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Published by Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate is likely to take a procedural vote on Wednesday on whether to debate an overhaul of federal election law, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday as he urged Republicans not to block the measure. “If there’s anything worthy of debate in this chamber, it should be protecting and strengthening our democracy,” Schumer, a Democrat, said of the bill to expand voters’ access to mail-in ballots and other steps. If Republicans prevent debate on the bill, some Democrats are likely to urge Schumer to find a way around the Senate’s filibuster procedure that requires at least 60 votes in the evenly split, 100-member chamber for most legislation to advance. Such ideas include exempting the measure from the filibuster. Others include requiring that senators stay in the chamber and talk until the filibuster is abandoned – the way it used to be done. The bill is in response to voting restrictions passed in Republican-led states following former President Donald Trump’s repeated false claims he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden because of widespread electoral fraud. His claims were rejected by multiple courts, state election officials and Trump’s own Justice Department. Since late last year, a number of Republican-controlled states have enacted or advanced bills to tighten access to the polls and make it easier to challenge election results. Democrats and voting rights advocates have denounced the measures as partisan power grabs that will make it harder for Black and Hispanic voters – important voting blocs for Democrats – to cast ballots. Election experts have said voting fraud is rare in the United States. (Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Leslie Adler and Peter Cooney) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jan Wolfe (Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump testified under oath on Monday as part of a civil lawsuit brought by protesters who allege they were assaulted by his security guards in New York in 2015, a lawyer for the protesters told a news conference. Trump sat for a videotaped deposition on Monday morning at Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan, said Benjamin Dictor, a lawyer who sought Trump’s testimony in the long-running dispute. “The president was exactly how you would expect him to be, he answered questions the way you would expect Mr. Trump to answer questions, and conducted himself in a manner that you would expect Mr. Trump to conduct himself,” Dictor said. New York Supreme Court Justice Doris Gonzalez last week ordered Trump to sit for the videotaped deposition. In New York state, a trial-level court is called a Supreme Court. Trump said in a statement he was pleased to have provided testimony in the case. “After years of litigation, I was pleased to have had the opportunity to tell my side of this ridiculous story—Just one more example of baseless harassment of your favorite President,” Trump said. A group of protesters brought the lawsuit in 2015, alleging that Trump’s security guards attacked them while they were demonstrating outside Trump Tower in September of that year over the then-presidential candidate’s comments that Mexican immigrants were criminals and rapists. “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists,” Trump said during the June 16 speech announcing his candidacy. Trump faces several civil lawsuits over conduct from before and during his 2017-2021 presidency. Earlier this month, a New York state judge gave Trump a Dec. 23 deadline to undergo questioning in a defamation lawsuit filed by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on “The Apprentice.” During the 2016 presidential campaign, Zervos had accused Trump of subjecting her to unwanted kissing and groping when she sought career advice in 2007, two years after her appearance on his reality television show. Zervos had sued Trump in January 2017, but the case remains unresolved in part because Trump argued while in the White House that a sitting president could not be sued. That issue became moot after Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, which made Trump a private citizen, New York’s highest court ruled in March. Trump’s lawyer in that case, Alina Habba, has denied Zervos’ allegations, calling the lawsuit frivolous. (Reporting by Jan Wolfe in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney and Jonathan Oatis) View the full article

Published by AFP A statue of Thomas Jefferson in the US Capitol in Washington is cleaned on August 4, 2021 New York (AFP) – New York City lawmakers have voted to remove a statue of Thomas Jefferson, one of the United States’ founding fathers, from the council chambers because of his slave-owning past. Latino and Black council members have for years demanded the removal, which comes amid fierce debate in the United States over what to do with statues deemed offensive to minority groups. Their push was given impetus by last year’s nationwide racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis. City officials on Monday voted unanimously to remove the statue from council chambers, but delayed a decision on where to put it. The statue is expected to be put in the New York Historical Society museum. Jefferson held more than 600 slaves on his plantation in Virginia and fathered six children with one of them. The third US president “embodies some of the most shameful parts of our country’s history,” councilwoman Adrienne Adams told the hearing, the New York Times reported. In September, a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee that became a focal point of racial justice protests was removed from Richmond, the Virginia city that served as the capital of the pro-slavery South during the American Civil War. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Patricia Zengerle and Jan Wolfe WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lawmakers probing the deadly Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack by supporters of Donald Trump will move on Tuesday toward bringing contempt of Congress charges against his longtime aide Steve Bannon over his refusal to cooperate. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives Select Committee is expected to approve a report backing contempt charges against Bannon at a meeting Tuesday evening. That vote will pave the way for the entire House to vote on whether to recommend contempt charges, which could lead to criminal prosecution against Bannon. Trump has urged Bannon and other former aides subpoenaed by the committee to reject its requests, claiming executive privilege. He filed a lawsuit on Monday, alleging the committee made an illegal, unfounded and overly broad request for his White House records. The White House has argued that Trump has no legitimate privilege claim. “The former president’s actions represented a unique – and existential – threat to our democracy that can’t be swept under the rug,” said spokesman Michael Gwin. “The constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself.” Legal experts also say Trump, as the former president, cannot lawfully use executive privilege to block subpoenas issued by the House committee. The committee in a report made public on Monday argued that Bannon’s testimony and document production are crucial to the investigation, saying that Bannon made statements suggesting he knew ahead of time about “extreme events” on Jan. 6, when the U.S. Congress was scheduled to certify Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election. Bannon, according to the report, said, “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow,” the day before thousands of Trump supporters descended on the Capitol building, attacking police and raiding congressional offices, in an attempt to overturn Trump’s election defeat, which Trump falsely claimed was the result of widespread fraud. The Select Committee’s nine members will take the preliminary step of voting on the contempt report in a public meeting scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT) on Tuesday. The committee’s vote could be followed quickly by a full vote in the House, congressional aides said. The committee, was created by House Democrats against the wishes of most Republicans. Just two of the committee’s nine members: Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, are Trump’s fellow Republicans. Both have criticized the former president, which prompted Republican House members to remove Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, from her leadership position. After Trump asked aides not to cooperate with the investigation, Bannon argued that he was shielded from the select committee’s subpoenas by executive privilege, a legal principle that protects many White House communications. However, legal experts – and the committee – dispute that argument. “Mr. Bannon has now willfully failed to both produce a single document and to appear for his scheduled deposition. The Select Committee believes that this willful refusal to comply with the Subpoena constitutes a violation of federal law,” the committee’s chairman, Bennie Thompson, said in a letter to Bannon’s attorney. Bannon’s attorney, Robert Costello, did not respond to a request for comment on the letter. Biden has also said the Justice Department should prosecute people who defy subpoenas. There have been at least 600 arrests in connection with the assault, and the select committee has issued more than a dozen subpoenas. Multiple courts, state election officials and members of Trump’s own administration have rejected Trump’s claims of election fraud as false. