’. She wrote on the social media platform: “Johnny was the closest human being in the world to me we were inseparable growing up! Later he was nanny/ housekeeper/ designer/ dance partner/ (confidant) and bestie. I laughed constantly with him and trusted him unconditionally! When he died a piece of me went with him. “Solange and Beyonce worshipped him. He helped me raise them. And influenced their sense of style and uniqueness! (sic)” Tina added: “He made Beyonce’s prom dress. Last night she told me to listen closely at the end of the song ‘Heated’ and I heard for the first time her saying ‘Uncle Johnny made my dress’ and I got so teary eyed. You see Johnny loved house music! And introduced my kids to it early on. He is smiling from Heaven at Bey right now! (sic)” View the full article

Published by Raw Story By Bob Brigham Hardline positions on abortion and LGBTQ rights have some moderate Republicans worried the GOP will pay the price at the polls. “Uncompromising positions and loaded rhetoric on key social issues are escalating concerns within GOP circles that the party is moving too far out of sync with popular opinion, projecting new hostility to gay people and potentially alienating women voters in high-stakes races,” The Washington Post reported Saturday. “The Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade and ending a nationwide right to abortion last month has spawned strict new bans and … Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet By Alex Henderson Over the years, countless abortion rights activists have warned that overturning Roe v. Wade would create a surge in women dying from illegal and dangerous back-alley abortions, which were common before the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Roe decision in 1973. But back-alley abortions are by no means the only reason why pregnancies, planned or unplanned, could prove dangerous or fatal for American women now that the High Court, after 49 years, has overturned Roe with its widely protested ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Conservative Washington Post o… Read More View the full article

Published by uInterview.com The Trump family gathered together in Manhattan to mourn former President Donald Trump‘s first wife, Ivana Trump, who died earlier this week from a tragic fall. Among the multiple invite-only guests who showed up, Kimberly Guilfoyle, fiancee of Donald Jr., was one of them. Guilfoyle, 53, looked unrecognizable at the funeral. The former FOX News personality looked strikingly different next to Donald Jr. compared to photos of her with her first husband, California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Guilfoyle has been close with the Trump family for many years and served as an adviser to Trump during his preside… Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Jesy Nelson has reportedly split from her record label Polydor after only 14 months. Insiders said the former Little Mix singer, 31, has decided to walk away from her deal to make a fresh start after music due for the label was apparently delayed. A source told The Sun on Friday night (29.07.22): “Jesy decided it was the right time for her to make a clean break. “She and the label have been going in different directions in recent months. And while there hasn’t been a fall-out, Jesy just felt it was better to start afresh now – while everyone was still friends. “Jesy enjoyed her time with Polydor – but feels, rather than go on together while having such differing musical ideas for the future, she now wants to be able to fully develop her own ideas as an individual artist.” Another industry insider added: “Jesy loves the music she has been working on and is really proud of it. “She has been working hard in Los Angeles and is determined to get it out there and make a success of her solo music.” The Sun said Polydor Records did not respond to its requests to comment. A spokesman for the singer told the publication: “Jesy Nelson feels now is the right for her to move in a new direction. As a result, she has decided to part company with Polydor.” Jesy quit Little Mix in December 2020 as she said she couldn’t cope with the strains of girl band life. She signed a major solo deal with Polydor Records, whose artists include Billie Eilish and Sam Fender, in May 2021. The singer has released only one single, ‘Boyz’, which peaked at No4 in the charts. Its follow up and her first solo album have both been delayed. Jesy, in Little Mix with Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall and Perrie Edwards, has been removed from Polydor’s roster of talent on their website. She has been working on music in Los Angeles for most of this year with a string of songwriters and producers, including Tayla Parx who wrote Little Mix’s hit ‘Sweet Melody’. A source said last month about her delayed music for Polydor: “After releasing Boyz last year, Jesy let the label hear early versions of the songs she had come up with. “The bosses felt sure there was potential there but they wanted her to go back to the drawing board. They felt the tracks would benefit from it — so that is what she has done.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Katie Paul and Paresh Dave (Reuters) – Meta Platforms Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told staffers the world’s biggest social media company had planned for growth too optimistically, mistakenly expecting that a bump in usage and revenue growth during COVID-19 lockdowns would be sustained. Zuckerberg, responding to an employee question at a company-wide meeting on Thursday, said he had hired too aggressively and failed to account for the possibility of an economic downturn, according to a person who heard the remarks. The employee had asked about mistakes Zuckerberg had made, the person said. Meta declined to comment. The comments were more pointed than those Zuckerberg had delivered during an investor call the prior day, after Facebook-owner Meta recorded its first ever quarterly drop in revenue and forecast another fall to come in the third quarter. On the investor call, Zuckerberg said he believed the