Oasis have reunited on stage for the first time in almost 16 years – with brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher sharing a high five and the briefest of hugs as they closed a performance that for fans was more than worth the wait.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News
At least 24 people have been killed in the US state of Texas after heavy rain caused flash flooding, according to local media reports.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News
AP- Authorities say they have found the body of a woman visiting Alaska’s capital city who did not return to her cruise ship from a hike she said she was taking.
The Alaska Department of Public Safety said the body of 62-year-old Marites Buenafe of Kentucky was found by an Alaska Army National Guard helicopter crew late Thursday below the ridge line of Gold Ridge. Troopers and Juneau Mountain Rescue were able to recover the body with help from Temsco Helicopters and the National Guard.
Her next of kin have been notified, and her body will be sent to the state medical examiner’s office for autopsy.
The Juneau Police Department received a report Tuesday afternoon that the woman, who told relatives that morning that she was getting off the Norwegian Bliss to hike, had not returned to the vessel by its departure time.
A decade ago, Donald Trump descended the golden escalator at Trump Tower in New York City and ignited a political movement that has reshaped American politics. In a memorable turn of phrase, Trump promised supporters of his 2016 presidential campaign that “we are going to make our country great again.”
Since then, the Make America Great Again movement has dominated the U.S. political conversation, reshaped the Republican Party and become a lucrative brand adorning hats, T-shirts and bumper stickers.
When asked what MAGA means to him, Trump, in a 2017 interview with The Washington Post said, “To me, it meant jobs. It meant industry, and meant military strength. It meant taking care of our veterans. It meant so much.”
But Democratic leaders have a different interpretation of the slogan.
Former President Bill Clinton in 2016 said of MAGA: “That message where ‘I’ll give you America great again’ is if you’re a white Southerner, you know exactly what it means, don’t you? What it means is ‘I’ll give you an economy you had 50 years ago, and I’ll move you back up on the social totem pole and other people down.”
While MAGA is ubiquitous, little is known about what it means to the American public. Ten years on, what do Americans think when they hear or read this phrase?
Based on the analysis of Americans’ explanations of what “Make America Great Again” means to them, we found evidence suggesting that the public’s views of MAGA mirror the perspectives offered by both Trump and Clinton.
Republicans interpret this phrase as a call for the renewal of the U.S. economy and military might, as well as a return to “traditional” values, especially those relating to gender roles and gender identities. Democrats, we found, view MAGA as a call for a return to white supremacy and growing authoritarianism.
We are political scientists who use public opinion polls to study the role of partisanship in American politics. To better understand American views about MAGA, in April 2025 we asked 1,000 respondents in a nationally representative online survey to briefly write what “Make America Great Again” meant to them.
The survey question was open-ended, allowing respondents to define this phrase in any way they saw fit. We used AI-based thematic analysis and qualitative reading of the responses to better understand how Democrats and Republicans define the slogan.
For our AI-based thematic analysis, we instructed ChatGPT to provide three overarching themes most touched upon by Democratic and Republican respondents. This approach follows recent research demonstrating that, when properly instructed, ChatGPT reliably identifies broad themes in collections of texts.
Our analysis shows that Republicans view the slogan as representing the “American dream.” In part, MAGA is about restoring the nation’s pride and economic strength. Reflecting these themes, one Republican respondent wrote that MAGA means “encouraging manufacturers to hire Americans and strengthen the economy. Making the USA self-sufficient as it once was.”
MAGA is also closely related among Republicans with an “America First” policy. This is partly about having a strong military – a common theme among Republican respondents – and “making America the superpower” again, one respondent wrote.
Republicans also wrote that putting America first means emphasizing strict enforcement of immigration laws against “illegals” and cutting off foreign aid. For example, one Republican respondent said that MAGA meant “stopping illegals at the border, ending freebies for illegals, adding more police and building a strong military.”
Finally, Republicans see the slogan as calling for a return to “traditional” values. They expressed a strong desire to reverse cultural shifts that Republican respondents perceive as a threat.
As one Republican put it, MAGA “means going back to where men would join the military, women were home raising healthy minded children and it was easy to be successful, the crime rate was extremely low and it used to be safe for kids to hang out on the streets with other kids and even walk themselves places.”
