Filipina wins transgender pageant in Thailand

PATTAYA, Thailand (Reuters) - Filipina Fuschia Anne Ravena was crowned Miss International Queen 2022 on Saturday at a contest in Thailand billed as the world's largest and most popular transgender pageant. "My first message to everyone is to spread love and peace and unity because that is the most important thing that we do as of the moment and what's happening in the world right now," said Ravena who wore a glittery-silver evening gown. The pageant, which was halted for almost two years because of the pandemic, resumed in the Thai seaside town of Pattaya during Pride Month to also celebrate gender equality, said Alisa Phanthusak, the CEO of Miss Tiffany Show, the organiser.

Karlie Kloss & Ivanka Trump’s Reactions to Roe v. Wade Being Overturned Shows There’s Still an Ideological Rift Between Them

On June 24, 2022, the landmark case of Roe v. Wade that made abortion a constitutional right was overturned by the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022. Many celebrities have taken to the streets to protest, including Karlie Kloss and Josh Kushner. Right when the news broke, Kloss and Kushner didn't hesitate to show their support by protesting.

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  Harry Styles says the overturning of Roe v. Wade marks a 'dark day for America'

  Yahoo Celebrity
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  Lizzo and Live Nation to donate $1 million to Planned Parenthood following Roe v. Wade decision

  Yahoo Celebrity

Navy SEALs 'Hell Week' autopsy reveals cause of death of Manalapan man four months later

The military autopsy of Navy SEAL candidate Kyle Mullen, a Manalapan resident who died hours after completing the grueling portion of SEAL training known as “Hell Week” in early February, revealed the cause of death as pneumonia and indicated that the 24-year-old went untreated until it was too late. Regina Mullen, Kyle's mother, received the report last week and shared its contents with the Asbury Park Press. Written by U.S. Army Regional Medical Examiner Wendy Warren and dated May 2, the report painted a grim picture of Mullen's final moments.

Senator in 2010 deposition: 13-year-olds can consent to sex

Before he became a leading voice for conservative causes on Capitol Hill, U.S. Senator James Lankford spent more than a decade as the director of youth programming at the Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center, a sprawling campground about 80 miles south of Oklahoma City that attracts more than 50,000 campers in grades six through 12 each year. In 2009, while Lankford worked at the camp, the family of a 13-year-old girl sued a 15-year-old boy who was alleged to have had sex with her at the camp. Lankford, who was not in Congress at the time, is not alleged to have had any direct knowledge of the alleged assault, has not been accused of any wrongdoing and was not a defendant in the lawsuit, which was settled for an undisclosed amount before it was scheduled to go to trial.

Georgia Democratic nominee for governor Stacey Abrams explains the change in her position on abortion: There is 'no place in that medical decision for ideology or for politicians'

Stacey Abrams said in a CNN interview that she had changed her perspective on abortion rights. The Georgia gubernatorial candidate was raised in a religious household and grew up being anti-abortion. Georgia Democratic nominee for governor Stacey Abrams explained in a Friday interview with CNN how her perspective on abortion rights has evolved over the years and how she came to support the right to abortion services after being raised in a religious household.

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  Stacey Abrams refuses to say whether she supports restrictions on abortions up to 9 months

  Fox News
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  Abrams says it is ‘very dangerous’ for women in Georgia following abortion ruling

  The Hill

My Daughter Almost Died At Summer Camp. Here's What I Wish I Told Her Before She Went.

"In the months following Eden's diagnosis, my husband and I practice scenarios in which our children advocate for their safety, their health and each other," the author writes. My daughter, Eden, will soon be diagnosed with a disease we had no idea she had. The camp nurse doesn't sound alarmed when she calls days earlier to tell me Eden has eaten very little.

At least 22 young people die in South African tavern

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) -South African authorities are investigating the deaths of at least 22 young people found inside a popular tavern in the coastal town of East London, provincial health officials and the presidency said on Sunday. State broadcaster SABC reported the deaths resulted from a possible stampede, but was scant on details as the exact cause of death remained unknown. The bodies will be transported to state mortuaries where relatives are expected to help identify both male and female victims, said Siyanda Manana, a spokesperson for the Eastern Cape provincial health department.

