It’s a sad inevitability that the big names defending Russell Brand are some of the most influential in the world. Elon Musk and Andrew Tate – two of the most Googled people on the planet – have already publicly backed the 48-year-old comedian, as have those great champions of right-wing and conservative conspiracy theories: Alex Jones, Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson. And so it comes as no surprise that Pearl Davis, the woman who proudly owns the nickname “the female Andrew Tate”, is the latest red pill ideologist to throw her support behind Brand, who vehemently denies all the allegations made against him. In a YouTube video shared with her 1.8 million YouTube subscribers, Davis announced that “the Matrix is coming after him” and that he is the victim of a “mainstream media” witchhunt. And whilst many of us simply roll our eyes at such warcries from the internet’s self-styled “anti-establishment” fighters, Davis’s arguments in support of Brand should be a genuine cause of concern. She asks in her monologue: “Why would a man that is rich and famous need to rape anybody? [...] Why would a guy need to assault or rape anybody in order to get sex that's having it thrown at him 24/7?” Then, offering an analogy to hit home her point, she adds: “This is the equivalent of me being a billionaire and getting accused of robbing a bank.” Russell Brand Is Being Attacked... www.youtube.com Now, you may gape in horror and disbelief at such base and ignorant “reasoning”, this same logic is applied again and again, getting countless alledged predators off the hook. Indeed, Safe Horizon – the largest victim assistance charity in the US – addressed the issue in a poignant piece back in 2018 titled ‘Why Does the Myth That Attractive Men ‘Don't Have to Rape’ Persist?’ In the first-hand account, writer Jeena Sharma explains that her earliest memory of suffering sexual assault was at the hands of her piano teacher, who was “seemingly handsome, smart and kind, with a daughter of his own”. She said she never told her parents, “not because they wouldn’t care but because [she] felt ashamed and mostly confused”. After all, “how could this man [...] do something that I would only expect from a creepy stranger in an alley?” Sharma went on to cite the example of former NFL player Darren Sharper, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison and accused of drugging and raping as many as 16 women back in 2016. She pointed out that at the time, the judge sentencing Sharper expressed her disbelief at his crimes, saying she couldn’t understand how someone who was college-educated and had grown up “in one of the most loving households” could carry out such atrocities. Russell Brand has strongly denied the accusations against him. Rape Crisis offers support for those affected by rape and sexual abuse. You can call them on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, and 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland, or visit their website at www.rapecrisis.org.uk.If you are in the US, you can call Rainn on 800-656-HOPE (4673). Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Swedish telecoms company Ericsson beat a lawsuit by U.S. shareholders on Wednesday, when a federal judge ruled it

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A worm has been found living inside a woman’s brain, in a horror-movie-style world first. Doctors in Canberra, Australia, were left stunned after they pulled the 8cm (3in) parasite from the patient’s damaged frontal lobe tissue during surgery last year. "Everyone [in] that operating theatre got the shock of their life when [the surgeon] took some forceps to pick up an abnormality and the abnormality turned out to be a wriggling, live 8cm light red worm," said infectious diseases doctor Sanjaya Senanayake, according to the BBC. "Even if you take away the yuck factor, this is a new infection never documented before in a human being." Senanayake and his colleagues believe the parasite could have been in there for up to two months. The patient, a 64-year-old woman from New South Wales, was first admitted to her local hospital in late January 2021 after suffering three weeks of abdominal pain and diarrhoea, followed by a constant dry cough, fever and night sweats, The Guardian reports. By 2022, her symptoms extended to forgetfulness and depression, and she was referred to Canberra Hospital, where an MRI scan of her brain revealed “abnormalities” that required surgery. “The neurosurgeon certainly didn’t go in there thinking they would find a wriggling worm,” Senanayake told the paper. “Neurosurgeons regularly deal with infections in the brain, but this was a once-in-a-career finding. No one was expecting to find that.” The team at the hospital sent the worm to an experienced parasite researcher who identified it as an Ophidascaris robertsi. This type of roundworm is commonly found in carpet pythons – non-venomous snakes that are ubiquitous across much of Australia. Writing in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, Mehrab Hossain, a parasitologist, said she suspected that the patient became an "accidental host" to the worm after cooking with foraged plants. The 64-year-old was known to have often collected native grasses from around her lakeside home, Senanayake told The Guardian. He and his co-workers have concluded that the woman was probably infected after a python shed eggs from the parasite via its faeces into the grass. By touching the plants, she may then have transferred the eggs into her own food or kitchen utensils. Fortunately, the unlucky and unique patient is said to be making a good recovery. However, Senanayake told the BBC that her case should serve as an important warning to society more broadly. "It just shows as a human population burgeons, we move closer and encroach on animal habitats. This is an issue we see again and again, whether it's Nipah virus that's gone from wild bats to domestic pigs and then into people, whether its a coronavirus like Sars or Mers that has jumped from bats into possibly a secondary animal and then into humans,” he said. "Even though Covid is now slowly petering away, it is really important for epidemiologists… and governments to make sure they've got good infectious diseases surveillance around." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

YouTuber IShowSpeed was ignored by Lionel Messi's wife Antonella Roccuzzo when he asked her for a photo

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 20, 2023--

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Michigan State reportedly fired Mel Tucker after explosive allegations of sexual misconduct by notable rape survivor and activist Brenda Tracy.