Top World News
"Can't Walk": Girl Carries Injured Sister, Looks For Hospital In Gaza
10/22/24 4:10 PM
Amid the war in Gaza, a heartbreaking video of a girl carrying her injured younger sister through the streets in search of medical care has surfaced. The girl, visibly exhausted, was asked where she was headed.
"Today, When We Talk About India...": Dipali Goenka At NDTV World Summit
10/22/24 5:56 PM
On day 2 of the NDTV World Summit 2024, the discussion titled
'He was funny!' Media analyst says Trump took advantage of absent Harris at comedy dinner
10/18/24 2:54 AM
Donald Trump made at least one person laugh at the Al Smith charity dinner Thursday night, with a CNN media analyst saying the former president’s best moment came when he made light of his recent assassination attempts.“I thought he was funny,” CNN media analyst Brian Stelter said on the network moments after Trump concluded his comedy shtick at the New York City event that benefits Catholic charities. “I thought that he actually got a few great jokes in. I thought the best moment was when he talked about the assassination attempts and made light of what he’s experienced. Because I think he’s experiencing real trauma, real PTSD as a result of the shootings, but he is still able to have a light moment in this room.”ALSO READ: The menstrual police are coming: Inside the GOP's plan for total control over womenSecret Service agents thwarted an assassination attempt at Trump’s Florida golf course in September, two months after the former president suffered wounds in an attempt on his life at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump said at the dinner Thursday when speaking about the assassination attempts: “I said, ‘You know, was that luck…or was that God that did that?’ And I think it was God that did that. I do, I do."Stelter added that he thinks Trump “took advantage of the fact that Kamala Harris wasn’t there.” Harris declined to attend the event and instead remained in the swing state of Wisconsin where she had been campaigning through the day.“It is frustrating though that he will not pronounce her name correctly – it’s not difficult – and he goes out of his way to insult her in a way that I think is racially tinged,” he said.Watch the clip below or at this link.
'Smalltown Boy': Bronski Beat's gay anthem strikes chord 40 years on
10/17/24 3:45 PM
Forty years after its 1984 release, Bronski Beat's new wave hit "Smalltown Boy" has transcended generations to become an LGBTQ anthem for young and old alike. Narrowly spared the censor's axe in a Britain where being gay was only partially decriminalized, its tale of coming out and fleeing home has found a new lease of life with a younger audience on social media platforms including TikTok. Released on the band's debut album "The Age of Consent", its synth and echoed drum-driven groove rode the wave of popularity with a public increasingly hungry for the "Hi-NRG" electronic disco trend.Charismatic Scottish frontman Jimmy Somerville, later of The Communards, and his plaintive countertenor voice did the rest.Bronski Beat's label London Records knew they had a surefire hit on their hands as soon as they turned to the UK capital's iconic LGBTQ club Heaven, famous for its long-running G-A-Y night, to promote the single."Suddenly, as we were playing the record, you could see the dance floor get quieter, you know, as people were actually listening to the words," the label's former chief Colin Bell told AFP."And then the DJ did something, which he says to this day that he's never done before: he played the record and then he played it again, straight after," Bell added."And that was the moment we knew it was something special."Compromise and obscenityBut to launch the nascent band to stardom, London Records had to walk on eggshells to make sure the hit could air on radio and its iconic music video pass on television.Same-sex relations were in part decriminalized in England and Wales by the Sexual Offenses Act 1967 -- later extended to Scotland in 1980 and Northern Ireland in 1982.But the age of consent -- which gave Bronski Beat's debut album its title -- remained 21 years old for gay lovers, compared to 16 years for their heterosexual counterparts.And the same year "Smalltown Boy" came out, Frankie Goes to Hollywood saw their own gay club banger "Relax" banned from the BBC's airwaves on the grounds it was deemed obscene.But convincing Bronski Beat to compromise proved easier said than done."We would ask them to moderate some of the things that they had to do in order to get the records on the radio or on the TV," Bell said."There was some tension in the creative relationship we had," but "we compromised, we softened it and successfully," he added.Over the song's insistent upbeat tempo, Somerville weaves a mournful tale of a boy who has to escape the clutches of parenthood to assert his own identity, however painful that may be: "Run away, turn away," is the refrain.Yet the ex-label head underlined that its lyrics and accompanying music video are open to other, more varied interpretations."It didn't stand just for a gay boy being beaten up and taken back to his parents," Bell said."That could be a woman, that could be a girl, that could be anybody."'Transcends all divides'With 122 million views on YouTube, "Smalltown Boy" is experiencing a resurgence in popularity on social media.On TikTok, the song has trended as the focus of a challenge where users play the 1984 hit and ask their parents to dance like it is the 80s again.Patrick Thevenin, a journalist of LGBTQ music and culture, said he was "quite astonished by the support for 'Smalltown Boy', whether gay or straight, by all generations"."It's a classic of gay emancipation and coming out, but its strength lies in the fact that it transcends all divides of gender and sexuality."The record has "long since transcended the gay sphere", Thevenin said.Even if homophobic attacks and LGBTQ acts persist today, the journalist said he took that as proof that "society is progressing".In 2017, a remix of "Smalltown Boy" by Arnaud Rebotini brought the song to a new generation in France after it was included on the soundtrack for Robin Campillo's film "120 Battements par minute" about AIDS activism, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes.Three events are planned in London on Saturday to celebrate the album's 40th anniversary, with marches and concerts by LGBTQ artists at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.Somerville, long a recluse from the media spotlight, is not expected to attend.(AFP)
11 Of The Best Things To Do In London This Mother's Day And Paddy's Day Weekend
03/17/23 5:02 PM
It's a Mother's Day *and* Paddy's Day double whammy, people.View Entire Post ›
17 Very British Tweets About The Very British Queue To See The Very British Queen's Coffin
09/24/22 1:25 AM
"If you’re British, this is the queue you’ve been training for all your life. The final boss of queues."View Entire Post ›
2 dead and 22 rescued after migrant boat runs into trouble in rough weather near a Greek island
10/21/24 12:22 PM
Greece's coast guard says a search and rescue operation off the coast of the eastern Greek island of Samos has recovered the bodies of two people reported missing overnight after a boat carrying 24 migrants ran into trouble in rough weather
12/08/22 8:18 AM
Trevor Reed's release from Russia highlighted concerns over the continued detention of WNBA star Brittney Griner and another former Marine, Paul Whelan.View Entire Post ›
A Japanese police chief apologizes to a man acquitted after 50 years on death row
10/21/24 11:02 PM
A Japanese police chief has apologized to Iwao Hakamada for his decades-long suffering because of a wrongful conviction that had kept him on death row decades until last month when he was acquitted in a retrial
A London police officer who fatally shot an unarmed Black man has been acquitted of murder
10/21/24 11:42 AM
A London police officer who fatally shot an unarmed Black man has been acquitted of murder