Category: News

Unless you’ve been camping in the middle of nowhere without cell service, you’ll know that Russia invaded Ukraine last week. The war in Ukraine has had the world’s attention since before Russian troops stepped foot on Ukrainian soil. It seems everyone has been glued to their televisions or other devices looking for updates on the conflict, but some people are getting a bit more than an update. Several journalists in European countries as well as the U.S. have made statements within their newscasts that have raised eyebrows and made people ask what exactly they mean.

Listening to reports on the refugee crisis resulting from the invasion is interesting to say the least. While it seems the majority of reporting is free from bias, others are steeped in so much bias that it goes beyond implicit to explicit in many ways. A reporter from CBS, Charlie D’Agata, had to make an apology due to his on-air remarks; he said “this is a relatively civilized, relatively European—I have to choose those words carefully, too—city, where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that would happen,” after making a comparison to Iraq and Afghanistan.

A French reporter Philippe Corbé, for BFM TV, a 24-hour French news network exclaimed, “We’re not talking here about Syrians fleeing the bombing of the Syrian regime backed by Putin; we’re talking about leaving in cars that look like ours to save their lives.” In an interview with the BBC, a former deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine said “It’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blond hair…being killed every day.” The comment went unchallenged by the anchors and was instead met with “I understand and respect the emotion.”

u201cItu2019s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killedu201dpic.twitter.com/mKVtEY4IBC

— Petty Is Praxis (@Petty Is Praxis)
1645915194

One would hope this would be the end of the comments by professionals showing their bias, but unfortunately, there are more examples. A journalist reporting for ITV from Poland said “Now the unthinkable has happened to them. And this is not a developing, third world nation. This is Europe!” Yet another reporter from the Telegraph expressed his sentiments, writing “They seem so like us. That is what makes it so shocking. Ukraine is a European country. Its people watch Netflix and have Instagram accounts, vote in free elections and read uncensored newspapers. War is no longer something visited upon impoverished and remote populations.”

This is a civilized city!nThey’re blue-eyed and blond-haired!nThis is Europe, not the Third World!nnTonight on @MSNBC, @AymanM and I discussed some of the awful and, frankly, racist coverage of the Ukraine war & Ukrainian refugees compared to the MidEast:pic.twitter.com/ir6qWHBNE6

— Mehdi Hasan (@Mehdi Hasan)
1646017529

Unfortunately the bizarre statements continue without so much as a follow-up question in many of these instances. Comments like these imply that war is to be expected in developing nations, or because the people experiencing war in Ukraine lack a certain look they should be spared. It hasn’t gone unnoticed by journalists of color, or by people of color absorbing the news. In fact, a political commentator for MSNBC, Mehdi Hasan, rebuked the biased reporting while on the air asking the question while reciting quotes from news clips, “‘Well-dressed people’ and ‘this is not the third world,’ they really mean white people, don’t they?”

The question feels like it had to be asked after all of these on-air snafus, but bias is so sneaky that these reporters likely didn’t realize how their words would be received. Heightened emotions from empathetic humans can not only cloud your judgment, but allow for more bias to seep in as you consider your own safety when seeing people that look like you being harmed. No one is saying these reporters can’t be empathetic, but it’s uncovering the areas that should be worked through so the automatic thought isn’t that this shouldn’t happen to them because they look like us, but that this shouldn’t happen to people, period.

There are a lot of folks in the public eye who know how to look like a good person when the cameras are on, but when the limelight goes away they can be someone totally different. In reality, it’s what you do when no one is watching that is the true test of your character.

In the case of former Liberty University quarterback and NFL draft prospect Malik Willis, he’s clearly the type of guy that does good things when he isn’t in the spotlight.

Last week, Willis was in Indianapolis, Indiana for the NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. The combine is a huge deal for former college players looking to get in the NFL. It’s an opportunity for them to show off their skills on the field in the hopes of making it on a team.

