As excitement continues to build for the release of Raw N B: The Explicit Tape on May 20, the 41-year-old artist is teasing his new music with a NSFW photo.
E! News can exclusively reveal the cover for Nick’s mixtape, which features the All That alum sitting on a giant speaker lifting up his naked ex-girlfriend Jessica White as she looks directly into his eyes.
Nick dated Jessica in 2015 after his split from ex-wife Mariah Carey. At the time, Jessica was one of the faces of Maybelline. They had an on-again, off-again relationship until 2020.
“We just had unconditional love for each other and we were friends,” Jessica said on Hollywood Unlocked With Jason Lee in January 2021. “When you have a really close friendship with a person, you just know each other…He understood me and my craziness and I understood his and we just meshed. We got along well. We were actually in a really good space before it ended.”
“I don’t think America has anything against Ukraine,” Mr. Hagerty said on Fox News. “We don’t want to see them fail, but we have problems right here at home that we need to be paying attention to.”
Senator Roger Marshall, Republican of Kansas, said in a brief interview that he had voted against the aid package because $40 billion on top of the $13 billion “we already spent is just too much right now, too much all at one time.”
What people in his state are really concerned about, he said, is the southern border.
Both privately and publicly, Mr. McConnell has made the case that failing to stop President Vladimir V. Putin’s campaign in Ukraine would upend the international security order and pose a grave threat to the United States’ security. He made a similar argument in 2014, when he pressed for the United States to send aid to Kyiv as Mr. Putin invaded Crimea.
“This is not charity we’re involved in here,” he said on Sunday. “This is our interest — to help Ukrainians. Just like it is in the interest of NATO countries. This is not some handout. This is to prevent this ruthless thug from beginning a march through Europe.”
Behind closed doors, Mr. McConnell sought to bolster the Ukrainian government early in Russia’s invasion, his allies said, making the case himself and inviting top Ukrainian officials, including the ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, to speak to his conference.
“His message very early was, ‘We need to get the Ukrainians anything they need, as quick as we can get it to them,’ ” said Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri. “I think generally, the Congress is very receptive to helping people fight for freedom, and I think Senator McConnell got there very early.”
But whether Mr. McConnell will be able to maintain the support among Republicans remains to be seen.
It seems there’s nothing to talk about when it comes to a second season for Conversations With Friends and according to the show’s stars Sasha Lane and Jemima Kirke, that’s OK.
Lane expressed a similar sentiment regarding season two hopes, revealing she never thought people would want another installment of the story.
“Everyone wants closure,” Lane noted. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, think about it. Just go sit and spiral. Go do that on your own. We don’t have to show it for you.”
Arsenal star Granit Xhaka did not mince words on Monday evening, in revealing his frustrations with the club’s squad on the back of their damaging defeat to Newcastle United.
Mikel Arteta’s men were of course back in action a short time ago, making the trip to St. James’ Park in the knowledge that nothing but three points would suffice amid the club’s ongoing pursuit of a Champions League berth.
When all was said and done, however, to say that the Gunners’ efforts towards that came up short would be putting it lightly.
A frankly dismal display on Tyneside saw Arsenal dominated in every aspect of the game by an impressive Newcastle, to eventually slip to a deserved 2-0 defeat.
TWO!!
Bruno Guimarães doubles Newcastle’s lead! Arsenal’s top four hopes are up in smoke 😮 pic.twitter.com/s457bEUvlS
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 16, 2022
And one individual, as alluded to above, who was not shy in taking aim at Arteta’s troops on the back of the full-time whistle this evening was midfielder Granit Xhaka.
Speaking to the media post-match, Arsenal’s Swiss international was drawn on his side’s latest display, and ranted:
“We didn’t do what the gameplan was, not listening to the coach, doing our things. What happened was a disaster performance. We don’t deserve to play Champions League. We don’t deserve even to play Europa League. It’s very hard to take.”
Xhaka wasn’t done there, though, with the 29-year-old having appeared to call into question the mental strength of some members of the Gunners’ ranks, after being pressed on whether or not the occasion may have gotten to ‘a young team’:
“If someone is not ready for this game, stay at home. It doesn’t matter [about] the age, you can be 30, 35, 10, 18 – if you’re not ready for that or nervous, stay on the bench or stay at home. Don’t come here. We need people to have balls.”
“If someone isn’t ready for this game, stay at home”
Granit Xhaka says the Arsenal players didn’t deserve to be on the pitch today 😓 pic.twitter.com/OdC37x3TAG
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 16, 2022
Spurs in pole position
So, what does their defeat on Monday night actually mean for Arsenal’s top-4 hopes?
In reality, it has seen them all but ended.
Tottenham now occupy 4th in the Premier League table, sitting two points clear of their north London rivals with just a solitary game to play.
