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Published by Reuters By Trevor Hunnicutt WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris was at Democratic committee headquarters in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, when a pipe bomb was discovered outside, according to a White House official familiar with the matter. Harris, then the vice-president elect and senator from California, evacuated the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters on Capitol Hill after law enforcement officers discovered the device, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The U.S. Secret Service, which provides Harris’ security, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. For a year, the FBI has been looking for a suspect wearing a gray hooded top who they say planted an explosive device next to a park bench outside the DNC and another in an alley behind the Republican National Committee (RNC) headquarters. The devices, which officials believe were planted the night before, were defused. Their discovery came on the same day as supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in an attempt https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-call-trump-threat-democracy-us-capitol-attack-anniversary-2022-01-06 to overturn the Nov. 3, 2020, election of Joe Biden and Harris. Harris, Biden and other lawmakers observed the anniversary with speeches at the Capitol on Thursday. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien) View the full article

Published by Radar Online When Lucille Ball first met Desi Arnaz she had a black eye and was wearing a slinky gold lame dress slit halfway up the thigh. She was in costume as a stripper for the 1940 movie Dance, Girl, Dance, and Desi thought she “looked like a two-dollar whore who had been badly beaten by her pimp.” Lucille barely gave him a thought as they were introduced at the studio commissary by director George Abbott. She couldn’t even remember the Cuban’s funny Spanish sounding name. It was an inauspicious start to one of Hollywood’s most tumultuous romances. Several hours later, however, Lucille wandered back on set for a script reading, freshly showered and wearing a yellow sweater and tight-fitting beige slacks. Both she and Desi had been signed up to star in the college football musical Too Many Girls. Not recognizing her, Desi turned to the piano player and exclaimed in his rich accent, “Man, that’s a hunk of woman!” The pianist reminded him they’d already met, but just to make sure, Desi called out, “Miss Ball?” “Why don’t you call me Lucille? And I’ll call you Dizzy,” she replied, according to biographer Stefan Kanfer in his book Ball of Fire. “It was like Wow! A bolt of lightning! Lucille fell like a ton of bricks,” said her Dance, Girl, Dance co-star Maureen O’Hara. Two days later, Lucille split with her older boyfriend, movie director Alexander Hall, and Desi called off his engagement to dark-haired dancer Rene de Marco. “A Cuban skyrocket,” Lucille would write later, had “burst over my horizon.” Mega Then 28, she’d found time for romance during her RKO B-movie days. There was a brief 1938 engagement to tough-guy actor Broderick Crawford. But the betrothal was a cover for her adulterous relationship with married Hollywood producer Pandro Berman. She’d also dated William Holden, George Raft and Raft’s bodyguard Mack ‘Killer’ Grey, who was said to have organized crime connections. But Desi was different. Friends and studio execs privately expected the fling to flame out just as quickly as it began. Lucille had previously shown a penchant for older, powerful partners. What could she see in a 23-year-old conga king six years her junior with a slick line and a checkered history with women, Betty Grable among them. But Lucille had already decided Desi was the one. “It was not until I met Desi that I knew I was in love with the man I wanted for the father of my children,” she said. The world would one day grow to love “Lucy,” but off-screen Desi was the only person who would call her by that name and not Lucille. “I didn’t like the name Lucille,” he said. “That name had been used by other men. Lucy was mine alone.” Right from the start, sexual jealousy haunted their relationship. They spent an estimated $30,000 in long-distance calls as lengthy periods apart – he touring with his band and she making movies – inevitably led to suspicions of cheating. It didn’t help that Desi was an inveterate womanizer used to getting his own way. Mega Born on March 2, 1917, in Cuba in the city of Santiago de Cuba. Desi’s father, Desiderio, was the mayor, his uncle was police chief and his mother, Dolores, was said to be one of the ten most beautiful women in Latin America. As a young teenager, he had his own boat, car and a stable of horses, but that was all about to change. The 1933 political revolution left his father in jail and forced his mother to flee with him to Havana. His father was sentenced to six months behind bars and was eventually allowed to leave for Miami, where Desi joined him in 1935. His mother followed. After working a string of menial jobs, he won a big following with his explosive follow-the-leader conga performances just at a time when Latin music was sweeping the United States. His success led him from Miami to Manhattan to Broadway…and ultimately to Lucille. Initially, the battles over Desi’s wandering eye only served as an aphrodisiac for the fledgling romance. Making up was as fiery as the fall-outs. The big marriage proposal, when it came six months after that fateful first meeting, would be like a scene out of I Love Lucy, the show that would later make them the world’s best known TV spouses. In their book Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, authors Coyne Steven Sanders and Tom Gilbert wrote how the comedian talked in the interview about why she and her Cuban beau could never marry. “It could never work,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to end up one of those neglected musician’s wives who sit home doing needlepoint while their husbands are barnstorming around the country.” But less than one hour later, when they were finally alone, Desi proposed. Not only that, he revealed he’d already made all the plans for them to elope to Connecticut the next morning. They would leave at 6 a.m. to get hitched and make it back in time for his 11 o’clock matinee. Mega On the marriage license, Lucille listed her age as 26 – three years younger than she really was – and Desi, who was 23, added two years to close the age gap even further. Ominously, the bridge wore black. The wool dress was the only thing she had packed that was remotely suitable on such short notice. Desi had forgotten to buy a wedding band so his manager ran into a Woolworth’s and bought a brass ring from the costume jewelry counter. She wore it for the rest of their marriage. “My friends gave the marriage six months,” said Lucille. “I gave it six weeks.” Yet, flushed with