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I Disagree with the author on the ‘unmissability,’ but this deep dive review of the series explains a lot. Published by DPA Sarah Jessica Parker (l) and Cynthia Nixon in a scene of “And Just Like That…”, the “Sex and the City” reboot that has divided fans of the cult show. Debra L. Rothenberg/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa After 10 episodes, dozens of brunches, several unannounced visits by Che Diaz and a truly staggering number of ridiculous hats, “And Just Like That…” has come to an end. And what a wild ride it has been — literally so in the case of Big, who died after exerting himself on the Peloton. From Carrie peeing in a bottle of iced tea to Harry’s prosthetic penis, the show has given us all plenty of moments to talk about. Critics may not have been kind but viewers have flocked to the series in droves, making it HBO Max’s most-watched original to date (whatever that means without actual numbers). Series creator Michael Patrick King and star Sarah Jessica Parker have told Variety they’re open to another season. The season finale, which premiered Thursday, finds Carrie contemplating what to do with Big’s ashes, then traveling to Paris to scatter them on the bridge where he rescued her during a terrible trip many years ago, and moving on with the hunky podcast producer who’s been making eyes at her all season. Meanwhile, Miranda decides to bail on a high-profile internship to be with Che in L.A. while they make a pilot — hmmm, what could possibly go wrong? — and Charlotte throws Rock a “they-mitzvah” for the ages. Where did “And Just Like That” go wrong? What made this bonkers revival so compulsively watchable? And just why do some of us care so damn much about these characters? Staff writer Meredith Blake and culture critic Mary McNamara share their theories here. Meredith Blake: Mary, as you know, I started out as a defender of this show. I thought the first few episodes, while messy, gave us plenty of promising new territory to explore: grief, aging, the perils of being an affluent, straight white woman in a changing social environment. I loved the insanity of killing off Big via Peloton. I was excited for Carrie to be single and return to the dating world (eventually). I didn’t even mind the lack of Samantha. But most of all, I felt committed to these characters. I’ve spent more than half my life watching them on TV. It would take a lot more than the horror of watching Big masturbate — ugh, sorry for the reminder — for me to abandon this show completely. Let’s just say my loyalty has not been rewarded. Each week, I eagerly tuned in, hoping that things would get better — that Miranda would come to her senses, that Carrie would pick an apartment already, that Steve would find his way around the farmers market. And each week, I would be disappointed. I found myself more and more frustrated with the underdeveloped characters, the incoherent storytelling, the wild tonal swings from scene to scene, the depictions of podcasting and stand-up comedy that bore no resemblance to either (if I hear the phrase “comedy concert” one more time, I will eat a VHS copy of “Eddie Murphy: Raw”). Storylines would be introduced only to vanish completely by the next episode. Miranda flew off to Cleveland to surprise Che, a gesture Miranda herself likened to something out of a romantic comedy and one that seemed destined for spectacular failure. Instead, the show skipped over the whole Cleveland thing completely, forgetting it along with Miranda’s drinking problem, Carrie’s book and whatever the heck was going on with Big’s secretary. I couldn’t help but wonder … were the writers of these episodes even talking to each other? And that brings me to the biggest problem this season: Miranda. My God, what have they done to her? During the original run of “Sex and the City,” Miranda was a radical character, the prickly one with the sensible wardrobe who didn’t buy into Charlotte’s fairy tales or Carrie’s gauzy fashion fantasies. The show wanted us to think of ourselves as Carries, but most of us were Mirandas at heart. Now, Miranda is a blubbering, lovesick idiot. The problem is not that she left Steve, or that she fell in love with a queer, nonbinary person — though I think these writers are underestimating the importance of finding someone to watch TV with. It’s that she’s acting like a selfish twit and the show wants us to sit back and shout “Yasss, queen!” as she blows up her life. If I learned one thing from “The Hills,” it’s that you never turn down a coveted internship to go hang out at the beach with your new crush. It won’t end well. All that being said, I couldn’t wait to watch the screeners as soon as they landed in my inbox each week. For a show I didn’t particularly like, “And Just Like That” has consumed an inordinate amount of my mental energy for the last two months. I’ve discussed it on social media, with other moms at drop-off, and in group chats with friends who, like me, wondered why Charlotte’s daughter had such trouble inserting a tampon and couldn’t wait to see which of Carrie’s exes would show up in a surprise twist (sadly, none of them). And it wasn’t as simple as hate-watching, where a show is so