RadioRob

Published by Reuters By Patricia Zengerle and Jan Wolfe WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Congress’s official probe into the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by Donald Trump’s supporters plans to hold public hearings in June before issuing a final report in early autumn, its chairman said on Tuesday. The House of Representatives Select Committee on Jan. 6 is “still looking at probably early fall” for releasing the final report, Representative Bennie Thompson told reporters. The committee’s leaders had previously said they were aiming for hearings in early spring. The revised timetable would still allow the panel to release its findings before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress for the next two years of President Joe Biden’s term. Republicans, who are currently favored to reclaim control of the House in that election, are expected to shut the committee down if they do so. The committee had previously planned to issue an interim report followed by a final report, but Thompson said the interim document is no longer in the works. “The progress is coming at a better pace than we anticipated, so in all probability the goal is to produce one report,” Thompson, a Democrat, told reporters. The committee is trying to establish then-President Trump’s actions while thousands of his supporters attacked police, vandalized the Capitol and sent members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence running for their lives. Congress had been meeting to count the electoral votes that gave Democrat Joe Biden victory in the November 2020 presidential election. Some 800 people, including many Trump White House aides, have been interviewed in the committee’s investigation. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Jan Wolfe; Editing by Scott Malone and Lincoln Feast.) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday dismantled a huge Soviet-era monument in the centre of Kyiv meant to symbolise friendship between Russia and Ukraine, a response to Moscow’s invasion, according to the city’s mayor. The eight-metre (27-ft) bronze statue depicted a Ukrainian and Russian worker on a plinth, holding aloft together a Soviet order of friendship. The statue was located underneath a giant titanium ‘People’s Friendship Arch’, erected in 1982 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Soviet Union. “We now see what this “friendship” is – destruction of Ukrainian cities … killing tens of thousands of peaceful people. I am convinced such a monument has an entirely different meaning now,” Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko said. Workmen started by removing one of the two bronze heads, which fell to the ground with a hollow clang. As a crane lifted the monument off its moorings and gradually lowered it to the ground, a crowd of around 100 people cheered and shouted “Glory to Ukraine” and other slogans. “Russia invaded Ukraine … Can we be friends with Russia? What do you think? This is our worst enemy, that is why the monument to Russian-Ukrainian friendship doesn’t make sense any more,” said Serhiy Myrhorodsky, one of the designers. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, launched on Feb. 24, has left thousands dead or injured, reduced towns and cities to rubble, and forced more than 5 million people to flee abroad. Moscow calls its actions a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. “We should not have any relations with the nation of aggressors… no friendship, no relations, nothing,” said Diana, a young woman, who did not give her full name. Klitschko said the arch would remain in place but be renamed the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People. (Writing by Mark Porter and David Ljunggren, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Baz Luhrmann has described his ‘Elvis’ biopic as a “superhero film”. The 59-year-old director has helmed the upcoming movie that stars Austin Butler as the King of Rock and Roll and branded the late music icon as the “original superhero”. Speaking at the Warner Bros. CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, Baz explained: “You know, while I was looking at that little reel and I’m thinking it feels a bit like a superhero film. “It is because I actually think Elvis is kind of the original superhero. And I mean that he comes from dirt, and in a few blinding moments, he rises so high, he finds his kryptonite, and also love. And then a beautiful, powerful tragedy ensues.” Luhrmann thinks that the film – which also features Tom Hanks and Olivia DeJonge – is more than a mere biopic and tells the story of America between the 1950s and 1970s. The ‘Great Gatsby’ director explained: “I love biopics, but this is not really a biopic, right? It’s really about, for me, America in the 50s and the 60s and the 70s. “And if you want to talk about America in the 50s and 60s and the 70s at the centre of culture, for the good, the bad and the ugly, is a figure (like) Elvis Presley. “What this movie is about is those three epochs – Elvis the rebel, Elvis the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, and Elvis the living legend, the icon trapped in that hotel not 10 minutes from here, by a man called Colonel Tom Parker.” Baz continued: “But Elvis is at the centre of it. And, you know, I really wanted to also explore this tension between these two great American things, I absolutely love them. “And it’s what defines I think the new of America you know, the fact that it can bring all these different elements together and create something new that’s the artistic gesture, the invention, the inventiveness.