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Being an election worker is becoming an increasingly dangerous job nationwide — in Texas in particular. And Texas Secretary of State John Scott is pointing a finger for this alarming trend squarely in Alex Jones’ direction.

In a new interview with Texas Monthly, senior editor Michael Hardy chatted with Scott about a recent report from the Brennan Center for Justice, which determined that one in every six election workers has been threatened because of their job. And how one Texas county just lost three of its top election officials because of increasing unease they felt in their positions. “It’s a huge problem,” said Scott.

When Scott claimed not to understand the reason behind these worrying statistics, Hardy suggested that “Surely former President Trump’s repeated claims of a stolen election have something to do with it.” But Scott, a Republican, wasn’t ready to take the bait. As he sees it:

Any time the temperature gets turned up, it’s possible to have nuts making these statements. At least in our office, what I was told is that these threats long preceded the 2020 election. The Infowars guy [Alex Jones] has unleashed hell on our election people. This has been going on for many years. And I don’t want to give a free pass to people who are crazy enough to go out there and say they’re going to kill somebody because they’re doing their job. I don’t want to give them an excuse — “Oh, well, it’s because somebody said something.” No, that behavior is unacceptable under any scenario. Just because somebody said something, or they saw something on TV, that doesn’t excuse it.

Scott says he knows several colleagues who have begun carrying a gun to work for their own protection. And while he understands the reasoning behind it — “I’ve gotten death threats; my folks in the elections division have gotten death threats” — he also thinks it’s “absurd” that it has come to this. “This is insanity,” he said. “You can’t have people receiving death threats for doing their jobs.”

(Via Texas Monthly)

Following the school shooting in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas, Matthew McConaughey and his wife Camila Alves hopped on a flight to meet with the families who lost their loved ones in the tragedy. A lifelong supporter of the Second Amendment, the actor knew that something had to be done and threw himself into efforts to move the needle in Congress.

After penning a powerful op-ed calling for common sense “gun responsibility,” McConaughey met with leaders in Washington and gave a devastating speech at the White House. Surprisingly, McConaughey’s relentless efforts worked. Against all odds, he was able to broker talks across the aisle, which resulted in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that would “incentivize red-flag laws; enhance background checks, especially for those under twenty-one; crack down on straw purchases; and close the “boyfriend loophole,” among other provisions.”

However, the process to pass the bill left McConaughey even further disenchanted with the federal government. In a soul-baring essay for Esquire, the actor reflected on his experience from meeting with the families to dealing with the quagmire in Washington that seemingly had no interest in solving problems:

I learned just how frustrating politics can be. There’s often more arguing about where, how, and who started a fire than working together to put the damn thing out. It sometimes feels like politicians don’t really want solutions, because solutions would put them out of a job. Optics are often prized over substance—who gets the credit often takes precedence over whom that credit is serving, or how well. With a disparity between belief and action, it’s hard to be in the make-a-difference business if you’re only in the reelection business. I was told on more than two occasions that the best way to remain in power is to vote no on everything—and while I understand that the wheels of government are constitutionally engineered to spin slowly in the mud, I learned that some consider their political purpose to be holding the hose over the dirt. Our government has deficits to repair, and not just the monetary kind.

As McConaughey writes, “It seems that each party is so harmfully consumed by despising the opposition that they’ve become little more than counterpunchers—so focused on the parry and the party defense that they’ve become reactive by default. They’ve lost sight of their own values and vision, thereby ceding their power to the fringes. That’s a problem.”

The actor then made a bold proclamation about what can be done to fix Washington’s indifference to the lives of everyday Americans.

“That’s why it’s high time we take the megaphone back from the extremists who’ve been manufacturing these false fractures among us,” McConaughey writes. “They’ve been selling us soft porn at the pep rally for too long. It’s time to kick them off the port and starboard sides of the boat on which American democracy sails . . . or at least relegate them to mopping the deck.”