economy was entering a downturn that would have a “broad impact” on the digital advertising business. “It’s always hard to predict how deep or how long these cycles will be, but I’d say that the situation seems worse than it did a quarter ago,” he said. He told investors the company planned to “steadily reduce headcount growth” over the next year. At the company meeting on Thursday, another employee asked Zuckerberg if senior managers at Meta had been “coasting,” referencing an ongoing debate over the term since an executive this month told managers to “move to exit” any employees who were “coasting” or performing poorly. Zuckerberg responded by discussing Meta’s performance reviews generally, according to the person who heard him speak, as well as another briefed on the response. The employee who raised the question then took to the comments section of an internal discussion board, writing that in his view Zuckerberg had not answered his question. The exchanges come as Zuckerberg is battling intensifying morale issues at Meta, on top of economic woes and business challenges from Apple Inc and ByteDance’s TikTok. At a tense company-wide meeting last month, Zuckerberg told employees he expected them to work with more “intensity,” as he cut hiring targets and cranked up performance standards that were relaxed during the pandemic. Meta staffers, who like many tech employees are paid partly in stock units, saw their compensation effectively slashed this year as the stock price tumbled on news of stalling growth. (Reporting by Katie Paul and Paresh Dave; Editing by Peter Henderson and Chris Reese) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Reese Witherspoon has revealed ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ provided inspiration for the new ‘Legally Blonde 3’ movie. The 46-year-old actress is set to return as Elle Woods in the long-awaited follow-up to 2003’s ‘Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde’, the sequel to the 2001 original. And she loved how they included a throwback from the first ‘Top Gun’ movie in its sequel that was released more than 30 years after the 1986 original. She told USA Today: “I’m still hoping that ‘Legally Blonde 3’ is gonna come together in the right way. “It’s just like ‘Top Gun’: They waited a long time to make another version of that movie, and I loved the nostalgia piece they incorporated in it. So definitely that gave us a lot of inspiration about what we would want to do with Elle Woods and make sure that we had all those same touchstones that mattered to people [back] then.” Reese says the characters are so beloved to her that she wants to make sure the move is perfect. She added: “I feel like these characters are my friends, so I safeguard them. “I would never make the subpar, mediocre version of their story.” Mindy Kaling is penning the script with Dan Goor. Selma Blair recently said she hopes to at least make a cameo in ‘Legally Blonde 3’. The 50-year-old star played Vivian Kensington in the 2001 comedy, and she is hoping to make an appearance in the upcoming flick. She told the ‘Shut Up Evan’ podcast: “I’m hoping, hoping that that legacy can continue, because talk about the good things in life. That movie is one of the good things in life. It’s a highlight. I really feel like, ‘Yeah, my obit’s gonna look okay.’ “ Selma also discussed an alternate ending where Vivian and lead star Reese Witherspoon’s alter ego Elle Woods end up together and said she’d have been so up for that. Quizzed on whether she recalls being told about the ending, she said: “No, I love that idea! What fun. … I don’t remember that, maybe it was. But I don’t think so. I’m friends with Karen [McCullah] and [Kristen “Kiwi” Smith] that wrote it. And it wasn’t, but I would’ve loved that so much. Let’s go with that. I think it’s so much fun.” Jennifer Coolidge, 60, is also set to return as nail technician Paulette Bonafonté Parcelle. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Robbie Williams agrees he can come across as a narcissist. The ‘Let Me Entertain You’ hitmaker completed an online test that claims to establish whether or not someone has a narcissistic personality disorder. And the 48-year-old pop star’s results came back as a “mild indication of narcissistic personality disorder”, but he insists this is because his inflated stage persona can come across egotistical and therefore it’s “unfair” to label him a narcissist because it’s just an “image” he’s projecting as a celebrity. In an interview with The Telegraph, he said of the test result to his wife Ayda Field: “See, if I’d have answered yes to that question about ‘Do people perceive you as arrogant…?’ I’d be a full-on narcissist now. But that would be unfair because that’s just an image that I’m projecting to facilitate our wonderful lifestyle.” Robbie did the test for a second time, but for the first in the company of a journalist, and he maintained: “What I project out there is different. We’re talking Robbie out there and I’m talking Rob. Please don’t do this to me.” The first time the ‘Angels’ hitmaker did the online quiz, it told him he was in fact not a narcissist. The former Take That star argued that all celebrities who are branded “narcissists and egomaniacs” should take the test. He said: “Hey, no, listen, if there is so much levelled about people that are in the industry that I’m in, doing the job I do, where we’re accused of being narcissists and egomaniacs all the time, wouldn’t it be prudent to go, ‘Hey, what if I am – let’s go and check that out?'” While the ‘Rock DJ’ hitmaker can come across as cocky on stage, Robbie is adamant he is quite the opposite in everyday life and is guilty of self-sabotage, while his ego comes from an “avaricious want and need for more of everything.” He had early admitted: “Well, let’s break it down. Loves himself? Well, I don’t. Loves his voice? I don’t. Loves his songs, thinks they’re the best? I don’t. But I do have an avaricious want and need for more of everything. So that’s where my ego is, I suppose. It’s really f****** complex.” He also put forward the argument that: “People would consider ego archetypally to be somebody that’s full of their own self-importance and with an inflated sense of self.