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Published by BANG Showbiz English Lady Gaga is “more pain-free” than she has been in ages. The 36-year-old pop star suffers from fibromyalgia – a chronic condition that causes widespread pain and extreme tiredness – and took to social media to thank fans for their support as she prepared to kick off the ‘Chromatica Ball’ world tour in Germany. Speaking in a video posted to Twitter on Sunday (17.06.22), she said: “I want to really thank you for sticking it out with me, and loving me through all the different iterations of my artistry, as well as me as a person. I feel more clear today than I have in a long time, and more pain-free than I have in ages.” The ‘Poker Face’ hitmaker – whose real name is Stefani Germanotta – went on to explain that her latest tour will be a “healing” experience because she is finally able to dance and “tell the story” that she wanted to. She said: “Being free of pain on stage is a real healing experience because I’m able to dance and sing and enjoy the audience, enjoy the show…and really tell a story. I just want to thank you. I’m going to thank you in another way, and it’s through this performance. And it will be through every performance. I don’t know that I’ve been as speechless as I am today, knowing what we’re about to do.” Following its opening night in Dusseldorf on Sunday, the ‘Chromatica Ball’ tour – which is in support of her 2020 album ‘Chromatica’ – is set to visit Stockholm, Paris, London, and a slew of U.S states before wrapping in Miami, Florida in mid-September. Back in 2020, Gaga explained that as a result of the condition, her “whole body” was in pain but was receiving “mental health therapy” as a form of treatment. She said: “Fibromyalgia is essentially a chronic pain condition that makes your body hurt through your brain. Now, someone that might be watching this that has it might be saying, don’t tell me that my fibromyalgia is in my head because my whole body hurts. Even sitting here with you today, I’m in head-to-toe pain. But what’s interesting about it is that I’ve found through neuropsych research and my relationship with my doctors that fibromyalgia can be treated through mental health therapy. And mental health is a medical condition. It should be treated as a medical condition. It should not be ignored.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck got married in Las Vegas. The 52-year-old pop star rekindled her relationship with Hollywood star Ben, 49, back in 2021 after a break of almost 20 years, and the couple got reportedly got a marriage license in Clark County, Nevada – which was taken out and processed on Saturday (16.07.22). A source told TM: “They did, indeed, get hitched … and the license is a signal they are now man and wife!” The outlet went on to explain that the ‘Jenny from the Block’ hitmaker – who was previously married to singer Marc Anthony and has twins Max and Emme, 14,with him while Ben has Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13, and Samuel, 10, with ex-wife Jennifer Garner – has even changed her name in light of the marriage and will now legally be known as Jennifer Affleck. A record on the Clark County Clerk’s Office system reads: “Party 1 Name: Affleck, Benjamin Geza, Party 2 New Name: Affleck,Jennifer.” The ‘Good Will Hunting’ star was initially engaged to J. Lo back in the early 2000s before they went their separate ways, but the pair struck up a relationship once more in April 2021 and announced their re-engagement exactly a year later, when Jennifer showed off her green-hued diamond engagement ring to fans in a video. She said: “I was taken totally off guard and just looked in his eyes smiling and crying at the same time trying hard to get my head around the fact that after 20 years this was happening all over again.” Following the news, an insider said: “J.Lo is ecstatic and can’t wait to be his wife. She believes it’s true love and was meant to be.” View the full article

Published by AFP People wait in line to receive the monkeypox vaccine outside a vaccination center in Brooklyn, New York New York (AFP) – On a hot Sunday afternoon in New York, the epicenter of the US monkeypox outbreak, a long line of men aged 20 to 40 wait for a vaccine to protect themselves and their loved ones against the virus. With its rows of tables and chairs and stacks of medical equipment, the vaccination center — a high school in Bushwick, Brooklyn — is reminiscent of a vaccine spot for Covid-19, a virus for which New York was also the US epicenter. Everyone who spoke to AFP while waiting in line said they felt lucky to have gotten an appointment, as New York lacks doses. On Friday, 9,200 time slots became available on the city’s dedicated website at 6:00 pm. They were all gone in seven minutes. Three days earlier, site traffic was so high that the page crashed. “It was frustrating, largely because especially with Covid, you’d think that we would have more of a structured process or vaccine rollout,” Aidan Baglivo, 23, told AFP. “There just wasn’t really anything.” ‘Shouldn’t be an issue’ The city of more than eight million people saw monkeypox infections climb last week, with 461 cases recorded Friday since the US outbreak began in May. That number is up from 223 cases on Monday. Baglivo, a data analyst, noted that people who are the most connected on social media have the highest chances of getting a vaccine appointment. Robert, who declined to give his