Category: News

As far as must-have accessories go, there has been perhaps no more popular item than the Telfar bag. Although the brand insists on inclusivity in direct contradiction to industry conventions, it has still been practically impossible to secure one of its ubiquitous shopping bags due to its purposely low price point (they max out at around $250, as compared to luxury brands, which can run up to five figures) and the borderline insane demand for it. Anytime it goes on sale, the brand’s website is flooded with fans clamoring to get their hands on one, and they usually sell out in a matter of minutes.

Unfortunately for those who haven’t been able to get one yet, the Telfar shopping bag may reach an improbable new height of popularity thanks to the co-sign of the latest celebrity to be seen sporting one out and about. A paparazzi shot of Beyonce walking around Brooklyn with a bag has gone viral on Twitter, shooting “Telfar” to the top of the trending topics list and leaving fans lamenting their chances of ever being able to purchase one now that the queen of marketing impossible-to-get items (shout-out to Ivy Park!) has put her unofficial stamp on the hot-ticket item.

Ironically, many of the tweets acknowledge that the price point is likely to remain unchanged but the furor has led to many fans realizing that the demand will make them harder to get than ever. Meanwhile, those who already have the bag are rejoicing at having something in common with the pop music queen. Check out more responses below.

After Marvel dropped the newest trailer for What If…?, it’s next series headed to Disney+ in August, fans couldn’t help but notice Vision popping up in the preview, and well, they have some concerns. Namely, it sure looks like the android Avengers is, once again, having the Mind Stone ripped from his head, which left him for dead (twice) in Avengers: Infinity War. Considering he also “died” in the WandaVision finale, it’s completely understandable that Marvel fans are bracing themselves to watch Vision bite the big one for the third time in a row.

However, there does appear to be a glimmer of hope hiding in the official poster for Marvel’s What If…?, which appears to show Vision wearing Ultron’s armor with… all six Infinity Stones planted in his chest? If that’s the case, it seems the person removing the Mind Stone from Vision’s head is most likely Vision.

Released on Thursday, the new Marvel’s What If…? trailer featured the return of Robert Downey Jr. who voices Tony Stark in the animated series. It also features the late Chadwick Boseman’s final MCU role, as he recorded his lines as an alternate reality version of Star-Lord shortly before his tragic death last year. The series will also feature episodes centered around Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and Peggy Carter who will see their MCU realities drastically altered.

Marvel’s What If…? starts streaming August 11 on Disney+.

Gossip Girl: Season 1 Premiere (HBO Max series) — The original CW series helped to launch the careers of Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Sebastian Stan, and Penn Badgley (and the latter is now portraying an amped-up version of the same character on Netflix’s You). HBO Max is now ready to welcome another crop of mostly unknown faces playing wealthy, privileged teens who find themselves socially surveilled and at the mercy of the “Gossip Girl” narrator, who’s still voiced by Kristen Bell. Showrunner Josh Safran has promised that this reboot series will be much more socially conscious than the original, and that the teens will “take Ubers, not limos.” If you’re wondering how well this premise will update for 2021, that’s one of the reasons why this show’s worth a whirl. XOXO?

Looney Tunes Cartoons: Season 2 (HBO Max series) — This batch of ten new episodes is more than guaranteed to put a grin on your face, given that Daffy will act as an “emotional support duck” to Porky, apparently. Also expect to see most of the gang, including Tweety, Sylvester, Elmer, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, Marvin the Martian, and Taz. However, one should not expect to see the cancelled stalker-skunk named Pepe Le Pew, which is just fine.

Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness: Season 1 (Netflix series) — Based upon the survival horror video games (and surely, you’ve seen at least a few of the films) comes this Netflix original anime series that follows up on 2017’s Resident Evil: Vendetta CGI film with more franchise entries apparently on the way.

Holey Moley 3D in 2D (ABC, 9:00pm) — This new season of holes (yes, that’s right) includes a Corny Hole, a North Pole on the Ho Ho Hole, and Holey Matrimony. These puns never get old for the contestants or the audience.