excitement and head over heels in love with the handsome, charming bandleader, Lucille hoped the match would last forever. Considering their mercurial temperaments, their age difference and his Casanova reputation, few would bet on the marriage capturing the hearts of the nation and enduring, albeit with many rocky moments, for two decades. “It’s amazing that two people from such different backgrounds and geographical origins ever got together,” said Desi later. “That was perhaps part of our attraction and also, I am sure, the cause of many of our arguments, fights and other problems.” After years of struggling to be a star she was back playing a supporting role in the relationship. Even on their wedding night, according to Kanfer, Desi asked Lucille to get up and fetch him a glass of water because he was thirsty. “I was out of bed and running the tap in the bathroom before I woke up sufficiently to wonder why in the hell he didn’t get it himself,” she recalled. If they went out to a restaurant, it would be Desi who chose what they would eat. He banned her from riding in taxis because it put her too close to a strange man. A year into the marriage Lucille became obsessed with her husband’s philandering and upset over the time they were spending apart. As she would tell her friends, “You can’t get pregnant down a telephone.” In 1942, during World War II, Desi joined the Hollywood Victory Caravan to raise war bonds, along with such stars as James Cagney, Bob Hope and Olivia de Havilland. His skirt-chasing shocked even the practiced adulterers of Hollywood. Mega As Kathleen Brady wrote in her biography Lucille: The Life of Lucille Ball, “Desi felt that as long as he truly loved Lucille alone, his blatant promiscuity in the presence of her colleagues was irrelevant.” By 1944, Lucille couldn’t put up with it any longer. She filed for divorce, convinced he was ‘screwing everybody’ at the hospital near Los Angeles where he was stationed with the Army Medical Corps. But before long Desi charmed his way back into his wife’s affections and in 1946 they even went through with a second marriage ceremony, this time in a church, because his mother believed the reason they hadn’t yet had children was because they were never wed in a proper Catholic service. It’s not that Lucille believed she could ever reform Desi. But she admitted, that she would “rather quarrel and make up with him than anyone else in the world.” In 1950, having been dropped by RKO and too old to be groomed as a bona fide leading lady, Lucille was starring on the radio in the popular show My Favorite Husband with actor Richard Denning. The comedy was so successful CBS decided to launch a version on the brand-new medium of television. Never one to miss an opportunity, Lucille jumped on the plan as a way to get what she wanted – to work with Desi. Lucille reckoned that by having Desi as her husband on-screen and off, she would keep him away from the temptations of the road, put some real effort into starting a family and create a massively successful TV show to showcase her slapstick genius. In almost every respect her scheming paid off. CBS was reluctant at first, worrying American audiences wouldn’t relate to a Cuban husband. But Lucille and Desi were unbowed. They started their production company, Desilu, and took their own show on the road, turning it into such a hit that the network decided to buy it and put it on the air. I Love Lucy went into production in 1951 when Lucille was still 39 years old. After having three miscarriages, Lucille finally gave birth to her first child, Lucie Desiree Arnaz, just one month before her 40th birthday. A year and a half later, her son, Desiderio Alberto Arnaz, known as Desi Jr., was born. Lucille finally had the perfect Hollywood vehicle for her considerable comedic talents, she had the kids she yearned for and her husband by her side. It really was all too good to last. View the full article

Published by OK Magazine Mega Breaking news alert: An insider tells OK! Matt Lauer has been quietly waiting for the opportunity to drop a bombshell tell-all — and 2022 will be the year he finally speaks out. Since the disgraced formerToday host was fired in 2017 after a colleague accused him of sexual assault, “Matt has kept his head down because he knew the timing wasn’t right,” dishes the insider. “Now he feels the dust has settled, and there will be more sympathy for him at long last.” Mega KATIE COURIC TO FACE THE MUSIC ON ‘TODAY’ AFTER BASHING FEMALE COLLEAGUES, SUPPORTING DISGRACED HOST MATT LAUER IN EXPLOSIVE TELL-ALL Lauer, 64, who has been dating PR execShamin Abas since finalizing his divorce from longtime wife Annette Roque, “will spare no truth about the people he feels have betrayed him,” the insider shares. While Today cohost Savannah Guthrie is too popular and powerful for him to take down, “she’ll be worth a mention at least,” predicts the insider, adding that he’ll also likely take a jab at controversial interview guests like Tom Cruise. “He’s already plotting out the book,” continues the insider. “Matt will pick his targets carefully, but he figures he has no chance of making a TV comeback and has nothing to lose by getting his revenge.” MATT LAUER LENDS SUPPORT TO AXED CNN HOST CHRIS CUOMO FOLLOWING SEXUAL MISCONDUCT CLAIM: HE MIGHT BE THE ONLY PERSON ‘WHO UNDERSTANDS’ AsOK! previously reported, Lauer felt so bitter about the scandal and his subsequent firing that he only talks to old friends he believes will be on his side. Mega “He just stays to himself, he doesn’t really reach out to people very much anymore or engage them and so he’s been losing touch with a lot of people,” an insider explained. “When he left the Today show, he didn’t get paid a penny after he got fired. NBC stuck with that. He’s presumably sitting on mountains of money but then again, he had a lot of money in real estate.” “He only wants to talk to people who are gonna take his side,” the insider added candidly. “He still feels like he got railroaded.