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Published by Radar Online Mega Elon Musk is challenging the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, to a fight — something he asked the dictator over social media. “I hereby challenge Владимир Путин to single combat Stakes are Україна,” the CEO of Tesla wrote via Twitter on Monday, March 14, which translates to, “I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat Stakes are Ukraine.” “Do you agree to this fight? @KremlinRussia_E,” he added. Of course, people thought the exchange was hilarious. One person wrote, “brother, I wish for you to win of course, but the reality is … I haven’t seen your kong fu videos,” while another added, “I need some of what you’re drinking brother.” Mega One person suggested that Putin would easily win, but Musk replied, “If Putin could so easily humiliate the west, then he would accept the challenge. But he will not.” “You, little devil, are still young,” Dmitry Rogozin, director general of Roscosmos, who has feuded with Musk in the past, wrote. “Compete with me weakling; It would only be a waste of time. Overtake my brother first.” Both men have interesting backgrounds, as Putin has an honorary taekwondo black belt — which was stripped of him after invading Ukraine — while Musk has trained in karate as a kid, in addition to practicing taekwondo, judo and jiu-jitsu. Mega Almost three weeks ago, Russia invaded Ukraine, and the war doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. In the meantime, Musk has been outspoken about the ongoing crisis — he has mocked Russian officials on social media and even provided Starlink space internet equipment to Ukraine. After the kind gesture, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote, “Talked to @elonmusk. I’m grateful to him for supporting Ukraine with words and deeds. Next week we will receive another batch of Starlink systems for destroyed cities. Discussed possible space projects . But I’ll talk about this after the war.” Mega The President is planning on speaking to Congress later this week. “As war rages on in Ukraine, it is with great respect and admiration for the Ukrainian people that we invite all Members of the House and Senate to attend a Virtual Address to the United States Congress delivered by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine on Wednesday, March 16th at 9:00 a.m,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced in a letter. View the full article

Published by The Mercury News SAN JOSE, Calif. — A few days before Amy Schneider taped her first “Jeopardy!” game, she decided to literally use her own voice, not the higher-pitched, “feminized” voice she learned after she began to transition several years ago. More than anything, the Oakland software manager wanted to be herself on national TV: A transgender woman, yes, but also an engaging, whip-smart person whose lifelong dream was to triumph on “Jeopardy!” Schneider’s authentic self helped her to win a record 40 games, earn $1.3 million and become one of the most popular champions in the venerable game show’s 58-year h… Read More View the full article

Published by AFP US actor William Hurt (pictured February 2010) built his reputation on his willingness to play quirky and unusual characters Los Angeles (AFP) – American actor William Hurt, known for much-loved films such as “The Big Chill” and “A History of Violence,” has died at age 71, US media reported Sunday. Multiple outlets cited Hurt’s son, Will, who said in a statement: “It is with great sadness that the Hurt family mourns the passing of William Hurt, beloved father and Oscar winning actor, on March 13, 2022, one week before his 72nd birthday. He died peacefully, among family, of natural causes.” The actor had been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer in May 2018, but his son’s statement did not specify whether the disease contributed to Hurt’s passing. Hurt built his reputation on his willingness to play quirky and unusual characters such as a Russian police officer in “Gorky Park” (1983), a wealthy and aloof husband in Woody Allen’s “Alice” (1990) and a man seeking to build a machine that would benefit blind people in “Until the End of the World” (1991). His first film role was as an obsessed scientist in Ken Russell’s 1980 film “Altered States.” Appearing opposite Kathleen Turner in Body Heat in 1981 turned him into a sex symbol, and he won the best actor Oscar in 1985 for playing a gay prisoner in “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” Hurt was also nominated for Oscars as a teacher of deaf students in “Children of a Lesser God” (1986) and as a slow-witted television anchorman in “Broadcast News” (1987). For his