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Earlier this week, Republican Senator Ted Cruz introduced a new bill that would essentially send migrants to liberal cities in what essentially amounts to payback for President Joe Biden loosening immigration restrictions at the border. Titled the “Stop the SURGE Act,” Cruz’s bill specifically targets locations frequented by Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama, and other “Democrat elites.” Here’s a passage from the bill via Cruz’s campaign website:

For the past ten months, President Biden and his administration have willingly surrendered the United States’ southern border to dangerous criminal cartels, with no thought given to the South Texas border communities like McAllen and Del Rio, which are running low on resources from dealing with this massive influx of illegal immigrants. That’s why today I am introducing this crucial legislation to alleviate the massive overload at the southern border by establishing new ports of entry in Democrat-led communities such as North Hero, Vermont, where Bernie Sanders spends his summers, and Martha’s Vineyard, where Democrat elites host their cocktail parties.

Naturally, Cruz promoted the bill on Fox News where he performed some kind of weird British accent in an effort to mock… New Englanders? It was all very strange.

As is often the case whenever Cruz speaks, the Texas senator is getting roasted alive on Twitter where people are bringing up his infamous Cancun trip as well as his Ivy League education from the same liberal areas he condemns:

More reactions noted that Cruz’s plan is actually a great idea, and that the liberal areas would gladly welcome the influx of new workers as many industries are currently plagued by labor shortages:

And others just got straight to the point:

(Via Ted Cruz, The Recount on Twitter)

Back in 2019, Tekashi 69 was sentenced to two years in prison for his involvement in a federal racketeering case. The rapper was eventually released early due to a COVID outbreak in his detention facility, but the same can’t be said for Tekashi’s former manager Shotti, aka Kifano Jordan. Shotti was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2019 following two firearm charges. Now, he’s reportedly requesting new legal counsel. The reason? He can’t afford a lawyer.

According to a report from Complex, Shotti put forth a motion with the US Court of Appeals earlier this week, asking to be appointed an attorney to “aid in presenting issues” with his case to the court. Shotti’s motion claims he’s too low on cash to hire a lawyer, stating he has just $1,200 in “cash on hand or money in savings or checking accounts.” If Shotti’s motion is approved, he’ll be appointed Federal Public Defender or a private attorney compensated under the Criminal Justice Act.

Shotti’s legal documents state he’s been held in isolation under pandemic restrictions, which he says prohibits him from being able to research his appeal efforts. “[Shotti’s] case is complex and beyond any understanding he has of the law and its procedures,” his filing states. “The petitioner desperately needs the help of legal counsel to properly prepare the issues and supporting facts and laws to support each issue that will be presented before this honorable court.”

Read Complex’s full report on Shotti’s recent legal documents here.

With Halloween right around the corner, it’s the perfect time for the spooky Seattle grunge rapper Ghoulavelii to stop by the Sessions set to let listeners know he’s “WTFS” — that’s “with the f*ck sh*t” for those not-well-versed in Gen-Z-speak.

The punky, grungey trap rapper has been active for a few years, garnering attention as more of a rock adherent throughout high school. However, as the walls between those darker, more underground scenes and the super popular trap rap scene eroded due to the explosion of SoundCloud rap in 2015 — you know, the Lil Uzi Verts, Trippie Redds, and Playboi Cartis that currently run a sizable chunk of hip-hop — Ghoul also made the switch, seeing his buzz grow to the point of a record deal with Alamo Records.

His most recent body of work was 2020’s #ariesrevenge, released independently and distributed by Create Music Group (best known for publishing Tekashi 69’s debut album Dummy Boy in 2018).

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.

Anthony Edwards is fun. He tries to dunk all over opposing teams (and often succeeds) and is a highlight waiting to happen. He’s also a fun quote, talking about everything from his love of Irish accents to why he wasn’t able to buy lions as pets.

Edwards kicked off his second year in the league on a high note on Thursday night, scoring 29 points in the Timberwolves’ season-opening 124-106 win over the Rockets. At one point in the first half, he hit back-to-back three-pointers as part of him making six on the night.