viscerally awful it feels cathartic to dump on it collectively. It was more like King had taken us all hostage and we’d developed Stockholm syndrome. At some point it became clear that the audience cared more about these characters — and certainly understood them better — than their own creator did. Now that we’re at the end of the season, I am hoping that this train wreck of a show gets renewed, if only because I cannot accept the idea that Miranda will spend eternity with Che Diaz. (Clearly, I do not have a healthy relationship with this show.) Mary, what do you think was the biggest problem with “And Just Like That”? Was it Miranda’s brain transplant? The bizarre Peloton obsession? The way they did Steve so dirty? The clumsy attempt to atone for the extreme whiteness of the original series by introducing four new characters of color who were mostly half-baked? Che Diaz? Mary McNamara: At the moment, my biggest problem is the full-blown crisis of Che Diaz being in Los Angeles. I repeat: Che Diaz is in Los Angeles. Seriously, if King wants to sully the reputation of New York with his ridiculous antics, fine. But keep it the hell away from L.A. Though I do feel like Che getting a pilot says a lot about King’s feelings toward television at the moment, which is, apparently, that pretty much anything can get made. “And Just Like That” being a case in point. As you know, I am on the record as hating the show from the get-go — for more than a few minutes, Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte seemed less like older iterations of themselves than the 100-year-old resurrected witches of “Hocus Pocus”: “Sister, what is this new magic called Instagram?” As someone in the same age, if not income, demographic as the characters, I kept watching in sheer horror. Were there any over-50 female writers on the staff? Did none of the over-50 female cast members protest being portrayed as complete and utter dimwits? Apparently not. I don’t think I’ve ever felt a male gaze more than watching these women “struggle” in ways that belie the fact that they have been women alive on this planet, and navigating a major urban center, for half a century. I understand that King is trying to acknowledge the bubbles of privilege he put them in during “Sex and the City,” but “And Just Like That” feels less like a correction than a punishment. As if King were angry at them not only for his mistakes but for not being the young women of the original series. When he had the nerve to put Charlotte in a freaking white coverall so her unexpected period had maximum shock value, I was forced to utter all the swears, none of which fit within The Times’ profanity guidelines. Though, speaking of that episode, I did actually sympathize with the tampon trouble — I can say from experience that this can be an issue, especially when girls get their periods at 13 or 14 and want to go swimming. And who among us hasn’t “lost” the string? But one resonant C plot does not make up for all the other maddening absurdities, including the absolute lack of character granted either Lily or Rock, who were shamelessly used as props for Charlotte’s “journey.” (Though I did like what an absolute brat Rock was — being nonbinary does not give you a “get out of adolescence free” card!) Che, alas, does not have that excuse. I did feel some tiny wicked satisfaction watching them hijack the series from under Carrie’s grieving yet resolutely stilettoed feet — not even the sight of Carrie smoking outside in housecoat, rubber gloves and a double babushka could top the screaming outrageousness of Che’s ‘woke button’ or many lectures on their rules of intimacy. But the price was way too high. At first I honestly wondered if we were going into a “Miranda has early-onset Alzheimer’s” storyline, so unrecognizable was she with her crazy gray wig hat and weird manic racism. Then I thought, “Oh, maybe it’s poor deaf Steve who’s going to introduce a serious storyline about coping with medical issues.” But no, this was just someone’s vision of 50-somethings in a long-term marriage and/or incredibly lazy writing to justify Miranda abruptly ending her marriage because she has a crush on a complete jerk. Honestly, when Che gave the “I can’t give you anything conventional” speech, I couldn’t help think how outraged Miranda’s younger self would have been if it had come from a man. Which brings me back to my original horrified concern: If there is a second season, dear God do not let any of it be in L.A. I mean, can you imagine? All those terrible New York Times takes made into actual narrative? The wittering about traffic and Lotusland? It will keep us in defensive think-pieces for a year. MB: Mary, that is truly terrifying to contemplate. Though as a New Yorker I feel compelled to say that it feels like this show represents my city less than it ever did, especially post-COVID, when no one in their right mind wants to wear heels. “And Just Like That” feels much less interested in New York than “Sex and the City,” which was about Carrie’s love life and her ongoing relationship with Manhattan. (It was right there in the title!) That sense of place is mostly absent here. There were times — like when Carrie moved into that white void of an apartment with the most