Category: Worldwide

The current GOP boasts a lot of hissable figures, but few step in it as often as Marco Rubio. The Florida senator has had a busy December: He was called a hypocrite for pearl-clutching over a Biden staffer using an epithet to describe his party members, and he was roasted for being among the first to receive the new vaccine despite months of playing down the pandemic — ahead of all the essential workers whose lives he’s helped put in jeopardy. Speaking of which, on Sunday he thought it was a smart move to attack Dr. Anthony Fauci. And once again, he got dragged.

Rubio started by claiming, baselessly, that Dr. Fauci “lied about masks.” He also asserted that he has “been distorting the level of vaccination needed for herd immunity.” He concluded that many “in elite bubbles believe the American public doesn’t know ‘what’s good for them’ so they need to be tricked into ‘doing the right thing.’”

For starters, masks have been proven to slow the spread; one need only look at stats in places that have worn them widely versus ones that have not. For another, it’s pretty clear that American public does not “know what’s good for them.” Again, the places that have not taken it seriously, where people have disregarded medical advice and put their own comfort above safety, have and continue to reap the consequences.

But Rubio is gonna Rubio, and when he had the cajones to come after the person who helped saved his life, people called him out. Again.

Some pointed out that Rubio will attack Dr. Fauci but not the guy who used to insult him on the regular.

Of course, Rubio is not the only person in his party doing a bad job of stopping the spread.

We’re less than a week before the end of 2020, but we’ll bet Rubio will embarrass himself at least one more time before January comes.

Young Thug has become one of today’s most influential acts in hip-hop, and when his rise began, the Atlanta rapper tried to show love to someone who influenced him. That someone was Lil Wayne. When Thug signed to Cash Money Records, it was in the midst of Wayne’s beef with the label’s founder, Birdman, who had blocked his album Tha Carter V from being released. Thug then named his 2015 album Barter 6 — a reference to the blocked album. But Wayne was not amused. However, the two rappers are now finally on good terms. Thug reflected on his tension with Wayne during a recent appearance on the podcast Million Dollars Worth of Game.

Gillie Da King, the podcast’s host, asked Thug about his first interactions with Wayne. “The first day that n**** didn’t goddamn dap me up,” he said. “Tried me. That n**** tried my pimping… My motherf*cking feet hurt n****, cause I’m a real stepper. Don’t do me like that.” Thug also recalled another moment, when Wayne gave him a dispassionate handshake, implying that he would not shake his hand in the future if things did not change.

Their differences continued into summer 2019, when Thug claimed they didn’t see eye to eye because Wayne was so “spoiled.” Thug and Wayne recently collaborated on the latter’s new mixtape No Ceilings 3 on a remix of Travis Scott’s “Out West.”

You can watch a clip from the Million Dollars Worth of Game podcast episode above.

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

Trae Young and Grayson Allen really do not like each other. The Hawks star and Grizzlies reserve guard have been going at it for three years, dating back to a scuffle at Utah Summer League, of all places, in 2018.

This preseason, the Hawks and Grizzlies met in the preseason and Young, somewhat inexplicably, shoved Allen to the ground and earned himself a technical for his actions. On Saturday, the two teams met in a game that counts in the regular season and, once again, Young and Allen became entangled during the game, although this time neither got technicals and, for many, it wasn’t even something that registered during live action.

However, Young was aware of it and took to Twitter after the game to call out what he felt was a dirty play by Allen trying to trip him on the perimeter. Allen responded with some not so subtle sarcasm about how much that must’ve hurt Young, and the NBA’s strangest feud continues to pick up steam.

Allen wasn’t alone in responding, as Jaren Jackson Jr. took up for his teammate on Twitter as well.

This is far from the first incident involving Grayson Allen that is questionable, and his history certainly doesn’t afford him the benefit of the doubt in much of any situation. Trying to trip someone, while it might not result in much like in this instance, could lead to an injury and Allen’s history of tripping people is fairly extensive.