After hitting those back-to-back buckets, it looked like Edwards was signaling for a timeout. While he was, he stressed after the game that he did not want Minnesota’s coaches to call one. Instead, he was giving a piece of advice to the coaches on Houston’s bench.

“Yeah I was tellin’ the coach to call a damn timeout,” Edwards said, per NBA reporter Dane Moore. “You need a timeout. I’m hot.”

The three-pointers showcase so much of what makes Edwards such a fun player. The first he hit was over Rockets center Christian Wood, scoring in isolation after creating space to get the shot off with his dribble. Then, after a steal, he hit a three-pointer in transition to put Minnesota up, 72-43.

Edwards, when he’s scoring like this, is fun and one of the best reasons to watch the Wolves. And no matter what, he will always put on a show.

This article originally appeared on 05.26.16

You’d be hard-pressed to find a place on Earth with more wall-based symbolism than Berlin, Germany.

But there, in the heart of Germany’s capital city, strangers sat across from one another, staring into each other’s eyes. To the uninitiated, it may look as though you’ve witnessed some sort of icy standoff. The truth, however, couldn’t be more different.

This was about tearing down walls between people.

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Image from Amnesty Poland.

Amnesty International recently released a video in which they show strangers breaking down barriers with the help of eye contact.

The refugee crisis is a contentious issue worldwide. Reasonable people can disagree about the right path forward in finding homes for people displaced by conflict or economic crisis. What’s sometimes missing from this conversation, it seems, is empathy.

But what if we could inject some empathy into that debate? And what if it was as easy as making eye contact?

Refugees sat across from Europeans. In many cases, the two parties didn’t even share a language; all they had was eye contact. The organization’s theory? That it should be enough.

Image from Amnesty Poland.

The video’s a powerful look at what it means to share in our common humanity. The eye contact bit? That comes from psychologist Arthur Aron.

Aron’s 1997 study, “The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness,” put forth the idea that a bond between two strangers can be created quickly through physical proximity and an exchange of specific personal information. In additional studies, Aron found that closeness and bonding can sometimes develop even more strongly through sustained eye contact.

In the nearly 20 years since publishing, Aron’s work — which has often been presented in a sort of “here’s how to fall in love in less than an hour” type of way — has seen a bit of an online resurgence and for good reason: It seems to work. Pretty neat, right?

Image from Amnesty Poland.

Refugees and borders aside, there are some related studies that have concluded roughly the same thing: Simply existing and interacting with other people can help you empathize with them.

For example, a 1997 study by Gregory Herek of the University of California at Davis suggests that straight people who personally know gay people are more likely to be accepting of gay and lesbian men and women. Further, the more gay people they know, the more likely they are to be cool about everything.

Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images.

Basically, these studies confirm the old adage: It’s hard to hate what you know.

If you personally know someone from a misunderstood group of people — whether that’s based on refugee status, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or other often generalized factors — it’s a whole lot harder to make sweeping statements about that group.

We’ve all got walls of our own that we wrestle with every day. What’s important is that we’re always working to tear them down.

So while you and I may not have been in that room in Berlin, there are almost certainly situations in which we, as a society, can benefit from making use of these same tactics in our own lives.

You can watch Amnesty International’s video, “Look Beyond Borders,” below.

Clarification 11/02/2017: This post was updated to clarify that Aron’s 1997 publication did not explicitly discuss his research into eye contact.

While it might not be too surprising to hear the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s boldest movie ran into a few troubles on its way to being made, a recently shared story about how director Taika Waititi almost missed out on making Thor: Ragnarok entirely is somehow both shocking and hilariously mundane. In the new book The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, authors Tara Bennett and Paul Terry shared the never-before-heard story about the day Waititi met with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige — and how close that meeting was to being canceled.