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Washington; Additional reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Scott Malone, Matthew Lewis, Leslie Adler and Giles Elgood) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Tom Holland has described ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ as “the end of a franchise”. The 25-year-old actor – who first played Peter Parker and his web-slinging alter ego in 2016’s ‘Captain America: Civil War’ – has opened up on the future of the superhero in the upcoming ‘Spider-Man’ sequel, which follows ‘Homecoming’ and ‘Far From Home’. He told Entertainment Weekly: “”We were all treating [No Way Home] as the end of a franchise, let’s say. “I think if we were lucky enough to dive into these characters again, you’d be seeing a very different version. It would no longer be the ‘Homecoming’ trilogy. “We would give it some time and try to build something different and tonally change the films. “Whether that happens or not, I don’t know. But we were definitely treating [No Way Home] like it was coming to an end, and it felt like it.” He remembered getting emotional during one of his final days on set as he shot a scene with Zendaya and Jacob Batalon, who played MJ and Ned Leeds respectively. He explained: “We’ve been making these films for five years now. We’ve had such an amazing relationship, the three of us. “We’ve been with each other every step of the way. We’ve done every single film, every single press tour. “So this one scene, [we didn’t know] if this would be the last time [we were all working together.] [It] was heartbreaking but also really exciting because we’re all moving into the next chapter of our careers. “So sharing that moment with them was maybe the best day I’ve ever had on set. I don’t think I’ve cried like that ever.” Holland – who also played Spider-Man in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’ – previously revealed the upcoming third film is the last movie he has under his Marvel contract, but he’d return “in a heartbeat” if the opportunity came up. He said: “[‘Spider-Man 3’] would be my last one [under contract] so I’ve always said to them if they want me back I’ll be there in a heartbeat. I’ve loved every minute of being a part of this amazing world. It’s changed my life for the better, I’m so lucky to be here. If they want me back I’ll be there, if they don’t I will walk off into the sunset a very, very happy person because it’s been an amazing journey.” View the full article

Boy George Harry Styles. Two singers across generations with non-binary styles and pop magic with the younger teen set that translates to adults. With Billy Porter attacking Vogue for featuring Styles first in a dress, accusing of some kind of appropriation and proper credit, and under discussions and advocacy for queer actors in queer roles, is it surprising that Styles who is straight might not run to play George? Yungblood is Published by BANG Showbiz English Boy George has accused Harry Styles of being “too scared” to play him in a Culture Club biopic. The 60-year-old singer /songwriter claims Harry was in talks to portray him in a new movie but alleges the former One Direction singer “ran” and Yungblud is in talks to take on the leading role. He told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “They are looking at a kid called Yungblud. He is a big English sensation. He is quite young and he has been auditioning. There was talk of Harry Styles, but I think he ran. He was too scared.” ‘Karma Chameleon’ – named after Culture Club’s 1983 hit song – will document Boy George’s rise to fame. It had been due to start filming this year but the COVID-19 pandemic and casting issues have delayed it. Boy George said: “I don’t want it to be like a fantasy of somebody else. I feel like it should be honest and truthful as I am hilarious. I say tell the truth as the truth is far more interesting than things that are made up, you know.” Boy George has lived an eventful life and his four-month prison sentence in 2009 – for falsely imprisoning a male escort – is likely to feature in the biopic. Speaking about it previously, he said: “I always maintained that jail would finish me off, but it didn’t. “You somehow find the strength. It was a life-changing experience and I feel I came out of that situation with some wisdom and knowledge. “I really don’t view that period in my life as negative… But I wouldn’t want to go back.” The star admitted his “troubles” – which also included being sentenced to community service in 2006 after police in New York found cocaine in his home – were a valuable life lesson, but they also reminded him he hasn’t fully shaken off the “nihilistic attitude” of his youth, which he wants to hold on to. He said: “I have always had a mistake in me, but that’s OK. As far as the troubles I had back in 2006 and 2009, of course they are things I’m not proud of. “Yet at the same time they remind me that I hadn’t shaken off that nihilistic attitude of the past, nor would I ever want to. “And every mistake is a positive life lesson … It really is.” Boy George Harry Styles on Towleroad Lance Bass Twins Photo is First of Alexander and Violet. ‘Covered in Ick but I’ve Never Been So Happy’ More Covid Memorials Also Spreading; London’s Mural, Italian Trees, Sculptures in Syria and Spain, And A 1918 Flu Monument Drafted For Double Duty More Facebook plans to hire 10,000 in EU to build ‘metaverse’ More Amsterdam Airbnb Drops 80 Percent With Overtourism Measures; Also Ban Tourists From Drugs At Coffee Shops, Limit ‘Red Light’ Tours More U.S. Supreme Court again protects police accused of excessive force More Jury selection to start in trial over killing of Black jogger in Georgia More Billy Porter Vogue Slam Is About Who Did It First. Harry Styles In A Dress On The Cover? ‘All He Has To Do Is Be White And Straight’ More Biden administration asks U.S. Supreme Court to block Texas abortion law More Colin Powell, U.S. military leader and first Black secretary of state, dies More ‘Chucky’ is Back… This Time With Young Gay Protagonist, Jake; It’s a Horror Cult-Classic Meets Burgeoning Gay Love on USA/SYFY TV Series More Jussie Smollett’s criminal case to proceed to trial More Load More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Lance Bass and Michael Turchin have shared the first photos of their newborn twins. The former NSync star, 42, and his artist husband welcomed Violet and Alexander into the world last week via surrogate and took to Instagram over the weekend to show fans the newborn duo. Lance captioned the post: “Haven’t slept much in 5 days and I’m covered in ick but I’ve never been so happy! Now there are four of us in this house that wear diapers (hint: it’s not me or @michaelturchinart)(sic)” Michael was also quick to share his own selection of photos of the twins on his Instagram account. His post read: “New babies, who dis?? #Alexander #Violet.” At the time of their birth, Lance also took to Instagram to share his delight, posting a photo of each birth certificate. The post read: “The baby dragons have arrived!! I can not express how much love I feel right now. Thank you for all the kind wishes. It meant a lot. Now, how do you change a diaper??! Ahhhhhhhh!” The certificates showed that Alexander was born one minute earlier than Violet, and that the boy was slightly bigger, weighing in at 4lbs 14oz compared to his sister’s 4lbs 11oz weight. For Halloween fanatics Lance and Michael, the timing of the arrival couldn’t be better. Lance previously said: “”They have no choice but to love Halloween because I’m obsessed and they’re going to be obsessed!” The happy news for the couple – who have been married since 2004 – comes after several bouts of heartache following failed IVF attempts and a tragic miscarriage in 2020. At the time, Lance said: “You try to trick yourself into not getting excited because you know anything can happen at any time, especially in those first few weeks when there’s a huge possibility that the (embryos) won’t stick.” View the full article