last name, told AFP he sat at his computer refreshing the website “like a crazy person” until he got a slot. “This shouldn’t be an issue because there’s already a vaccine, and it (the rollout) should be… more efficient to prevent it from becoming more of an issue,” said the 28-year-old. Neither his partner nor his best friend have been able to get a vaccine. “Every additional day where there’s not more people being vaccinated is a bummer.” Anyone can catch monkeypox, which spreads through close physical contact, but the Jynneos vaccine is currently reserved for men who have sex with men, who make up the vast majority of cases. Many LGBTQ people, of which there is a large population in New York, worry their community will be further stigmatized because of the virus. ‘Important to be proactive’ Nathan Tylutki, a 42-year-old actor, wonders if “there would be a quicker response to developing more vaccines if it wasn’t affecting queer people.” In his opinion, there isn’t a lot of anti-vaccine sentiment in the LGBTQ community “because we’ve seen disease, we know what the AIDS epidemic” was like. “We know that it’s important to be proactive about these kinds of things,” he told AFP. Monkeypox is characterized by lesions on the skin — which can appear on the genitals or the mouth — and is often accompanied by fever, sore throat and pain in the lymph nodes. It usually clears up on its own but can be extremely painful. New York, on the US East Coast, has already either administered or scheduled 21,500 vaccines and hopes to speed up the process, promising more than 30,000 jabs for the whole state. But due to a lack of doses, the Bushwick site is not expected to reopen Monday. City health commissioner Ashwin Vasan said Sunday that New York needs tens of thousands more vaccines. In line at the Bushwick site, fitness instructor Leroy Jackson has another concern. “I am one of maybe two or three Black people on this line” out of more than 100, said the 27-year-old. Access to appointments for minorities and underprivileged groups is even more limited, he pointed out. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Brad Brooks and Nathan Layne (Reuters) -A Texas legislators’ probe of the Uvalde school shooting that left 21 dead blamed “systemic failures” and poor leadership for contributing to the death toll, a report released on Sunday found. The Texas House of Representatives committee investigation marked the most exhaustive attempt so far to determine why it took more than an hour for police and other officers to confront and kill the 18-year-old gunman at Robb Elementary School on May 24. The bottom line, the report found, is that “law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety.” The 77-page report said 376 law enforcement officers rushed to the school in a chaotic scene marked by a lack of clear leadership and sufficient urgency. “Other than the attacker, the Committee did not find any ‘villains’ in the course of its investigation,” the report stated. “Instead, we found systemic failures and egregious poor decision making.” “The void of leadership could have contributed to the loss of life as injured victims waited over an hour for help, and the attacker continued to sporadically fire his weapon.” Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said in an emailed statement that the city had placed Lieutenant Mariano Pargas, who was the acting city policy chief on the day of the shooting, on administrative leave. Pargas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. McLaughlin also on Sunday released body camera footage from some of the city police officers who responded to the shooting, which showed the confusion and chaos of the scene. SHORTCOMINGS AND FAILURES The report found multiple failures at the school, noting the five-foot tall exterior fence around the school that could not impede the gunman. There was also a “regrettable culture of noncompliance by school personnel” when it came to leaving exterior and interior doors unlocked or propped open. The gunman easily entered the school through an unlocked door. The report also found that of the approximately 142 rounds the attacker fired inside the building, it was “almost certain” that around 100 of those shots were fired before any officer entered the school. The report described “shortcomings and failures of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and of various agencies and officers of law enforcement” and “an overall lackadaisical approach” by the authorities. Part of that could be explained by communications failures. Children inside the classrooms where the killing took place called 911 and pleaded for help, but the report said that nobody ensured that responders making key decisions inside the building knew about those emergency calls or “received information that students and teachers had survived the initial burst of gunfire.” “Nobody in command analyzed this information to recognize that the attacker was preventing critically injured victims from obtaining medical care,” the report stated. CALLS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY The report also found there was a “relaxed vigilance” on the school campus because of the frequency security alerts were issued that resulted from nearby police confrontations with human traffickers carrying illegal immigrants. Video posted last week by the Austin American-Statesman newspaper showed police took cover in a hallway for 77 minutes before they