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Britney Spears’ tell-all memoir is reportedly delayed by a paper shortage. According to TMZ, the supply issue is likely to push back the release of the tome, which was being lined up for a January 2023 release, despite it being finished. In February, it was reported that the ‘Stronger’ hitmaker was set to receive more than $15 million for her life story. The pop idol – who was released from her conservatorship, giving her back control of her affairs, after 13 years in November – was said to have reached a landmark deal with the publishing house, Simon and Schuster, for the book following a huge bidding war. A source told the New York Post newspaper’s Page Six column at the time: “The deal is one of the biggest of all time, behind the Obamas.” The rights for Barack and Michelle Obama’s books were sold in 2017, with the sum reportedly exceeding the $60 million figure previously known as the largest ever for a non-fiction tome. In 2001, former president Bill Clinton was paid $15 million for his autobiography ‘My Life’. The 40-year-old singer was left fuming when her younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, released her own memoir, ‘Things I Should Have Said’, in January. She wrote on Instagram at the time: “Congrats best seller…..The nerve of you to sell a book now and talk s*** but your f****** lying…..I wish you would take a lie detector test so all these masses of people see you’re lying through your teeth about me !!!! “I wish the almighty, Lord would could come down and show this whole world that you’re lying and making money off of me !!!! You are scum, Jamie Lynn.(sic)” And her legal team later issued a cease-and-desist letter to the former ‘Zoey 101’ star urging her to stop talking about Britney, who will “no longer be bullied” by her family. The letter said: “Although Britney has not read and does not intend to read your book, she and millions of her fans were shocked to see how you have exploited her for monetary gain. She will not tolerate it, nor should she.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Tilda Swinton’s inner “film geek” relished the chance to work with George Miller. The Scottish star appears in the 77-year-old filmmaker’s latest movie, ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing’ – in which she plays lonely academic Dr. Alithea Binnea, who meets an ancient Djinn (Idris Elba) and learns his life story, which spans three millennia – and she found being directed by the ‘Max Max’ helmsman as close an experience to working with the late Alfred Hitchcock as possible. She said: “I had a moment one day when I thought, ‘I never got to work with Hitchcock but I got to work with George Miller.’ “The film geek in me, on the set, seeing the way he tells the story of every shot through working with the camera and the angles and the timing of when the camera should come off the bottle onto your reaction, all of that, that’s directing. “And that’s not ‘smash grab’ montage. It is very Hitchcockian. As Hitchcock said, ‘Let the camera tell the story and the dialogue can just let atmosphere.’ “ Tilda also compared the movie to the work of Hayao Miyazaki, who directed animated classic ‘Spirited Away’. She told Total Film magazine: “To me, I always felt like we were making a kind of live Miyazaki movie. “It’s got that slight sense to it, that feeling of it being slightly animated.” George himself added: “The Djinn is story and cinema. In my mind, he projects it in her head. What we’re seeing is what’s in her head.” The 61-year-old filmmaker relished the “geeky details” that Miller used to present a height difference between herself and Idris. George said: “When he’s really, really big, that was shot in a miniature hotel room. “You can do that – with a little iPad, little books and little tables and chairs and things like that.” Tilda added: “[In other scenes], Idris was in the room and he was Idris-sized. But there were various wonderful geeky details that went into making me capable of looking [up] that high. “At certain points, he wore very high shoes or he stood on things.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Philip Pullella ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (Reuters) – Pope Francis said on Saturday that what happened at residential schools that the Roman Catholic and other Christian Churches ran to forcefully assimilate Canada’s indigenous children was genocide. The pope made the comment while flying back to Rome after a week-long trip to Canada, where he delivered a historic apology for the Church’s role in the policy. He was asked by an indigenous Canadian reporter on the plane why he did not use the word genocide during the trip, and if he would accept that members of the Church participated in genocide. “It’s true that I did not use the word because I didn’t think of it. But I described genocide. I apologised, I asked forgiveness for this activity, which was genocide,” Francis said. “I condemned this, taking children away and trying to change their culture, their minds, change their traditions, a race, an entire culture,” the pope added. Between 1881 and 1996 more than 150,000 indigenous children were separated from their families and brought to residential schools. Many children were starved, beaten and sexually abused in a system that Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission called “cultural genocide”. The schools were run for the governments by religious groups, most of them Catholic priests and nuns. “Yes, genocide is a technical word but I did not use it because I did not think of it, but I described …. yes, it is a genocide, yes, yes, clearly. You can say that I said it was a genocide,” he said. Last Monday, Francis visited the town of Maskwacis, site of two former residential schools, where he apologized and called forced assimilation “evil” and a “disastrous error”. He also apologised for Christian support of the “colonizing mentality” of the times. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Frances Kerry) View the full article

