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Published by DPA Media experts have warned that unhealthy body images on social media can be particularly dangerous for younger users, who are discovering their own bodies and are often dissatisfied with their looks. Benjamin Nolte/dpa Norway is now making influencers and other advertisers inform viewers when they have digitally altered the appearance of someone in an ad, in an effort to limit the negative body image promoted on Instagram and other social media platforms. A change in the law coming into force in July stipulates that digitally manipulated appearances in paid advertisements must be marked with a special kind of notice. This includes any changes to body shape, size and skin, for example changes in facial shape, broader shoulders and narrower hips – some of the most common manipulations offered by “beauty filters” and apps designed to “beautify” selfies. Pictures and videos of extremely thin people still show up on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube without warning, and often in an explicitly positive context. Media experts have warned that unhealthy body images on social media can be particularly dangerous for younger teenagers, who are discovering their own bodies and are often dissatisfied with their looks. Norway’s measure is intended to help make consumers aware that people are not always shown in advertising as they look in reality. Ultimately, the aim is to portray less idealised bodies in advertising and thus protect younger people in particular. “Finally we are getting a powerful measure against unhealthy body pressure that especially children and young people are exposed to,” said the Norwegian Minister for Children and Family Affairs, Kjersti Toppe. The labelling obligation applies to all traditional and social media and explicitly also to influencers and other people who post advertisements online on the internet and in social media. Those who do not comply with it will face a fine. The notice should take up about 7% of the image area and be placed clearly visible in the upper left corner of the advertisement. Both those who have created the advertisement and the advertisers who want to earn money with it can be held responsible. View the full article

Published by DPA Monkeypox, which has been detected worldwide with several thousand cases in recent weeks, is believed to be mainly transmitted from person to person through close physical contact. Cynthia S. Goldsmith/Russell Regnery/CDC/dpa New research has found that a surface that has been touched by someone infected with monkeypox can be highly contaminated with the virus that has spread around the world in recent weeks. And yet the study, published in July, said that the chances of people becoming infected by touching a contaminated surface were limited to certain scenarios. “We assume that surfaces would have to be very heavily contaminated in order for somone to become infected through contact with this surface,” said Johannes Knobloch, head of the study at Germany’s University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). This probably primarily affects people working in the care of monkeypox patients as well as people who live together with an infected person, Knobloch said. “According to the findings to date, there is no risk from publicly accessible hand contact surfaces such as door handles or lift buttons.” This viral disease, which has been detected worldwide with several thousand cases in recent weeks, is believed to be mainly transmitted from person to person through close physical contact. Although experts do not believe the impact of monkeypox will be on a similar scale to Covid-19, doctors are nevertheless warning people, particularly pregnant women and parents of babies, to watch for the symptoms. According to guidance from the CDC health experts in the US, the monkeypox rash can look like pimples or blisters and typically appears on the face, inside the mouth, hands and feet. If you notice this kind of rash in combination with a fever, aches, swollen lymph nodes, chills and/or exhaustion, then seek medical help immediately. View the full article

Published by DPA Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, delivers a video speech at the International Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano. Christophe Licoppe/European Commission/dpa Ukraine wants to use the Russian assets seized as a result of Western sanctions to finance the country’s reconstruction, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said. “Russia’s frozen assets according to various estimates range from $300 to $500 billion,” Shmyhal told an international conference of potential donors in the Swiss town of Lugano. “Russian authorities unleashed this bloody war, they caused this massive destruction, and they should be held accountable for it,” he added. Ukraine needs an estimated $750 billion, Shmyhal said. However, experts have cautioned that confiscating Russian assets in this way is legally difficult. Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Trade, shakes hands with Denys Shmyhal (R), Prime Minister of Ukraine, during their meeting, ahead of the International Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano. Christophe Licoppe/European Commission/dpa View the full article

Published by AFP Ukraine told a conference in Switzerland that it would cost around $750 billion to rebuild the country Sloviansk (Ukraine) (AFP) – President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered Russian troops to press their offensive deeper into the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine after Moscow’s forces seized the strategic city of Lysychansk. With the war now well into its fifth month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine told a reconstruction conference in Switzerland that it would already cost $750 billion to rebuild the country. The loss of Lysychansk over the weekend prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to step up calls for an increased supply of weapons from the West so Kyiv can keep up the resistance and regain lost territories. After giving up on its initial war aim of capturing Kyiv following tough Ukrainian resistance, Russia has focused its efforts on securing control of the Donetsk and Lugansk areas which make up the Donbas region. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin at a meeting that Moscow’s forces were now in full control of the Lugansk region. In a sign there would be no let-up in the fighting and that Russia now had its eyes on the entire Donetsk region, Putin told Shoigu that troops stationed there must continue their operations. “Military units, including the East group and the West group, must carry out their tasks according to previously approved plans,” Putin said. “I hope that everything will continue in their direction as has happened in Lugansk so far.” The Ukrainian army said on Sunday it was retreating from Lysychansk to preserve the lives of its troops after finding itself outnumbered and outgunned by Russian forces there. ‘Most modern weapons’ But in a symbolic boost for Ukraine, the Ukrainian flag was raised on Snake Island, an rocky outcrop in the Black Sea, after Russia withdrew from the strategically important Ukrainian territory last week. Moscow’s capture of Lysychansk — one week after the Ukrainian army also retreated from the neighbouring city of Severodonetsk — frees up Russian forces to advance on Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Donetsk. Lugansk region governor Sergiy Gayday said on Telegram that there was still fighting in the town of Bilogorivka outside Lysychansk. “We keep defending a small part of the Lugansk region so that our army could build protective redoubts,” he added. In an address late Sunday, Zelensky vowed Kyiv would fight on and ensure the military had “the most modern weapons”. “Ukraine will reach the level when the fire superiority of the occupiers will be levelled.” In Sloviansk, about 75 kilometres (45 miles) west of Lysychansk, there were few people on the streets on Monday, the day after Russian strikes that left at least six dead, among them a nine-year-old girl, and 19 injured. In the large downtown market largely ravaged by a fire caused by a Russian strike, a few vendors offered basic goods while others cleared charred debris. Vendors and residents who spoke to AFP, some still in shock, expressed concern for the days and weeks to come, as sounds of shelling were heard again. ‘Task of democratic world’ The city of Siversk, 30 kilometres west of Lysychansk, also saw overnight shelling, residents and an official told AFP. But Zelensky’s address Sunday evening was defiant, pointing to Ukrainian troops would “win back” territory in the Donbas just has they had in other regions earlier in the war. On Monday, leaders from dozens of countries and international organisations met in the Swiss city of Lugano with the aim of hashing out a roadmap for Ukraine’s reconstruction. At the gathering Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal put the cost of rebuilding Ukraine at $750 billion and said: “the key source of recovery should be the confiscated assets of Russia and Russian oligarchs”. Lugano is not a pledging conference but will instead attempt to lay out the principles and priorities for a rebuilding process aimed to begin even as the war rages. The meeting could help usher in a modern version of “The Marshall Plan”, the US-devised giant economic rescue scheme to rebuild Europe after World War II. In a video address to the conference Zelensky described rebuilding Ukraine as the “common task of the whole democratic world” and the “biggest contribution to the support of global peace.” But for residents in Bucha — a Ukrainian town synonymous with war crimes blamed on Moscow’s forces after their retreat in April — fear remains even as talk begins of reconstruction. “We’re going to bed without knowing if we’ll wake up tomorrow,” said Vera Semeniouk, 65. “Everyone has come back, is starting to repair houses, many are putting in new windows. It would be terrible if it started again, and we had to leave everything again.” View the full article

Published by DPA The defendant is brought to the Neuruppin Regional Court for sentencing. A 101-year-old man has appealed the five-year jail sentence he was handed by a German court last week for aiding and abetting the murder of thousands of prisoners at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II. Fabian Sommer/dpa A 101-year-old man has appealed the five-year jail sentence he was handed by a German court last week for aiding and abetting the murder of thousands of prisoners at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II. The Brandenburg state court in Neuruppin, to the north-west of Berlin, confirmed his appeal on Monday. Following delivery of the written verdict, he has a month to justify his appeal, court spokesperson Iris le Claire said. The court has until September 27 to finalize its written judgement, she added. It would then be up to the Federal Court of Justice to decide on the appeal. Throughout his trial, the accused denied that he had been a guard at Sachsenhausen concentration camp during the period in question, 1942-45. The prosecution had produced documents identifying a Nazi SS guard with the accused’s name, date of birth and place of birth, among other evidence. Defence lawyer Stefan Waterkamp had said right after the verdict that he would launch an appeal. He argued that, to date, the Federal Court of Justice had not considered activity as a concentration camp guard to be sufficient to convict someone for aiding and abetting Nazi crimes. View the full article

Published by DPA Pope Francis leads a Holy Mass for the Congolese community in Rome at Saint Peter's Basilica. Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa Pope Francis has defrocked a retired priest in relation to repeated cases of sexual abuse perpetrated from the 1980s to the early 1990s, the Trier diocese in western Germany announced on Monday. The unnamed priest did not face trial in a state court, as the offences were subject to the statute of limitations, but was found guilty in two sets of proceedings under canon law in an ecclesiastical court. The bishop of Trier, Stephan Ackermann, ordered the priest’s dismissal from the clergy following the first proceedings in 2015. The priest then lodged an appeal, with the result that the sentence was reduced at the end of 2017 to a ban on exercising priestly duties. After additional allegations were made in the summer of 2019, the Trier diocese launched a second preliminary investigation, which again found the priest guilty. The pope has now finally defrocked the priest at the request of the congregation of the faithful, informing the parishes where he worked and the affected persons. In April this year, Pope Francis defrocked a retired Trier priest at the priest’s own request after he was found to have committed sexual abuse. The diocese numbers some 1.3 million Catholics in the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. View the full article

