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This past Friday, Cordae shared his second album, From A Birds Eye View, which boasted 14 songs and features from Gunna, Lil Durk, Freddie Gibbs, Stevie Wonder, Eminem, Roddy Ricch, HER, Lil Durk, and Ant Clemons. It serves as a well-crafted follow-up to his 2019 debut album, The Lost Boy, which gifted Cordae a pair of Grammy nominations. He’s been out and about promoting it, including on NPR Tiny Desk Concert. He also received a bit of help from his girlfriend, tennis star Naomi Osaka.

Following her second win at the ongoing Australian Open tournament against Camila Osorio, Osaka used some camera time to show love to Cordae’s new album. Osaka took a marker to write on the camera lens, but instead of signing her name on it, she wrote the letters “FABEV,” which is of course the acronym for From A Birds Eye View. She later shared a video of her signing the camera and tagged Cordae with an eagle and eye emoji.

You can watch the video of Osaka showing love to From A Birds Eye View above.

From A Birds Eye View is out now via Atlantic. Stream it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

While some prominent GOP members spent Martin Luther King Jr. Day being dragged online for praising the civil rights leader while opposing legislation protecting voting rights, one of his biggest passions, it wasn’t only Republicans who were blocking it. Democratic senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin aren’t playing ball either. And now the former is being rebuked by the very group that once helped her get elected.

On Tuesday, Emily’s List, the largest donor for female Democratic candidates who are for abortion rights, announced they were rescinding their support of Sinema after over a decade of support. The issue was her continued opposition to alter the Senate filibuster so Republicans can’t thwart two voter rights bills from passing. Those bills would counter voter suppression efforts made by Republicans at the state level.

In a statement, Laphonza Butler, the president of Emily’s List, wrote that she had joined others in trying to impress upon Senator Sinema the importance of the pending voting rights legislation in the Senate.” Alas, “those concerns have not been addressed.”

So, for now at least, they were dropping her. “Right now, Senator Sinema’s decision to reject the voices of allies, partners and constituents who believe the importance of voting rights outweighs that of an arcane process means she will find herself standing alone in the next election,” Butler wrote. She added:

“So, we want to make it clear: if Sen. Sinema can not support a path forward for the passage of this legislation, we believe she undermines the foundations of our democracy, her own path to victory and also the mission of EMILY’s List, and we will be unable to endorse her moving forward.”

Sinema released her own statement Tuesday night in which she defended the filibuster, saying it “has been used repeatedly to protect against wild swings in federal policy, including in the area of protecting women’s health care.”

Emily’s List was, as The New York Times noted, “by far” the biggest contributor to Sinema’s 2018 Senate campaign. She already faces stiff competition when her seat is up in 2024, i.e., in two more years. If she gets the boot, she might no longer be able to hang with all those notorious Republicans she finds so funny.

(Via NYT)

Dan Fischer understands grief. He also has some idea of how to cope with it—and how to help others through it as well.

Fischer has experienced tremendous loss in the past few years, losing both his father and his best friend. As a surfer, he’s a believer in what he calls “the transformative power of the ocean.” Originally from Montreal, Canada, Fischer has found healing riding the waves off Newport, Rhode Island, where he’s lived for the past seven years.

Now he wants to share that healing power of the waves with others.

“After one of those faithful sessions, where I had written my dad’s name on my board,” he tells Upworthy, “I decided to throw out an open invitation on TikTok to others who were struggling with loss.” On January 4, he shared a TikTok video inviting people to share the name of a loved one who has passed and said he would write their name on his board and take them out into the ocean.

“It felt right and I wanted to help,” he says. “I knew how healing surfing had been for me, and I wanted the opportunity to share that with others in hopes of inserting some positivity into their lives.”

People started sharing the names and stories of lost loved ones in the comments, and Fischer started writing down names. A dozen soon turned to 100, which turned to 500, which turned to more than 1,000.

In just over a week, the one TikTok blossomed into a full-fledged movement Fischer has dubbed the One Last Wave Project.

“Something we always say out there is, ‘one last wave,'” Fischer says. “There’s always one last wave to catch and I wanted to give that to others. There have been so many stories shared about loved ones who always wanted to learn to surf, or how the ocean was their happy place and unfortunately, their families weren’t able to get them there in time. I committed to ensuring that they got out there for that one last wave.”