stormed the two joined classrooms and exchanged fire with the gunman. Authorities said in May that frantic children inside the classrooms called 911 at least six times while officers waited in the hallway. Representative Dustin Burrows, a Republican who headed the committee, said at a Sunday news conference that the goal of the investigation was to provide a basis of facts so that lawmakers could make future policy changes to make schools more secure. Burrows said the scope of the lawmakers’ investigation did not drill down into exactly what individual officers on the scene knew and when – that would have to be left to the individual agencies to discover. “If somebody failed to exercise their training, if somebody knew there were victims in there being killed or dying and did not do more, I believe those agencies will have to find accountability for those officers,” Burrows said. (Reporting by Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas, and Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Additional reporting by Tyler Clifford in New York and Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Diane Craft and Daniel Wallis) View the full article

Published by Raw Story By Tom Boggioni With jury selection expected to begin on Monday, the Washington Post reports that Steve Bannon is looking at a very brief trial followed by conviction based upon U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols’s rulings and comments to date that seems to suggest the former advisor to Donald Trump may want to work out a deal with prosecutors. As the Post’s Devlin Barrett and Spencer Hsu write, every legal maneuver Bannon and his attorneys have attempted has fallen apart as he has tried to get out from under contempt of Congress charges. In a telling exchange last week, exasperated Ban… Read More View the full article

Published by NJ.com The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to four companies that produce honey after lab testing revealed that their products contained Viagra and Cialis. Both medications are used to treat erectile dysfunction in men and are meant to be taken under the guidance of a physician. The drugs can cause harm when mixed with other substances because it can cause dangerously low blood pressure levels, according to the FDA. The following companies received warnings from the FDA after the lab tests revealed the substances: US Royal HoneyMKS EnterpriseShopaax.com1am USA Incorporated db… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story By Tom Boggioni Appearing on an MSNBC panel on “The Sunday Show,” former Republican Party campaign adviser Tara Setmayer claimed the last thing the GOP needs right now is for Donald Trump to derail their midterm election plans by announcing he will run for president in 2024. Speaking with host Jonathan Capehart, the longtime conservative who left the fold due to the former president claimed that the GOP leadership is practically begging Trump to hold off until after November. With host Capehart prompting, “Tara, if he gets into the race, the conversation is totally going to shift to Donald Tru… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters PARIS (Reuters) – More than 100 French public figures have signed an open letter denouncing what they said were homophobic remarks by a recently appointed government minister. Caroline Cayeux, appointed minister for territorial cohesion as part of France’s new government formed on July 4, was asked by the Senate on Tuesday whether she maintained her opposition to the law for same-sex marriage and adoption in 2013. At the time, she called the reform a “caprice” and “plan that goes against nature”. Cayeux initially stood by what she said, adding: “I have a lot of friends among those people.” Two days later she apologised for her remarks. The open letter, to be published in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper on Sunday, took issue with the choice of words and called into question whether she should keep her post. “How can we accept that a member of government … calls French citizens ‘those people’? How can we avoid that, in her mind, they do not belong to the same category of citizens?” The letter was signed by members of parliament, mayors, former members of government including former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, as well as journalists, lawyers and members of civil society. On Friday, Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne said that Cayeux had made “shocking” remarks in the past and had explained herself awkwardly but that she would continue working and remain “concentrated on her mission” in government. (Reporting by Layli Foroudi; Editing by Nick Macfie) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Brad Brooks (Reuters) – A federal judge in Tennessee has temporarily blocked Biden administration directives allowing transgender workers and students to use bathrooms and locker rooms and join sports teams that correspond with their gender identity. Judge Charles Atchley Jr. of the Eastern District of Tennessee ruled on Friday that the administration’s directives would make it impossible for some states to enforce their own laws on transgender athletes’ participation in girls’ sports and access to bathrooms. A coalition of 20 Republican attorneys general brought a lawsuit last year against the federal government, noting that they stood to lose significant federal funding as the Biden directives were in conflict with their own state laws. Atchley agreed with that, writing in his order that the states “cannot continue regulating pursuant to their state laws while simultaneously complying with Defendants’ guidance.” Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor, one of the plaintiffs, said in a written statement on Saturday that Atchley’s order “is a major victory for women’s sports and for the privacy and safety of girls and women in their school bathrooms and locker rooms.” The Justice Department, the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are named as defendants in the lawsuit. None immediately replied to requests for comment on Saturday. The three had earlier requested that Atchley dismiss the states’ lawsuit, a motion the judge denied in his Friday ruling. The coalition of Republican states argued the Biden administration directives improperly expanded on a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that extended anti-discrimination protections to transgender workers. The top court in Bostock v. Clayton County said employers cannot terminate workers because of their gender identity or sexuality. The justices expressly declined to decide if the ruling applied to sex-segregated bathrooms and locker rooms. The Supreme Court in Bostock held that the bar on workplace sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 extended to bias based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Department of Education in its guidance issued last year concluded that because Title IX, which bars sex bias in federally funded educational programs, borrowed language from Title VII, Bostock also applied to schools. The department said, for example, that preventing a transgender high school girl from using the girls’ restroom or trying out for the girls’ cheerleading team would violate Title IX. Atchley on Friday agreed with the states, writing in his ruling that the Supreme Court in Bostock “explicitly refused to decide whether ‘sex-segregated bathrooms, locker rooms, and dress codes’ violate Title VII.” (Reporting by Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas; Editing by Daniel Wallis) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Adele is reportedly set to announce rescheduled dates for her Las Vegas residency. The 34-year-old singer – who recently performed in London’s Hyde Park – cancelled her comeback shows in January, but she’s now planning to perform in Vegas at the end of the year. A source told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: “Adele loved performing in London and it gave her the drive to push forward with her Vegas residency. An announcement is coming in the next few weeks. Management have asked for a celebration to promote her return.” Adele originally planned to perform at Caesars Palace in Vegas, but her shows could now take place at Planet Hollywood’s Zappos Theatre, which has a larger capacity. Earlier this year, a source claimed Adele “will do everything she can” to reschedule her Las Vegas residency as soon as possible. The singer was forced to postpone her shows at Caesars Palace after COVID hit her backstage team – but Adele is determined to reschedule the shows as quickly as possible, according to the insider. The source said in January: “There are two slots in this year’s calendar, from the end of February to the start of May, and from the middle of June to the middle of September. But if they can’t work then it could be 2023 by the time they’re rescheduled. “The rest of the weekend dates in the year are taken up by other acts including Sting and Rod Stewart.” Adele has a jam-packed work schedule, but she’s determined to take to the stage in Las Vegas. The insider added: “Adele’s schedule is mammoth and it makes rescheduling a challenge but she is devoted to her fans and will do everything she can to get them back in the diary quickly.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Tom Daley wants to be a “designer for life” once he’s done with diving. The 28-year-old diver is an avid knitter and launched his own Made With Love clothing range earlier this year, and while he’s still hoping to compete at the 2024 Olympics, he’s achieved all his goals in the sport so is now thinking ahead to the future beyond the pool. Confirming he wants to dive in the next Olympics, told Grazia magazine: “But if you’re asking me this right now, I mean, I’ve achieved everything that I want to achieve in diving. “Once I finish diving I want to be a designer for life.” Tom – who has four-year-old son Robbie with husband Dustin Lance Black – thinks too much pressure is put on young sports stars and they should have something else to focus on. He said: “What I’ve learned as I’ve got older as an athlete is the more time you take off, the more you get out of the sport when you’re actually doing it.” The Olympic gold winner admitted he has “wanted to walk away” from the sport “more often than you’d think” and it was “really in the last year” while training for the Tokyo games that he “figured out how to have a good relationship with his body”, after being branded “fat” by a coach when he was 15 led to him battling bulimia. He added: “So then all of a sudden I’m on the diving board thinking, ‘Oh gosh, everybody thinks I’m fat.’ And that really, really messed with my head. “It gave me all kinds of body image issues that I still have to this day. I had a real struggle with bulimia for a while.” View the full article

