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by Nicole Carr ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. An image of a shooting target — with two bullet holes to the head and five scattered around the chest — serves as a warning to visitors who climb the brick steps and pass the American flag to reach Eric Jensen’s front door. “If you can read this you’re in range,” the sign says. Another warning, posted near the doorbell, states: “No Solicitation. … This property charges $50 per minute to listen to any vaccine/medical advice.” He ordered that one in 2021, after mobile units offering COVID-19 vaccines began riding through his community outside Winston-Salem, North Carolina. For years, Jensen had been looking for a way to voice his many grievances, related not just to masks and vaccines but to “transgender bullshit” and library books “trying to convert kids to gay” and other perceived dangers he says his five younger children face in the public school system. (The 65-year-old retiree has four other children who are adults.) Then he found a place where he could finally be heard. “You gotta start from the bottom and work yourself up,” Jensen said, not long after he reluctantly opened his front door last November. “I mean, you can’t just go to your governors and try to make a difference. So you start at the bottom, and the bottom is school boards.” He had intended to wage a campaign against the school board to bring about change. Instead, his efforts got him arrested. At first he was hesitant to talk about what happened in the lead-up to the February 2022 incident. In the weeks after the arrest, he didn’t comment in any of the news stories that covered it. Then, as the months wore on and his charges were dropped, he realized that standing up to authorities wasn’t going to lead to any sort of punishment: “I thought, ‘Holy shit, I didn’t have to go through a whole lot of aggravation there.’” He said that, walking away from the ordeal, he felt emboldened. ProPublica identified 59 people arrested or charged over an 18-month period as a result of turmoil at school board meetings across the country. In the coming weeks, ProPublica will continue to publish stories about how that unrest has played out in various communities and upended once-staid school board meetings. In the dozens of incidents ProPublica examined, some of which involved threats and violence, only one person who disrupted a meeting was given a jail sentence: a college student protesting in support of transgender rights. By contrast, almost all of the other individuals, including Jensen, railed against the adoption of mask mandates, the teaching of “divisive concepts” concerning racial inequality and the availability of books with LGBTQ+ themes in school libraries. Also like Jensen, the vast majority of people arrested or charged faced few consequences. Jensen didn’t come up with the idea to target the school board on his own. He’d volunteered to help two women connected to the state chapter of a national group that was rapidly gaining followers through social media sites and YouTube channels promoting the convoluted QAnon conspiracy theory. Jensen, a solid, gray-haired man with piercing blue eyes, retired about five years ago, though his wife still works as a custodian at the elementary school. He’d been a project manager for a metal building manufacturer that transferred him to North Carolina from Ohio. Prior to that, he and his family owned a campground for three decades. He described how, several years ago, he made the decision to abandon mainstream media. He said it used to be that “I was always watching the news. But once I found out how much they lie, you have to get back into alternative media to find out the actual truth.” He said he has since become convinced that John F. Kennedy Jr. is alive, Hillary Clinton and Bill Gates are dead, and the COVID-19 vaccine is actually a “death shot.” Echoing a debunked claim, he explained his belief that the vaccine changes your DNA in a way that allows those who patented the modified genetic sequence to “own” you, which is part of an effort to kill people off and depopulate the planet. “I’ve seen it many times, where they’ve got plastic caskets lined up,” he said. “There must be a million of them sitting there in lots waiting for these people to die.” In January of 2022, shortly after he became interested in what he saw as threats posed by school boards, he logged onto the messaging service Telegram. “I started putting feelers out, trying to find, you know, groups that were involved with it and see what they were doing,” he said. A Telegram group called North Carolina Bonds for the Win seemed like the right fit. The national Bonds for the Win movement had been gaining steam, promoting its mission to force school districts to drop so-called unconstitutional practices including COVID-19 safety protocols and the distribution of alleged “obscene materials” to minors. To accomplish its goal, its followers would serve local school boards with reams of paperwork outlining an intent to sue their districts’ surety bond (or risk-management plan) providers. The movement, dubbed “paper terrorism” by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, aims to force school districts into “compliance” to avoid losing federal funding. The tactic was already being tested in North Carolina’s largest school district, where earlier that January a mother had crossed a security barrier to serve the Wake County school board with papers, warning, “You’ve violated your oath of office.” Another local report described how police turned off lights in an attempt to clear people out of an Iredell-Statesville school board meeting. The people yelled, “You’ve been served!” to the school board members and told police they wouldn’t leave unless they were arrested. “And that’s when I found these ladies.” Jensen said of the two women leading efforts in his school district for North Carolina Bonds for the Win. On Feb. 22, 2022, Jensen arrived at the lobby of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board meeting and met the women, Deborah Tuttle and Regina Garner, face-to-face for the first time. They handed him a cardboard box of paperwork, which he understood to be “explanations about how they [district officials] were going to get sued against their bonds” for teaching critical race theory — an academic framework sometimes taught at the college level and above that examines U.S. history through the lens of racism — and allowing books containing “profanity” in schools. He also said the documents included proof that masks don’t work. Tuttle and Garner did not respond to numerous requests for comment. Just minutes into the meeting, the school