Category: Worldwide

A mass shooting occurred on Tuesday in Uvalde, Texas when a gunman entered Robb Elementary School and killed — as of this writing — 18 children and three adults. It is the latest example of someone walking into a public space with a firearm in the United States and opening fire, and both LeBron James and Steve Kerr attempted to convey their thoughts about the urgency with which we need change.

Soon after people began learning about the tragedy, James took to Twitter to express his disgust in how this sort of thing can happen at schools before saying “there simply has to be change.”

Kerr, meanwhile, is in Texas for Game 4 of the Golden State Warriors’ Western Conference Finals series against the Dallas Mavericks. While it is hardly the first time that Kerr has expressed sadness and fury over this sort of incident, the Warriors’ coach once again made a passionate plea for some sort of response from elected officials in Washington, D.C. — in particular, Kerr called out Republican senators who have long served as an impediment to any sort of gun control legislation.

“We’ve had Asian churchgoers killed in southern California and now we have children murdered at school,” Kerr said. “When are we gonna do something? I’m tired, I’m so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there, I am so tired of the moments of silence. Enough. There’s 50 senators, right now, who refuse to vote on HR-8, which is a background check rule that the House passed a couple years ago. It’s been sitting there for two years. And there’s a reason they won’t vote on it: to hold onto power. So I ask you, Mitch McConnell, I ask all of you senators who refuse to do anything about the violence, and school shootings, and supermarket shootings, I ask you: Are you going to put your own desire for power ahead of the lives of our children, and our elderly, and our churchgoers? Because that’s what it looks like.”

Kerr’s opposing head coach tonight, Jason Kidd, read a statement prior to his pregame presser and said that the Mavericks have heavy hearts in the lead-up to Tuesday’s game.

Republicans say they love freedom of speech, but some freedoms they like more than others. They’ll ban books, even set them on fire (prompting a creative response from The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood). Then there’s the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which prohibits the mention of LGBTQIA+ issues in early grades. Indeed, when one high schooler tasked with giving a graduation speech was told he couldn’t use the word “gay” during his address, he found a clever way to circumvent the rules.

As per The Hill, Zander Moricz, the openly gay Class President at Pine View School in Florida’s Sarasota County, opted to substitute mentions of homosexuality with another of his attributes: his curly hair.

“I used to hate my curls,” Moricz told his fellow graduates. “I spent mornings and nights embarrassed of them trying desperately to straighten this part of who I am but the daily damage of trying to fix myself became too much to endure.”

He went on, talking about his curly hair as something he used to be ashamed of because it made him different from others. He then learned to be proud of his hair, and encouraged others to do the same, especially in the face of aversity and bigotry.

He also warned the crowd of the pain that will face future classes of Florida students with the controversial law in effect, saying,, “There are going to be so many kids with curly hair who need a comfmunity like Pine View, and they won’t have one.”

Moricz also pointed out how annoyed he was that he had to speak in code. “Do you think that I wanted it to be about this?” he thundered. “It needs to be about this for the thousands of curly haired kids who are going to be forced to speak like this for their entire lives as students.” He added, “Those who we give our power to are the reason I have to stand here and talk about my hair during my graduation speech.”

Days before the ceremony, Moricz — who is the youngest plaintiff in the lawsuit against the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — took to Twitter to reveal that his now-former principal warned him that if he referred to his activism or the aforementioned lawsuit during his speech, his mic would be cut off.

Luckily, everyone knew what he was referring to when he spoke about his hair. You can watch Moricz’s full speech in the video above.

(Via The Hill)

It’s been almost two years since Kanye West unsuccessfully ran for president during the 2020 election. His run was filled with controversial moments which include accusations that his campaign was secretly run by Republicans and reports that it violated fundraising practices. The rapper himself reportedly said that the run “cost him his marriage” to his now ex-wife Kim Kardashian. Well, it turns out that his campaign cost him more than his marriage. According to his committee, the run also cost him a few thousand dollars thanks to a fraud scheme that was executed against Kanye.

TMZ reports that Kanye’s campaign committee filed a letter with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday. In the letter, they allege that someone who had access to the campaign funds stole the money to pay off credit bills. The committee says someone who was not affiliated with the campaign took $3,999 in total through three separate transactions that were made between December 2021 and February 2022.