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Harry Styles won’t put a “label” on his sexuality. The former One Direction singer has addressed speculation over his love life and insisted the idea of defining his sexuality in a public way is “outdated”. Speaking to Better Homes and Gardens magazine, he said: “I’ve been really open with it with my friends, but that’s my personal experience; it’s mine. “The whole point of where we should be heading, which is toward accepting everybody and being more open, is that it doesn’t matter, and it’s about not having to label everything, not having to clarify what boxes you’re checking.” The 28-year-old star – whose new album ‘Harry’s House’ drops on May 20 – also discussed his experiences with fame, and how he’s been able to remain grounded despite becoming a household name around the world. He laughed: “My producer keeps asking me when I’m going to have my big breakdown. “The most honest version I can think of is, I didn’t grow up in poverty by any means, but we didn’t have much money, and I had an expectation of what I could achieve in life. “I feel like everything else has been a bonus, and I am so lucky.” He candidly admitted there was a long period where he was “terrified” of his career coming to an end because he didn’t “necessarily” know who he was without music. He added: “There were so many years where, for me, especially in the band and the first few years coming out of it, I’d just been terrified of it ending, because I didn’t necessarily know who I was if I didn’t do music.” In 2019, Harry discussed his sexuality and insisted he’s not “sitting on an answer” to keep it from people. He explained: “[It’s] not like I’m sitting on an answer, and protecting it, and holding it back. It’s not a case of: ‘I’m not telling you ’cause I don’t want to tell you.’ “It’s not: ‘Ooh, this is mine and it’s not yours.’ It’s: ‘Who cares?’ Does that make sense? It’s just: ‘Who cares?’ ” View the full article

Published by Reuters (Reuters) -Russia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday it had traded Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine held in a Russian jail, for Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was serving a 20-year sentence in the United States. Reed, from Texas, was serving a nine-year sentence in Russia after being convicted in 2019 of endangering the lives of two police officers while drunk on a visit to Moscow, which he denied. The United States called his trial a “theatre of the absurd”. The prisoner swap took place on Wednesday as the result of a lengthy negotiation process, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on her Telegram channel. U.S. President Joe Biden, in a statement, welcomed Reed’s release from detention in Russia. Footage from state TV channel Rossiya 24 showed Reed being escorted to Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, from where he was flying back to the United States, RIA news agency reported. “Today, our prayers have been answered and Trevor is safely on his way back to the United States”, Reed’s family said in a statement. “While we understand the interest in Trevor’s story – and as soon as he’s ready, he’ll tell his own story, we’d respectfully ask for some privacy while we address the myriad of health issues brought on by the squalid conditions he was subjected to in his Russian gulag,” they said. Reed’s parents said in March he had gone on hunger strike to protest against being put in solitary confinement, and he had not been receiving proper medical care despite fears that he had tuberculosis. Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service in March denied that Reed had been in contact with anyone suffering from TB and said that repeated tests for the illness had come back negative. It described his health as satisfactory and said that medical workers were constantly monitoring him. Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a prison sentence for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the United States, is expected to arrive back in Russia shortly, his wife told TASS news agency. (Reporting by Reuters, Editing by Mark Trevelyan) View the full article

Published by PopCrush Misha Collins took to Twitter to clear the air after seemingly coming out as bisexual during a fan event over the weekend. The Supernatural actor appeared to identify himself as introverted, extroverted and bisexual while speaking to fans at a convention for the show in New Jersey, according to Out. “I’m all three,” Collins told the audience. However, he set the record straight and in the process came out as straight on social media after video footage from the event appeared online. “My clumsy intention was to wave off actually discussing my sexuality,” Collins wrote. “But I badly fumbled tha… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Nate Raymond (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Wednesday moved to further diversify the federal bench in terms of demographics and job experience with five new judicial nominees, including two women with backgrounds as public defenders selected as appellate judges. Biden nominated Lara Montecalvo, the top public defender in Rhode Island, to serve on the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and U.S. District Judge Sarah Merriam in Connecticut to join the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The nominees also include Ana Reyes, a litigator at law firm Williams & Connolly who immigrated to the United States as a child and would become the first Hispanic woman and openly LGBTQ person to serve as a district court judge in Washington, D.C. Combined with two other district court nominees in New York and Virginia, Biden has nominated 92 federal appellate and district court judges since taking office last year. Senate Democrats are racing to confirm as many of the nominees as they can before the November midterm elections while they