board chairperson watched with curiosity and a dose of trepidation as a man with a huge box took a seat a few rows back. She texted the board members sitting next to her, alerting them to the man. They, too, wanted to know what was in the box. “He was just staring at us, and we were a little worried for our safety,” chairperson Deanna Kaplan recalled. Both Garner and Tuttle signed up to address the board during the public-comment period. Garner complained about the district’s failure to uphold the Constitution and accused school officials of practicing medicine without a license and violating child abuse laws. Then Tuttle stepped up. “There’s a lot more violations that she didn’t get to, but you can read those for yourself when we serve you your letters of intent,” she told the board. As the women spoke, Kaplan grew more uneasy about the man with the box. “Then,” she said, “he started charging at us.” As Jensen, clutching the box, neared the superintendent, school security officers grabbed him and pulled him out of the meeting room. In the adjacent hallway, he strained against the three men it took to hold him down. “You work for me!” Jensen repeatedly yelled as security guards tried to shackle his wrists and ankles. His deep voice echoed from the hallway into the meeting room, where some attendees began screaming and board members sat in disbelief as they watched the mounting chaos. As the board hastily called for an impromptu recess, one man yelled: “Commie cowards!” “Commie bitch!” yelled another. “If you walk out, you’re walking away from your job!” Tuttle yelled from the podium. “There was somebody in the audience that was yelling, ‘The patriots are coming.’ I mean, it was just like a zoo. It was crazy,” Kaplan recalled. “The board members were concerned for our safety.” Two months after his arrest, Jensen came to court prepared to represent himself on misdemeanor counts of trespass and resisting a public officer. He said he carried a folder with some notes he’d made and a printout of the Constitution. As the judge entered the courtroom, Jensen said, he proudly refused to comply with the order, “All rise.” “That puts that judge above you,” Jensen later explained. “And that judge is not above you. He’s below you. Or she’s below you.” Jensen said his refusal to stand angered the bailiff. He also said that before he could even open his folder of evidence, the judge dismissed his case. Court records show Jensen received a voluntary dismissal. Prosecutors have not responded to requests for comment. A court clerk said that the slew of misdemeanor dismissals that day may have resulted from the court’s attempt to clear a pandemic backlog. Regarding the judge and the courthouse staff, Jensen said: “I didn’t allow them to boss me around.” As for the security guards who arrested him, he said he’s now considering filing assault charges against one of them “because he grabbed me and threw me down for no reason.” He described how, overall, the experience left him feeling empowered, although he was disappointed that the movement that inspired his efforts had fizzled. “The ladies that I was with, they pretty much dropped it,” he said, adding that their decision “kind of threw me, because they weren’t going to fight for it.” Garner ended up running for a seat on the school board, but she was unsuccessful. Jensen did face one consequence: He said he was banned from school property for any purpose other than to pick up and drop off his children. “But that’s it,” he said. A spokesperson for the Winston-Salem Forsyth County school district confirmed the ban but declined to detail the terms of it, citing legal concerns. He said the bans typically last a year. “In general, the letters outline situations when principals can grant permission for the person to come on campus. They, however, must ask and be granted that permission by school administrators.” Jensen admitted during the conversation in November that he hasn’t exactly complied with the ban: When he showed up for his youngest daughter’s elementary school graduation last spring, a neighbor called school security on him. But, he said, school officials let him stay. (The district spokesperson said Jensen was allowed to attend the graduation “in an effort to reduce stress and embarrassment for his student and on the condition that he maintained appropriate behavior.”) Jensen also said he’s not that worried about what would happen if he violated the ban again. He’s since declined to speak further about his experiences or be photographed for this story. “One of these days, I’m tempted to just walk in and allow them to throw me out or arrest me or whatever, because they have no right to do it,” Jensen said, not long before closing his door. “So we’ll see what shakes out if I do.” AI aided illustrationView the full article

Published by OK Magazine Days Inn Ross Mathew‘s radiant energy has spread joy around the country for over two decades. The media personality used kindness and generosity as core principles throughout his professional journey, and his partnership with Days Inn is a reflection of that. The television host and the hotel chain launched the “complimentary” mirror, and guests will be able to hear Ross’ bubbly vocals giving them a pep talk as they get ready to start their day. Days Inn “I’m so thrilled about this partnership with Days Inn, and they know that I am all about making people smile, whether it’s on the Drew Barrymore Show, RuPaul’s Drag Race, my live tour going all over the country or my over 20 years on television,” Mathews exclusively tells OK!. “It’s really what it’s about is just making the world a better place.” “They came up with this idea to have this compliment mirror in some Days Inn across the country,” the author explains. “When you go in, you can press a little button and it’s my voice giving you a funny little compliment.” In the spirit of uplifting people, Mathews reflected on the cultural significance of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Shortly after the show finished filming, the state of Tennessee made public drag performances illegal, and the LGBTQ community continues to experience various inequalities. Despite the increase in legislation, Mathews is proud of the show’s impact and influence. “I think this season was one of our highest rated ever,” the Chelsea Lately alum said. “It was trending all over Twitter, and the stories we told I just think were so beautiful. These queens are extraordinary and they get to use the platform, which is ginormous. Even if you’re the first queen eliminated, you will have a career for the rest of your life touring because of the fan base.” “It’s really about putting something intensely good out into the