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Published by Raw Story Republican pundits' attempts to attack the “Barbie” movie have flopped, with the film not only smashing box office records, but data showing it's a particularly big hit in red states. Now, Fox News is changing course and, in a new article, is trying to cast “Barbie” as a conservative role model. The plot of the film shows Barbie, played by Margot Robbie, faced with a choice of whether to remain in Barbie Land, or set off into the real world and face the problems of being a real person. “Some conservative women defend the film, with one commenter calling it a ‘delightfully fresh critique of mod… Read More View the full article

Published by The Royal Observer The tomboy who climbed onto the roof of Queen’s Gate boarding school for girls in London’s tony South Kensington to smoke cigarettes with her friends in 1960 was never short of company. While her pals gossiped about boys and horses, young Camilla Rosemary Shand, known as Milla, had some much more scandalous stories to tell. Who else could boast that her great-grandmother, Alice Keppel, was the official mistress of Britain’s King Edward VII? And what irony it would prove to be that Alice met Edward VII at a dinner party in 1898, when he was still the Prince of Wales before being crowned King. S… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story A pair of Black bikers in Michigan say they were chased down and harassed by a woman who proclaimed she had “white privilege,” The Daily Beast reported on Friday. According to Muskegon residents Darius Bankhead Sr. and James Grisham, they were riding their motorcycles to Grand Haven for the Coast Guard Festival, when a woman in a Jeep started tailing them, honking aggressively and flipping them off. Then, when they pulled into a parking lot to try to get a picture of her license plate, she followed them, parked in a handicapped spot, then got in their faces and started yelling. Video footage o… Read More View the full article

Published by The Street By Daniel Kline Las Vegas welcomes everyone. Sin City offers pretty much every form of entertainment imaginable in an attempt to serve as many audiences as possible. On the Las Vegas Strip, for example, Caesars Entertainment (CZR) – Get Free Report hosts a topless revue set to country music at Harrah's while “Ru Paul's Drag Race” has a longstanding engagement next door at Flamingo. DON'T MISS: A Las Vegas Strip Tradition People Loved Moves Closer to Its End No matter what you like to do, whom you love, or how you choose to spend your time, Las Vegas has what you want. What the Strip has not ha… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters (Reuters) – A 17-year-old male has been charged with murder as a hate crime in the stabbing death in New York City of a man who was dancing at a gas station when confronted by a group hurling anti-gay and anti-Black slurs, a police official said on Saturday. The death on July 29 of O'Shae Sibley, a 28-year-old professional dancer who was dancing to a Beyonce song when confronted by the suspect, outraged the LGBT community and prompted Beyonce and film director Spike Lee to pay tribute to him. Sibley was dancing with friends while refueling their car when they were approached by a group of male… Read More View the full article

Published by Euronews (English) Country music fans are picking sides as two of the genre's biggest singers have released music videos that have radically different views on how the country music scene should be depicted. The controversy surrounding Jason Aldean's song ‘Try That in a Small Town' didn't make headlines until the release of the accompanying music video this past month. The video shows Aldean and his band in front of a brightly lit white courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee. The square where the video was filmed was later revealed to be the site of race riots back in 1946 and a 1927 lynching. While Aldean sings warn… Read More View the full article

Published by uPolitics.com Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed two bills banning conversion therapy for minors in the state. These measures make Michigan the 22nd state to forbid the practice. Conversion therapy is any attempt to change an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression to align with homosexual and cisgender norms. A ban on the use of federal and state funds for the practice was put in place by Whitmer in 2021. One of the bills passed prohibits mental health professionals from engaging in conversion therapy with minors. Any violation of this law will result in the professiona… Read More View the full article

Published by uPolitics.com Vice President Kamala Harris rejected Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' offer to debate his state's new controversial standards for teaching African American history in public schools. Last week, DeSantis signed a bill that requires educators to instruct students on “how slaved developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” After receiving pushback from Democratic and Republicans across the country, DeSantis wrote a letter to Harris asking her to meet him in Tallahassee to discuss on the new curriculum. “In Florida, we are unafraid to have an open and honest … Read More View the full article