As for Young, this is probably something he’ll learn as his career progresses, but inviting beef with a player like Allen when you are supposed to be on the superstar tier is not always the wisest. I get the frustration, but this might be one to just send along to the league and suggest they keep their eyes out for this in the future from Allen. In any case, Young and the Hawks got the last laugh with a 122-112 win and their next meeting won’t be until at least March in the second half of the season, with the league having yet to release that portion of the schedule.

The Christmas season has gifted Cardi B with one less legal battle to deal with: She recently settled a $30 million lawsuit with her former manager. According to documents obtained by AllHipHop, the case between the Bronx rapper and Klenord “Shaft” Raphael, who runs World Star Marketing Group, was dismissed with prejudice by a judge after both parties came to an agreement.

Cardi’s battle began back in April 2018 when Raphael filed a $10 million breach of contract lawsuit that claimed the Invasion Of Privacy rapper dismissed an agreement they had in order to sign with Quality Control Management. Raphael also claimed that he discovered Cardi and is responsible for her big break, saying he helped her land a spot on Love & Hip Hop and connected her with the publishers and producers behind her breakout single “Bodak Yellow.”

In response, Cardi filed a $30 million counterclaim in June 2019, alleging that Raphael breached their contract by failing to give her an accurate account of her earnings, all while taking a bigger cut from them than what was contractually agreed upon. She also claimed that she signed the agreement without a lawyer present.

Earlier this year, Cardi revealed that the lawsuit prevented millions in royalties from coming her way. “According to my lawyers a little but more then that but it can’t be touch till my litigation is over,” she wrote in the tweet. “Its just can’t be touch till we solve the dispute. But when that fat ass check hit my account all at once it’s gonna be lit. Thats why I never trip cause it’s there.” Now that the matter is resolved, it appears Cardi will finally get her hands on the cold hard cash.

(via AllHipHop)

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

This year has been a real one, and it ain’t over yet. As of this writing, there’s less than a week before 2020 gives way to a hopefully far, far superior 2021. But there’s still plenty of time for some more random, unpleasant surprises. Indeed, on Sunday people hanging out on Twitter saw some curious things trending. There was Hilaria Baldwin, who had been accused of pretending to be Spanish. And then there was something far, far worse: something called “Super Gonorrhea.” And it wasn’t some kind of joke: There’s a new, mutant strain of the venereal disease, and sure enough it was made possible by COVID-19.

As per The Sun, the World Health Organization reported that the overuse of antibiotics to treat the coronavirus — sometimes unnecessarily — has caused the sexually transmitted infection to find a new way to thrive. And thrive it has: Case numbers, which usually average 90 million globally per year, are up 17%. What’s more, “super gonorrhea” is well-named, with The Sun reporting that it “can lead to a five-fold increase of HIV transmission and eye infections that may lead to blindness.”

One reason the new strain is exploding is because most people aren’t going to the hospital unless they come down with COVID-19 symptoms. Instead they’re self-medicating, meaning, a WHO spokesperson told The Sun, that doctors aren’t catching this disease in time. And to make matters worse, “super gonorrhea” is extremely resistant to antibiotics.

So that’s fun! And when faced with cartoonishly, creatively bad news like this, people on Twitter responded with gallows humor. Because what else can one do? (Apart from try not to catch it.)

Then again, some people weren’t worried about catching a sexually transmitted infection in this socially distanced hellscape.

(Via The Sun)

Lionel Messi opted to stay with Barcelona this year after very publicly flirting with a move away from the Nou Camp. Ultimately, clubs like Manchester City and PSG were unable to secure his services, although this does not mean Messi’s future is with Barcelona, because he could still leave at the end of this campaign.

It is again speculated that clubs like City and PSG will jockey for his services should he decide to seek greener pastures. As for farther down the road, Messi gave a glimpse into what he might like to do in an interview with journalist Jordi Évole, and it involves a potential move to Major League Soccer.

