Category: News

Lizzo is one of several artists who have spoken out against the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Ahead of her upcoming tour in support of her upcoming second major-label album, Special, the “About Damn Time” rapper is teaming up with Live Nation to donate a portion of the sales from her tour to Planned Parenthood.

“I’m pledging $500k from my upcoming tour to Planned Parenthood and Abortion Rights,” she said in an Instagram post. “Live Nation agreed to match— to make it 1 MILLION dollars.”

Lizzo continued, emphasizing the importance of remaining vocal and providing funds to organizations aimed toward helping people affected by today’s ruling, including Planned Parenthood and the National Network Of Abortion Funds.

“Black women & women of color have historically had disproportionately less access to family planning resources— this is a great loss but not a new one,” Lizzo continued.

Throughout her career, Lizzo has been outspoken in her support of marginalized communities. Earlier this month, she re-recorded a portion of her song “Grrls,” when fans expressed concern over an ableist slur in the song’s lyrics. “As an influential artist I’m dedicated to being part of the change I’ve been waiting to see in the world,” she said.

Lizzo’s Special tour is set to kick off in September, with guest, Latto.

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

In today’s economy, people who work are demanding more accountability from their employers: better wages, benefits, transparency and alignment on values. The emphasis on shared values is coming to the forefront in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which removes federal protections for abortion. States, local governments and individuals are scrambling to react to the decision, which tosses out 50 years of legal precedence.

While the nation sorts out the politics and future legal decisions surrounding reproductive health, some companies are getting ahead of the issue by coming out publicly to support abortion rights, commonly referred to as “reproductive justice” by activists and advocates of a woman’s right to choose. One of the most outspoken companies is Patagonia, who announced in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that they will not only financially support individuals who choose to have an abortion but they will provide funds to pay the bail for individuals who face legal expenses while protesting for reproductive justice.

In a statement on Patagonia’s LinkedIn page, the company writes:

“Caring for employees extends beyond basic health insurance, so we take a more holistic approach to coverage and support overall wellness to which every human has a right. That means offering employees the dignity of access to reproductive health care. It means supporting employees’ choices around if or when they have a child. It means giving parents the resources they need to work and raise children.”

As part of that commitment, Patagonia announced that all U.S. employees are covered for abortion care as part of their health care coverage. “Where restrictions exist, travel, lodging and food are covered.” This includes 100 percent of co-pay costs for mental health visits.

Importantly, Patagonia showed why reproductive rights and healthcare are truly a holistic matter. In the same statement, Patagonia listed how they also support those individuals and families who choose to have children, including, writing:

We support new parents with:

• Two types of paid leave: 4 weeks of paid pregnancy disability leave and/or 12 weeks of paid parental bonding leave.
• Private spaces to feed infants.
• Child-care support for parents on work trips.
• Subsidized, on-site high-quality child care.
• Child-care stipends for parents who do not live near one of our child-care centers.

But it was a political component of Patagonia’s message that went viral, with the company stating that all part-time and full-time employees will receive:

• Training and bail for those who peacefully protest for reproductive justice.
• Resources to make informed decisions at the ballot box.
• Time off to vote.

But it’s the willingness of Patagonia to provide financial cover for its employees who peacefully protest in favor of reproductive justice that truly makes the company stand out. How many companies are willing to go that extra mile to empower their companies to be good citizens, not just good employees?

As a company here at Upworthy, we’ve always been proud of the work Patagonia does to protect our planet from the thread of climate change. Putting principles first is a great way for a company like Patagonia to show that they not only make a great product but that they use the goodwill and trust their brand has created to help make the world a better place for everyone. We’d all like to see a world where those principles are restored to the highest order within the halls of our government, where elected officials do the work of the people for the people. But until we achieve that more perfect union, it’s important to know that where we spent our money outside of politics can go a long way toward protecting the values we cherish.

The pandemic lockdowns may have been a nightmare for humans, but they were actually pretty fantastic for dogs. Sure, people suffered through social isolation, and economic turmoil, and crippling anxiety. But dogs? Millions got adopted from breeders and shelters alike. And all dogs got extra walks, extra couch cuddles, extra belly rugs, and extra treats. They were literally living their best lives. And now that the most drastic public health measures are over, a lot of dogs are going through separation anxiety.

