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Entering Tuesday in Tokyo (Monday night stateside), all eyes were on the battle for the women’s 100-meter breaststroke between Lilly King from the USA and Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa. King’s finger-wag celebration in Rio made her an American swimming star and she came to Tokyo with high expectations, but after Schoenmaker edged out King in the semifinals there was plenty of drama between the two top qualifiers for the finals in the center two lanes.

However, it was the American in lane 3 that stole the show in the second 50, as 17-year-old Lydia Jacoby from Alaska, who got a quick mention at the top during introductions on the broadcast as an up-and-comer but someone expected to not be a top competitor yet, pulled away in the final stretch to stun both Schoenmaker and King to win the gold.

The reaction from the crowd at the watch party at the railroad terminal in her hometown of Seward, Alaska was tremendous — as was her mom filming it all on a gigantic iPad from the parents watch party in Orlando.

On the broadcast Rowdy Gaines said the entire state has one Olympic-sized pool (50 meters) and that she swims in a 25-yard pool, but she pulled off the race of her life for Olympic gold on the biggest stage of them all. Her post-race interview was everything you’d expect from a 17-year-old who just won a gold medal at the Olympics.

It is an incredibly cool moment for Jacoby, who will surely see those lofty expectations shifted onto her young shoulders for the next three years leading up to the Paris Games, but for now she can revel in one of the greatest moments any athlete can have.

Donald Trump on the promise that he would overhaul, if not destroy, the Republican Party. That meant being mean to the Bush Dynasty. He spent a good chunk of the primary debates gleefully mocking opponent Jeb Bush, and pretty much everyone in the family. That didn’t stop one of the family members — Jeb’s son George P. Bush — from spending months sucking up to the former president, hoping he’d endorse his run for Texas Attorney General. And on Monday, we learned he evidently didn’t suck up hard enough.

According to The Hill, Trump surprised the Bush scion by instead endorsing incumbent Ken Paxton? What did Paxton do to impress him, apart from not being related to Jeb Bush? Well, filing a fruitless lawsuit a few months back against the Supreme Court over 2020 election results probably didn’t hurt.

It wasn’t for lack of trying. George P. has spent months, even years openly kissing the Trump ring, despite how he treated his own father. He was the only Bush to publicly endorse him in 2016. He even made koozies embossing Trump’s line that he was “the only Bush that likes me.” As recent as last month he was bragging about meeting with the one-term president, touting how they were working “together to Keep America Great.”

But Trump is a fickle one, with admirers seeking his love, despite him being a failed blogger who lives in resorts with strangers. And now George P. will have an even more awkward time at family reunions than usual.

When the news broke, were people quick to rub it in? Boy, were they.

But it’s fine. He’s still in the race, which means there’s a chance sans Trump, however slim. And if that fails, he’ll still have a gig: commissioner of the Texas General Land Office.

(Via The Hill)

Billie Eilish has had an incredible rise over the last few years. Releasing her debut album When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? in 2019, the young singer-songwriter followed that up very quickly with a second album, Happier Than Ever, that’s due to drop later this week. With plenty of singles from the record already out in the universe, older hits like “Therefore I Am” and “My Future” have given way to new fan favorites like “Your Power” and my personal choice, “Lost Cause.”

In the meantime, Billie has been on something of a press tear, covering Vogue and breaking Instagram records while she’s at it, and sitting down for an in-depth video interview with Vevo. Speaking on the sound and feel of the record, she let her fans know that one of the major inspirations for the album was Frank Sinatra, which might be why her ideal vision of how listeners encounter the music for the first time is a little bit old school, too.

“You can listen however you want,” she began. “But I would love — if your car has nice speakers, or your friend’s car has nice speakers — it’s raining, you’re in a nice car with a good sound system. Turn it up, and just recline and close your eyes, and listen. That’s what I hope people will do. But listen however you want, it’s up to you.”

The news also hit today that Happier Than Ever has become the most pre-added album in Apple Music history with over a million pre-adds. So it looks like this album is shaping up to be just as successful as her last one. Now, who is going to let me borrow their nice car with great speakers for my first listen?

A few years after 2018’s Vide Noir, Lord Huron returned with their fourth album, Long Lost, in May. It’s an album full of captivating tunes, including “Love Me Like You Used To,” for which the group just shared a new video. The clip follows a mysterious visitor to the Whispering Pines Museum, whose purpose eventually becomes clear.