On Thursday, Willis was caught on video on a street corner, handing a woman sitting on a milk crate some fresh shirts out of a suitcase. According to Willis, she was there with her son.

Was having lunch yesterday and saw one of the Combine guys helping out someone on some hard timesu2026nn@malikwillis being great even when nobody is watching. How can you not be a fan of this guy?pic.twitter.com/BmFzUM66NU

— Ryan Lacey (@Ryan Lacey)
1646327504

“I walked past her on the way to the Nike suite and I chopped it up with them and I walked out with a suitcase and whatnot,” Willis said on NFL Network Thursday. “I felt bad because I saw her son. It was a pregnant lady and she was homeless.”

“I was just like, ‘Shoot, I don’t have no money, but I can give you a couple of shirts,” he added.

Willis said he had no idea that he was caught on video.

“I just felt like I had to do that,” Willis said. “I mean, I’m at a position right now where I’m not worried about much of anything except getting better. So, if I can help her out any way, I felt like I had to.”

Some people noted that while Willis was helping the woman out, another guy in a suit just walked on by without a care in the world.

Picture worth a thousand words pic.twitter.com/Wgo0Hab9um

— Ravi Mahapatra (@doctor_rpm) March 3, 2022

At a time when NFL scouts are judging players not only on their on-the-field performance but off-the-field leadership skills, Willis showed that he’s about a lot more than just football. He appears to be someone that would use his privilege as a professional athlete to help those who are less fortunate.

Last week, he gave a great answer when asked about the responsibility that comes with being a team’s franchise quarterback.

Malik Willis gave us all the aesthetics at the NFL Combine.pic.twitter.com/3e6fWpLhAk

— Cameron Hogwood (@Cameron Hogwood)
1646381048

“I mean, you’re the face of the franchise, literally. You’re the face of the city. So, you’ve got to understand everything that comes with that and making sure you’re doing all the right things and making sure you’re doing your job,” Willis said in his combine media interview, according to ESPN.

Willis’ future looks bright in the NFL; the quarterback is one of the highest-ranked players at his position and it’s rumored he’ll wind up with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Washington Commanders or the Denver Broncos.

Scouts on the field say that he is an agile, durable quarterback with a great arm. But off the field, he appears to be a man of character who’s ready to shine while playing a position that demands incredible leadership abilities.

This article originally appeared on 04.16.18

For about a week before the 2018 Boston Marathon, news outlets around the country were busy freaking out about the idea of transgender athletes competing.

Specifically, the worry seemed to be that trans women (people who transitioned from male to female) would have an unfair advantage over cisgender (non-trans) women. Right-wing commentator and anti-trans ideologue Ben Shapiro painted the decision as a type of slippery slope that will eventually lead to the abolition of gender categories as a whole, saying, “Biological women will never win a marathon — ever — in history because men are faster than women on average.”

Do Shapiro and others skeptical about the idea of trans women competing with other women in sporting events have a point? Not really.

I finally found a few minutes to write a bit, in my own words, about all this media coverage around trans women running #BostonMarathon. http://www.amelia.run/posts/2018-04-10-boston-marathon-media/ … #runchatpic.twitter.com/wNoc5A0a9p

I finally found a few minutes to write a bit, in my own words, about all this media coverage around trans women running #BostonMarathon. http://www.amelia.run/posts/2018-04-10-boston-marathon-media/u00a0u2026 #runchatpic.twitter.com/wNoc5A0a9p

— Amelia Gapin (@Amelia Gapin)
1523736778

If trans women have such an advantage, why haven’t there been any truly dominant trans athletes? Because they don’t.

A few years back, I wrote a fairly detailed breakdown of trans athletes’ fight to be able to compete in the sports they love for Vice Sports. The article, “Heroes, Martyrs, and Myths: The Battle for the Rights of Transgender Athletes,” centered around Minnesota’s struggle to determine how to handle trans athletes. But the research remains relevant whenever these sorts of controversies arise — which, sadly, is pretty often.