world. And, you know, that’s sort of a through-line with everything I’m trying to do. You see it with the Drew Barrymore Show as well,” the red carpet correspondent admits. “Drew always says we’re a bright spot, not a blind spot. We know that there are difficulties out there in the world, but we are choosing to curate this emotion right now.” Gotta See It Grams of the Day: 20 Behind-the-Scenes Emmy Snapshots The 42 Cutest Celebrity Pets Of 2013 Ross Matthews & Boyfriend Break Up After 10 Years mega Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for! Mathews stressed the importance of advocating and supporting LGBT issues on and off the camera. “These are my people, this is my heart, this is my soul, and I think the more they know us, the more they see us, the more they’ll love us,” he passionately says. “That is just what I think. Now is not the time to take our foot off the gas.” “Now is the time to just be who we are and show them how full we are as human beings and how much we are alike as opposed to how different we are,” the writer adds. As fans of Mathews continue to watch his various projects or use his specialty-looking glass, they can also see him live at one of his upcoming comedy shows. “My tour is called ‘I Got You, Girl,’ because I think now more than ever we need each other. We’ve learned that we got to take care of one another,” the podcaster says. “I think fun is what we need right now. I want to shut the door on the outside world and I want to have fun again!” View the full article

Published by Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said his government would consider visa restrictions against Ugandan officials and others for the abuse of human rights following the implementation of one of the world’s toughest anti-gay laws. Blinken said he has instructed the State Department to update travel guidance to U.S. citizens and businesses over travel to Uganda. The measures follow President Joe Biden’s condemnation of the Ugandan legislation. Biden said the United States may impose sanctions and would evaluate the implications of the law “on all aspects of U.S. engagement with Uganda.” Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Monday signed the anti-LGBTQ laws, which includes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” drawing Western condemnation and raising the risk of sanctions by aid donors. “This shameful act is the latest development in an alarming trend of human rights abuses and corruption in Uganda,” Biden said in a statement. He said he had directed the White House National Security Council to evaluate the implications of the law on all aspects of U.S. engagement with Uganda, including the ability to safely deliver services under the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and other forms of assistance and investment. Biden said the U.S. government would consider the impact of the law as part of its review of Uganda’s eligibility for the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which provides duty-free access to goods of designated sub-Saharan African countries. “And we are considering additional steps, including the application of sanctions and restriction of entry into the United States against anyone involved in serious human rights abuses or corruption,” said Biden. Same-sex relations were already illegal in Uganda, as in more than 30 African countries but the new law goes further. (Reporting By Steve Holland; additional reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler, Robert Birsel) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Elaine Lies TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese court ruled on Tuesday that not allowing same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, a decision activists welcomed as a step towards marriage equality in the only Group of Seven nation with no legal protection for same-sex unions. The ruling by the Nagoya District Court was the second to find a ban against same-sex marriage unconstitutional, out of four cases over the past two years, and is likely to add to pressure to change the law in a country in which the constitution says marriage is between a man and a woman. “This ruling has rescued us from the hurt of last year’s ruling that said there was nothing wrong with the ban, and the hurt of what the government keeps saying,” lead lawyer Yoko Mizutani told journalists and supporters outside the court. She was referring to a ruling in Osaka last year that the ban was not out of line with the constitution. A Tokyo court later upheld the ban on same-sex marriage but said a lack of legal protection for same-sex families violated their human rights. Tuesday’s ruling was greeted with cheers from the activists and supporters waving rainbow flags outside the court. Though opinion polls show some 70% of the public supports same-sex marriage, the conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida opposes it. Kishida in February sacked an aide who sparked outrage by saying people would flee Japan if same-sex marriage was allowed, but the premier remains noncommittal about it and has said discussions must proceed “carefully”. Nevertheless, more than 300 Japanese municipalities covering some 65% of the population allow same-sex couples to enter partnership agreements. But the right is limited in scope. Partners can’t inherit each other’s assets or have parental rights to each other’s children. Hospital visits are not guaranteed. Mizutani said the court in its ruling had noted that such partnership agreements were not fully sufficient, which she took as an encouraging sign, adding that she felt the court recognised there was little difference between same-sex couples and other couples. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a press conference that the government did not believe the civil code and marriage laws were unconstitutional. “With regard to issues surrounding the introduction of same-sex marriage, we believe it is important to pay close attention to the opinions of all parts of the public,” he said. While in general the world’s third-largest economy is considered relatively liberal, the LGBT community has been largely invisible because of conservative attitudes. Taiwan became the first place in Asia to legalise same-sex marriages in 2019. A new law would have to be passed in Japan before same-sex marriages could actually take place. The government pledged to pass a law promoting “understanding” of LGBT people before hosting the G7 summit this month, but opposition from conservatives delayed it so much a watered-down version was only submitted to parliament the day before the summit began. The initial draft stipulated discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity should “not be tolerated” but was changed to “there should be no unfair discrimination”, wording that critics say tacitly allows bigotry. Japan has come under increasing pressure to change, both from other G7 members but also from economic lobbies, with businesses arguing that greater diversity is needed for international competitiveness. (Additional reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim, Robert Birsel) View the full article

