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Published by BANG Showbiz English Alan Cumming has offered a $10,000 reward to find his missing chimpanzee co-star. The 57-year-old actor has teamed up with animal rights organisation PETA to help track down Tonka, a creature he became “good friends” with after filming 1997 family comedy ‘Buddy’ – which was based on the real-life story of 1920s socialite Gertrude Lintz, who raised monkeys as part of her family – because the primate has mysteriously disappeared. Alan said in a statement “During the months we filmed together, baby Tonka and I became good friends, playing and grooming each other and just generally larking about. “It’s horrible to think he might be in a cage in a dark basement somewhere or have met some other fate, so I’m appealing to whoever knows what has become of him to please come forward and claim the reward.” The ‘Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion’ actor has pledged to match PETA’s $10,000 reward for information as to the whereabouts of the animal, raising the total to $20,000. According to the organisation, Tonka was last seen at a cage at the former Missouri Primate Foundation – which was previously known as Chimparty – which they described as a “notorious, now-defunct breeding facility in Festus, Missouri that bred baby chimpanzees, rented them out for movies and parties, and sold them to private owners.” PETA had previously sued the Missouri Primate Foundation over the living conditions of the chimpanzees houses there and were given permission to rescue seven chimps, including Tonka, and transfer them to a sanctuary. But when they went to take the animals last July, Tonka had vanished and owner Tonia Haddix claimed he had “died”. In January, a judge ruled the owner’s testimony was not credible and so the organisation have embarked on a hunt to track down Tonka. PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet said in a statement: “If you know where Cumming’s former co-star may have been shipped to, sold, or hidden away, PETA wants to hear from you. “If he’s still alive, Tonka deserves to live out the rest of his days surrounded by chimpanzee friends at a lush sanctuary, as ordered by the court, and someone out there might be able to help PETA get him there.” Anyone with pertinent information should call PETA at 757-622-PETA or submit their tip at PETA.org/Tonka. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Joe Exotic is planning to marry his fiancé John Graham wearing a specially designed wedding suit costing $11.500. The ‘Tiger King’ star – who is currently doing time after being found guilty of a murder-for-hire plot against rival Carole Baskin and violations of animal welfare law – is preparing to met John Graham, who he met in prison in February 2021 when they were both behind bars in Fort Worth, Texas, and he’s enlisted the services of Odain Watson of Otaingerous to create outfits for himself and his partner. According to TMZ.com, the $11,500 white suits will be made in Italy and feature a custom silk lining with a tiger print. Joe’s will feature the pattern in pink while John – who has been released from prison – will reportedly be sporting a more traditional look and the suits will take around four to six weeks to make. The star, 59, previously worked with Odain back in 2020 releasing his own line of clothes, shoes and underwear. Joe can’t marry John until his divorce from Dillon Passage is finalised. His estranged husband is asking for both parties to walk away with what they owned before they married, and also wants to secure a restraining order so Joe is ordered to stay away and not contact him directly. Dillon’s attorneys, Chris Kirker and Holly Davis explained the pair started negotiating the terms of their divorce in September but paused the proceedings when Joe was diagnosed with cancer. Joe’s new attorney, Autumn Blackledge, says the star is open to a deal so long as the terms are “reasonable”. However, his estranged husband’s team say when they offered the same terms in September, Joe’s response was: “It will be a cold day in hell before I sign these papers … You’re out of your f****** mind.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By David Gauthier-Villars, Steve Stecklow and John Shiffman (Reuters) – By his own account, Ilias Sabirov, a Moscow businessman, had supplied Russia’s military with high-performance computer chips made in the United States for years. Then, in 2014, Russia seized the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, and the U.S. government began imposing a series of new sanctions and export controls on Russia, including severely restricting sales of such chips. But that didn’t stop Sabirov from obtaining more, according to U.S. authorities and a Reuters review of Russian customs records. In the spring of 2015, a parcel containing more than 100 memory chips specially hardened to resist radiation and extreme temperatures – critical components in missiles and military satellites – arrived at Sabirov’s business address in Moscow, according to the Russian customs records and a U.S. federal indictment. American prosecutors allege that the “rad-hard”chips were sourced from a company in Austin, Texas, called Silicon Space Technology Corp, or SST, but shipped to Russia via a firm in Bulgaria to evade U.S. export law. After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, the United States and more than 30 other nations responded with an unprecedented barrage of additional sanctions and export restrictions. But the story of how the American chips made it from Texas to Moscow back in 2015 shows how sensitive Western technology can still end up in Russia despite strict U.S. export controls. This account of the criminal case against Sabirov and two Bulgarian businessmen, which remains open, contains new details from interviews with U.S. officials and several of the main actors, including two fugitives. And it points to the challenges of imposing a rigorous export-control regime, especially on so-called dual-use components that can serve both civilian and military purposes. The Texas scheme and other U.S. criminal cases involving sensitive technology that ended up in Russia, reviewed by Reuters, reveal a chain of willing suppliers, front and shell companies and false claims on export forms that specialized Western components were intended for civilian rather than military use. Sought-after parts have included microelectronics and precision tooling for the Russian military. During war, said U.S. Department of Defense spokeswoman Sue Gough, rad-hard chips play an essential role for communications, intelligence and surveillance. “Acquisition of radiation-hardening technology by nuclear-capable aggressive states, like Russia, could embolden them, increasing international security destabilization,” Gough said. “Therefore, protection of these chips is extremely important to U.S. national security.” Today, Russia’s efforts to circumvent U.S. restrictions on military and other sensitive technology are on the rise, according to U.S. Homeland Security Investigations officials. A specialized unit of 25 U.S. counter-proliferation analysts, whose objective is to spot suspicious shipments, shifted their sole focus from China to Russia in late February, the HSI officials said. “China doesn’t dominate our attention like they used to, and it’s Russia where we’ve seen the biggest increase lately,” said Greg Slavens, who recently retired after 30 years as a HSI counter-proliferation supervisor. “The Russians have steadily increased their attempts to get chips for missile and space technology.” The Kremlin did not respond to questions about U.S. accusations that it uses deceptive schemes to bypass Western sanctions and trade restrictions. Russia has previously cast Western sanctions as a hostile act. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, who met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Washington on April 21, said in a statement the same day that her department is “laser focused on depriving Russia the items and technologies it needs to sustain its war machine.” Complicating matters for U.S. law enforcement: Since 2018, Russia no longer authorizes U.S. export-control officers to conduct on-the-ground checks to ensure that sensitive goods are used for their officially declared purposes, according to people familiar with the matter. Even when suspects are identified, cases can take years to investigate and adjudicate while accused Russian nationals remain beyond the arm of U.S. law. In the Texas matter, it took about five years for U.S. authorities to bring criminal charges and impose a penalty. Sabirov, as well as the two Bulgarian businessmen, Dimitar and Milan Dimitrov, were indicted in 2020 on charges of illegally exporting rad-hard chips to Russia and money laundering. And SST, which changed its name to Vorago Technologies in 2015, was fined $497,000 last year by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security in a separate enforcement action. The bureau oversees export licenses for goods that can be used for both civilian and military purposes. The Texas company, which had been repeatedly warned by its own lawyers that it couldn’t ship rad-hard chips to Russia without a license, admitted that from 2014 to 2019, it had conspired with the three men to do just that. Reuters couldn’t determine whether the chips ultimately were used for a military purpose. The U.S. attorney’s office in the western district of Texas declined to comment. In a statement, Vorago said it “is, and always has been, committed to zero tolerance compliance with all U.S. laws, including export controls.” It said it “has been fully cooperative” in the U.S. investigations and “has implemented strengthened compliance procedures and training to prevent a recurrence.” The company also said it was “deliberately misled into believing that shipments were going to Bulgaria for use in Europe – a