Sunset with your loved onespic.twitter.com/JWosk1pzi7

— One Last Wave Project (@One Last Wave Project)
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Fischer gets emotional sharing what the project means to him.

“I’ve spent many nights sitting out there alone at sunset, connecting with the beauty of nature to heal,” he says. “Now, I have thousands of loved ones joining me…it’s truly hard to explain just how truly moving that is for me. I just hope to help in some small way.”

Right now, the project is just a one-man show, with Fischer spending hours a day connecting with people in the comments and writing down names. He knows he’s going to need help collecting names and stories as the list grows, and he’s already looking into getting more longboards to accommodate more names.

“It is important to me that every single person’s story is told,” he says. “I would love to see it expanded where surfers from around the world can join in the movement and take loved ones out into the ocean from wherever they are.”

Fischer says people keep asking if it’s too late to get their loved one’s name on his board, and he wants people to know it’s never too late. He’s in this for the long haul.

Answering some of your questions about the project! Itu2019s never too late for One Last Wave pic.twitter.com/0dJsC786gc

— One Last Wave Project (@One Last Wave Project)
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One Last Wave Project isn’t Fischer’s first project impacting people’s lives in creative ways. He works as an MBA admissions consultant, but he also founded Step Up for the Cure, a charity fundraiser for cancer research. He credits his mother’s influence for his impulse to use whatever he has to give back to others in a meaningful way.

“When I founded Step Up for the Cure, I was trying to create a symbolic struggle—we ran marathon distances up stairs for 24 hours straight—to align those involved with those facing such harsh adversity,” he says. “One Last Wave has a bit of a different vision. While surfing, trying to harness the sheer power of the ocean for a few fleeting moments in order to ride the open face of a wave is extremely challenging; however, this movement is more about the peace and healing that results when you do, letting go, immersing yourself in the sea.

“Surfing is one of my great passions,” he continues. “It has changed my life, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to be sharing that love with others in a way that provides hope and healing.”

Thatu2019s a great motto! Iu2019d be honored to include her in the project and take her out there

— One Last Wave Project (@One Last Wave Project)
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Paula I would be honored to take Oliver out with me and show him the joy of surfing he was hoping to find. Sending my love and I hope this helps in some way

— One Last Wave Project (@One Last Wave Project)
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Fischer says he never imagined his project would resonate so deeply with so many people, but he’s grateful that it has.

“I am deeply affected by every single story shared,” he said. “Heartbreaking doesn’t even begin to describe it, but when I connect with these people, we are bonded, and the board feels very much like a beacon of hope that their loved ones are set free to enjoy and shine once again. It’s a way for them to be forever memorialized in a place they loved.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cried reading the stories, writing the names, and feeling them etched on the board as I paddle through the waves,” he says.

See on Instagram

Many of the commenters are parents sharing the names of children they’ve lost. Some of them loved the ocean, and some of them loved it but never got to see it. One commenter recently asked for her own name to be put on the board, as she’s in hospice and the ocean has always been her peaceful place.

See on Instagram

The simple act of reaching out, connecting with others, making an offering of what you have and bringing some measure of comfort to people who are in mourning is such a beautiful thing.

Fischer is working on getting the One Last Wave website up so that he can direct people to one central place if they want to add a loved one or find out how to help, but in the meantime, you can find him on these social media pages:

Tiktok: @OneLastWave

Twitter: @OneLastWave

Instagram: @OneLastWaveProject

In the early-to-mid ’80s, countries across the globe enacted strict bans on blood donations from men who have sex with men (MSM). The bans were a reaction to the HIV/AIDS epidemic that affected MSM at much higher rates than those who are exclusively heterosexual.

But over the past 40 years, tests that can detect HIV in blood have become much more sophisticated. A 2015 surveillance report by Canadian Blood Services found that the risk of HIV transfusion-transmitted infection was just one in 21.4 million donations.

The tests have become so sophisticated they can detect the presence of HIV in blood two to six weeks after infection.

France began to lift restrictions on blood donations in 2019 for MSM by allowing them to do so if they remained sexually abstinent for at least four months before donating.

Now, the country has taken things a step further by eliminating all bans on blood donation based on sexual orientation.

The change in rules was announced by public health chief Jérôme Salomon, who said there would be “no more reference to sexual orientation” in questionnaires prior to donating blood.

