Category: News

Midterm elections in the United States are just weeks away, and despite being nearly two years in the past, there are many politicians still dwelling on the 2020 election that Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden. It’s kind of remarkable to consider, but some of Trump’s most die-hard supporters still think he didn’t actually lose by millions of votes to Biden. They have spent the last two years searching for evidence of a massive conspiracy that stole a second term of office from him.

That kind of rhetoric led to the January 6 insurrection in Washington and a second impeachment of Trump before he left office. And yet, in states like Arizona, there are other elected officials still rallying support and investigating election conspiracies. And fresh off challenging an Arkansas politician about the state’s anti-trans laws, Jon Stewart‘s latest interview for The Problem with Jon Stewart on Apple TV goes right to the heart of election nonsense.

In a new episode, Stewart sat down with Arizona attorney general Mark Brnovich and grilled him about continuing to prop up Trump’s baseless claims that millions of votes were stolen from him. When Brnovich pointed out that millions of people think the election was stolen regardless of the evidence, Stewart fired back.

“There are people that believe in angels, but that doesn’t mean you launch an investigation that angels changed ballots,” Stewart said, calling the logic a “bit of a tautology.”

“When you have a president spreading rumors to his supporters. For instance, Trump can say,” Stewart continued, looking down to recite exactly what Trump has misleadingly told people about the election since 2020 while Brnovich actually laughed. “Now, the truth is none of that is real.”

Brnovich argued that people expect him to look into things and they’re getting investigations “to ground,” but Stewart pressed him on whether, after all of the investigations and lack of evidence, any statement claiming Trump was lying will ever come out of it.

“And when you get it to ground will you come out and say Donald J. Trump is wrong?” Stewart asked. “The election in Arizona was fair, not stolen, and not fradulent.” Brnovich said that he’s “always been a straight shooter” but said that while he’s declared, “Donald Trump lost Arizona,” he held back on saying Trump is wrong about his election lies.

“The fact is, the election in Arizona was well-run, not fraudulent, and not stolen from Donald Trump, according to even your investigation,” Stewart says, interrupting Brnovich at one point to ask, “Why is it so hard to just say yes to that?”

The full episode will hit Apple TV on Friday, if you feel like watching Stewart grill an elected official a bit more to no real avail.

This article originally appeared on 04.24.18

Around 1 a.m. on April 24, semi-truck drivers in the Oak Park area of Michigan received a distress call from area police: An unidentified man was standing on the edge of a local bridge, apparently ready to jump onto the freeway below.

Those drivers then did something amazing. They raced to the scene to help — and lined up their trucks under the bridge, providing a relatively safe landing space should the man jump.

Fortunately, he didn’t.

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The impressive line-up wasn’t a coincidence — the drivers were prepared for exactly this sort of situation.

Sgt. Jason Brockdorff of the Huntington Woods Police Department told The Detroit News that the response was something local police and truck drivers had actually trained for. But what was unusual was the sheer number of drivers who responded to the call.

“That’s a practice we use if we have a jumper,” Brockdorff said. “We try to do it every time, to lessen the distance someone would travel if they were to jump. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.”

The incident lasted nearly four hours, into the early morning. However, once the trucks were in place, the police were able to more comfortably negotiate with the unidentified man.

Eventually, the man walked off the bridge on his own and is currently receiving medical help.

In a pair of tweets, the local police department called attention to the incident to remind people in similar situations of the importance of seeking mental health services (emphasis mine):

This photo does show the work troopers and local officers do to serve the public. But also in that photo is a man struggling with the decision to take his own life. Please remember help is available through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

You can also call a loved one, member of the clergy or 911. There are so many people that can help you make the choice to get help and live! It is our hope to never see another photo like this again.

Working together, the police and everyday strangers saved a life.

Ordinary people heeded the call of service to help a fellow person who was struggling. It’s a powerful image that’s impossible to ignore, and a reminder of humanity at its best.