Messi explained that a dream of his has always been to one day make the jump to the United States. The Argentinian icon said that it’s possible this never happens, but made clear that it’s something he would like to do some day.

It must be said that this would not be in Messi’s immediate future or anything — he turns 34 before next season and still is capable of doing breathtaking things on a nightly basis in Europe, so there’s no rush for him to make the jump. Still, while MLS has done a ton of work to shake the retirement league distinction, a late-30s Lionel Messi would still be a draw unlike any other in the world, and while it’s impossible to know how he’ll age, it is very possible he’d be able to produce plenty of magic in the U.S.

The Dallas Mavericks continued their stay in Los Angeles after losing to the Lakers on Christmas with a tilt against the Clippers, and they bounced back from that loss to the champs in historic fashion.

At the half, the Mavericks led by fifty points, taking a 77-27 advantage into the break, which set a record for the largest halftime lead in NBA history. Luka Doncic led the way for Dallas with 18 points, seven rebounds, and four assists, as he dominated the first half, showing a little bit of everything to help the Mavs jump on the Clippers early and never relent.

Josh Richardson also had a sensational first half with 15 points, three rebounds, and a pair of assists, as Dallas simply couldn’t miss in the first half, overwhelming the Clippers.

In total, 10 players got on the board for the Mavs in the first half, as they shot 58 percent from the field and 45 percent from three as a team, with the highlight of the half coming courtesy of Willie Cauley-Stein.

L.A. was without Kawhi Leonard after his scary collision with Serge Ibaka on Christmas, but the absence of Leonard wasn’t enough of an explanation for how ragged they looked in the first half. The Clippers shot 24.3 percent from the field and were an abysmal 1-for-19 from three-point range as they simply were not up for the challenge on Sunday afternoon.

For a Dallas team that had gotten off to an 0-2 start with losses to the Suns and Lakers, this first half was something of a cleansing, as they shook off frustrations from the first two games and absolutely unloaded on the Clippers, who will almost assuredly drop their first game of the season.

When Hilaria Baldwin makes public appearances, she sometimes, though not always, does so with a Spanish accent. She even has a Spanish first name! But last week the former yoga instructor and wife of former Trump impersonator Alec Baldwin came under fire for, as one person on Twitter put it, “her decade long grift where she impersonates a Spanish person.” Now Baldwin has responded, explaining that she’s in fact a white woman born in Boston. And her name is actually Hillary.

In a seven-minute video posted to Instagram, Baldwin tried to set a pretty confusing story straight. “I’ve seen chatter online questioning my identity and culture,” she wrote in the caption:

“This is something I take very seriously,and for those who are asking— I’ll reiterate my story, as I’ve done many times before. I was born in Boston and grew up spending time with my family between Massachusetts and Spain. My parents and sibling live in Spain and I chose to live here, in the USA. We celebrate both cultures in our home—Alec and I are raising our children bilingual, just as I was raised. This is very important to me. I understand that my story is a little different, but it is mine, and I’m very proud of it.”

Of course, Baldwin’s story does need some explaining. As Page Six noted, her bio on her agency’s speaker site claims that she was born on the Spanish island of Mallorca, as did the opening to a 2016 interview with Hola! Then there are her media appearances, in which she rocks a clear Spanish accent and even appeared to forget the English word for “cucumber.”

But after she got into a rift with Amy Schumer over a postpartum photo she took of her slim figure, Baldwin suddenly ditched the Spanish accent, sounding thoroughly American. And now we know why. In the wake of the tweet that outed her true origins, internet sleuths reached out to former classmates, one of whom said, “I went to high school with her. Genuinely lovely person, I recall, but fully a white girl from Cambridge.” Another said, “I went to high school with her. She was perfectly nice and serious about ballroom dancing. Her name was indeed Hillary Hayward-Thomas and she did not have her current accent.”