[#DonDeSang] @Sante_Gouv a annoncu00e9 lu2019u00e9volution des conditions du2019accu00e8s au don du sang et la levu00e9e de lu2019ajournement pour les hommes ayant des relations sexuelles avec des hommes u00e0 partir du 16 mars 2022. https://www.santepubliquefrance.fr/les-actualites/2022/nouvelles-conditions-d-acces-au-don-du-sang-le-role-de-la-surveillanceu00a0u2026pic.twitter.com/t1FuOBpbyd

— Santu00e9publiqueFrance (@Santu00e9publiqueFrance)
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“Starting on March 16, 2022 all French people, whatever their sexual orientation, will be able to donate blood,” Health Minister Olivier Véra said. “We are ending an inequality that is no longer justified,” he added.

The move was met with cheers from gay rights advocates.

“Imposing a four-month period of abstinence on homosexuals wishing to donate blood is totally absurd and has always been seen as a form of discrimination, especially when we know that donations are in short supply,” Matthieu Gatipon-Bachette, the spokesperson for the French LGBTQ rights group Inter-LGBT told the newspaper Le Parisien.

“Obviously there must be a health safety framework to be respected, but this must not be based on the sexual orientation of the donor,” he added.

France’s new law means there are at least 18 countries in the world that have no blood donor restrictions for MSM including Argentina, Italy, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Hungary and the United Kingdom.

The United States is now a step behind France when it comes to allowing MSM to donate blood. In 2015, the U.S. began to allow MSM to donate blood if they were abstinent for one year.

Studies show that after MSM were allowed to donate with a 12-month period of abstinence, the increase in HIV infections through blood donations was insignificant.

Last year, on April 2, the FDA announced it had gone a step further by shortening the period of gay-sex abstinence from 12 months to just three.

“To help address this critical need and increase the number of donations, the FDA is announcing today that based on recently completed studies and epidemiologic data, we have concluded that the current policies regarding the eligibility of certain donors can be modified without compromising the safety of the blood supply,” the notice said.

The new ruling also reduced the ban on donations from women who have had sex with MSM to three months as well.

The slow change in MSM blood donor rules throughout the world makes sense across the board. It will greatly increase the pool of eligible donors while reducing the stigma surrounding men who have sex with men. There are few things more harmful to a community than promoting the idea that their blood is tainted or dangerous.

In the last month of Donald Trump’s one-term presidency, William Barr did the right thing: He refused to let him subvert the will of the American people with baseless claims of voter fraud. What it really was was a Hail Mary. For the nearly two years he was Attorney General, Barr had done whatever Trump wanted, acting more like his personal lawyer than an independent protector of democracy. It’s why his post-Trump rehabilitation was not so well received. But if he did little right, at least he’s gifting the world with an unexpectedly weird book title.

As per ABC News, a memoir by Barr is set to hit shelves on March 8. What will he say about his AG stints for both Trump and George H.W. Bush? Will it be as trashy and snipey as other tell-alls? Will it accidentally reveal damning intel about Trump, like Mark Meadows’ book? It’s too soon to say, but one thing we do know for sure: It’s got a title, and that title is One Damn Thing After Another.

The title is reportedly an expression Barr has heard others say about the job he held not once but twice. It’s still a title so unusual that you might do a double take, initially thinking it’s a photoshopped joke about Barr’s irritation with a job made even more stressful by Trump’s lunacy. Maybe that’s what it’s about.

A press release for the memoir promises a “vivid, forthright, and essential” look at both presidents, though surely more people will glom onto his accounts of Trump than Bush I. On one hand, Barr resigned prematurely, in part because he refused to rubberstamp his voter fraud lies. On the other, he misled the American people about the contents of the Mueller report into Trump’s dealings with Russia, leaving others to point out that, no, it was not an “exoneration.” Still, maybe the book will inspire a movie, which means they can finally cast Patton Oswalt.

(Via ABC News)

Pharrell has long been celebrated for his style as well as his youthful looks. The latter topic came up once again during his 2019 appearance on LeBron James’ HBO show The Shop, and Pharrell explained how he still looks so young. “You gotta exfoliate like a f*cking madman,” he revealed. Nearly three years later, the topic came up once again after 21 Savage tweeted, “Pharrell is the king of drip!! How the hell he do that sh*t for so long? [facepalm emoji].”