ridiculously fake waterfront view I have ever seen — when I wasn’t even sure this show was made on Planet Earth, much less in New York. In an attempt to atone for “Sex and the City’s” sins of omission, “And Just Like That” introduced at least four major characters of color, but these characters were largely half-baked, with storylines so flimsy it was hard to feel invested in their outcome. (Nya, you seem nice and have good style. But I simply don’t care about your marriage to whatever his name is. Also, why do you keep hanging out with Miranda? She’s your student. It’s weird.) Meanwhile, the new character who consumed the most screen time was also by far the least likable: Che Diaz. In addition to be the worst fictional comedian in the history of fictional comedians, Che is also the kind of boss who will show up at your apartment while you’re recovering from surgery, get to third base with your best friend in the kitchen while you piss yourself in bed, then fire you with no notice because they’re going out to L.A. for a few weeks to make a pilot. But enough about Che. By the end of the finale, Carrie has moved on to a new romance with Hot Podcast Producer. I suppose this is exciting, though I wish it had come about five episodes sooner and we could have had a show about a woman finding love after loss instead of … whatever this was. Mary, is there anything positive you can say about the series? I will say I liked the addition of Sarita Choudhury as Seema, though I wish we’d seen more of her. I was glad Steve was lucid long enough to give his sweet little speech about marriage and only wish that Miranda had listened to it. And that drunken sex scene in Carrie’s kitchen was, if nothing else, entertaining to watch — it had some of the outrageous spark that animated so much of the original. MM: I did like Seema, though not that so much of the story revolved around her finding the right guy. Choudhury is always a pleasure to watch and Seema at least does not appear to have been in cold storage for the past 12 years. I liked the rabbi who shows up at the end, though not that she is continually identified as “the trans rabbi.” But I feel like we haven’t talked about the finale as a finale, or even mentioned the excising of Chris Noth, leaving at least one flashback scene in tatters. Obviously, the main storyline of the series was Carrie getting over Big’s death, something that was, if we’re honest, far less traumatic than the fallout Peloton faced. Still, early episodes dealt effectively enough with the numbed shock of early grief, and I appreciated how, when her agent pushed back on her memoir, Carrie realized her actual life was not as marketable as her random musings on what sex and the city all meant. (Did we ever believe she was an actual columnist? Not when she spent so much time typing while lying fetchingly across her bed on her stomach.) The insistence that Carrie offer readers a glimmer of hope was, of course, also a clunky way to get her back on the dating scene, because no one is interested in a woman who is not at least seeking love. The sexual assault accusations against Noth certainly distracted from any residual fondness/nostalgia viewers might have had for Big, which left the writers in the unfortunate position of having a final moment — Carrie scattering Big’s ashes — that no one cared about. But frankly, any pathos would have been hard to sustain once we got a look at the absurdly enormous orange dress Carrie wore to do the honors. I realize that part of Carrie’s charm is her penchant for, and ability to pull off, the most outrageously inappropriate if personally stylish clothing ever. (I’m still not over the fascinator at Big’s funeral.) But this enormous tangerine-colored situation was over the top even for her. (I’m not even going to mention the Eiffel Tower handbag in which the ashes were stashed — did she funnel them in herself in the hotel room?) I mean honestly, even in Paris this dress would have stopped traffic, and in all likelihood led to the gendarmerie informing Carrie that it is illegal to dump human cremains into the Seine. Which it is. In case you were wondering. (Between this scene and “Emily in Paris,” I believe Americans have lost all right to call the French rude.) While it would have been hilarious to see her hauled off in handcuffs in that dress, I do feel bad for all the emotive work Parker put into the scene. But even as the camera caught her Nefertiti-inspired profile, it was all very anticlimactic. I did not feel bad, however, for my hoot of outraged laughter when suddenly Mr. Hot Podcast Producer was introduced as a last-minute please-give-us-a-second-season love interest. I mean, Jeff Zucker just stepped down for having an affair with a co-worker, for heaven’s sake. But whatever, love is love and I wish them well (Carrie and Hot Podcast Producer). As long as they promise to stay in New York, and not follow Che and Miranda to L.A. MB: And even if they do, I will watch every episode. God help me. View the full article