According to Bennett and Terry (via SlashFilm), Waititi was part of a small group of directors competing for a shot at directing the third entry in the Thor series back sometime in the mid-2010s. While the film’s producer, Brad Winderbaum, was set on getting Waititi on board to direct, the filmmaker still had to attend a meeting with Feige to go over his pitch ideas and essentially seal the deal. However, the New Zealand native — who was celebrating his birthday in Hawaii the day prior to the meeting — ran into a major problem when trying to leave the island: he didn’t have his passport.

Turns out, Waititi had accidentally mailed his passport back to New Zealand when sending some of his excess luggage home prior to heading out to Los Angeles. The director was then told by Marvel this meeting was the only available time Feige had to meet, meaning they would unfortunately have to pass on him if he couldn’t make it. While digging through his bags trying to find any piece of identification he could procure, Waititi ultimately found a single scrap of evidence: a letter from The Walt Disney Company thanking him for the writing work he did on Moana. While not the most compelling form of identification around, Waititi showed the TSA agents at the gate the letter, explained the situation, and — being such big Moana fans and now able to somewhat corroborate Waititi’s identity — the agents let him on the plane.

While we’ve all forgotten passports or important documents on the days we really needed to not forget them, I can’t personally say I’ve ever had luck this good when it comes to navigating the situation. However, Waititi did have such luck, and ultimately we lucked out too because Thor: Rangarok? That movie slaps, let’s be honest. Bennett and Terry also explained what the pitch Waititi presented to Feige looked like: a series of cut-together scenes from Big Trouble in Little China, Superman: The Movie, Sixteen Candles, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles all set to Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song.” Odd as it sounds, it all makes complete sense, and we’re glad that chaos came together in a really interesting way and forever changed the Thor universe.

While Kawhi Leonard won’t be suiting up for the Clippers anytime soon this season following offseason ACL surgery, he’s been keeping busy as a co-executive producer for the Culture Jam Vol. 1 compilation, scheduled to be released tomorrow via Virgin Music. Yesterday, Uproxx reported on the latest video drop from the album for A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie And Capella Gray’s “Bestie.” The track follows the first two releases from the album: Rod Wave and YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s “Everything Different” and “Waves” by Gunna and Polo G.

Now, one day ahead of the release, the full tracklist has been shared and it looks like Kawhi plucked the cream of the crop from All-Star Weekend function. “Gotta Have It” with Ty Dolla Sign, Stefflon Don, and recent Uproxx cover star Wale stands out as one to get hyped on. It should be noted that Leonard indicated that part of the proceeds will benefit the Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation. In addition to the album, Leonard is presenting the Culture Jam Sports And Music Festival (CJ21) featuring Cordae, Bluebuckslean, and others, held at the Shrine Auditorium in LA on November 21st.

Check out the tracklist below.

1. “Everything Different” Feat. NBA Youngboy and Rod Wave
2. “Waves” Feat. Gunna and Polo G
3. “Thankful” Feat. Lil Uzi Vert
4. “Bestie” Feat. A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Capella Grey
5. “Gotta Have It” Feat. Ty Dolla Sign, Stefflon Don, and Wale
6. “Everywhere You Go” Feat. Yung Bleu and NLE Choppa
7. “No Thank You” Feat. Bluebucksclan

Kawhi Leonard Presents: Culture Jam Vol. 1 is out 10/22 via Virgin Music. Pre-order it here.

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

Phoebe Bridgers is on top of the music world now, but it wasn’t always that way. Once upon a time, she was just a kid learning how to sing, and apparently, she did so by being annoying.

Bridgers and frequent collaborator Marshall Vore are among the participants in “Song Start,” a new series from Spotify For Artists. Spotify describes it as “a video and podcast education series focusing on songwriting, production, music, and mindset. It’s a jumping off point. It’s where the song starts!” In Bridgers and Vore’s video, they go over recording an acoustic demo track. As an aside, though, Bridgers notes, “I learned how to harmonize by being the annoying kid in the car who was like, “[sings],” like harmonizing with everything on the radio. But that’s how you learn!”