Published by DPA Mario Draghi (r), Italy’s prime minister, takes part in remembrance for those whose lives were lost to Covid-19. Matteo Zandardi/Stadt Bergamo/dpa The coronavirus pandemic has caused unimaginable grief around the globe, as countless people have lost loved ones, family members, friends and colleagues. As the global death toll from Covid-19 passes 4.5 million, many countries are planning memorials to honour those lost. These range from monuments to memorial forests, sculptures and websites to help people come to terms with their loss, individually and collectively. London’s memorial may be the best known so far. Located in Westminster, the National Covid Memorial Wall is a public mural made up of red hearts and extending several hundred metres along the banks of the Thames. Families and friends of those who have died have painted the hearts to remember their lost ones. Visitors can walk the length of the wall and listen to audio recordings of their stories. Many MPs are now calling for the wall to be preserved as a permanent memorial. There are also plans to create a memorial wall in the Philippines honouring the health workers who died during the pandemic. The design has already been approved and the organizers hope to complete the structure, at the National Heroes’ Cemetery in Metro Manila, by December. The memorial will “tell a story about what happened and about the heroism of our doctors and nurses and our personnel,” says Carlito Galvez Jr. of the national task force against Covid-19, adding that he thought the budget was nevertheless a “small amount” to spend honouring the heroism of frontline workers. In the US, more than 600,000 white flags fluttered temporarily in the breeze on Washington’s National Mall. The art installation “In America: Remember,” designed by Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg, saw relatives invited to dedicate a flag to the person they lost. In Italy, one of the places worst affected when the coronavirus first emerged in early 2020, a memorial forest has been planted in the city of Bergamo. So many people died there that the city soon ran out of space for the dead, and images of military convoys leaving the city carrying coffins shocked the world. The country had not seen so many deaths since World War II. For its part Cape Town has created memorial gardens, with trees with plaques planted in six city parks and cemeteries to symbolize the cycle of life. “The trees that we planted today… are living memorials to the many loved ones we’ve lost. We remember them not only today, but as these trees grow and thrive it will be a testimony to their lives,” says mayor Dan Plato. Residents tie green ribbons around the trees in memory of a loved one. Viewed from the air, these form a circle. Plans are under way to create several large monuments in Latin America. In Uruguay, architect Martin Gomez Platero has designed a memorial for the waterfront in Montevideo, with a footbridge connecting a 40-metre-wide platform in the sea to the shore. In the middle is a hole through which visitors can look down into the water. “The memorial is intended to create a collective consciousness and remind us that humans are not the centre of the ecosystem … as we will always be subordinate to nature,” the project description says. In Brazil, Rio de Janeiro’s In-finito memorial, designed by architect Crisa Santos, aims to address the pain of many relatives who were unable to say a proper goodbye to their loved ones due to the pandemic. “The family no longer sees the body of the loved one who has come to the hospital. They only see a coffin or an urn,” the architect says, according to Gazeta do Povo newspaper. The sculpture, which is made up of six parts and extends some 26 metres, bears the victims’ engraved names on it and is intended to close this gap in the mourning process, Santos said. In Sao Paulo, a time capsule sculpture has been created so people can share their condolences or personal memories. These are sealed in the base of the monument as a message for future generations. In some countries, governments are adapting monuments that have already been built, such as in the Indian city of Goa, where a monument originally built to memorialize Spanish flu victims in 1918 has become a memorial for those lost to Covid-19. The memorial had fallen into disrepair and there had even been at one point plans to pull it down to make way for a highway, according to the Hindustan Times. But as people began to pray for their loved ones there in summer 2020, the memorial was restored. Also in Goa, a baroque column commemorating Vienna’s 17th century plague briefly became a site where people prayed, lit candles and left messages. In Austria’s Styria, however, a modern sculpture is planned. Three memorial sculptures are to be erected in Graz and Leibnitz by the end of the year, with concrete walls representing the need for social distancing, a sinking sphere symbolizing the invading virus and a light and steel sculpture. Madrid also plans to build three monuments. One is to be created downtown, with an eternal flame burning in a steel sculpture in front of the Cibeles Palace, with the dedication: “In our heart your flame will never go out.” The Dutch have built a bronze sculpture to commemorate the hard work of caregivers as well as those who lost their lives to Covid-19. The statue by artist Kees Verkade depicts a man and a woman releasing birds into the sky. Placed in a park in the Dutch town of Isterwijk, it was inaugurated by Princess Margriet and is supposed to symbolize the dawn of a new future. Memorials to help those who have lost people in the pandemic. Kristin Palitza/dpa A design for the memorial to health workers who died in the pandemic, in the Philippines. dpa A woman painst a heart on the memorial located in Westminster to remember those who died in the pandemic. Victoria Jones/PA Wire/dpa View the full article

Published by Reuters (Reuters) – Facebook Inc plans to create 10,000 jobs in the European Union over the next five years, the social media giant said on Monday, to help build the so-called metaverse – an online world where people can use different devices to move and communicate in a virtual environment. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has been talking up metaverse since July and the buzzy word, first coined in a dystopian novel three decades earlier, has been referenced by other tech firms such as Microsoft. “No one company will own and operate the metaverse,” Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, wrote in a blog post. “Bringing this to life will take collaboration and cooperation across companies, developers, creators and policymakers.” Using technologies such as virtual and augmented reality Facebook plans to create a greater sense of “virtual presence”, which will mimic the experience of interacting in person. The coronavirus pandemic has shifted much of the office meetings online, leading to the rise of conferencing apps such as Zoom, and big tech companies are looking to capitalize on this shift. Facebook, which has invested heavily in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), including buying companies like Oculus, intends to connect its nearly three billion users through several devices and apps. Zuckerberg believes the metaverse would be accessible across VR, AR, PC, mobile devices and game consoles. It has already committed $50 million for building the metaverse, and testing a new remote work app where users of Oculus Quest 2 headsets could hold meetings as avatar versions of themselves. While Facebook did not say what roles it would hire for and where they would be based, the company has been facing antitrust probes in the region, and is often criticised over online safety and hate speech on its platform. “We look forward to working with governments across the EU to find the right people and the right markets to take this forward, as part of an upcoming recruitment drive across the region,” Clegg wrote. (Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru and Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Additional reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas; Editing by Maju Samuel) View the full article

Published by DPA As part of a number of measures to solve its overtourism problem, Amsterdam has made it more difficult for landlords to rent out properties in central parts of the city on platforms like Airbnb. Oliver Berg/dpa Amsterdam, a city that wants to claim back its picturesque canals, coffee shops and collection of Rembrandt artworks from tourists, has been cracking down on overtourism in recent months, with new laws already hitting Airbnb listings. As part of a number of measures to slow tourist numbers, the city has banned landlords from renting out properties in central parts of the city on platforms like Airbnb. After the introduction of stricter rules regulating the renting out of private rooms and apartments in Amsterdam, the city has now seen an 80-per-cent drop in the number of listings for the city on Airbnb, a spokesperson for the city authorities has said. The measure comes as part of a broader effort to limit the numbers of tourists arriving in the city and make it more liveable for residents. In 2019 more than 20 million people visited the city, which has only around 800,000 inhabitants. While tourists can still find Airbnb listings in Amsterdam, finding a suitable date inside the city is now expected to be significantly more difficult. However, the platform expects that more tourists will now simply look for accommodation outside the city proper, where the new rules do not apply. Since the start of October, anyone wanting to rent out a flat to tourists has to register it with the city beforehand. As a result, the number of accommodation listings found for the city online has dropped drastically across all online portals, with market leader Airbnb dropping from over 16,200 accommodation listings in the spring to around 2,900 now. Amsterdam has already tried several times before to curb private room rentals, mainly to counter the housing shortage in the city and to reduce mass tourism. From October, landlords have had to include a registration number in their online listing, making it far easier for the authorities to track down unregistered properties. Airbnb has been co-operating with the Amsterdam authorities and has so far removed all ads posted without a valid registration number. The city’s measures against overtourism don’t stop with Airbnb listings: Amsterdam has also previously announced plans to cut tourists off from one of the city’s biggest draws: drugs in an effort to stop drug tourism. In the Netherlands, soft drugs like hash and marijuana are legal to buy in coffee shops for personal consumption. In principle, only residents of the country are allowed to buy drugs in the coffee shops, but Amsterdam has an exemption. For this, however, the city had to greatly reduce the number of outlets. But drug tourism, especially from Britain, increased sharply. Studies have shown that mass tourism will strongly decrease with a ban on access to coffee shops. Amsterdam has also cracked down on other tourist attractions, such as group tours through the red-light district. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Andrew Chung (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday signaled that it is not retreating from its inclination to grant a legal protection called “qualified immunity” to police accused in lawsuits of using excessive force, ruling in favor of officers on Monday in separate cases from California and Oklahoma. The justices overturned a lower court’s decision allowing a trial in a lawsuit against officers Josh Girdner and Brandon Vick over the 2016 fatal shooting of a hammer-wielding man in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. They also overturned a lower court’s decision to deny a request by police officer Daniel Rivas-Villegas for qualified immunity in a lawsuit accusing him of using excessive force in 2016 while handcuffing a suspect in Union City, California. The brief rulings were unsigned, with no public dissents among the justices in the cases, both decided without oral arguments. The qualified immunity defense protects police and other government officials from civil litigation in certain circumstances, permitting lawsuits only when an individual’s “clearly established” statutory or constitutional rights have been violated. The rulings indicated that the justices think lower courts still are denying qualified immunity too frequently in police excessive force cases, having previously chided appeals courts on that issue in recent years. “These are not the actions of a court that is likely to end or seriously reform qualified immunity,” Chris Kemmitt, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund civil rights group, wrote on Twitter. A 2020 Reuters investigation revealed how qualified immunity, with the Supreme Court’s continual refinements, has made it easier for police officers to kill or injure civilians with impunity. In the Oklahoma case, police responded to a complaint by the former wife of the slain man, Dominic Rollice, that he was inebriated and in her garage. Officers told Rollice they were not there to arrest him, but rather to give him a “ride out of there,” according to court papers, but he refused to go with them. A lower court found that the officers then advanced on Rollice, prompting him to back up and grab a hammer that he held above his head and refused to drop. When Rollice appeared to raise the hammer further, Girdner and Vick fired multiple times, killing him. A third officer had decided that the situation called for him to “go less lethal” by putting his firearm in his holster and using his stun gun instead. Rollice’s estate sued Girdner and Vick, accusing them of using excessive force in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. The police said they used force because they feared Rollice would charge at them or throw the hammer. The Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2020 denied the officers qualified immunity, finding that they may have unjustifiably escalated the situation. The Supreme Court on Monday declined to decide “whether recklessly creating a situation that requires deadly force can itself violate the Fourth Amendment,” instead saying that no prior case had “clearly established” that the officers’ actions were illegal. In the California case, the justices ruled in favor of Rivas-Villegas for the same reason. That case involved the arrest of a man named Ramon Cortesluna at his home. Rivas-Villegas used his foot to push Cortesluna down, and then pressed his knee into the man’s back while another officer handcuffed him. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year ruled that Cortesluna’s excessive force claim could go to trial, noting that the suspect had been prone and not resisting. Congressional Democrats have sought to rein in qualified immunity as part of legislation to reform police practices. The House of Representatives passed a Democratic-backed bill that would eliminate qualified immunity for law enforcement, but Senate talks between Democrats and Republicans on police reform collapsed last month. (Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Additional reporting by Lawrence Hurley in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Rich McKay and Jonathan Allen (Reuters) – The judge overseeing the trial of three white men charged with murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger, in Glynn County in coastal Georgia said potential jurors could be questioned about their views on race when selection began Monday afternoon. Gregory McMichael, 65, his son Travis McMichael, 35, and William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, face charges of murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment in the killing the killing of 25-year-old Arbery on Feb. 23, 2020. The three men appeared in court on Monday as their lawyers negotiated with Judge Timothy Walmsley over what questions they could put to potential jurors, including whether they could ask jurors’ views about the Black Lives Matter anti-racism movement. All have pleaded not guilty, saying they chased and confronted Arbery on a road running through Satilla Shores, a mostly white neighborhood in Glynn County, in order to make a citizen’s arrest and that Travis McMichael killed him with a shotgun in self defense. They face life in prison if convicted. Bryan recorded the confrontation on his cellphone, and the video of Arbery’s killing sparked outrage across the United States. A local prosecutor, whose office had previously employed Gregory McMichael, had refused to charge the three white men. More than two months passed after the killing before the McMichaels and Bryan were charged. Judge Walmsley said he would permit some of the questions proposed by defense lawyers about potential jurors’ views on race but wanted to limit the amount of time spent on the topic. “Black Lives Matter is not a party in this case, it’s not part of this criminal prosecution,” he said. Arbery’s family and their supporters say he was targeted because he was Black. Defense lawyers say the McMichaels and Bryan were suspicious of Arbery because he went inside a nearby house that was under construction. The owner of the property has said he believed that Arbery had entered the building site for a drink of water and that nothing was stolen. The three defendants were also charged by U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors in April with federal hate crimes and attempted kidnapping. The federal trial is due to begin next February. The state trial is unfolding in a brick courthouse in the 19th-century historic district of Brunswick, a port city home now to about 16,000 people. Dozens of Arbery’s supporters chanted on the lawn outside, carrying signs that said “Justice for Arbery.” Members of the clergy prayed for justice. It could takes days or even weeks to find 12 jurors and four alternates. About 1,000 citizens in Glynn County, which is about 69% white and 27% black, have received jury summons. In the pre-trial motions hearing on Monday, Linda Dunikoski, the lead prosecutor in the case, objected to some questions defense lawyers wanted to ask potential viewers about their views on race and politics. “Black Lives Matter has absolutely nothing to with this particular case,” she said. Franklin Hogue, a lawyer for Gregory McMichael, said it was important to find out if potential jurors might have biases against the white defendants. “We do know that race is an issue in this case,” he told the court. (Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta and Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Octavio Jones in Brunswick, Georgia; Editing by Nick Zieminski) View the full article