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  21 dead in South African nightclub; cause not yet known

  Associated Press
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  South African nightclub deaths: At least 22 young people found dead as police investigate cause - OLD

  The Independent

A group of Ukrainian women is selling their nudes to fundraise for the country's forces. They've raised over $700,000 in 3 months.

Ukrainian women are selling their nudes online to raise money for their country's troops. The project, named "TerOnlyFans," has already raised more than $700,000 since March. Its founder, Nastassia Nasko, told Insider she feels proud to have found a unique way to help Ukraine.

'Mitt Romney Republican' is now a potent GOP primary attack

But Trump-aligned Republicans hostile toward the Utah senator have made his name a recurring theme in this year's primaries, using him as a foil and derisively branding their rivals “Mitt Romney Republicans." Republicans have used the concept to frame their primary opponents as enemies of the Trump-era GOP in southeast Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The anti-tax group Club For Growth, among the most active super PACs in this year's primaries, used “Mitt Romney Republican” as the central premise of an attack ad in North Carolina's Senate primary.

Samuel Jackson Rips 'Uncle Clarence' Thomas For Risking Interracial Marriage In Roe Reversal

Actor Samuel Jackson slammed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as “Uncle Clarence” for jeopardizing the legal right to interracial marriage with the court's decision Friday to overturn of Roe v. Wade. The same rationale the conservative court employed to reverse the 1973 decision on abortion rights could now be used to eliminate the right to same-sex marriage, contraception and interracial marriage, which was protected in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia ruling, lawmakers and scholars fear. Jackson bashed Thomas as “Uncle Clarence” in a Friday night tweet, referring to the excessively servile Black character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's pre-Civil War novel “Uncle Tom's Cabin.”

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  Lizzo and Live Nation to donate $1 million to Planned Parenthood following Roe v. Wade decision

  Yahoo Celebrity
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  Tess Holliday says to 'stay mad' in the face over Roe v. Wade being overturned: 'They're going to do it next with gay marriage'

  Yahoo Life

Lauren Boebert Baffled by ‘Bricks’ Belonging to a Construction Site

“Permit's name: CAPITOL PAVING OF D.C., INC,” read one sign noting that parking near the construction site would be prohibited till the end of the month. As of Saturday afternoon, a crew of construction workers had covered the bricks with tarps and began pouring concrete in the back alley. Construction workers also told The Daily Beast that police contacted them and mandated that they cover the bricks.

Russia's Putin to make first foreign trips since launching Ukraine war

LONDON (Reuters) -Vladimir Putin will visit two small former Soviet states in central Asia this week, Russian state television reported on Sunday, in what would be the Russian leader's first known trip abroad since ordering the invasion of Ukraine. Russia's Feb. 24 invasion has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more and led to severe financial sanctions from the West, which Putin says are a reason to build stronger trade ties with other powers such as China, India and Iran. Pavel Zarubin, the Kremlin correspondent of the Rossiya 1 state television station, said Putin would visit Tajikistan and Turkmenistan and then meet Indonesian President Joko Widodo for talks in Moscow.

Record-breaking python discovered in Florida Everglades

Deep in the Florida Everglades, a team from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida made a shocking discovery when they came upon a sight they will likely never forget. The biggest Burmese python the team of three had ever laid their eyes on was just mere feet from them. According to the conservancy, this Burmese python broke the invasive species record for the largest ever caught in Florida.

My Husband and I Made This Mistake When Buying Land, and It Cost Us Thousands

We did a lot of due diligence with the property, including making sure we could build the house we wanted on the land and that we could live with the HOA rules. And we made sure it was affordable since we didn't want to take out a mortgage, because we wouldn't actually start building right away and we didn't want to make payments on an empty plot of land. But, unfortunately, we made one big mistake -- and it was a costly one.