Believe it or not, pit bulls used to be one of America’s favorite dogs, a trusted family pet with a great temperament. People are often shocked to find out that the block-headed pups deemed as aggressive by society actually score really well on the temperament test, landing at 87.4%—only two tenths away from the score of golden retrievers. Yet for the past 50 years or so, they’ve been in a battle for their lives due to bad press and misinformation. But it looks like their luck is turning around.

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Pit bulls have essentially been victims of a half-century-long smear campaign that they didn’t sign up for. These extremely affectionate dogs are the product of cross-breeding bulldogs and terriers for the purpose of capturing and restraining livestock. Of course, eventually some not-so-nice humans decided this breed could serve as a money-making endeavor and began to breed them to fight and train them to be aggressive, though those traits are not inherent.

Basically pit bulls are much like any other dog—if you train it to be aggressive, it will do what it’s trained to do. If you train it to give you its paw and sit pretty for a treat, it will.

The problem with the information circulating about pit bulls being aggressive is that many dogs who are not pit bulls are labeled as such due to their features, according to the American Pit Bull Foundation.

Recently there has been a counter campaign for the breed and it seems to be showing promise. You’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who has owned a pit bull, affectionately known by their owners as “pibbles,” to say anything bad about the dogs. Aside from some chewed-up shoes and being bombarded with kisses while they snuggle in your lap like a Pomeranian, pit bull owners speak highly of the breed.

Nowadays, the breed has a lot more advocates, from organizations and shelters to soccer moms. Villalobos Rescue Center helped to catapult the dogs back into the spotlight, helping to change the narrative with the docuseries “Pit Bulls and Parolees.” The show even documented the stricter laws and misunderstandings around the breed in California, which forced the rescue organization to flee to New Orleans to continue its work.

It’s thanks to shows like “Pit Bulls and Parolees” as well as shelters and veterinarians combating the negative stereotype that more pit bulls are ending up in homes snuggling on couches than euthanized. Though some states still have strict laws on the books essentially banning the dogs, advocacy groups and pibble owners have been fighting back in court.

Breed discrimination certainly isn’t new. Other breeds such as Dobermans, Rottweilers and German shepherds have all done time on the “bad dog” list due to bad press. But the discrimination against the pit bull seems to have taken an exceptionally long time to turn around.

These dogs deserve a chance just like any other dog. All dogs require responsible humans to train and care for them and an entire breed shouldn’t get a bad reputation and possible death sentence because a few people decided to be irresponsible. National Pit Bull Awareness Day is October 29.

Matthew Perry almost appeared in last year’s divisive climate change film, Don’t Look Up, if it wasn’t for one small problem: His heart stopped for five minutes. Writing in his upcoming memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry opened up about missing out on a chance to star in the Adam McKay film. According to Perry, he was cast as a Republican journalist and was set to have at least three scenes with Meryl Streep. Perry even flew to Boston to meet with McKay who loved his “on-the-fly pitches” so much that they reportedly made it into the film.

However, things went south while Perry was getting surgery at a rehab in Switzerland. The actor, who’s been open about his years-long battle with addiction, was getting “some kind of weird medical device in my back” to help him deal with abdominal pain.

The procedure did not go well. Via Rolling Stone:

“I was given the shot at 11:00 a.m.,” he writes. “I woke up eleven hours later in a different hospital. Apparently, the propofol had stopped my heart. For five minutes. It wasn’t a heart attack — I didn’t flatline — but nothing had been beating. I was told that some beefy Swiss guy really didn’t want the guy from Friends dying on his table and did CPR on me for the full five minutes, beating and pounding my chest. If I hadn’t been on Friends, would he have stopped at three minutes? Did Friends save my life again?

“He may have saved my life, but he also broke eight of my ribs,” he adds.

The heart-stopping incident wasn’t Perry’s only brush with death. He reportedly was given a “two percent chance to live” after years of opioid abuse caused his colon to burst. He spent weeks in a coma and five months in the hospital. The incident was a wake-up call that led to him now being “safely sober” and able to write a memoir to help others battling addiction.