The argument goes like this: Because cisgender (or those who identify with the gender assigned to them at birth) boys and men are typically stronger and faster than cisgender girls and women, transgender girls and women should have to compete against cisgender boys and men.

But this argument leaves out the important fact that trans girls and women are not the same as cis boys and men, especially trans girls and women who’ve undergone hormone replacement therapy.

In 1976, a trans tennis player by the name of Reneé Richards wanted to compete in the women’s division at the U.S. Open. At the time, a number of people argued that she had an unfair advantage and would dominate the women’s circuit.

A quick look at the stats shows that’s not the case. Prior to her transition, Richards competed in the men’s division, where she was fairly mediocre (two wins, five losses). Post-transition, competing against women, she was … also fairly mediocre (66 wins, 110 losses).

Since then, a handful of openly trans athletes have surfaced, almost all with the same “unfair advantage” bogeyman attached to them. Trans mixed martial arts fighter Fallon Fox was never as dominant as people warned (to date, she has a career record of four wins and one loss), never making it to the UFC. In fact, in Fox’s only fight against a fighter who would eventually compete in the UFC, she was knocked out in the third round.

There are no trans LeBron Jameses dominating the WNBA or trans Cristiano Ronaldos racking up Women’s World Cup victories. There’s a good reason for that: Despite concerns, trans women really don’t have an athletic advantage.

Hormones play a big role in determining what sort of advantage an athlete has — or doesn’t have.

“Research suggests that androgen deprivation and cross sex hormone treatment in male-to-female transsexuals reduces muscle mass,” said Dr. Eric Vilain, professor and director of the Center for Gender-Based Biology and Chief Medical Genetics Department of Pediatrics at UCLA in a 2010 report. “Accordingly, one year of hormone therapy is an appropriate transitional time before a male-to-female student-athlete competes on a women’s team.”

In other words, after about a year on hormones, pretty much any advantage a trans woman might have had will be wiped out.

This is why an increasing number of entities are establishing reasonable rules when it comes to determining a trans athlete’s eligibility. The NCAA and International Olympic Committee both require that trans women undergo hormone replacement therapy before competing in women’s divisions.

Anti-trans policies aimed at trans women often wind up creating situations where actual advantages exist — for trans men.

In both 2017 and 2018, high school wrestler Mack Beggs took home the state championship in the girls division. Many say Beggs had an unfair advantage, and they’re absolutely right: Beggs is a trans boy who takes testosterone to treat his gender dysphoria. He wanted to compete against other boys, but a Texas state rule says that athletes must compete against the gender listed on their birth certificate.

Beggs was left with an impossible decision: compete against girls, end medical treatment, or quit the sport he loves. He chose to compete. After all, it’s not his fault that ridiculous rules forced him into a division where he doesn’t belong, and he really shouldn’t have to stop his medical treatment or quit a sport just because of it. Trans athlete Chris Mosier came to Beggs’ defense on Twitter.

Mack Beggs is a just kid who wants to compete in the sport he loves. Texas gave him 2 options: wrestle with girls or quit. He wrestles.

Mack Beggs is a just kid who wants to compete in the sport he loves. Texas gave him 2 options: wrestle with girls or quit. He wrestles.

— The Chris Mosier (@The Chris Mosier)
1488045123

Originally, The Federalist, a hard-right anti-trans blog argued that Beggs should compete against other boys — because they thought he was a trans girl (emphasis mine):

“There’s also a distinct athletic advantage for men who transition to women and play on high school and collegiate teams. It’s so clear one would have to be blind not to see how fraudulent this is, given men’s innately greater physical strength compared to women. Transgender male-to-female boy Mack Beggs made waves earlier this year because he won two girls’ wrestling championships in Texas. It’s easy to see why, as a person born male, complete with the testosterone and build of a biological boy, he might have an advantage over female competitors in wrestling.”