This means that Arsenal require Antonio Conte’s side to slip to what would be a shock defeat at the hands of Championship-bound Norwich City, whilst themselves getting the better of an Everton outfit who could still be battling for their top-flight lives at the Emirates.
The Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat are set to take each other on in the Eastern Conference Finals, with Game 1 taking place on Tuesday in FTX Arena.
Boston is coming in hot after blowing out the Bucks in Sunday’s Game 7 thanks to the hot scoring of Jayson Tatum, who has emerged as a top superstar as he averaged 28.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, 6.1 assists per game in 41.2 minutes per game. The man who will likely be taking on the challenge of guarding Tatum will be Jimmy Butler, who has reclaimed his spot as a top superstar, averaging 28.7 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game.
“Either team that we were to end up facing, whether it be Milwaukee or Boston, is a really, really, really good team,” Butler said per ESPN. “It is Boston. We’re looking forward to it. I guess you got to beat the best to be the best.”
Slowing down Tatum, who’s scored 30+ in four games and scored 46 points in Game 6 of the Boston-Milwaukee series, will be pivotal to Miami advancing to their NBA Finals since 2020.
Meanwhile, Butler has scored at least 40 points twice and dropped 30+ points three times.
Locking in on the two featured weapons of their respective weapons will be pivotal for the success of both Eastern Conference titans.
“He’s one of the best in the game right now,” Butler said. “As much attention as he draws on the offensive end — and then I think what’s really impressive is the way that he’s picked up his defensive intensity. You got to tip your hat to that and respect him; I think those are the guys that you want to go up against.”
Footage of Juventus star Paulo Dybala bidding an emotional farewell to the Bianconeri faithful is no doubt set to bring a tear to the eye of many a Juventini on Monday evening.
Massimiliano Allegri’s troops were back in action a short time ago, welcoming Lazio to Turin for the final home outing of what has proven an altogether underwhelming campaign.
Making the clash even more significant, though, was the fact that it marked the farewell outing of not one, but two of the club’s long-time stars.
First up was captain and leader Giorgio Chiellini.
Now 37 years of age, it had long been common knowledge that Chiellini was inching towards a Juventus farewell, with official confirmation of as much having been forthcoming earlier this month.
With 17 minutes played at the Allianz Stadium this evening, the Italian icon was therefore hooked to mark 17 seasons with the club, sparking rapturous cheers and applause throughout the stadium:
The most emotional goodbye, though, on the player side of things at least, was yet to come.
This arrived post-match, as the Juventus faithful, management and staff came together as one to wave off Paulo Dybala.
‘La Joya’ is set to become a free agent this summer, after those in a position of power in Turin came to the decision not to renew his terms after seven years of joint-success on the pitch.
And the gifted attacker couldn’t help but allow his emotions to get the better of him, breaking down in a flood of tears in taking in one final moment in front of a packed Bianconeri crowd:
Paulo Dybala was moved to tears after playing his last match at the Allianz Stadium 💔 pic.twitter.com/orheJPClvQ
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) May 16, 2022
Fiorentina next up
Both Chiellini and Dybala’s official final fixture as Juventus players will come this Saturday, when Allegri’s troops make the trip to Florence for a meeting with old foes Fiorentina.
The Old Lady, though, have long locked up 4th spot in Serie A, and a coveted place in the Champions League, leaving them with little to play for at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.
“I enjoyed it a lot,” the actor said about joining the franchise. “I didn’t know what to expect because you never know how it’s gonna be like jumping in and joining something that’s so established, but they were delightful.”
It wouldn’t be a Downton Abbey movie without amazing costumes, which Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary Talbot) said were much more comfortable this time around thanks to the lack of corsets. But according to Laura Carmichael, another clothing item was just as painful to wear.
“Now it’s probably the shoes,” she told E! News. “There’s nothing practical, really, about the clothes that these ladies wear.”
The actress really enjoyed her character Edith Pelham’s looks in the film, especially the one she wore during scenes set in the South of France.
“I had some kimono dresses and wide pants. I love the bathing suits. I thought they pulled them off and looked great. With vintage pieces, the costume department had to work very hard to keep everything fresh.”
The Covid-19 vaccines authorized for use today were developed at unprecedented speed and surpassed expectations in how well they worked. The billions of people who are protected by them have avoided severe symptoms, hospitalization and deaths. These vaccines are a scientific success beyond measure.
And yet they could be even better.
The enemy has evolved, and the world needs next-generation vaccines to respond. This includes vaccines that prevent coronavirus infections altogether.
When the early mRNA vaccines were first authorized in December 2020, the world was dealing with a different kind of pandemic. The dominant strain circulating had a relatively low capacity to spread between people. At that time, not only did the mRNA vaccines provide strong protection against severe disease and death, but they were also highly protective against infections and the virus’s spread as well.