In a May interview, Ben Schneider said of the inspiration behind the album, “We’ve been working in our studio, Whispering Pines, for about seven years now, made the past three records there, and become more of a center piece of the band. […] It’s been there since the ’70s. There’s some info about it, but it’s a little sketchy, so we kinda… It’s a very haunted feel, it’s very stuck in a time warp. The decor is all the original stuff from the ’70s, and we had to replace a lot of the electronics and equipment, but it has this very haunted, trapped-in-time feel. So, we’ve invented characters that we imagine haunting it, or people who have passed through in the past, and writing from their perspective became the concept of the album.”

Watch the “Love Me Like You Used To” video above.

Long Lost is out now via Whispering Pine Studios Inc./Republic Records. Get it here.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is in trouble. There’s a recall election coming for him in mid-September, with Republicans furious about how he handled the pandemic. (Maybe he’ll be replaced by…Randy Quaid?) Newsom’s response has come under scrutiny by many, but the majority of his critics on the right aren’t so mad much about the cases. They’re mad that he closed down much of the state in the first place, in an attempt to save lives. But the backlash hasn’t quelled Newsom’s passion in fighting the virus, as evidenced by his next-level Twitter fight with vaxx skeptic Marjorie Taylor Greene.

On Monday, Greene — who appears to spend most of her time yelling at people online or in real life, but now on the tax payers’ dime — came for Newsom, reminding him about why conservatives hate him. “you know what is exhausting to the people of California? Your communist dictatorship,” she wrote on Twitter. Greene has a history of making ill-fitting comparisons between America and things that happened during World War II, so he equated a dictatorship with what happened most places around the country: “Shutting down businesses, closing churches, schools, and beaches is disgraceful.”

But Newsom wasn’t having it. “Disgraceful? Here’s a word – murderous,” he wrote back, stepping it up a few rungs. “Your anti-vaccine lies are literally killing Americans. Your own supporters are following you off a cliff and into the ICU. Come clean about vaccines — they save lives.”

A portion of the Republican world has done a 180 on the vaccines. Once they either shrugged them as unimportant or treated them with outright hostility. Now even Fox News is begging their viewers — who now make up the vast majority of COVID-related deaths — to get one. Greene, like Tucker Carlson, has stuck to her guns. And while a governor calling out someone on Twitter doesn’t pack the visceral punch of, say, a Montana man quietly telling Carlson what he thinks about him to his face, it’s not nothing.

After the revelations from the The Framing Britney Spears documentary led to an outburst from the pop star herself, it looks like the walls around Britney’s conservatorship are finally crumbling down. Although she cryptically stated that fans still don’t know the true nature of her conservatorship, she’s also slammed those closest to her who “never showed up” when she needed them to. Now that the singer is finally able to retain her own lawyer, Matthew Ronsengart, he’s officially filed to remove Jamie Spears as one of Britney’s conservators.

According to The New York Times, the filing calls her case a “Kafkaesque nightmare” and pointed to “serious questions abound concerning Mr. Spears’s potential misconduct, including conflicts of interest, conservatorship abuse and the evident dissipation of Ms. Spears’s fortune.” Removing her father is the first step in dismantling the conservatorship, but further filings indicate that pressing charges against Jamie for conservator abuse might take precedence.

“There might well come a time when the court will be called upon to consider whether the conservatorship should be terminated in its entirety and whether — in addition to stripping his daughter of her dignity, autonomy and certain fundamental liberties — Mr. Spears is also guilty of misfeasance or malfeasance warranting the imposition of surcharges, damages or other legal action against him,” the filing continued.

Britney’s new lawyer said he considered this “the most pressing issue facing Ms. Spears: removing Mr. Spears as conservator of the estate.” He also filed for a new accountant to control Britney’s finances, Jason Rubin, arguing that if she had the capacity to retain counsel, she also had the wherewithal to appoint a new money manager. This looks like the first step of many for Britney when it comes to restoring her autonomy and dignity, and she’s even credited the #FreeBritney movement with helping her gain the courage to do so.

Living a simple and happy life, Chow Yun-fat plans to give his around $700 million fortune to charity, Hong Kong movie site Jayne Stars reported.