Seriously.

According to dog behavior experts Jessica Pierce and Marc Bekoff, the return to “normal life” is a big problem for American pooches. Dogs everywhere got used to humans being around all the time. And obviously, there was a lot of emotional co-dependence. Now, all the humans have to go back to doing all the stuff they used to do before. And dogs are just at home, by themselves for hours on end.

“Dogs, like humans, know perfectly well how to be alone, and many dogs want and need considerable time alone,” Pierce and Bekoff recently explained in Scientific American. However, “pandemic dogs need help remembering how to be alone because we have made them forget.”

So how are you going to help your dog remember? Whether you’ve got a new dog who has never been alone all day, or you’ve got an older dog that just got used to all that extra companionship, you need to do everything possible to help your doggo through this difficult transition.

Luckily, the Furbo 360° Dog Camera can help.

The Furbo 360° is a smart dog camera that lets dog owners watch and interact with their furry friends while they are away. Just like a regular security camera, the Furbo 360° features HD video and real time two-way audio communications that you can access through the Furbo app on iPhone or Android. However, unlike a regular security camera, the Furbo 360° camera can rotate on its base, creating 360° views with its wide-angle lens, and detect when your dark is barking. It also has color night vision, plus AI technology that tracks your dog’s movements.

Oh, and did we mention the Furbo 360° can also toss your dog a treat? Because it can, either on command, or on a customized schedule set by you.

Want more than the basic movement tracking and treat dispensing? Sign up for Furbo Dog Nanny. This subscription backs up all recordings on the cloud and creates a daily highlight video, so you never miss anything important, dangerous, alarming, or adorable. Furbo Dog Nanny also gives you more robust alert options that can tell you when your dog is chewing or getting into something dangerous. Furbo Dog Nanny can even detect the sound of fire alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, or other alarms going off in your home. And its Home Emergency Alerts will notify you when any alarms go off in your home.

If you’re looking for a way to help alleviate your dog’s separation anxiety, the Fubo 360° is the perfect solution. And the coolest part is, when you buy one, you’re not just helping your dog. A portion of every single sale also goes to support a real rescue dog. That’s what you call a win win!

Upworthy may earn a portion of sales revenue from purchases made through links on our site.

The Supreme Court has issued its ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson, a decision that we knew was coming and that overturns 50 years of precedent in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Roe v. Wade is widely known for upholding the right to an abortion, but it also upheld an individual’s fundamental “right to privacy” (in the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution). In a 7-2 opinion (written by a lifelong Republican justice, for what it’s worth), the Supreme Court decided that the right to privacy and liberty covered the right to abortion.

In the decades since Roe, people have rehashed all kinds of questions surrounding abortion: the nature of life and personhood, bodily autonomy, the rights of the unborn and more. And in those debates, we’ve lost the core of what the Roe ruling was really about—the right to privacy in our medical decisions, which affects each and every one of us.

The one question we should be asking, fellow Americans, is this:

Should the government have the authority to access someone’s private medical and sexual history to investigate, judge, intervene in and/or prosecute their healthcare decisions?

That’s the question. That’s the debate. And I don’t know anyone in their right mind who would answer that question with “yes.”

In the Dobbs opinion, Justice Alito wrote, “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” Is it, though? Is government overreach just fine and dandy at the state level? Should elected representatives really be given the authority to determine people’s medical needs? I don’t think so.

Make no mistake—abortion is sometimes medically necessary to save the life of a mother or prevent undue suffering of an unborn baby. If it’s sometimes necessary and the law acknowledges and allows for that, then the law would have to make the determination of whether or not it’s necessary in each and every case. Not doctors, not the person carrying the baby, but representatives of the law. Investigators would have to delve into the personal, private medical records of patients to decide if an abortion was legitimate or not.

Who really wants that kind of government interference in their healthcare decisions?

If there are exceptions in state abortion laws for rape or incest, now we’re looking at investigations not only into someone’s medical records, but also into someone’s sexual history. After all, anyone can claim they were victims of rape or incest. Such allegations are notoriously difficult to prove, so now we get 1) a slew of false accusations by women desperate to be able to get an abortion, which harms both real victims and innocent men, and 2) even more invasive investigations by the government into extremely private and painful matters.