retain their narrow 50-50 control of the chamber. A majority of Biden’s picks have been women and people of color. Many have backgrounds other than as corporate lawyers or prosecutors, more traditional career paths for judges, including 27 who were current or former public defenders representing indigent defendants. Those include Ketanji Brown Jackson, who the Senate confirmed this month to become the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. Three of Wednesday’s nominees worked as public defenders: Montecalvo, Merriam and Elizabeth Hanes, a magistrate judge nominated to be a district court judge in the Eastern District of Virginia. Biden nominated Merriam last year to her current position, and the Senate confirmed her on a 54-46 vote. Biden also on Wednesday nominated Anne Nardacci, a partner at law firm Boies Schiller Flexner in Albany, New York, to serve as a federal district court judge in the Northern District of New York. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Leslie Adler) View the full article

Published by Reuters UK By Gabriela Baczynska BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union executive proposed on Wednesday laws to curb excessive litigation aimed at silencing critical journalists and rights advocates by governments and businesses, a form of harassment it said was on the rise from Croatia to Poland. In its latest health check of the state of democracy in the 27-nation bloc, the Brussels-based European Commission said last year the so-called SLAPPs – or strategic lawsuits against public participation – were “a serious concern”. “Manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings against public participation… Read More View the full article

Published by The Street By Michael Tedder Marvel has plans for many more LGBTQ characters, starting with its next film. Once again, Disney (DIS) – Get Walt Disney Company Report is finding itself embroiled in a political quagmire owing to its support of the LGBTQ community, after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis punished Disney for denouncing his “Don’t Say Gay Bill,” by seeking to revoke Disney World’s designation as a special tax district (which as we pointed out, is ultimately a meaningless gesture). And once again, the company seems unwilling to back down in support for the LGBTQ community. This time, it comes down to o… Read More View the full article

Published by The Kansas City Star A two-thirds majority of the Kansas Senate voted Tuesday to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto on a bill banning transgender students from girls sports as well as a bill ensuring parents can view and challenge classroom content. But the bills’ chances of becoming law are far from certain. It’s unclear if and when the Kansas House will take up the measures or if they’ll have the 84 votes needed. The chamber was 10 votes short of a veto-proof majority when it passed the bill earlier this month. “This week we don’t, we still have members missing,” House Speaker Ron Ryckman said Tuesday when asked w… Read More View the full article

Published by OK Magazine MEGA Though Jane Fonda looks and feels great, the 84-year-old acknowledged that she doesn’t have a ton of time left on earth — but getting older isn’t something she fears. “I’m super-conscious that I’m closer to death. And it doesn’t really bother me that much,” she revealed while on CBS Sunday Morningalongside Grace & Frankie costar Lily Tomlin. “What bothers me is that my body is, you know, basically not mine! My knees are not mine, my hips are not mine, my shoulder’s not mine. You’re looking at somebody who’s only me from here up.” “The fact is, if you’re alive and relatively healthy at an older – I mean, I’m almost 85,” continued the star. “The fact that I’m still alive and working, wow, who cares if I don’t have my old joints? And I can’t ski or bike or run anymore? You know, you can be really old at 60, and you can be really young at 85. Health!” CELEBRITY TMI CONFESSIONS! MEGAN FOX, SUZANNE SOMERS & MORE WHO OVERSHARED MEGA Another thing that has changed for Fonda is her drinking habits, as she now stays away from alcohol because of the intense hangovers they cause. “Even with one drink, like, if I had a martini tonight, I would be at half-mast tomorrow. Now, that wasn’t true when I was younger. But as you get older, I think alcohol affects you differently. And I only have so many tomorrows left,” she pointed out. “I don’t want to be at half-mast for any of them!” As she and Tomlin, 82, prepare for the final batch of Grace & Frankie episode to drop on Netflix on Friday, April 29, the pair admitted that they never saw themselves having such success at this age, with the comedian confessing, “I was ready to go on the road again!” It was her stand-up routine that brought them together, as Fonda watched her perform while she was first putting together 9 to 5. “I fell in love. I mean, I was blown away,” she insisted. “And when I left the theater that night I said to myself, ‘I’m not making a movie about secretaries unless Lily Tomlin is in it.'” MEGA The women have been tight gals pals ever since, so when they were offered to star in Grace & Frankie together, it was a no-brainer. “I just knew we would do it because it was about something that was important to us, aging women, and them not being marginalized and being treated like human beings and how they would want to be treated and thought of,” Tomlin explained to PEOPLE. “And so it just felt so natural. I didn’t even expect, she didn’t expect it either. We didn’t expect to be on a hit series at this point in our lives.” View the full article