Chow Yun Fat was born in Lamma Island, Hong Kong, to a mother who was a cleaning lady and vegetable farmer, and a father who worked on a Shell Oil Company tanker. Chow grew up in a farming community, in a house with no electricity.

He would wake at dawn each morning to help his mother sell herbal jelly and Hakka tea-pudding on the streets; in the afternoons, he went to work in the fields.

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His family moved to Kowloon when he was ten, and at 17, he left school to help support the family by doing odd jobs, including bellboy, postman, camera salesman, and taxi driver.

His life started to change after college when he responded to a newspaper advertisement, and his actor-trainee application was accepted by a local television station. He signed a three-year contract with the studio and made his acting debut.

Chow became a heartthrob and familiar face in soap operas that were exported internationally.

The 63-year-old Chinese actor said in an interview this year that he plans on donating his entire fortune to charity, China Daily reports.

Active in in the movie industry for over four decades — Chow is best known in Asia for his collaborations with filmmaker John Woo in the heroic bloodshed-genre films “A Better Tomorrow,” “The Killer and Hard Boiled”; and in the West for his roles as Li Mu-bai in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and Sao Feng in “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”

One could be forgiven for thinking that with this vast wealth, Chow Yun Fat lives a luxurious lifestyle, that consists of expensive cars and sumptuous mansions.

Instead, Chow is shown to be fairly frugal – often opting to take public transit and doing charity work rather than spending money on himself.

Despite his massive wealth, Chow Yun Fat leads a very simple lifestyle, reportedly spending just $800 HKD a month on himself. That’s a little over $100 USD.

He used his first-generation Nokia phone for over 17 years before making a switch two years ago to a smartphone – only because his Nokia stopped working.

Never ostentatious, Chow can often be seen shopping at discount shops. He expressed, “I don’t wear clothes for other people. As long as I think it’s comfortable, then it’s good enough for me.”

Chow spends his free time on healthy pursuits such as hiking and jogging, and often when he is recognized will happily stop and pose for the cameras.

Chow’s wife, Jasmine Tan, previously disclosed his net worth and his plan to donate it to various charities. Establishing their own charity several years ago, Tan supports Chow’s decision in giving his money to different causes.

On his reason for giving away his fortune, Chow smiled, “The money’s not mine. I’m only keeping it safe for the time being.”

Expressing that money is not the source of happiness, he added, “My dream is to be a happy and normal person. The hardest thing in life is not about how much money you earn, but how to keep a peaceful mindset and live the rest of your life in a simple and carefree manner.”

This article originally appeared on BrightVibes. You can read it here.

“And to you, underclassmen, who have to endure all the things the school throws at you for two or three more years. A school where the administration closes their eyes to everything that happens at the school. Their school. The sexual assault, the bullying, the depression, the outcasts. They do nothing to fix it.”

High school senior Charles Chandler made his mark when delivering his graduation speech at Heritage High School on Wednesday, June 5th, 2019. The student, who made multiple references to the abuse he and others allegedly endured while attending the Vancouver, Washington-based school, used this platform as a means of expressing a disheartening reality many allegedly face on a daily basis.

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Charles Chandler Graduation Speech 2019 Heritage High School

www.youtube.com

Upon listening to Chandler’s speech, it’s clear from the rousing response from his peers that the senior’s words resonated. Look, this is high school. Ask anyone about their own school experience and it probably won’t take long before you, too, will hear stories about harassment, bullying, or even sexual assault.

As serious as these claims are — the higher-ups at Heritage High School allegedly turned a blind eye to a number of such instances — it seems that the institution is more-so focused on preserving their image in the end. According to Katu2, after Chandler decided to “go off book” from his pre-approved speech, the school revoked his invitation to walk in this year’s graduation ceremony.

@Heritage_HS so you say this student was “bullying” and “harassing” you but he was saying the truth ?? and you know… https://t.co/Ra5omjWiXr

— meg⁷ (@vamploss)
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So #HeritageHighSchool got mad about #CharlesChandler calling out the bullying and sexual assault they turn a blind… https://t.co/m18GyflQRQ

— Jess (@So_Many_Nopes)
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“I don’t think they should be capable of stopping me from walking at graduation for expressing my First Amendment rights,” Chandler said, before revealing that multiple peers reached out to him with their own stories of abuse and the lack of action taken by the school’s administration.