Published by The San Diego Union-Tribune Before his death in 1989 at the age of 58, choreographer and modern-dance giant Alvin Ailey accomplished many groundbreaking, boundary-busting things. He helped establish modern dance as a popular art form capable of packing theaters and riveting audiences. His troupe, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, was a global sensation. And in his signature dances — 1960’s “Revelations,” 1969’s “Masakela Language,” 1971’s “Cry” for the indelible Judith Jamison — he showcased Black history, Black experiences and Black bodies with passion, ferocity and a beauty that was blinding. It was art, and it w… Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Karamo Brown says his style is “always influenced by hip-hop”. The ‘Queer Eye’ star attributes his coming-of-age during the blossoming of rap music videos on MTV as very influential to his fashion choices. The 41-year-old television personality told Vanity Fair: “My style is always influenced by hip-hop. I turned 20 in 2000, and so in high school, the emergence of MTV and hip-hop coming up and being popular culture and all those stars, they’ve always influenced me. Message tees [are] something that [have] always been popular in the Black community, talking about funerals to beyond. It’s always been like, put a message on the shirt.” The star – who takes a lot of the emotional labour on the Netflix makeover show and forms the Fab Five with Tan France, Jonathan Van Ness, Bobby Berk and Antoni Porowski – opts for more affordable options for people to “cry right on”. Karamo said: “I’m usually around 99 per cent of the time where people start to let the feelings out…I’m not buying a $400, $500 shirt for somebody to cry on. I’m not doing it. You can cry right on this $17 T-shirt that I wear.” In the latest season, he broadcasted his love of slogan tops to create a t-shirt that reads ‘Black History is More Than Slavery” – that is being sold for $26 in aid of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and True Colors United. Karamo explained: “I wear that [T-shirt] a lot to kind of say it’s more than that. So if you, if every time you talk about Black history, the first thing you talk about is slavery, there’s an issue. Talk about it, yes. Acknowledge it, yes. We need to address what brought us there and the things that happened, but just know there is more to Black and African culture than just being slaves.” Karamo added: “White people will come up to me and, and ask me about it. That’s really what I love. One of the things that we know about the pandemic is it is not the responsibility of that person who’s been marginalized or been beaten down to have to feel like they have to educate. But for me, for me alone, and I’m always clear on that, I don’t mind, I feel like part of my purpose of my role in this world is to educate. It’s part of what I’ve been given the patience and the opportunity to say, ‘I got a little time for you.'” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Sara Ramirez has insisted their ‘And Just Like That…’ character, Che Diaz, is “not here to be liked”. The new addition to the ‘Sex and the City’ reboot believes that Che – Sarah Jessica Parker’s character Carrie Bradshaw’s boss on the podcast they feature on together – would be able to come up with a “witty rebuttal” to all the criticism aimed their way. The 46-year-old star told The New York Times: “I imagine Che would have something very witty and silly and funny as a rebuttal; something that ultimately reminds everyone that they are human; something with a sprinkling of self-deprecation, because I think they know they’re a narcissist. And maybe just a little reminder that no one’s perfect.” They went on to say that they couldn’t personally speak to the criticism as they think the writers who created them would have the best response about the stand-up comic’s polarizing nature. Sara said: “Michael Patrick King [the showrunner of ‘And Just Like That…’] and the writers’ room would probably answer that best since they wrote the character of Che Diaz.” The ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ alum is “really proud” of their work on the show and helping to craft a “character who is a human being”. Sara said: “I’m really proud of the representation that we’ve created. We have built a character who is a human being, who is imperfect, who’s complex, who is not here to be liked, who’s not here for anybody’s approval. They’re here to be themselves.” They went on to distance themselves from Miranda Hobbes’ (Cynthia Nixon) new love interest. Sara continued: “I don’t recognise myself in Che.” Che was not always going to be a lover for Miranda – who has been going through a dry spell with her husband Steve Brady (David Eigenberg) for years – as they were going to have Nya, Miranda’s law professor, played by Karen Pittman. Cynthia said in the ‘And Just Like That…. The Documentary’: “So originally, when Michael was sort of trying to think about what would happen in our season, he talked about Nya, Miranda’s professor, being the romantic relationship. Nya was a straight character and Miranda’s a straight character and I was like, ‘Well that doesn’t sound very sexy at all.’ Do you know what I mean?” View the full article

… and here it is… View the full article