“It has been determined that the disbursement for $1474 on 12/9/21, $1280 on 2/8/22 and $1245 on 2/22/22 was an external fraud situation,” the letter reads according to Insider. “After investigating, it was determined that an individual not connected with the campaign accessed a campaign account to pay his own credit card.” The latter later adds that Kanye was not reimbursed by the First Bank of Wyoming, where the campaign’s account was held, for the allegedly stolen funds.

“The bank was unable to reverse the transactions at issue due to the way they were presented for payment,” the campaign wrote.

A couple of days ago, iconic rapper Eminem appeared on SNL, pulling the plug on Pete Davidson’s flow: “I would just stop. They all suck. Stop. It’s really bad,” he said. Today, he’s back with the announcement of an expanded version of his 2002 classic The Eminem Show, sharing on Twitter with the quip: “Well, if you want Shady, this is what I’ll give ya.” The tweet features an exciting teaser clip with some of the record’s songs. It arrives this Thursday, the 26th.

On the album’s 15th anniversary in 2017, he offered anniversary cassette packages. A handwritten note explained: “The concept for The Eminem Show was inspired by The Truman Show because my life felt like it was becoming a circus at that time and I felt like I was always being watched,” it read. “Basically Jim Carey wrote my album.”

Eminem also just teased a new song for the Elvis Presley biopic soundtrack. It’s a collaboration with CeeLo Green titled “The King And I,” and this information was also shared via a twitter with a teaser. The biopic arrives June 24 and has a great roster of artists: Austin Butler, Ann Nesby, Alton Mason, Chris Isaak, Denzel Curry, Doja Cat, Gary Clark Jr., Jack White, Lenesha Randolph, Jazmine Sullivan, Kacey Musgraves, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Les Greene, Måneskin, Nardo Wick, Paravi, PNAU, Rufus Thomas, Shonka Dukureh, Stevie Nicks, Swae Lee and Diplo, Tame Impala, and Yola.

You can view Eminem’s announcement about the upcoming expanded edition for The Eminem Show above.

On Tuesday, a gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 15 — 14 children and one teacher. It’s the most devastating school shooting since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 and it left a nation overrun by gun violence once again in shock, exacerbated by lawmakers’ perpetual inaction. Shortly after the tragedy, one of them took to the floor of the Senate to beg GOP leaders to help them do something, anything.

That lawmaker is Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who was previously a representative for the district that included Sandy Hook Elementary School. His voice cracking, he addressed his colleagues to finally spring into action.

“Sandy Hook will never, ever be the same,” Murphy told his colleagues. “This community in Texas will never, ever be the same. Why? Why are we here? If not to try to make sure that fewer schools and fewer communities go through what Sandy Hook has gone through. What Uvalde is going through.”

Instead of mere grandstanding, Murphy tried to reach across the aisle to effect real change.

“I am here on this floor to beg — to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues,” Murphy thundered. “Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely. I understand my Republican colleagues may not agree to everything I support, but there is a common denominator we can find. There is a place where we can achieve agreement…”

He added, “What are we doing? Why are we here? What are we doing?”

You can watch Murphy’s full, fiery speech in the video above.

(Via CBS News)

Another day in America and another shooting at a school has occurred. Early on Tuesday, an 18 year old suspect opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 14 students and one teacher. In a school whose student body is 90% Hispanic, it also raised obvious concerns as to whether this was a racially motivated shooting. Regardless, it’s yet another senseless act that shows the country’s inability to protect it’s children from horrific crimes like this while *at school.*

The New York Times reports that this is “the deadliest shooting at an elementary school since the one in Newtown, Conn., according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control.” The fact that we have other elementary school shootings to compare this one too is insane. It will once again bring the issue of gun control to the forefront of American politics and celebrities and prominent figures are beginning to share their thoughts on social media. Let’s face it, it takes influential voices to help enact change, and what happened today in Uvalde is nothing short of an injustice to children, their families, and more.

Among those sharing their words and sympathies on Twitter, Finneas made a statement that captures the sad reality of where we stand right now. “Anyone saying “now isn’t the time to talk about gun control” doesn’t care that kids got f*cking murdered today,” he tweeted.

He’s 100% right. And here’s hoping that if anything positive can come from yet another unthinkable, heinous act, it’s that the move towards stricter gun control in America gains more steam so this never happens again.

Warning: The below post contains spoilers for the midseason finale of Better Call Saul.