I don’t personally need a right to an abortion at this point in my life. There is almost no chance I will ever get pregnant again, and I can’t imagine having an abortion even if I did. I do, however, need a right to privacy in my own medical care. That’s what’s being lost here.

I also don’t begrudge anyone their belief that abortion is always wrong. I can actually understand how people get there, though I disagree. So by all means, debate the ins and outs and rights and wrongs of abortion all you want. Go out and hold up signs and preach to the masses and try to convince people to make different decisions. Set up pregnancy support clinics. Educate people about birth control or abstinence or whatever you believe is moral and right.

But allowing the government to legislate it is wrong. After all, the question of when life begins is fundamentally a religious or philosophical question, and we live in a country where we do not establish a religion. (It’s literally in the first line of the First Amendment of the Constitution. And besides that, abortion access is a religious requirement in some faiths, so religious arguments for and against access are moot, legally speaking.)

We don’t live in a black-and-white world. Every single pregnancy is a unique situation with a million different variables. Speaking in generalities is simple, but individual cases are nuanced and complex. Should the 11-year-old who has been raped and impregnated by her brother be forced to carry and bear his child when her own body hasn’t even reached full maturity? Should the mother whose water broke prior to viability and who has a life-threatening infection, necessitating an abortion to save her life, now have to go through a painful investigative process to determine whether she’s a criminal under the law? Should a pro-life Congressman with means be able to access abortion for the mistress he impregnated because he can afford it, all while trying to remove access for the rest of us?

You could say those are exceptions, but who makes that determination? Who gets to say what counts as an exception or not? Who gets to decide the criteria and determine who meets that criteria? Politicians most of us wouldn’t trust to watch our dog? Is that really what we want from our government?

And what about the notion that abortion bans save lives? Do the lives of pregnant women not count? Not only will people risk their lives seeking dangerous unregulated abortions, but we could also see an increase in suicides in women who feel trapped in an impossible situation. In El Salvador, where abortion is banned with no exceptions, 3 out of 8 maternal deaths—more than one-third of mothers who die—are pregnant teens who die by suicide. Please read that twice.

The U.S. also has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed nations. And Texas specifically, where some of the most stringent abortion laws are being enacted, topped the developed world for maternal mortality as of 2014. Pregnancy and childbirth are not without risk, especially in this country.

But none of that, sadly, is even relevant to the central question:

Should the government be granted the authority to dive into someone’s private medical and sexual history to investigate, judge, intervene in and/or prosecute their healthcare decisions?

Or more specifically:

Should the government—the random fellow citizens we elect on occasion—be granted the authority to access someone’s personal medical and sexual history to determine the circumstances of a pregnancy and judge whether the healthcare decisions surrounding it are valid?

The answer is no. Obviously, no.

At this point in my life, I don’t need the right to an abortion. But I do need the right to privacy in my personal healthcare decisions. We all do. That’s what Roe guaranteed. That’s what we have lost.

Typically outspoken in her political beliefs, Cardi B shared a video of herself dancing this morning, seemingly unaware of the overturn of Roe v. Wade. She eventually caught wind of the news, however, trolls had already begun flooding her mentions.

In response to someone trolling her, who has since deleted their tweet, Cardi posted a video, in which she claims she had just woken up, but even if she had spoken out, she feels she would’ve received hate regardless.

“Every single time that I talk about political sh*t, y’all get me f*cking dragged,” she said. “So shut the f*ck up, you hear me? Matter of fact, just a couple of weeks ago, I talked about, ‘Hey, watch, we’re entering a recession. When is the government gonna talk about we entering a recession?’ Y’all know what you told me? Mind [your] business, you’re rich.’ Matter of fact, every time single time that I talk about something that’s going on in the community, y’all tell me to mind my business, so suck my d*ck.”

While Cardi was met with much support from her fans, she received a large amount of vitriol from trolls, some of them even went so far as to attack her three-year-old daughter, Kulture.