legal export. These customers provided a seemingly valid end-user certificate to Vorago certifying that the end user of Vorago’s products was not in Russia.” Sabirov denied any wrongdoing in an interview with Reuters and said the rad-hard chips never went from Bulgaria to Moscow, contradicting evidence gathered by U.S. prosecutors and customs records reviewed by Reuters. He said he always complied with U.S. export rules and never laundered money. “The sanctions they applied on myself, on my companies and on my friends are absolutely unfair, absolutely fake and absolutely wrong,” he said. Milan Dimitrov also denied any wrongdoing. The accusations of export violations are “nonsensical,” he told Reuters. “The whole thing is a misunderstanding. “His father, Dimitar Dimitrov, couldn’t be reached for comment. Sabirov, who is in Russia, and the two Bulgarians remain fugitives in the criminal case. COLD WAR ECHO A review by Reuters of U.S. court and other federal records shows that the Texas case isn’t unique. Between 2008 and 2014, a father-and-son team smuggled more than $65 million worth of sensitive microchips from New Jersey to Moscow-area companies directly associated with Russian military, intelligence and nuclear-warhead design programs, according to U.S. authorities. Alexander Brazhnikov Jr. of New Jersey, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Russia, pleaded guilty in federal court in 2015 to purchasing microelectronics inside the United States, repackaging and relabeling them, and then shipping the goods to Moscow apartments and vacant storefronts linked to his father, a Russian national. There were 1,923 shipments in all, and the son admitted that the money to pay for it was laundered from Russia through 50 foreign shell companies, registered in countries stretching from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific to Panama and Belize in Central America, court records show. “We believe that the microchips were all going to the military-industrial complex because Russia doesn’t produce anything else that would have required that level of chips,” said Peter Gaeta, one of the prosecutors on the case, which remains open. The son, whose field of study was listed as “nuclear physics” in court records, was sentenced to 70 months in prison and was released in December 2018. His father, Alexander Brazhnikov Sr., owner of a Moscow-based microelectronics import-export firm, was charged with conspiracy and remains a fugitive. The company allegedly distributed the components acquired in the United States to Russian defense contractors licensed to procure parts for the Russian military and security service, and Russian companies involved in the design of nuclear weapons. “The scale of this case is just daunting,” Gaeta told Reuters. “But this was not a lone wolf operation. This is happening across the board with Russia.” Alexander Brazhnikov Jr. declined to comment on the case. His father couldn’t be reached. In another case, Alexander Fishenko, a dual citizen of the United States and Russia, ran a years-long scheme to procure and ship sensitive microelectronics from U.S.-based companies to Russian government customers, including its military and intelligence services. Fishenko owned a Houston, Texas-based export company and also was an executive in a Moscow-based procurement company, according to federal prosecutors. Between 2002 and 2012, his export company shipped goods through New York to contacts in countries including Finland, Canada and Germany who would send them onto Russia. Among the items were electronics with applications in radar and surveillance systems, weapons guidance systems and detonation triggers. Fishenko and 10 other people were indicted in 2012 for participating in a conspiracy to sell controlled technology to Russia without required licenses. He later pleaded guilty to, among other charges, acting as an agent of the Russian government. Seven others were convicted either through pleas or at trial. Fishenko spent more than seven years behind bars. New York lawyer Richard Levitt, who represented Fishenko in the case, declined to comment, and Fishenko himself couldn’t be reached. “It is common for illegal exports of controlled technology to go through middlemen overseas to hide the true destination of the goods,” said Daniel Silver, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn who handled the Fishenko case. “These global networks can shield U.S. exporters by making it harder for law enforcement agents to connect the dots.” In recent years, Russia has tried to blunt Western export restrictions by making more parts at home or shifting to suppliers located in allied countries, such as China. Still, Russian companies remain heavily reliant on the West for high-precision machinery and some high-performance semiconductors like the radiation-hardened chips Sabirov imported. “If a Russian satellite orbits around the Earth without a glitch, you can definitely assume that it contains Western electronics,” an executive with a U.S. semiconductor maker said, asking not to be named. Russia doesn’t make such chips and China, despite heavy investment, has yet to bridge the gap with rivals, the person said. To supply its military, Russia has found high-tech suppliers in the U.S. and other Western countries. Between 2015 and 2018, Almaz-Antey, a state-owned manufacturer of Russia’s sophisticated air-defense missile systems, managed to bypass German export restrictions and procure nearly $10 million worth of high-precision metalworking machines, according to a person familiar with the matter and an official case summary filed with a Hamburg court. Export-license papers claimed the machinery was destined to various Russian producers of civilian goods in the city of Yekaterinburg when, in fact, they were delivered to a nearby Almaz-Antey facility, according to the person familiar with the matter and the case summary. Almaz-Antey didn’t respond to a message seeking comment. Suzette Grillot, a professor of international studies at the University of Oklahoma, said Western trade restrictions on Russia worked during the Cold War because the West then dominated world trade. “When you went from the U.S. to Russia in the early 1990s, it was a different world technologically speaking, the place was definitely behind the times in communications and other technologies,” she said. But replicating Cold War sanctions to squeeze the Russian economy and military industry today seems like an elusive goal, Grillot said, because Russia has had almost unlimited access to Western technology for the past 30 years and can now also rely on alternative suppliers such as China and India. “You can’t unring a bell,” she said. TOP SECRET Trained as a physicist and chemist, Wesley Morris had developed solutions to harden semiconductors against heat and radiation. In 2004, he founded SST (now called Vorago Technologies) in a bid to monetize his patented inventions. Morris told Reuters that his techniques caught the attention of the U.S. military, and SST received millions of dollars in research grants from the U.S. Department of Defense, including from top-secret missile programs, to hone its technology. But 10 years later, in the spring of 2014, SST was still chasing its first significant commercial order. That’s when Morris, the company’s chief executive, said he learned from a newly recruited salesman that a Russian businessman, Sabirov, was interested in buying rad-hard chips from SST. Sabirov, the salesman said, wanted to purchase them for Russia’s space agency, making him an attractive customer prospect because Russia relies almost entirely on imports for its rad-hard requirements. The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, said it had no information about Sabirov’s involvement in procuring electronic components for Russia. Sabirov arrived at a meeting at SST’s office in Austin in May 2014, accompanied by a Bulgarian associate, Dimitar Dimitrov. The two men formed an odd pair, Morris and several other people who dealt with them said. The Russian spoke English fluently and projected the confidence of a man with solid connections in his country’s state bureaucracy. The Bulgarian appeared to be a brilliant scientist whose scuffed shoes suggested that he didn’t worry too much about his attire. Both men seemed to have solid technical backgrounds. According to Morris, Sabirov told him that one of his Russian companies, Kosmos Komplekt, had been buying rad-hard chips from SST’s bigger U.S. rival, Aeroflex, since 2011, and was interested in transitioning to SST’s products. “I wanted to get the business,” Morris recalled thinking at the time. A spokesman for Cobham Group, which acquired Aeroflex in September 2014, said Aeroflex had stopped shipping rad-hard chips to Sabirov in Russia prior to the acquisition. A week after the May 2014 meeting in Austin with Sabirov, SST’s outside lawyer dampened Morris’s expectations of quickly clinching a lucrative contract. “Anything that requires a license to Russia is currently subject to a presumption of denial,” the lawyer told Morris and other executives, according to Commerce Department documents. Morris told Reuters he wasn’t ready to abandon what could be the transformational contract SST had longed for. From his conversation with Sabirov, Morris said he had grown hopeful the Russian would order $10 million worth of goods. He said he believed that the chips would be used in satellites, not in missiles. Morris said that in July 2014, he and Sabirov discussed their options upon meeting on the sidelines of a nuclear-technology conference in Paris. Morris said his ideas hinged on obtaining one of the few export licenses U.S. authorities were still granting as part of Washington’s cooperation with Russia on joint space programs. Days after the Paris meeting, however, Morris lost hope. Geopolitical tension with Moscow had escalated after a Malaysian airliner flying through Ukrainian airspace was