In case you missed this streaming pick from last Thursday:

LFG (HBO Max film) — This documentary film presents an unflinching look at the fight by U.S. women’s soccer team members (Megan Rapinoe, Jessica McDonald, Becky Sauerbrunn, Kelley O’Hara, Sam Mewis, and more) for equal pay. This battle takes a look behind the curtain of the 2019 class-action, gender discrimination lawsuit (filed against the U.S. Soccer Federation) mere months before the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Expect to see the legal fight coverage interspersed with transcendent athleticism while the documentary highlights how these women’s courage will hopefully lead to society-wide change that hasn’t been seen since Title IX.

The Minnesota Lynx are here. Riding high on a five-game winning streak that’s shown flashes of brilliance from Sylvia Fowles, Napheesa Collier, and Kayla McBride, it’s easy to buy stock in what the Lynx are doing. A 31-point blowout over the Phoenix Mercury, one-point win over the championship-favorite Las Vegas Aces, and six-point victory against the playoff-hopeful Dallas Wings is enough proof.

Sure, Minnesota stands just 10-9 due to a flurry of injuries and late arrivals, but the top of the WNBA has been proven beatable in the last week alone. The Connecticut Sun dropped to the historically bad Indiana Fever, the Aces lost to a Diana Taurasi-less Mercury team, and Seattle had scares against a pair of low-tier opponents.

Keep an eye on the Lynx, and in the meantime, let’s power rank all 12 teams:

1. Seattle Storm (15-4)

The Storm had a few close calls this week (a three-point win over the Atlanta Dream and late pull-away from the Los Angeles Sparks), but still edged out three wins in three games. By nature of the Aces losing to a Mercury team missing its most prolific scorer, Seattle owns the top spot for now, but it doesn’t feel convincing heading towards the Olympic break.

2. Las Vegas Aces (14-5)

The Aces were tormented by Brittney Griner in the post and stonewalled for the first four minutes of overtime in a nine-point loss to Phoenix. We’ll write that one off as a game that got away though, considering the team has won nine of its last 11 games.

3. Connecticut Sun (12-6)

It’s been a bit of a rough week for the teams at the top. The Sun losing to the then one-win Fever is … well, embarrassing. Jonquel Jones had, by far, her worst game of the season and nobody else stepped up. Watch out for the red-hot Minnesota Lynx. This could be their spot next week.

4. Minnesota Lynx (10-9)

After a rocky start, the Lynx are on fire. They look solid with Sylvia Fowles producing MVP-level nights alongside her Olympic teammate Napheesa Collier. Kayla McBride has also been on a tear, scoring 75 points on 27-for-39 shooting in her last three games. The Lynx can play big, small, and everything between. When Aerial Powers returns, this team could make even bigger waves.

5. Chicago Sky (10-9)

Though the Sky are much-improved with Candace Parker back in the rotation, they haven’t shown a level of consistent, elite play yet. A nine-point loss to the Wings on Friday didn’t help. Chicago could be a team that really benefits from a month break to regroup and return as the powerhouse we expect them to be.

6. Phoenix Mercury (8-9)

Brittney Griner has been spectacular this season and her shredding of the Aces showed why she’s such a problem for opposing defenses. Without Diana Taurasi in the lineup, Griner scored 33 points with 10 rebounds and five assists matched up against Liz Cambage. Phoenix is a scary single-elimination team.

7. New York Liberty (10-9)

We’re eagerly awaiting the return of Natasha Howard, but in the meantime, the Liberty are playing about as well as anyone could’ve reasonably hoped. Sabrina Ionescu’s finding her rhythm (28 points on 11-for-18 shooting in her last two games), Betnijah Laney is an All-Star, and Michaela Onyenwere is the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year. They’re in position for a playoff berth one year after posting the second-worst record in WNBA history.

8. Dallas Wings (9-11)

Despite a positive net rating, the Wings find themselves two games below .500 and in constant question over rotational roles and playing time. Four losses by four points or fewer stings. Still, they’ve got too much talent to miss the postseason this year. Hopefully, they can turn things around in the second half of the season.

