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Russell Brand Faces Serious Allegations of Rape and Sexual Assaults

Russell Brand Faces Serious Allegations of Rape and Sexual Assaults

(CTN News) – Russell Brand, during the height of his stardom, has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse over a seven-year period.

The Sunday Times, the Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches worked together to investigate the claims between 2006 and 2013. Russell Brand strongly refutes the claims.

The Dispatches video that aired on Saturday night featured interviews with five alleged victims, four of whom wished to remain nameless.

The Times publications claimed they notified the media personality’s representatives of the claims eight days before publication, providing them with data and material to help him recollect the instances in question.

According to published reports, Russell Brand’s attorneys initially stated they were unable to comment due to the “large litany of questions” and the decision to grant the women’s demands for anonymity.

According to the article, one of the women said that Russell Brand began dating her when he was 31 and she was only 16. She claimed that he called her “the child” during their three-month relationship and was emotionally abusive and controlling.

According to her story on Dispatches, the host allegedly “forced his penis down her throat,” causing her to choke.

The Sunday Times stated that another woman claimed Russell Brand raped her in his Los Angeles home in 2012, and that she sought help at a rape crisis hotline the same day.

A message she allegedly sent him read: “When a girl say[s] NO it means no.” She allegedly told him she felt threatened and taken advantage of by him. Brand reportedly responded by expressing “very sorry,” as reported by the tabloid.

After meeting him at an after party for his Brand X chatshow, the woman claims she was too afraid to go to the police about the alleged rape. She informed Dispatches about her experience.

According to the article, a third woman who worked with Brand in Los Angeles claims he sexually abused her and threatened legal action if she notified anybody about her complaint. According to the Sunday Times, a fourth woman said Brand “sexually assaulted” her and was “physically and emotionally abusive” to her.

The article stated that Brand had been accused by multiple people who did not know one other and who had decided to stay anonymous of physical and emotional abuse, sexual harassment, and bullying.

The publication also said that in 2020, the woman who claimed to have met Brand when she was 16 (whom it called “Alice”) contacted Brand’s previous agency Tavistock Wood to denounce his alleged inappropriate actions and to want an apology.

She claimed he told her he’d respond after he got back from a health spa. She claimed that the one she received was issued by solicitors for Brand, who denied the allegations and accused her of doing so for financial gain.

Some of Brand’s former coworkers at Channel 4 have said that he asked them to introduce him to young women in the audience whom he thought attractive so that he might meet them after the shows had been filmed.

The Guardian reached out to Tavistock Wood over the weekend, and a spokesperson stated, “Russell Brand categorically and vehemently denied the allegation made in 2020, but we now believe we were horribly misled by him.” TW’s business relationship with Brand has ended.

One event involving Brand was described as a “alarming display of aggression and disrespect” by sources who spoke with the journalists doing the investigation. As the Sunday Times reported, Brand’s treatment of women became a “open secret in radio and TV production” after the paper heard of it from anonymous sources.

It also cited Alice, who later worked for Channel 4, claiming that several people were worried when it was suggested that Brand host a show. Women who have worked hard to break into this field are being told they can’t be a part of the crew for certain shows out of concern that they will be raped or harassed if they appear on them. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said to the publication.

Dispatches highlighted an interview DJ Russell Brand conducted on his BBC show with the late Jimmy Savile, who was discovered as a chronic sexual abuser after his death.

On Friday night, Russell Brand took action to refute what he called “very serious criminal allegations.” He mentioned receiving letters from a media business and a newspaper outlining the claims in an online video, as is customary for journalists getting ready to disclose severe allegations about a specific individual.

In a video shared across his social media channels, he denied the allegations and said all of his sexual encounters had been voluntary.

According to him, the articles are a “litany of extraordinarily egregious and forceful attacks” on him from when he was working “in the mainstream… In my novels, I go into great detail about that period of my life when I was extremely promiscuous.

Now during that period of promiscuity, the relationships I had were certainly always consensual,” Russell Brand elaborated. That’s something I’ve always been open and honest about, sometimes even to a fault, and it’s something I’m doing today.

Is there another goal at play now that we’ve seen that transparency metastasize into something criminal—something I categorically deny?

Russell Brand gave a performance at London’s Troubadour Wembley Park on a Saturday night. He “got stuck in traffic” and was nearly an hour late to his performance of Bipolarisation. Applauding the audience, he began his set by saying, “There’s some things I cannot talk about and hopefully you appreciate that. I’m going to offer you my all.

Channel 4 issued a statement saying it was “appalled to learn of these deeply troubling allegations,” some of which involved alleged misconduct in programming broadcast by the network between 2004 and 2007.

“We are determined to understand the full nature of what went on,” a company spokeswoman stated. We have conducted exhaustive document searches, and we have discovered no indication that Channel 4 was made aware of the claimed instances. We’ll keep looking at it, considering new evidence and the perspectives of those who have been impacted.

According to a BBC representative, Russell Brand worked for several different companies, including the broadcasting giant. After a major editorial breach in 2008, Russell Brand and the controller of Radio 2 both departed the BBC.

“At the time, the circumstances surrounding the breach were thoroughly examined. We’re hoping this indicates the BBC’s seriousness and willingness to take action on important topics.

Over the years, the BBC has refined its methods for both talent management and viewer concerns.

All employees are expected to abide by the BBC Values, the BBC Code of Conduct, and the Zero Tolerance Policy against Bullying and Harassment.

To paraphrase, “We will always listen to people if they come forward with any concerns, on any issue related to any individual working at the BBC, past or present.”

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

google

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

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Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

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Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

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Washington — Trump Media,  The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.

The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.

The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.

The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.

trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.

Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.

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Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.

The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.

musk trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.

He also welcomed back a vast list of previously banned users, including Trump, and endorsed him for the 2024 presidential election.

SOURCE | AP

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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