downed by a Russian-made missile, killing 298 people. Even though Moscow denied involvement in the tragedy, obtaining an export license to Russia was now virtually impossible, Morris concluded after conferring with SST’s lawyer. “We can’t send you anything,” the American CEO said he told Sabirov. But Morris said Sabirov proposed to him an alternative solution: how about using Bulgaria, a country for which an export license wasn’t necessary, as a transit point? To avoid the need for a U.S. license, chips could be mounted on electronic boards in Sofia, effectively changing the product’s designation in export documents before they were shipped to Moscow. In early August 2014, Morris again conferred with SST’s lawyer, who said the plan wouldn’t fly. Unless Sabirov could prove he was “adding substantial value in Bulgaria,” a license for export to Russia likely would be required, the lawyer advised in an email, according to Commerce Department documents. The documents don’t name the lawyer. That same month, Sabirov told SST that since sanctions had disrupted his business of procuring parts for Russia, he had set up a Bulgarian company that would target civilian markets in Europe, according to former SST employees and the Commerce Department documents. The plan was to assemble modules with chips and sell them to car makers for use in engines and exhaust systems. Rad-hard chips aren’t commonly used in automobiles because of their cost. Sabirov’s Bulgarian business – Multi Technology Integration Group EOOD, or MTIG – was set up by a relative of a business partner in Sofia. The next month, September 2014, MTIG ordered a silicon wafer of rad-hard memory chips from SST for $125,000, according to interviews and federal court documents. Sabirov told SST that MTIG would test the chips and that more orders would follow, according to interviews and Commerce Department documents. The wafer, which had been produced using SST’s hardening process at a Texas Instruments Inc foundry, was shipped to MTIG at the end of January 2015, according to former SST employees. Four months later, after the eight-inch wafer had been cut into 115 memory chips, the semiconductors were shipped to one of Sabirov’s companies in Moscow, Sovtest Comp, where a 4.6-pound parcel arrived on May 25, according to Russian customs records, interviews and Commerce Department documents. Texas Instruments said it “complies with applicable laws and regulations in the countries where we operate. At this time, we are not selling into Russia or Belarus.” By the time SST shipped the wafer to MTIG, the U.S. company had undergone a change in management. In early January 2015, Morris had been stripped of his CEO title after losing a battle for control with the firm’s main investor, New Scientific Ventures. NSV declined to comment. The new CEO, Bernd Lienhard, learned of the shipment to Bulgaria in March 2015, according to the Commerce Department documents. Vorago declined to comment about Lienhard being informed about the deal. The company rebranded itself as Vorago Technologies that August, but its fortunes continued to rely on Sabirov. In the fall of 2015, Lienhard learned that the Russian was planning to order five more wafers. Lienhard sent Sabirov an email saying it was “the most important biz opportunity for us this year and we are very committed to do whatever necessary to help you,” according to the Commerce Department documents. In November 2015, the two men exchanged more emails. Lienhard offered a steep discount if Sabirov ordered more wafers before year end. “How would you feel about the following scenario? Could you buy only 3 wafers this quarter and we would reduce the price per wafer from currently $125,000 to $100,000?” Lienhard emailed Sabirov. “You would help us a lot.” Five days later, Sabirov asked if there were “any obstacles for direct shipment to Moscow?” Lienhard responded that the wafers would have to be sent to Bulgaria to comply with export regulations, according to the Commerce Department documents, which contained excerpts from the communications. In December 2015, a new Vorago sales executive, Anne Joubert, met with Sabirov and Dimitar Dimitrov in Munich to discuss additional wafer purchases, according to interviews and Commerce Department documents. Days later, MTIG sent Vorago a purchasing order for five more wafers. Federal documents show that Vorago shipped two of them to MTIG in December 2015. In July 2016, Joubert flew to Bulgaria where she met with Sabirov and the two Dimitrovs. During the meeting, Joubert asked if MTIG was shipping Vorago’s rad-hard chips to Russia, according to interviews and federal court records. “Maybe,” Sabirov replied. When Joubert said this would violate U.S. export regulations, Dimitar Dimitrov assured her that all of the chips the Texas company previously had shipped to MTIG had remained in Bulgaria. According to the federal indictment, this claim was false because some chips had been sent to Russia. The indictment says that the “Ship to” address on an MTIG invoice was Sabirov’s company, Sovtest, in Moscow. Joubert declined to comment. Sabirov continued discussing ordering more wafers, including during a meeting with Lienhard in Sofia in August 2018, according to the Commerce Department documents. That December, an export control officer from the Commerce Department went to Sofia to verify that Vorago chips had been used by MTIG in Bulgaria. The officer met with the younger Dimitrov, Milan, who denied the semiconductors had been sent to Russia and said they were still in Bulgaria, according to the federal indictment. By then, Vorago, Sabirov and the Dimitrovs were under investigation by both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Commerce Department for alleged export violations, according to interviews. In early 2016, the company’s founder, Morris, informed the FBI about what he viewed as alleged irregularities at the firm, including the sales involving Sabirov, according to people familiar with the matter. Weeks after the tip-off, in April 2016, FBI agents raided Vorago’s head office in Austin, searching the premises while staffers were told to remain in one room, according to the people familiar with the matter. “It was a very disruptive day,” one former employee recalled. According to people familiar with the matter, the federal investigations made slow progress. In July 2019, the FBI raided the third floor of an office building, also in Austin, where Vorago had relocated. That same month, arrest warrants were issued for Sabirov and the Dimitrovs. Seventeen months later, in December 2020, the U.S. Justice Department announced the indictment of the three men on charges of illegally procuring rad-hard chips and money laundering. Then, last September – six years after the Texas company first began shipping the specialized chips to Bulgaria – the Commerce Department announced a settlement in which Vorago agreed to pay a penalty: $497,000, the proceeds of its sales. Neither Vorago nor its executives were charged in the criminal case. ((David Gauthier-Villars reported from Istanbul, Steve Stecklow from London and John Shiffman from Washington. Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York and Tsvetelia Tsolova in Sofia. Editing by Janet McBride)) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Andrew Garfield plans to take a break from Hollywood because he needs to “just be a bit ordinary for a while”. The ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ star has insisted he needs some time off following a whirlwind awards season this year. Andrew, 38, was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his role in Netflix hit ‘Tick, Tick … Boom! ‘and he is now planning to enjoy some time to himself. He told Variety: “I’m going to rest for a little bit. “I need to re-calibrate and reconsider what I want to do next and who I want to be and just be a bit of a person for a while. “Because, as you know, that is a washing machine, that awards season. I need to just be a bit ordinary for a while.” Andrew is currently promoting his latest TV project, an adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s best-selling true crime book ‘Under The Banner of Heaven’. The drama is based around a murder within Utah’s Mormon community and Andrew plays a detective charged with investigating the killing. He stars opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones and Gil Birmingham, and Andrew has said he immersed himself in Mormon culture to tackle the role. The actor told Us Weekly: “I prepared heavy in the lead up to shooting. I researched a lot, and I did all of my preparation in a really deep way. “I went to Utah. I spent a lot of time with Mormons, ex Mormons, gay Mormons, Bishop Mormons, detective Mormons. I really love that aspect of preparation and worked really heavily on the script with Lance to make sure it felt authentic. I just immersed myself in that culture.” View the full article