9. Washington Mystics (7-10)

Mercifully, Natasha Cloud is set to return to play on Saturday for the most-injured team in the WNBA. We’re still awaiting Myisha Hines-Allen, Elena Delle Donne, and maybe Emma Meesseman (who is overseas) to re-join the Mystics. Even if the team drops this weekend’s game against the Sky, they can’t be too upset with their record all things considered. They could be a whole new team by August.

10. Atlanta Dream (6-11)

They’ve lost five of their last six games and star point guard Chennedy Carter is suspended “until further notice.” Yikes.

11. Los Angeles Sparks (6-12)

The Sparks may be the team most in need of the Olympic break after losing their fifth straight game on Wednesday. With all signs pointing to both Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike being healthy enough to compete in the Olympics, it looks like we can safely say they’ll both close out the season for the Sparks. That’s great news.

12. Indiana Fever (2-16)

I can’t figure out how they beat the Sun, but it happened. They’re still far and away the league’s worst team, but at least they can hang a “Made Jonquel Jones Shoot 29 Percent From The Field” banner from the rafters.

Just one day after Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared to acknowledge logic by offering a surprisingly rational warning to Trump supporters, she’s back on her B.S.

This time, instead of comparing Biden’s new strategy to get people vaccinated with a paramilitary group employed by Hitler to round up Jewish citizens during the Holocaust, she’s trivializing the death of George Floyd, equating his murder with the killing of Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt.

Greene went on Newsmax to primarily rant about tech companies and censorship after Trump filed a lawsuit against some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley for kicking him off social media following the January 6th insurrection. Babbitt of course came up since some Trump supporters — and even the former president himself — have pushed conspiracy theories regarding her death. Greene told host Greg Kelly that she’s actually been in contact with the attorney for Babbitt’s family and sides with them in their demands to know the name of the officer who shot Babbitt as she attempted to breach the House chamber where lawmakers were sheltering during the storming of the Capitol. And, if trying to doxx an officer who risked his life to keep Greene and her colleagues safe wasn’t enough, she then went on to compare Babbitt’s death to that of Floyd.

“If this country can demand justice for someone like George Floyd,” Greene said (via Mediaite), “then we can certainly demand justice for Ashli Babbitt and everyone deserves to know who killed her. We need to know who it is.”

Of course, Greene seems to be omitting key details in her wildly insulting correlation between Floyd and Babbitt. George Floyd was a Black man who died after former police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly 10 minutes all because a shop owner believed he’d paid with a counterfeit bill. Babbitt, an air force veteran, was part of the mob that launched an assault on Capitol Hill to stop lawmakers from certifying the results of a presidential election. Floyd tried to buy cigarettes, Babbitt tried to disrupt a democratic process. They are not the same.

Then again, this is the same person who compared wearing a piece of cloth over her face to the Holocaust.

(Via Mediaite)

Common sense suggests we should be helping people who are struggling financially, not shaming them. And that goes double for children, who are never responsible for their parents’ financial situations. However, in schools across the country, children are often stigmatized for their parents’ inability to pay for their lunches.

In New Jersey, students with lunch debt aren’t allowed to attend prom. In Pennsylvania, parents are threatened with being turned in to child protective services if they have outstanding lunch debt. In Rhode Island, students who have significant lunch debt are given jelly sandwiches instead of a hot lunch.

In other districts, children are given stamps on their hands that say, “I need lunch money.” In some school cafeterias, children’s lunches are thrown away in front of the entire cafeteria if they have lunch debt.

“When [lunch shaming] happens, it’s short-sighted,” Crystal FitzSimons, the director of school programs at the Food Research and Action Center, said in an interview with Popular Science. “Cafeterias should be positive experiences for all kids.”

via Nevada Department of Agriculture

While in some states children are shamed, others are working to create a level playing field where children aren’t called out for having lunch debt. Two years ago, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that guarantees students will receive state-funded lunches regardless of whether their parents or guardians have unpaid meal fees.

In some districts, all students are given the same cards to pay for their lunches so those who have debt or are on free lunch programs aren’t identifiable to other kids.