Once they realized they’d accidentally made the point advocates for trans rights had been making, the site quickly tried to revamp its argument, saying it wasn’t about “innate” characteristics at all, but the advantage or lack thereof that hormone replacement therapy offers:

“There’s also a distinct athletic advantage for men who transition to women and play on high school and collegiate teams. It’s so clear one would have to be blind not to see how fraudulent this is, given men’s innately greater physical strength compared to women. Female-to-male transgender Mack Beggs made waves earlier this year because she won two girls’ wrestling championships in Texas while taking testosterone. It’s easy to see why testosterone injections might give someone an advantage over female competitors in wrestling.”

(Again, emphasis mine up there. Also, a note that the Federalist’s style guide appears to call for the intentional misgendering of trans people, which is why Beggs is referred to as “she” here.)

In other words, many of those who make these types of arguments against trans people competing in sports clearly aren’t doing so in good faith.

As for the Boston Marathon, those worried about trans women dominating the women’s division will be relieved to know that no, a trans woman did not win.

Yet another false alarm in the never-ending quest to “chicken little” the oncoming trans-athlete-apocalypse. In all seriousness, though, huge congrats to Desi Linden, who, while not trans, is an amazing athlete and the winner of the 2018 Boston Marathon.

This article originally appeared on 4.17.19

This one’s for the girls who know you don’t have to chose between sparkles and sports.

For too long, girls have been sent the message that they have to be either/or. You’re either a girly-girl or a tomboy. You’re either into sparkly princesses or sports practices. From the early days of childhood, we’re told in bold and subtle ways to squeeze ourselves into separate boxes.

But those boxes are bullspit, and most of us know it. Girls don’t have to choose between feeling beautiful and being badass. We can be both at the same time.

Perhaps that’s why a portrait shoot shared by HMP Couture Imagery showing girls dressed up in fancy dresses and sports equipment has gone insanely viral. The shoot is called “Because you can do it all,” and in just a few days it has already been shared 175,000+ times.

The woman who photographed the shoot says a comment from a fellow mom sparked the idea.

Heather Mitchell, the photographer from Alabama who runs HMP Couture Imagery, told Upworthy how the portrait shoot came about.

“My youngest daughter is 8 and she is trying softball this year for the first time,” said Mitchell. “We were at practice a few weeks ago and I was talking with the other moms. I was saying that I hoped Paislee learned to love the game because she was athletic. One of the moms told me that she was not athletic, that she was a girly-girl.”

“I couldn’t sleep that night,” Mitchell continued. “All I could think was, ‘Why does she have to choose?’ I played every sport my school offered and wore lipstick to every game. So the next day we went to the studio and created her shot.”

Mitchell says she only spent about three minutes shooting because she knew exactly what she wanted to create. After she posted the photos of Paislee to her personal Facebook page, she got a ton of requests from other parents for the same kind of shoot. After adding two days to the schedule, they sold out in an hour—and the requests just keep on coming.

Mitchell hopes that girls see these photos and realize that they don’t have to choose one identity.

The idea that crinoline and cleats can’t exist in the same mental space is silly, but common. Girls (and boys for that matter) can love pretty things and kick butt at sports. They don’t have to be one thing or the other.

“My parent taught me that I could be anything I wanted growing up,” Mitchell told Upworthy. “I didn’t realize till I was much older that everyone is not that blessed.”

These photos are an excellent reminder to questions our assumptions and not place unnecessary limits on anyone—and an empowering example for girls who don’t fit neatly into a socially constructed box.

“I hope that every little girl that sees this series can see that there is no box,” says Mitchell. “Whatever their dreams are they can achieve.”

Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham continues to unload on her old boss, Donald Trump, this time by admitting to the ladies of The View that her own family was ashamed she worked for the twice-impeached president.

Grisham was serving as a guest-host on a recent episode of the daytime talk show when the topic of Florida’s discriminatory “Don’t Say Gay” bill came up. The law seeks to censor classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity and it follows a host of other restrictions right-wing lawmakers are trying to enforce on students like the banning of certain books and teaching Critical Race Theory. Naturally, the women of The View were outraged over the proposed law with Goldberg at one time questioning the point of passing this new bill.