Published by OK Magazine Not everyone was impressed with Harry Styles’ iconic Vogue cover. Billy Porter is speaking out against the publication’s December 2020 Issue, which famously featured the One Direction alum breaking down gender norms while pictured in a long flowy gown. During an interview with The Sunday Times, Porter voiced his frustration with Vogue for giving Styles’ unconventional fashion choices all of the attention when he himself had been doing it long before. MEGA The Broadway star claimed that he was the one who got the ball rolling with non-binary fashion, and he insisted that the magazine only chose to feature Styles because he is a “straight white man.” BILLY PORTER REVEALS HE IS HIV-POSITIVE, HID DIAGNOSIS FOR 14 YEARS IN FEAR OF DISCRIMINATION IN HOLLYWOOD “I changed the whole game,” the 52-year-old Emmy-winner told the outlet on Sunday, October 17. “I. Personally. Changed. The. Whole Game. And that is not ego, that is just fact. I was the first one doing it and now everybody is doing it.” “I feel like the fashion industry has accepted me because they have to. I’m not necessarily convinced and here is why,” he continued. “I created the conversation and yet, Vogue still put Harry Styles, a straight, white man, in a dress on their cover for the first time.” @voguemagazine/Instagram Porter explained that while he wasn’t trying to “drag” the “Watermelon Sugar” singer, he was confused with the publication’s choice to give Styles the spread, asking, “He is the one you’re going to try and use to represent this new conversation?” “He doesn’t care, he’s just doing it because it’s the thing to do,” the actor boldly asserted. “This is politics for me. This is my life. I had to fight my entire life to get to the place where I could wear a dress to the Oscars and not be gunned now. All he has to do is be white and straight.” While Porter insisted that he believes the “Sign of the Times” singer is straight, Styles has previously dropped hints about his ambiguous sexuality. Back in 2019, he was asked during an interview for The Guardianwhether or not he identifies as heterosexual, which the singer refused to directly answer. MEGA Styles responded by asking the interviewer why he was asked about his sexuality, wondering “Who cares?” whether or not he is straight. OLIVIA WILDE FLAUNTS TONED TORSO AFTER HITTING THE GYM IN L.A. AS BEAU HARRY STYLES CONTINUES ‘LOVE ON TOUR’: PHOTOS “Am I sprinkling in nuggets of sexual ambiguity to try and be more interesting? No,” he said at the time. “In terms of how I wanna dress and what the album sleeve’s gonna be, I tend to make decisions in terms of collaborators I want to work with. I want things to look a certain way. Not because it makes me look gay, or it makes me look straight, or it makes me look bisexual, but because I think it looks cool. And more than that, I don’t know, I just think sexuality’s something that’s fun. Honestly? I can’t say I’ve given it any more thought than that.” Despite conversations regarding his ambiguous sexual identity, Styles has since reportedly started up a relationship with bigtime actress Olivia Wilde. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a Texas law that imposes a near-total ban on abortion after a lower court reinstated the Republican-backed measure. The administration made its request to the Supreme Court seeking to quickly reverse a decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to lift a judge’s order blocking the law while litigation over the matter continues. The Justice Department told the justices in a filing that the 5th Circuit’s action “enables Texas’s ongoing nullification of this court’s precedents and its citizens’ constitutional rights.” The filing also said that “given the importance and urgency of the issues” involved the Supreme Court could decide to take up and hear arguments in the case even before lower courts have issued their own final rulings. The Texas measure, one of a series of restrictive abortion laws passed at the state level in recent years, bans the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy, a point when many women do not even realize they are pregnant. The justices on Sept. 1 in a late-night 5-4 decision allowed the law to go into effect. The Texas measure makes an exception for a documented medical emergency but not for cases of rape or incest. It also gives private citizens the power to enforce it by enabling them to sue anyone who performs or assists a woman in getting an abortion after cardiac activity is detected in the embryo. That feature has helped shield the law from being immediately blocked by making it more difficult to directly sue the state. Critics of the law have said this provision lets people act as anti-abortion bounty hunters, a characterization its proponents reject. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority. (Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York and Lawrence Hurley in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Colin Powell became the first Black U.S. secretary of state and top military officer during decades as one of America’s most prominent leaders, but his reputation was tainted in 2003 when he touted spurious intelligence at the United Nations to make the case for war with Iraq despite deep misgivings. Powell, who died on Monday https://www.reuters.com/world/us/ex-joint-chiefs-staff-powell-dies-covid-complications-facebook-post-2021-10-18 at age 84 from complications of COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated, was the son of Jamaican immigrants who rose to hold senior military and civilian posts and helped guide American actions during two Iraq wars. Powell was one of America’s foremost Black figures for decades. He was named to senior posts by three Republican presidents and climbed the ranks of the U.S. military as it regained its vigor after the trauma of the Vietnam War. Powell, who was wounded in Vietnam, served as U.S. national security adviser under President Ronald Reagan from 1987 to 1989. As a four-star Army general, he was chairman of the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush during the 1991 Gulf War in which U.S.-led forces expelled Iraqi troops from neighboring Kuwait. A moderate Republican and a pragmatist, Powell considered a bid to become the first Black president in 1996 but his wife Alma’s worries about his safety helped him decide otherwise. In 2008 and again in 2012, he broke with his party to endorse Democrat Barack Obama, who became the first Black person elected to the White House. Powell, who became increasingly disenchanted with his party amid its further shift to the right and embrace of Donald Trump, subsequently endorsed Democrats Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden last year in their presidential races against the businessman-turned-politician. Powell called Trump a habitual liar who posed a danger to the United States. Powell will forever be associated with his presentation on Feb. 5, 2003, to the U.N. Security Council, making President George W. Bush’s case that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein constituted an imminent danger to the world because of Iraq’s stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. He admitted later that the presentation was rife with inaccuracies and twisted intelligence provided by others in the Bush administration and represented “a blot” that will “always be a part of my record.” Bush had picked Powell, the top U.S. military officer during his father’s presidency, as secretary of state in 2001. Powell endured four stormy years as the top U.S. diplomat, often outmaneuvered by Vice President Dick Cheney – with whom he had served closely under the first President Bush – and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. With U.S. troops already fighting a war in Afghanistan launched after Afghan-based al Qaeda leaders plotted the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, hawks within the Bush administration began to advocate war with Iraq. Powell argued within the administration to let diplomacy run its course on Iraq. He held grave reservations about a war, as well as the veracity of intelligence about Iraqi weapons, and the Pentagon’s insistence on a relatively small invasion force. ‘YOU BREAK IT, YOU OWN IT’ Powell privately warned Bush about the monumental difficulties of invading and occupying Iraq, invoking the so-called Pottery Barn rule invoking the name of a retail store: “You break it, you own it.” Nevertheless, Powell – the most respected member of the Bush Cabinet globally – agreed to publicly sell the case for war in order to gather international support. In the Security Council chamber, he displayed photographs and diagrams purporting to detail Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, as well as translations from U.S. intelligence intercepts. At one point, Powell brandished a small vial containing a teaspoon of simulated anthrax, warning that Iraq had not accounted for “tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of teaspoons” of the deadly pathogen. The invasion came six weeks later but no such weapons were found, undermining American credibility for years. U.S. forces fought in Iraq from 2003 to 2011, with nearly 4,500 American troops killed and 32,000 wounded. Powell told the author of a 2006 book that he spent five days ahead of the U.N. presentation “trimming the garbage” that Cheney’s staff had provided as evidence of Saddam’s weapons programs and alleged links to al Qaeda. “There were some people in the intelligence community who knew at that time that some of these sources were not good, and shouldn’t be relied upon, and they didn’t speak up. That devastated me,” Powell told interviewer Barbara Walters in 2005. At the time, Powell remained the loyal soldier – a reluctant warrior who did not threaten to quit in protest or voice his concerns to the world. “Well, loyalty is a trait that I value, and yes, I am loyal,” Powell said in the 2005 interview. “And there are some who say, ‘Well, you shouldn’t have supported it, you should have resigned.’ But I’m glad that Saddam Hussein is gone.” Powell announced his resignation in “mutual agreement” with Bush after the president’s November 2004 re-election. Bush called Powell “one of the great public servants of our time.” POWELL DOCTRINE One of his chief military accomplishments was his development of the “Powell Doctrine” on the use of U.S. force, which arose out of the ambiguous objectives and erratic troop build-up of the Vietnam War era. The doctrine states: war should be a last resort; force, when used, should be overwhelming; there must be strong public support for it and a clear exit strategy. Powell was born in New York City on April 5, 1937, and raised in the South Bronx neighborhood, the son of a shipping clerk and a seamstress from Jamaica who arrived in America in 1920 aboard a “banana boat” – a United Fruit Company steamer. Powell’s ticket to success was the military’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), a program for university students that engaged his energies when he was, by his own admission, an otherwise uninspired student at the City College of New York. He was commissioned a U.S. Army second lieutenant in 1958. He served 35 years in the Army, including two combat tours in Vietnam and postings in West Germany and South Korea. In Vietnam, he was wounded by a “Punji stick” booby trap near Vietnam’s border with Laos and injured in a helicopter crash. He earned a White House fellowship while in the Army during Richard Nixon’s presidency and won the respect of officials who later would serve in senior posts under Reagan. He served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993. Powell became a celebrity during the 1991 Gulf War with crisp televised briefings, at one point saying of Iraq’s army: “First we’re going to cut it off, then we’re going to kill it.” As the top U.S. military officer, he opposed allowing gays to serve openly in the military, but reversed his view in 2010 after Obama became the first president to endorse gay marriage. After deciding not to run for president in 1996, Powell gave a speech at that year’s Republican convention endorsing Bob Dole against Democrat Bill Clinton, who was president during Powell’s final months as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There were scattered boos from conservative delegates in San Diego when Powell said he supported abortion rights and affirmative action to help minorities. Powell married his wife Alma in 1962. They had three children, including Michael Powell, who served as U.S. Federal Communications Commission chairman under George W. Bush. (Reporting by Will Dunham and Arshad Mohammed; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Alex Richardson and Howard Goller) View the full article

ChuckyA Killer Return Chucky is back just in time for Halloween, this time in a new TV series “Chucky,” on USA/SYFY, with an almost equal focus on it’s 14-year-old gay protagonist Jake, portrayed by Zackary Arthur, as is does in delving into the backstory of Charles Lee Ray, the serial killer spirit inhabiting the Chucky doll. “Child’s Play” creator Don Mancini’s return to the world of the red-headed killer doll comes with an increased focus on the series’ evolving queerness, a topic that hasn’t been part of horror cinema other than deliberate shock and overt sexualization. “Chucky” focuses just as much killing as other slashers, the kills are definitely part of what draws an audience, but the true heart of the series lies in Jake’s navigation of his climate as a young, gay man, the good and the bad. “I wanted to create a final boy instead of a final girl,” Mancini told The New York Times, referring to the horror trope of a strong female character as the last standing, the one who lives to tell the tale. “It’s not something I ever saw when I was Jake’s age. Fortunately the world has turned.” According to Mancini, an out gay man, “[Jake] was always intended to be gay,” Mancini told NewNowNext. “I’ve been putting a lot of gay elements into the movies since 1998’s ‘Bride of Chucky’ and it became increasingly important to me, partly because I saw so many LGBTQ fans respond favorably. I thought, ‘Ok, this is great, let’s give young queer horror fans some representation.'” That desire to infuse his work with characters and elements specific to LGBTQ populations not only drew LGBTQ fans to the series, but it also provided some of the first explorations of gender-diverse identities years before inclusion became a Hollywood mission. Chucky himself has a queer, genderfluid child Glen/Glenda, and relates to Jake’s LGBTQ experience through that relationship, even going so far as to separate homophobes as “monsters” in the eyes of a possessed, murderous doll. Centering LGBTQ Experience “Chucky” continues that attitude, with some autobiographical infusion from Mancini himself, especially as it relates to Jake and his abusive, unaccepting father, played by Devon Sawa. “It’s probably something many gay guys, particularly of my generation, can identify with,” Mancini said. “The actors and crew were aware that this was very personal to me … It was cathartic to see it acted out.” The real heart of the series is Jake’s burgeoning romance with classmate Devon, played by Björgvin Arnarson. Mancini describes it as “PG-13 puppy love” that places LGBTQ youth in a common storytelling role where they haven’t historically been featured. “This a very sweet, PG-13 teen puppy love kind of thing we see in other genres that depict 8th graders and their burgeoning romantic interests, but we don’t get to see often with 14-year-old gay boys,” Mancini said. “It’s something I identify with from my own experience and could bring to it.” What it all amounts to is the logical next step in the “Child’s Play” series open discussion of LGBTQ identities and topics through its bursts of bloody glory. “I love the character of Chucky, and I don’t get tired of him, but in order to keep it going this long, it can’t just be about a killer doll,” Mancini said. That doesn’t mean that Chucky’s past doesn’t get some shine, though. Fan-favorites Brad Dourif and Jennifer Tilly return to their roles as the pint-sized pugilist and Tiffany respectively. Alex Vincent, who portrayed Chucky’s owner Andy in the first two films also makes a return, and other characters from the series, including Glen/Glenda, may show up as well. Chucky: Previously on Towleroad ‘Chucky’ is Back… This Time With Young Gay Protagonist, Jake; It’s a Horror Cult-Classic Meets Burgeoning Gay Love on USA/SYFY TV Series Brian Bell October 17, 2021 Read More Action Roundup: Gay James Bond Character; Venom’s ‘Coming Out Party;’ ‘Queer Family’ of ‘Marvel’s Eternals’ Brian Bell October 1, 2021 Read More Cassandra Peterson, Horror Icon Elvira, Comes Out, Reveals 19-Year Relationship in New Memoir Brian Bell September 22, 2021 Read More LGBTQ Hollywood Roundup: Bragman Establishes Coming Out Fund; Indya Moore Calls Out Met Gala; Dan Levy Signs Netflix Deal; JoJo Siwa Frustrated With Nickelodeon Brian Bell September 17, 2021 Read More Billy Eichner ‘s ‘Big, Gay Divorce Comedy’ ‘Ex-Husbands’ Headed To Amazon; ‘It’s the Gay ‘War Of The Roses’ You’ve Been Waiting For!’ Brian Bell August 4, 2021 Read More Hollywood Skin Doc–and Home Flipper–Alex Khadavi Threatens to Kill Gay Couple In Homophobic Screed Caught on A Lobby Cam; Acquired by TMZ: WATCH Brian Bell July 22, 2021 Read More Image via NBCUniversal View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Jussie Smollett’s criminal case will proceed to trial. The 39-year-old actor was issued with a 16-count felony indictment for filing a false police report after he claimed he was the victim of a shocking racist and homophobic attack in Chicago in 2019, as it was alleged he knew two men investigated over the incident and claims were made that he had staged the attack. Jussie’s initial charges were dropped by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office in the same month they were filed, but in February 2020 he was indicted once again for allegedly staging the attack. His attorney Nenye Uche argued that the criminal case would be a violation of Smollett’s since he has already performed community service and paid a $10,000 bond as part of a previous agreement with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. However, the attempt to have the case dismissed failed and Judge James Linn has ruled that proceedings will begin on November 29, according to the New York Post’s Page Six. Smollett has pled not guilty to the charges. Meanwhile, Jussie said last year he wished he could “yell from the rooftop” about his ongoing criminal case. Addressing the case on Instagram Live, Jussie explained: “It’s been beyond frustrating because to be somebody that’s so outspoken … it’s been difficult to be so quiet. “To not be able to say all of the things that you want to say, to not be able to yell from the rooftop.” Despite maintaining his innocence, Jussie was not feeling optimistic about his case, saying the city of Chicago “won’t let this go”. The actor also said he fears the court could seek to make an “example” of him. Jussie said: “They won’t let this go. It doesn’t matter. There is an example being made. “And the sad thing is that there’s an example being made of someone that did not do what they’re being accused of.