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Andy Cohen thinks the outfits in the early days of the ‘Real Housewives’ franchise were “just terrible”. The 53-year-old television personality – who also serves as executive producer of the Bravo reality TV brand, which has series set all over the world – compared their style to something you “might wear to a PTA meeting” instead of the glamorous events they are known for attending. Andy told Vanity Fair: “In the early of ‘Orange County’, the fashion was just terrible. If you look at the first few years of reunions, ‘Orange County’, ‘Atlanta’ and ‘New York’, they were basically wearing — I don’t even think what they would wear to a cocktail party. I think it was more what they might wear to a PTA meeting.” As the show has developed – with settings ranging from Beverly Hills and New Jersey to international editions in Cheshire, UK and Melbourne, Australia – so has the style game of the ladies, which is something the ‘Watch What Happens Live’ host acknowledged. He said: “I think people have loved seeing what they wear now. They were meant to be aspirational and that’s what they are.” Meanwhile, the reunions – where cast members answer questions and confront each other for shady comments said in confessionals – have become such an iconic fashion event in reality television. Andy – speaking about the crossover with ‘Project Runway’ where competing designers made outfits for some of the cast – added: “For the Housewives, getting ready for a reunion — this is like their prom dress. “So in that same way, I think it makes for a logical challenge. I love the dynamics that play out when you have a Housewife as a client to a designer and seeing the interaction between the Housewives and the designer who wants to win the challenge.” Recently, Andy came under fire for presenting CNN’s New Year’s Eve (31.12.21) coverage – which he fronted with friend and veteran journalist Anderson Cooper – under the influence of alcohol, but he refuses to be “shamed” for his behaviour. He argued: “Listen, I will not be shamed for having fun on New Year’s Eve. That’s why I’m there. That’s why they bring me there.” The ‘Superficial’ author did express remorse for his disparaging comments about Ryan Seacrest. Andy said: “The only thing that I regret saying, the only thing is that I slammed the ABC broadcast and I really like Ryan Seacrest and he’s a great guy.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday began hearing arguments over requests by Republican state officials and business groups to block President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for employers with more than 100 workers and a similar requirement for healthcare facilities at a time of surging COVID-19 cases nationwide. The nine justices are scheduled to hear at least two hours of arguments in two cases that present a test of presidential powers to combat a public health crisis that has left more than 830,000 Americans dead. Justice Sonia Sotomayor has chosen to participate in the arguments from her chambers, and two arguing attorneys, the solicitors general of Ohio and Louisiana, will also participate remotely by telephone, a court spokeswoman said. Ohio Solicitor General Benjamin Flowers tested positive for the coronavirus, his office said. The justices spent most of the pandemic working remotely but returned to in-person arguments in October. All nine are fully vaccinated, the court said. The court remains closed to the public due to the pandemic. The White House has said the two temporary mandates will save lives and strengthen the U.S. economy by increasing the number of vaccinated Americans by the millions. The challengers have argued that the federal government exceeded its authority by imposing requirements not specifically authorized by Congress and failed to follow the proper administrative processes for issuing emergency regulations. The court’s 6-3 conservative majority in the past has shown skepticism toward sweeping actions by federal agencies. Under one of the policies, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) required that workers at businesses with 100 or more employees be vaccinated or tested weekly, a policy applying to more than 80 million workers nationwide. The state of Ohio and the National Federation of Independent Business are taking the lead in seeking to block that mandate. Religious groups including the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary are among those also challenging the policy in separate cases. Under the second policy being reviewed by the Supreme Court, vaccination is required for an estimated 10.3 million workers at about 76,000 healthcare facilities, including hospitals and nursing homes, that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid government health insurance programs for elderly, disabled and low-income Americans. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency responsible for administering the two programs, issued the rule. The states of Missouri and Louisiana are taking the lead in the arguments before the justices seeking an order blocking it. The Supreme Court has dealt with several pandemic-related cases already and rejected religious-based challenges to state vaccine requirements. Friday’s cases for the first time test the federal government’s authority to issue vaccine mandates. The court in other pandemic-related cases has backed religious challenges to certain restrictions and ended the federal government’s residential eviction moratorium, originally imposed under former President Donald Trump. As in many countries, vaccination has become a divisive issue in the United States, with some people adamantly opposed and many Republicans critical of mandates imposed by governments and businesses. The United States and countries around the world are facing an upswing in COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron coronavirus variant. Biden’s administration is asking the justices to lift orders by federal judges in Missouri and Louisiana blocking the healthcare worker mandate in half the 50 states while litigation on the legal merits of the policy continues. The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Dec. 17 lifted an injunction issued by another court that had blocked the OSHA rule regarding large businesses, prompting challengers to ask the Supreme Court to intervene. Biden’s administration is arguing that Congress gave federal agencies broad leeway to require employers to protect workers and Medicare and Medicaid patients from health and safety hazards. Decisions in both cases are expected quickly, with the administration’s deadlines for compliance looming. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung; Additional reporting by Tom Hals; Editing by Will Dunham) View the full article

Published by Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sidney Poitier, who broke through racial barriers as the first Black winner of the best actor Oscar for his role in “Lilies of the Field,” and inspired a generation during the civil rights movement, has died at age 94, an official from the Bahamian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday. Eugene Torchon-Newry, acting director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed Poitier’s death. Poitier created a distinguished film legacy in a single year with three 1967 films at a time when segregation prevailed in much of the United States. In “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” he played a Black man with a white fiancee and “In the Heat of the Night” he was Virgil Tibbs, a Black police officer confronting racism during a murder investigation. He also played a teacher in a tough London school that year in “To Sir, With Love.” Poitier had won his history-making best actor Oscar for “Lilies of the Field” in 1963, playing a handyman who helps German nuns build a chapel in the desert. Five years before that Poitier had been