Published by Reuters By James Oliphant WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican voters’ embrace of fringe and divisive candidates is jeopardizing the party’s goal of taking control of the U.S. Senate in November’s midterm elections, as well as winning key governors’ races. Far-right candidates who have echoed former President Donald Trump’s spurious stolen-election claims could win primaries in Arizona and Michigan on Tuesday, likely boosting the odds of Democratic victories in those battleground states this fall. In Arizona, polls show Trump-backed candidates Blake Masters and Kari Lake leading the Republican fields for Senate and governor, respectively. A far-right candidate, Tudor Dixon, could capture the party’s nomination for governor in Michigan. She was endorsed by Trump late on Friday. With Democratic President Joe Biden deeply unpopular among voters and an inflation-ravaged economy, political analysts and strategists say Republicans appear poised to assume control of the U.S. House of Representatives and have a strong chance of reversing Democrats’ narrow Senate majority. Taking either would allow them to kneecap Biden’s legislative agenda. The battle for the Senate has become more complicated, however. Republican nominees in competitive races in Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania are first-time candidates who have raised far less than their Democratic opponents and have struggled to broaden their appeal beyond Trump’s fervent, but narrow, base of support. Democrats, meantime, have become more energized in recent months by the Supreme Court decision overturning the Roe v. Wade ruling that recognized women’s constitutional right to abortion and the ongoing hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. With the Senate divided 50-50, Republicans need to pick up a net total of just one seat to gain control. Jacob Rubashkin, an analyst with Inside Elections in Washington, said Republicans remain favored to take the Senate, but it is no longer the slam-dunk it once appeared to be. “Republicans are certainly creating opportunities for Democrats in Senate races,” he said, “but I think it’s too early to declare that they’re snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.” FiveThirtyEight, an influential political analysis website, this week declared the race for the Senate to be a “toss-up” and gave Democrats the edge. CRISIS AVERTED? Republicans may have headed off a potential tough fight to keep a seat in Missouri, which also has a primary on Tuesday. Senate candidate Eric Greitens, a former governor who has been accused of domestic abuse by his ex-wife, appears to be falling back in the Republican field after a party-funded super PAC blanketed the airwaves with the allegations in the hope of derailing his campaign. James Harris, a Republican political strategist in Missouri, said Greitens’ candidacy should serve as a warning to his party that it cannot take winning Congress for granted given the more galvanized Democratic electorate. “A lot has changed in the last two months,” Harris said. “So if Republicans go into Senate races with weak candidates like Eric Greitens, they’re going to be expensive races that we might lose.” One of those Senate races may well be in Arizona, where Democratic Senator Mark Kelly has amassed a large war chest while Republicans have engaged in a bitter primary. Kelly would go into a race against Masters as the favorite, according to early polls. Masters, a venture capitalist making his first political bid, has echoed Trump’s election-fraud claims and earlier this month cast doubt on the legitimacy of this year’s midterm elections. At a rally led by Trump in Arizona last week, Masters pledged to work to impeach Biden and prosecute Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top COVID-19 expert. If elected, Masters said he “would finish the work that President Trump got started.” A Reuters/Ipsos survey taken last week found 60% of the U.S. public views Trump unfavorably, with 34% viewing him favorably. Talk of election fraud is unlikely to resonate with the crucial voters who swing between both major parties in elections. That same poll found that 45% of independent voters view the 2020 election as legitimate, while 24% believe fraud was involved and 31% didn’t have an opinion. More than 70% of voters said Trump is at least partly responsible for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. GOVERNOR GAMBIT Republicans could also lose the governor’s mansion in Arizona, particularly if Lake emerges as the nominee. Lake, a former TV news anchor, has been a leading proponent of Trump’s election-fraud claims in a diversifying state that has been shifting toward Democrats and went for Biden in 2020. “I know for a fact we will no longer accept rigged elections,” she said at the rally with Trump, whom she referred to as “Superman.” Former Vice President Mike Pence recently stumped for Lake’s more mainstream opponent, Karrin Taylor Robson, in defiance of Trump. Alex Conant, a Republican strategist and former top aide to Senator Marco Rubio, said Republicans want the election to be a referendum on Biden and his handling of the economy. “Candidates that don’t come off as qualified or say things that turn off independent voters have a tough time getting across the finish line even in a very favorable environment,” Conant said. In Michigan, all the leading Republican candidates for governor have said the 2020 election was riddled with fraud. After a tumultuous race to take on Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, once considered among the nation’s most vulnerable governors, the Republican primary has come down to a slate of little-known conservatives. One of them, Ryan Kelley, was arrested last month for participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol siege. This week, a group backed by the Democratic Governors Association began running TV ads in the state attacking Dixon, a conservative media personality and self-styled “working mom of four” who has