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Putin’s Kremlin Propagandists Seem To Be Coming To The Realization That Invading Ukraine Was A Huge Mistake

For the decades during which Vladimir Putin has been in power, the unwritten rule has always been to never question the Russian president, lest you become the latest victim of what some have dubbed Falling Window Syndrome. While recent reports claim that Putin himself is hunkered down in a nuclear bunker after realizing he waged a losing war, publicly, that’s unlikely something he’d ever admit. But a few loyal Kremlin propagandists have begun speaking truth to power and admitting what is obvious to the rest of the world: Ukraine is winning the war.

Among those brave enough to come right out and say what everyone else can see is Sergey Mardan. According to The Daily Beast, the Russian state TV host opened his Saturday show “with heavy sighs” following Ukraine’s humiliating attack on the Crimean Bridge (an attack that Putin, of all people, has described as a terrorist act.) “All day long we’ll be talking about how this happened and what will come of it,” Mardan said. “I can tell you right now that nothing good will come of it, that’s for sure. They’ve achieved an enormous propagandistic effect.”

As a key part of Putin’s propaganda machine, Mardan certainly knows of what he speaks. But he took a huge step outside his role as one of Kremlin TV’s talking heads by repeatedly admitting that Russia had underestimated Ukraine’s strength and determination — though he sort of suspects the United States may have a lot to do with it.

“There was no shock that they would try to attack the Crimean bridge,” Mardan said, “but there was an initial shock that they managed to pull it off, especially in the early morning hours… Many competent people explain that this was a complicated task — not just journalists or commentators, but specialists. There is a high level of certainty that an operation of this magnitude could have been staged only by Western intelligence agencies.”

Mardan reminded viewers of the initial promises that Russia’s attack on Ukraine would be swift and relatively painless, and would result in near-immediate victory — a fantasy that clearly was either a lie or a huge miscalculation. Mardan encouraged his viewers to see Ukraine for what it truly is (at least in his mind) — and to realize that agreeing to peaceably conclude the fighting is the only way forward (an opinion that isn’t likely to win him any brownie points with Vlad).

“Ukraine is a cruel, motivated, well-prepared enemy,” Mardan said. “This is an enemy nation that has been waging a full-fledged war against us for at least seven and a half months. We keep calling it a special military operation, but they are waging war… Good Lord, I can’t keep listening to this thick and sticky rhetoric, it’s time to stop talking about the peace process and the collective West. This rhetoric doesn’t look good — in fact, it’s harmful. Since the mobilization has been announced, we’re talking about war, a people’s war.”

Mardan didn’t get much support from his guests, who did a better job of sticking to the pro-Russia script. One of them, Russian politician Alexander Kazakov, even commented that “If we win, we’ll take back what’s ours and whatever is [Ukraine’s] as well.”

Mardan might want to be careful when walking past any large windows.

(Via The Daily Beast)

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Javamelts naturally flavored sugars are just the right amount of extra sweetness

Whether you’re sprinkling it into your simple morning coffee or layering it into a decadent dessert, Javamelts naturally flavored sugars bring your treats from ordinary to extraordinary. Because where there’s sugar there should be flavored sugar. But what flavors do they have? Gosh, we’d thought you’d never ask!

Javamelts are available in mocha, caramel, french vanilla, and hazelnut. They are kosher certified, 100% vegan, non-GMO, and gluten-free. Oh, and did we mention they’re also women-owned and the packaging is recyclable? Their special sugar blends come in large pouch bags which are perfect for not only coffee and tea, but for baking and having on hand for artisan cocktails (Hello simple syrup!). They also have small individual flavored sugar packets, ideal for a little pizzazz on the go. And speaking of flavored sugar on the go, that’s how the idea of Javamelts was first formed!


It was Valentine’s Day and the husband of Carolyn, the company’s founder (who also happens to be her high school sweetheart), offered to go out to get her a “specialty cup of coffee.” Carolyn glanced at the individually-wrapped, candy-filled hearts that he had left on the counter for her and had her “Ah-Ha” moment. She looked her husband straight in the eye and said, “I have a crazy idea,” and she never settled for plain sugar again!