Published by AFP Residents gather in a basement used as a shelter after hearing nearby shelling attack in the frontline town of Hulyaipole, southeast of Zaporizhzhia Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Russia on Monday warned the Ukraine conflict risked escalating into a third world war and accused Kyiv of playing at peace talks a day after visiting US officials said Ukrainian forces could beat back Moscow’s invasion. The conflict has triggered an outburst of support from Western nations that has seen weapons pour into Ukraine to help them wage war against Russian troops. Speaking to Russian news agencies, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticised Kyiv’s approach to floundering peace talks, saying the risk of a World War III “is serious”. “It is real, you can’t underestimate it.” While he said talks with Kyiv would continue, Lavrov accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of “pretending” to negotiate, adding: “You’ll find a thousand contradictions.” For months, Zelensky has been asking Ukraine’s western allies for heavy weapons — including artillery and fighter jets — vowing his forces could turn the tide of the war with more firepower. The calls appear to be resonating now, with a host of NATO countries pledging to provide a range of heavy weapons and equipment, despite protests from Moscow. “The first step in winning is believing that you can win,” Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin told a group of journalists after he and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Zelensky in Kyiv. “We believe that we can win — they can win — if they have the right equipment, the right support.” The highly sensitive US trip by two of President Joe Biden’s top cabinet members came as fighting continued across Ukraine, casting a long shadow over Easter celebrations in the largely Orthodox country. Zelensky hails resistance “Thanks to the courage, the wisdom of our defenders, thanks to the courage of all Ukrainians — our state is a true symbol of the struggle for freedom,” Zelensky said in his evening address vowing victory. Following a weekend full of fighting, at least five people were killed and another 18 injured on Monday after a Russia rocket attack targeted railway infrastructure in the central Ukraine region of Vinnytsia. On Monday, the governor of a Russian region bordering Ukraine accused Kyiv of bombing one of its villages, injuring two civilians and damaging several houses. “A village was targeted… It is already clear that there are injured civilians,” Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram. Russia in recent weeks has accused Ukrainian forces of striking targets on Russian soil, including two villages in Belgorod and another in the region of Bryansk. The governor of the Kursk region near Ukraine also said Russian forces had shot down two Ukrainian drones in the early hours of the morning. UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announced Monday that Britain would send Ukraine armoured vehicles able to fire missiles against Russian warplanes. “These Stormer vehicles will give Ukraine forces enhanced short-range anti-air capabilities both day and night,” he said. The United States has been a leading donor of finance and weaponry to Ukraine, and a key sponsor of sanctions targeting Russia. But it had not previously sent top officials to Kyiv. Several European leaders have already travelled there to underscore their support. “Many countries are going to come forward and provide additional munitions and howitzers. So we’re going to push as hard as we can, as quickly as we can, to get them what they need,” Austin said. Blinken and Austin also said US diplomats would begin a gradual return to Ukraine this week and announced $700 million (653 million euros) in additional military aid. Supply lines hit Forty German diplomats will meanwhile be heading home from Russia after Moscow announced their expulsion, following Berlin’s decision to kick out 40 Russian diplomats earlier this month. From The Hague, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor is to join an EU investigations team to probe “alleged core international crimes committed in Ukraine”, officials said. Russia’s air force targeted 82 Ukrainian military sites, including four command posts and two fuel depots, and the army fired high-precision missiles at 27 targets in their latest attacks, the Russian defence ministry said on Monday. The Ukrainian defence ministry said Russia was continuing to hit infrastructure and supply lines bringing military assistance from Ukraine’s partners. Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv remains partially surrounded and Moscow’s forces are regrouping in the south, but a Russian attempt to break through towards Zaporizhzhia in the east failed, the ministry added. Russia on Monday accused Kyiv of preventing civilians trapped with Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks from leaving the besieged industrial centre despite a ceasefire announcement. The defence ministry had said it would allow a civilian evacuation from Mariupol’s sprawling steel plant, which has been sheltering the remaining Ukrainian resistance in the southeastern port city. But the Russian army on Monday evening said no one used the proposed humanitarian corridor. A video posted by the far-right Azov Regiment, whose fighters are based in Azovstal, showed war-weary women and children sheltering in the plant’s underground bunkers, pleading for relief. “There are 600 people here. No water, no food. What are we going to do here? How long will we stay here?” asked one woman. “We haven’t been out for two months now. I don’t even know what the weather is like there. It feels like it’s still February 28,” said another woman. Mariupol, which the Kremlin claims to have “liberated”, is pivotal to Russia’s war plans to forge a land bridge to Russian-occupied Crimea — and possibly beyond, as far