Published by Reuters (Corrects name in first para) By Jason Lange WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A bipartisan majority of U.S. voters oppose politicians punishing companies over their stances on social issues, a cold reception for campaigns like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ against Walt Disney Co, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. The two-day poll completed on Thursday showed that 62% of Americans – including 68% of Democrats and 55% of Republicans – said they were less likely to back a candidate who supports going after companies for their views. DeSantis signed a bill last week that strips Disney of self-governing authority at its Orlando-area parks in retaliation for its opposition to a new Florida law that limits the teaching of LGBTQ issues in schools. For DeSantis, a rising star in the Republican Party, it was an attempt to bolster his conservative credentials as a culture warrior ahead of a possible run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. But even when prompted along the lines of DeSantis’ own argument for his action – that laws should remove benefits of government tax breaks from corporations that push a “woke” agenda – 36% of Republicans nationally said they would be less likely to support a candidate with such a view. The Reuters/Ipsos poll still showed that DeSantis, 43, is a potential force in national Republican politics. Presented with a list of prominent politicians, a full 25% of Republican respondents said DeSantis best represents the values of their party, second only to former President Donald Trump who was favored by 40% of Republicans. Texas Governor Greg Abbott garnered 9%. But the poll also showed a nation deeply divided on how schools teach about sexual orientation and gender identity — the subject of the controversial Florida law. Half of U.S. voters support laws banning classroom discussion on sexual orientation or gender identity for children age 5-11, including 69% of Republicans and 36% of Democrats. The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English and throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 1,003 adults and had a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of about 4 percentage points. (Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis) View the full article

Published by PopCrush One man is literally putting his best foot forward, revealing that he is making big bucks — nearly $2,000 per month — by selling his stinky, sweaty, used socks online. According to the Mirror, Billy-Joe Gray, 25, runs his OnlyFans account alongside his fiancée, and while the pair are used to receiving odd requests from fans, the idea to sell used socks came after a DM from a follower who requested a set pungent, worn socks. Gray is now dominating the niche sock market and is happy to overshare his experience on social media. He even makes $2,000 per month by selling the socks he wears daily, o… Read More View the full article

Published by uPolitics.com Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed a bill that outlaws nonbinary gender markers on birth certificates on Tuesday and it will go into effect immediately. The law is the first of its kind in the U.S. “The biological sex designation on a certificate of birth issued under this section shall be either male or female and shall not be nonbinary or any symbol representing a nonbinary designation including but not limited to the letter ‘X’,” the legislation reads. Other states and the federal government have gone the opposite direction, allowing for nonbinary gender markers, but Oklahoma’s new law jo… Read More View the full article

Published by The Kansas City Star TOPEKA, Kan. — Efforts to ban transgender athletes from girls sports and establish a “parents bill of rights” failed in the Kansas Legislature on Thursday, but Republicans have pledged to make the issues a hallmark of campaigns this August and November. The Kansas House failed to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto on both issues, falling short of the needed two-thirds majority. The Senate easily passed the overrides on Tuesday, but attempts in the House were a long shot. The House’s original votes on the bills fell several votes short of the needed majority. Earlier this week, House Speaker Ron … Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Ellen DeGeneres has filmed the final episode of her talk show and has thanked fans for their support over the years. The 64-year-old presenter – who announced in May 2021 she was ending her eponymous daytime programme this year – reflected on how much the world has changed since she shot her first episode back in 2003 as she revealed she had taped the show for the final time. She wrote on Instagram: “Today we taped the final episode of The Ellen Show which airs on May 26th. “When we started this show in 2003, the iPhone didn’t exist. Social Media didn’t exist. Gay marriage wasn’t legal. “We watched the world change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. But whatever was happening, my goal was always for the show to be a place where we could all come together and laugh for an hour. “Being invited into your lives has been the greatest privilege of my life and has brought me incredible joy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” The end of the show comes after it was engulfed in scandal following allegations the set had become a “toxic” place to work. Ellen faced accusations of being “mean” and the furore prompted an internal investigation by bosses at Warner Bros. parent company WarnerMedia. The presenter issued a statement addressing the reports when the show returned to TV in September 2020 and insisted changes were being made. Elle said: “I know that I’m in a position of privilege and power and I realise that with that comes responsibility, and I take responsibility for what happens at my show. “We have had a lot of conversations over the last few weeks about the show, our workplace, and what we want for the future. We have made the necessary changes and today we are starting a new chapter.” Ellen also admitted she’s not perfect and stressed she was “working” on her behaviour, adding: “The truth is I am that person that you see on TV. “I am also a lot of other things. I get sad. I get mad. I get anxious. I get frustrated. I get impatient. And I am working on all of that.” She announced the series would be coming to an end in May 2021, saying in an episode of the show: “You may wonder why I’ve decided to end after 19 seasons. “The truth is, I always trust my instincts. My instinct told me it’s time.” View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega Megan Foxis teaching her sons about gender identity after her oldest, Noah, 9, expressed repeated interest in wearing dresses. The 35-year-old actress opened up about her parenting style in an interview with Glamour U.K., revealing she and her ex-husband, Brian Austin Green, are doing everything they can to make sure nobody in their family “feels like they are weird or strange or different.” “So they know that their parents are famous, but their knowledge of it is very limited. I knew when they were very young, I wanted to try to protect them however I could, especially limiting their exposure to the internet. So far, we’ve done a really good job and we maintain their innocence in a lot of ways, but I know I can’t protect them forever, though I do have a child that suffers,” she told the outlet. “So I have a lot of worries about that, because I just wish that humanity was not like this,” Fox admitted. “Although my kid is so brave and my child is so brave and I know that they’ve chosen this journey for a reason. It’s just hard as a mom.” Mega Noah “started wearing dresses when he was about two,” and Fox immediately began educating her family. The Transformers star told Glamour U.K. that she “bought a bunch of books that sort of addressed these things and addressed a full spectrum of what this is.” Revealing that some of the literature was written by transgender children, Fox added, “Some of the books are just about how you can be a boy and wear a dress; you can express yourself through your clothing however you want. And that doesn’t even have to have anything to do with your sexuality.” While Fox has been doing everything to educate her children at home, the actress confessed she has to let go when they step out into the world. “I can’t control the way other people react to my children. I can’t control the things that other children – that they go to school with – have been taught and then repeat to them. That’s also why I don’t really put my children on Instagram or social media,” Fox explained. Mega Still, she expressed her desire for others to look beyond gender identity. “I’m so proud of my kids. Noah is an unbelievable pianist. He can learn Mozart’s concerto in an hour,” Fox said. “I want people to see that, but I also don’t want the world to have access to this gentle soul and say all the things that we all know they’re going to say.” In 2019, she discussed Noah’s desire to wear dresses, adding he had started incorporating them into his school wardrobe. “He just wore one two days ago to school, and he came home and I was like, ‘How was it? Did any of the friends at school have anything to say?’ ” Fox recalled at the time. “And he was like, ‘Well, all the boys laughed when I came in, but I don’t care, I love dresses too much.'” Fox shares three sons with Green. Besides Noah, the divorced duo also shareJourney River, 5, Bodhi Ransom, 8. The ex’s finalized their divorce earlier this year. Fox is already engaged to Machine Gun Kelly.Green revealed he’s expecting a baby with his girlfriend, Sharna Burgess. View the full article