When children are stigmatized in the cafeteria it can affect their mental health, stress levels, and school work. “When we remove that stigma, it makes a big difference in kids’ lives,” Juliana Cohen, an adjunct assistant professor of nutrition studying school food programs at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told Popular Science.

The state of Minnesota is working to be on the right side of the lunch debt issue. State leaders are putting a halt to lunch shaming by issuing new rules for administrators to address school lunch debt.

The state recently passed a new education finance bill that says its schools are no longer allowed to withhold any meals, affix any pins or stickers to students, or throw away a child’s lunch.

“These are moments a child will never forget,” state Sen. Karin Housley, R-Stillwater, said in comments published by the Senate Republican Caucus. “Now that we have passed this critical language, it is my hope that no student will ever have to experience this traumatic shaming ever again.”

The state’s education Commissioner Heather Mueller agrees.

“We know that hunger can negatively impact a student’s ability to learn, and quite simply, no child deserves to be hungry — especially in our schools,” she said during a briefing on the bill. “Our lunchrooms are an extension of the classroom and set students up for academic success.”

One of the biggest roadblocks a school can put in front of its students is making learning a traumatizing experience. States such as Minnesota that put their students’ well-being first are a great example of how schools can align their educational priorities for student success.

A show all about time travel wouldn’t be complete without some good ol’ fashioned revisionist fun, and luckily for us Loki insists on having it. In the series first episode, Loki explains the resolution of the legendary D.B. Cooper heist with a bit of magic and Heimdall’s magic portals. While trailers made it seems that was the only crack the show would take at explaining an unsolved mystery, in this past episode the show writers decided to go at it once more and tackle the infamous mystery surrounding the USS Eldridge — also known as the Philadelphia experiment conspiracy.

For those of you not familiar with the USS Eldridge and its strange, urban legend, strap in because it’s a weird one. Constructed in the 1940s, the USS Eldridge was built to help the US transport both troops and supplies abroad during World War II. However, according to the legend, the most action it saw was actually during its construction. In 1956, 13 years after the Eldridge was first commissioned, a man named Carlos Miguel Allende claimed the ship had a mysterious past. According to Allende, on October 28, 1943 — as the U.S. Navy sat at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard — the USS Eldridge was the subject of an experiment in vehicle cloaking.

Allegedly, the ship was outfitted with generators that would render the ship invisible to enemy radars, however, when the generators were turned on, this ship was surrounded by a “green fog” and then disappeared. Now, while testimonies generally agree with the ship’s dramatic exit, there are several rumors regarding where it appeared. According to some, the USS Eldridge emerged 200 miles away in Norfolk, Virginia. Others claim it reappeared in the same spot or, more unusually, went back in time. However, while where the ship landed is up for debate, nearly all the reports provide grim details regarding what happened to the crew.

According to the reports, nearly all of the crew members aboard when the experiment took place wound up sick or mentally unstable upon their return — but that’s not the worst of it. Some testimonies said the members were severely burned or had their bodies melted and merged into the ship. To this day, however, the U.S. Navy denies any of this actually occurred, and it’s widely regarded as a hoax.

While the show’s fifth episode doesn’t delve all that deeply into exactly what happened to the USS Eldridge — after all, it’s a bit hard to take such a sharp detour in a series penultimate episode — what’s shown is indisputably a reference to the ship. The USS Eldridge makes its big appearance when Loki and his motley crew of counterparts await a deviant’s entry into the void so the team can get a better look at Alioth. As soon as the ship drops, Alioth makes their move, and attacks the crew members, horrifying and completely disintegrating them. Whether or not the ship was pruned or perhaps the military accidentally created their own version of a TemPad is left up for debate, but either way, it’s an interesting take on a pretty infamous event.

With only one episode left, we might be out of luck when it comes to seeing any more of these fun revisions, but with What If… only a few months out, we know it won’t be long until Marvel is back at it.

The Roots co-founder Black Thought has had a storied career in music. He’s consistently lauded as one of hip-hop’s best lyricists and has even appeared in a few films. Now, Black Thought takes a trip down his musical memory lane in his new memoir 7 Years.