as Moldova. burs-ds/bgs/sw View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English JoJo Siwa isn’t saying “yes or no” to rumours she’s back with Kylie Prew. The 18-year-old star has responded to speculation she and her ex – who split in October after less than a year of dating – have rekindled their romance, and she admitted she should have asked her partner “what she wanted” her to say in public. Asked if they were back together, she told Extra: “I mean, listen, I will [answer this] one day. “I’m not saying yes or no… I should have told her I was doing press today and asked her what she wanted me to say.” Although JoJo is keeping tight lipped, she recently admitted she was “very much so in love” and added she was “really lucky that [she’s] loved unconditionally”. Now, she said: “It would be really nice if she was at my home. We’re long distance, which is always hard. “She is the best, and FaceTimes and when we do actually get to see each other, my heart is just like… “I felt like for a while my puzzle piece was just like scrambled eggs and I feel like I finally started to put my puzzle back together, and I feel like there was that one piece that was missing and she was that one piece. Like that corner piece that you just needed.” Last month, the former ‘Dancing With The Stars’ contestant revealed she is “not single” and described herself as a “loyal lady” when she’s in a relationship. She confirmed: “We’re not single. I say ‘we’re’ because it’s me and my multiple personalities within myself… I am not single and I don’t want to mingle. No, I’m a loyal lady.” She also said: “I was gonna erase my whole bio but just put the lock [emoji],” to which ‘Rachel Uncensored’ host Rachel Ballinger replied: “She’s exclusive, ladies and gentleman.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Yereth Rosen ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) -The Biden administration on Monday overturned a controversial Trump-era policy that would have opened new swathes of Arctic Alaska to oil development. The Bureau of Land Management, part of the Department of Interior, resurrected Obama-era management policies in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, a 23-million-acre (9.3 million hectare) area on the western side of Alaska’s North Slope. Alaska’s oil production has been declining for decades and reached a 45-year low last year. Those reinstated policies, contained in a plan presented in 2013, allow oil leasing in about half of the reserve while boosting protections for areas considered important to the Arctic ecosystem and to indigenous residents. The plan announced by the administration of former President Donald Trump in 2020, sought to allow oil development on more than 80% of the reserve. It would have allowed leasing even at Teshekpuk Lake, the North Slope’s largest lake and an area prized for wildlife that had been protected under rules dating back to the Reagan administration. Trump’s plan was challenged by two lawsuits filed in the federal court in Alaska. No lease sales were ever held under it. The move to reinstate Obama-era management policies was part of Interior’s response to those lawsuits. After peaking at more than 2 million barrels of daily crude production in 1988, Alaska’s oil output has been waning, hurt by reduced investment and better opportunities in the shale fields in other states. In 2021, the state produced just 437,000 barrels of oil a day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The National Petroleum Reserve, the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the United States, has drawn interest from oil companies that are expanding development farther west on the North Slope. Development is clustered in the northeastern corner of the reserve, the area closest to existing pipelines and legacy oil fields on state land to the east. ConocoPhillips is the most active company in the reserve. Its interests there include the proposed multibillion-dollar Willow project, which holds an estimated 600 million barrels of oil. U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, an Alaska Republican and supporter of expanded leasing, criticized the decision as reducing energy security at a time when Russia had invaded Ukraine, even though the Trump-era plan was not expected to immediately boost production, if at all. “Ukrainian grandmothers are bravely standing up to tanks, but President Biden can’t even bring himself to stand up to the woke left and unleash American energy production,” Sullivan said on Twitter. Environmentalists welcomed the Biden administration’s decision but called for more protections. “The answer to energy security does not lie beneath the thawing Arctic permafrost but in accelerating the shift to clean, renewable sources of power generation,” said Kristin Miller of the Alaska Wilderness League. (Reporting by Yereth Rosen in Anchorage, additional reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Bradley Perrett and Tomasz Janowski) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Bhad Bhabie has made $52 million as an OnlyFans model. The 19-year-old rapper – whose real name is Danielle Bregoli – became a viral sensation when she appeared on talk show ‘Dr. Phil’ with her mother back in 2016 as a rebellious teen and uttered the meme-inspiring catchphrase “Cash me outside, howbow dah?” but begged fans to recognise her for her music achievements or the amount of money she has made on the adults-only subscription service instead. In a video obtained by TMZ, she said: “It’s not something that I’m just, ‘Oh, yes, I’m so in love with being the girl that got famous for being on ‘Dr. Phil’ and saying some crazy s***’ No, that’s not how I feel It’s not something that I’m just, ‘Oh, yes, I’m so in love with being the girl that got famous for being on Dr. Phil and saying some crazy s***.’ No, that’s not how I feel’! “Call me the youngest female of the decade to go platinum. Call me stuff like that. Like, there’s way more things. Gucci Flip Flops’ girl, the ‘Hi, bitch girl or the girl who got a f****** million-dollar makeup deal, the girl who made over f****** $50 million on OnlyFans!” The ‘Miss Understood’ hitmaker was met with backlash over her OnlyFans claims so took to Instagram to share a screenshot of her alleged earnings with her 16.3m followers in an attempt to prove herself as she thanked her OnlyFans team for their support. Alongside the snap, she wrote: “Go cry about it bitch! thanks @scoopagencypartners couldn’t have done it without u” (sic) The rapper – who created her OnlyFans page a week after turning 18 in 2021 – charges fans a monthly fee of $23.99 to view her racy snaps and the receipts showed that in just six hours she had grossed more than $1 million. The screenshot also showed that over the last year the star has raked in over $16 million in subscription fees alone as well as a further $25 million in private messaging fees and a further $161k in tips which – after OnlyFans take their cut – takes her personal total to just over $42.3 million. View the full article

Published by Reuters ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION, Ukraine (Reuters) – Ukrainian farmers in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia which borders the frontline of the military conflict with Russia are now wearing body armour to plough their fields. A week after the war started, grad rockets began falling right next door to the fields where contract farmer Yuri worked. He now drives a tractor in a bulletproof vest and a ballistic helmet provided by his employer – kit he says he is used to from time spent doing military service. Farmers in the surrounding fields are following suit. Although shelling in the area has increased in recent weeks, Yuri, 41, and his colleague Oleksii are determined to plough the fields this spring. “We go out, pass the checkpoints, get to work, drink tea and coffee, put on our vests and go. We fill up (the gas tank) and then go to fields. If there is shelling, we pack up and go to the office,” said Yuri, who gave only his first name. Oleksii, 43, described the Russian rocket attacks as “scary” but manageable, since they often occur at night. After an attack people check the fields, and if necessary call in experts to help remove rockets and debris. Ukraine is the world’s fifth-biggest exporter of wheat and in the top three for maize, barley and sunflower seeds. The lack of Ukrainian grain on world markets due to the war has been pushing up food prices around the world. Last week Ukraine’s agriculture ministry said farmers have sown 2.5 million hectares of spring crops so far this year, 20% of the expected area, adding the spring sowing area could fall 20% due to the Russian invasion. 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 Reuters television,; Editing by Alexandra Hudson) View the full article

Published by DPA Musk’s ideas for Twitter include a subscription model that would help make the platform more independent from large corporations. But whether enough users are willing to pay money for Twitter use is doubtful. Patrick Pleul/dpa Elon Musk’s proposed free speech push following his takeover of Twitter means “we can expect fireworks” in the months ahead because of the current social climate, one commentator has said. The US billionaire’s shock purchase of the social media platform, which was agreed on Monday, is based on Musk’s belief that Twitter is failing to be the platform for free speech it should be, something he called a “societal imperative”. But one expert said this approach could cause problems for Musk and the platform, at a time when regulators are looking to rein in social media sites amid growing levels of abuse and polarisation online. Peter Vidlicka, media expert and co-founder of free public relations site Newspage, said that while the Musk deal could help Twitter “get its mojo back”, it could also cause conflict. “Elon Musk describes himself as a free speech absolutist, so in the current socio-cultural climate, we can expect fireworks in the months ahead,” he said. “To many, Musk’s purchase of Twitter will be seen as less a hostile takeover than a cultural stand, a reinforcement of free speech and a much-needed authentication of everyday people and their everyday views. “To others, there is a fine line between free speech and hate speech and many are concerned that Twitter under Musk could become an even wilder West than it already is. “Describing Twitter as a digital town square is an avuncular metaphor that doesn’t necessarily convey the mayhem that often unfolds there. It’s a digital town square, after kicking-out time.” Another of Musk’s proposed plans for the site – the open sourcing of its algorithmic code so that it is publicly accessible and could boost transparency around how and why Twitter shows people certain posts – has also raised concerns. Cybersecurity experts have suggested this approach, while admirable in a transparency sense, could make Twitter more vulnerable to hackers. Jamie Moles, senior sales engineer at cybersecurity firm ExtraHop, said: “The decision to open-source this code likely means that it will be adopted by other social platforms, advertisers and others who are looking to hone their user targeting. “Of course, as with any widely adopted open source code, there are significant security implications. “As we’ve seen with Log4Shell and Spring4Shell, vulnerabilities in widely used open source applications are exponentially more valuable. Making its code open source may increase transparency for Twitter users, but it may also make Twitter a much bigger