second Academy Award, Hurt played a Philadelphia mobster in David Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence.” He appears in the film for only about 10 minutes, but he made a huge impact with critics, who praised his “creepy” and “funny” character. In recent years, Hurt made himself known to younger moviegoers through his turn in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Thaddeus Ross, a blustering general who was present on the day Bruce Banner became the Hulk. In addition to “The Incredible Hulk,” Hurt’s character appeared in four Marvel films including “Captain America: Civil War,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Black Widow.” Uneasy with stardom Hurt was born March 20, 1950 in Washington, DC, but as his father was a US diplomat, he traveled widely as a child. After his parents divorced, his mother married Henry Luce III, the heir to the Time-Life empire, and moved to New York. Hurt stayed close by, studying theology at Tufts University before enrolling at the renowned Juilliard arts school in New York. Despite his spreading fame, Hurt did not settle in Hollywood but set up his home in Oregon. In interviews, he had shown he was uneasy with stardom. “I’m not comfortable with all this. I’m not comfortable with walking the red carpet in a tuxedo and seeing all the women with their boobs pushed up and all the men dressed as penguins,” he told one interviewer. His private life, however, read like something straight out of Hollywood. Hurt married aspiring actress Mary Beth Supinger after finishing his studies at Tufts and followed her to London to study drama. They divorced on their return to New York. In the late 1980s, he was sued by a former live-in love, ballet dancer Sandra Jennings, who is the mother of one of his sons. He had two other sons from another marriage and a daughter, Jeanne, from a relationship with French actress Sandrine Bonnaire. Hurt spoke fluent French and was also an avid private pilot. View the full article

Published by Global Voices Nepali Transgender Bhumika Shrestha. Screenshot from YouTube video by The Storytellers. Fair use. Bhumika Shrestha is an LGBTQ+ activist from Nepal who received the 2022 International Women of Courage (IWOC) Award from the US government. The award is given to women around the world who promote women’s rights and have shown leadership, courage, and willingness to sacrifice for others. For the last fifteen years, Shrestha has been working to address the challenges of the transgender community of Nepal. Whether it’s leading a conversation about queer citizenship rights with the government or figh… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Brian Ellsworth and Don Burgess (Reuters) – A London tribunal on Monday ruled that a 2018 Bermuda law that bans same-sex marriage in the British overseas territory is constitutional, a departure from the broad trend towards legalisation of gay marriage in the West. Bermuda’s top court in 2018 ruled that the 2018 Domestic Partnership Act, which allows same-sex couples to form partnerships but prohibits them from marrying, violates constitutional freedom of conscience. London’s Privy Council, the highest court of appeal for British territories, ruled on Monday that the constitution does not in fact require the state to recognise same-sex marriages, in response to an appeal by Bermuda’s government. “Our supporters often say ‘love wins.’ This time it didn’t,” said Roderick Ferguson, lead co-plaintiff in the legal case against the law, in a statement by LGBTQ advocacy group OUTBermuda. “Our work as a society is not done until everyone’s humanity is recognized both in law and in life.” OUTBermuda called on the government to clarify how it will treat same-sex marriages that had been lawfully performed since 2017. The Bermuda court’s 2018 ruling had suspended the prohibition. The government of Bermuda, a wealthy, socially conservative island in the Atlantic of 60,000 people, argues that domestic partnerships provide the same rights as marriage. Thousands of people support the gay marriage ban. Bermuda’s Attorney General did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Privy Council found that the Domestic Partnership Act does not interfere with freedom of conscience as laid out in section 8 of Bermuda’s constitution. “The respondents’ belief falls within the scope of section 8, but that belief is not interfered with by the state failing to legally recognise same-sex marriage,” the Privy Council ruled. (Editing by Nick Macfie) View the full article