Published by Al-Araby A coalition of Lebanese civil society organisations published a letter on Monday condemning what it calls a “crackdown” on LGBT rights by authorities. The letter, signed by the Coalition to Defend Freedom of Expression in Lebanon, said that the government had unlawfully banned peaceful gatherings in support of LGBT people. It further said that the move to quash the gatherings violated LGBT people’s constitutional rights to “equality, free expression and free assembly … during a worsening climate for the rights of LGBT people.” On 24 June, Lebanon’s Minister of Interior instructed Lebanon’s sec… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Daniel Trotta (Reuters) – DeShanna Neal’s 7-year-old son stopped standing for the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag in school, questioning whether the United States of America really stood for, as the pledge says, “liberty and justice for all.” “He said, ‘I will only stand when Black lives matter,'” said Delaware native Neal, 40, a Black, queer mother of two transgender girls and a son she describes as gender non-conforming. Neal is also a candidate for a seat in the state House of Representatives. As much of the nation takes a day off for backyard barbecues, Main Street parades and fireworks displays, some Americans see democracy in peril and others see it as ascendant. Another American interviewed ahead of the holiday marking the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, was in a more celebratory mood. “The quote-unquote conservative side has been on the losing side for a very long time,” said CJ Grisham, a founder of the gun rights group Open Carry Texas. “Does it suck to lose? Yeah, it does. But I look at things also from an originalist point of view. So obviously I’m mostly happy.” Conservatives are relishing a series of victories at the U.S. Supreme Court, landmark rulings that ended a constitutional right to abortion, expanded gun rights, and curtailed government authority to regulate power plant emissions. At the same time, congressional hearings are offering testimony about how close former President Donald Trump and a violent mob that supported him may have come on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturning the November 2020 election that put Joe Biden in the White House. Jodie Patterson, 52, of Brooklyn, a Black mother with a transgender child, sees a dominant culture of straight, white, wealthy men too easily overlooking the rest of America. She is on the board of the Human Rights Campaign’s foundation, which supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans at a time when legislation in states across the country would block access to healthcare to help young people transition and restrict transgender athletes’ participation in sports. “I’m not turning my back on America,” Patterson said. “This country is as much mine and my family’s, and for people who look like me, as it is anyone else’s.” Only white men signed the Declaration of Independence, and most, like its main author Thomas Jefferson, owned Black slaves. Slaveowners also were among the white men who in 1787 signed the Constitution, when convincing slave states to join the union was prioritized over liberty for Blacks. It took Civil War, constitutional amendments and Supreme Court rulings to extend rights to minorities and women. Today, some conservatives see liberal critiques that extremists are threatening democracy as overblown, noting that Democrats control the White House and both houses of Congress. “Stop blaming it on these boogie men,” said Chuck Warren, a Republican strategist from Arizona. “I don’t think the Supreme Court justices are just sitting around saying, ‘We have to protect the white man.’ I don’t believe that’s happening at all.” Concerns were so great that Biden established a commission to study reforming the Supreme Court. Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor, was among those on the commission, and he advocates expanding the court to counter the current conservative bent. “The odds that we will really go down, the way other democracies have, are frighteningly real,” Tribe said. Charles Fried, a Harvard law colleague who once argued cases before the Supreme Court on behalf of the administration of Republican President Ronald Reagan, favors a different change: term limits that would convert the lifetime Supreme Court appointment to 18 years. “There are people around, and I’m afraid some of them are on this Supreme Court, who want to repeal the 20th century,” Fried said. (Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Donna Bryson and Daniel Wallis) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Chris Hemsworth thinks Thor is a constantly evolving character. The 38-year-old actor first played the iconic superhero in 2011 and since then, Chris thinks Thor has been different in every subsequent movie. He reflected: “Where we started in the first film to now, there’s been many versions of the character and so I’ve always hoped … and I think there is something unique about each time we see him in a film, he has changed. There’s been something sort of … unexpected to the character.” Chris believes Thor has become more relatable since director Taika Waititi joined the franchise. The Hollywood star suggested that Taika, 46, has made Thor more humorous and also more emotionally vulnerable. He told IGN.com: “I definitely think from ‘Ragnarok’ onwards, his sense of humour made it all the more relatable and there was a greater sense of fun and enjoyment there to be had. “I think the more vulnerable he became too over times and the more complex – as far as he was susceptible to emotional trauma, or emotional complications – his mental fitness wasn’t always at a ten … I think people kind of appreciated that.” Meanwhile, Tessa Thompson recently revealed that Valkyrie’s sexuality was a “big topic of conversation” among the makers of ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’. The actress has reprised the role of Valkyrie in the new Marvel movie, and she revealed that her character’s sexuality was a major point of discussion before and during the shoot. Tessa – who is attracted to both men and women, but chooses not to label herself bisexual – said: “We talked about it a lot, it was big topic of conversation. Because I think rightfully there’s this real want in audiences to see characters be very clearly queer or LGBTQIA inside these spaces. And I think it’s hugely important to have representation. “And also, as humans, I think that we are not defined by our sexuality, and by who we love. And so sometimes I think to hang a narrative completely on that is a way of actually diminishing the humanity of the character. Because you don’t allow them to be anything else.” View the full article