Published by Global Voices Image by Alexander Grey on Unsplash. Used under an Unsplash license. Officials in Russia now often discuss the lives of transgender people: for example, according to Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of the Russian Parliament, “a person gets up in the morning and decides for himself that he is no longer a man, but a woman; not a woman, but a man,” and on the Russia 1 TV channel they report: “A stamen will never become a pistil, and a pistil will never become a stamen.” In 2021 the Ministry of Health was preparing to adopt a law with advanced approaches to helping trans people, but, over the past yea… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters (Note: Strong language in paragraph 10) By Alexandra Ulmer and Anna Tong (Reuters) – “I actually like Ron DeSantis a lot,” Hillary Clinton reveals in a surprise online endorsement video. “He’s just the kind of guy this country needs, and I really mean that.” Joe Biden finally lets the mask slip, unleashing a cruel rant at a transgender person. “You will never be a real woman,” the president snarls. Welcome to America’s 2024 presidential race, where reality is up for grabs. The Clinton and Biden deepfakes – realistic yet fabricated videos created by AI algorithms trained on copious online footage – are among thousands surfacing on social media, blurring fact and fiction in the polarized world of U.S. politics. While such synthetic media has been around for several years, it’s been turbocharged over the past year by of a slew of new “generative AI” tools such as Midjourney that make it cheap and easy to create convincing deepfakes, according to Reuters interviews with about two dozen specialists in fields including AI, online misinformation and political activism. “It’s going to be very difficult for voters to distinguish the real from the fake. And you could just imagine how either Trump supporters or Biden supporters could use this technology to make the opponent look bad,” said Darrell West, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Technology Innovation. “There could be things that drop right before the election that nobody has a chance to take down.” Tools that can generate deepfakes are being released with few or imperfect guardrails to prevent harmful misinformation as the tech sector engages in an AI arms race, said Aza Raskin, co-founder of the Center for Human Technology, a nonprofit that studies technology’s impact on society. Former President Donald Trump, who will vie with DeSantis and others for the Republican nomination to face Biden, himself shared a doctored video of CNN anchor Anderson Cooper earlier this month on his social media platform Truth Social. “That was President Donald J. Trump ripping us a new asshole here on CNN’s live presidential townhall,” Cooper says in the footage, although the words don’t match his lip movement. CNN said the video was a deepfake. A representative for Trump didn’t respond to a request for comment on the clip, which was still on his son Donald Jr’s Twitter page this week. While major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have made efforts to prohibit and remove deepfakes, their effectiveness at policing such content varies. DEEPFAKE PENCE, NOT TRUMP There have been three times as many video deepfakes of all kinds and eight times as many voice deepfakes posted online this year compared to the same time period in 2022, according to DeepMedia, a company working on tools to detect synthetic media. In total, about 500,000 video and voice deepfakes will be shared on social media sites globally in 2023, DeepMedia estimates. Cloning a voice used to cost $10,000 in server and AI-training costs up until late last year, but now startups offer it for a few dollars, it says. No one is certain where the generative AI road leads or how to effectively guard against its power for mass misinformation, according to the people interviewed. Industry leader OpenAI, which has changed the game in recent months with its release of ChatGPT and the updated model GPT-4, is itself grappling with the issue. CEO Sam Altman told Congress this month that election integrity was a “significant area of concern” and urged rapid regulation of the sector. Unlike some smaller startups, OpenAI has taken steps to restrict use of its products in politics, according to a Reuters analysis of the terms of use of half a dozen leading companies offering generative-AI services. The guardrails have gaps, though. For example, OpenAI says it prohibits its image generator DALL-E from creating public figures – and indeed, when Reuters tried to create images of Trump and Biden, the request was blocked and a message appeared saying it “may not follow our content policy.” Yet Reuters was able to create images of at least a dozen other U.S. politicians, including former Vice-President Mike Pence, who is also weighing a White House run for 2024. OpenAI also restricts any “scaled” usage of its products for political purposes. That bans use of its AI to send out mass personalized emails to constituents, for example. The company, which is backed by Microsoft, explained its political policies to Reuters in an interview but didn’t respond to further requests for comment around enforcement gaps in its policies, such as blocking image creation of politicians. Several smaller startups have no explicit restrictions on political content. Midjourney, which launched last year, is the leading player in AI-generated images, with 16 million users on its official Discord server. The app, which ranges from free to $60 a month depending on factors such as picture quantity and speed, is a favorite of AI designers and artists due to its ability to generate hyper-realistic images of celebrities and politicians, according to four AI researchers and creators interviewed. Midjourney didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article. During an online chat on Discord last week, CEO David Holz said the company would likely make changes ahead of the election to combat misinformation. Midjourney wants to cooperate on an industry solution to enable traceability of AI-generated images with a digital equivalent of watermarking and would consider blocking images of political candidates, Holz