Inside: Last News

Theodore Olson, 84, best known as the attorney taking the Republican side in Bush v. Gore, has died.

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Variety published Wednesday, the “American Idol” alum, 45, paused talking about his Christmas album to randomly bring up the discourse around Mendes, 26.“By the way, did Shawn Mendes come out today?” Aiken asked. “Have you seen this video on his Instagram? I didn’t finish watching it because I looked at the time and I was like, ‘Oh God, I gotta get on the computer.'”“So I don’t know if he really did,” Aiken added. “I shouldn’t out him if he didn’t.”Aiken’s interview seemingly took place at the end of October when Mendes made headlines for saying he was still “figuring out” his sexuality at his concert in Colorado.

In a recent interview, Denzel Washington shared that a same-sex kiss scene he filmed for Gladiator II was ultimately cut. Washington, who portrays the wealthy but ruthless Macrinus in Ridley Scott’s sequel, revealed he had a kiss scene with another man that didn’t make it to the final version.

Newsweek that the backlash he has faced following his comments about transgender athletes is indicative of how divided the Democratic Party is.Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat, has faced heat since the election for saying that Democrats are out of touch with the majority of the country's views on issues such as allowing transgender female students to compete in women's sports.In a New York Times article last week, Moulton said Democrats "spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face." Leaders from the Democratic Party have now said Moulton is "playing politics.""No one issue lost us this election, but there is exit polling that shows that cultural issues played an outsized role," Moulton told Newsweek. "We lost, in part, because we shame and belittle too many opinions held by too many voters and that needs to stop."Following Vice President Kamala Harris' loss in the 2024 election to President-elect Donald Trump, Moulton said his party is leaning too heavily on identity politics rather than embracing the issues everyday Americans care about.Moulton told MSNBC that he was "just speaking authentically as a dad" when he told The New York Times that he doesn't want his two daughters "getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete."Massachusetts Democratic Party chair Steve Kerrigan told The Boston Globe that Moulton's comments "do not represent the broad view of our party." On Tuesday, Governor Maura Healey told reporters that Moulton is just "playing politics" and that "it's important in this moment that we not pick on particularly vulnerable children."Though she did not mention Moulton by name, his fellow Massachusetts representative, Democrat Ayanna Pressley, posted to social media that she would stand with the LGBTQ+ community."I will always stand with trans people and the entire LGBTQ+ community," Pressley posted to X, formerly Twitter.

spent nearly $120 million to help the criminally convicted ex-president retake the White House, and largely ran his ground operation in the swing states. Workers say they were tricked and threatened, stuffed in the back of seatless U-Haul vans and pressured to meet seemingly unattainable canvassing quotas.

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recent rise in book bans, with PEN America reporting that the 2022-23 academic year saw 3,362 instances of book banning, a 33 percent increase from the previous year.Frank Strong, a teacher in Austin, Texas, who tracks school board elections, wrote in his Anger & Clarity newsletter that nine of the 15 candidates who ran on banning certain books from schools lost their races."Voters decided again to reject some of the worst, most anti-book candidates," Strong wrote, adding, "And, what's more, these results continued a clear pattern, stretching back through four election cycles to November 2022, of voters successfully organizing to resist extremist takeovers of their school boards."Strong tracked the races using a 23-page document that he compiled, which includes information on the candidates, whether they are for or against book bans, and what they have said about censorship in the past.Strong also tracked whether candidates were supported by groups such as Moms for Liberty, which advocates for "parental rights at all levels of government" and has worked to prevent schools from teaching LGBTQ+ content.Moms for Liberty supporters say American schools should focus their efforts on the country's illiteracy rate instead of teaching children about "gender ideology." Newsweek contacted Moms for Liberty for comment via email outside normal working hours.In September, Moms for Liberty endorsed Brandi Burkman in her school board election.

Educators strive to ensure that the learning environment and curricula are without exception for all students. To do so, including LGBTQ+ representation in education plays a crucial role in achieving this goal. It helps affirm that the broad curricula impact student’s ability to accept, understand and respect one another. These attributes not only help in supporting LGBTQ+ students in schools but also make students better humans. According to a post by the American Bar Association in 2022, the Trevor Project a national organization focused on LGBTQ+ suicide prevention, found that a positive school environment made a larger impact on student’s lives than similarly positive environments at home, work, or elsewhere in the community.