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Winter Olympics 2022 Out skater Jason Brown The Winter Olympics 2022 are just getting underway and LGBTQ athletes are already thriving. The action is ready to heat up on the snow and ice this weekend. Here are the events to keep your eye on as the historic number of LGBTQ Winter Olympians aim for the medal podium. Figure Skating The figure skating team event is currently underway with Team USA leading the favored Russian Olympic Committee heading into day two thanks to an outstanding performance from Nathan Chen. The Americans currently sit atop the leaderboard with 28 points before the field shrinks from 10 teams to five after Friday’s Women’s short program. Team Canada is on the cusp of qualifying for the Team final, currently sitting two points back of fifth-place Italy. Out skater Paul Poirier turned in the best performance thus far for Canada, scoring a fourth-place finish in Ice Dance with partner Piper Gilles. Beyond the team event, the individual Men’s Skating event will begin with the short program on Sunday. Out skaters Kevin Aymoz (France) and Jason Brown (USA) will be part of the field. Both are strong competitors and look to surprise favorites Chen and two-time defending gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan. Curling Mixed Doubles Curling has been a highlight of the early days of the Beijing Games. The sport boasts only one LGBTQ athlete in the field, Great Britain’s Bruce Mouat, but he is one of the best currently on the sheet. He and Jennifer Dodds are off to a great start in the round-robin tournament, currently holding second-place after their first four games. This weekend is the first of three events for Pancochova in Beijing. She will compete in the Women’s Halfpipe and Women’s Big Air in the coming weeks. Winter Olympics 2022: Previously on Towleroad Winter Olympics 2022 Start With LGBTQ Athletes Primed For The Medal Podium; Preview This Weekend’s Action In Figure Skating, Curling and Gayest Team Ever Brian Bell February 4, 2022 Read More 2022 Winter Olympics Features More Than 30 Out LGBTQ Olympians, Including First Out Nonbinary Athlete Brian Bell January 30, 2022 Read More Queen Honors Olympian Tom Daley for His Athletics and Advocacy; Diver, Knitting Entrepreneur Now ‘Officer of the Order of the British Empire’ Brian Bell January 4, 2022 Read More Tom Daley Diving into Career as Children’s Author After Gold Medal Win in Tokyo 2020 Towleroad August 23, 2021 Read More Raven Saunders’ ‘X’ Protest Gesture Did Not Violate Rules, Says USOPC Towleroad August 10, 2021 Read More Soccer Star Quinn is First Out Trans Nonbinary Olympic Gold Medalist as Canada Tops Sweden in 3-2 Shootout Brian Bell August 6, 2021 Read More Photo by Rama/Creative Commons View the full article

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