Javamelts are made with pure cane sugar and natural flavor, and are a no mess, no fuss, portable solution for those that love adding flavored creamers and syrups into their coffees and teas. Carefully crafted to add just the right amount of flavor and sweetness, Javamelts have no aftertaste and deliver simple, gourmet flavors in easily dissolvable sugars. They offer a dairy-free, natural alternative to those that love the taste of mocha, caramel, french vanilla and hazelnuts poured or pumped into their drink, but don’t want all the excess ingredients and calories that often come along with creamers and syrups.

Javamelts can be used anytime and anywhere you use sugar, but especially shine when mixed in with coffees or used in baked goods. Add them to oatmeal, yogurt, whipped creams, dessert recipes, sauces, marinades – or top your sugar cookies, cakes and muffins! And if you’re feeling especially fancy, might we recommend using these flavorful sugars on the rims of cocktail glasses? Because, espresso martinis with a mocha sugar rim? Yes please!

But it goes so much further than that! The Javamelts website offers loads of additional recipes to help boost creativity and see just how far these flavorful sugars can take you! Since Javamelts act the same way as plain old boring sugar, they can be easily subbed into all your favorite kitchen creations.

It’s PSL season after all, and caramel Javamelts are just the thing to take your pumpkin spice to the next level. Serve it with this Blackberry Vanilla French Toast casserole, made even more decadent with some Javamelts French Vanilla sugar, for the fall breakfast of your dreams. Or maybe it’s time to get out your beret and try these vanilla crepes – once you see the difference Javamelts make, you’ll never go back to plain sugar again!

But with holiday baking season on the horizon, don’t just take our word for it! Use the exclusive code “UPWORTHY10” to get 10% off any purchase of 2 or more 1.5lb sugar pouches (valid for the entire rest of 2022!), and start seeing how much better your sugar situation can be!

Upworthy has earned revenue through a partnership and/or may earn a portion of sales revenue from purchases made through links on our site.

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50 Cent Saluted Brian Robinson, Who Used ‘Many Men’ For His NFL Debut After He Recovered From Gunshot Wounds

Brian Robinson has been one of the feel good stories early on in this NFL season. The rookie running back for the Washington Commanders was shot twice in the leg during an attempted robbery and yesterday — a mere six weeks after the shooting — took to the field for the first time ever in the Commanders’ game against the Tennessee Titans. But it’s the now viral moment of Robinson coming out of the tunnel at FedEx Field to 50 Cent’s “Many Men” that really drove home the emotion of Robinson’s road back to an NFL field and the perseverance he showed along the way.

50 Cent’s lyrics paint such a vivid picture of what Robinson has been through, as he raps in the song: “Many men, wish death upon me. Blood in my eye dawg and I can’t see, I’m trying to be what I’m destined to be. And n*****s trying to take my life away.”

Well, 50 Cent himself obviously caught wind of the viral clip of Robinson and shouted out the former Alabama running back. In an Instagram post, 50 wrote, “That sh*t ain’t stop nothing, when God has bigger plans it’s just a bump in the road. @b.robinson_4 right back in action.” He posted a photo collage of Robinson and himself, along with a second slide of the viral video of Robinson coming out to “Many Men.”

Robinson led the Commanders with nine carries, but the team lost a heartbreaker 21-17. Regardless, the Brian Robinson era has begun in Washington DC.

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Fugees Member Pras Michel’s Money Laundering Trial Will Have Leonardo DiCaprio And Trump Officials As Witnesses

Fugees member Pras Michel is going to trial for money laundering, with a November 4 start date. According to Rolling Stone, the Justice Department has alleged that Michel assisted Malaysian businessman Jho Low and the wealth fund 1MDB to personally steal from what should’ve been for Malaysian economic development. Michel was apparently paid anywhere from $8 to $40 million for helping Low. In 2019, he pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and falsifying records charges.