Published by AFP Liz Cheney (pictured during a January 6 attack hearing investigating in Washington, DC, in June 2022) was one of just 10 Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote to impeach Donald Trump for inciting the insurrection by his supporters Washington (AFP) – Congresswoman Liz Cheney, a rising Republican star until she refused to accept Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election, says she has not ruled out a US presidential run in 2024. “I’ll make a decision about ’24 down the road,” she said in an interview Sunday with ABC talk show “This Week.” “The single most important thing is protecting the nation from Donald Trump.” Wyoming representative Cheney was one of just 10 Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted to impeach the former president for inciting the January 6, 2021 insurrection by his supporters. The 55-year-old is now vice chair of the special House committee investigating whether Trump was responsible for the attack on the US Capitol, as he sought to stay in power after losing the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. “A man as dangerous as Donald Trump can absolutely never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again,” Cheney said, telling ABC she thinks her Republican Party “can’t survive” if the real estate mogul wins the nomination again in 2024. “Those of us who believe in Republican principles and ideals have a responsibility to try to lead the party back to what it can be,” she said. Trump, who still holds outsize influence in the Republican Party, has discussed a potential new candidacy with increasing openness, with some outlets reporting he could announce his campaign by the end of July. Even as Cheney — daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney — mulls a White House bid she is fighting for her political life in Wyoming, where a Trump-backed rival is challenging her in the state’s Republican primary, to be held next month ahead of November’s midterm elections. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Silvio Berlusconi’s ex-partner Francesca Pascale has married her singer girlfriend of two years amid global Pride celebrations. They held a service on Saturday (02.07.22), after reports the former prime minister of Italy, 85, had put his 1,140 square metre mansion on the market, which he bought in 2015. Pascale, 36, and her wife – 57-year-old musician Paola Turci, who has released 17 studio albums – shared a picture of their ceremony on Instagram. The Giornale di Merate newspaper reported Berlusconi’s villa and its surrounding 40,000 square metres of parkland could be up for sale, with a real estate consultant telling the publication: “I have set up meetings. I don’t have an exclusive on it, but I don’t believe it’s been sold yet.” Once the home of footballer and businessman Valentino Giambelli, it was purchased by Berlusconi for €2.5 million (£2.2 million) as a gift for Pascale, who he met in 2006 and started dating a few years later after his split from his former wife. The home underwent a €29 million (£25 million) renovation that included installing a wine cellar, Brianza furniture and a room for the couple’s poodle. Berlusconi and Pascale split at the height of the coronavirus lockdown in 2020 and his ex has since reportedly been living with Turci. Even though the ex-prime minister and Pascale were not married, they had a financial deal that saw her walk away from their relationship with a €20 million (£17 million) payout – equivalent to €2 million (£1.7 million) for every year they were together. She also received a €100,000-a-month (£86,000) monthly payment to sustain her lifestyle. Berlusconi recently made his relationship official with 32-year-old Forza Italia member Maria Fascia. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jonathan Allen NEW YORK (Reuters) -New York state passed a law on Friday banning guns from many public places, including Times Square, and requiring gun-license applicants to prove their shooting proficiency and submit their social media accounts for review by government officials. The law, passed in an emergency legislative session, was forced by a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week that struck down New York’s restrictive gun-license laws. The court’s conservative majority ruled for the first time that the U.S. Constitution grants an individual the right to carry weapons in public for self-defense. New York’s Democratic leaders have decried the ruling and the court, saying there will be more gun violence if there are more people carrying guns. They conceded they must loosen the state’s century-old permit scheme to comply with the ruling, but sought to keep as many restrictions as they could in the name of public safety. Some will likely be targets for further legal challenges. The court ruled that New York’s former license regime, which dates from 1911, gave too much discretion to officials to deny a permit. New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who ordered the extraordinary session in the legislature, said the state’s gun-licensing regulations had resulted in New York having the fifth-lowest rate of gun deaths of the 50 U.S. states. “Our state will continue to keep New Yorkers safe from harm, even despite this setback from the Supreme Court,” she told a news conference in the state capital, Albany, while lawmakers were debating the bill. “They may think they can change our lives with the stroke of a pen, but we have pens, too.” The court’s ruling allowed that people could be banned from carrying weapons in certain “sensitive places” but warned lawmakers against applying the label too broadly. The court also made it easier for pro-gun groups to have a regulation overturned. It ruled that a weapons regulation was likely unconstitutional if it was not similar to the sort of regulations around in the 18th century, when the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-2 was ratified, letting states maintain militias and defining a right to “keep and bear Arms.” The law passed on Friday makes it a felony crime to carry a gun into a new list of sensitive places, including: government buildings, medical facilities, places of worship, libraries, playgrounds, parks, zoos, schools, colleges, summer camps, addiction-support centers, homeless shelters, nursing homes, public transit including the New York City subway, places where alcohol or marijuana is consumed, museums, theaters, stadiums and other venues, polling places and Times Square. Law enforcement officials and registered security guards are among those exempt from the sensitive-place restrictions. Republican lawmakers voted against the law, set to take effect on Sept. 1, complaining that it makes the right to carry weapons lesser than other constitutional rights, such as freedom of speech and of religion. “Now, it’s going to be easier to get a concealed-carry” license, said Mike Lawler, a Republican member of the Assembly, during the debate. “But you’re not going to be able to carry it anywhere.” ‘FLAGRANT VIOLATION’ The National Rifle Association, the powerful gun-owners’ rights group whose local affiliate was the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case, called New York’s law a “flagrant violation” of the ruling by creating more barriers to New Yorkers’ self-defense rights, indicating it may soon face legal challenges. “Gov. Hochul and her anti-Second Amendment allies in Albany have defied the United States Supreme Court with an intentionally malicious rewriting of New York’s concealed carry law,” Darin Hoens, the New York NRA state director, said in a statement. The court ruled in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen that New York licensing officials had too much subjective discretion over who could enjoy what it said was a