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Rapper in Iran Sentenced to Death For Criticizing Regime

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Rapper in Iran Sentenced to Death For Criticizing Regime

A rapper in Iran who rose to prominence for his rhymes about Mahsa Amini’s death in 2022 and criticism of the Islamic Republic has been sentenced to death, his lawyer and rights campaigners said Thursday.

The death sentence handed down to 33-year-old metal shop worker Toomaj Salehi remains unclear, as even Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency and judiciary have yet to formally announce it.

However, the announcement attracted immediate worldwide criticism from US and UN experts, who saw it as a symptom of Tehran’s ongoing assault on all dissent following years of large rallies in the country.

“Art must be allowed to criticize, provoke, and push the boundaries in any society,” a panel of United Nations independent experts on Iran said in a statement Thursday.

The news broke on Wednesday, following a report by Iran’s reformist The Shargh newspaper reported that Salehi had been sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court in Isfahan, a key Iranian city recently attacked by an apparent Israeli attack. Closed-door sessions, secret evidence, and scant rights for people on trial are common in Iran’s revolutionary courts.

Rapper to Appeal Sentence

Amir Raisian, Salehi’s lawyer, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he had received notice of the death sentence against his client. Raisian said he intended to seek an appeal.

Salehi’s case arises from Amini’s death in 2022, following her arrest by police for not wearing a hijab to their liking. According to United Nations investigators, Iran was responsible for Amini’s death and forcefully suppressed mostly peaceful rallies during a months-long security crackdown that killed more than 500 people and jailed over 22,000 others.

Salehi rapped about Amini in one YouTube video, saying, “Someone’s crime was dancing with her hair in the wind.”

In another lyric, he prophesies the end of Iran’s theocracy. “Your entire past is dark, the government that sucked the light out of your eyes. We begin at the base of the pyramid and work our way up. This is the year of failure after forty-four years in power.”

His other songs were obscene, criticizing the all-volunteer Basij component of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and mentioning Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Salehi was first sentenced to six years in prison, but he was released after Iran’s Supreme Court returned the case to the lower court due to irregularities in his original sentence.

Released on Bond

Salehi was released on bond, but was arrested again in November after claiming in a video message that he had been tortured following his detention in October 2022. At the time, state media aired a video of him blindfolded and apologizing for his statements, which were most likely uttered under duress.

Iran’s judiciary refused to acknowledge the death sentence, despite IRNA referring to “reports” that he had received it.

A death sentence based on the reversal of a lesser sentence is exceedingly unprecedented in Iran, presumably indicating how seriously Iran’s theocracy took Salehi’s statements. It also comes after other journalists, activists, and singers have been targeted after the “Women, Life, and Freedom” protests against Amini.

An Iranian artist, who received a Grammy presented by US first lady Jill Biden, was condemned to more than three years in prison for his hymn supporting the 2022 protests Activists quickly denounced the rappers sentence.

“This grotesque manipulation of the judicial process aims to silence dissent,” Hadi Ghaemi of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran stated. “Toomaj’s detention arises from his public opposition to state tyranny. It is critical that supporters of free speech and dissent come together to demand his immediate release.”

Washington criticized the sentencing as well.

“This is just another example of the Iranian regime’s horrific and pervasive human rights abuses,” said State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel on Wednesday. “We once again condemn the Iranian regime’s … use of the death sentence as a tool to suppress people’s human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

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Jason Kelce Smashes Football Fan’s Phone

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Jason Kelce Smashes College Football Fan's Phone

Retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce destroyed a Penn State football fan’s phone after the alleged heckler called his brother, Travis Kelce, a fag.

In now-viral footage published on X (previously Twitter) on Saturday, Nov. 2, the retired Philadelphia Eagles great was seen accompanied by football fans outside Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa., for the Penn State-Ohio State game.

As the individual capturing the tape lifted a fist to Jason, 36, and called his name for a fist bump, another man nearby hurled the homophobic slur at the retired Philadelphia Eagles star.

Hey, Kelce. How does it feel that your brother is a queer dating Taylor Swift?” the man questioned, referring to Travis, 34, who has been seeing Swift since 2023. Jason turned around seconds later, snatched the man’s phone, and crushed it to the ground.

“Looked like a Penn State student was getting in Kelce’s face for no reason,” the original X user who submitted the video remarked. “Wild scene in State College.”

Additional footage on X shows Jason smashing the phone on asphalt before picking it up and walking away. The phone’s owner, wearing a Penn State hoodie at the time of the incident, was shown in many videos strolling closely behind Jason and recording him before the conflict occurred.

Another footage published on X, which appears to have been filmed after Jason shattered the man’s phone, showed the hooded Penn State supporter trudging through a mob to pick up his phone off the ground.

“Give me my phone, bro,” he seemed to say to Jason.

The NFL alum seized the gadget first, then stood in front of the man and asked, “Who’s the fag now?” Others appeared to interfere.