Late last year, Bob Odenkirk posted what he thought was a nice, innocuous picture of himself and actor Patrick Fabian. He wished his colleague a happy birthday. It was supposed to be a nice gesture. But eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that what he wound up doing, albeit inadvertently, was tease a massive spoiler for the shocking midseason finale of Better Call Saul that just aired. Now Odenkirk is owning up to the breach.

In the episode, Fabian’s character, Howard Hamlin, is shot and killed by Lalo Salamanca in Jimmy and Kim’s apartment. It’s clear that the photo Odenkirk posted in December was taken while they were shooting the episode. Fabian looks disheveled, his hair messed-up. There’s even stray traces of blood. It’s not an obvious spoiler, but it’s not hard to intimate that something bad would happen to his character.

Odenkirk re-posted the photo after the episode aired, wishing his friend well-wishes once again. When someone asked the actor if he posted it “just to mess with us,” he replied that he did not. “Well the truth can be told. I screwed up,” he wrote back. “I did not know you could see a little bit of make up that told story… my bad.

Fabian himself also addressed the photo in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. When asked about it, he jokingly feigned ignorance, then acknowledged that luckily they didn’t give the game completely away. “You know what? It didn’t really go anywhere,” Fabian said. “We just pretended there was nothing there, but I also had plenty of explanations for it as well. So I was glad it didn’t go any further than it did.”

Let there be a lesson here: If you’re going to post a birthday message with a friend, make sure you’re not accidentally revealing that the character they play on a hit TV show has been offed.

I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Inattentive Type about three years ago—I was a fully functioning adult, married with children before finding out that my brain worked a bit differently. Of course I’ve known that I functioned a bit differently than my friends since childhood. The signs were there early on, but in the ’80s diagnosing a girl with ADHD just wasn’t a thing that happened.

Much of the early criteria for ADHD was written based on how it presented in males, more specifically, white male children, and I was neither. Women like me are being diagnosed more and more lately and it’s likely because social media has connected us in a way that was lacking pre- doom scrolling days.

With the help of social media, women can connect with others who share the same symptoms that were once a source of shame. They can learn what testing to ask for and how to advocate for themselves while having an army of supporters that you’ve never met to encourage you along the way. A lot of women that are diagnosed later in life don’t want medication, they just want an answer. Finally having an answer is what nearly brought me to tears. I wasn’t lazy and forgetful because I didn’t care. I had a neurological disorder that severely impacted my ability to pay attention to detail and organize tasks from most important to least. Just having the answer was a game changer, but hearing that untreated ADHD can cause unchecked anxiety, which I had in spades, I decided to listen to my doctor and give medication a try.

About 30 minutes after my first pill I was actually able to sit still. My brain slowed down and thought one thing at a time. I was suddenly able to finish the tasks that I started in a few minutes instead of hours, or not getting done at all. I remember calling my older brother and crying into the phone telling him that for the first time in my life I was able to not only sit and create a list, but mark stuff off said list. The excitement over my new found executive functioning skills wrapped in a peach colored diamond shaped pill was short lived. For a week out of the month, the pill did nothing. My brain went back to ping ponging from idea to idea, subject to subject. Things for work went unfinished or were messily completed in a last minute hurry. It was beyond frustrating, and no one had an answer as to why my period affected my medication.

My psychiatrist at the time suggested that I was building up a tolerance, but I took “medication vacations” and really only took it during the work week. It wasn’t until I reached out in a group specifically for moms with ADHD out of sheer exasperation that I got answers. Comment after comment were women saying, “my meds don’t work when I’m on my period either.” So many women didn’t have an answer as to why, it was just something that they’ve accepted that comes along with being a woman with ADHD. A week out of the month, your medication that literally helps you function is essentially reduced to being a Tic-Tac. It has no effect, and the symptoms of ADHD are cranked up to 100 that week. It was the most fascinating, bizarre and infuriating revelation. Why isn’t this talked about more?

It seems that women are left to either struggle with thinking they’ve lost their minds or that their medication needs to be increased, when a lot of the time neither is true. In fact, after doing a bit of research I found a few articles written about the effects of estrogen on ADHD symptoms, but had difficulty finding one that was peer reviewed. Most articles were written by therapists and ADHD coaches that have been doing their own research into the matter to help their clients that menstruate.