While many offered their own responses, Pharrell himself arrived to answer the question. “From Virginia,” he wrote. “It’s Something in the Water.” There was a double meaning to Pharrell’s answer. Something in the Water is the name of the festival he launched in 2019. The showcase had an extremely successful first year, but unfortunately, an attempt to hold another in 2020 was thwarted by the pandemic. In 2021, Pharrell announced that the festival would no longer be in Virginia Beach due the city’s “toxic energy,” which he made after his cousin was murdered by a local police officer who did not have their body camera turned on.

As for Pharrell’s ageless drip, the singer previously released a line of skincare products back in 2020. The Humanrace product line was released in collaboration with his longtime dermatologist Elena Jones and it included cleansers, creams, exfoliators, and more.

After months of largely carefree living, the Omicron variant has a lot of people worried again. But not everyone. Prominent Republicans are still playing devil may care. Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t seem to mind that half of her salary (and counting) is going down the drain because she keeps accruing mask fines. Meanwhile, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has no problem forcing an immunocompromised colleague into hiding because he won’t put a simple some protective covering over his mouth.

As per NPR, fellow justice Sonia Sotomayor has had to do work remotely, all because one colleague won’t mask up. Sources say that soon as cases starting spiking again amidst the Omicron mutation, Sotomayor — who has diabetes, and is thus at high risk for illness — made it known that she didn’t feel safe around the maskless. Chief Justice John Roberts was sympathetic and asked his colleagues to start wearing face covering. They all did — except Gorsuch, who happens to sit next to Sotomayor on the bench.

Gorsuch’s reasoning isn’t known, but whatever the case, Sotomayor is now the only one not present during weekly meetings. Instead, she participates through a microphone set up in her chambers.

When news of Gorsuch refusing to help an immunocompromised colleague were made public, people were not happy.

Others felt the wrong person was being forced to isolate.

Gorsuch is, of course, one of the three appointed justices appointed by Trump during his lone term in office, including Amy Coney Barrett, who was rushed onto the bench in the final weeks of his presidency. Refusing to protect himself or others from a highly transmissible virus is not the only dicey opinion he holds.

(Via NPR)

The Dallas Cowboys saw their season come to an end on Sunday at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers. Despite entering the game with a highly-flying offense, an aggressive defense, and a belief that the team had the pieces in place to make a run at the Super Bowl this year, the Cowboys just could not figure out the Niners, and as a result, they lost, 23-17.

The end of the game led to some controversy, as Dallas called a draw with Dak Prescott with 14 seconds remaining despite being out of timeouts with the hopes he’d be able to pick up some yards, spike the ball, and have a reasonable distance to throw into the end zone. But things worked out so that the referee couldn’t spot the ball in time, meaning the clock ran down to zero before he could spike it.

In the aftermath, Prescott gave “credit to” Cowboys fans for throwing debris at the officials. Unsurprisingly, he caught some flak for this, and on Tuesday evening, Prescott tweeted out an apology to the refs for what he said.

Prescott struggled against San Francisco’s defense, going 23-for-43 for 254 yards with a touchdown and an interception on the day. He also carried the ball four times for 27 yards, with 17 of those coming on the draw that ended up being the final play of the Cowboys’ season

The very public spat between Britney Spears and her younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears lives to see another day. The latest in their war of words comes after Jamie Lynn stopped by Good Morning America for a tearful account of her past experiences with Britney as well as her concern for the singer. Britney didn’t take too kindly to the appearance, which she said left her “disgusted,” as she later denied a story Jamie Lynn told about her. Jamie Lynn later explained that she’s now talking about Britney because she was “never allowed” to do so before. Now, Britney has returned with a harsh message for not only Jamie Lynn but her mother as well.

In the now-deleted Instagram post, Britney began by speaking about what she did after her breakup with Justin Timberlake in 2002. “I flew home to Jamie Lynn on the couch watching her tv shows right after Justin and I broke up… I was a ghost there [ghost emoji] !!!!!” Britney wrote. She then compared her sister’s lifestyle to her own. “I had worked my whole life and I didn’t know how to be served by Mamma … Sit there and get served the chocolate milkshakes with the perfectly crushed ice with the secret chunky sugar meanwhile Jamie Lynn is 12, she indulges with the TV for hours then goes to lay out on a raft at the pool … I’m in shock because this was never my life !!!!”