But SARS-CoV-2 continued mutating, and in doing so it has given rise to variants that are more contagious and highly capable at skirting around protective antibodies, causing widespread infections, despite ever growing levels of immunity from vaccines and prior infections. Thankfully, after the booster shot, the mRNA vaccines are still very effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths, including against the highly contagious Omicron variant.
So, one may ask, if we can eliminate much of the severe disease and fatality risk through a combination of existing vaccines and treatments, why should we worry about infections?
Even mild infections can develop into long Covid, with people suffering long-lasting, debilitating symptoms. Data also suggests that groups like older adults who have been vaccinated but haven’t received their boosters may continue to be at a higher risk for the worst outcomes of Covid-19. Regular infections can pose substantial disruptions to people’s lives, affecting their ability to work and keep their children in school. There’s also no guarantee that people infected with Omicron will remain protected against infections with future variants.
One change that could make vaccines more effective is if they can stop the virus in its tracks, right when it enters the body. This could cut down on infections altogether, as well as the spread of the virus.
The currently available Covid-19 vaccines are injected into people’s arm muscles and are highly capable at combating the virus once people are infected. But they are not as successful at preventing people from getting infected to begin with. To do that, you ideally want to stop a virus from spreading right at the site where people get infected: the nasal cavity.
Groups of scientists, including myself, are working on nasal Covid vaccines for this very reason. Ideally, a nasal vaccine could enter the mucus layer inside the nose and help the body make antibodies that capture the virus before it even has a chance to attach to people’s cells. This type of immunity is known as sterilizing immunity.
By catching viruses right at the site of infection, antibodies induced by nasal vaccines can give the body a head start at combating the virus before it causes symptoms. Not only could nasal vaccines be better positioned to prevent infections, but they can also develop the same kind of immune system protection as other vaccines, and even stronger because this immune memory is at the portal of virus entry. These vaccines can establish highly protective memory B cells, which make faster and better antibodies to future infections, and memory T cells, which help kill infected cells and support the production of antibodies.
These kinds of vaccines have traditionally been considered more difficult to make. The mucus layer is a formidable barrier. The body also doesn’t generate a robust immune response by simply spraying any conventional vaccine up the nose. The approved nasal vaccine for the flu, called FluMist, uses weakened viruses to get into cells in the nose and spur an immune system response. But this approach is not safe for use in immunocompromised people.
The good news is that scientists like myself believe we have found a way around this problem for SARS-CoV-2. We have shown in animal studies that we can spray the virus’s so-called spike proteins into the nose in a previously vaccinated host and significantly reduce infection in the nose and lungs as well as provide protection against disease and death. Combining this approach with efforts underway to develop a single vaccine for a broader range of coronaviruses could potentially offer people protection against future variants, too.
One big question is how long immunity from a nasal vaccine would last. So far, in animal studies, antibodies and memory immune cells persist in the nose for months. Should this immunity wane over time, like with the other vaccines, using the nasal spray as a booster — potentially over the counter — every four to six months may make the most sense for this pandemic. This presents similar challenges as do other boosters, where uptake could be much higher, especially for high-risk groups. Encouraging people to get their boosters is critical. But the barrier for a nasal spray booster may be lower for many people than for a needle shot.
The world desperately needs a vaccine strategy that places immunological guards outside the gates to prevent viral invaders from infecting us. There are several other nasal vaccine approaches in various phases of clinical trials. And any successes we have in developing a nasal vaccine for Covid-19 will not be limited to this one virus. Nasal spray vaccine strategies can be applied to other respiratory pathogens, too.
While there are some remaining obstacles, the potential immunological and public health benefits of nasal spray vaccines are worth focusing on now and for years to come.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has, on Monday, provided an update on the fitness of star duo Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah.
Both Salah and van Dijk, of course, set pulses racing across the Reds fanbase a little over 48 hours ago.
First up came wide-man Salah, who was forced to limp out of the club’s FA Cup finale showdown with Chelsea after pulling up with what appeared to be a groin problem.
Stopper van Dijk then followed suit ahead of extra-time getting underway at Wembley, owing to what the Dutchman himself later described as a ‘little twinge’ in his knee.
Concerns, in turn, had since understandably spread regarding the fitness of the pair, just two weeks out from Liverpool making the trip to Paris for a Champions League showpiece clash with Spanish giants Real Madrid.
Speaking to the media earlier this evening, it therefore came as little surprise when the subject of both Salah and van Dijk’s wellbeing was put to boss Jurgen Klopp.
And though the German first confirmed that the pair have been ruled out of Liverpool’s trip to the south coast to face Southampton on Tuesday, he went on to reveal his hope that both will return to the fray to feature in at least some capacity against Wolves at the weekend.
The assumption, in turn, is that Salah and van Dijk will both have recovered full fitness in time for the Champions League final.