Another Republican made the connection between MAGA and traditional gender roles even more explicit, highlighting the link between MAGA and opposition to transgender rights: “MAGA people know there are only 2 sexes and a man can never be a woman. If you believe otherwise you are destroying AMERICA.”
Democrats have a very different understanding of the MAGA slogan. Many Democrats view MAGA as a white supremacist movement designed to protect the status of white people and undermine the civil rights of marginalized groups.
One Democrat argued that “‘Make America Great Again’ is a standard borne by people who’ve seen a decrease in the potency of their privilege (see: cisgendered white men) and wish to see their privilege restored or strengthened. In essence, it’s a chant for all racist, fascist and otherwise bigoted actors to unite under.”
Another Democrat wrote that MAGA was a call to “take us backwards as a society in regards to women’s, minority’s, and LGBTQ people’s rights … It would take us to a time when only White men ruled.”
Democrats also view MAGA as a form of nostalgia for a heavily mythologized past. Many Democratic respondents described the past longed for by Republicans as a “myth” or “fairytale.” Others argued that this mythologized past, though appealing on the surface, was repressive for many Americans.
One Democrat said that MAGA meant “returning America to a fantasy version of the past with the goal of advancing the success of white, straight, wealthy men by any means necessary and almost always to the detriment of other segments of the population.”
Finally, many Democrats interpret the slogan as reflecting an authoritarian cult of personality. In this vein, a Democratic respondent said of MAGA, “It’s a call to arms for MAGA cult members, who believe that Trump and the Republicans party will somehow improve their lives by targeting people and policies they don’t like, even when it is against their best interests and any rational thought process.”
While some Republicans expressed racist, xenophobic or anti-trans sentiments in their understanding of MAGA, some Democrats revealed outright condescension toward MAGA believers.
“The MAGA’s are brainwashed, idiotic members of society who know nothing more than to follow the lead of an idiotic president who has the vocabulary of a 3rd grader,” one Democrat wrote. “It is nonsense idiots parrot,” another respondent said.
In all, in the 10 years since Donald Trump burst onto the political scene, much has been written about the conflicting visions of past, present and future at the heart of America’s partisan divisions.
With the Trump administration’s proclaimed commitment to return the U.S. to its “golden age” and a strong resistance to his efforts, only time will tell which vision of America will prevail.
Jesse Rhodes has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and Demos. He is a member of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Douglas Rice has received funding from the National Science Foundation.
Adam Eichen, Gregory Wall, and Tatishe Nteta do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Politics + Society – The Conversation
As the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic tax and spending package, many critics are wondering how the president retained the loyalty of so many congressional Republicans, with so few defections.
Just three Republican senators – the maximum allowed for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to still pass – voted against the Senate version of the bill on July 1, 2025. In the House, only two Republicans voted against the bill, which passed the chamber on July 3.
Among other things, the bill will slash taxes by about US$4.5 trillion over a decade and exempt people’s tips and overtime pay from federal income taxes.
But the bill has been widely panned, including by some Republicans.
Democrats have uniformly opposed it, in part thanks to the bill’s sweeping cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplace funding. This could lead to an estimated 12 million more people without insurance by 2034.
The legislation is also likely to add between $3 trilion and $5 trillion to the national debt by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Trump is not the first president to bend Congress to his will to get legislation approved.
Presidential supremacy over the legislative process has been on the rise for decades. But contrary to popular belief, lawmakers are not always simply voting based on blind partisanship.
Increasingly, politicians in the same political party as a president are voting in line with the president because their political futures are as tied up with the president’s reputation as they have ever been.
Even when national polling indicates a policy is unpopular – as is the case with Trump’s budget reconciliation bill, which an estimated 55% of American voters said in June they oppose, according to Quinnipiac University polling – lawmakers in the president’s party have serious motivation to follow the president’s lead.
Or else they risk losing reelection.
Over the past 50 years, lawmakers in the president’s party have increasingly supported the president’s position on legislation that passes Congress. Opposition lawmakers, meanwhile, are increasingly united against the president’s position.
In 1970, for example, when Republican President Richard Nixon was in the White House, Republicans in Congress voted along with his positions 72% of the time. But the Democratic majority in Congress voted with him nearly as much, at 60% of the time, particularly on Nixon’s more progressive environmental agenda.