Published by AFP Washington (AFP) – Former US president Donald Trump took a swipe at his own country's women's soccer team on Sunday evening after they crashed out of the World Cup on penalties to Sweden, declaring that “woke equals failure.” Despite sealing American glory at the previous two World Cups, the team have become a lightning rod for anger from the US political right, in part because of their advocacy for social justice. Many conservatives were particularly chagrined by players taking the knee during the national anthem, in protest at the country's record on racial equality. Their co-captain, Megan … Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters UK By Philip Pullella ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (Reuters) -Pope Francis said on Sunday that the Catholic Church is open to everyone, including the gay community, and that it has a duty to accompany them on a personal path of spirituality but within the framework of its rules. Francis, speaking to reporters on the plane returning to Rome from Portugal, also said his health was good following surgery for an abdominal hernia in June. He said his stitches had been removed but had to wear an abdominal band for another two or three months until his muscles strengthened. Flying back from the World Youth Da… Read More View the full article

Published by Euronews (English) A Lufthansa pilot drew a penis-shaped flight path in the sky last week after being diverted from Catania airport in Sicily. The 24-kilometre-long pattern was spotted by amused aviation fans on FlightRadar24. The aircraft left Frankfurt in Germany at 1.45 pm on 28 July and reportedly attempted to land at Catania twice before its course was diverted. It took just over 16 minutes to circle in the sky off the east coast of Sicily – a manoeuvre that created the penis shape – before returning to its original flight path and continuing to Malta. Local Italian media claimed that the disgruntled pilot… Read More View the full article

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Published by OK Magazine Some celebrities are notorious for their unique backstage requests, from the story of Van Halen demanding all the brown M&Ms be removed from their bowl of candy to Katy Perry reportedly asking for freeze-dried strawberries and an array of very specific flowers to be in every dressing room — but Beyoncé might take the cake. The “Single Ladies” singer’s team has to have a box of toilet seats shipped around the world while the superstar is on tour so that she never has to sit on a pre-used seat. An outlet reported photos of a large luggage box that was labeled “Beyoncé Toilet Seats” that is repor… Read More View the full article

Published by uInterview.com Beyonce's six-year-old daughter Rumi made a rare appearance with Madonna backstage at the Renaissance World Tour. Madonna shared a photo of her three daughters, Stella, Estere and Mercy, and her posing alongside Beyonce and Rumi. Beyonce smiled in the photo while her long straight hair cascaded back. She was still in her stage makeup but wore a black floor-length robe. Rumi is Beyonce and Jay-Z's second child and twin to her brother Sir. Her older sister is 11-year-oldBlue Ivy, who previously joined her mother on stage during the tour. The twins were born in June 2017 and Rumi's name was ch… Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Lady Gaga has vowed to keep “celebrating” Tony Bennett. The ‘Alejandro' hitmaker marked what would have been the 97th birthday of her late friend and collaborator – who died last month following a long battle with Alzheimer's – on Thursday (03.08.23) by declaring it a “day for smiling”, but insisted she will be honouring the legendary entertainer more than just once a year. She wrote on Instagram: “Happy Birthday Tony. August 3rd is Tony Bennett Day. A day for smiling. But I'll be celebrating you a lot more than once a year. I'll celebrate you every time I'm on stage singing jazz music, every … Read More View the full article

Published by The Philadelphia Inquirer Mark Margolis, the veteran actor and Philadelphia native best known for playing former drug kingpin Hector “Tio” Salamanca on “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” had died. He was 83. Margolis' death was announced by his son, Morgan Margolis, who said his father passed away at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York “following a short illness.” Margolis, who was born in Philadelphia on Nov. 26, 1939, had a career in Hollywood that spanned decades and including films such as “Scarface,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” and “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.” He also appeared in nearly all of Darren Aronofsky's fi… Read More View the full article