Britney continued, “Justin’s family was all I knew for many years … Things were different now and Jamie Lynn had a new Nickelodeon show … All I remember saying was ‘DAMN !!! How the hell does a 12 year old land a Nickelodeon show ????’ ….. HMMMMMMMM…. Well I never got my iced chocolate drink !!!” she continued. “I mean yeah … I’m grown up right ??? But then maybe I might need a little support …”

Britney then recalled a moment when journalists from People arrived to conduct an interview with her. “The people show up and as Jamie Lynn says, I was scared !!!! Fuck yeah !!!” she said. “My Mamma was on pain medication and could barely hold a conversation in the house because her and my dad split and she was more messed up than anything !!!! I remember her sitting on the floor in a conversation and she never got up…”

She concluded her message with a bold statement. “I’m sorry Jamie Lynn,” she wrote. “I wasn’t strong enough to do what should have been done … slapped you and Mamma right across your f–king faces !!!!!” Billboard states the post was deleted less than an hour after the singer shared it.

You can view a screenshot of the now-deleted post above.

Selena Gomez is pretty much good at everything she does. She’s a great actress, most recently on the brilliant Only Murders In The Building which earned her a Critic’s Choice nomination for Best Actress, no easy feat when you’re working alongside powerhouses like Martin Short and Steve Martin. She has a successful makeup line, a cooking show, works behind the scenes in Hollywood as an executive producer, and she’s dropped a string of pop hits throughout her career.

One of those hits, 2020’s BlackPink collaboration “Ice Cream,” inspired an ice cream flavor by Serendipity brands, a label owned by famed Upper East Side dining staple, Serendipity 3, which Gomez was an early investor in. Oh, we forgot to mention — she’s an investor too!

Serendipity Brands make a variety of premium quality ice cream flavors available in a few East Coast states as well as nationwide online (we’ve spoken well of them before). The brand’s ice cream flavors are beloved for being rich, creamy, pop-culture hip (they have a Friends flavor), and special-ingredient packed, and Selena Gomez’s Cookies & Cream Remix follows that trend.

Gomez worked alongside the brand, tasting a variety of flavor combinations until she landed on a winner.

We dug our spoons into a pint to see if this flavor lives up to the infectiousness of the song that inspired it or if it’s a simple cash-grab using a beloved celebrity’s name.

Selena Gomez’s Cookies & Cream Remix

Retail Price: $7.99 (per pint)

Like Chance The Rapper’s easy-to-love Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, the strength of Selena Gomez’s Serendipity flavor is its obviousness. Gomez isn’t throwing us a curveball or trying to challenge our taste buds, she’s taking a simple classic — cookies & cream — and giving it a minor remix that keeps it interesting.

It’s like sampling Lauryn Hill or asking for an Andre 3000 feature — you sorta know it’s going to be a hit at the outset.

Cookies & Cream remix features pink vanilla ice cream with a generous Moose Tracks fudge swirl with bits of broken Oreo cookies, or in this case, “chocolate sandwich cookies,” peppered throughout the ice cream. I tried to sample each element of this ice cream but it’s so well blended and mixed in, it’s hard to get a spoonful that doesn’t feature the perfect cookie-to-ice-cream-to-fudge ratio. Note: that’s a good problem to have.

It’s not as soft and creamy as your typical cookies & cream ice cream or as simple in flavor, it’s much denser and relies heavily on the cookie-fudge combo to deliver a rich and filling experience. If you’re a fan of the simple flavor combination of cream and cookies, you might find this a bit overwhelming and decadent but if you’ve always viewed cookies & cream as a boring and safe flavor, you’ll appreciate how this takes its best elements and elevates them by doing just a little more.*

*If you’ll allow us to remix this sh*t even further, instead of a simple scoop, serve up a few scoops in a bowl, drizzle some warmed fudge over it, add some crushed peanuts, crushed graham cracker, a chopped banana, a sprinkling of cinnamon, whipped cream, and a bright red maraschino cherry for a next-level sundae experience.

The Bottom Line:

It’s not so mind-blowing that we’re going to tell you that you have to order a pint as soon as possible, but if you’re already a fan of Serendipity brands it’s a great addition to a great lineup of delicious flavors and an even better place to start if you’ve always been interested in giving the brand a try.

Follow our sundae remix and you’ll be in heaven.