the first Black man nominated for a lead actor Oscar for his role in “The Defiant Ones.” His Tibbs character from “In the Heat of the Night” was immortalized in two sequels – “They Call Me Mister Tibbs!” in 1970 and “The Organization” in 1971 – and became the basis of the television series “In the Heat of the Night” starring Carroll O’Connor and Howard Rollins. His other classic films of that era included “A Patch of Blue” in 1965 in which his character ias befriended by a blind white girl, “The Blackboard Jungle” and “A Raisin in the Sun,” which Poitier also performed on Broadway. Poitier was born in Miami on Feb. 20, 1927, and raised on a tomato farm in the Bahamas, and had just one year of formal schooling. He struggled against poverty, illiteracy and prejudice to become one of the first Black actors to be known and accepted in major roles by mainstream audiences. Poitier picked his roles with care, burying the old Hollywood idea that Black actors could appear only in demeaning contexts as shoeshine boys, train conductors and maids. “I love you, I respect you, I imitate you,” Denzel Washington, another Oscar winner, once told Poitier at a public ceremony. As a director, Poitier worked with his friend Harry Belafonte and Bill Cosby in “Uptown Saturday Night” in 1974 and Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder in 1980’s “Stir Crazy.” STARTED ON STAGE Poitier grew up in the small Bahamian village of Cat Island and in Nassau before he moved to New York at 16, lying about his age to sign up for a short stint in the Army and then working at odd jobs, including dishwasher, while taking acting lessons. The young actor got his first break when he met the casting director of the American Negro Theater. He was an understudy in “Days of Our Youth” and took over when the star, Belafonte, who also would become a pioneering Black actor, fell ill. Poitier went on to success on Broadway in “Anna Lucasta” in 1948 and, two years later, got his first movie role in “No Way Out” with Richard Widmark. In all, he acted in more than 50 films and directed nine, starting in 1972 with “Buck and the Preacher” in which he co-starred with Belafonte. In 1992, Poitier was given the Life Achievement Award by the American Film Institute, the most prestigious honor after the Oscar, joining recipients such as Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Fred Astaire, James Cagney and Orson Welles. “I must also pay thanks to an elderly Jewish waiter who took time to help a young Black dishwasher learn to read,” Poitier told the audience. “I cannot tell you his name. I never knew it. But I read pretty good now.” In 2002, an honorary Oscar recognized “his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being.” Poitier married actress Joanna Shimkus, his second wife, in the mid-1970s. He had six daughters with his two wives and wrote three books – “This Life” (1980), “The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography” (2000) and “Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter” (2008). “If you apply reason and logic to this career of mine, you’re not going to get very far,” he told the Washington Post. “The journey has been incredible from its beginning. So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.” Poitier wrote three autobiographical books and in 2013 published “Montaro Caine,” a novel that was described as part mystery, part science fiction. Poitier was knighted by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in 1974 and served as the Bahamian ambassador to Japan and to UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency. He also sat on Walt Disney Co’s board of directors from 1994 to 2003. In 2009, Poitier was awarded the highest U.S. civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Barack Obama. The 2014 Academy Awards ceremony marked the 50th anniversary of Poitier’s historic Oscar and he was there to present the award for best director. (Reporting by Katharine Jackson; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Howard Goller) View the full article

Alan Turing statueExpanding Turing’s Law Pardons are now available for anyone in the U.K. convicted for homosexual activities under previous British laws. A new amendment to the nation’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill broadens the range of pardon-eligible offenses to any charge related to consensual same-sex sexual activity. Previously only people in England and Wales convicted under nine specific since-repealed laws, including anti-sodomy measures, could apply for a pardon. The pardon program is commonly referred to as Turing’s Law, after famed British mathematician Alan Turing. Turing became famous for breaking the German Enigma code during World War II but was later chemically castrated by the state as punishment for homosexual activity. “Parliament has a duty to wipe away the terrible stains which they placed, quite wrongly, on the reputations of countless gay people over centuries,” they added. “In a matter of weeks, legislation will be in place to enable thousands of gay people to whom grave harm was done to wipe their records clean. We are delighted our long campaign will at last bring many gay people, both living and deceased, the restitution they deserve.” Former Royal Air Force soldier David Bonney, who believes himself to be the last person jailed for being gay, told the BBC that pardoning affected individuals “could be sorted within a couple of years” thanks to the now-broadened bill. “They’ve got the records, they know who we are,” he added. The U.K. decision spotlights the use of anti-sodomy legislation to effectively criminalize LGBTQ people as multiple legal challenges to similar laws in the U.S. remain ongoing. Lawsuits in Idaho, Montana and South Carolina challenging parameters of those laws are currently pending. Pardon: Previously on Towleroad The 100,000 (est) Men Convicted for Same-Sex Contact Under UK’s Maze of Sodomy Laws Over The Last Few Hundred Years Can Get Pardons Now. Bit Late For Some. Brian Bell January 6, 2022 Read More At 18, Gay Sex Got Him 7 Years in Prison. Montana Made him Register as a Sexual Offender Until This Week — though Sodomy Laws Were Tossed 17 Years Ago Brian Bell May 13, 2021 Read More Texas’ Hostile Supreme Court LGBT Rights Case Against California Won’t Be Heard, Nor Will Texas’ 4 Trumped-up Cases To Overturn Biden’s Election Towleroad April 26, 2021 Read More New President of Tanzania Likely to Reject Predecessor’s Anti-LGBTQ Policies, Among Most Repressive in World: A TERRIFYING TIMELINE Michael Goff March 20, 2021 Read More Florida Congressional Candidate Sorry for Saying ‘Lucifer’ Gave Gay People ‘Unnatural Lusts’ John Wright July 30, 2020 Read More Taxpayer-Funded Tenn. School Revokes Gay Student’s Admission, Citing Ban on ‘Sexually Impure Relationships’ John Wright July 23, 2020 Read More Photo courtesy of Tess Reddington/Creative Commons View the full article