(Via Esquire)

Since TikTok’s rise in popularity, a few trending sounds on the app have become just as respected in the streets. Today’s Sessions artist is responsible for one of those hits transcending TikTok’s FYP.

Meet Philadelphia’s 2Rare. You may know him as the rapper who called out Drake for copying his dance music style and then popped up battling Drake in his video for “Sticky.” Or, you’re an OG fan who has known of 2Rare since he made a name for himself after gaining traction on TikTok with his remix of 112’s 1996 hit “Cupid.” 2Rare graces the bathroom set today performing the studio recording of the TikTok favorite, titled “Q-Pid,” originally released with Lil Durk. It’s a no-brainer that 2Rare brings his high energy and love for dance to his Sessions set, bringing the enthusiasm of the viral dance trend he created to a live performance.

Watch 2Rare perform “Q-Pid” for UPROXX Sessions above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

It’s a joyous day in the pop-punk community, as Blink-182 announced this morning that Tom DeLonge has rejoined the group after leaving in 2015. They unloaded info about a lot of new endeavors at once, and we currently know varying levels of information about them.

We know the band’s 2023 and 2024 tour dates, and we know what upcoming single “Edging” (which drops this Friday, October 14) sounds like via a snippet heard in an announcement video. However, we don’t know much about the upcoming album, as the title, cover art, and tracklist have not been shared yet (although “Edging” is presumably included). What we can say about the album, though, is that DeLonge is feeling optimistic about it.

After the news of his comeback had had a few hours to simmer, DeLonge took to social media on his personal accounts. Sharing a vintage photo of Mark Hoppus, Travis Baker, and himself together, DeLonge wrote, “What if I was to tell you we just made the best album of our career.”

He also shared the reunion teaser video on his own pages and wrote, “We are back, and we brought dick jokes.”

Blink-182 is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

There aren’t many good and pure things in this life, especially now, with everything that’s been happening. Sometimes, people need something to unite them, like sports or monumental Hollywood drama, or maybe a collection of huge bears with cute ears and big fluffy paws that could likely kill you in 14 seconds flat. And that’s why Fat Bear Week is so integral to the people!

Fat Bear Week is an annual event where fans can choose which Fat Bear is the Best Fat Bear, better than the rest of them all, as they prepare for hibernation. This year, we were met with some really top-notch bears like Chunk, a grizzly guy with a heart of gold, or Otis, the fan-favorite blonde bear who is always up to no good (probably…because he’s a bear). But this year, instead of some stiff but friendly competition, Fat Bear Week was tainted by America’s favorite deadly pastime: voter fraud.

On Sunday, the official Katamai National Park Twitter account revealed the news: “It appears someone has decided to spam the Fat Bear Week poll, but fortunately, it is easy for us to tell which votes are fraudulent. We have discarded the fake votes.” This is the most scandalous thing to happen to bears since Paddington ate lunch with the Queen and was labeled a class traitor.

Rolling Stone spoke to Amber Kraft of the National Parks Service, who said that it was immediately clear that there were some fake email addresses involved. “747 was leading in votes for the whole day and by quite a substantial amount,” Kraft says. “When there were just a few hours of voting left we noticed that 435 Holly received over 9,000 votes in a very short period of time.” It seems like Holly just so happened to know a lot of bears with really fast internet connections and opposable thumbs. Or maybe it was just a bunch of internet users with a lot of free time and a concerning obsession with bears.

The votes were quickly disregarded, and Holly was sent back to the loser’s circle for now, while Mr. 747 flew ahead of the competition as fast as a Boeing 747 jet…or something like that.

While the ordeal is worrisome for the future of Bear Democracy, it’s all in good fun to the humans. Kraft added, “We hope that the awareness that Fat Bear Week brings will grow into caring and action in whatever way makes the most sense for each individual.” Next year, maybe they will give each bear their own Twitter account! Actually, maybe not.

(Via Rolling Stone)

Redcar is back. Christine And The Queens crafted the new moniker for his forthcoming album, Redcar Les Adorables Etoiles, and subsequent shows. The newest single for the project is here, following in the footsteps of last month’s “Rein Dire.”