Published by Reuters By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The war in Ukraine has opened a new front in the U.S. Republican Party’s civil war, with party primary candidates vying to run in the November midterm elections attacking each other for past comments praising Russian President Vladimir Putin. In Senate and House of Representatives races in at least three states, Republican candidates have been put on the defensive over comments describing Putin as intelligent, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a “thug” and Ukraine as not worth defending. They now face criticism at a time when U.S. public opinion strongly supports Ukraine and its president. Pat McCrory, a leading Republican Senate candidate in North Carolina’s May 17 primary election, lashed out this week at his Trump-backed Republican rival, Representative Ted Budd, in his first TV ad. “While Ukrainians bled and died … Congressman Budd excused their killer,” McCrory says in the ad, which is interspersed with video clips from a TV interview showing Budd describing Putin as “a very intelligent actor” with “strategic reasons” for the invasion. The ad also accused Budd, who has described Putin as “evil,” of casting votes “friendly” to Russia. Budd’s campaign dismissed the McCrory ad in a statement, saying, “Ted Budd presented the sort of level-headed assessment of a foreign crisis you would expect from a U.S. Senator because he knows these are serious times that require strength and substance, not the empty soundbites.” Before Russian forces moved on Ukraine on Feb. 24, some Republicans felt comfortable echoing former President Donald Trump’s praise for Putin as a strong leader, while denouncing U.S. policy toward Moscow. Even after the invasion, two Trump allies in the House – Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar – participated in a white nationalist conference at which participants applauded Russia’s move on Ukraine and chanted Putin’s name. Infighting over Putin and Ukraine has exacerbated existing divisions within the party over Trump’s false claims of widespread election fraud in 2020, and a House investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by the former president’s supporters. Trump has been widely criticized for describing Putin’s actions toward Ukraine as “genius” and “pretty savvy” in a Feb. 22 interview. ATTACK AD Also in North Carolina, Representative Madison Cawthorn came under fire from his Republican rivals over remarks at a town hall in which he criticized Zelenskiy and Ukraine. “Remember that Zelenskiy is a thug. Remember the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies,” Cawthorn said in a video clip aired by WRAL-TV in Raleigh. “ITS INCOMPREHENSIBLE THAT A MEMBER OF CONGRESS WOULD CALL UKRAINES PRESIDENT A THUG!” tweeted Michele Woodhouse, who is challenging Cawthorn in the Republican primary. Cawthorn’s office did not respond to a Reuters query seeking comment. The Republicans are vying to become candidates at the November midterm elections in which control of the U.S. Congress is at stake. In Utah, independent Senate candidate Evan McMullin, a former CIA officer, attacked Republican Senator Mike Lee in an ad accusing the two-term incumbent of “making us weak and unsafe” in the midst of the current Ukraine crisis by opposing sanctions against Russia and visiting Moscow. But the actions cited in the ad occurred years before the Ukraine invasion or were mischaracterized, according to the fact-checking website PolitiFact, which judged the ad “mostly false.” Lee’s office did not respond to a Reuters query seeking comment. But McMullin’s campaign said it stood behind the ad and insisted that Lee has displayed a pattern of appeasing Putin. (Reporting by David Morgan, Joseph Ax and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Ross Colvin and Alistair Bell) View the full article

Published by Radar Online MEGA Meghan Markle and Prince Harry won’t be hopping across the pond anytime soon. After rumors swirled whether the 37-year-old prince would come in March for Prince Philip‘s memorial service, the answer has finally been revealed. “The Duke will not be returning to the U.K. in late March, but hopes to visit his grandmother as soon as possible,” a spokesperson told Page Six. In January, it was revealed that the red-headed royal was nervous to return home, as he wanted security for when he was out and about. (Since he is no longer a senior member of the royal family, he doesn’t have free security anymore.) MEGA “Prince Harry inherited a security risk at birth, for life. He remains sixth in line to the throne, served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan, and in recent years his family has been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats,” a legal representative for Harry said at the time. “While his role within the institution has changed, his profile as a