Along with Michel, the case has several high-profile witnesses who were connected to Low. Leonardo DiCaprio used money from 1MDB to produce The Wolf Of Wall Street. The same year Michel plead not guilty to prior charges, DiCaprio gave a secret testimony to a grand jury in DC.

The publication lists Trump-affiliated officials on the witness list as well. A few include “White House chief of staff John Kelly, former national security adviser H.R. McMaster, former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, RNC deputy finance chair Elliott Broidy and lobbyist.” Broidy had previously plead guilty “to acting as an unregistered foreign agent working for Chinese and Malaysian interests in 2020,” before Trump pardoned him a year later.

Given the news of Broidy’s 2021 pardon, Michel allegedly tried to convince Trump’s administration to drop the Low and 1MDB investigation — which has only landed him with additional charges ahead of this trial.

Michel was set to play a reunion tour with the Fugees last fall, but it has never occurred due to ongoing COVID concerns. Earlier this year, it was reportedly canceled because of Michel’s ongoing case.

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‘Fox & Friends’ Spent A Whole Segment Defending Kanye West Then Had To Backtrack When They, Uh, Actually Read His Tweets

The weekend team at Fox & Friends had to do some serious backtracking after rushing to Kanye West‘s defense when the rapper was censored on social media. Will Cain and Pete Hegseth did not see the Instagram post that got Kanye’s account restricted for claiming that Diddy is controlled by Jewish people. Oddly, Rachel Campos-Duffy did see the post, and yet still defended West on Saturday morning by suggesting that there’s a target on his back because he did an interview with Tucker Carlson.

“They had to cut him down,” Campos-Duffy said to the agreement of Cain and Hegseth. “We’re in this weird era where people can’t just say what they want to say. This idea you have to just shut down his account is just, it’s totally totalitarian, totally anti-American. It’s just wrong.”

However, the situation markedly changed on Sunday morning after Kanye had his Twitter account restricted following his threat to go “death con 3 on Jewish people.” More importantly, Cain and Hegseth were now fully aware of Kanye’s antisemitic posts, and there were a lot of awkward faces as Hegseth tried to downplay their defense of the rapper from the previous day. Via Mediaite:

“Pretty ugly,” Cain agreed, as Hegseth added “It’s ugly.”

“We talked about it earlier without knowing about these tweets and saying of course they’re going to put a target, after what he said with Tucker, there’s going to be a target, no doubt,” Hegseth said. “But in this particular case, he brought the target.”

Despite Cain and Hegseth backtracking on their previous defense of Kanye, Campos-Duffy notably did not join her co-hosts in condemning the tweets. Instead, she seemingly doubled down on her earlier remarks by saying, “The question is should he be removed from Instagram and who gets to decide that?”

We’re guessing anyone who knows blatant antisemitism when they see it? Just off the top of our heads.

(Via Mediaite)

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Does Blink-182 Have A Special Announcement Coming?

Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus declared himself “hopeful for the future” in an August interview with People, discussing his overcoming of stage 4 diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and the reconnecting with former bandmates Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker in the process of fighting it.

It appears as if hope sparked action. Blink-182 did the traditional tell-tale sign: they wiped their Instagram feed clean and updated their bio across their platforms to read, “Crappy Punk Rock since 1992.” Internet sleuths simultaneously noticed Blink’s four most recently liked tweets are from 2012 and 2013, positioning them as foreshadowing for what’s to come:

If the curious social media activity caused you to check the iconic band’s official website, you were met by an animated bunny tapping its foot and surrounded by “UNDER CONSTRUCTION” banners. And if that weren’t enough to indicate that something is definitely coming from Blink, there are mysterious posters in New York City and a billboard in Peru.