Published by Al-Araby Barbie film fans in the Middle East will breathe a sigh of relief as the UAE's main censorship body on Thursday confirmed that the highly-awaited Barbie movie would finally be arriving in the Gulf state. The UAE Media Council, the regulatory authority responsible for monitoring and censoring media content in the Emirates, announced that it had cleared the Greta Gerwig-directed comedy, which is currently the highest grossing film of the year. “The UAE Media Council has granted the Barbie movie the approval to be screened in the UAE's licensed cinemas after completing the necessary procedures in… Read More View the full article

Published by DPA Following his sentencing to 19 years in a penal camp, Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny has urged Russia's population to muster their courage and stand up to President Vladimir Putin. “Putin should not achieve his goals. Don't lose the will to resist,” Navalny said after the judge's ruling in his current prison camp in Melekhovo, 260 kilometres from Moscow. The Moscow City Court had set up a hearing room at the camp and sentenced the opposition leader for alleged extremism – with credit for his previous sentence of nine years in prison. “Nineteen years in a colony with a special regime. The numb… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Sharon Bernstein (Reuters) – Florida has told school superintendents that the Advanced Placement psychology course offered to high school students violates the state's new law prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, effectively banning the class, the nonprofit that develops the courses said on Thursday. The move is the latest by the administration of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to limit instruction about LGBTQ issues and race in the state. DeSantis is challenging former U.S. President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for president in 2024 and has ma… Read More View the full article

Published by Chicago Tribune The movie “Oppenheimer” reminds us that a healthy society must leave room for people who face down power to pursue truth, who introduce new ways of thinking or who choose to follow alternative life paths. A brilliant but eccentric scientist, J. Robert Oppenheimer led the world into the Atomic Age only to run afoul of government investigators. He also calls to mind a similar account in Great Britain in which Alan Turing, who led the world into the computer age and helped crack the German military codes in World War II, was convicted on a morals charge and eventually took his own life. Both men … Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet In the past, what was once Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District in Central Florida had strong DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs. But that changed on Tuesday, August 1, when all DEI programs were abolished in what is now the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. The Associated Press (AP) reports that the District officially announced that the programs were being eliminated along with any job duties related to them. “Also axed were initiatives left over from when the District was controlled by Disney supporters, which awarded contracts based on goals of achieving racial o… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story A fringe political group associated with Sarah Palin may have broken a string of campaign finance laws, according to a recent complaint. Alaska lawyer Scott Kendall, of the firm Cashion Gilmore, filed the complaint against the group “Alaskans for Honest Elections” that's dedicated to ending ranked-choice voting in the state, for a dizzying array of alleged violations — including attempts to get around disclosure laws, obscure its finances, manufacture tax breaks for donors and line their own pockets, reported The Daily Beast. “You turn over one rock and there's more, turn over another and the… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters UK MILAN (Reuters) – The city of Milan will resume registering children born abroad from male couples, its mayor said on Thursday, after challenging curbs imposed by the right-wing national government. The government took action in January to stop local authorities from registering the children of same-sex parents, in a move that has sparked protests from LGBT+ activists concerned about the conservative agenda of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. No longer able to register children born abroad to couples of two men, the city of Milan turned to the interior ministry asking if it could at least regist… Read More View the full article

Published by The Street By Colin Salao Stephen A. Smith has been a staunch critic of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on his podcast, and he addressed recent news tying the presidential candidate with Smith's usual topic of discussion: sports. Smith took to his podcast “The Stephen A. Smith Show” on Aug. 2 to react to news that the NBA's Orlando Magic donated $50,000 to Never Back Down, a political action committee supporting DeSantis and his presidential campaign. DON'T MISS: Stephen A. Smith Gives Diplomatic Response to Joe Rogan's Comments On January 6th But Smith said he wasn't trying to “excoriate” the Orlando Magi… Read More View the full article

Published by DPA A new season of the Netflix production “Heartstopper” – the series famed for the best ever coming-out scene in television history – is set for release on Thursday. For those who are new to the series, it tells of a group of queer teenagers and their problems and feelings. The stars are Charlie and Nick, who fall in love with each other at school. The sweetest parts of the show are the playful comic elements, in emotional, intense moments. The romantic live-action series made in Britain is based on webcomics and the graphic novel by Alice Oseman. The story begins with lanky and melancholy Charl… Read More View the full article