That Baldwin spent much of her childhood in Spain appears to be true, and her passion for the culture extends to raising her and Alec’s children bilingual. In the video she talks about “consolidating” her two identities, saying, “In this country I would use the name Hillary. In Spain, I would use the name Hilaria. I identify more as Hilaria because that’s what my family calls me.”

She added, “Yes, I am a white girl … Europe has a lot of white people in there. My family is white. Ethnically, I am a mix of many many many things,” she said. “Culturally, I grew up with two cultures. So it’s really as simple as that.” Or maybe not that simple. In any case, some people found something, if you will, romantic about her marriage to Alec Baldwin.

(Via Page Six)

The Cleveland Browns entered Sunday at 10-4 on the season and controlled their own destiny in the AFC playoff race. Wins in their last two games of the season against the Jets and the Steelers would lock them into a playoff spot, and, at the least, they needed one win in the last two to feel solid about their chances in tiebreaker situations.

Naturally, this meant disaster was destined to strike in Cleveland because, well, that’s just how things work with the Browns. Cleveland entered Sunday’s tilt with the lowly Jets as 6.5-point favorites, with the number that small in large part due to the team being without pretty much their entire wide receiver room due to COVID-19 protocols. The passing game was expected to struggle, but it was the woeful effort of the running game and the defense that doomed the Browns in New Jersey on Sunday.

The Browns rushed for just 45 yards against the Jets in a game that they desperately needed to be able to control that portion of the game. The defense didn’t help a lot either, as they allowed 23 points to the Jets, including giving up a trick play TD in the first quarter.

However, the real disaster was the end of game execution from Baker Mayfield and the Browns offense, as Cleveland’s QB fumbled twice on the final two drives of the game when the Browns needed a TD to either take the lead or tie the game. The first was simply Mayfield holding it a touch too long and not feeling the backside pressure that got home and set New York up in field goal range while up 20-16.

The second was even worse, as the Browns had marched deep in Jets territory and faced a 4th and inches, calling a quarterback sneak that, somehow, Mayfield fumbled as he got hit trying to push forward.

Being inside the last two minutes of the game, the fumble could not be advanced by Kareem Hunt — only Mayfield could’ve scooped it and moved it forward — and the ball was moved back to the spot of the fumble which turned it over on downs and handed the Jets an unbelievable and improbable win.

It was really a disastrous result for both teams, as it locks the Jaguars into the No. 1 overall pick in the Draft (and gives them Trevor Lawrence) while the Jets fall to No. 2 with the win. For the Browns, it backs them up to 10-5 and likely needing a win over the rival Steelers next week to avoid what would be the abject disaster of starting a season 9-3 and still missing the playoffs in a year where there’s even an extra playoff spot.

Last week former child star-turned-far right personality Kirk Cameron came under fire for recklessly organizing Christmas carol gatherings in California, while the state was experiencing alarming spikes in COVID-19 cases. One of his critics was his Growing Pains sister Tracey Gold, who tweeted that she was “worried” about him. Now another sibling from the ’80s sitcom has come for him: Jeremy Miller, who played his young brother Ben Seaver.

“While I will always love my brother Kirk, I could not disagree more with his holding these maskless events at a time when safety and concern for others is an extreme priority,” Miller told Page Six. “I truly couldn’t be more disappointed in him.”

Previously, Gold took to Twitter to explain her own disappointment, writing, “As your more intelligent sister I want you to know that I disapprove. I’m worried about you brother AND your family. Wear a mask. Stay home. Sing later.”

Cameron organized at least two caroling outings during the month of December, asking people to defy lockdown rules so they could sing — one of the main things that spreads the virus that has plagued the world for the last year. Meanwhile, on Saturday L.A. county reported 706,448 new cases and a total of 9,438 deaths. Twenty percent of the 6,770 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 cases are in the ICU.

(Via EW)