member of the Royal Family has not. Nor has the threat to him and his family. The Duke and Duchess personally fund a private security team for their family, yet that cannot replicate the necessary police protection needed whilst in the U.K. In the absence of such protection, Prince Harry and his family are unable to return to his home.” One month later, he spoke about the whole ordeal. “This claim is about the fact that the claimant does not feel safe when he is in the U.K. given the security arrangements applied to him in June 2021 and will continue to be applied to him,” Shaheed Fatima QC, for the Duke, said during Harry’s High Court battle on Friday, February 18. “It goes without saying that he does want to come back to see family and friends and to continue to support the charities that are so close to his heart. Most of all, this is and always will be, his home.” It remains to be seen if the couple, who share Archie, 2, and Lilibet, 9 months, return for the Queen’s Jubilee in June. However, one expert claimed the former actress, 40, won’t return to the U.K. again, especially since she is on bad terms with the royal family. MEGA “I don’t think Meghan will ever come back to this country, and I think this is a very good excuse for not coming back. I don’t think realistically (Harry) expects to win this case,” expert Phil Dampier told The Sun. “Getting his protection reinstated would set a precedent and so it gives them the perfect opportunity to say we can’t come to the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Harry might come over, but it gives Meghan a good excuse not to come and also not to bring the children.” View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega Grimes has already moved on from her ex Elon Musk and is reportedly dating former US army soldier turned WikiLeaks correspondent Chelsea Manning. Mega A source close to Grimes told Page Six that “They’re getting serious. They U-Hauled it,” referring to the singer and infamous leaker getting together. “They’ve been living together in Austin.” Another source said Manning still has her apartment in Brooklyn but spends more time in Texas. Neither reps for Manning nor Grimes have commented on the report. Elon Musk & Grimes Had Secret Second Child Via Surrogate In December, Announcement Comes Nearly Six Months Since Breakup Manning and Grimes have been tweeting back and forth since the pop star’s public break up with Tesla’s CEO. Few expected the friendship to bloom into a full on relationship In December, the Oblivion singer tweeted, “Celebrity culture is suffocating af. I’m not quitting music, but def changing my main day job after BOOK 1.” She continued to clarify, “Music industry feels old and tired, reliant on archaic systems.” When Manning replied, “vouch,” Grimes responded, “Since I seem to be taking ur word as final these days.” The 33-year-old mother of two has gone on to publicly apologize for not appearing on Manning’s Twitch stream yet saying she’s been planning to but has had to “postpone like 10 times.” Mega Manning was part of the United States Army until she was convicted by court martial in 2013 for violations of espionage after leaking 750,000 classified documents to government leak site WikiLeaks. Manning was imprisoned in 2010 until her sentence was commuted in 2017. Mega The news of the odd couple comes days after Musk and Grimes announced their second child together. The former couple announced Exa Dark Sideræl months after their split from one another. They had the child through a surrogate, unlike their first child, X Æ A-12. The two have clarified that they have not reconciled their romantic relationship but have decided to keep the family unit together while they move on in new romantic ventures. View the full article

Published by AFP This undated image courtesy of Ben Frick from the University of Georgia shows a Joro spider (Trichonephila clavata) Washington (AFP) – Big and scary-looking Joro spiders have spread from Asia to the southern United States and are now poised to colonize the country’s cooler climes — but they’re nothing to fear and might end up actually helping local ecosystems. That’s according to scientists who have been studying the arachnid invaders since they first arrived in Georgia around 2013. In a few short years, the golden webs spun by the bright yellow, dark blue and red spiders have become a common sight throughout the state, and new research suggests they will clamber up the Eastern Seaboard next. “The reason we got involved in this project was because they literally fell in our lap,” Andy Davis, an ecologist at the University of Georgia, told AFP on Friday. “They’re kind of everywhere here in North Georgia, they’re all over my