The musician’s memoir is released in audiobook format exclusively through the platform Audible. The book details his career highs and lows and walks the listener through his experience founding The Roots and playing as part of the house band on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. On top of that, the entire audio book features an original score by Black Thought and even includes one of his first-ever freestyle raps.

In a statement on social media, Black Thought wrote that 7 Years is inspired by his commitment to continuously reinvent himself:

“It’s inspired by one of my life theories that every 7 years I should be actively working to become better creatively, emotionally, personally, and mentally as my body also changes and new cells replace the old. So in this piece of words and music I’m sharing some of these key important periods that have made me into the man I am today — with an original musical score that highlights the very first freestyle I ever wrote to our @theroots classics to performances of some of my more recent pieces.”

Listen to a preview of 7 Years below.

7 Years is available now through Audible. Get it here.

Ed Sheeran is the latest celebrity to guest on the wing-eating YouTube show “Hot Ones,” and his episode yielded some great anecdotes, like one about 50 Cent. Elsewhere during the show, he insisted that collaborator and Dave star Benny Blanco, despite his denial, peed in his hot tub so much that he needed to call somebody to address the issue.

The episode featured a segment where Sheeran answered questions submitted by Blanco via pre-taped videos. At ten minutes into the episode, Blanco starts, “For everyone who doesn’t know, me and Ed: real good friends. We went to a festival, stayed up all night, came back, got in a Jacuzzi together…” Sheeran then said over the video, “And he pissed in it. He did.”

Blanco continued, “And someone peed in the Jacuzzi. It was me, Ed, Ryan Tedder, maybe one other person. Ed has been convinced that I pissed in the Jacuzzi. Now, just for everyone around the world: I do piss in pools, but I don’t piss in Jacuzzis. I would never piss in a body of water that small. Ed, I need to know: Do you believe me or not?”

Sheeran responded:

“So he’s been going on about this for a while. It might be Tedder, it might be. But the thing is, Benny said to me, as he arrived at my house, [imitates Blanco] ‘I’m gonna pee in your pool.’ And I was like, ‘You’re not going in my f*cking pool, Benny, if you’re gonna pee… He’s like, [imitates Blanco] ‘I’m gonna pee in your pool.’ So, just never let him in the pool.

We went to a festival, Latitude Festival. We came back to my house and we’re sitting in the Jacuzzi. And then, like, a couple weeks later, I go to use it and it f*cking stinks. I get someone to check it out, the Jacuzzi people come and check it out. They said it had so much urine in it that it overflowed the system that, like… cleans urine. So, it is either Benny or Tedder. But, only one person told me that they would pee in my pool, and it was this c*nt.

Watch the full “Hot Ones” episode above.

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

Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O, the kings of the Jackass empire, were reportedly hospitalized on the second day of filming for Jackass 4 for a stunt that involved jumping “full-speed treadmill with band equipment,” including a “f*cking tuba.”

This would not be Steve-O’s only trip to the hospital in 2021.

“I bought a t-shirt cannon for Jackass 4,” the performer says in a video on his YouTube channel, “My Most Embarrassing Trip To The Emergency Room” (you can probably guess where this is going). “My idea was to fill it up with dog poop and have someone get shot in the face with it. But the director Jeff Tremaine didn’t the idea was really clever enough, so it didn’t happen.” At least not for Jackass 4. Steve-O went through with his “poo cannon” concept with the Nelk Boys, who have 6.6 million subscribers on YouTube. He was also the recipient of the turd blast. It was gross — and it turns out, dangerous!

“My ear canal is filled with dog sh*t and it came with such force that I’ve done serious damage to the middle of my ear. So I rush into the shower to try to flush it out, but I’m like, “I’m not OK, I need medical attention.’ Of course, first I got a haircut. Once I was all styling, I went to the urgent care.”

Steve-O’s tale continues in the video here (I will not embed it; only willing participants should have to see the thumbnail image), but my favorite part is that while he’s recalling his tale of poop-filled woe, he’s petting his chill dog. That dog knows his owner suffers for his art.

Jackass 4 comes out on October 22, the best movie day of the year.