Pro-life is not just opposing abortion, Vatican says after U.S. ruling

Anti-abortion activists should be concerned with other issues that can threaten life, such as easy access to guns, poverty and rising maternity mortality rates, the Vatican's editorial director said on Saturday. In a media editorial on the United States Supreme Court's ruling to end the constitutional right to abortion, Andrea Tornielli said those who oppose abortion could not pick and choose pro-life issues. "Being for life, always, for example, means being concerned if the mortality rates of women due to motherhood increase," he wrote.

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  Activist warns of crisis after abortion ruling

  Associated Press Videos
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  Vatican Says 'Pro Life' Activists Must Fight For Gun Control

  HuffPost

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas told his law clerks in the '90s that he wanted to serve for 43 years to make liberals' lives 'miserable'

In a 1993 New York Times article, a former law clerk of Clarence Thomas said he held a grudge against liberals. The conservative Supreme Court Justice was resentful of the media coverage of his confirmation hearing. "The liberals made my life miserable ... and I'm going to make their lives miserable," NYT reported he said.

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  Former law clerk to Justice Thomas, Kavanaugh speaks on abortion ruling

  NBC
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  Justice Clarence Thomas suggests Supreme Court could rethink decisions on contraceptives, same-sex marriage

  CBS-Boston

Ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani Assaulted By Grocery Store Worker In Staten Island

Controversial former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was assaulted by a ShopRite worker Sunday while campaigning for his son's gubernatorial bid in the city's Staten Island borough. The 78-year-old Giuliani was slammed in the back by an unidentified ShopRite worker, according to the New York Post. The assault reportedly left him shaken, the report said. “I was stunned,” eyewitness Rita Rugova-Johnson told The Post after the attack at the supermarket.

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  Rudy Giuliani Reportedly Victim Of ‘Assault’ By Grocery Store Worker

  TheBlast
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  Grocery store worker arrested for allegedly slapping Rudy Giuliani on the back

  WNYW

3-year-old girl found after disappearing from Gwinnett yard while playing with father

Gwinnett County police say a child who disappeared from her front yard while playing with her father has been found. Police say 3-year-old Max Clendenin and her father were playing together in front of their home at 3:20 p.m. on Saturday when he stepped inside for a moment.

"It's a terrible scene": At least 21 teens die in tavern mystery

At least 21 teenagers, the youngest possibly just 13, died this weekend after a night out at a township tavern in South Africa in a tragedy where the cause remains unclear. Many are thought to have been students celebrating the end of their high-school exams on Saturday night, provincial officials said. There were no visible wounds on the bodies.

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  At least 22 young people die in South African tavern

  Reuters
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  Police investigate deaths of 21 teenagers at S. African tavern

  AFP

Social Security Checks Could Soar in 2023: Here's How Much Extra Seniors Might Receive

For better or worse, Social Security is our nation's most vital social program. A recent survey from national pollster Gallup found that 84% of nonretirees plan to lean on Social Security as a "major" or "minor" source of income when retired. Considering how important the program is to the financial well-being of tens of millions of currently retired Americans, there's perhaps no announcement more universally awaited than Social Security's annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA).

Ginni Thomas left a voicemail for Anita Hill asking her to apologize for accusing Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment

Ginni Thomas left a voicemail for Anita Hill asking her to apologize for accusing her husband of sexual harassment. The voicemail came in 2010, nearly 20 years after Thomas' Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Thomas described the call to The New York Times as a "peacekeeping" attempt; Hill called it "inappropriate."

Grand Canyon won't seek volunteers to kill bison this fall

A bison herd that lives almost exclusively in the northern reaches of Grand Canyon National Park won't be targeted for lethal removal there this fall. The park used skilled volunteers selected through a highly competitive and controversial lottery last year to kill bison, part of a toolset to downsize the herd that's been trampling meadows and archaeological sites on the canyon's North Rim. Introducing the sound of gunfire and having people close to the bison was meant to nudge the massive animals back to the adjacent forest where they legally could be hunted.