“Your daughter is literally autistic,” wrote one troll, “and you’re on stan Twitter instead of making sure she’s not sticking her fingers in outlets.”

“My daughter is not autistic…You can’t call her ugly so y’all have to diagnose her with something,” Cardi replied. Go play in traffic b*tch.”

Another troll claimed Cardi was acting immature and insisted that rappers like Megan The Stallion wouldn’t spend their time hitting back at trolls online.

“You’re 30 years old, even Megan [who’s] younger than you not on the internet acting like a miserable child,” they wrote.

Cardi responded: “30,40,50 …Don’t bring my kids up on sh*t…This is all because I put a video of me dancing and y’all wanted me to talk about rod vs wade …WHY YALL BRING UP KIDS FOR? Wtf my kids gotta do wit y’all misery?”

Despite the hate she received earlier, Cardi refuses to be bothered. She later quoted Beyoncé, saying “You won’t break my soul …THATS ON GANG!”

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Still riding the highs of her steamy queer anthem, “Boyfriend,” Dove Cameron is basking in her powers on her new single, “Breakfast.” On her latest, Cameron channels her feminine mystique, leading herself on the journey to her own fate.

Delivering chilling vocals over a haunting, plucky, string-driven track, Cameron proclaims, “I eat boys like you for breakfast,” not letting a man distract her from her own greatness.

“I got tired of this pervasive and constricting male-dominated energy all around me making me feel like I was somehow set up to lose a game I didn’t even want to play,” said Cameron in a statement, “so I’ve been writing songs that allow me to take up space, to stop diminishing my power and to explore the fullness of who I am in a new and sexy way. ‘Breakfast’ is just the next step in me finding my voice through my music and getting a little energetically weird.”

In addition to putting out new music, Cameron is also in the process of filming the second season of Apple TV+’s series, Schmigadoon. She will also star alongside Issa Rae and Ashton Kutcher in the B.J. Novak-directed film, Vengeance, which is set to premiere in theaters next month.

Check out “Breakfast” above.

Closing off Pride month and leading into her new era with a bang, Hayley Kiyoko has dropped “Deep In The Woods,” the much-anticipated follow-up to her sophomore album Panorama‘s lead single, “For The Girls.”

On “Deep In The Woods,” Kiyoko tells a queer love story, chasing the joy she found in a brief encounter. Over a chilling instrumental, Kiyoko sings, “Baby I / I know I met you in another life / You’re unforgettable / It’s like you’re my dream, my deja vu, a ghost / You’ll be right there, wherever I go.”

The song is produced by Danja, along with Kiyoko’s frequent collaborators, Pat Morrissey and Kill Dave.

“‘Deep In The Woods’ is a song that captures the feeling of instant connection, as if you’ve known someone forever even though you’ve only just met,” said Kiyoko in a statement. “It feels as if your entire being is haunted by their presence wherever you go. It’s that instantaneous moment of knowing you are willing to do anything to be with the one you love.”

Check out “Deep In The Woods” above.

Panorama is out 7/29 via Atlantic. Pre-save it here.

Hayley Kiyoko is a Warner Music Artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Charlotte Hornets were left without a coach going into this year’s draft after Kenny Atkinson reneged on his commitment to become the team’s head coach. Many thought the other reported coaching finalist, Mike D’Antoni, would fill the coaching position and turn the LaMelo Ball Hornets into a zoomer-charged version of the seven seconds or less Suns.

However, on the morning of the NBA Draft, Marc Stein reported that a possible reunion with former head coach Steve Clifford was in play for the Hornets.

One day later and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports Clifford will, indeed, return to Charlotte.

Clifford coached the Hornets for five seasons and was fired at the conclusion of 2018. He then went on to coach the Orlando Magic for three years and spent this past season out of the league.

Throughout his tenure in both Charlotte and Orlando, Clifford installed air-tight defensive systems that pulled both franchises out of the metaphorical NBA gutter to a level respected competition. He even pushed the Hornets into becoming a top-5 defense early in his tenure and led the franchise to two playoff appearances.

Clifford inherits a much more talented roster than the one he left in 2018 with Ball on a path for stardom and, potentially, a Miles Bridges extension on the horizon. Charlotte finished 22nd in defense last season and that will be Clifford’s primary focus this season — Charlotte’s selection of Duke center Mark Williams in the draft should go a long ways towards shoring up that defense.