Published by Radar Online MEGA India Arie is calling out Joe Rogan for his history of using the N-word as she calls for Spotify to remove her music from their platform. Mega The singer addressed the situation on Instagram. Arie’s post includes not only her asking for her music to be pulled from Spotify but also includes multiple video compilations of Rogan making more than tasteless jokes about black communities and his nonchalant use of the N-word throughout the years. The singer begins the video by saying she is asking her music to be taken off of Spotify followed by an old clip of Rogan comparing black neighborhoods to the Planet of the Apes. She clarifies that she empathizes with other artist like Canadian- American singer Neil Young who are protesting Rogan due to COVID misinformation and believes they should. Mega She also said she believes that the controversial podcaster has the right to say anything he wants to say – but she believes that goes both ways. Arie points out that artists like her make 0.003% of the money generated from Spotify. She asks for her music to be taken off the platform specifically because she doesn’t want money she makes for them to go towards what she believes to be problematic and racist. The singer also included a 30-second video of Rogan saying the N-word over and over again throughout the years openly on several podcasts and interviews. Arie clarifies her thoughts “[Joe Rogan] shouldn’t even be uttering the [n-]word. Don’t even say it, under any context. That’s where I stand. I have always stood there.” The singer’s final statement in the video sums it all up. “We have this person who is offensive to a lot of people and is paid $100 million. The backbone of Spotify is the music. You pay the musicians .003 to .005 percent of a penny and take this money generated over here and use it to invest in this guy? Do you what you want, but take me off. Or pay me too. I mean us. Pay artists like me too. Pay podcasters of color too.” Mega View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jonathan Landay and Ted Hesson WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A lack of flights and the search for a new U.S. reception center are among the hurdles facing the White House as it races to speed up the evacuation of at-risk Afghans from their homeland, according to a senior U.S. official and others familiar with the new plan. Other obstacles include difficulties in obtaining passports and an affordable housing shortage in the United States, they said. The plan’s goal “is just to make this more enduring and less of an emergency operation,” the senior U.S. official said in describing the revamp, requesting anonymity to discuss internal operations. The Biden administration has been under pressure to speed up Operation Allies Welcome from lawmakers, veterans groups and others angry that tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the U.S. government and others at risk of Taliban retaliation were left behind when the last U.S. troops departed in August after 20 years of war. Human rights organizations and the United Nations say the Taliban has stepped up detentions, abductions and killings. Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sayed Khosti has rejected the accusation of reprisal killings, saying no evidence had been presented. “People left behind are getting more and more desperate and we’re going to start seeing more of the consequences of that, whether mass movement of refugees or meeting grim fates in Afghanistan,” said a second senior U.S. official. Advocacy groups say Washington should ensure the new plan will not suffer the types of setbacks that have hampered Afghan arrivals. “We want to see enough resources applied to these issues so that even if one area fails or falters for a moment, there are options to make sure the pipeline isn’t cut off,” said Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and president of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of advocacy groups. President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered that up to $1.2 billion be made available for the effort, the largest operation of its kind since the Vietnam era. About 80,000 Afghans have been resettled since August. The new plan calls for shifting the processing of Afghan evacuees for admission to the United States from reception centers on U.S. military bases that are being closed to a base in the Qatari capital of Doha. FLIGHTS ARE ‘MAIN CHALLENGE’ But two U.S.-chartered Qatar Airways flights a week from Kabul to Qatar’s al Udeid military base are needed, with the goal of adding more flights, the U.S. official said. The flights are the “main challenge,” said the official. Differences between Qatar and the Taliban triggered a suspension of regular charters before Christmas. “We’re hoping we can get to regular order,” the U.S. official said. The Qatar Embassy and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Qatar has told Washington it intends to close the reception center in September ahead of the World Cup, the U.S. official confirmed. The official said the U.S. was looking for alternatives, including reopening the air base center after the World Cup. Once Afghan evacuees are processed for admission, they will be flown to the U.S. and placed with relatives or friends, provided housing by resettlement agencies or sent to a the planned reception center to help them