One of the few peer reviewed articles found was by Chris Iliades, MD and peer reviewed by Lindsey Marcellin, MD, MPH. In the article, Iliades notes that “The hormone estrogen affects receptors in the brain that release the naturally occurring chemicals serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. When estrogen levels drop during the weeks before a menstrual period or during the years before menopause, so does the level of these brain chemicals.” He goes on to explain, “because symptoms of ADHD are affected by many of these same brain chemicals, it stands to reason that women with ADHD are more sensitive to estrogen.”

The breakdown of how these chemicals work in conjunction with estrogen, which fluctuates throughout your menstrual cycle, is indeed interesting. But why are articles highlighting this issue outliers? Why aren’t doctors who prescribe these medications more forthcoming with this information? It makes you wonder if doctors are aware at all or if the biological makeup of women and girls taking ADHD medication is an afterthought that medicine has to catch up with. If it is an afterthought, there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of menstruating people who would love more research done on this—taking a weeks long vacation from work and daily life isn’t feasible. Here’s hoping for more research and doctors like Chris Iliades to tell us what to expect when ADHD and periods meet.

Giving birth can be serene and magical, filled with swear words, death stares and some serious contemplation on why you thought having a baby would be a good idea. Preparing for birth is often meticulous; everything is planned out months in advance, bags are packed by the door and your favorite doctor or midwife is on speed dial. You worked hard to get things in place and everything should run as smoothly as a well oiled machine. But for one mom in Kentucky, that birth plan went out of the window.

Heather Skaats, 34, is no stranger to having babies and likely can tell a doctor a thing or two about how her deliveries are going to go after after six children. Heather was three weeks away from her due date for her seventh child when she started having light contractions. When in labor with her older children, the mom labored for hours so she was not terribly concerned when she started experiencing mild labor pains. Skaats told Today Parents, “I thought I wouldn’t have a baby in my arms until eight or ten hours later.”

Due to her history with her other labors lasting so long and her contractions being light, Heather decided to run some errands before it was time to call the midwife. The plan was for the seasoned mom to have a water birth at home, but baby had other ideas. While Skaats was driving her contractions intensified and she had to pull over. Now is a good time to note that all five of her other children were in the car, ages ranging from 2-13. Skaats’ other child, Leilah died of cancer in 2016 at the age of 4.

After pulling over and reassuring her kids that everything was OK, the mom got out of the car and squatted down when she felt her water break. Skaats said, “I put my hand down there and his head started coming out with his body,” she said. “I didn’t even have to push. It was so quick. I was on the phone with my husband, Nick, and 20 seconds later, I was like, ‘He’s here!’”

Heather was able to catch her son, who started crying right away. But the birth story doesn’t end there. Mom and baby had to make it back to the house with five other shell shocked but excited kids. She was able to wrap the baby in a blanket and drive the family back to the house while she held him close to her chest. Once Skaats made it home she delivered her placenta in the shower with the help of her 13-year-old daughter, Kaelynn. The midwife arrived shortly after.

As for how she remained calm throughout the whole unexpected ordeal, Heather said, “I think having home births in the past sort of taught me to trust my body. Knowing the process really helped.”

Currently the newest member of the Skaats clan doesn’t have a name but the parents are considering the names of the cross streets where he made his grand appearance, Wolf and Porter. No matter what name they choose, there’s no doubt the story behind his birth will be the talk of the town.

Jet packs and jet suits have been part of science fiction and fantasy fiction for a long time but who would’ve thought we could really be living like “The Jetsons” sooner rather than later? Paramedics in the UK have been trying out a jet suit to reach stranded explorers who have been injured in remote areas. The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) is testing out the flying jet suits invented by Richard Browning from Gravity Industries. Andy Mawson, the director of operations from GNAAS, hopes to have the technology fully up and running by the summer of 2022.

The jet suit has five mini engines: two built into both hand units, and one built into the backpack. It can reach up to 85 mph with a total flight time of 10 minutes. When speaking to BBC, Mawson said, “There’s still a lot to work out. Safety is key, and myself and the other paramedics training need to make sure we’re capable.” While it would be pretty cool to take a ride with a paramedic wearing a jet suit if your leg were injured, that’s not the purpose. Mawson explained, “What we’re really improving here with this equipment, is the time in which we get a highly qualified paramedic to the patient’s side, not getting the patient to the hospital.”

It would be a surreal experience for anyone to see their rescue team showing up over the horizon like “Iron Man.” It’s hard to believe that this will be a reality for some people in the very near future. Hopefully no one needs paramedics while exploring remote areas of the countryside but if you do, this sure would be an awesome story to tell your friends.