(Via Rolling Stone)

Move over, Pitbull. Perhaps the Mr. Worldwide title belongs to BTS as a whole.

As BTS’ Jin is on his way to Buenos Aires to perform with Coldplay for the debut of his solo single “The Astronaut,” it looks like another BTS member may have something in the works.

Making rounds on the internet in the last 24 hours, the youngest member of the supergroup, Jungkook, was spotted on the streets of Doha filming during the day. Fans are claiming it could be a sort of promo or a music video.

ARMY on Twitter, as well as Korean netizens, are calling Jungkook royalty, king, prince, or Aladdin as he touched down the streets of Doha wearing all-white with a whole entourage of security and staff.

According to those who’ve witnessed the Jungkook sightings, the Korean artist arrived yesterday and left just hours ago right after wrapping up his shoot.

As mentioned before, though there is no confirmation of what was being filmed, it wouldn’t be surprising if it could possibly be another collaboration, or even better – a solo project. After all, the group is slowly releasing their individual projects. This year, so far, members J-hope and Jin have announced their respective releases.

(House of the Dragon spoilers will be found below.)

The first season of House of the Dragon wrapped up this week and the last handful of episodes effectively laid the groundwork for its second season, but not before giving viewers some, uh, unsettling scenes to remember during its hiatus.

In the penultimate episode, Alicent tries to get information out of the very nasty Larys Strong, who requires her to show off her feet before helping her. Obviously, she (and the rest of the world) was disgusted by the notion but had to go through with it in order to protect her family. But that didn’t mean actress Olivia Cooke liked it one bit!

While speaking with Variety, Cooke explained the power dynamics that made the unfortunate foot scene necessary. “She knows what Larys can do, how powerful he is and how he won’t stop shy of killing his entire family in order to progress in this court. The dynamic shifts slightly all the time over the scene. He probably holds more weight. It’s difficult, because she has no choice but to go along with a lot of the things that he does. She needs the information. Ultimately, she knows how she’s going to get it.”

Cooke added that there was really no choice but to let him look at her feet, which resulted in one of the grossest scenes in the show (right up there with those pesky maggots). But it was vital for her character to play into the act. “If she doesn’t have the information, it could result in her death or in her usurpation or in her children’s death. I don’t think any of this is taken lightly. It’s just an absolute necessity, unfortunately. I don’t think there’s any manipulation going on. It’s just she needs the information, and this is how she gets it.”

She continued, “It’s disgusting, it’s demeaning, it’s assault. But she’s not really left with any choices. She’s surrounded herself with psychopaths and murderers. There’s no one else to turn to. Maybe she thought she could turn to Talia, but she’s turned out to be a spy.” Despite Alicent’s various schemes and powerplays, it seems like she will only get more powerful as the series goes on.

Earlier this week, Cooke opened up about the struggles she faces when seeing herself on screen and in the media, so playing an uncomfortable scene like that might have been tough. But she handled it like a champ, and at least she has Emma D’Arcy to lean on in times of distress or whenever they both need a Negroni Sbagliato.

(Via Variety)

Lil Baby remains adamant that he never dated fellow rapper Saweetie — even with all the evidence seemingly pointing in that direction. In November of 2021, some fans noticed that an outfit that Baby posted on Facebook seemed to perfectly match that of an unidentified man Saweetie posted on her own social media. In a cleverly cropped photo, Saweetie sits on the man’s lap, turning over her shoulder to get a selfie in the mirror.

At the time, Baby responded to the rumors in a tweet reading, “Baby not dating NO ONE!! I’m Single!” However, Saweetie’s ex, Quavo, seemingly responded to the rumors as well, writing on Instagram, “Ain’t trippin we can swap it out.” Saweetie herself seemed to fuel the rumors as well with a new song, “Don’t Say Nothin’,” she teased at Rolling Loud.