resettle. The Biden administration has housed tens of thousands of such evacuees on bases in the United States while their admission and resettlement arrangements were finalized. The Pentagon has been closing those reception centers, with the last two expected to shutter this month, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said, after the roughly 6,500 people there have been processed. One of those two centers will remain open until the administration finds a civilian site, but a location has not been selected yet, the senior U.S. official and a congressional source said. The State Department plans to process Afghans for refugee status within 30 days beginning in March, two U.S. officials said. That is far faster than typical refugee processing, which can take years. To be sure, that creates additional challenges that the second senior U.S. official said would be difficult to surmount. Speeding up the operation, the second senior official said, will require an agreement with the Taliban to prioritize passports for evacuees or a deal with Qatar to allow travel without them, more U.S. officials in Doha to process evacuees, and a “higher tolerance of risk to speed up vetting.” Afghans entering the United States through the refugee resettlement program will be able to proceed directly to their destinations on U.N.-funded flights. The department also will complete the processing in Doha of tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the U.S. government and have applied for Special Immigration Visas (SIVs), according to the official and two congressional aides. The goal is to process and fly to the United States 1,000 refugees and 1,000 SIV recipients a month, the official said. (Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Mary Milliken and Gerry Doyle) View the full article

Published by DPA A museum dedicated to Avicii, the late superstar DJ from Sweden, is set to become the latest tourist draw in Stockholm. Yui Mok/PA Wire/dpa Stockholm, already a world capital of pop music heritage with its renowned ABBA museum, is now on its way to becoming a pilgrimage site for electronic music fans with both a city landmark and museum dedicated to the late Swedish DJ Avicii. Almost four years after the superstar DJ’s sudden death, the city is now preparing to open the Avicii Experience on February 26 – an interactive tribute museum to the electronic musician whose real name was Tim Bergling. The exhibition will feature photos, videos, memorabilia and previously unreleased music by the artist and tell the story of how Avicii became a star of the electronic music scene. Curators say the Avicii Experience will track Bergling’s life “from a reclusive music nerd to a celebrated superstar, from his boyhood room where it all started to the Los Angeles studio where the biggest hits were created.” City politicians had also announced in 2021 that a memorial site dedicated to the house musician is in the works. The memorial site, located in the upmarket district of Ostermalm where Bergling was born, grew up and went to school, will be a place where people can sit down for a while for some peace and quiet. Tim Bergling, known for hits such as “Levels”, “Sunshine” and “Wake Me Up”, was found dead in Oman in April 2018, aged 28. He stopped touring and performing live in 2016, but continued to record music and worked as a producer. View the full article

Published by Reuters UK LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. intelligence about Russian plans to fabricate a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine show shocking evidence of Moscow’s aggression, British foreign minister Liz Truss said on Thursday. “This is clear and shocking evidence of Russia’s unprovoked aggression and underhand activity to destabilise Ukraine,” she said on Twitter. “This bellicose intent towards a sovereign democratic country is completely unacceptable and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms.” (Reporting by William James; editing by Michael Holden) Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Texas man accused by U.S. federal prosecutors of threatening to kill election and government officials during a wave of violent rhetoric by believers in former President Donald Trump’s false claim of voter fraud is due in court on Friday. Chad Christopher Stark, 54, of Leander, Texas, is accused of posting a Jan. 5. 2021 message on Craigslist that read in part: “Georgia Patriots it’s time to kill … It’s time for us to take back our state from these Lawless treasonous traitors.” Stark is the first person charged by a new federal task force formed shortly after Reuters published the first in a series of investigative reports that have documented more than 850 threats and menacing messages to U.S. election workers. Stark could not be reached for comment. He is expected to be appointed a federal defender. The Stark indictment did not identify the victims of his threats, but Reuters previously reported that two of the officials include Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Governor Brian Kemp. Both Raffensperger and Kemp are Republicans who defended the integrity of the Georgia election despite intense pressure from Trump, who in January 2021 called Raffensperger