Published by Radar Online mega R. Kelly told a doctor that he only had sexual interests in women months after a male accuser came forward in court, Radar has learned. RadarOnline.com has obtained the shocking psychiatric evaluation submitted by Kelly’s lawyer ahead of his sentencing last month. The report was dated June 13, 2022. Kelly hoped the report — which laid out his childhood abuse and detailed his background — would convince the judge he wasn’t a monster who deserved decades behind bars. The judge wasn’t swayed and ordered Kelly to serve 30 years in prison. The report contained several bombshells including Kelly’s claim a 15-year-old Aaliyah was the one who wanted to get married back in 1994. The singer was 27 at the time and allegedly paid off a state official to obtain a fake ID. mega Kelly also claimed that he was the victim of sexual abuse as a child and struggled to fit in as a kid. The doctor also questioned Kelly about his sexuality. The report said, “Mr. Kelly identified his adult sexual interest as heterosexual.” He said, “Kelly rated himself a one on the Kinsey Scale. A score of one is defined, by Kinsey, as the overwhelming majority of sexual attraction, desire, fantasy or activity is with members of the opposite sex (heterosexual); homosexual experiences are infrequent and largely experimental.” The answer is interesting given Kelly’s male accuser Louis’ testimony in court during his 2021 trial. He told the jury that Kelly approached him while he was working the drive-thru at a local McDonald’s. mega Louis said when he was 17 Kelly slipped him his phone number and invited him back to the recording studio. The accuser said Kelly asked him what he was willing to do to make it in the music industry. He said Kelly then asked him if he had “fantasies” about other men before the singer proceeded to perform oral sex on him. Louis told the jury, “He just told me we had to keep it between me and him.” He said Kelly forced him to call him “daddy” and filmed their sexual encounters. During one of their hangouts, Louis said he brought his 16-year-old male friend which Kelly liked. The singer reportedly told Louis to keep bringing that friend with him. Kelly allegedly formed a relationship with Louis’ friend and had sex with him. mega Despite the claims, Kelly stood by his claim that he wasn’t attracted to men when questioned by the doctor. As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Kelly was recently transported from New York to Chicago where he will have to deal with a second criminal trial over separate charges. View the full article

Published by AlterNet By Brandon Gage United States Senator Ted Cruz on Saturday lamented the Supreme Court’s 2015 legalization of same-sex marriage, arguing that the ruling in Obergefell versus Hodges stripped states of their legislative sovereignty. On his Cloakroom Verdict podcast, Cruz complained to co-host Liz Wheeler that “in Obergefell” – which he mispronounced as “Obergerfell” – “the Court said ‘no, we no better than you guys do and now every state must, uh, must sanction and permit gay marriage. I think that decision was clearly wrong when it was decided. It was the Court overreaching.” This is the same pr… Read More View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega Donald Trump‘s first wife fiercely defended her “good friend” Michael Jackson despite the mounting child molestation accusations against him. Radar can confirm that Ivana Trumpgave the King of Pop an “open invitation” to have playdates with her kids at the apartment she shared with Trump during their 15-year marriage. Ivana married the businessman in 1977. They welcomed their first child, Donald Jr., in December of that year. Ivanka came next in October 1981, followed by Eric on January 6, 1984. RadarOnline.com can report that Ivana would allow Jackson to go upstairs with her sons and daughter for “playdates” whenever he pleased — but the visits were always supervised. Mega The mom of three never tried to hide Jackson’s friendship with her kids, despite there being a 19-year age gap between the singer and her oldest child. “The only person who had an open invitation to come to the triplex for playdates whenever he wanted was Michael Jackson,” Ivana wrote in her new memoir, Raising Trump. “The King of Pop lived in Trump Tower and was a good friend of our whole family,” she explained, adding, “He’d stop by and chat with Donald and me for twenty minutes, and then he’d go up to the kids’ floor to hang out with them for hours and hours.” So, what did Jackson do when he came to visit Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric? Normal kid things, said Ivana. Mega “They’d watch MTV, play Mario Brothers or Tetris, and build Trump Tower in Legos. Michael was a thirty-year-old kid. He could relate to Ivanka and the boys better than to us,” she wrote in her book. As RadarOnline.com reported, Ivana plunged down the stairs to her death on Thursday. The New York Medical Examiner revealed Ivana’s cause of death was blunt impact injuries to her torso after taking a nasty spill inside her Upper East Side apartment. When Manhattan paramedics arrived at her home, she was pronounced dead at the scene. Mega Ivanka and Eric have both addressed her passing, as did her ex-husband. “I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there were many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City,” Trump wrote. “She was a wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life. Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. She was so proud of them as we were all so proud of her. Rest In Peace, Ivana.” View the full article