backyard.” Davis set about studying the new resident, comparing it to the golden silk spider, which came to the southeastern United States some 160 years ago from the tropics. Writing in a paper published in the journal Physiological Entomology, he and his co-author Ben Frick found similarities but also striking differences between the relatives. The Joro spider’s metabolic rate is about double that of its cousin, its heart beats 77 percent faster, and it can survive brief freezes. They also grow faster. Together, these traits mean it can better survive colder climates, which is not completely surprising, given that it is native to temperate Japan. They’re also adept at gliding — spinning webs that act like parachutes and catch air currents — allowing them to fly up to 100 miles (160 kilometers). The paper examined records from iNaturalist, which tracks sightings of animals, and found that the spider’s range had already spread far beyond Georgia to encompass the nearby states of South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. There was even a report from faraway Oklahoma. Left to themselves, Joros would probably work their way up the coast over 20 years, but it’ll probably happen faster if they hitchhike on vehicles, said Davis. Call for clemency That’s likely how they arrived in the United States in the first place — either a female stowaway laid her eggs when she landed on a ship, or an egg sac was brought over and hatched in spring. Invasive species are often linked to destruction — such as the spotted lanternfly, a native of Southeast Asia that came to the US state of Pennsylvania in 2014 and is known to decimate fruit trees and ornamental plants. But the Joros’ exploding numbers aren’t necessarily a cause for concern, argued Davis. “The golden silk spider is everywhere in the southeast, and it’s not causing any harm. It’s been here so long, it’s integrated itself into the ecosystem, and the Joro could follow the same trajectory,” he said. In fact, it could provide a hearty meal for native predators, such as mud dauber wasps, which hunt spiders. Other beneficiaries could include local lizards. Another advantage: Joros also feed on insects that local spiders do not, such as the adult brown marmorated stink bug. They’re also not aggressive towards humans, nor are their fangs big enough to pose any kind of threat, stressed Davis, who called for clemency and understanding, not stigmatization. “I don’t really think the Joros deserve to be squashed or killed like the spotted lanternfly — they’re really not out to get us and it’s not their fault either that they’re here. They were literally along for the ride,” he said. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Tom Hanks apologised to Connor Ratliff for firing him because of “dead eyes”. The ‘Marvelous Mrs Maisel’ star made amends with the 65-year-old actor – who took “full responsibility” – after they discussed the time Conor was let go from the 2001 mini-series ‘Band of Brothers’ for his apparent “dead eyes”, which the Academy Award winner was directing. Tom – who appeared on podcast ‘Dead Eyes’ on Thursday (10.03.22), which got its name from the episode – said: “This is a bone-chilling story, just bone-chilling,” before taking “full responsibility” for his conduct on set. The ‘You’ve Got Mail’ star called it “one of those very, very subtle” decisions made as a director. Tom said: “This was without a doubt the act of the director, and that was me. There was something in stuck in a craw or one of those very, very subtle sort of decisions that aims the story in the direction you want it to go.” He continued: “In the inner sanctum of whatever this casting session was on Band of Brothers … I’m sure I said, ‘I don’t know man, that guy’s got dead eyes.’ I could’ve said, ‘He’s got too blond of hair; he’s too tall and I can’t have the aide be taller than Captain Winters.’ I could’ve said, ‘He’s too short and slight … I could’ve said any of these things, and they would have been true and they would’ve been the opinion.’” Connor got how Tom could have forgotten the comment but told him it was “very big” for him in the immediate aftermath after being let go from the show that starred Tom Hardy, Damien Lewis, Jimmy Fallon Michael Fassbender and David Schwimmer. He added: “I built this thing up so big and then it was just gone.” The ‘Splash’ star – who is married to actress Rita Wilson, 65 – spilled he was “aghast” when he found out about the podcast and how it got its name after hearing about it from his son Colin, 44, and daughter Elizabeth, 39, who are both in the movie business, just like their dad. Along with these two, he also has 31-year-old son Chet and 25-year-old Truman. View the full article