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Francesco Guarascio and Michael Erman (Reuters) – The plan to roll out Merck & Co’s promising antiviral pill to treat COVID-19 risks repeating the inequities of vaccine distribution, potentially leaving the nations with the greatest need once again at the back of the line, international health groups say. For example, only about 5% of Africa’s population is immunized, creating an urgent need for therapeutics that could keep people out of hospitals. That compares with more than a 70% inoculation rate in most wealthy nations. Merck on Oct 11 applied for U.S. emergency clearance of the first pill for COVID-19 after it cut hospitalizations and deaths by 50% in a large clinical trial. The medicine, made with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, could gain authorization as soon as December. The U.S. drugmaker has taken the unusual pandemic step of licensing several generics of its antiviral molnupiravir before its branded version was even authorized for marketing. But international health officials said even that is not enough for the medicine to reach many in low- and middle-income countries in large enough numbers, while noting shortcomings and red tape among global organizations that could further slow distribution. Merck this year plans to produce 10 million treatment courses of the pill, which is taken twice a day for five days, and another 20 million next year. In addition, its licensing deals with eight Indian drugmakers will allow cheaper generic versions for 109 low- and middle-income countries including in Africa, a move international groups acknowledge is a positive concession. But as wealthy nations secure molnupiravir supply deals – the United States has already locked up 1.7 million courses with an option for 3.5 million more by January of 2023 at about $700 per course – concerns grow over who might be left out. NOT MOVING QUICKLY ENOUGH Merck said it has worked on the technology transfer needed to start generic manufacturing, in contrast to vaccine makers who continue to resist calls to waive patents or allow for generic versions to boost supplies. But a recent report prepared for the United Nations’ Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator program tasked with buying COVID-19 therapeutics for poor countries cited concerns that U.N. agencies were not moving quickly enough to secure adequate volumes of potential new treatments ahead of time, including Merck’s drug. Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), a United Nations-backed public health organization, has 24 companies signed up and willing to make the drug if Merck agrees to expand the licenses. “If you’re not in the license, you’re relying on Merck, and it looks to us that that could mean a potential supply shortfall as well as overpricing,” said Peter Maybarduk of Public Citizen, who sits on the MPP governance board. He suggested that could lead to wealthy countries outbidding poor nations for the medicine. It is unclear how many generic pills will be available or when. The licensed Indian manufacturers including Aurobindo Pharma, Cipla Ltd, Dr. Reddy’s Labs, Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Hetero Labs, Sun Pharmaceuticals, and Torrent Pharmaceuticals declined to provide details on production plans. In addition, manufacturing for low-income countries in many nations also requires World Health Organization (WHO) approval, a regulatory process that typically takes months. Merck said it is committed to providing timely access to its drug globally with plans for tiered pricing aligned with a country’s ability to pay. A spokesperson confirmed it is in discussions about expanding licenses for generic molnupiravir “to build sufficient global supply of quality-assured product to meet orders globally.” But middle-income countries will be hard pressed to negotiate against the richest nations, another MPP official said. The governments of Australia, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia said they already had deals or were negotiating supply contracts with Merck. The EU is considering buying the pill after Merck applies for authorization in Europe. The eight generic manufacturers chosen by Merck all have WHO pre-qualified facilities to allow them to supply buyers like the Global Fund, according to Paul Schaper, Merck’s executive director of global public policy. They will set their pricing and decide how much they plan to manufacture. “What we are anticipating and hoping for is that they will compete with each other on pricing,” Schaper said. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio in Brussels and Michael Erman in New Jersey; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot) View the full article

Published by DPA Prolonged time in weightlessness is now thought to lead to brain damage, in new research that poses more questions for the health risks of space travel. NASA/dpa Spending time in space can damage the brains of astronauts, according to new research that poses questions for the long-term risks of future space travel. Blood tests of space travellers indicate a slight but persistent brain injury and a faster ageing of the brain upon returning to earth, scientists at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich say in a study published in the Jama Neurology journal in October. The research came just days before “Star Trek” icon William Shatner became the latest in a growing number of non-professional astronauts to enter space. However while space tourism is set to become a luxury business for rich patrons, the warning of potential brain damage appears to apply only to longer stays in space, and not to the few minutes of weightlessness that are part of new space enterprises like Blue Origin, used by Shatner. Researchers believe one possible cause of brain damage during space travel is weightlessness, as it disturbs the flow of blood from the head, which is thought to lead to an increase in pressure in the cerebrospinal fluid over time. Studies had already indicated that longer journeys into space not only cause muscles and bones to shrink, but also have an effect on the astronaut’s brain. However it was unclear whether these processes were harmful. To find out, LMU physicians Peter zu Eulenburg and Alexander Chouker, together with colleagues in Sweden and Russia, examined the blood of five Russian space travellers who had spent five and a half months in the International Space Station (ISS). The researchers showed that several proteins characteristic of ageing and brain injuries increased significantly immediately after returning from space. This was especially true for the first week after the return. In order to keep the risks for space travellers as low as possible during long-term missions such as a trip to Mars, “more comprehensive studies with preventive measures against the increase in pressure in the head are absolutely necessary,” said LMU physician Peter zu Eulenburg. The phenomenon that longer stays in space lead to changes in the brain has long been known as Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (Sans), said Jens Jordan, Director of the Institute of Aerospace Medicine at the German Aerospace Center. However, the study does not yet clarify whether the changes in the brain also lead to physical restrictions for those affected: “A biomarker in the blood does not yet say anything about clinical ailments.” According to Jordan, the space agencies NASA and EA are working on countermeasures. Among other things, they are investigating whether a centrifuge for space travellers with artificial gravity could help. A study is also currently underway on the effectiveness of negative pressure in the lower half of the body to drain fluids. “This is one of the medical challenges of spaceflight,” Jordan said. The researchers had analysed the astronauts’ blood before and immediately after the flight, as well as one and three weeks later. Long-term studies and larger subject groups are needed to better understand the connection between the stay in space and possible neurological damage, they write in the scientific journal. View the full article