and told him to find enough votes to overturn his loss. Trump continues to falsely claim he lost the November 2020 election due to widespread fraud despite multiple court losses and audits confirming Joe Biden’s victory. Remarks Trump made on Saturday at an event in Texas prompted a Georgia prosecutor who is conducting a criminal investigation of the former president to ask the FBI for protection. Stark is currently out on bond and scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Russell Vineyard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia at 10:30 a.m. ET (1500 GMT). His case is one of dozens under investigation by federal authorities. The Justice Department last week unveiled charges against a second man – Gjergi Luke Juncal, 50, of Las Vegas who they accuse of making threatening phone calls to a state election worker. He has pleaded not guilty, and a trial was tentatively scheduled for the end of March. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone and Lisa Shumaker) View the full article

Published by AFP US Reprepresentatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger have been targets of the Republican Party's right wing for months Washington (AFP) – Republicans were set to censure two lawmakers Friday in a significant escalation of the drive to oust dissidents seen as disloyal to former US president Donald Trump. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the lone Republicans on the House committee investigating Trump’s role in last year’s US Capitol assault, are regarded as adversaries of the ex-president, who retains his iron grip on the party despite losing the 2020 election. The party’s 168 national committee members, gathered for their winter meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, will vote to approve a formal censure of the pair. Hardline Trump loyalists have been pushing for months for the two to be expelled, particularly as the investigation into the January 6 2021 insurrection has closed in on the former president’s inner circle. The measure is expected to get a strong vote of approval from the committee. But with Kinzinger retiring from Congress after the November midterm elections, and Cheney in danger of losing her Wyoming seat, the party leadership is said to be keen to put the issue behind them. Republicans are hoping instead to focus on hitting President Joe Biden on his stalled domestic agenda, spiraling inflation and the stubborn pandemic ahead of the midterms. Cheney responded to news of the censure by doubling down on her Trump criticism. “The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon January 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy,” she said in a statement Thursday. “I’m a constitutional conservative and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge,” Cheney added. “I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what.” View the full article

Published by DPA Lutz Leichsenring, spokesman and member of the executive board Clubcommission e.V., speaks at a press conference. Berlin's world-famous club scene is hoping to relaunch in March if coronavirus restrictions are lifted as hoped, a group representing the venues said on Friday. Britta Pedersen/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa Berlin’s world-famous club scene is hoping to relaunch in March if coronavirus restrictions are lifted as hoped, a group representing the venues said on Friday. Clubcommission said in a statement that clubs in the German capital would be ready to reopen within two or three weeks of such an announcement, citing the results of a recent survey. Around 80% of venues polled are currently closed completely, while others are still hosting cultural events or offering bar service. Dancing is currently banned in clubs under Berlin’s current Covid rules. Even as calls for the easing of restrictions grow in Germany, club owners said they are worried about renewed closures further down the line. They also cited a lack of staff and financial problems as a result of the restrictions as major concerns. If the clubs are to open, most would be prepared to allow in only vaccinated and recovered persons, while also requiring a recent negative test result at the door. They said that reopening with mask-wearing and social-distancing was out of the question. “If it is decided to reopen the clubs in the coming weeks, a strategy on the part of the politicians is urgently needed to ensure long-term planning security for event operations and thousands of employees,” Clubcommission press spokesperson Lutz Leichsenring said. Clubcommission chairperson Pamela Schobeß spoke of “light at the end of the tunnel.” “When it is clear that the intensive care units are no longer at their limits and the critical infrastructure workers are no longer absent due to illness, we too must finally be allowed to reopen for our guests,” she said. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Andrew Osborn and Mark Trevelyan MOSCOW (Reuters) -China and Russia proclaimed a deep strategic partnership on Friday to balance what they portrayed as the malign global influence of the United States as China’s President Xi Jinping hosted Russia’s Vladimir Putin on the opening day of the Beijing Winter Olympics. In a joint statement, the two countries affirmed that their new relationship was superior to any political or military alliance of the Cold War era. “Friendship between the two States has no limits, there are no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation,” they declared, announcing plans to collaborate in a host of areas including space, climate change, artificial intelligence and control of the Internet. The agreement marked the most detailed and assertive statement of Russian and Chinese resolve to work together – and against the United States – to build a new international order based on their own interpretations of human rights and democracy. Steeped in ideological discourse, it was not clear whether it would immediately translate into an increase in tangible and practical cooperation despite Putin trumpeting a new gas deal with China on Friday, or was intended as more of a statement of general policy intent. Jonathan Eyal of the London-based RUSI think tank said the declaration marked a “frontal rebuttal” of the U.S. and Western view of the world and a possible building block towards a military alliance between Russia and China. “It’s the most explicit articulation of the ‘making the world safe for dictatorship’ strategy,” he said. “It is a historic point because they both feel cornered and they feel their moment has arrived to state their vision of the world and promote it aggressively.” The two countries have moved closer together as both have come under pressure from the West on a host of issues including their human rights records and Russia’s military build-up near Ukraine. The timing of their announcement was highly symbolic, at a China-hosted Olympics that the United States has subjected to a diplomatic boycott. Each went significantly further than before, Eyal said, in explicitly backing the other over key bones of contention with the United States and its allies: – Russia voiced its support for China’s stance that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and opposition to any form of independence for the island. Moscow and Beijing also voiced their opposition to the AUKUS alliance between Australia, Britain and the United States, saying it increased the danger of an arms race in the region. – China joined Russia in calling for an end to NATO enlargement and supported its demand for security guarantees from the West – issues at the heart of Moscow’s confrontation with the United States and its allies over Ukraine. The two countries expressed concern about “the advancement of U.S. plans to develop global missile defence and deploy its elements in various regions of the world, combined with capacity building of high-precision non-nuclear weapons for disarming strikes and other strategic objectives”. Elsewhere, without naming Washington, they criticised attempts by “certain states” to establish global hegemony, fan confrontation and impose their own standards of democracy. TECH AND ENERGY In the technology arena, Russia and China said they were ready to strengthen cooperation on artificial intelligence and information security. They said they believed that “any attempts to limit their sovereign right to regulate national segments of the Internet and ensure their security are unacceptable”. Meanwhile Russian state energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft on Friday agreed new gas and oil supply deals with Beijing worth tens of billions of dollars. The deals capitalise on Putin’s drive to diversify Russian energy exports away from the West, which started shortly after he came to power in 1999. Since then Russia has become China’s top energy supplier and cut its reliance on the West for revenues. The Kremlin said the presidents also discussed the need to broaden trade in national currencies because of unpredictability surrounding the use of the dollar. U.S. President Joe Biden has said Russian companies could be cut off from the ability to trade in dollars as part of sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine. Moscow denies any such intention, but has used a build-up of more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border to grab the attention of the West and press its demands for security guarantees. The Chinese gas supplies are not directly linked with Russian gas exports to Europe, and more Russian gas for Beijing does not automatically mean less for Europe. However, they serve Putin as an addition revenue cushion amid the rising threat of U.S. and EU sanctions. (Additional reporting by Mark Trevelyan in London; Editing by Angus MacSwan) View the full article

Published by New York Daily News Gay and lesbian adults in the United States have higher COVID-19 vaccination rates than heterosexual adults, health officials said Thursday. According to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lesbians and gay men age 18 and older reported higher vaccination coverage overall (85.4%) than their heterosexual counterparts (76.3%), whose rates were similar to those of bisexual adults (76.3%) and transgender adults (75.7%) Additionally, gay and lesbian adults were also more likely to trust in the efficacy of the potentially life-saving shots than heterosexual adults. W… Read More View the full article