added. REPUBLICAN AI-GENERATED AD Even as the industry wrestles with how to prevent misuse, some political players are themselves seeking to harness the power of generative AI to soup up campaigns. So far, the only high-profile AI-generated political ad in the U.S. was one published by the Republican National Committee in late April. The 30-second ad, which the RNC disclosed as being entirely generated by AI, used fake images to suggest a cataclysmic scenario should Biden be reelected, with China invading Taiwan and San Francisco being shut down by crime. The RNC didn’t respond to requests for comment on the ad or its wider use of AI. The Democratic National Committee declined to comment on its use of the technology. Reuters polled all the Republican presidential campaigns on their use of AI. Most did not reply, although Nikki Haley’s team said they were not using the technology and longshot candidate Perry Johnson’s campaign said it was using AI for “copy generation and iteration,” without giving further details. The potential for generative AI to produce campaign emails, posts and adverts is irresistible for some activists who feel the low-cost tech could level the playing field in elections. Even deep in rural Hillsdale, Michigan, machine intelligence is on the march. Jon Smith, Republican chair for Michigan’s 5th Congressional district, is holding several educational meetings so his allies can learn to use AI for social media and ad generation. “AI helps us play against the big cats,” he said. “I see the biggest upswing in the local races. Someone who is 65 years old, a farmer and county commissioner, he could easily be primaried by a younger cat using the technology.” Political consultancies are also seeking to harness AI, further muddying the line between real and unreal. Numinar Analytics, a political data company that focuses on Republican clients, has begun experimenting with AI content generation for audio and images, as well as voice-generation to potentially create personalized messaging in a candidate’s voice, founder Will Long said in an interview. Democratic polling and strategy group Honan Strategy Group is meanwhile trying to develop an AI survey bot. It hopes to unroll a female bot in time for the 2023 municipal elections, CEO Bradley Honan said, citing research that both men and women are more likely to speak to a female interviewer. (Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer and Anna Tong in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Christina Anagnostopoulos, Zeba Siddiqui and Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Kenneth Li, Ross Colvin and Pravin Char) View the full article

Published by Raw Story Former Republican Gov. Robert Bentley and Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman came together to pen a warning in the Washington Post last week imploring change over the death penalty. With 167, the state has more people on death row than any other per capita. They called it “146 people too many.” “As former Alabama governors, we have come over time to see the flaws in our nation’s justice system and to view the state’s death penalty laws in particular as legally and morally troubling,” the governors wrote. “We both presided over executions while in office, but if we had known then what we know now ab… Read More View the full article

Published by Radar Online 1035486763209310960 View the full article

Published by The New Voice The materials emphasize the importance of reintegrating soldiers into intimate relationships as part of their transition to civilian life. Read also: How LGBTQ soldiers, doctors, and volunteers protect Ukraine Developed by Veteran Hub in collaboration with the creative agency Patsany Agency, the platform aims to be useful not only to soldiers who have suffered injuries but also to all military personnel and their partners, recognizing that changes in sex and intimacy during and after war are normal. Sex and sexuality remain taboo topics in Ukraine, especially when it comes to soldiers who have… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story The department store Kohl’s is facing calls for a boycott after some shoppers objected to Pride-themed children’s clothing found in the store’s selection, The New York Post reported. “In case you need clothes for your Gay or Trans 3 month old, Kohl’s has you covered,” Twitter userALX wrote alongside. “Yes this is real.” “Why is Kohl’s selling ‘Pride Merch’ for 3 month old babies?” tweeted TPUSA’s Benny Johnson. The calls for a boycott come in the wake of a similar campaign directed at Target, which lost$10 billion in market valuation over the last 10 days due to backlash over its own LGBTQ col… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Monday got pushback from some of his followers after he condemned a newly passed law in Uganda that makes homosexuality a crime that is punishable by death. Writing on Twitter, Cruz, who has long been an opponent of LGBTQ rights in the United States, argued that executing people simply for being gay was far too extreme. “This Uganda law is horrific and wrong,” he wrote. “Any law criminalizing homosexuality or imposing the death penalty for ‘aggravated homosexuality’ is grotesque and an abomination. ALL civilized nations should join together in condemning this human righ… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters KAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed one of the world’s toughest anti-LGBTQ laws, including the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”, drawing Western condemnation and risking sanctions from aid donors. Same-sex relations were already illegal in Uganda, as in more than 30 African countries, but the new law goes further. It stipulates capital punishment for “serial offenders” against the law and transmission of a terminal illness like HIV/AIDS through gay sex. It also decrees a 20-year sentence for “promoting” homosexuality. “The Ugandan president has today legal… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story The Nevada Independent reported Monday that the state Senate passed a veto override of Gov. Joe Lombardo (R-NV), who blocked a set of gun safety laws that would stop those convicted of a hate crime in the last ten years from getting a gun. There were three Democrat-proposed gun control measures, the report explained, and the GOP governor vetoed all of them. “I will not support legislation that infringes on the constitutional rights of Nevadans,” Lombardo said in a release Wednesday. “As I stated in my letters, much of the legislation I vetoed today is in direct conflict with legal precedent an… Read More View the full article