Now, with the incident resurfacing due to some apparent lyrical references in both men’s recent musical releases, fans’ interest in learning the truth is higher than ever. Revolt’s Big Facts podcast will address the rumors head-on in an upcoming episode, and in a preview clip, the hosts ask Baby straight-up about whether it was him in the photo or not.

“Nah!” he replies. However, he seems to accept the situation philosophically, understanding that he could be in the headlines for other, less savory reasons.

Of course, fans will probably continue to speculate, as they have done since Quavo’s verse on “Messy” seemingly referred to a homie-hopping ex. Listeners decided the line in question was about Saweetie, which, according to the previous rumor, meant it must also be about Baby. Baby also seemingly replied to Quavo’s “swap it out” proposition on his own new song “Stand On It,” rhyming, “I don’t want your bitch, we can’t swap out.”

However, Baby has since denied that he has any beef with Migos or Quavo and neither has commented on the rumors directly. This looks like just another case of hip-hop fans wanting to see some drama.

Saweetie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In her Tonight Show interview with Jimmy Fallon yesterday, Taylor Swift described the new “Bejeweled” video as having “a psychotic amount” of Easter eggs, saying, “We have a PDF file for the Easter eggs in this video, because there are so many that we could not keep track.”

Now that the video’s been out for a bit, fans have come to the conclusion that the clip teases Swift’s next release: Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). The evidence is compelling, too.

In one scene in the video, there’s an elevator dial with a color representing each one, with the third floor colored purple, much like the dress Swift wears on the cover art of Speak Now, her third album. The 13th floor is the same color, indicating Swift’s 13th album will be Speak Not (Taylor’s Version). Furthermore, Swift presses the 3 button on the elevator and sits on a clock set to 3 o’clock. Beyond, the video also features instrumental versions of two Speak Now songs: “Enchanted” and “Long Live.” The icing on the cake is the fact that the video was released on the same day as Speak Now‘s 12th anniversary.

Perhaps Olivia Rodrigo will be involved in the project: In 2021, she said of the Taylor’s Version albums, “My favorite Taylor Swift album is Speak Now. I would love to be on a Speak Now song. I’m just so excited to listen to them, though. I love listening to the vault recordings and stuff like that. I’m gonna own my masters, but I’ll listen to songs I’m not putting out and be like, ‘Maybe I’ll do a vault thing when I’m Taylor’s Swift’s age.’”

Kanye West, one of rap’s most polarizing figures, has been losing deals left and right, in response to his antisemitic comments, but will that be enough? Many people wonder what the next move for the Chicago rapper and his Yeezy brand is.

For the first time, it seems Ye’s empire is finally starting to crack. A “Ye exodus” has been bubbling over since the rapper made his controversial comments, that ultimately got him kicked off social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter.

Next would be fashion powerhouse-related brands like Balenciaga and Vogue Magazine. After that was his talent agency, CAA.

Most recently, Adidas has officially cut ties with West saying, “Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful, and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect, and fairness,” in a recent statement.

Then, the company laid out the Yeezy forecast: “After a thorough review, the company has taken the decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products, and stop all payments to Ye and his companies. Adidas will stop the Adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.”

The famous sportswear brand faced immense pressure from the public, demanding it severs ties with the “Jesus Walks” rapper, particularly after West said on the Drink Champs podcast earlier this month, “I can say antisemitic sh*t and Adidas cannot drop me.” The rapper’s statements have been linked with some neo-Nazi demonstrators, who placed a banner over the 405 highway in Los Angeles that read, “Kanye is right about the Jews.”

It’s unclear what is in store for Kanye West. There has been no word on any new music or projects, and it’s doubtful anyone (with sense) will be collaborating with the rapper soon.

(House of the Dragon spoilers will be found below.)

The House of the Dragon season finale gave us an enormous miscalculation by Aemond Targaryen, the “one-eyed Becky” who can’t control his own dragon. This sounds about right for a Daemon wannabe whose villain origin story sources from a gifted pig. Further, Aemond’s actions not only tipped the scales for Rhaenyra to have the worst day(s) ever but also officially launched the Targaryen civil war.