The biggest question may not be what Blink has in store but rather which iteration of Blink is at work. Matt Skiba replaced DeLonge after his messy Blink-182 departure. But this July, Skiba responded to an Instagram comment asking if he was still a Blink member. “Your guess is as good as mine,” the Alkaline Trio singer/guitarist wrote. “Regardless, I am very proud of and thankful for my time w @blink182. We shall see…”

Skiba’s comment was sandwiched between DeLonge sharing with James Corden last November that he’s “always talking about some kind of reunion” and adding Blink-182 to his Instagram bio this August.

With People in August, Hoppus shared that he spent time with Barker and DeLonge at Barker’s Italian wedding to Kourtney Kardashian this spring. But it was their time together before Hoppus endured chemotherapy that seemed to forge a path toward a potential official reunion.

“It was the first time that all three of us were in the same room in like five years,” Hoppus told the publication. “It’s actually better than it used to be. There was no agenda. There were no lingering grudges. It felt very back to what it should be: three friends sitting in a room.”

Hoppus also said that he had been “writing music” and felt “open to whatever the next phase of Blink is.” There’s a strong possibility that the next phase is starting to unfold.

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

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Trump Advisor Stephen Miller Called ‘SVU’ ‘Unwatchable’ And Christopher Meloni Dragged Him To Hell

America’s own Christopher Meloni is known for many things: starring in a hit crime show, flirting with Mariska Hargitay, and also being naked more often than not. But, and perhaps most importantly, Meloni is also known for calling people out on social media when they say something he doesn’t agree with, which happens to be a lot because nobody ever agrees on anything over here.

Over the weekend, Lauren Boebert tweeted an (unfunny) joke, and Meloni decided to channel his Law and Order sass to call her out. “There’s gotta be a Stupid Prize gop reps are competing for,” Meloni tweeted. Boebert was mocking Joe Biden and his impressive talent of miscounting words, while Meloni was clearly just mocking every GOP candidate.

Of course, Trump’s senior advisor Stephen Miller thought he would take this time to not only ask for an apology but also have the nerve to call Law & Order: Organized Crime “unwatchable.” A crime in itself!

Meloni quickly shot back: “When nosferatu attempts shade. Stevie, stick to writing fascist speeches.”

The Law and Order actor is known for being active on Twitter (for better or for worse) but he did not apologize to either Boebert or Miller, who still kept going long after Meloni had already moved on:

Law & Order: Organized Crime is a very watchable show that airs Thursdays on NBC! Meanwhile, Miller is still on his parent’s phone plan.

(Via Variety)

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Crush Released An Apology After Alleged Discriminating Actions At A Festival

As anti-Semitic remarks are being made in Hollywood, the issue of racism and discrimination arises on the other side of the globe.

Korean R&B singer Crush is currently placed in the hot seat after accusations of skipping high-fiving two roommates, who identify as Black fans, in the audience during his set at the 2022 SOMEDAY PLEROMA Festival on Sunday evening. An interaction of the clip is currently setting Twitter ablaze with frustrated and angry fans, calling the actions from the “Rush Hour” singer intentional against fans of a darker complexion. Some even brought up the crooner’s “Black face” incident from the past as well.

Earlier today, Crush broke his silence after the viral clip and updated his Instagram with a post in English, and a translated statement in Korean in its caption:

“Hi everyone,

I just wanted to address the issue revolving around the audience interaction from my performance last night at the “2022 SOMEDAY PLEROMA” festival.

I’ve been away for roughly two years and being able to perform on stage with my dearest fans in the audience was such an unforgettable and long-awaited experience, so I naturally and instinctively walked towards and reached down to the crowd.

To avoid further misunderstanding, I would like to explain that I had to refrain from giving out high-fives with the fans in particular sections as a safety precaution – fans were getting too close to the fences holding up the audience section and I saw that those in the front row were getting pushed against the fence, so I made a quick judgement not to approach for the safety of my fans.

I sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding that my actions may have caused. I love each and every one of my fans and I would never discriminate nor favor anyone.”