Published by Cerebral Overload Zero Zero Robotics, a leading robotics company, has launched its newest flagship product, the Hover Camera X1, a pocket-sized self-flying camera that is available today on Indiegogo. Like the rest of the Hover Camera product line, the X1 is focused on a user-centered flying experience, while featuring significant improvements in portability and usability. The Hover Camera X1 can be flown entirely hands-free, requiring neither a controller nor an app to operate. It leverages cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology to enable a more effortless and enjoyable flying experience. With folded … Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Tina Turner was “prepared” to have her skirt torn off by Sir Mick Jagger at Live Aid. The late singer famously had the garment ripped off by the Rolling Stones frontman as they performed ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll’ at the charity show in Philadelphia in 1985 but had made sure that her modesty would remain in place during the song. In her 2018 autobiography ‘Tina Turner: My Love Story’, which is being serialised by the Daily Mail newspaper following her death this week at the age of 83, she said: “He looked me over and I could see a naughty idea forming. ‘Does that skirt come off?’, he asked slyly. ‘What!’ was my startled reply. “‘I’m going to take your skirt off,’ he said. I asked him why, but it was too late to talk it through. “Mick had already made up his mind to do it. ‘Just to create something,’ he said.” Tina continued: “Understandably, I was a little nervous because I’d never had my skirt taken off on stage. Luckily, I was prepared. “In those days especially, you didn’t just wear undies. I wore fishnet stockings over my underwear, then dancer’s briefs over that – if my skirt came off, there would be nothing to see except a costume under a costume. I was covered, I reassured myself. And Mick knew I was covered. We were professionals. When we started ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll’, he pulled off his shirt, danced around bare-chested, then sashayed off the stage to change into a yellow jacket and camouflage pants singing, ‘But I like it’, the whole time. “He came back, and without missing a beat, reached for my waist. I felt – oh my God, I felt him feeling around where the snap was. I knew it was going to happen. “I glanced down because I wondered, how did I look at that moment? “When he pulled off my skirt with a flourish, I saw with relief that it wasn’t bad. “Thanks to the dancer’s briefs holding me in like a girdle, and the fishnet stockings hiding my underwear, everything was in shape and in place, like a dancer.” Tina confessed to having crush on Mick and always had to be on her “guard” around him because of the rocker’s “naughty” antics. She wrote: “Mick is just naughty, you know? The first time I appeared on stage with him, he tried to press the microphone into my crotch. “I always had to be on guard with him because I never knew what prank was coming next. “He’s like every bad boy you’ve ever known at school.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Brad Brooks and Daniel Trotta LUBBOCK, Texas (Reuters) – Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton lashed out on Friday against his critics trying to impeach him, saying that removing him from office would be a gift for President Joe Biden and his Democratic agenda. Paxton, a conservative firebrand and ally of former President Donald Trump, has been accused by fellow Republicans of abuse of office and faces a vote on 20 articles of impeachment in the Texas House on Saturday. Staking out a position on the far right on divisive cultural issues, Paxton has sued the Biden administration nearly 50 times in an attempt to halt what he labeled “unlawful tyrannical policies” on issues including immigration, gun rights and business regulation. On Thursday, the five-member Texas House General Investigating Committee voted unanimously to recommend that Paxton be impeached and removed from office for improperly aiding a wealthy political donor, conducting a sham investigation against whisteblowers in his office whom he fired, and covering up his wrongdoing in a separate federal securities fraud case against him, among other offenses. Addressing the media but without taking questions on the eve of the vote, Paxton accused House members including the Republican majority of plotting an “illegal impeachment scheme” led by corrupt politicians loyal to House Speaker Dade Phelan. Debate was due to start at 1 p.m. CDT (1800 GMT). If impeached, Paxton would be removed from office pending a trial in the Senate, where his wife, Angela Paxton, is a senator and where he said he believed he would get a fair trial. A two-thirds vote is needed to permanently expel him. “I want to invite my fellow citizens and friends to peacefully come let their voices be heard at the Capitol tomorrow. Exercise your right to petition your government. Let’s restore the power of this great state to the people instead of to the politicians,” Paxton said. With many of the accusations against him already aired, Paxton easily won reelection last year after fending off a Republican primary challenge from George P. Bush, a scion of two former presidents. Paxton’s resiliency – and the ease with which he dispatched Bush in his 2022 primary contest – reflects a shift within the state Republican Party over the past decade from the business-friendly wing squarely into the social conservative camp. (Reporting by Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas, and Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; editing by Donna Bryson and David Gregorio) View the full article

Published by OK Magazine mega Despite playing Robert Redford‘s love interest in a handful of movies, Jane Fonda believes the actor despised filming physical scenes with her. The Grace & Frankie alum made the confession while at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday, May 26. mega “He did not like to kiss. I never said anything [to him about it]. And he’s always in a bad mood, and I always thought it was my fault,” the actress recalled of working with Redford. “He’s a very good person. He just has an issue with women.” Making matters worse, Fonda, 85, admitted she “was in love with” the Oscar winner, 86. mega Jane Fonda Admits Failing To Show Up For Her Kids Is ‘Biggest Regret’ Of Her Life: ‘I Didn’t Know How To Do It’ Jane Fonda Confesses She Saw Michael Jackson Naked in the ’80s: ‘He Was Skinny!’ Jane Fonda Recalls ‘Body Dysmorphia’ Hindering Her Dreams of Becoming an Actress: ‘Being Young Is Really Hard’ Eventually, the Barbarella lead realized she wasn’t the one to blame for his attitude. “The last movie I made with him was six years ago. What was I, about 80 years old or something like that. And I finally knew I had grown up,” she said. “When he would come on the set three hours late in a bad mood, I knew it wasn’t my fault.” Despite the awkwardness, the actress insisted they “always had a good time” together. mega Fonda has been spilling quite a few tales from her storied past, revealing on the May 15 episode of of Watch What Happens Live that she once saw “skinny” Michael Jackson in the buff! “He came and visited me when we were shooting On Golden Pond, and I had a little cottage right on the lake, and it was a beautiful, moonlit night,” the mom-of-three said, noting the singer asked her to go skinny-dipping. “I think because he knew he was going to die young and I would talk about him being naked,” she joked of the situation. Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for! On that same WWHL episode, the star confessed she saw Swedish actress Greta Garbo naked as well. “I have stories for you, kid,” she teased to host Andy Cohen. “We don’t have time!” Deadline reported on Fonda’s comments about Redford. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Caitlyn Jenner has paid tribute to her late mother after her memorial service. The 73-year-old reality TV star her heartbreak at the loss at her mom Esther Jenner (née McGuire), who passed away in April at the age of 96. Sharing a picture of herself speaking at the memorial, Caitlyn wrote: “I spoke at my mom’s memorial service yesterday. It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. I miss her terribly every day. She is loved and missed and in a better place.” Caitlyn’s son Brandon Jenner commented: “So glad I got to say a last goodbye over the phone. I’ll remember many moments, but, one of my favorites will always be when she told me, among the billowing smoke in her condo, ‘it’s not the cigarettes that will kill you, it’s the filters that will kill you.’ “She rolled her own her whole life till 96 years old. She may have been on to something? See you in the other side Grandma.” Caitlyn’s daughter Kylie Jenner added a number of heart emoji’s to Caitlyn’s post. Caitlyn shared the news about her mother’s death in a heartfelt post on Instagram last month. She wrote: “I am heartbroken to announce my mom passed away yesterday morning, peacefully. Losing a mother is unique in the sense that she is the only person that loved me my entire life. “I will miss her tremendously. She was a few weeks shy of 97 and lived a full life. Love you mom.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Beyonce paid another tribute to Tina Turner during her concert in Paris. The 41-year-old star hailed the late music legend at her show at the Stade de France on Friday (26.05.23) following her death earlier this week at the age of 83 and told the crowd to “scream so she can feel your love”. In a video captured by a fan, Beyonce said: “If you’re a fan of mine, you’re a fan of Tina Turner ’cause I wouldn’t be on this stage without Tina Turner. “I feel so blessed that I was allowed to witness her brilliance. “Thank you for your loyalty.” Beyonce described Tina as her “beloved queen” when news of her passing was revealed on Wednesday (24.05.23) and had previously cited the ‘Private Dancer’ hitmaker as one of her biggest inspirations. She wrote on her website: “My beloved queen. I love you endlessly. I’m so grateful for your inspiration, and all the ways you have paved the way. You are strength and resilience. You are the epitome of power and passion. “We are all so fortunate to have witnessed your kindness and beautiful spirit that will forever remain. Thank you for all you have done.” The ‘Break My Soul’ performed a tribute to Tina at her Kennedy Center Honors ceremony in 2005 before the two stars performed a duet of ‘Proud Mary’ at the Grammy Awards three years later. Tina is set to be laid to rest at a private funeral despite her legions of fans across the globe. A spokesperson for the icon – dubbed the ‘Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll’ – confirmed to The Sun newspaper: “There will be a private funeral ceremony attended by close friends and family.” Tina was said by her team to have passed away from “natural causes” but further details have not been given. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jacqueline Thomsen WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Two members of the far-right Oath Keepers were sentenced to prison on Friday for their roles in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump who tried to overturn his presidential election defeat. Kenneth Harrelson and Jessica Watkins were convicted in November by a federal jury in Washington of obstruction of an official proceeding for their roles in the storming of the Capitol, which saw rioters battle police, smash windows and send lawmakers running for their lives. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on Friday sentenced Harrelson to four years in prison. Earlier on Friday, the judge imposed a prison sentence of eight and a half years for Watkins. Harrelson was also found guilty of conspiring to prevent members of Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election win as well as tampering with documents and proceedings. Watkins was also convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of officers during the riots. Watkins and Harrelson were acquitted of seditious conspiracy charges. Mehta said he believes Harrelson is “genuinely remorseful” and that he did not think the Oath Keeper was as responsible as other members of the far-right militia he was charged alongside. The judge added that the evidence in Harrelson’s case did not include messages from him that talked about “revolution” or other extremist terms, like other Oath Keepers had, and noted that he did not physically attack or threaten to assault any police officers at the Capitol that day. Evidence displayed during trial included a video in which Harrelson could be heard chanting the word “treason” as he entered the U.S. Capitol. “He wanted to intimidate members of Congress and people working in that building,” prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler said. Harrelson told the court on Friday that he never thought about politics before Jan. 6, and that he would have tried to stop others’ violence against police officers that day if he knew about it. “I am responsible, and my foolish actions have caused immense pains in my life and to our children,” Harrelson said, crying. Prosecutors sought a 15-year sentence for Harrelson, while his attorney asked that the judge issue an unspecified lighter sentence. Federal prosecutors had asked Mehta to sentence Watkins to 18 years in