“No. Virg definitely not [available for Tuesday] but that was pretty much clear before the [Chelsea] game already that I thought, ‘OK, this is the game now.’ He played really a lot and then Saturday-Tuesday again. It was clear,” Klopp explained.
LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 14: Joe Gomez, Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip pose with the trophy following their side’s victory in The FA Cup Final match between Chelsea and Liverpool at Wembley Stadium on May 14, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
“They are both OK. So, the target would be for both that they can be involved again on the weekend. Properly involved, bench or whatever and a few minutes or start, I don’t know, we will see that, because that would then be perfect for the game [Champions League final].
“But if not then we take each day afterwards. But we are very positive, or [have] no doubt about the final. I’m pretty realistic about the Wolves game, but tomorrow rather not.”
“What makes people flee their homes? People flee from war, hunger, violence, extreme poverty, and even adventure or love. I left Lebanon. I was in real danger of being killed because I was born into the wrong body, and wanted to talk about it.
When I was nine, I looked at myself in the full-length mirror, and I couldn’t understand why I didn’t have a girl’s body. I identified with my five sisters. I thought I was one of them. I liked to play with them; I wore my mother’s clothes when I spent time with them. I barely spent any time with my brothers.
Beaten and rejected
When my father saw me like this, he beat me. He beat me so hard with a stick that I fainted, blood pouring out of my ears. Another time he stabbed me in the arm, and I still have that physical scar.
What you see isn’t who I am: I’m Leyla
He never accepted me. Though, I was girl. I knew it then, and today even though I am a father, I still don’t feel male. I am trapped in my body. I don’t want to have a beard. What you see isn’t who I am: I’m Leyla.
It hasn’t been easy, this choice, this life. I was bullied mercilessly at school. My father even tried to have me expelled. He kicked me out of the house, and I had to work for a living just to finish school.
Then it was university. You’d think I’d find some tolerance there. I did not – the same story: bullying and discrimination, bullying and discrimination. I know that education is the key, to success and tolerance. And education was like the forbidden fruit for me. The more they tried to obstruct my development, the more eager I was to use it to pursue my goals.
Covering up
After university, I worked in the media and kept my identity a secret. Little by little, I started to recognize more people like me. We communicated through secret signs in the daytime, but at night I concealed my beard, put on a wig and enjoyed the feeling of being free, being me.
I married a lesbian to appease my family and we had two wonderful children
Despite some precious moments, life was still complicated. Very complicated. I married a lesbian to appease my family and we had two wonderful children during our seven-year marriage.
Finally, I decided to stop denying who I was and work for our LGBTQI+ rights. I connected with other people in that community and became an activist, blogging and running an LGBTQI+ website.
So, there I was. Despite all the difficulties, the double life, and the taboos, I had a really good life in Lebanon: I had a home, a nice car, a good job, friends, and wonderful, beautiful kids…and trouble was coming my way.
‘Men were coming to kill me’
One night I was at home when I heard shouting from outside and knew men were coming to kill me. My life was a sin and deserved to die, in their eyes. I jumped from the balcony and ran away.
I didn’t take anything because I just wanted to avoid being caught and killed. I arrived at the airport at 3AM, and was in Istanbul before dawn.
When I arrived in Turkey, I felt inspired by the freedom that LGBTIQ+ community members enjoyed in society. They gave me hope that I could be the woman I am. I made new friends and began dressing up in beautiful dresses, doing my make-up, and going out in the city with them. However, even though there was solidarity in our community, in wider society, I faced the same discrimination and hate speech here that I had faced in Lebanon.
Leyla with her twelve-year-old son and thirteen-year-old daughter.
‘Mummy and daddy’
Then two good things happened. First, six months ago, my ex-wife helped with all the documents for children and my sister brought them here, and now they live with me. I’m mummy and daddy to them.
Second, I got in touch with a migrant centre run by IOM, which helped me with legal issues, like getting my kids into school and getting regular healthcare. They even helped me get a job in an Arabic restaurant.
I want to live as who I am without worry. And again, I have to thank IOM for helping me
Life is stable, the panic is over, and I have my children with me. However, this isn’t the end of my journey. Turkey has been good to me, by and large. I want to live as who I am without worry. And again, I have to thank IOM for helping me get a foot on that road.
I went to the provincial migration office for an interview, and after two days, I was granted conditional refugee status. I haven’t received any further information on resettlement.
Standing by
I’m standing by. I’m not sure where I will end up. I think it would be good to move to an English or French-speaking country because those are the languages I speak.
I want to finish by saying that discrimination is utterly futile. There is no benefit to it. It achieves nothing. It just damages people, and it damages society.
For me, it made me stronger, and now I have a new family: the LGBTIQ+ community. It’s not just my community and my family, though. It’s my life, and it’s a symbol of my identity. And I know one thing for sure, we are all born equal, and we all deserve to be treated that way.”
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