target for attackers.” But Moles added that this open source approach could also have a positive impact on another of Musk’s goals. “Musk has stated that he’s on a mission to eliminate bots on the platform,” he said. “While this seems like a Sisyphean task, if he’s successful, the methods used by Twitter to eliminate bots from the platform may generate new techniques that improve the detection and identification of spam emails, spam posts and other malicious intrusion attempts. “If Musk and his team can train AI to be more effective in combating this, it may well be a boon to security practitioners everywhere.” Twitter is set to undergo a major transformation under its planned new owner. Tech billionaire and self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk is promising less restrictions and a new business model. Adrien Fillon/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa View the full article

Published by Reuters By Michela Moscufo (Reuters) – Harvard University is setting aside $100 million for an endowment fund and other measures to close the educational, social and economic gaps that are legacies of slavery and racism, according to an email the university’s president sent to all students, faculty and staff on Tuesday. The email from Harvard President Lawrence Bacow included a link to a 100-page report by his university’s 14-member Committee on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery. The panel was chaired by Tomiko Brown-Nagin, a legal historian and constitutional law expert who is dean of Harvard’s interdisciplinary Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The email and the report were released to Reuters. The move comes amid a wider conversation about redressing the impacts of centuries of slavery, discrimination and racism. Some people have called for financial or other reparations. The report laid out a history of slaves toiling on the campus and of the university benefiting from the slave trade and industries linked to slavery after slavery was outlawed in Massachusetts in 1783 – 147 years after Harvard’s founding. The report also documents Harvard excluding Black students and its scholars advocating racism. While Harvard had notable figures among abolitionists and in the civil rights movement, the report said, “the nation’s oldest institution of higher education … helped to perpetuate the era’s racial oppression and exploitation.” The report’s authors recommended offering descendants of people enslaved at Harvard educational and other support so they “can recover their histories, tell their stories, and pursue empowering knowledge.” Other recommendations included that the Ivy League school fund summer programs to bring students and faculty from long underfunded historically Black colleges and universities to Harvard, and to send Harvard students and faculty to the institutions known as HBCUs, such as Howard University. In his email, Harvard President Bacow said a committee would explore transforming the recommendations into action and that a university governing board had authorized $100 million for implementation, with some of the funds held in an endowment. “Slavery and its legacy have been a part of American life for more than 400 years,” Bacow wrote. “The work of further redressing its persistent effects will require our sustained and ambitious efforts for years to come.” Other U.S. institutions of higher learning have created funds in recent years to address legacies of slavery. A law enacted in Virginia last year requires five public state universities to create scholarships for descendants of people enslaved by the institutions. (Reporting by Michela Moscufo; editing by Donna Bryson and Jonathan Oatis) View the full article

Published by The Philadelphia Inquirer When a man texts a pic of his junk in a lame effort to turn me on, I delete it. But if I catch a glimpse of full-frontal nudity on cable TV or in a film, it feels delightfully naughty. That’s why I’m intrigued that so many popular TV shows like “Insecure,” “And Just Like That,” “Euphoria,” “Scenes from a Marriage,” “Power” and “Pam & Tommy” are flashing the male goods at us. “Take Me Out,” a Broadway play starring “Grey’s Anatomy” alum Jesse Williams as a gay baseball player that debuted earlier this month, rewards the audience with full frontal. The reason for the uptick in penis sightings is… Read More View the full article

Published by Al-Araby Saudi Arabia has asked Disney to cut “LGBTQ references” from its latest Marvel superhero movie before it can be screened in the kingdom, an official told AFP on Monday. Disney has so far declined the requested edits to the film “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, slated for release in early May, that amount to “barely 12 seconds” in which a lesbian character, America Chavez, refers to her “two mums”, said Nawaf Alsabhan, Saudi Arabia’s general supervisor of cinema classification. “It’s just her talking about her mums, because she has two mums. And being in the Middle East, it’s very… Read More View the full article