Published by Radar Online Spread Pictures / MEGA Madonna shared a cryptic message about “karma” and finding the “right” people in life after reports surfaced that she split from boyfriend Ahlamalik Williams. “Karma said: When somebody in your life is not right for you….. god will continuously use them to hurt you until you become strong enough to let them go,” the Material Girl singer, 63, posted via her Instagram Stories on the same day the breakup rumors swirled. @madonna/Instagram Now that she and her much younger beau, 28, have apparently gone their separate ways, “Madonna has thrown herself into a busy social life and has been seeing her friends and family,” an insider told The Sun of their amicable choice to call it quits. She’s been “working on her upcoming biopic, new music and looking after her family.” “They spent months together on tour and in lockdown, but now he has moved out of her home,” the source, mentioning they are both working on their own goals at this time. “It was hard to keep their romance alight.” KCS Presse / MEGA Madonna and Williams first sparked romance rumors when they were spotted cozying up on a balcony together in December 2019. The pair crossed paths long before that, according to Williams’ dad, Drue, who said they hit it off in 2015 when his son auditioned for Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour. The dancer’s father said she even invited them all to her lavish suite in Las Vegas and had her private chef cook his family dinner. Will / MEGA Madonna also invited his loved ones to her shows in London and France in early 2020 and things continued to heat up from there. In August 2021, the couple was seen touring Italy and packing on PDA while celebrating her 63rd birthday. During the trip, the Like A Virgin songstress was also spotted grabbing a meal with her kids Lourdes Leon, Rocco Ritchie, and her twins, Stella and Estere. Madonna and Williams appeared to be in relationship bliss when they were last photographed together on a romantic dinner date in January. They were joined by her son David. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jan Wolfe WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A member of the far-right Proud Boys group on Wednesday pleaded guilty to obstructing police officers when he joined the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters in their attempt to overturn his election defeat. The plea agreement filed in federal court in Washington calls for Louis Enrique Colon of Missouri to admit to a single felony charge and cooperate with prosecutors. Colon admitted to crossing police barricades during the riot before climbing a wall to gain access to a higher level of the Capitol. While inside the Capitol building, Colon used his hands and a chair to obstruct police officers who were trying to lower retractable doors to stop rioters from streaming into the building. Colon, 45, was charged in February 2021 along with four other members of the Kansas City metro chapter of the Proud Boys. He is the first defendant in that case to plead guilty. A judge had imposed monitoring conditions on Colon while he awaited trial. Colon will be sentenced later this year, and he faces a statutory maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. He will likely receive a reduced sentence because of his admission of responsibility and cooperation. Colon was not charged in the same conspiracy case as Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys chairman and one of the most high-profile of the 800 people facing criminal charges relating to the riot. Colon’s plea comes two weeks after a Proud Boys leader, Charles Donohoe, pleaded guilty to obstructing an official proceeding, and assaulting and impeding police officers. (Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Brendan O’Brien (Reuters) – Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has appealed his conviction and sentence for the murder of George Floyd, arguing that the judge in his case abused his discretion and made multiple errors during the trial. In the appeal filed in Minnesota Court of Appeals on Monday, his lawyers raised 14 separate issues, including Judge Peter Cahill’s decision to deny Chauvin’s request to move the trial out of Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, because of the intense pretrial publicity. “The overwhelming media coverage exposed the jurors —literally every day – to news demonizing Chauvin and glorifying Floyd which was more than sufficient to presume prejudice,” the appeal said. Chauvin, a white man, was convicted in April 2021 of killing Floyd by kneeling on the Black man’s neck during a 2020 arrest. Chauvin was sentenced to 22-1/2 years. In December, Chauvin pleaded guilty in federal court to charges he violated George Floyd’s civil rights. A jury found Chauvin guilty of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd. The verdict was widely seen as a landmark rebuke of the disproportionate use of police force against Black Americans. The 82-page appeal asked the court to reverse the conviction and hold a new trial in a new venue or re-sentence Chauvin. It also raised legal arguments against prosecutors, accusing them of misconduct by not disclosing all evidence they had and belittling the defense during closing arguments. It also said that prosecutors improperly prepared witnesses for testimony. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison was not immediately available to comment. (Reporting by Brendan O’Brien; Editing by Tomasz Janowski) View the full article

Published by AFP A make-shift memorial set up at the site where George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officers; a report has found that Minneapolis police engage in 'discriminatory, race-based policing' Washington (AFP) – An investigation launched days after the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minneapolis police officers, has found a “pattern or practice of race discrimination” within the northern US city’s law enforcement agency. The investigators’ report, published on Wednesday by Minnesota’s Department of Human Rights, stated that there are “racial disparities” in how Minneapolis police “use force, stop, search, arrest, and cite people of color, particularly Black individuals, compared to white individuals in similar circumstances.” These disparities, the report says, are “caused primarily by an organizational culture” that “emphasizes a paramilitary approach to policing” and is “insufficient and ineffective at holding officers accountable for misconduct.” As part of their investigation, the state investigators conducted thousands of interviews, pored through mountains of police reports and analyzed nearly 700 hours of body worn camera footage. Their analysis showed that while African Americans only make up 19 percent of the city’s population, they represented 54 percent of all traffic stops between 2017 and 2020. Similarly, 66 percent of all citations for disorderly conduct and obstruction between 2010 and 2020 went to Black individuals. Of the 14 people killed by Minneapolis police since 2010, 13 were people of color or Indigenous. That number includes the 46-year-old Floyd, who suffocated on May 25, 2020 under the knee of white police officer Derek Chauvin. After a widely followed trial last year, Chauvin was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison for murder. He announced an intent to appeal his conviction in September, and formally submitted that request this week, arguing in part that the judge should have moved the trial’s location. In the wake of Floyd’s death, Minneapolis police adopted changes to their training procedures, but the report’s authors argue they are insufficient and that a “lack of collective action” has allowed a “problematic organizational culture to fester” among the city’s police. The report calls on the mayor, city council and police chiefs to adopt “significant” reforms, starting with officers’ training and disciplinary systems. It does not, however, call for the police to be “abolished” or “defunded,” actions that many protesters called for during the 2020 anti-racism movement, but have since lost popularity due to a nation-wide rise in homicides. View the full article

Published by AFP Donald Trump, photographed in June 2020 New York (AFP) – Ex-president Donald Trump testified under oath that he feared protesters would pelt him with “very dangerous” fruit like pineapples, tomatoes, and bananas saying: “You can get killed with those things.” The comments were revealed in court documents made public Tuesday which included a transcript of a deposition Trump gave last October as part of an ongoing civil lawsuit in New York. The case was brought by several activists of Mexican descent who say they were attacked by his security guards outside Trump Tower in Manhattan in 2015. “I wanted to have people be ready because we were put on alert that they were going to do fruit,” Trump said under questioning by attorney Benjamin Dictor. He added that “tomatoes are bad, by the way” but that “some fruit is a lot worse.” Dictor asked Trump about comments he made at a rally in Iowa in 2016 when the then-presidential candidate told supporters to “knock the crap” out of anyone about to throw a tomato. “That was to the audience. It was said sort of in jest,” Trump responded, before adding: “But maybe, you know, a little truth to it. It’s very dangerous stuff. You can get killed with those things. Dictor asked Trump whether it was his “expectation that if your security guards see someone about to throw a tomato that they should knock the crap out of them?” “Yeah, I think that they have to be aggressive in stopping that from happening. Because if that happens, you can be killed if that happens,” Trump answered. “To stop somebody from throwing pineapples, tomatoes, bananas, stuff like that, yeah, it’s dangerous stuff,” he added later. Trump sat for around four and a half hours during the videotaped deposition on October 18, after a New York judge rejected an attempt to quash a subpoena ordering him to testify. The activists alleged that on September 3, 2015 Trump’s bodyguards violently broke up their protest against derogatory comments Trump had made about Mexico and Mexicans at the start of his ultimately successful run for president. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” Trump had said. The plaintiffs allege that the guards ripped away their signs and punched and choked one of the demonstrators. Trump has claimed that his security “tried to deescalate the situation” but were met with violence from the plaintiffs themselves. The 75-year-old is also facing several other legal battles, which threaten to complicate any bid for another run for the White House in 2024. On Monday, a US judge held Trump in contempt of court and ordered him to pay $10,000 every day until he hands over financial documents to the New York state attorney general who is pursuing a civil probe into alleged fraud at his family business. View the full article