The clip mostly focuses on Bridgers using a small device called Spire Studio, which connects to a phone, to record a demo with individual vocal and guitar tracks. At the end of the video, Bridgers offers some solid advice for artists, saying, “Apologize for yourself as little as possible. When I show something and I’m like, ‘OK, it’s not all the way done and this is by no means finished,’ it’s just like, just do it, it’s fine.”

Watch the video above.

While Denis Villeneuve’s Dune might have a lot of things going for it — an all-star cast, great source material, an impressive budget, and some pretty decent reviews so far, to name a few — there’s one thing we here at UPROXX personally think stands out above all else: Oscar Isaac’s beard. Ever since the film’s first trailer hit YouTube last September, Isaac’s rugged-yet-regal appearance has caused quite a commotion and a frankly dangerous number of swoons and sighs. As such, it might come as quite the shock that Duke Leto’s lion-like mane almost ceased to exist.

In an interview with GQ, Dune makeup and hair department head Donald Mowat revealed the first concept art for Isaac’s character, Duke Leto Atreides, depicted the character as highly polished and clean-shaven.

“I personally didn’t see Oscar Isaac with the beard initially. When I was working on my Photoshops and concept characters — I kind of diligently pull reference materials — I didn’t. When I heard that this could happen and Oscar and Denis had talked about it, I was a little bit surprised.”

To be fair, Mowat had very good reason for envisioning Isaac this way. In Dune, author Frank Herbert describes the Duke as “tall, olive-skinned. His thin face held harsh angels warmed only by deep gray eyes,” which does cast the character in a pretty severe light that the decidedly kind-faced Isaac doesn’t quite have. Furthermore, in the 1984 David Lynch movie, Duke Leto is only given a slight beard (that looks far more incidental than the carefully sculpted one Isaac sports), and in the 2000 mini-series, the Duke is clean-shaven. Mowat said he ultimately had to go back to the drawing board when he heard Villeneuve and Isaac were all about the actor maintaining his facial hair, and ultimately found some pretty interesting inspiration.

Ultimately, Isaac keeping the beard actually served the film well in a number of ways. First and foremost, it helped accentuate the age gap between Isaac and his on-screen son Paul (Timothée Chalamet), as well as gave them a bit more of a physical connection: their hair. Whereas Chalamet’s pale, slender and Tim Burton-esque portrayal of Paul implies his character mostly takes after his mother, both his and Isaac’s boast some wild tresses that prove the two do have some relation.

“We kept [Paul’s] hair very wavy, a lion-like mane. He’s like the young lion to the old — this mane of hair blown in the sand and the dust and the spice — but he is Lady Jessica’s son. He’s pale, he’s statuesque, he’s beautiful, but he’s got his father’s hair.”

While we’re absolutely certain Isaac, an incredibly handsome and talented actor, would look and perform just as wonderfully without it, I think all parties are happier the upcoming Dune movie let Duke Leto keep his mane — even if it did take 14 weeks to grow and required 35 minutes of grooming a day to make it look camera ready. You can catch Isaac’s beard in all its glory starting at 6 PM ET today, when the film hits HBO Max, or Friday, October 22 in theaters.

There’s a new update in the ongoing saga of Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers. Days after he was kicked out of practice by Doc Rivers and suspended for a game, Simmons, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, came and left the 76ers’ practice facility without doing a scheduled workout at the team’s practice facility. The team did not have a full-on practice today, per Woj, after playing their first game of the season on Wednesday.

The 76ers next play on Friday against the Nets in what, in theory, should be a fun early-season showdown between two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. But with the continued absence of Kyrie Irving for Brooklyn and the Simmons situation for Philadelphia, there’s some shine taken off of this matchup.

What’s going on with Simmons now is also still unclear. Per Woj, he hasn’t practiced with the 76ers since reporting. Does Simmons’ continued absence and seeming unwillingness to engage with the team in a way that will get him back to the court force Daryl Morey’s hand at some point? Will they fine him again if he doesn’t participate in workouts? It’s clear now that he wants out and is trying to make thing uncomfortable in an effort to be traded. It’s just unclear if it will work, at least in the short term.