Published by Reuters (Reuters) – The University of Pennsylvania has nominated transgender swimmer Lia Thomas for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year award, the American college sports regulating body said. Thomas shot to fame earlier this year when she became the first transgender NCAA champion in Division I history after winning the women’s 500-yard freestyle in March and she had hoped to compete for a place at the Olympics. But soon after, she became the focus of a raging debate when swimming’s world governing body FINA voted last month to restrict the participation of transgender athletes in elite women’s competitions. Thomas competed on Pennsylvania’s men’s team for three years before transitioning and moving to the women’s team, setting multiple programme records. Her eligibility had come under considerable scrutiny, including from several Pennsylvania team mates. The NCAA said member schools nominated a total of 577 graduating student-athletes. Each school can recognise up to two female athletes and Thomas had been nominated for swimming and diving in Division I. The Woman of the Year selection committee will select 10 student-athletes from each of the three NCAA divisions. Of the top 30, the committee will then announce nine finalists — three from each division. The winner will be named at the NCAA Convention in January in San Antonio. (Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Pritha Sarkar) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Beyonce was made to look “too skinny” for a movie poster. The 40-year-old pop star played the role of Foxxy Cleopatra in the 2002 comedy movie ‘Austin Powers In Goldmember’ but reportedly asked for the poster to be re-done when she felt she had been made to look too thin, according to the film’s makeup artist Kate Biscoe. She told Vulture: “When we were shooting, someone brought her a poster that would be promoting the movie. He showed it to her, like, ‘Do you like it?” And she was kind of like, ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘What’s the matter?” And she says, ‘You made me too skinny. It’s not me.’ Then she did this hourglass shape. And he said, ‘Okay, we’ll fix that.'” Kate went on to explain that Beyonce then left to film a scene and the art designer claimed he had never been asked to make an actress look bigger before, but he was willing to go through with it even though it would cost “thousands of dollars.” She added: “She walked away to go do the scene, and I looked at him and smiled, like, “Is that the first time that you’ve ever had an actress ask to make her body bigger?” He was like, ‘Yes. It’s going to cost me thousands of dollars, but I am going to do it.’” Meanwhile, Angela Meryl – who served as the stunt double for the ‘Break My Soul’ hitmaker on the movie – explained that while she and Beyonce didn’t spend too much time together on set, she could tell the pop star was “really driven” and goes after what she wants. She said: “My earliest memory is seeing Beyoncé riding on a golf cart by me with an AD or a PA. I didn’t see her that often because we were mainly on second unit. But as you get closer and you have an intimate conversation with her, it turns out, wow, she really knows what she wants and is really driven to get to where she wants to be,” View the full article

[This post contains video, click to play] Published by PopCrush Lizzo is a role model for millions of people around the world and from all walks of life. In an exclusive chat with PopCrush Nights hosts Lauryn Snapp and Donny Meacham, the “Juice” singer stresses why it’s so important for her to show up for marginalized individuals, including the LGBTQ+ community. “I don’t see much separating us, especially as a marginalized person in this society,” Lizzo tells PopCrush. “I don’t see much divide. We are all being marginalized, we all get discriminated against.” The 34-year-old Detroit native says it’s “hard for everybody,” which is “why I identify with so ma… Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet By Meaghan Ellis Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) recently expressed concern about “woke math’s” number and how he disapproves of it. On Friday, July 15, the Republican governor detailed his frustration during a speech at a recent Moms of Liberty conference held in Tampa, Fla. Speaking to the group of conservative mothers who have publicly opposed many aspects of current education, DeSantis lodged an attack on what “woke” mathematics and school library books he has deemed inappropriate. “Some of these libraries you’ll have these elementary school middle school – and really just explicit and just … Read More View the full article