Published by DPA Modernity has finally caught up with Downton Abbey, breaking new ground for a show stuck on old plot lines for quite some time. In the new film "Downton Abbey: A New Era", a secret from the youth of Dowager Countess Violet (Maggie Smith) comes back to haunt her. Ben Blackall/Focus Features LLC/ Universal Pictures/dpa The most popular British upper class family is back – and – you will be relieved to learn – Maggie Smith is still with them. Three years after the first Downtown Abbey film, another sequel to the successful historical drama series that revolves around the lives of the Crawleys, a British aristocratic family, and their staff, is released this spring. “Downton Abbey: A New Era” is set in 1928, and Dowager Countess Violet – played by the fabulous Smith – who, it was hinted at at the end of the first film, may not have long to live, is still there. Indeed she is very much driving the plot this time as her family learns that the great old lady has inherited a villa in the south of France from a Marquis no one has ever heard of before. As the Crawleys try to uncover Violet’s secrets – it wouldn’t be the first time that they find out about a mysterious lover from their grandmother’s past – Lady Mary has plans to invite a film crew to Downton to raise cash for the ailing abbey, a plan that naturally doesn’t go down well with her father, Lord Grantham, who has been known from the series’ outset to resist modernity as long as he can. Fans will be delighted to see the original cast united once again, including Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary, Hugh Bonneville as Lord Grantham, Jim Carter as the Butler Carson, and of course Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess. Imelda Staunton, best known for her role as Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter films, is also back as Lady Maud Bagshaw, whose daughter Lucy marries the Crawley’s widowed son-in-law Tom Brandson, played by Allen Leech. Just like the original series, which won 15 Emmy awards, and the first film, “Downton Abbey: A New Era” was created by Julian Fellowes and, after several delays, is released in Britain on April 29, and in the US and Canada on May 20. As always in a Downton Abbey production, the new film brims with beautiful costume designs and scenery (it was shot at Highclere Castle and its parkland south-west of London). The setting of the French Riviera, where Violet’s newly acquired villa is located, is equally idyllic, shot near the Mediterranean town of Toulon. Meanwhile, the family’s future looks anything but idyllic. As suggested by the film’s title, the opulent lifestyle that the Crawleys were used to for decades just isn’t feasible anymore in modern times. As Carson (once again!) despairs over long-standing traditions being cast aside, Mary and her sister Edith have long turned into modern-day women who know what they want and how to achieve it. This is hardly a new storyline, however, as the Crawleys have been struggling to keep Downton running at least since season 3 of the series. Meanwhile, while the new film certainly doesn’t come up with the most original of plot twists, Maggie Smith continues to captivate with her dry mix of humour and malice, and even more frequent emotional moments. And – let’s be honest – isn’t she one of the main reasons we’ll be heading to theatres to plunge into the Downton Abbey universe once again? View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Sarah Michelle Gellar “totally has a crush on Billie Eilish”. The 20-year-old pop megastar was asked during an Instagram Q+A who her childhood crush was and shared a picture of the ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ actress during her heyday in the 1990s cult show in response. And when Sarah Michelle, 45, noticed the answer, she screenshotted the post and put it up on her own feed, and admitted the feeling was mutual. Sarah wrote on Instagram: “I’m dead. That’s all. I’m not a child anymore, but I totally have a crush on @billieeilish Ok… now that’s really all!” It comes just weeks after the the ‘Scooby-Doo’ star – who has Charlotte, 12, and nine-year-old Rocky with her husband Freddie Prinze Jr – named Zendaya as a potential replacement for her as the famous vampire slayer. Sarah Michelle thinks the ‘Euphoria’ star would be an “amazing” choice to follow in her footsteps. She said: “I vote Zendaya [for Buffy.] That would be amazing.” ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ – which ran for seven seasons during the late 1990s and early 2000s – recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, with Sarah Michelle taking to Instagram to pay tribute to her alter ego and acknowledging the challenges along the way. She wrote on Instagram: “25 years ago today I had the honor to introduce the world to my version of Buffy Anne Summers. It was an uphill battle. A mid season replacement, on a new network based on a movie, that was by no means a giant success. But then there was you. The fans. You believed in us. You made this happen. You are the reason 25 years later we are still celebrating. So today we celebrate you as well. (sic)” View the full article

Published by DPA “Bridgerton” is, above all, famous for its lush settings and opulent costumes. Fans of the Netflix’s hit can now get a taste of this at a touring “Bridgerton Experience.” Liam Daniel/Netflix/dpa If Kentucky Derby fashion had a baby with a 2022 prom season you would have a style baby prime for “The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience.” Sit with that for a minute. On a visit to the show’s Chicago edition in April, women were alighting from cars and rideshares in regalia that blinged and sparkled, in colors so vivid that it was hard to stay focused enough to walk. Groups of friends, families and couples were decked out in Regency-era garb to see and be seen by the Ton that awaited in the pop-up experience centered on the Netflix series “Bridgerton.” The “Bridgerton Experience” opened in Chicago in April, while similar experiences are currently going on in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Montreal is next, and Netflix says the show will be touring “dozens of cities around the globe.” For those not familiar with “Bridgerton,” the period drama takes place during London’s debutante season circa the 1800s. The historical drama is based on author Julia Quinn’s book series and produced by Shonda Rhimes. Viewers are treated to costumes of color so rich, crayons would be envious. Your guide through the landscape is an unseen narrator who goes by the name of Lady Whistledown (voiced by Julie Andrews), who relays high society gossip of the season via a scandalous tabloid of the well-to-do families including the Featheringtons, the Bridgertons, the Sharmas (Season 2) and royalty (i.e., the Duke of Hastings). The multiracial cast seems to float from promenading to ballrooms and country estates as seamlessly as a blink of an eye. That whimsy and fantasy that comes through the screen is replicated in the “Bridgerton Experience.” For tickets starting at $45, attendees can enter the XS Tennis and Education Foundation on the South Side and be transported to Regency-era London for a 90-minute performance that is set to the background music of the show’s soundtrack — including notable pop songs and classical covers of contemporary songs played by a string quartet. Lady Whistledown begins the experience, but soon hands off the narration of the night to a protégé, Lady Heartell, someone as exacting as herself. Guests move from one decadent Instagram-worthy scene to the next, all while interacting with high-society aristocratic characters and participating in big moments from the series — from posing for a regal portrait that you can save on your cellphone to ballroom dancing and even meeting the queen. Pick up a fan, a tiara or gloves at the modiste and take a picture. Commiserate with other fans as you wait to do your best curtsy for the queen. Take part in a mini scavenger hunt, if you so choose. Get on the dance floor and let loose with the performers. The interactive event is awash with fandom camaraderie last seen along with “Downton Abbey.” Living in a pandemic world, it was something to see people immersing themselves in this world of etiquette and pageantry and coming together to dance down “Soul Train” lines, ooh and aah over the performances (the violinist is not to be missed), and vie for the attention of the queen to be named the diamond of the season. Hugs, smiles, cheers and selfies were the modus operandi of the event. For Unique Love, it didn’t matter the cost of the ticket, she was going to attend the Chicago experience. Love looked ethereal in a white gown and butterflies affixed throughout her long hair. She was accompanied by her aunt, Arlene Love, who donned a strapless dress in royal purple and purple hair. Glen Ellyn resident Julie Moskal spent four months making her own Regency-era gown, which was also an homage to her Ukrainian lineage. Her gown featured the country’s flag colours of yellow and blue. She was sporting a white wig that she purchased on eBay. She was enjoying the experience with newfound “Bridgerton” friends with Polish lineage, Round Lake residents Krystyna Cekiera and her daughter Paulina. “Dressing up is a little bit of fantasy and fun,” Moskal said. Patrick Crosson, owner and executive producer of event planning firm PC Events and Experiences, was in attendance with Corey Dill. Both were wearing white wigs, garters, stocking and coats with tails (Crosson a South Loop resident decked out in royal blue and Dill resplendent in smoky red.) Crosson chose the look because he “wanted something that was a mix of genders, a fluidity.” “This is pretty spectacular — the design, picture opportunities, everyone is really in character,” Dill said. “I plan events for a living, and this is on point,” Crosson said. “They did a really great job on setting the scene, creating these Instagram moments, the queen’s whole vibe, she’s so in character just like the queen from the show.” Greg Lombardo, head of experiences at Netflix, said it took about nine months from concept to completion to design the experience. “In partnership with Shondaland, we wanted to feature key and sometimes unexpected moments from the series that would effortlessly immerse attendees in what they love most about the world of ‘Bridgerton,’” Lombardo said. “The Queen’s Ball is based on the world of Bridgerton, but there are plenty of surprises for avid fans and new readers to explore.” “The point is to bring this to a lot of different places and a lot of different communities,” Emily Berlin, event spokesperson, said. “I think this is the right moment for it and I also think the fandom for Bridgerton is so massive … it’s a world people identify with and really love to immerse into.” Trinity Jones, a Merrillville, Indiana resident, was chosen as the queen’s diamond for the session. She calls the surprising moment “amazing.” Jones is taking care of her mom after she suffered a stroke. “I worry for my mother, but I came at the behest of my family to have a good time and it’s the most amazing night of my life,” she said beaming ear to ear in a navy gown and sparkling tiara. Netflix’s “Bridgerton Experience” opened in Chicago in April, while similar experiences are currently going on in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Montreal is next, and Netflix says the show will be touring “dozens of cities around the globe.” Liam Daniel/Netflix/dpa View the full article