Published by Reuters By Mrinalika Roy (Reuters) -The more infectious Omicron variant of COVID-19 appears to produce less severe disease than the globally dominant Delta strain, but should not be categorised as “mild”, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Thursday. Janet Diaz, WHO lead on clinical management, said early studies showed there was a reduced risk of hospitalisation from the variant first identified in southern Africa and Hong Kong in November compared with Delta. There appears also to be a reduced risk of severity in both younger and older people, she told a media briefing from WHO headquarters in Geneva. She did not give further details about the studies or the ages of the cases analysed, but the impact on the elderly is one of the big unanswered questions about the new variant as most of the cases studied so far have been in younger people. Speaking at the same briefing in Geneva, director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the variant should not be considered “mild” as global infections soar to records, healthcare systems are overwhelmed and governments struggle to tame the virus, which has killed more than 5.8 million people. He repeated his call for greater equity globally in the distribution of and access to vaccines. Based on the current rate of vaccine rollout, 109 countries will miss the WHO’s target for 70% of the world’s population to be fully vaccinated by July, Tedros added. That aim is seen as helping end the acute phase of the pandemic. WHO adviser Bruce Aylward said 36 nations had not even reached 10 percent vaccination cover. Among severe patients worldwide, 80% were unvaccinated, he added. Another variant – labelled as IHU and first registered in September 2021 – is among those being monitored by the WHO but is not circulating widely, said the WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, Maria van Kerkhove. There are two other categories of greater significance the WHO uses to track variants https://www.who.int/en/activities/tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants: “variant of concern”, which includes Delta and Omicron, and “variant of interest”. (Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bangaluru; Writing by Josephine Mason;Editing by Andrew Cawthorne) View the full article

LGBTQ Health, gutted by trump, is on the way back. Originally published by The 19th Health insurance plans offered through the Affordable Care Act that exclude coverage of gender-affirming treatment for transgender people are discriminatory, the Department of Health and Human Services said in an annual policy report scheduled for release this week. That argument is included in the agency’s proposal to restore Obama-era nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people accessing ACA health care plans for 2023. In recognizing gender-affirming care like hormone therapy, the proposal goes a step beyond previous protections under the Obama administration. “I’m pleasantly surprised that they went there and made these protections even clearer,” said Katie Keith, a health law expert at Georgetown University and founder of Out2Enroll, which reviews ACA plans for LGBTQ+ inclusion and advocates for LGBTQ+ people to sign up for plans. The proposed protections — which would reinstate sexual orientation and gender identity as protected antidiscrimination categories — come amid the Biden administration’s pledge to restore protections for LGBTQ+ Americans that were revoked under former President Donald Trump. “I think this is an important step forward, an important piece of the puzzle,” said Harper Jean Tobin, a leader in transgender policymaking who runs a consulting firm working with LGBTQ+ organizations. “They’re fixing a hole that was ripped in these regulations by the Trump administration.” LGBTQ+ Americans’ access to health care coverage has improved over the years, but that progress often hasn’t reached people with the most serious health care needs, Tobin said. Although fewer health care plans set blanket exclusions against covering trans people now than in previous years, some plans still discriminate in how they apply the terms of their plans, and some LGBTQ+ families are mistreated when enrolling or seeking benefits, she said. Most 2022 plans reviewed by Out2Enroll did not use trans-specific exclusions for gender-affirming care, but 6 percent of insurers offering silver plans, the most popular category in the ACA marketplace with moderate costs compared to higher-tier plans, did explicitly exclude coverage for trans people — an increase from previous years. This matters because of another systemic inequity: The deep economic disparities experienced by LGBTQ+ Americans — especially transgender people, who make less than cisgender people in the United States — mean they are less likely to have health insurance through an employer plan. These new protections — proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), part of HHS — are made under a separate authority than the primary nondiscrimination clause outlined under the ACA: Section 1557. The Trump administration revised the far-reaching civil rights protection clause to exclude “gender identity” as a protected category. Although nondiscrimination protections under CMS were also affected by the Trump administration’s changes, these new rules are more narrowly defined and, health experts and advocates hope, could preempt discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. More from The 19th In Western Massachusetts, a clinic by and for transgender people seeks to revolutionize health care ‘We don’t have other options’: Children’s hospital disbands gender-affirming care program CMS’s proposal to apply nondiscrimination protections to gender-affirming care could help prevent transgender patients, specifically, from experiencing discrimination in the first place, policy experts told The 19th, and help circumvent the usual loop of discrimination going unnoticed until it’s experienced and then reported or litigated. States would be the primary enforcers for these protections, CMS noted. “Nipping it at the bud is certainly a cleaner, more straightforward path to equity,” said Lindsey Dawson, associate director at the Kaiser Family Foundation. The proposed protections, which will be published Wednesday and enter a 30-day comment period before being weighed by agency officials, are focused on coverage plans provided within the ACA marketplace. Section 1557, a broader rule, applies to any health care insurer or provider that gets federal funding. Section 1557 is also mired in a slew of ongoing litigation and has been since it was finalized in 2016. The Biden administration said in a court filing last November that the HHS expects to issue its revised Section 1557 Rule in April. With the CMS proposal, although the agency does not explicitly say so, “it seems clear that they’re looking to find authority outside of 1557,” Dawson said. HHS declined to comment on the record. Enforcement of