The original video, shared by one of the roommates, featured the K-R&B singer extending his hands for high-fives in the audience and allegedly skipping them and their roommate during his performance of “Don’t Forget.” Fans, followers and those who are aware of the trending issue are calling out the singer to be held accountable for his actions that fans will definitely never forget.

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‘The Boys’ Reveals Two New Supes, Sister Sage And Firecracker, Ahead Of Season 4

After three seasons of The Boys, The Seven is a bit of a mess. And while we don’t know much about where the show is headed next when it comes to Vought’s signature superhero team, the show is certainly primed for new supes to fill some important roles. Which is why it’s not very surprising that the show’s fourth season will have some new faces presumably doing some terrible things with their impressive powers.

As Entertainment Weekly shared on Monday, Amazon revealed two new supes and their costumes ahead of a fourth season coming at a much later date. The show’s Twitter account also shared two of the images on Monday as well, introducing Sage and Firecracker to the world in full uniform.

We already know that Sage will be played by Susan Heyward (Orange Is The New Black, Vinyl) and Valorie Curry (Veronica Mars) will play Firecracker. But right now that’s about all we know. Amazon has made it clear that we’re not getting much more information about what these two supes are up to, and what side they’re on, until the show debuts on Prime. And we don’t even have a release date for that, so right now it’s all speculation.

Sister Sage, for example, doesn’t show up in the comics at all. But the “Sage” could come from the Sage Grove Center, a psychiatric hospital from the show/comics that’s a cover for Vaught experimenting on people. And perhaps Firecracker — described as having a “short fuse” on Monday, is yet another patriotic-themed supe that will play into Homelander’s nosedive into the far right.

Speculation doesn’t get you very far in The Boys universe, though. The show has made some changes to characters when they make the transition from comic to streaming screen, and these two are blank slates to boot. So it’s tough to know what showrunner Eric Kripke and company have in store for us. As far as other casting news, we also know that Ryan Butcher will be around much more in Season 4, as actor Cameron Crovetti has been promoted to a full-time regular cast member after serving a reoccurring role in the previous two seasons. And with how the last season’s finale cleared out the supe rolodex, we certainly will see lots of screen time for these new faces.

[via EW]

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Animal Collective Succumb To An Unsustainable ‘Economic Reality’ And Cancel Their Remaining 2022 Tour Dates

While many of us are going back to concerts as if the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a factor, we’re still very much seeing the effects of the pandemic lingering on the live music industry and the artists who make their living going on tour. Animal Collective are the latest in a growing number of artists who are cancelling their tour dates, as the group shared a lengthy statement today citing “the economic reality” that they’re facing with embarking on a full slate of UK and EU tour stops and festival dates in November.

“It has been a wild year for us trying to push through a mountain of touring obstacles related to COVID and the economy,” the statement starts. The band had to cancel dates recently as well because three of the members contracted “bad” COVID infections. The statement continued:

“But preparing for this tour we were looking at an economic reality that simply does not work and is not sustainable. From inflation, to currency devaluation, to bloated shipping and transportation costs, and much much more, we simply could not make a budget for this tour that did not lose money even if everything went as well as it could. We have always been the kind of people to persevere through the difficult times and get on stage unless our health prevented it. We are choosing not to take the risk to our mental and physical health with the economic reality of what that tour would have been. We hope you understand and that you know we would not make a choice like this lightly. We truly want nothing more than to make it out there again.”

Apart from their tour stops in November in support of their latest album, Time Skiffs, Animal Collective also had a couple of notable music festival appearances scheduled. One at Pitchfork’s inaugural London festival, and another at Le Guess Who? festival in the Netherlands, where they were curating an entire showcase of acts. It’s alarming to think that even for a well-established act like Animal Collective, touring in the wake of the pandemic is still presents a number of challenges that wears on them deeply. So much so, that cancelling a number of lucrative paydays is the best option for their well-being. This is a reminder, that while live music is back, we’re not totally out of the woods just yet.

Find the band’s full post below.