emerged as the putative favorite. The ads ostensibly aim to boost more extreme candidates such as Kelley, part of a risky Democratic strategy to elevate Republicans whom Democrats view as easier to beat in November. (Reporting by James Oliphant; Additional reporting by Moira Warburton; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Daniel Wallis) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Ismail Shakil OTTAWA (Reuters) – A person can be charged with sexual assault for not wearing a condom without a partner’s consent during sex, Canada’s top court ruled on Friday. The case was decided 5-4. The court was unanimous in saying Ross McKenzie Kirkpatrick must go on trial for sexual assault for not wearing a condom during sex with a woman who consented only to protected sex. It did not say whether he was guilty of those charges. Kirkpatrick was initially acquitted of the charges in British Columbia before an appeals court ordered a retrial. “Since only yes means yes and no means no, it cannot be that ‘no, not without a condom’ means ‘yes, without a condom’,” Justice Sheilah Martin wrote in the majority opinion. “Recognizing that condom use may form part of the sexual activity in question is also the only way to respect the need for a complainant’s affirmative and subjective consent to each and every sexual act, every time,” the judgment read. Kirkpatrick met a woman online and then in person for a possible sexual relationship. They had sex twice in one night in 2017, once with a condom and then again without one, though without the woman’s knowledge, according to the complaint. The complainant said she did not know that he did not use a condom the second time, and if she did, she would not have agreed to it. Under Canadian law, sexual assault requires proof of a lack of consent to a particular sexual activity in question. (Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Steve Scherer and Howard Goller) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. judge who in 2012 sentenced Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to 25 years in prison has voiced support for a deal proposed by the United States to Russia to swap him for basketball star Brittney Griner, though a federal agent involved in the case said such a trade would “belittle the rule of law.” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday he spoke by telephone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and pressed the Kremlin to accept Washington’s proposal to secure the release of Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan. A source familiar with the situation has told Reuters the United States would be willing to exchange Bout, known by some as the “Merchant of Death,” for those two Americans detained in Russia. “We tried him, we convicted him, we gave him a very long sentence,” retired U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin, who presided over Bout’s trial and sentencing in Manhattan federal court, told Reuters on Thursday. “But now the situation has changed and this is a trade we should make.” Scheindlin, who retired in 2019 and is now in private practice, said she likely would have given Bout a shorter sentence had there not been a mandatory minimum of 25 years. She said the risk that he will now return to arms trafficking is minimal as he likely has lost touch with his contacts during his 11 years in prison. Robert Zachariasiewicz, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who helped lead the team that arrested Bout, said the proposed deal could provide fodder to critics who argue that U.S. criminal cases against foreigners are sometimes brought for political reasons. “We don’t conduct political cases,” Zachariasiewicz, who left the DEA in 2020, said in an interview on Thursday, adding that consideration of the swap has “completely belittled the rule of law.” Zachariasiewicz said the exchange could also anger foreign law enforcement agencies that helped investigate Bout in part because the United States told them “he is such a bad actor.” The United States has said Bout supplied weapons to governments in Afghanistan, Liberia, Sudan and elsewhere. Bout was convicted for agreeing to sell weapons to U.S. informants posing as agents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Bout, arrested in a sting operation in Bangkok in 2008, is scheduled for release in 2029 from a federal prison in Marion, Illinois, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. The American proposal has prompted a debate between critics of prisoner swaps – who argue they undermine due process and encourage U.S. adversaries to arrest Americans for leverage – and others who believe the United States has little to gain by keeping Bout behind bars and should do what it can to secure the release of Griner and Whelan. Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a star of the Women’s National Basketball Association who also played professionally in Russia, was arrested on drug charges at a Moscow airport on Feb. 17 and could face up to 10 years in prison. Whelan, who holds American, British, Canadian and Irish passports, was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in jail in Russia after being convicted of spying. President Joe Biden’s administration in April swapped Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted in the United States of drug trafficking, to secure the release of another former Marine, Trevor Reed, from Russia. Families of U.S. citizens detained abroad are stepping up efforts to pressure Biden to conduct more prisoner swaps with foreign governments to secure the release of their loved ones. Robert Appleton, a former federal prosecutor and U.N. investigator who previously investigated Bout but was not involved in the case leading to his arrest, said even though Bout may not return to crime if he is released, a swap would be “disproportionate.” “He’s not the same guy and I don’t think he immediately at least could do the same kind of harm,” said Appleton, now a partner at the law firm Olshan. “But the world hasn’t seen a bigger gun smuggler than Bout.” (Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Will Dunham; Editing by Will Dunham and Noeleen Walder) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Harry Styles has reportedly signed a five film deal with Marvel Studios worth $100 million to play Eternal’s character Eros. The ex-One Director singer, 28, is said to have been in talks with executives to play Thanos’ brother, aka Starfox – the same character the singer teased at the end of ‘The Eternals’ last year. Sources in Los Angeles told The Sun on Friday night (29.07.22) the studio is optioning Harry for “as many as five projects”. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed Harry will feature in a movie alongside Eternals’ Pip the Troll at last weekend’s ComicCon in San Diego. He has also has revealed plans are already in place for two new phases of franchises and spin-offs of the comic book world. An LA film consultant told The Sun: “Harry was in Marvel’s sights for the last 18 months. “Not only is he the biggest pop star of the moment, his star is so huge it transcends just film and music. “Harry has the midas touch and will be a huge deal bringing in different demographics and showing older comic book fans his talent. “For Harry and his handlers, it was all about whether the project and the feel of the movie being right. “Following several secret calls and discussions the deal has been struck. “And the surprise is that their deals pave the way for Harry to do as many as five projects for Marvel, which could see him as Starfox for 15 years. “Feige and his team are delighted with the development. “With his two new movies out this year, the talk is that Harry will become one of Hollywood’s most in demand leading men. “And certainly for Harry the deal is enormous. Certainly the money on the table for him to appear in a Starfox solo film would be astronomical – pun intended. And of course with each film, the wages rise. “So should he keep playing the role for five projects, it is no understatement to say he could be looking at £40 million and higher for a long term run. “Nowadays leading stars in these films get profit-share percentages too, the way that these Marvel films have performed and the loyal fan base that Harry commands, we are talking about very significant income figures.” It comes after Harry’s film ‘Don’t Worry Darling’, on the set of which he found love with director Olivia Wilde, 38, will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September. His romantic drama ‘My Policeman’ is set for a world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival the same month. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) -People at high risk of severe disease who have yet to get a second COVID-19 booster should not wait for next-generation, Omicron-targeted vaccines expected in the fall, five vaccine experts told Reuters. In many countries, including the United States, the BA.5 Omicron subvariant of the virus is surging, but current vaccines continue to offer protection against hospitalization for severe disease and death. And, as the virus evolves, it is not known what version will be widely circulating in the fall or whether new vaccines – expected to target BA.4/5 in the United States and BA.1 in Europe – will be a good match. “If you need a booster, get it now,” said Dr. John Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College, who co-wrote an editorial on the subject published on Friday. In the United States, regulators have asked Pfizer Inc with partner BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc to develop vaccine boosters that target both the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron cousins, as well as the original virus. The government on Friday said it had ordered 66 million doses of Moderna’s shot in a $1.74 billion deal. Combined with the 105 million doses already on order of Pfizer/BioNTech, the full tally is 171 million shots, which are expected in early fall. Regulators in Europe, meanwhile, have signaled that they would be willing to use whichever Omicron-based booster is available to Europe soonest, which may well be the one aimed at the BA.1 variant that drove last winter’s record surge in infections. U.S. regulators are hoping an updated vaccine that targets the original strain and an Omicron variant will offer broader protection against future variants, and believe a booster that is closest to the circulating version is valuable. Given the current surge and people’s waning immunity, experts told Reuters the best booster for those at risk is the one at hand. Only about 30% of people 50 and older who are eligible for a fourth vaccine dose have received one, and fewer than 10% of those aged 50-64, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For those under age 50 or with no major risk factors, a fourth dose has not been approved and there is little support for it among scientific experts. Moore said the evidence he has seen, including at a June U.S. Food and Drug Administration meeting and since, suggests that the benefit of a BA.4/5 booster compared to the original vaccine is “negligible” in terms of preventing infection. “The public should not regard these Omicron-based boosters as some kind of magic bullet that’s going to change the face of the pandemic and solve all their problems. It will have a marginal impact compared to the booster we currently have,” he said. ‘TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE WAITING’ Dr Eric Topol, a genomics expert and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, said getting a second booster offers a survival benefit over just one booster that has been documented in five different studies. “Too many people are waiting when we have really good proof,” he said. Dr. Bob Wachter, chief of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said the evidence is increasingly clear that the longer a person has gone since their last booster, the less protection they have against infection and severe disease. “There’s a ton of COVID around, and it’s a very infectious agent,” he said. BA.5 has driven a wave of new cases globally, and now makes up nearly 82% of