nondiscrimination protections for transgender people under Section 1557 is also still spotty, per Out2Enroll’s latest analysis of silver marketplace plans, or the most commonly chosen category of ACA plan. In states like Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Wyoming — where federal officials enforce Section 1557 — more oversight for enforcement is needed, the organization argues. LGBTQ Health ACA on Towleroad Biden to call out Trump’s ‘singular responsibility’ for Jan. 6 attacks More Online sleuths track down US Capitol attackers More Ghislaine Maxwell to seek new trial after juror’s sexual abuse claim -lawyer More Australian government cancels Djokovic’s visa, appeal being lodged More Chris Noth’s final And Just Like That… scene axed More Kelvin Harrison Jr. to play artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in Samo Lives More Biden urges U.S. to reject Trump lies on anniversary of Capitol attack More Saweetie and Cher team up for MAC campaign More Man Still Has To Register As A Sex Offender For Consensual Gay Sex in 2001. ACLU Sues South Carolina. More Load More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jarrett Renshaw WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden will tell Americans that his predecessor, Donald Trump, carries “singular responsibility” for the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol when he marks the first anniversary of the assault on Thursday, the White House said. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, both Democrats, will speak on Thursday morning at the U.S. Capitol, one year after a mob loyal to Trump raided the complex https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democracy-under-siege-an-hour-by-hour-look-assault-us-capitol-2022-01-04 in a failed attempt to stop the certification of Electoral College votes that officially delivered Biden’s election victory. Biden and his top aides have been reluctant to talk directly about Trump since the former senator took office last January, even as the Republican former president continued to spread lies about his election loss, and Democrats, historians and civil rights activists have grown increasingly concerned about the future of the nearly 250-year-old representative democracy. Thursday’s speech comes after Biden spent months encouraging Americans to unite against the COVID-19 pandemic and rebuild together after weather disasters. On Thursday, Biden will “lay out the significance of what happened in the Capitol and the singular responsibility President Trump has for the chaos and carnage that we saw and he will forcibly push back on the lies spread by the former president in an attempt to mislead the American people and his own supporters as well as distract from his role in what happened,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. Trump canceled a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida that had been scheduled for Thursday evening, blaming what he called the “bias and dishonesty” of the House of Representatives probe of the attacks and the news media, a favorite target. Taylor Budowich, a Trump spokesperson, said it was “unsurprising” that Biden would spend Jan. 6th “trying to further divide our nation, adding “division is the only thing Democrats know how to do.” Four people died on the day of the riot, and one Capitol police officer died the day after defending Congress. Dozens of police were injured during the multi-hour onslaught by Trump supporters, and four officers have since taken their own lives https://www.reuters.com/world/us/officer-who-responded-us-capitol-attack-is-third-die-by-suicide-2021-08-02. The White House said Biden would push back against Trump’s false claims, adopted by many of his followers, that his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud, and attempts to downplay the worst assault on the Capitol since the War of 1812. Biden has been “clear eyed about the threat the former president represents to our democracy,” Psaki said, “and how the former president constantly works to constantly undermine basic American values and rule of law.” She added that the president sees the deadly attacks as a “tragic culmination of what those four years under President Trump did to our country.” Harris will use her remarks to “outline that the American experiment is being tested, and that we must work to secure voting rights, ensure free and fair elections and safeguard our democracy for generations to come,” an administration official said. (Reporting By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jarrett Renshaw; Additional reporting by Alexander Ulmer, Nandita Bose and Jeff Mason; Editing by Heather Timmons, Alistair Bell and Cynthia Osterman) View the full article

Published by AFP Trump supporters outside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 Washington (AFP) – The FBI is still searching for people who stormed the US Capitol on January 6. So is Kay. The 34-year-old from Washington state is one of a number of online sleuths tracking down participants in the attack on Congress. “We’re somewhere between journalists and law enforcement,” said Kay, who declined to use her last name for security reasons. “We’re dedicated to finding everyone.” More than 725 people have been arrested so far for the attack on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump who were seeking to block congressional certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. “January 6 broke my heart and I have never really gotten over it,” Kay told AFP, her voice breaking with emotion. “It seemed, like, sacrilegious. “To me, the Capitol is — even though I’ve never been there — a symbol of our democracy,” she said. “And that really matters to me, that we have a healthy, thriving democracy. “To see the Capitol assaulted like that, and the people inside, was terrifying, just heartbreaking.” Kay has spent months at her computer keyboard, trawling the internet in a hunt for people involved in the assault on Congress. Attorney General Merrick Garland, in a speech on Wednesday, thanked members of the public for their assistance in bringing participants to justice. “We have received over 300,000 tips from ordinary citizens, who have been our indispensable partners in this effort,” Garland said. Kay, who has a background in video production, has sifted through thousands of photographs and hundreds of hours of video of the attack available online, much of it on social media. “I found that people were proudly posting what they had done on January 6,” she said. “They were proud to be there, and it was just perfectly logical to brag about it online. “So you find their social media networks, you know their username and find them across all the platforms that they’re on.” ‘Very satisfying’ Kay is one of a number of online detectives working with groups going by names such as Sedition Hunters, Capitol Hunters and Deep State Dogs. Kay mainly works with Sedition Hunters, which has a core of about 20 members and the support of hundreds of others. They use geolocation and facial recognition software such as PimEyes, and appeal for information through Twitter. The group does not publicly identify suspects by name, only by nicknames, and rigorously verifies photos before publishing them online or passing them on to the FBI. The FBI, like the attorney general, said the public has been a tremendous help in the investigation. “The FBI encourages the public to continue to send tips,” an FBI spokeswoman told AFP. “As we have seen with dozens of cases so far, the tips matter. “The FBI is working diligently behind the scenes to follow all investigative leads to verify tips from the public and bring these criminals to justice,” she said.  