With that outcome looming for next season, I wanted to rank all of the dragons of House of the Dragon because we’re going to (eventually) see at least 17 of them in this Game of Thrones prequel series. Of course (and this is to be expected), we haven’t seen all of them yet, and with a few of them (revealed so far), we’ve only seen them in fleeting glimpses, so I’ll rank the most impactful dragons that we’ve seen in this first season. As silly as it sounds, I’ll list the beasts from “worst” to “best” on how likable they are, rather than how badass they might be (because they’re largely acting on instinct, but we’re free to enjoy the results or not). Also, they’re CGI-rendered beasts, so let’s lighten up.

[Note: Dragons who won’t be ranked here (due to lack of action and through no fault of their own) include Tyraxes (rider: Joffrey Targaryen), Moondancer (rider: Baela Valraryon), Gunfire (rider: King Aegon Targaryen), Dreamfyre (rider: Helaena Targaryen), and Silverwing (thus far unclaimed).]

8. Vhagar:

Vhagar is on the dragon sh*t list right now. Granted, this isn’t entirely her fault, but she’s a very bad, loathsome beast who chomped Arrax (and Lucerys Targaryen) into shreds. The last thing this duo saw alive was ^^^ this face, which swiftly led to this carnage.

Let’s talk this out, though. Vhagar has been through some stuff. She lost her rider, Laena Valaryon, who forced her own dragon to kill her. Then Aemond claimed her, and she had to deal with his faux-swaggery BS every day. And arguably, what we saw from Vhagar sources directly from her horrible rider’s inability to control her. The cackling Aemond made a grave miscalculation by trying to “scare” Luke after being denied the eye-for-the-eye payback that he demanded, and Vhagar (seemingly enraged by a little fire to the face from a comparatively tiny dragon) simply decided to swallow Arrax for a snack. We’ll talk about this more in a moment, but right now, I’d like to stress that both Vhagar and Aemond are to blame, but Aemond really should have known better. He seemed genuinely shocked that a giant dragon ate the hell out of Arrax and Luke.

This brings up the question of whether Vhagar was truly out of control, or if Aemond is simply out of his league by riding the oldest (and biggest) dragon in the world. All of that too-little-too-late shouting in High Valyrian (for Vhagar to “serve” him) wasn’t going to go too far after all of his laughing and spurring on Vhagar to chase Arrax and Luke. Then there was Aemond’s “oh f*ck” face once he realized what he’d done. Good.

7. Vermax:

Vermax (with Jacaerys riding) took flight out of Dragonstone at the same time as Arrax and Luke did during the season finale, but looking cinematic is much of what Vermax ended up doing. And yes, he is awfully cute (I mean, look at this dude), and hopefully, he’s doing alright, I’m docking some points for his failure to swoop in and help rain a little fire upon Vhagar. Granted, this probably would have led to Vhagar eating Vermax, too (and that would have been an even worse scenario for Team Black), but (as the saying goes) it’s the thought that counts.

6. Vermithor:

What did we see Vermithor (also known as the Bronze Fury) do during the finale, exactly? Not too much besides spew some fire and listen to Daemon sing in High Valyrian without torching him. That’s some admirable restraint, and if Daemon ever deserved a torching, the episode in which he choked Rhaenyra would be the one. Vermithor was the mystery dragon teased in a trailer, and people wondered if this would possibly be Cannibal, but no dice. Vermithor — who currently has no rider — will undoubtedly be called upon for Team Black in the coming civil war. Daemon was attempting to claim/tame this relatively large dragon, and hopefully, Vermithor will climb onboard and help even out the scoreboard. After all, the Targaryens have more dragons than the Hightowers do, but the Targaryen dragons haven’t been to battle yet. And I can’t fault Vermithor for anything yet besides failing to at least singe Daemon’s hair.