Published by Reuters LONDON (Reuters) – Russia’s foreign spy chief accused the United States and Poland on Thursday of plotting to gain a sphere of influence in Ukraine, the strongest signal from Moscow that the war could end with forced partition of Ukraine between the West and Russia. Sergei Naryshkin, the chief of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), cited unpublished intelligence which he said showed that the United States and Poland, NATO allies, were plotting to restore Polish control over part of western Ukraine. “According to the intelligence received by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Washington and Warsaw are working on plans to establish Poland’s tight military and political control over its historical possessions in Ukraine,” Naryshkin said in a rare statement released by the SVR. Poland has ruled some territories that are now part of Ukraine at different times in the past, most recently between the two world wars. Western Ukraine, including the city of Lviv, were absorbed into the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two. The SVR said the United States was discussing with Poland a plan under which Polish “peacekeeping” forces without a NATO mandate would enter parts of western Ukraine where the chance of a confrontation with Russian forces was low. The SVR, which after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union took on most of the Soviet-era KGB’s foreign spying responsibilities, did not publish its evidence and Reuters was unable to verify it. The Polish foreign ministry was not immediately available to comment on Naryshkin’s comments on Thursday. Poland is one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters in its resistance to Russia’s invasion, sending weapons across the border and taking in around three million Ukrainian refugees. A senior Russian lawmaker, Senator Andrei Klimov, deputy chair of the Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee, also said on Thursday Poland was planning to establish control over part of Ukraine. He gave no evidence for the claim. One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies said this week that Ukraine was spiralling towards a collapse into several states because of what he cast as a U.S. attempt to use Kyiv to undermine Russia. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Ukraine and the West says this a false pretext for an unprovoked war of aggression by President Vladimir Putin. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Gareth Jones) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Elizabeth Taylor snuck into the hospital to see Rock Hudson on his deathbed. The legendary actress – who herself died from heart failure at the age of 79 back in 2011 – had struck up a friendship with her ‘Giant’ co-star Rock Hudson and rushed to his bedside with the help of his doctor Michael Gottlieb as he lay dying from AIDS at the age of 59 in in 1985. Dr. Gottlieb Closer Weekly magazine: “I picked Elizabeth up in my old station wagon and we managed to get in through a loading dock at the back of the hospital to see him.” The ‘ Magnificent Obsession’ star was initially married to secretary Phyllis Gates during the 1950s in attempt to conceal his homosexuality – which was already an “open secret” in Hollywood – from the public but he was diagnosed with AIDS in early 1980s. Dr. Gottlieb went on to explain that Hudson “understood” the implications of the disease and that after the actor’s death the physician and the ‘Cleopatra’ star became friends as a result of the tragedy and went on to raise funds for the research of AIDS and started a foundation together. He added: “Rock understood the implications of having AIDS in those early days. He was calm and hoped for the best. [After his death], Elizabeth became a friend to me. Together, we started the American Foundation for AIDS research. Elizabeth was the most prominent person to come forward as an advocate. She had access to the White House and made a huge difference.” Meanwhile, biographer Mark Griffin explained to the outlet that Elizabeth already had two gay friends who had died from the disease and that Rock’s diagnosis only “cemented” her activism. He said: “Elizabeth had two gay assistants who died of AIDS early on in the crisis. Rock’s illness further cemented her determination to raise funds for research and treatment.” View the full article

Lil Nas XThe first Lil Nas X tour is here. The rapper took the world by storm in recent years with hits including “Old Town Road,” “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” and “Industry Baby.” Now, for the first time in his young career, he is bringing his distinct brand of queer-affirming hip-hop to that audience. The Atlanta-based artist announced his first world tour, the “Long Live Montero” tour, on Tuesday via his favorite medium, a tongue-in-cheek YouTube trailer. “My world. My universe. Everyone’s allowed – except gay people,” Lil Nas X comically says over clips of music videos and live performances that define his purposeful showcasing of his queer identity in his music and performances. Lil Nas X Tour: Previously on Towleroad First Lil Nas X Tour, The ‘Long Live Montero’ Tour, Set To Kick Off In September Brian Bell April 28, 2022 Read More Lil Nas X Comic Released; Furries Rescue Pro-LGBTQ Library; Iceman’s Big Queer Prom; Tennessee Bible Burning Protest: Books Roundup Brian Bell February 9, 2022 Read More Lil Nas X’s ‘Montero’ Goes Kidz Bop; Mastodon Apologizes For Gay Slur; DaBaby Back With Rolling Loud; Boosie Stays Homophobic: Music Roundup Brian Bell November 6, 2021 Read More Lil Nas X Industry Baby Will Beat Rap Homophobia By Any Means Necessary: Trolls, Ignores, Beats Rapper Boosie’s Year of Nasty Comments Towleroad October 24, 2021 Read More Lil Nas X says Doja Cat is his ‘biggest inspiration’ Towleroad October 14, 2021 Read More Dolly Parton Hits the Humble, Generous High Notes: ‘Honored And Flattered’ Lil Nas X Covers ‘Jolene,’ Says It’s ‘Really, Really Good’ Towleroad September 30, 2021 Read More Image courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment View the full article

In Myanmar, conversations about the military regime happen on Facebook. On the platform’s groups, pages, and individual profiles, the population is divided between democracy and military supporters. Every social media post carries evolving narratives that shape the makeup of the convulsed nation, yet mainstream media outside Myanmar have failed to report on them. Myanmar researchers have dissected — by combing through Burmese social media — how pro-Junta citizens are justifying the military’s violence against civilians. Why it matters More than a year has passed since Myanmar’s military took over the country and arrested its democratic leaders and about 10,000 civilians. Dozens of people have been sentenced to death. The killings of more than 1,700 people, including children, have been attributed to the army. Hundreds of thousands of young people – students, professionals, and political activists – have fled to neighboring countries or are in hiding inside Myanmar. Because the massive pro-democracy demonstrations were severely repressed last year, thousands of youth took up arms in what can be called guerrilla warfare. Many of them have received training from ethnic militias that have challenged the government for decades. Myanmar went through military rule from 1962 to 2011 — the year that it initiated a period of democratization before falling into the hands of the junta again. The new, decentralized civilian armed resistance, which goes by the name “People’s Defense Forces” (PDF), is mostly funded by donations from the Burmese community. The country’s military supporters, who tend to be on the conservative side of the spectrum, are attempting to discredit and justify violence against the armed resistance. How everyday usage of Facebook works In 2021, Myanmar’s junta banned Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and people access these sites using VPNs. Military sympathizers support this measure as a means of disrupting pro-democracy content on the platform, but they also use VPNs, thereby breaking the rules of their leaders. The Tatmadaw is seeking to ban the usage of VPNs altogether and has cut offinternet access in resistance strongholds.A large portion of pro-military discourse is based on misleading and false content. Propaganda is used to undermine reporting of human rights violations and mass atrocities. Content also varies from happy-go-lucky videos of dancing soldiers to violent and humiliating recordings.Pro-military people tend to not share posts they agree with, but rather copy-paste the content and publish it as separate posts. This helps them avoid Facebook’s content moderators.Pro-democracy and pro-military promoters tend to use different fonts. Mobile users made the switch from Zawgyi to Unicode font for Burmese, but most military supporters continue to use Zawgyi, making it unreadable for other users whose phones cannot decipher it.Myanmar’s pro-military narratives 1.