constitutional right. Applicants were denied a concealed-carry permit if they could not convince an official they had “proper cause,” or some kind of special reason, for carrying a handgun for self-defense. Reluctantly and not without protest, Hochul agreed the state must remove the “proper cause” requirements, though the law still requires licensing officers find the applicant is of “good moral character.” The new licensing rules require applicants to meet with the licensing officer, usually a judge or a police official, for an in-person interview, and provide the contact details of some immediate family members and any adults they live with. The law makes it a felony to carry a gun into private business premises unless the business affirmatively gives notice that concealed weapons are welcome. (Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Chris Reese, Daniel Wallis and William Mallard) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jason Lange and Jonathan Landay (Reuters) -Police killed Jayland Walker, a Black man in Ohio, by shooting him dozens of times as he ran from officers following a traffic stop, a lawyer for his family said, citing a review of police body-worn camera footage due to be made public on Sunday. In comments published on Saturday by the Akron Beacon Journal, attorney Bobby DiCello described the video as “brutal,” and said Walker’s relatives worried that protests this weekend could turn violent. The shooting was the latest in a spate of killings of Black men by law enforcement in the United States that critics say are unjustified, including the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis that ignited global protests against police brutality and racial injustice. “We’re all bracing for the community’s response, and the one message that we have is the family does not need any more violence,” DiCello said. Akron police have said Walker, 25, fired a gun at officers who were pursuing him. They plan to release their body camera footage following a news conference on Sunday, hours before a protest march is scheduled. “Protest is a way of crying,” Rodderick Pounds Sr., pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Akron, said during a prayer rally there on Saturday after he was permitted to see the video prior to its being made public. Pounds declined to describe in detail “the graphic video the world is about to see,” but he called the footage “shocking,” saying it showed Walker posed no threat when he was shot down in a manner the pastor likened to a “massacre.” “It’s barbaric,” Pounds said in an interview with local television station WEWS-TV. “You’ll see tomorrow.” Officials have said the deadly confrontation began when officers tried to stop Walker for a traffic violation while he was driving early Monday morning. Walker fled, according to the Akron Police Department, which said officers reported a gun being fired from Walker’s vehicle. After several minutes Walker exited his vehicle and ran, while officers chased him on foot and fired at him, saying he presented a “deadly threat,” the police department said in a statement on Tuesday. Walker was pronounced dead in the parking lot where he fell. Police representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday. DiCello said his team has not seen any evidence Walker fired a weapon and that police body-camera footage showed him running with his back to officers when they gunned him down. “He is just in a down sprint when he is dropped by I think the count is more than 90 shots,” DiCello told the Beacon Journal. “Now how many of those land, according to our investigation right now, we’re getting details that suggest 60 to 80 wounds.” It was not clear how many bullets struck Walker because bullets can cause wounds both entering and exiting the body, DiCello said. Television station WJW-TV said a preliminary report from the medical examiner’s office found Walker sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his head, torso and legs, and that a weapon was recovered from a car by Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, though it did not specify which car. Pounds told WEWS that Walker “did not have a weapon when he was shot. It was in his car.” Compounding the tragedy, according to the Beacon Journal, Walker’s fiance had died in a car accident last month, though WJW cited attorneys for his family as saying Walker had no intention of harming himself or others when he was killed. The officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave during an investigation, the department’s statement said. (Reporting by Jason Lange and Jonathan Landay in Washington; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Daniel Wallis) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Adele was a “shell of a person” after cancelling her Las Vegas residency at the last minute. The ‘Easy On Me’ hitmaker stunned fans in January when she axed her concert series just days before it was due to start and she admitted she was plagued by guilt but needed time to “grieve”. Speaking to Lauren Laverne on ‘Desert Island Discs’, she said: “I was a shell of a person for a couple of months. I just had to wait it out and just grieve it, I guess, just grieve the shows and get over the guilt, but it was brutal.” The 34-year-old star knows how disappointing her decision was for fans but she still believes she did the right thing. She said: “The show was not good enough. Maybe my silence has been deadly, I don’t know. But it was horrible. “I definitely felt everyone’s disappointment and I was devastated, and I was frightened about letting them down. I’d thought I could pull it together and make it work and I couldn’t, and I stand by that decision. “I don’t think any other artist would have done what I did and that is why it was such a massive, massive story. It was like, ‘I don’t care. You can’t buy me, you can’t buy me for nothing. I’m not going to just do a show because I have to or because people are going to be let down or because we’re going to lose loads of money.’” While Adele was criticised for staying silent in the aftermath of the cancellation but she insisted it wasn’t necessary for her to keep addressing fans. She said: “Of course I could be someone on TikTok or Instagram Live every day, being like ‘I’m working on it’. Of course I’m working on it! I’m not gonna update you if I ain’t got nothing to update you with, because that just leads to more disappointment.” The ‘Someone Like You’ singer still battles stage fright and she knows when it will be time to call it a day. She said: “My adrenaline means I am excited and my nerves mean I want to go and do a great show. When I don’t feel like that, I am done – l won’t do it any more. I think a lot of people actually don’t care any more and it breaks my heart when I go to a show or I hear an album and I think: ‘I don’t think they care about what they are doing any more’.” The ‘Hello’ singer – who has nine-year-old son Angelo with ex-husband Simon Konecki and is in a relationship with Rich Paul – acknowledged she has tried to keep out of the public eye but her desire to be “such a recluse” has only “fuelled” further interest in her. She said: “Sometimes it used to be two years and I wouldn’t be seen anywhere. I used to just hang out at home. But also I have a whole setup of how I move, and no one ever knows, just so I can go out and be completely carefree.