prison. Watkins’ lawyer asked that she be sentenced to five years in prison. Mehta earlier Friday said it was “particularly hard” to issue a sentence for Watkins. He mentioned her testimony during trial about the struggles she faced with her transgender identity and her cooperation with law enforcement officials during their investigation of her conduct on Jan. 6. But he said that “doesn’t wipe out” what she did during the attack. “Your role that day was more aggressive, more assaultive, more purposeful than perhaps others,” Mehta said. During tearful remarks in court, Watkins asked Mehta to issue a just sentence. “My actions and my behavior that fateful day were wrong and, as I now understand, criminal,” she said. Federal prosecutor Alexandra Hughes on Friday told Mehta that the actions of Watkins and other Oath Keepers on that day “were not an aberration” and that a significant sentence should be imposed. Friday’s court proceedings are taking place one day after Mehta sentenced Oath Keepers’ founder Stewart Rhodes to 18 years in prison for crimes including seditious conspiracy, or using force to try to overthrow the federal government. That is the steepest penalty yet against those charged in the Jan. 6 violence. Members of the Oath Keepers, founded in 2009, include current and retired U.S. military personnel, law enforcement officers and first responders. They have appeared, often heavily armed, at protests and political events including racial justice demonstrations that followed the 2020 murder in Minneapolis of a Black man named George Floyd by a white police officer. Some of the Oath Keepers, including Watkins and Harrelson, breached the Capitol, a few clad in paramilitary gear. Others at a suburban hotel staged a “quick reaction force” prosecutors said was equipped with firearms that could be quickly transported into Washington. Four other Oath Keepers members convicted of seditious conspiracy in a second trial are due to be sentenced next week. (Reporting by Jacqueline Thomsen in Washington; Additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone and Mark Porter) View the full article

Published by PsyPost A new study in Denmark used machine learning techniques on photographs of faces of Danish politicians to predict whether their political ideology is left- or right-wing. The accuracy of predictions was 61%. Faces of right-wing politicians were more likely to have happy and less likely to have neutral facial expressions. Women with attractive faces were more likely to be right-wing, while women whose faces showed contempt were more likely to be left-wing. The study was published in Scientific Reports. The human face is highly expressive. It uses a complex network of muscles for various function… Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) is appealing to the South Dakota college board to implement prohibitions in areas that target the LGBTQ+ community. According to The Hill, the Republican governor is calling on the collegiate board to ban drag shows on college campuses and remove pronoun preferences, which would force students to only be identified by the gender specified on their birth certificates. The governor’s letter, addressed to the South Dakota Board of Regents, was released on Thursday, May 26. READ MORE: South Dakota voters ended marijuana prohibition — but Kristi Noem helped get it … Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Lauren Jauregui had “instant chemistry” with Sasha Mallory. The 26-year-old singer revealed she immediately fell for the ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ star when they worked together for the live performance film that accompanied her debut EP ‘Prelude’. Lauren told PEOPLE: “When we met, it was instant chemistry. It was like, ‘What the f*** is this?'” Lauren and Sasha went Instagram official in February, after almost a year of dating and Lauren wanted to share their relationship because “queer representation is important”. She said: “It was great. I’m in love. We’d been together for a year by that point, and I was like, “You know what? F*** it.” Because most of my relationships, I keep under wraps, just because it’s really odd to have so many strangers have an opinion about who you’re choosing to love or what goes on between the two of you. But I just want to be able to love them out loud and be able to share that with people. On Valentine’s Day, I did it very impulsively. I didn’t even talk with them about it first. I was just seeing people post their significant others, and I was just like, ‘Dude, I’m in love. These pictures are so cute. We’re so cute. People deserve to see this s***.’ Queer representation is important, I think.” She went on to add: “We’re good. We’re so solid, and we have such a beautiful foundation and so much trust and love between us. So, people’s opinions don’t really don’t matter. Honestly, for me, it’s more so about protecting them and making sure that they don’t feel attacked because fans are fans. Sometimes they’re really supportive and beautiful and care about your happiness, and that’s their first priority. Then, there’s other fans who call themselves fans that I don’t really consider fans — people who feel very possessive over you and feel like they have a right to tell you who you should or should not be with, which is really fascinating to me because you’re literally a stranger who’s never met me in real life. So it’s really interesting that you think about who I should or shouldn’t be with. “And people have prejudices. Racism is a very real thing, and I don’t like when she gets attacked or people send her really crazy-a** messages or send weird messages to her family. I really wanted to avoid that, but it was kind of happening anyways because people assumed we were in a relationship. So I was just like, ‘I guess it doesn’t really fully matter at this point.’ We just have to ignore those kinds of people as much as we can, because sometimes they’re really violent and need to be handled. But for the most part, it’s really just harmless, online s***.” View the full article

Published by Global Voices Image by Daniel James. Free to use under Unsplash License. In February 2022, Azerbaijan’s LGBTQ+ community was deeply shaken, once the news of queer activist and journalist Avaz Hafizli’s brutal murder became public. His death sparked a public outcry on social media platforms, with many activists criticizing Azerbaijan’s history of inaction when addressing hate crimes, specifically those targeting marginalized groups in the country. Fast forward to present day, and the trend continues unabated. On May 23, police detained several transgender women in the capital Baku over what started as a verb… Read More View the full article