all U.S. coronavirus infections. Wachter is not convinced retooled BA.4/5 vaccines will be ready to roll out in two months. “It seems a bit ambitious to me, and even if they hit the timeline, it will probably go to the highest-risk groups first,” he said. “I think it’s probably three or four months away for the average person.” Pfizer told Reuters it has a few million shots of a BA.4/5 vaccine manufactured. As for the newly authorized Novavax Inc vaccine, the company has yet to seek approval for its use as a booster. Moore, who participated in the Novavax clinical trial, said while it is an excellent vaccine, the company’s boosters are unlikely to be available soon. Novavax has said it is developing a BA.4/5 booster and is aiming to have it ready by the fourth quarter. “Whatever is in the pipeline is months away,” Topol said. “This is a more virulent, more pathogenic version of the virus and being protected as best you can is smart.” (Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen, additional reporting by Mike Erman in Maplewood, N.J.; Editing by Caroline Humer, Bill Berkrot and Cynthia Osterman) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed legislation banning assault-style rifles that have been used in mass shootings, sending it to the Senate where it faces likely defeat. By a mostly partisan vote of 217-213, Democrats won passage of the measure amid public anger over mass murders in which rapid-fire AR-15 rifles were used to kill and wound school children and adults engaging in day-to-day activities. “They’re easier for a teenager to get than to buy a beer,” Democratic Representative Lloyd Doggett said during debate. “We’ve turned our churches, our schools, our shopping centers, our entertainment venues, almost any place into a battleground with one massacre after another,” he added. Democrats have been trying for years to renew a federal ban on the weapon, which was first imposed in 1994 and expired in 2004. The ban resulted in a significant decrease in mass shootings, according to a 2021 study by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Republicans have resisted, accusing Democrats of attacking the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which grants the right to “keep and bear arms.” Democrats have argued that is not a blanket prohibition on the control of some guns and their enhancements. Assault-style rifles are lightweight, semi-automatic weapons popular among hunters in the United States. They also are capable of causing severe damage to humans when they tear through organs, bones and muscle in rapid fire. Republican Representative Guy Reschenthaler accused Democrats of a “never-ending attack on Americans’ Second Amendment rights.” “Once again, we’re considering legislation that would do nothing more than penalize law-abiding citizens while doing absolutely nothing about the root cause of gun violence,” he said. Many Republicans say providing additional federal funding to treat mental illnesses would be a more effective way of reducing mass shootings. SHIFTING SENTIMENT With public opinion moving in favor of some new gun controls, Congress one month ago approved a bipartisan bill that Democratic President Joe Biden signed into law containing modest safety measures. It included tougher background checks before gun sales can be transacted, with a particular eye toward keeping weapons out of the hands of people convicted of domestic violence or significant crimes as juveniles. It marked the first time in three decades that Congress succeeded in passing a significant gun control bill. The most recent in a string of mass shootings with AR-15s included 10 killed and three wounded at a Buffalo, New York supermarket, 19 children and two teachers murdered at a Uvalde, Texas elementary school and seven killed at a July 4 holiday parade in Highland Park, Illinois. Democrats vowed, however, to keep pushing for additional controls. Earlier this week, House Oversight Committee Democrats questioned top executives of two U.S. gunmakers – Sturm, Ruger & Co Inc RGR.N and Daniel Defense Llc – in a hearing that centered on marketing of assault-style rifles to young men seeking to emulate soldiers on battlefields. The 100-member Senate is divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, who control the chamber because Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is its ceremonial president and has the power to break tie votes. But Senate rules require that most legislation needs the support of at least 60 senators to advance, meaning that Republicans can block a bill from even being debated. During the June push for passage of the bipartisan bill there were not enough votes among Republicans to raise the age for buying an assault rifle to 21 from 18, much less ban the weapon. (Reporting by Moira Warburton, Rose Horowitch, Makini Brice and Richard Cowan; Editing by Susan Heavey, Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool) View the full article

Published by DPA Brooks Ashmanskas as Stanley James, Neil Patrick Harris as Michael Lawson and Emerson Brooks as Billy Jackson (l to r) in episode one of Netflix’s “Uncoupled.” Sarah Shatz/Netflix/dpa With “Uncoupled,” premiering this week on Netflix, Darren Star (co-creating with “Modern Family” vet Jeffrey Richman) offers up another urban lifestyle fantasy. One can think of it as the third in a New York trilogy beginning with Star’s “Sex and the City” and “Younger,” or a tetralogy if we include the short-lived 1995 prime-time soap “Central Park West.” But let’s call it a trilogy. Like “Younger,” in which Sutton Foster played a 40-year-old woman passing for someone in her 20s, it begins with a midlife breakup. Neal Patrick Harris stars as 40-something Michael, whose partner of 17 years, Colin (Tuc Watkins), tells him he’s moving out just as they’re about to enter the elaborate surprise party Michael has arranged for him. (Colin is turning 50; this is a story in which all the main characters are middle-aged.) Michael will spend the remainder of the eight-episode first season obsessing, trying to move on, obsessing some more, falling flat on