“La Chanson Du Chevalier” is an ethereal contemplation of masculinity with a performative music video that features Redcar alongside Rodin’s bronze l’Age d’airain statue, representing “what a young man appears to be.” Redcar, also known as Chris since his 2018 album Chris, “embodies its physical presence, with the deep flexing of the muscles just beneath the skin.”

In August, Redcar shared with fans that he was using he/him pronouns and had “been a man for a year now.” He had discussed his gender identity to The New York Times in March as part of a joint profile alongside collaborators Charli XCX and Caroline Polachek.

“My journey with gender has always been tumultuous,” he said. “It’s raging right now, as I’m just exploring what is beyond this. A way to express it could be switching between ‘they’ and ‘she.’ I kind of want to tear down that system that made us label genders in such a strict way. I remember talking about being pansexual in France in 2014 — it was a conversation that few opened up, and I was advised in, like, offices to maybe tone it down. I’m really trying to address it the right way now, and I’ve been sometimes pressured to give an answer. But I think the answer is to be flickery, fluid, escaping.”

The “La Chanson Du Chevalier” video serves as a precursor to the French artist presenting Redcar: La Chanson Du Chevalier at the Paris+ fair by Art Basel, where he will be the guest of honor from October 19 to 24. His tour around Redcar Les Adorables Etoiles was postponed from September due to injury, and the three sold-out shows will now take place in November. See those dates below.

11/09 — Paris @ Cirque d’Hiver
11/10 — Paris @ Cirque d’Hiver
11/22 — London @ Royal Festival Hall

Redcar Les Adorables Etoiles is out 11/11 via Because Music. Pre-save it here.

InSomnia, assemble. Your leaders — JiU, SuA, Siyeon, Handong, Yoohyeon, Dami, and Gahyeon — are back.

On Tuesday evening, 6 p.m. KST (5 a.m. EST/2 a.m. PST), Dreamcatcher unleashed the second installment of their Apocalypse series with their [Apocalypse: Follow Us] EP and lead single “Vision.” Just like their last EP, [Apocalypse : Save us], the rock girl group’s dark Apocalypse era follows the theme of raising environmental awareness and combating climate change.

With “Vision,” Dreamcatcher’s message becomes stronger as they don military uniforms and chant their plans to combat climate change in order to make the Earth a better and safer place to live in — “With all this rage filling the sky / The thunder strikes the world / On top of the land, you protected / Raise your flag and fight again / I can’t take it, I can’t hide any longer / Forward march!”

[Apocalypse: Follow Us] is the tenth EP from the Dreamcatcher Company’s septet and it contains six tracks, including the lead single “Vision” co-composed and arranged by June One of electronica band Glen Check.

Following the album’s promotions, the group will embark on a European tour titled, [Apocalypse : Follow us] 2022 Dreamcatcher World Tour – Europe. Dreamcatcher will visit five cities — Berlin, Tilburg, Warsaw, London, and Paris — over the course of ten days from November 14 to 24.

Check out the full tracklist to [Apocalypse: Follow Us] below.

1. “Intro : Chaotical X”
2. “VISION”
3. “Fairytale”
4. “Some Love”
5. “Rainy Day”
6. “Outro : Mother Nature”

Ever since The Rock took on the role of Black Adam, he’s been asking for one thing: A fight with Superman. Specifically, Henry Cavill’s Superman. (The two share an agent. Hollywood, baby.) However, that’s not been an easy order to fill. Following the box office failure of 2017’s Justice League, Warner Bros. went into panic mode over the state of its DC Comics movies. In the midst of all that, Ben Affleck walked away from his Batman role, and the character was given a separate film universe with Robert Pattinson taking over the Dark Knight in The Batman. Meanwhile, Cavill’s time as Superman appeared to be over through no fault of his own.