The incident occurred while Jason was at Beaver Stadium for an appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay. The Ohio State Buckeyes won Saturday’s game 20-13 over the Penn State Nittany Lions.

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Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold

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white

Shaun White, the Olympic snowboarding champion, already has an impressive medal tally, but his surprise proposal to Nina Dobrev deserves a gold medal.

On Wednesday, the couple announced their engagement on Instagram. Dobrev posted photographs of the two hugging under an arch of white roses and showing off her five-carat Lorraine Schwartz engagement ring.

“RIP boyfriend, hello fiancé,” Dobrev said in the caption.

However, the photographs only tell half the tale, as Shaun devised an elaborate plan to surprise Dobrev with his proposal.

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Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold

According to a Vogue interview published Wednesday, Shaun said he assembled a team of people from the couple’s inner circle and Vogue personnel to trick Dobrev into thinking she had been invited to an intimate dinner party with Anna Wintour.

White claimed that his publicist emailed Dobrev a forged invitation to the event, which was scheduled to take place at the Golden Swan in New York City.

Dobrev accepted the invitation, joking that Shaun made it “look so legitimate.”

He even asked Dobrev’s stylist to outfit her in Chanel for the event.

Dobrev said she recognized what was happening when she entered the venue and saw White standing beneath the flowery arch.

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Shaun’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold

“I went into shock,” Dobrev admitted, later adding that White “said all the right things” before she agreed.

According to the publication, after Shaun proposed, the couple partied into the early morning hours with close friends and relatives.

“Best night of my life,” Shaun captioned his Instagram story on Wednesday.

The duo first became romantically involved in 2020, and they have since publicly recorded their relationship, globe vacations, and White’s Olympic farewell on social media.

SOURCE  | CNN

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Hollywood Actress Teri Garr Passes Away at 79

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Hollywood Actress Teri Garr Passes Away at 79
Teri Garr, known for her roles in classics like "Young Frankenstein" and "Tootsie," has passed away at 79.

Hollywood actress Teri Garr, known for her roles in classics like “Young Frankenstein” and “Tootsie,” has passed away at 79. She died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” said publicist Heidi Schaeffer.

Admirers took to social media in her honor, with writer-director Paul Feig calling her “truly one of my comedy heroes. I couldn’t have loved her more” and screenwriter Cinco Paul saying: “Never the star, but always shining. She made everything she was in better.”

Throughout her career, the performer, often known as Terri, Terry, or Terry Ann, seemed destined for show business from a young age.

Her father was Eddie Garr, a well-known vaudeville comic, and her mother was Phyllis Lind, one of the original high-kicking Rockettes at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Their daughter began dancing classes at six and was performing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet companies by age fourteen.

She was 16 years old when she joined the road crew of “West Side Story” in Los Angeles, and she began starring in small roles in films as early as 1963.

In an interview from 1988, she described how she landed the role in “West Side Story.” After being rejected at her initial audition, she returned the following day dressed differently and was accepted.

Teri Garr, a comedian

Teri Garr then found steady work as a movie dancer, appearing in the chorus of nine Elvis Presley films, including “Viva Las Vegas,” “Roustabout,” and “Clambake.”

She has also appeared on various television shows, including “Star Trek,” “Dr. Kildare,” and “Batman,” and was a featured dancer on the rock ‘n’ roll music show “Shindig,” the rock concert performance “T.A.M.I.,” and a cast member of “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.”

Her breakthrough role was as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 thriller The Conversation. This led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who offered her the Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant role in Young Frankenstein if she could speak with a German accent.

“Cher had this German woman, Renata, making wigs, so I got the accent from her,” Garr once said.

The film established her as a great comic performer, with New Yorker film writer Pauline Kael calling her “the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on screen.”

Her big smile and off-center appeal helped her land roles in “Oh, God!” with George Burns and John Denver, “Mr. Mom” (as Michael Keaton’s wife), and “Tootsie,” in which she played the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange and discovers he has dressed up as a woman to revive his career.

 A gift for spontaneous humor

Teri Garr, best known for comedy, has shown in films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Black Stallion, and The Escape Artist that she can also tackle drama.

She had a gift for spontaneous humor, frequently playing David Letterman’s foil during early guest appearances on N.B.C.’s “Late Night With David Letterman”.

Her appearances grew so frequent, and the pair’s good-natured bickering so convincing that rumors of romantic involvement circulated for a while. Years later, Letterman acknowledged those early appearances with helping the program become a success.

During those years, Garr began to experience “a little beeping or ticking” in her right leg. It started in 1983 and expanded to her right arm, but she thought she could handle it. By 1999, her symptoms had gotten so bad that she saw a doctor and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

After disclosing her diagnosis, Garr became a spokesman for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, giving hilarious remarks at events in the United States and Canada.

Source: AP

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