“I tried getting help and there wasn’t really much help given,” revealed Ethan Wheeler, Chandler’s close friend.

The young man chose to stick by his words, even after the school’s administrators offered him “a restorative solution” in order to get his walking privileges back, and his father Shane has stayed 100% in his son’s corner. “I think Charles is learning 100 times more from his stand and looking out for other people,” he said. “Hopefully, this will cause a little change.”

Will Chandler’s call-to-action spark any sort of progress? That remains to be seen. But his words did have a big enough impact to spark the creation of a petition at Change.org. As well, his protest speaks to a bigger problem that teenagers all across the country are dealing with. Simply put, High school bullying is on the rise. So is teen suicide. And while we’re not posing the notion that one directly correlates to the other … there is definitely a connection here.

@JonathanTurley Sadly we could remove Heritage High School and insert nearly any other school and the story would b… https://t.co/RSgRo9qplW

— Steve VanSky (@SteveVanSky)
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As someone who was bullied in a high school, for nearly all 4 years, where administrators and staff did little to n… https://t.co/dgp26GEZGQ

— Blandis (@BlandisTweets)
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With so many obstacles high school students face, schools seem to be looking less and less as sanctuaries for learning, and more as places where safety is constantly put into question. Is there anything administrators can do to ensure kids feel safe inside these walls? Simply listening to their worries and taking their reports of abuse seriously is probably a good start.

Ever since John Mayer compared his latest record, Sob Rock, to a sh*tpost, we all knew it was going to be a thing of beauty. Damn, if it isn’t his best record in years, and I even *liked* Paradise Valley! Anyway, the record is doing really well because it’s a project where he’s embracing his “tuneful cheeseball” self. But that’s not a diss, there’s something to be said for simply owning who you are, and Mayer has always been at his best when he’s writing introspectively catchy songs that delve into messier narratives than the perfect package of a pop hit.

As the album landed in the the No. 2 position on Billboard chart this week, beat only by Pop Smoke’s posthumous release, Faith, the singer-songwriter took to Instagram to reflect on his legacy.

“I’ve been making music for a while now,” he wrote on Instagram. “I’ve had my rocket ride years, my figure-it-out years, and most recently the years of having settled into myself and proudly passing the love of music on to others. That’s how the story goes, if you’re lucky. I don’t know what to make of still having a seat at this table. I just don’t. I only know it has everything to do with you. So thank you. For inhabiting the space inside the music I’ve made, and most importantly – for giving me the opportunity to feel this kind of success with my true, fully assembled self. This is a new beginning. With love and gratitude, John.”

In his post, Mayer shared Pop Smoke’s cover, along with Olivia Rodrigo and Doja Cat, who took the No. 3 and No. 4 slots on the album chart, respectively. And while it’s cool to see him honoring his peers, it’s also good context for the success of this record! For him to be slated alongside those three much younger stars says a lot about his staying power. If you do go check out Sob Rock I recommend starting with “New Light,” easily the best song on the record.

Congrats John! Now, who’s ready to let bygones be bygones and have him hop on the upcoming “Dear John” (Taylor’s Version) for a sick guitar solo?

Due to the fact that DaBaby keeps engaging in strange behavior like spouting off homophobic nonsense, and collaborating with Tory Lanez, the rapper who is trying to gaslight Megan Thee Stallion about their violent altercation that led to her getting shot last year, fans are quickly turning on the North Carolina breakout star. They’re turning so fast, in fact, that a new mashup replaces him on the remix of Dua Lipa’s hit single “Levitating” with a verse from Megan instead.

Since Dua and Megan themselves let us know they can’t wait to collaborate, fans took matters into their own hands and forced the issue. Some internet geniuses slapped Megan’s verse from her Phony PPL collaboration, “Fkn Around,” into the breaks where DaBaby’s verse formerly existed. They even went so far as to graft clips of Megan in the “Fkn Around” video into the “Levitating” visuals. When I tell you that the next generation has me in awe at least once a week! Check out the new fan-made clip, along with the original remix version below, so you can see how seamless the new version is. Above, I’ve also included the original Phony PPL song, because it’s also incredible and underrated. The internet, man, it’s the gift that keeps on giving.