his face (literally, in a nice bit of slapstick) and getting up again. (There is also a choice bit of him going downhill on skis, backwards.) Michael is a high-end residential real estate broker; the mighty Tisha Campbell plays his friend and business partner, Suzanne. (His other significant friends are art dealer Stanley, played by Brooks Ashmanskas, and TV weatherman Billy, played by Emerson Brooks.) The properties they deal with tend to be modern and charmless, in a way that spells money. (You are probably meant to find them impressive.) The interpolated shots of the city favour new glass towers over venerable landmarks. “I feel like I’m in one of those 1930s movies where the Depression is happening outside, but up here it’s just Fred Astaire and cocktails and soirees,” Michael says, viewing the apartment of Claire (Marcia Gay Harden), whose recent abandonment mirrors Michael’s. Yet this is true of nearly the entire series, if not the whole of Star’s oeuvre, in which even the bohemians are glamorous. His Manhattan, here a place of terraced penthouses, fancy restaurants and exclusive clubs, is scrubbed clean of the least sign of poverty or even middle-class life – as does seem to be the actual plan in a place where the average rent recently reached $5,000. (“I remember Hell’s Kitchen when you couldn’t walk west of 9th Avenue without getting knifed,” says Stanley. “Now it’s Chelsea, with better gays.”) Everyone here is well-off, though some are more fabulously wealthy than others. We are to understand Michael, who works on commission and is constantly hustling, as a kind of working stiff; still, when we see him walking out of an ordinary drugstore and into a “meet cute,” it feels for an instant as if we’ve entered a different series, and one we might like to stay in a little longer. As is common in Star’s shows (also including “Emily in Paris”), characters often find themselves meeting at private parties and exclusive events – an art opening, a roller disco fundraiser, a Central Park fundraiser, a celebration of the city’s most eligible men, a bris, a wedding, a poker game. And of course that exposition-rich opening surprise party, which includes a performance by Tony-winning composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (“Hairspray”). Inevitably, it will be suggested that the cure for lost love is sex – that is the custom in television – and thus we are treated to the 100th iteration of the “first time on a dating app” scenario. There is a lot of penis talk. But the explicit message is that sex is only sex; human connection, whether friendship or durable romantic love, is what matters. The lovelorn Stanley (“You do not want to be gay and single in this town at our age – you’re invisible”) and sexual butterfly Billy (“I think it gets better with age – the number of young guys who want to hook up with an older man is ridiculous”) put a dialectical frame around Michael, who is far from invisible but is not exactly on the prowl. His (comparatively) older-generation conservatism and his own proper nature keep him from diving headlong into hooking up, though he does wade in a little – and so, while there is sex, there is also refused or interrupted sex. (And because it’s funnier that way, one would hazard.) His wanting something more is what keeps “Uncoupled” a sweet, grown-up entertainment. Harris fits the part so well that one would imagine it was written for him. He retains some of his Doogie Howser boyishness, but he’s attractively weathered – the worry furrows in his brow serve the part admirably – and this accords with Michael’s middle-aged naïveté. (He’s buff, though, as is every man with whom he hooks up or almost hooks up; indeed, apart from the soft-edged Ashmanskas and the lithe André de Shields as Michael’s neighbour, the actually elderly Jack, buffness is practically taken for granted.) Still, this is not a one-man show. If not exactly a “Sex and the City”-style ensemble piece, given that the emotional focus is mainly on Michael, Billy and Stanley and especially Suzanne do get some individual storylines, and Claire becomes a more interesting character as she emerges as something like a new, needy friend. The supporting cast is strong. As Stanley, the Tony-nominated Ashmanskas makes a deep impression doing nothing in the least flamboyant; De Shields has the season’s most moving monologue and Campbell its best-delivered laugh line, “I know you’re mad, honey, but we’re going to need that stapler.” (You’ll have to watch for context.) As a straightforward romantic sitcom centred on gay men, “Uncoupled” is still a rarity for television, even for Star, who has been out forever – though that has more to do with the historical temerity of Hollywood than it does with the creator. Star has made a point of noting the story could be anyone’s, which is true enough and good business, even as there are plenty of references that are specific to the community – as when, confronted with a younger man who doesn’t want to wear a condom and has never heard of the AIDS quilt, Michael wails, “Oh my God, you millennials. Don’t you know where we came from, where you got your freedoms? Don’t you know what people like me — well not me, a little bit older, but I’ve seen ‘Angels’ – don’t you know what we sacrificed for you?” It’s that combination of specificity and universality that makes “Uncoupled” feel at once kind of radical and quite relatable. How to watch: Premieres on Netflix on July 29 View the full article

Published by AlterNet By Brandon Gage United States Congresswoman and conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) on Thursday lobbed homophobic attacks on LGBTQ+ people and hocked her reelection campaign’s monkeypox swag to her podcast audience. Greene’s monkeypox T-shirts feature monkey emojis emblazoned over text that reads: “SEE NO MONKEYPOX, HEAR NO MONKEYPOX, SPEAK NO MONKEYPOX.” They first appeared in early June. The virus is spread through close physical contact and infected surfaces and has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization. While the first cases appeared am… Read More View the full article