“How about kids who have same-sex parents?” Goldberg asked. “If you’re the child of a same-sex couple, you can’t talk about your weekend with your folks, all the stuff you all did. I don’t understand the point. I don’t understand making kids’ lives harder than they need to be.”

When host Sunny Hostin suggested the bill, and others like it were the result of Trump’s fondness for hate speech and his prejudices against minorities, Grisham piped in.

After working for both Donald and Melania Trump, under a right-wing White House regime that rolled back protections against discrimination in school, the workplace, the military, and healthcare for the LGBTQ+ community, Grisham shared how her own gay teenager felt about her former boss.

“This one is personal to me,” Grisham began. “You bring up a great point. Because of my former boss. I have a 14-year-old son who is gay. Recently came out as gay. I have his permission to talk about this. He didn’t want to tell his friends where I worked. He was ashamed of where I worked, rightfully so, but also the fact that there’s this ‘don’t say gay’ slogan out there, it’s making children feel different.”

She ended her speech by admitting, “It’s creating a problem where I don’t think there is [one].”

(Via Mediaite)

Things that are cool: murder mysteries. Things that are deeply uncool: cruise ships. And yet if you combine the two, both somehow become even better. One of the finest episodes of Columbo is set on a cruise ship (and features Peter Falk in a top shelf Hawaiian shirt). So is Career Opportunities in Murder and Mayhem, a newly announced Hulu show with a long title but a simple premise: Mandy Patinkin solves a murder on a cruise ship.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, showrunners Mike Weiss and Heidi Cole McAdams, of the dearly departed Stumptown, have been given the go for a 10-episode series in which the Homecoming and Broadway vet tools around one of the worst ways to vacation, solving a homicide. Here’s the premise, as per Hulu:

“How do you solve a murder in a post-fact world? Especially when sailing the Mediterranean on an ocean liner filled with the wealthy and powerful. Everyone on board is hiding something … but is one of them a killer? That’s what the World’s Once Greatest Detective, Rufus Cotesworth (Patinkin), and his protégée aim to discover. The truth at all cost.”

Murder mysteries are happily back in vogue. Kenneth Branagh (and his epic mustache) keeps making and starring in Hercule Poirot movies. Daniel Craig may or may not be trying out different accents in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out films. And Hulu already has a delightful whodunnit in Only Murders in the Building. So here’s another! As for cruise ships, you can, uh, always watch The Love Boat channel on Pluto. But that program almost never has Tony winners solving murders.

(Via THR)

The Golden State Warriors have not had the services of their 2020 lottery pick all season. After an up-and-down rookie campaign got cut short due to a knee injury, James Wiseman has spent this season on the sideline as he’s tried to recover from surgery on a torn meniscus. It was expected that he would have been able to play by now, but Wiseman needed to undergo another procedure in December to clean some things up.

In a bit of good news for the young center, Golden State announced on Tuesday afternoon that Wiseman’s progressed to a point that he’s able to play live basketball again. While he’ll have to wait to suit up for the Warriors, Wiseman will join the team’s G League affiliate to play games on Thursday and Sunday.

Wiseman, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, averaged 11.5 points and 5.8 rebounds in 21.4 minutes per game last year, and started 27 of the 39 contests in which he appeared. His debut cannot come soon enough for the struggling Warriors, as the team has dropped nine of its last 11 games and fallen out of the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference.

This is not the only boost the Warriors are expected to get in the coming days, as Draymond Green announced he’s targeting a return from a back injury on March 14.

YoungBoy Never Broke Again — aka NBA YoungBoy — is soon to go on trial on federal gun charges. The Baton Rouge artist was arrested along with 15 others in 2020 on suspicion of possession of stolen firearms and distributing drugs, and today, Rolling Stone reports that the trial date has been set for May 16 in Louisiana’s Middle District. The rapper entered a preliminary plea of “not guilty” to charges of possession of an unregistered firearm by a felon and has been on house arrest since October.