Devorah Margolin, a senior research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, said social media has played an “outsized role” in the events of January 6. “Most people who participated in these events didn’t think that they were doing anything wrong,” Margolin said. “They were posting online. A criminal offense took place and they documented it.” Margolin said information obtained online, mostly from social media, featured in 77 percent of 704 January 6 criminal cases researched by the program. “What we don’t know is how much of that information came from citizen detectives or tip lines, and how much was found by the FBI or DOJ themselves,” she said. Aiden Bilyard, 19, was arrested in late November and charged with assault, destruction of government property and entering a restricted building. In its arrest report, the FBI noted that Bilyard had been identified in open source reporting as #Harvardsweats because of a gray Harvard sweatshirt he was wearing on January 6. Ronald Loehrke, 30, was arrested in Georgia in early December based in part on photographs published by Sedition Hunters. Loehrke is charged with assault, obstruction of law enforcement and unlawful entry. Kay said the work is “very satisfying,” particularly when it leads to an arrest. “Many of these people are very violent people,” she said. “That does mean a lot to me, knowing that I’ve helped get these people off the streets.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) -Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted last week of aiding Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuses, deserves a new trial, her lawyer said on Wednesday after a juror told media including Reuters that he had been a victim of sexual abuse. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan, who presided over Maxwell’s trial, the lawyer, Christian Everdell, said there were “incontrovertible grounds” for Maxwell to get a new trial, to serve the interest of justice. He called the matter “an issue of pressing importance,” saying disclosures by the juror “influenced the deliberations and convinced other members of the jury to convict Ms. Maxwell.” Everdell filed the letter shortly after asking Nathan to open an inquiry into the juror’s statements. Nathan’s decision on whether a new trial is warranted could hinge on how the juror responded to questions during jury selection about his experiences with sexual abuse, which legal experts said was a key question that defense lawyers were looking at to weed out potentially biased jurors. The office of U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, which prosecuted Maxwell, declined to comment. Maxwell, 60, was convicted https://www.reuters.com/world/us/maxwell-jury-resume-deliberations-after-judge-warns-omicron-risk-2021-12-29 on Dec. 29 of sex trafficking and other charges for recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004. Epstein, a financier and convicted sex offender https://www.reuters.com/world/us/how-ghislaine-maxwells-defense-failed-distance-her-epstein-2021-12-30, killed himself in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail while awaiting his own sex trafficking trial. The juror, who asked to be identified by his first and middle names, Scotty David, told Reuters on Tuesday https://www.reuters.com/world/us/some-ghislaine-maxwell-jurors-initially-doubted-accusers-juror-says-2022-01-05 evening that during deliberations, after some jurors expressed skepticism about the accounts of two of Maxwell’s accusers, he shared his experience of having been sexually abused as a child. “When I shared that, they were able to sort of come around on, they were able to come around on the memory aspect of the sexual abuse,” Scotty David, a 35-year-old Manhattan resident, said, referring to other jurors. Scotty David did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Wednesday. JUROR QUESTIONNAIRES Following the request for a new trial, attorney Todd Spodek made an appearance in the case and said in a court filing that he was representing Juror No. 50. Spodek did not give the juror’s name and did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Juror No. 50 was one of the 18 jurors selected on Nov. 29 to serve as a juror or an alternate. Hundreds of prospective jurors filled out questionnaires that asked them, among other things, if they or their family members had experienced sexual abuse or assault. During follow-up questioning, Nathan asked those who answered “yes” if they would still be able to be fair and impartial. Scotty David told Reuters he did not recall a question about personal experiences with sexual abuse on the questionnaire, but that he would have answered honestly. He said he “flew through” the questionnaire. He said Nathan did not ask about his personal experience with sexual abuse during follow-up questioning. During follow-up questioning on Nov. 16, Juror No. 50 told Nathan that he had read a news article and seen a CNN broadcast about Epstein’s death. The juror said he heard that Epstein had a girlfriend, but that he otherwise knew nothing about Maxwell. When Nathan asked Juror No. 50 if he could put aside anything he read or heard to reach an impartial verdict, he replied, “Yes, absolutely.” Prosecutors said the juror’s statements to the media “merit attention” by the court and asked for a hearing to be scheduled in about a month. Media cited by prosecutors include Reuters, the Daily Mail and The Independent. Later on Tuesday, The New York Times reported that a second juror described having been sexually abused as a child during deliberations. That juror, who requested anonymity to speak to the Times, said this revelation appeared to help shape the jury’s discussion. MISTAKE OR OMISSION Moira Penza, a partner at the Wilkinson Stekloff law firm and a former federal prosecutor, said any inquiry into Scotty David would likely focus on whether the juror made a mistake or omission in answering questions on an initial screening questionnaire for prospective jurors or follow-up questions from the judge. “Defense lawyers will argue that this question was so part and parcel to figuring out that juror’s bias or any juror’s bias,” she said. Penza said there have been instances where courts granted new trials based on “purposeful lies or omissions” during the process of screening jurors, known as voir dire, which she said “is not what we’re hearing so far.” Maxwell faces up to 65 years in prison for her conviction. Nathan gave Maxwell’s lawyers until Jan. 19 to formally request a new trial and explain whether an inquiry is needed, with a response from prosecutors due by Feb. 2. Maxwell separately faces trial on two perjury counts for allegedly lying about her knowledge of Epstein’s behavior during a deposition for a civil case. The date of the perjury trial has not yet been set. (Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Lisa Shumaker and Rosalba O’Brien) View the full article