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jonathan Landay WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court’s top security officer has asked Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to enforce laws barring picketing outside the Maryland homes of high court justices, saying protests and “threatening activity” have increased. Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley made the request in a July 1 letter to Hogan, noting that Maryland law prohibits people from intentionally assembling “in a manner that disrupts a person’s right to tranquility in the person’s home.” “I am writing to request that the Maryland State Police, in conjunction with local authorities as appropriate, enforce laws prohibiting picketing outside the homes of Supreme Court justices who live in Maryland,” Curley told Hogan, according to a copy of the letter posted on the Fox News website. Abortion rights activists began protesting outside the Maryland homes of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the Virginia home of Justice Samuel Alito Jr. after the leak in May of a draft opinion indicating the court would overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision guaranteeing women the right to an abortion. The court last month issued a final opinion that did just that. Curley reminded the governor that in May, he said he was “deeply concerned” over picketing outside justices’ homes in his state. Hogan made the statement in a joint letter with Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland seeking enforcement of a federal law barring demonstrations intended to sway judges on pending cases. “Since then, protest activity at Justices’ homes, as well as threatening activity, has only increased,” Curley told Hogan, adding that protesters have for weeks used bullhorns, chanted slogans, and banged on drums. The letter also noted “an attempt on a Justice’s life,” an apparent reference to the arrest last month near Kavanaugh’s home of a California man armed with a handgun, a knife and pepper spray. (Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing by David Gregorio) View the full article

Published by AFP The New York state senate — seen here in June 2011 — took action on Friday July 1, 2022 to add the right to an abortion to the state's consitution. New York (AFP) – The US state of New York moved to enshrine abortion rights and access to contraception in its constitution Friday, becoming a vanguard in the pushback against a seismic ruling by the country’s Supreme Court that upended reproductive rights nationwide. The state Senate “advanced the first passage of an amendment to codify the right to an abortion and the right to contraception in the State Constitution,” it said in a statement. New York state law already permits abortions, so the move would add an extra layer of legal protection for the procedure. The amendment also seeks to “update the existing Equal Rights Amendment to extend current protections to several new classes, including on the basis of sex, disability, national origin, ethnicity, and age,” it said. After passing the Senate, the legislation will next go to the state Assembly, where it is expected to be passed. Voters will then cast their ballot on it directly in a referendum. Conservatives in the United States have been working for decades to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that said the US constitution provides for a right to an abortion. Last month they got their wish when the court’s new conservative majority overturned Roe with a decision that was widely expected, but nonetheless ignited nationwide protests and brought international condemnation. The decision handed power back to the states to make their own rules on abortion, and up to half are expected to ban or severely restrict it. Others have declared themselves abortion “sanctuaries” and vowed to protect the right, as well as other rights such as gay marriage which progressives now fear are in the court’s sights. “The reversal of Roe v. Wade made it clear that New York State must continue to stand up and be a national leader to protect women and individual rights,” said New York Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat, in the statement. View the full article

Published by Orlando Sentinel ORLANDO, Fla. — The new Florida law dubbed “don’t say gay” by its critics kicked in Friday, banning instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in primary grades — and creating fears that all topics related to LGBTQ people are off limits in public schools. State leaders dismiss those complaints, saying the law, officially known as the Parental Rights in Education act, or HB 1557, has been the subject of “fear mongering” and does not attack gay or transgender students, employees or parents. The law’s goal is to limit instruction on those topics in the earliest grades, leaving that up … Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Lindsay Lohan has married Bader Shammas. The 36-year-old actress has taken to social media to announce that she’s tied the knot with the Dubai-based financier. Alongside a photo of herself and Bader, Lindsay wrote on Instagram: “I am the luckiest woman in the world. Not because I need a man, but because he found me and knew that I wanted to find happiness and grace, all at the same time. I am stunned that this is my husband. My life and my everything. [heart emoji] every woman should feel like this everyday [heart and prayer emoji] (sic)” A rep for the actress subsequently confirmed to ‘Entertainment Tonight’ that the loved-up couple are now legally married. Lindsay and Bader announced their engagement in November, when the ‘Mean Girls’ star shared the news with her social media followers. Alongside a photo of her sparkling engagement ring, Lindsay said at the time: “My love. My life. My family. My future. @bader.shammas #love [ring emoji] (sic)” Lindsay – who shot to fame as a child and has spent time in rehab due to alcoholism – previously revealed what she was looking for in a man. The Hollywood star explained in 2019 that she was seeking someone who didn’t crave the spotlight and was successful in their own right. She said: “[I want] someone who hates the spotlight. No, seriously, someone who doesn’t have Instagram. [And] a smart businessman. “I haven’t met anyone that’s hit those [marks].” Lindsay also insisted she wouldn’t turn to dating apps in her bid to find love. The actress explained at the time: “It’s great for people that it works for and that love it but, no, it’s not for me, personally.” View the full article