However, he’s got reason to be optimistic about the outcome of the trial. At the end of February, US District Court Chief Judge Shelly Dick ruled that video evidence of YoungBoy brandishing the firearms in question was invalid due to an unlawful search of the SD card containing it. While an anonymous 911 call about men brandishing guns prompted police to break up what was reported as a rap video shoot in September 2020, the warrant only mentioned the video, while the warrant made no mentions of the SD cards or video equipment.

YoungBoy’s defense filed a motion to have the evidence suppressed, which Dick granted after deeming the warrant — and the resulting search that turned up the would-be incriminating evidence — invalid. The rapper’s defense lawyer Drew Findling said of the upcoming trial, “We’re 100 percent convinced of his innocence, and now we have to continue to evaluate our strategy. The unconstitutionality of law enforcement was clearly evident to the court and resulted in a slew of evidence being thrown out. We’re looking forward to going to court.”

YoungBoy Never Broke Again is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Giancarlo Esposito has been stealing movies and shows for over 40 years. You may remember the actor and vaccine cheerleader as Buggin’ Out from Do the Right Thing, but did you know he was on three episodes of Miami Vice? Or that he spent two years on early ‘80s Guiding Light? Alas, the acclaimed actor didn’t become a household name until Breaking Bad, just over a decade ago. Since then he’s been a screen staple, even bringing Gus Fring back on Better Call Saul. Well, it appears he may be employed by AMC for the rest of his days.

As per Entertainment Weekly, Esposito is joining The Driver, an adaptation of a British limited series from 2014. Esposito has usually been cast in meaty supporting roles, but this time he gets to take on the lead. He’ll be playing an “everyman” taxi driver whose life, according to EW, “is forever changed when he crosses paths with a New Orleans-based Zimbabwean gangster who is known to exploit undocumented immigrants at various southern ports in the U.S.” Showrunner Theo Travers (Billions) called it a “high-voltage, dark identity quest for an everyman trying to find renewed purpose in his life.”

AMC isn’t the only place with Esposito on the company payroll. He can also be seen on Disney+ (The Mandalorian), Amazon (The Boys), Netflix (the forthcoming heist drama Jigsaw), and Epix (the also forthcoming crime drama Godfather of Harlem, starring Forest Whittaker).

Meanwhile, anyone who wants to stream the original version of The Driver can do so on Filmrise. And of course, you can still see more Gus Fring in the batch of Better Call Saul episodes that debut on April 18.

(Via EW)

Looks like Florence Pugh might be coming to Arrakis. After becoming a new and well-received fixture in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pugh is in talks to join the cast of Dune: Part 2, which director Denis Villeneuve is planning to shoot this summer. However, there are a lot of variables in the air. For starters, Pugh’s involvement is contingent upon several factors, including her availability and a final look at the script. The sequel is also scheduled to shoot in Hungary, which might not be feasible due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Hungary shares a border with Ukraine.) If that situation continues or makes a turn for the worst, it may impact the production.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

Pugh is being courted to play Princess Irulan, the daughter of the Emperor. Several obstacles remain, however, for any deal. The script is still being written, and thus the actress is said to be waiting for the latest draft. Also, scheduling poses another hurdle. Legendary is hoping to begin shooting this summer, but Pugh is also in contention for the Madonna biopic, and it is unclear when that would go, should she nab that role.

Pugh has been on the short list of actresses vying to star in the Madonna biopic, which reportedly has involved a grueling audition process. The other actresses include Julia Garner (Inventing Anna), Alexa Demie (Euphoria), Odessa Young (Mothering Sunday), and Emma Laird (Mayor of Kingstown). Should Pugh snag the coveted role after such an intense casting process, it will probably be a no-brainer to play Madonna over the Dune sequel. But, hey, maybe she can do both? We are not in the business of doubting Florence Pugh.

Dune: Part 2 is scheduled to hit theaters on October 20, 2023.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)