Published by Fadeaway World By Divij Kulkarni View the original article to see embedded media. Sports are often a distraction for most people from the various problems that happen in life that can make them sad. There is a raging debate over whether athletes should use their platform for social and political messaging, but most NBA players use their influence to fight for people that don’t have a voice themselves. Sports fans are a reflection of society at large, and while a majority might be lovely and harmless, there are always those that are bigoted and prejudiced against certain groups. LeBron James recently called o… Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet By Alex Henderson When Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin made a July 10 appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” one of the subjects that host Robert Costa wanted to discuss was same-sex marriage. Youngkin, during the interview, implied that same-sex marriage was legally protected in his state. But Democratic Virginia State Sen. Adam P. Eppin, in a biting op-ed published by the Washington Post on July 15, takes Youngkin to task — stressing that same-sex marriage isn’t safe in his state. Same-sex marriage presently enjoys national protection in the United States thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 … Read More View the full article

Published by AFP Jynneos is a two-dose vaccine, the only currently approved to prevent monkeypox infection Washington (AFP) – The United States, which is forecasting an increase in monkeypox cases in the coming weeks, does not currently have enough vaccines to meet demand, a top health official said Friday. Concern has grown especially in New York, the epicenter of the US outbreak of the virus, with nearly 390 cases counted as of July 14. The United States has seen a total of 1,470 cases. The illness is characterized by lesions on the skin — which can appear on the genitals or the mouth — and is often accompanied by fever, sore throat and pain in the lymph nodes. It usually clears up on its own but can be extremely painful. “I want to acknowledge that at this time the demand for vaccines from jurisdictions is higher than our current available supply,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said. “And we know that this is frustrating.” “We don’t yet have all the vaccine that we would like in this moment,” she told reporters during a press conference, warning that authorities “anticipate an increase in cases in the coming weeks.” New York public health authorities were forced to apologize earlier this week when a government website became overwhelmed as thousands tried to log on to book vaccine appointments at once. “Vaccine supply is extremely limited, extremely constrained, all across this country, and especially here in New York,” the head of the city’s public health department Ashwin Vasan said Thursday. Close contact In May, when the outbreak began in the United States, there were only 2,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine — the only specifically approved against monkeypox — available in the country. Since then, 156,000 doses have been distributed nationwide. More than 130,000 doses have been added to the strategic national stockpile and are expected to start being disseminated Monday. The next round of vaccine distribution will prioritize hardest-hit regions first, Walensky said. “I anticipate that there will be a lot more supply for New York City,” she added. Furthering shortages, a shipment of 786,000 doses has been stuck in Denmark awaiting inspection from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The review is now complete, according to FDA official Peter Marks, and “we told the manufacturer (Bavarian Nordic) that they may ship the vaccine,” he said. Additionally, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday they had ordered another 2.5 million doses of the Jynneos vaccine, set to arrive in 2023. That order follows another made earlier this month, which is expected to arrive later this year. The two-injection vaccine is currently recommended for anyone who has been in close contact with someone infected with monkeypox. For now, the virus is mostly circulating among the LGBTQ community, especially gay and bisexual men. Monkeypox spreads through close physical contact, by touching objects that have previously been handled by an infected person, or by close face-to-face interaction. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Noah Schnapp has confirmed his ‘Stranger Things’ character Will Byers is gay. He added Will is in love with his best friend Mike Wheeler, and said he was previously careful about discussing the topic to avoid spoilers for fans of the show. The 17-year-old actor told Variety: “Obviously, it was hinted at in Season 1 – it was always kind of there, but you never really knew, is it just him growing up slower than his friends? Now that he’s gotten older, they made it a very real, obvious thing. “Now it’s 100 per cent clear that he is gay and he does love Mike. But before, it was a slow arc.” He stressed not making Will “all of the sudden be gay” was done “beautifully” by show bosses the Duffer brothers, and he preferred the slow pacing. Noah added: “They are writing this real character and this real journey and real struggle and they’re doing it so well. “I think it has been tricky. Years ago in Season 1, I didn’t know where the Duffers wanted to go with this character. So I was kind of figuring it out along with the audience. “But now that I’ve spoken to them and seen the show, I know what they want to do with it. “I really have to take into account, like, this isn’t just a single layer thing of he’s struggling with coming out… he was taken by the Demogorgon and then his friends, they never acknowledged him, and now he’s scared to come out and doesn’t know if they’ll accept him.” Stranger Things 4 volume two started on July 1, with writing staff set expected to return to work on the next series in August, which is not set to begin until 2023. View the full article