Published by Reuters (Corrects paragraph 15 to attribute testimony about Trump throwing a plate to Cassidy Hutchinson, not Kayleigh McEnaney; corrects name of judge in paragraph two to David Carter, not Andrew Carter) By Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. congressional committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol has sought to build a case that then-President Donald Trump behaved illegally when he sought to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat, but what charges might prosecutors bring against Trump and how might he defend himself? Here are some ideas being floated now: OBSTRUCTING AN OFFICIAL PROCEEDING In a March 2 court filing, the committee detailed Trump’s efforts to persuade then-Vice President Mike Pence to either reject slates of electors for Joe Biden, who won the election, or delay a congressional count of those votes.. The president’s efforts likely violated a federal law making it illegal to “corruptly” obstruct any official proceeding, or attempt to do so, said David Carter, the California federal judge overseeing the case. Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, said Trump dismissed concerns that some supporters gathered for his fiery speech outside the White House that day carried AR-15-style rifles, instead asking security to stop screening attendees with magnetometers so the crowd would look larger. She testified Trump demanded to be taken to the Capitol to join supporters rioting ahead of Pence’s expected certification of the vote and tried to grab the steering wheel when his security detail insisted on returning him to the White House. Hutchinson said the conversation was relayed to her by Tony Ornato, a senior Secret Service official who was Trump’s deputy chief of staff for operations. Ilya Somin, professor of law at George Mason University, said the testimony could “bolster the chances of indicting and convicting Trump, especially insofar as some potential charges hinge on his motives and state of mind.” Trump denied Hutchinson’s account in a statement posted on Truth Social, his social media app, and called her story about him grabbing the steering wheel “fake” and “fraudulent.” Trump has accused the committee of conducting a “sham investigation.” The New York Times and NBC, citing sources in the Secret Service, said the head of Trump’s security detail, Robert Engel, and the limousine driver were prepared to testify under oath that Trump never lunged for the steering wheel. CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD THE UNITED STATES In the March 2 filing, the committee said it was likely that Trump and others conspired to defraud the United States, which criminalizes any effort by two or more people to interfere with governmental functions “by deceit, craft or trickery.” In addition to Trump’s efforts to pressure Pence, the committee cited his attempts to convince state election officials, the public and members of Congress that the 2020 election was stolen, even though several of his allies told him there was no evidence of fraud. According to Hutchinson’s testimony, Trump’s White House press secretary at the time, Trump was so enraged by then-Attorney General Bill Barr’s interview with the Associated Press saying there was no evidence of election fraud that Trump threw his lunch at the wall, breaking a porcelain dish and leaving ketchup dripping down the wall. SEDITIOUS CONSPIRACY? Prosecutors already have charged more than a dozen members of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups who were at the Jan. 6 riot with seditious conspiracy, a rarely used statute that makes it illegal to overthrow the U.S. government by force. To prove seditious conspiracy, prosecutors would need to show Trump conspired with others to use force, said Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan and a former federal prosecutor. “While her testimony is consistent with that theory, it does not alone establish it,” McQuade said. OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE At the end of Hutchinson’s testimony, Representative Liz Cheney, a Republican, presented possible evidence of witness tampering and obstruction of justice. Cheney showed messages to unidentified witnesses advising them that an unidentified person would be watching their testimony closely and expecting loyalty. If the committee has evidence that the people who sent the messages had a “tacit understanding” with Trump, prosecutors could use it to show there was a conspiracy to tamper with witnesses, said Daniel Medwed, a law professor at Northeastern University in Boston. “They were setting the table for witness tampering and likely have other witnesses coming in to nail that down,” he said. The fact that Cheney did not identify the sender of the messages suggests it may be “more of a shot across the bow to get the person to knock it off,” McQuade said. TRUMP’S DEFENSE? Trump has repeatedly denied doing anything illegal in connection with the Jan. 6 events. If the Justice Department brings charges, prosecutors’ main challenge will be proving that Trump acted with corrupt intent, experts said. Trump could argue he sincerely believed that he won the election and that his well-documented efforts to pressure Pence and state election officials were not meant to obstruct Congress or defraud the United States, but to protect the election’s integrity. Hutchinson’s account could make it more difficult for Trump to assert this defense, Medwed said. “Prior to (Tuesday’s) disclosures, the biggest hurdle to charging Trump related to mental state: to proving that he intended to obstruct an official proceeding or to agree with others to defraud the U.S. or foment rebellion,” Medwed said. “(Tuesday’s) testimony offered powerful circumstantial evidence that it was his intent to do those things.” DOES THIS MEAN TRUMP WILL BE CRIMINALLY CHARGED? No. Neither Carter nor the committee can charge Trump with federal crimes. That decision must be made by the Justice Department, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland. The department is conducting its own sprawling investigation of the Jan. 6 events, but has not signaled whether it intends to indict Trump, a decision that could have enormous political consequences as Trump weighs another run for the presidency in 2024. The department did not respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Howard Goller) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Kenny Goss didn’t want to be “Mrs George Michael”. The 63-year-old businessman had a 13-year relationship with the pop icon – who died on Christmas Day in 2016, aged 53 – but Kenny admits he wasn’t happy to sacrifice his own career for the sake of their romance. Kenny – who headed a team of 200 sales reps in the US during their relationship – recalled: “He said: ‘Look, you don’t need to work, we have plenty of money.’ He wanted me to be around all the time, to be at home when he came back late from the studio, and to look after the dogs. So, I quit. “Looking back, it was the wrong thing to do. I ate a lot of nice meals, drank a lot of martinis at Claridge’s and became a bit of a party boy. “George was always in the studio, so I’d pass the time going to the gym, tidying the house and walking the dogs. But I didn’t want to be Mrs George Michael – it wasn’t my personality.” The ‘Faith’ hitmaker eventually confronted his partner about the issue. Kenny told the Daily Mail newspaper: “It was a real dressing down. In that very direct and brutally honest way of his, he asked me what I was doing with my life. He said: ‘You have to do something and give back.’ “It brought me to my senses and motivated me to show him what I could do.” George and Kenny’s romance had petered out by 2009. However, they remained on good terms and George “never quibbled about money”. He said: “There was no big falling out – we never shouted at each other or anything like that – but he’d met Fadi Fawaz and I guess he decided it was time to say that it was over. “Our romantic life was over, but the love was still there. He gave me full title to our houses in Dallas and LA – he took care of me. George never quibbled about money.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Adele finds the thought of letting down her fans to be “mortifying”. The 34-year-old singer feels she failed her fans by postponing her residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas earlier this year, and Adele addressed the issue during her BST Hyde Park performance on Friday (01.07.22). The Grammy-winning star – who was performing her first UK gig in five years – told the crowd: “I know that a lot of things have happened with this album and I’m sure a lot of you feel that you’ve been let down and stuff, which is mortifying really and upsetting to me. “But I take my singing very seriously and the last thing I would ever want to do is let people down but I had to do that, it just wasn’t right.” 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 Reuters By Jeff Mason and Rami Ayyub WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden predicted on Friday that some U.S. states will try to arrest women for crossing state lines to get abortions after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to the procedures nationwide. Thirteen Republican-led states banned or severely restricted the procedure under so-called “trigger laws” after the court struck down the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling last week. Women in those states seeking an abortion may have to travel to states where it remains legal. Convening a virtual meeting on abortion rights with Democratic state governors on Friday, Biden said he thinks “people are gonna be shocked when the first state … tries to arrest a woman for crossing a state line to get health services.” He added: “And I don’t think people believe that’s gonna happen. But it’s gonna happen, and it’s gonna telegraph to the whole country that this is a gigantic deal that goes beyond; I mean, it affects all your basic rights”. Biden said the federal government will act to protect women who need to cross state lines to get an abortion and ensure their access to medication in states where it’s banned. New Mexico’s governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, told the meeting her state “will not cooperate” on any attempts to track down women who have had abortions to punish them. “We will not extradite,” she said. Abortion rights groups have filed legislation in multiple states seeking to preserve the ability of women to terminate pregnancies. Judges in Florida, Louisiana, Texas and Utah have since issued decisions preventing those states from enforcing new restrictive abortion laws, while Ohio’s top court on Friday declined to block the Republican-led state from enforcing an abortion ban. [L1N2YI1AD] New York Governor Kathy Hochul told the group that “just a handful of states” are going to have to take care of health of women across the country. “There is such stress out there,” Hochul said. “It is a matter of life and death for American women,” she added. Biden also told the group there were not enough votes in the Senate to scrap a supermajority rule known as the filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade’s protections into law. He had proposed that senators remove the filibuster but the suggestion was shot down by aides to key Democratic lawmakers. “(The) filibuster should not stand in the way of us being able to (codify Roe),” Biden said. (Reporting by Rami Ayyub, Jeff Mason and Susan HeaveyEditing by Alistair Bell) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Elliot Page is on his “first dating app ever”. The 35-year-old actor – who separated from Emma Portner in January 2021 after three years of marriage – revealed that he is looking for love online and thanked his ‘Umbrella Academy’ co-star Ritu Arya, 28, for “guiding me on my first dating app ever”. Elliot made the announcement on Instagram. Page publicly announced he was transgender in 2020 when he was still married to Portner and she responded with a supportive Instagram post. She wrote: “I am so proud of @elliotpage. Trans, queer and non-binary people are a gift to this world. I also ask for patience privacy but that you join me in the fervent support of trans life every single day. Elliot’s existence is a gift in and of itself. Shine on sweet E. Love you so much.” And Elliot explained he always knew he was a boy and couldn’t understand when people told him he wasn’t. He said: “All trans people are so different, and my story’s absolutely just my story. But yes, when I was a little kid, absolutely, 100 percent, I was a boy. I knew I was a boy when I was a toddler. I was writing fake love letters and signing them ‘Jason.’ Every little aspect of my life, that is who I was, who I am, and who I knew myself to be. “I just couldn’t understand when I’d be told, ‘No, you’re not. No, you can’t be that when you’re older’. You feel it. Now I’m finally getting myself back to feeling like who I am, and it’s so beautiful and extraordinary, and there’s a grief to it in a way.” View the full article

Published by Fort Worth Star-Telegram FORT WORTH, Texas — A prominent American remains detained in Russia because Brittney Griner is not as prominent as her supporters want to believe. Because Brittney Griner plays in the WNBA, not the NBA. Because Brittney Griner is a woman. Since we’re being honest, it doesn’t help that Brittney Griner is gay, too. Since Brittney Griner was a star at Baylor, she always stood out. She is now stuck in the bizarre circumstance because she doesn’t stand out enough. “This shows how women are fighting for equality and we still have to fight even when it’s an American stuck in a Russian jail,” said Ari… Read More View the full article