There is no end in sight to the waves of citizens and artists who are voicing their disdain for the Supreme Court’s partisan decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. And why should there be? Denying abortion and reproductive rights to women in many US states is something that millions of women and families will have to deal with for years to come. The critiques will not be devoid of nuance as we continue to process what the future looks like in light of this, and Jack White just posted a lengthy statement on Instagram directed mainly at former president Donald trump.

“The two party system by proxy puts this clown in a position to pick THREE conservative supreme court justices, THREE,” White said in reference to Trump. “And now these three judges, completely disinterested and unaffected by what the actual majority wants and needs, have just taken the country back to the 1970’s to start all over again fighting for women’s rights.”

His passionate and reasoned statement ended with perhaps the biggest shot fired at Trump: “I hope your dad is smiling and waving down on you from heaven, while his other hand holds a record of all the abortions you secretly paid for behind closed doors. ”

Read White’s full statement below.

“Congrats America! Let’s start at the beginning; life isn’t black and white, but it is in a two party system! That concept allows the chance for one of the parties to promote a professional wrestler of a “politician” with absolutely no experience in govt., who cares only about his own ego, who uses christianity (of which he isn’t one) to propel his career at the expense of those christians (and the rest of us all), who uses patriotism as a dog whistle for racism and fear etc., and all of this goes unchecked because the OTHER party doesn’t have enough of a majority to keep this person from slowly destroying any progress we’ve made in this country . So then this is what happens: the two party system by proxy puts this clown in a position to pick THREE conservative supreme court justices, THREE. And now these three judges, completely disinterested and unaffected by what the actual majority wants and needs, have just taken the country back to the 1970’s to start all over again fighting for women’s rights. I can’t beleive i just typed all of that out and it’s all true, is this a bad movie? Congrats republicans, you beat hillary (yeah! fuck free health care too!) so that this unchecked egomaniac could take us down the worst, regressive path to the point of an insurrection in our capital building threatening the lives of the vice president and congress members, and in turn made our govt. an embarrassment to the entire world (of which you’re all still living in fear of his “wrath” and STILL defending this monster.) yeah! You and your Ar-15’s are one step closer to heaven! Congrats democrats, your weakness in allowing trumps illegal activities to go unpunished during his entire term lead to this. Fillibuster anyone? Your “majority” in govt. is useless. Rewind the tape to how we got here, a third political party of ANY shape or platform breaking up this left/right, them/us nonsense would’ve prevented this before it even started. Think about it. Well trump, you took the country backwards 50 years. I hope your dad is smiling and waving down on you from heaven, while his other hand holds a record of all the abortions you secretly paid for behind closed doors. -jack white”

It’s quite the parallel universe that today in America, citizens everywhere are lamenting the Supreme Court’s controversial decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, thus denying legal abortions to American women in many states, while in the UK, the biggest music festival celebration of the year, Glastonbury, is currently happening. It’s been quite the juxtaposition on the Twitter timeline to see Americans tweeting their grave displeasure with the Supreme Court and America as a whole, while Europeans are over the moon at performances from acts like Wolf Alice, Idles, and Phoebe Bridgers.

But Bridgers has connected these timezones in triumphant fashion. During her Glastonbury performance, she paused to speak to the audience and glow in the moment, but also be totally open about how torn she feels right now. “In all honesty, it’s like super surreal and fun. But I’m having the sh*ttiest day,” she began, before asking, “Are there any Americans here?” When a small, but audible section of the enormous crowd cheers, Bridgers then asks, “Who wants to say F*ck the Supreme court on three?” The roar grows louder and she immediately revs her engine: “One, two, three…F*CK THE SUPREME COURT!!!”

Americans, Europeans, and other internationals at the music festival all joined Bridgers in this bittersweet moment of catharsis. Bridgers then put a final bow on it before jumping into her next song: “F*ck that sh*t. F*ck America. Like…f*ck you. All these irrelevant old motherf*ckers trying to tell us what to do with our f*cking bodies. Ugh. F*ck it.”