Published by DPA Supporters of Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic protest outside of the Park hotel quarantine facility where it is believed Djokovic is being detained. World No.1 tennis star Novak Djokovic is fighting his visa cancellation and pending deportation in a Federal Court challenge. James Ross/AAP/dpa The Australian government has cancelled the visa of tennis star Novak Djokovic, authorities confirmed on Thursday, but the world number one remains in Melbourne as his lawyers fight his deportation. The controversy comes with the Australian Open, the first tennis grand slam tournament of the year, beginning in Melbourne on January 17. Defending champion Djokovic was detained at a Melbourne airport following his arrival in Australia on Wednesday after the Australian Border Force (ABF) raised concerns over his entry visa. The Serbian had received a Covid-19 vaccination exemption from tournament organizers, allowing him to compete in the event, but that was not enough for airport officials. “The ABF can confirm that Mr Djokovic failed to provide appropriate evidence to meet the entry requirements to Australia, and his visa has been subsequently cancelled,” the ABF said in a statement. “Non-citizens who do not hold a valid visa on entry or who have had their visa cancelled will be detained and removed from Australia.” Djokovic, who has consistently declined to reveal his vaccination status, was told he would have to leave Australia on Thursday. But his lawyers sought an appeal and a judge said a decision would not come before Friday, news agency AAP reported, meaning Djokovic was set to stay the night in a special hotel in Melbourne. Media reports said the case could even last until Monday. “I need to know a little more than I presently do about the conditions of the applicant,” Judge Anthony Kelly said, according to AAP, confessing to knowing little about tennis and asking details about the Australian Open dates. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask for the court to ask, as an open question, whether the particular hotel in which the applicant is staying or may be able to stay might have available to him tennis practising facilities.” The furore seems to revolve around confusion between the state Victorian government, which issued his vaccination exemption, and the federal authorities as well as the specific documents Djokovic brought. “Mr Djokovic’s visa has been cancelled,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a tweet earlier on Thursday. “Rules are rules, especially when it comes to our borders. No one is above these rules. Our strong border policies have been critical to Australia having one of the lowest death rates in the world from COVID, we are continuing to be vigilant.” Earlier this week, the tournament organizers had ended weeks of uncertainty by saying the nine-times champion would take part thanks to an exemption. “Djokovic applied for a medical exemption which was granted following a rigorous review process involving two separate independent panels of medical experts,” a statement said. “One of those was the Independent Medical Exemption Review Panel appointed by the Victorian Department of Health. They assessed all applications to see if they met the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) guidelines.” News of the exemption to strict vaccination rules has sparked a huge backlash in Australia. Djokovic’s exemption had caused “anger and confusion,” broadcaster ABC said while the Herald Sun newspaper said citizens felt the ruling was a “slap in the face to everyone in Australia.” Tournament director Craig Tiley has defended the decision and their has been an angry response in Serbia to Djokovic’s treatment. The player’s father, Srdjan Djokovic, told the Internet portal B92 that his son had earlier been held in a guarded room and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Instagram he had spoken to Djokovic and that “the whole of Serbia” supported their hero. Djokovic said last year he was opposed to forced vaccination. A general view of the Park Hotel, believed to be holding the Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic. The Australian government has cancelled the visa of tennis star Novak Djokovic, authorities confirmed on Thursday. Joel Carrett/AAP/dpa View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Chris Noth’s final scenes have reportedly been cut from ‘And Just Like That…’. The 67-year-old actor’s alter ego John James ‘Mr Big’ Preston was killed off in the first episode of the ‘Sex and the City’ spin-off but he had reportedly also filmed scenes with on-screen wife Sarah Jessica Parker in Paris, France, to feature in the season finale. However, after the actor was accused of sexual assault by multiple women, insiders told TV Line the cameo footage “will not make it to air” now. Noth was first accused by a woman who claimed he had “raped her from behind” in 2004 when she was just 22, while the second woman claimed she was 25 and had had a dinner date with the actor in New York before he allegedly assaulted her. The ‘Sex and the City’ actor was then accused of “acting inappropriately” toward actress Zoe Lister-Jones when they both worked on ‘Law & Order’. And Noth’s most recent accuser, singer Lisa Gentile, alleged the actor had “sexually victimised” her in 2002 by kissing her and touching her breasts against her will. In Noth’s original statement about the first two allegations, he said the claims were “categorically false” and insisted he “did not assault these women”. He said: “The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false. “These stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross. It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don’t know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.” He later insisted he wouldn’t be making a fresh statement. He told paparazzi while walking in his neighbourhood in Massachusetts: “You have my statement, right? My statement is out, I rest by my statement. I’ll now let the chips fall where they may. My statement is my statement, that’s all I can give.” The actor has been fired from his role in ‘The Equalizer’ and dropped by his talent agency in the wake of the allegations. View the full article