“The People’s Defense Force is a terrorist group and harms people” Since the coup in 2021, the Tatmadaw, as Myanmar’s military is known, has been accused of committing brutal human rights violations. In January 2022, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, stated that the military has “a flagrant disregard for human life.” Many civilians – who are not necessarily linked to the armed resistance – “have been shot in the head, burned to death, arbitrarily arrested, tortured or used as human shields”. For example, last December, a military truck rammed into a crowd of demonstrators, killing five people. Two days later, the military was allegedly involved in burning 11 people alive in the Sagaing region. Facing mounting repression, thousands of pro-democracy civilians have banded together to defend themselves and counterattack. In the past few months, they have targeted police stations, military trucks, and small units and have killed military and police personnel. Many Myanmar people continue to raise funds to support the PDF. This narrative leads to more dangerous ones, such as those that justify lethal violence against the PDF. Lately, this has become more extreme as some army supporters believe that the Tatmadaw has “grown soft”. How this narrative plays out on Facebook April is the month of Thingyan, a water festival in Myanmar. During the festival, people splash water at each other. Some people give out food. The post claims that the PDF has put acid in water bottles and that it is poisoning boiled eggs. The post does not refer to the PDF by name, but it is evident that it is talking about them (in the usage of the words “destruction and disturbances”). Comments and people who shared the post warned others to be careful about alleged PDF attacks. More analysis here. See more analysis of media items. Some Facebook users ask that the army disregard international community standards (MM_124), others blame pro-democracy supporters for disturbances in education, and alleged soldiers say that the military is not appreciated enough. 2.“Young people who join the PDF are misguided and immoral” Junta sympathizers lean toward traditional values like organized religion, nationalism, and formal education. When the country started its democratic shift in 2011, some conservative people felt threatened. In the country’s 2020 general election, pro-democracy activist Aung Suu Kyi’s party won by a landslide, but a few months later, the Tatmadaw deemed the results illegitimate and annulled the vote altogether. “Pro-military supporters, who are nationalist and extreme Buddhists, feel threatened by the progressiveness among Burmese people as the country shifted into a civilian government. They feel secure in their daily lives of religious activities while living under a dictatorship that holds the same values,” our researchers say. The narrative blaming youth for perverseness is closely linked to the discourse that says “Only military supporters value Buddhism and care about the nation” and to Islamophobic sentiment. Junta sympathizers accuse young activists of being under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or Western values. This narrative also encompasses sexist connotations about the sexual lives of young women and provokes sexual violence. How this narrative plays out on Facebook This pro-military Facebook page shared two pictures: the first photo shows a pregnant woman, an alleged member of the armed resistance, and the second portrays Aung Myo Min, the Minister of Human Rights from the National Unity Government (NUG), the political entity of elected politicians from the 2020 elections, now in exile. The text of the image says that “the pregnant PDF woman and the gay minister” are going to appear in a pro-democracy film. More analysis here. See more analysis here of posts that claim tha1 3. “The military regime needs leaders who will take stronger actions against the pro-democracy movement” After the coup in 2021, army sympathizers welcomed the Junta and the new military council led by Min Aung Hlaing. However, a year later, some have expressed their dissatisfaction with the regime for being too soft or indecisive against the pro-democracy movement, despite the violent crackdowns. This view is largely motivated by news of soldiers being killed in clashes against armed rebel groups. Other military supporters say that the army could easily destroy the PDF if it had the will to do so. How this narrative plays out on Facebook A pro-military Facebook page shared a nostalgic post about Myanmar’s past dictatorship. The photo shows previous dictators (former Senior General Than Swe with General Khin Nyut) and the caption reads that the country was peaceful enough during those days. It ends by saying that the author would like those leaders to return. This post implies that the country is losing its stability because of armed resistance and that the current leadership is too soft with its opponents. More analysis here. See more posts that say that the current regime is too weak and which reminisce about the previous dictatorship. This Post by Civic Media Observatory originally appeared in Global Voices: by Civic Media Observatory originally appeared in Global Voices: View the full article

Published by OK Magazine MEGA Never a dull moment! Madonna has been keeping audiences entertained for decades, and her ability to raise eyebrows still never ceases to amaze her fans. Since becoming a legend in the industry back in the 1980s, Madonna, 63, has lead a wildly successful music career jam-packed with both iconic and notorious moments. To take a look back at her iconic career, OK! has rounded up some of the Queen of Pop’s wildest and most legendary moments over the years. Scroll through the images below to see our favorite Madonna moments: She Appears On David Letterman In 1994 MEGA In 1994, Madonna appeared on on CBS’ Late Show with David Lettermanin now-infamous interview, where she said the f-word 14 times and even refused to leave the stage. IT’S OVER? MADONNA SPARKS BREAKUP RUMORS WITH TOYBOY AHLAMALIK WILLIAMS AFTER THREE YEARS TOGETHER — DETAILS During the course of the interview, Madonna smoked a cigar and made multiple innuendos after walking on stage with a pair of her underwear, which she asked Letterman to smell. She even called Letterman a “sick f**k,” in the episode, which is has since become of the highest-rated of his career. Her Oscars Appearance With Michael Jackson MEGA Back in 1991, both the King and Queen of Pop made an iconic pair at the Oscars. Madonna asked Michael Jackson to be her plus one for the event, and the pair seemed to have quite the night together. In an interview at the time, Madonna explained how the date came about, saying “Michael was like, ‘Well who are you gonna go with?’ I looked at him and said, ‘I don’t know. You wanna go?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, that’d be great.’ And then, yes, he took me home. You wanna know what happened after that? I’m not gonna tell you.” Her Tense Interview With Courtney Love MEGA Madonna’s famous feud with Courtney Love was on display at the 1995 VMAs. The “Like a Virgin” singer was being interviewed with MTV‘s Kurt Loder when she got a compact thrown at her by Love. “Hi Courtney,” Loder responded. “That’s Courtney Love, everybody’s favorite,” before inviting her up to the stage, to Madonna’s dismay. “Courtney Love is in dire need of attention right now,” she fired in the clip, per MTV, before Love joined them on stage for the rest of the very tense interview. Her Famous Cone Bra MEGA Madonna’s Blond Ambition tour in 1990 was the starting place for many of her most provocative and iconic outfits, including the famous Jean Paul Gaultier cone bra. According to Dazed, Madonna personally sent a letter to Gaultier to request he design all of the costumes for the tour, with the conical bra taking months to create. The legendary garment later sold for $52,000 at the Christie’s Pop Culture auction in London in 2012. The Britney Spears Kiss MEGA In 2003, Madonna took the VMA stage alongside Princess of Pop, Britney Spears, before the two blonde beauties engaged in an unforgettable kiss. The onscreen moment has since become one of the most iconic moments in all of VMA history, as well as Justin Timberlake‘s unamused facial expression in reaction to the smooch. Sex Book MEGA Not only famous for her contributions to the music industry, Madonna also published a book in 1992, which ended up sparking major controversy. The book titled Sex, featuring graphic sexual images, sold as a $50 coffee table book at the time and eventually made it to The New York Times Best Seller list. GIRL GONE WILD: MADONNA SPREADS HER LEGS WHILE WEARING FISHNET STOCKINGS IN EYEBROW-RAISING INSTAGRAM PHOTO Today, the book is still considered the “most radical career move” a popstar has ever made, according to Huffington Post. Kisses Drake At Coachella MEGA In 2015, Madonna once again made headlines after planting a surprise kiss on Drake during his set at the Coachella music festival. After the intense makeout session, Drake famously looked disgusted, which wasn’t exactly the reaction anybody was expecting. But the rapper later clarified the situation, writing via Instagram: “Don’t misinterpret my shock!! I got to make out with the queen Madonna and I feel 100 about that forever. Thank you @madonna,” as Insider reported. View the full article