5. Syrax:

There’s really not too terribly much I can say for Syrax at the moment because she’s been sidelined from action lately, given that Rhaenyra’s been busy birthing several children (sadly, including a stillborn daughter). However, Syrax should be credited with being a young dragon who appears (so far) to be obedient, which might seem weird to say about a dragon that’s also catlike in her behavior. Also, she’s been cranking out eggs, which will no doubt be strategically valuable in this war and in the future. And she’s now the Queen’s dragon! That counts for a lot.

4. Meleys:

Alright, so there’s been plenty of debate on whether or not Rhaenys should have torched the Hightowers while she had the chance. All hell broke loose when her dragon, Meleys, burst through the Dragon Pit floor (likely as the foretold Beast Beneath The Boards) during the coronation ceremony. Civilians did die, but Meleys only acted in accordance with her rider’s wishes. And although she clearly would have enjoyed incinerating the Hightowers, she held back from doing so and waited for a “dracarys!” that never came. I desperately want Meleys to be the dragon that gets to torch something big later on in the game, but for now, she’s a damn good and obedient beast.

3. Ceraxes:

Poor Ceraxes is seemingly being thrown to the wayside (while Daemon courts Vermithor with those docile tones) for an older, larger dragon after serving Daemon as well as possible at the Stepstones. So pour one out for the jilted dragon who hasn’t done anything wrong besides not be an absolute unit. Ceraxes acted sufficiently menacing while Daemon pressed members of the kingsguard to express their allegiance to Rhaenyra. Granted, Daemon’s own motives were conflicted as hell throughout the episode, but Ceraxes brought results. He served his rider well!

2. Seasmoke:

In the current House of the Dragon chronology, Seasmoke is sitting unclaimed on Driftmark after Laenor Valaryon very well couldn’t take his dragon while escaping to gay paradise after the faking of his own death. So, we gotta feel sorry for Seasmoke and also acknowledge that this ever-so-nimble dragon actually saved Daemon’s ass from the Crabfeeder’s forces. If not for Seasmoke, we wouldn’t have gotten to see the many turns that Daemon’s character has taken after initially appearing as a mere salty rogue prince. So, credit should go to where credit is due and all that.

1. Arrax:

None of this show’s dragons are winners yet, which makes ranking them tough. This top spot is materializing due to a whirl of messy emotions from the season finale’s climactic battle, which wasn’t even close to a fair battle because Arrax never stood a chance against Vhagar. Clearly, Aemond disastrously screwed up and failed to control a massive dragon, possibly proving that he never should have claimed Vhagar in the first place. Yet that claiming is done, and Vhagar is Team Green, which has now kickstarted the Targaryen civil war into full force.

It’s all great storytelling, but the initial collateral damage would be poor Arrax and Luke. Both dragon and rider are young and inexperienced, so we can excuse how wee Arrax unloaded some fire in Vhagar’s face. And that’s when Vhagar decided to continue going rogue and refuse to let Aemond reel her in. The key realization here is that, yes, Luke didn’t know what he was doing, but he didn’t intend to go into battle. He merely intended to be a messenger while delivering a message from his mother. And that’s when Aemond started demanding Luke’s eye, and after Aemond was denied that satisfaction, he went into maniac mode while spurring Vhagar to chase Luke and Arrax.

This ended with the demise of the young dragon and his rider, and Rhaenyra will rain fury on the Hightowers as a result. Countless people and many dragons will undoubtedly die as a result of Aemond’s stunning miscalculation. It’s tragic, and the audience will likely pay tribute to this fallen duo for years to come. So for that reason, Arrax gets to be the most pivotal (and therefore, the best) dragon of this ranking, and also, my god, this (barely visible) scene — where the frightened Arrax and Luke prepare to flee — is a soul crusher. Their bond was one for the ages and illustrates why the Targaryen dynasty rose to power in the first place.

Arrax wasn’t powerful enough, by far. And he wasn’t the most badass dragon, but he won the audience’s hearts. RIP.

HBO’s House of the Dragon airs on Sundays at 9:00pm EST.