However, Affleck’s Batman exit proved to be temporary. He’s already filmed appearances for The Flash and Aquaman 2, which got the drums beating for Cavill to also return as the Man of Steel. Online rumors have been building that he does have a cameo in Black Adam, and in a new interview, The Rock noticeably stops just short of confirming that news. Here’s what he told CinemaBlend after being asked if Black Adam will fight Superman in a movie:

Absolutely. That is the whole point of this man. Thank you for asking that. And I have been saying for some time, there’s a new era in the DC Universe that’s about to begin.

Of course, it should be noted that The Rock never specifically says that Black Adam fights Superman in his debut film. However, building towards that conflict seems to be The Rock’s goal for the film, which would heavily suggest that, at the very least, Cavill’s Superman will appear in an end-credits scene. Or not!

Warner Bros. is in a massive state of flux after merging with Discovery this year, and its DC Comics properties have felt the biggest brunt starting with the drastic cancellation of Batgirl. Cavill is also a busy guy with The Witcher series on Netflix, and he may not want to get caught up in another round of DC Comics drama after his experience with the Zack Snyder films. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when Black Adams arrives later this month.

Black Adam starts a new hierarchy of power on October 21, 2022.

(Via CinemaBlend)

Among the various changes, shakeups, and bad jokes from the new season of Jeopardy!, the gameshow is adding a long-awaited tournament that fans have been requesting for forever: the Second Chance Tournament.

The latest Jeopardy! endeavor (sponsored by Moderna) will bring back contestants who didn’t win the game, but won the hearts of viewers everywhere! Simu Liu probably won’t be invited back, though. The three finalists will go head to head in order to earn a spot in the coveted Tournament of Champions alongside Jeopardy legends. According to the press release:

Second Chance, brought to you by Moderna, features 18 select contestants who didn’t become JEOPARDY! champions in their initial appearances returning to the stage for an unprecedented opportunity to change history.

The competition will air over the course of two weeks; each week will feature three semifinal games and a two-day final. The winner of each week’s mini-tournament will earn a spot in the upcoming Tournament of Champions, which begins Monday, October 31.

Jeopardy already brings back its top competitors throughout the season for one-off games and charity events, but fans have been begging for a dedicated series (brought to them by Moderna) that will bring back non-champions who want a second shot. “It seemed ridiculous to me that we have this sport where every single year we take all of our best players — we take our LeBrons and our Dwyanes — and we switch them all out,” Michael Davies, Jeopardy’s newest executive producer, said earlier this year. You can check out the competitors here, and even make your own bracket if you’re into that.

This means we are likely just a few short years away from Taylor Swift headlining the inevitable Jeopardy! Super Bowl Tournament brought to you by Moderna. (probably).

(Via TVLine)

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Prince William. First, his grandmother dies and now he’s no longer the world’s hottest bald man. Poor guy can’t catch a break (except for the whole next in line for the British throne thing).

A recent study by Reboot has determined that Vin Diesel is the best bald boy of 2022. “This year’s study looked at a wider number of factors, such as facial Golden Ratio, Twitter sentiment analysis, net worth, and height. Reboot also looked at the cranial shine factor for each heartthrob. These aspects were then used to create an index score out of 10,” the New York Post reports. Michael Caine’s best friend scored “very highly” in every factor, “giving him the sexiest score of 6.46.” That’s also the number of times Diesel and The Rock are allowed to punch each other in the Fast and Furious movies.

Well, were allowed.

The study shows that [Diesel’s] head is rather shiny, with a cranial luminance of 563.65 candelas per square meter, which means his head reflects light with 70.46 percent of the luminous intensity of a standard light bulb.

The rest of the top 10 (with their scores) goes Stanley Tucci (6.33), Shemar Moore (6.25), Pitbull (6.16), Prince William (6.13), Jason Statham (5.96), Bruce Willis (4.75), Joe Rogan (4.37), Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (3.62), and Mike Tyson (2.50). Mike from Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul was cruelly and unjustifiably snubbed.

(Via the New York Post)