Published by DPA Hormones play a large part in determining how we behave in certain situations. If you're often generous, then there's a strong chance you have lots of oxytocin in your body, something we get more of as we age. But the exact cause and effect remains a mystery. Silas Stein/dpa People whose brains release more of the oxytocin hormone are friendlier to others and more satisfied with their own lives, according to a new US study. What’s more, the release of oxytocin increases with age in many people, researchers wrote in the scientific journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience in April. Oxytocin, sometimes referred to as the “love hormone,” is a neurotransmitter produced in the brain that plays a strong role in the relationships of couples and in maternal bonding, among other things. However it also influences our social interactions with all people around us, and can be triggered by activities such as touch, listening to music or doing exercises. The team of researchers, led by neuroeconomist Paul Zak of Claremont Graduate University, included 103 participants between the ages of 18 and 99 in their study. They were shown a video about a boy with cancer, which researchers from the group had previously found stimulates the release of oxytocin in the brain. Before and after the video, blood was drawn from the subjects to measure the change in oxytocin levels. “Participants in our study who released the most oxytocin were more generous to charity when given the opportunity and performed many other helping behaviours,” lead author Zak said, noting that his team gave participants the choice to donate some of their earnings from the study to a childhood cancer charity. This was then used to measure their immediate prosocial behaviour. In addition, data on the subjects’ emotional state was collected to assess their overall life satisfaction. To test prosocial behaviour, the scientists also asked whether the participants had made donations in money or in kind and had done voluntary work in the past year. “We also found that the release of oxytocin increased with age and was positively associated with life satisfaction.” That means, according to the research, older people have higher levels of oxytocin and are, on average, more helpful and satisfied than younger people. However, it is not clear from the study whether the oxytocin is the result or the cause of the observed behaviours. The authors themselves emphasise that they cannot establish a causal relationship between oxytocin, prosocial behaviour and subjective attitudes. “There are likely factors in addition to the release of oxytocin that cause people to share money, donate to charity, participate in religious activities and have high satisfaction with life that we were unable to measure and should be explored in future research,” the researchers write. In addition, the subject group was very small and geographically homogeneous and not all participants responded to the video. The study authors also did not take into account that older people sometimes have more time and money at their disposal than younger people. The exact way oxytocin works is scientifically disputed. It is proven that the hormone plays an important role in the relationship between mother and child: Oxytocin induces labour, stimulates milk production and strengthens the relationship with the offspring. In addition, it can reduce stress and anxiety, make people more empathetic, is important for sexual arousal and can promote bonding in couples as well as trust between people. The latter aspect was demonstrated by an experiment conducted by the economist Michael Kosfeld and psychologist Markus Heinrichs. Subjects who were administered oxytocin through the nose had significantly more trust in other people than those who were given a placebo. The study, which was published in Nature in 2005 and in which Paul Zak was also involved, triggered a great deal of research on the hormone. However, it quickly became apparent that this chemical messenger’s mode of action is more nuanced than initially assumed and that labelling it as a “love hormone” falls short of explaining its true role in our social behaviour. For example, studies have suggested that under certain circumstances and in certain situations, oxytocin could make people more distrustful and malicious. Research by Dutch psychologist Carsten de Dreu even showed that the hormone does increase a person’s willingness to trust and cooperate – but only within the group to which one feels a sense of belonging, while other groups can be devalued. This thesis was clearly contradicted by the work of psychologist Heinrichs and colleagues. Most recently, hopes of using an oxytocin nasal spray as an autism medication were met with disappointment. A US study with almost 300 children and adolescents concluded that the hormone did not change their social behaviour for the better. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Lea Michele wants to carry Jonathan Groff’s baby. The 35-year-old actress – who has 20-month-old son Ever with husband Zandy Reich – reunited with her former ‘Glee’ co-star and offered to carry his baby because she “loves being pregnant.” She said: “I’ll carry your baby. I will!” He asked “You will?” to which she clarified: “Hell yeah! I love being pregnant. It’s so much fun!” In a joint interview with PEOPLE, Jonathan – who has no children but has been dating choreographer Corey Baker since 2018 – quipped: “Good to know!” However, the ‘Frozen’ star – who rose to fame alongside Lea when the pair starred in Tony Award winning musical ‘Spring Awakening’ back in 2006 before going on to further success as rivals on the musical comedy series ‘Glee’ – joked that he has a “weird quirk” with children that often scares them but has an “in” with Lea’s son because he loves Broadway musical ‘Hamilton’, which Jonathan starred in back in 2015. He said: “I have this weird quirk where I scare small children because — this was with my two nieces as well, between the ages of 0 and 2 — I come in hot with the enthusiasm, and it freaks them out! This is the case with Ever as well. So I’m slowly trying to play it cool to gain his love and affection back. My one in with him is that he likes ‘You’ll Be Back’ from ‘Hamilton’ Whenever we FaceTime and Ever’s there, I’ll be like, ‘Da, da, da, da, da!’ [I’m] waiting [for] the age when he’s going to be able to watch ‘Frozen,’ and then maybe I’ll have another in, but I’m working on it!” View the full article