Netflix co-CEO Ted SarandosNetflix Co-CEO Still Stands By Chappelle Special As the Netflix trans employee resource group continues planning an Oct. 20 walkout in protest of the company continuing to platform the transphobic content in Dave Chappelle’s “The Closer,” a new internal email shows Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos doubling down on his stance that the special “doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.” According to Variety, a company-wide email sent Monday from Sarandos reiterated many of the same points touched on in a leaked memo to Netflix leadership sent on Friday. Sarandos addressed many employees’ anger over the streaming platform’s decision to keep the special available but didn’t budge from his position of not removing the special despite calls from multiple LGBTQ organizations, talent and employees. Sarando defended his decision by claiming that users “enjoy shocking stand-up comedy – without it causing them to harm others.” In the film, Hardy’s Venom voices support for LGBTQ rights, from the perspective of an alien symbiote. “Well, what is interesting is that it’s just like, here he is kind of, he says in the movie, ‘We must stop this cruel treatment of aliens,’” Serkis said in an interview last month. “‘You know, we all live on this ball of rock,’ you know? And so he inadvertently becomes a kind of… he’s speaking for the other. He’s speaking for freedom of the other.” Hardy continued, “Ultimately it’s about entertaining people and giving people some joy and having something to celebrate and go out and be entertained by it.” Netflix Trans: Previously on Towleroad Tom Hardy on ‘Venom’ As LGBTQ Icon; Takei Rips Dean Cain’s Super Bi-Panic: Co-CEO Repeats At Netflix Trans Lives Don’t Matter As Much As Ratings; Brian Bell October 16, 2021 Read More Action Roundup: Gay James Bond Character; Venom’s ‘Coming Out Party;’ ‘Queer Family’ of ‘Marvel’s Eternals’ Brian Bell October 1, 2021 Read More Cassandra Peterson, Horror Icon Elvira, Comes Out, Reveals 19-Year Relationship in New Memoir Brian Bell September 22, 2021 Read More ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’ is The Gay Coming-Of-Age Tale For Everyone With an Inner (and Outer) Drag Queen Brian Bell August 25, 2021 Read More Elliot Page Awarded for Prejudice-busting Work and Life On And Off Screen; Sheds Light on Dark Prejudices; Shares Unseen Prides and Joys Brian Bell August 11, 2021 Read More Billy Eichner ‘s ‘Big, Gay Divorce Comedy’ ‘Ex-Husbands’ Headed To Amazon; ‘It’s the Gay ‘War Of The Roses’ You’ve Been Waiting For!’ Brian Bell August 4, 2021 Read More Photo courtesy of Daniel Benavides/Creative Commons View the full article

Published by Radar Online Jeffrey Epsteinwas allegedly ready to spill all about his friends Donald Trump and Bill Clinton to prosecutors in an attempt to avoid prison time. The bombshell revelations are included in Michael Wolff’s upcoming book, Too Famous: The Rich, the Powerful, the Wishful, the Damned, the Notorious. The author focused on Epstein’s final months before his death. MEGA According to the book, the accused pedophile believed he could secure a deal to drop his sex trafficking charges by giving up dirt on his high-profile buddies. Epstein thought the Justice Department under President Trump brought charges against him in an effort to pressure him to “flip and reveal the secrets of Bill Clinton,” who had been on his private jet multiple times. MEGA Another theory he had was Trump was using federal prosecutors to dig up the secrets he had about the President. He firmly believed there was a “deal to be made” even in the circumstance of his capture. The book also exposed Epstein had considered repairing his image by appearing on TV with Rachel Maddow or Gayle King. He went as far as practicing a mock interview with former Trump strategist Steve Bannon. Wolff also reported on the support Epstein received from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who believed “the secrets are safe” as long as Epstein was still breathing. MEGA Wolff also claims the alleged sex offender was playful about his morally corrupted sexual habits. He allegedly compared himself to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft who was detained for soliciting prostitutes at massage parlors in 2019. Epstein allegedly said, “Bob gets dinner out, I get take-in.” The billionaire financier also allegedly considered paying out $3 million for a British PR firm to run a “war room” as an effort to clear his name from all allegations regarding his disgraced sexual behaviors reported by the media. Days before he allegedly hanged himself in his cell, Wolff wrote in his book claiming that Epstein made a grim joke in a note to a friend saying, “still just hanging around – no pun intended.” As Radar previously reported, Epstein was arrested in July 2019 after he landed at a New Jersey airport after flying in from Paris. The arrest was part of a joint New York Police Department and FBI investigation based on sex-trafficking charges in Florida and New York. Just weeks later, he was found dead in his cell with a witness claiming Epstein was “blue in the face” and “sprawled out on the floor” while being looked after by the prison staff. The book is scheduled to be released on October 19, 2021. MEGA Jeffrey Epstein on Towleroad U.S. Senator Manchin slams Bernie Sanders in battle over Biden spending plan More Biden says those who refuse to testify in Jan. 6 probe should be prosecuted More Gabrielle Union blasts creators of ‘Bring It On’ movie More Miley Cyrus teases new era and thanks fans for standing by her More Pope pledges to continue being a ‘pest’ in defence of the poor More Chicago Mayor, Police in Stand-off Over Public Health Mandates; 50% Of Cops Won’t Disclose Vaccine Status, Face Unpaid Leave More Texas House Votes to Ban Transgender Girls From Sports. No Sign of An Issue. Just More Red Meat For the Gaslit Base More Minneapolis Schools’ ‘Gaggle’ Software On Kids’ Devices Reports ‘Gay’, ‘LGBTQ’ Users As It Blocks Porn, Finds At-Risk of Self Harm More Hello? Adele 30 First Single Off ’30’ Dropped Last Night and Folks Seem to Approve…: WATCH VIDEO, COMMENT More U.S. congressional panel probing Jan 6 Capitol riot sets Bannon contempt vote date More ‘Hamilton’ Trans Actor Suni Reid Claims Retaliation Over Request For A Gender-Neutral Dressing Room, Insists They Were Threatened & Misgendered More Load More View the full article

Published by Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia slammed fellow lawmaker Bernie Sanders late Friday over his attempts to garner support for President Joe Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar spending package in the latest example of infighting among key lawmakers over the plan. Manchin tweeted out his concern over the scope of the legislation in response to an editorial from Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, advocating for it. On Friday, West Virginia paper the Charleston Gazette-Mail published an editorial from Sanders urging support for the Democratic plan to address wealth inequity, soaring pharmaceutical costs, an increasingly expensive healthcare system and costly childcare. “Senator Sanders’ answer is to throw more money on an already overheated economy while 52 other Senators have grave concerns about this approach,” Manchin said in a statement posted https://twitter.com/Sen_JoeManchin/status/1449148907032875015?s=20 on Friday on Twitter, slamming Sanders as an “out-of-stater.” The bill is threatened by a lack of support among Senate Republicans and two Democratic moderates – Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona. Sinema has told https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senator-sinema-rejects-vote-big-biden-package-before-infrastructure-source-2021-10-14 Democrats in the House of Representatives she will not vote for the package before Congress approves a separate, bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill. Sinema and Manchin have balked at the Biden plan’s initial $3.5 trillion price tag for a spending measure to fund social programs and fight climate change. As a result, the president faces a difficult balancing act in trying to bring down the cost but not alienate progressive Democrats who also are essential to passing the legislation. (Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Andrea Ricci) View the full article

Published by Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday the U.S. Justice Department should prosecute people who defy subpoenas to testify before a congressional select committee probing the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. “I hope that the committee goes after them and holds them accountable,” Biden said, referring to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee investigating the riot. Asked whether he believed the Justice Department should prosecute, Biden told reporters, “I do, yes.” The committee plans to vote on Tuesday on adopting a contempt of Congress report against Steve Bannon, a longtime adviser to former President Donald Trump who has not complied with the committee’s subpoena. Trump urged former aides to refuse to cooperate, citing executive privilege, which legal experts in turn dispute. If the committee approves the contempt case against Bannon, it would go to a full House vote. From there, the Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland would decide whether to pursue prosecution. In response to Biden’s remarks on Friday, a Justice Department spokesperson told ABC News that the department “will make its own independent decisions in all prosecutions based solely on the facts and the law.” Hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 in an unsuccessful attempt to overturn his election defeat to Biden. Four people died in the violence, more than 100 police officers were injured and four officers in the crowd that day later died of suicide. The committee has subpoenaed other officials including former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, Trump former chief of staff Mark Meadows, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and former Defense Department official Kash Patel. (Reporting by Nandita Bose; Writing by Kanishka Singh and Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Leslie Adler, Chris Reese and Cynthia Osterman) View the full article