These patterns are unheard of in the modern Congress. In 2022, for example – a year of significant legislative achievement for the Biden administration – the Democratic majority in Congress voted the same way as the Democratic president 99% of the time. Republicans, meanwhile, voted with Biden just 19% of the time.
Over the past half-century, the two major parties have changed dramatically, both in the absolutist nature of their beliefs and in relation to one another.
Both parties used to be more mixed in their ideological outlooks, for example, with conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans playing key roles in policymaking. This made it easier to form cross-party coalitions, either with or against the president.
A few decades ago, Democrats and Republicans were also less geographically polarized from each other. Democrats were regularly elected to congressional seats in the South, for example, even if those districts supported Republican presidents such as Nixon or Ronald Reagan.
Much of this has changed in recent decades.
Congress members are not just ideologically at odds with colleagues in the other party – they are more similar than ever to other members within their party.
Districts supporting the two parties are also increasingly geographically distant from each other, often along an urban-rural divide.
And presidents in particular have become polarizing partisan figures on the national stage.
These changes have ushered in a larger phenomenon called political nationalization, in which local political considerations, issues and candidate qualifications have taken a back seat to national politics.
From the 1960s through most of the 1980s, between one-quarter and one-half of all congressional districts routinely split tickets – meaning they sent a politician of one party to Congress while supporting a different party for president.
These are the same few districts in Nebraska and New York, for example, that supported former Vice President Kamala Harris for president in 2024 but which also elected a Republican candidate to the House that same year.
Since the Reagan years, however, these types of districts that could simultaneously support a Democratic presidential nominee and Republicans for Congress have gone nearly extinct. Today, only a handful of districts split their tickets, and all other districts select the same party for both offices.
The past two presidential elections, in 2020 and 2024, set the same record low for ticket splitting. Just 16 out of 435 House districts voted for different parties for the House of Representatives and president.
The political success of members of Congress has become increasingly tied up with the success or failure of the president. Because nearly all Republicans hail from districts and states that are very supportive of Trump and his agenda, following the will of their voters increasingly means being supportive of the president’s agenda.
Not doing so risks blowback from their Trump-supporting constituents. A June 2025 Quinnipiac University poll found that 67% of Republicans support the bill, while 87% of Democrats oppose it.
These electoral considerations also help explain the unanimous opposition to Trump’s legislation by the Democrats, nearly all of whom represent districts and states that did not support Trump in 2024.
Thanks to party polarization in ideologies, geography and in the electorate, few Democrats could survive politically while strongly supporting Trump. And few Republicans could do so while opposing him.
But as the importance to voters of mere presidential support increases, the importance of members’ skill in fighting for issues unique to their districts has decreased. This can leave important local concerns about, for example, unique local environmental issues or declining economic sectors unspoken for. At the very least, members have less incentive to speak for them.
Charlie Hunt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Politics + Society – The Conversation
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We have sad news to report out of Hollywood today:
Beloved character actor Michael Madsen has passed away at the age of 67.
The star accumulated more than 70 credits over the course of his long career, including such modern classics as Thelma & Louise, Donnie Brasco, and The Natural.
Madsen was a frequent collaborator of Quentin Tarantino’s, appearing in four of the director’s movies, including his first feature, Reservoir Dogs, and his most recent film, the Oscar-winning Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood.
Madsen also portrayed Budd, the brother of David Carradine’s title character, in both of Tarantino’s Kill Bill films.
According to a report from TMZ, Madsen was found unresponsive in his Malibu home on Thursday.
A 911 call was placed, but paramedics were unable to revive the actor, who was pronounced dead on the scene.
While no official cause of death has been revealed, authorities say Madsen passed away of natural causes and no foul play is suspected.
In an email to NBC’s Los Angeles affiliate, Madsen’s manager Ron Smith confirmed that he appeared to have died from cardiac arrest.
In a statement to TMZ, Madsen’s management team says he’d been working hard in recent years and was optimistic about his future.
“In the last two years Michael Madsen has been doing some incredible work with independent film, including upcoming feature films Resurrection Road, Concessions, and Cookbook for Southern Housewives, and was really looking forward to this next chapter in his life,” the statement reads.
“Michael was also preparing to release a new book called Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts and Poems.”
The statement remembers Madsen as “one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors, who will be missed by many.”
Across social media today, fans, friends, and a legion of fans are paying tribute to Madsen’s life and career, with many listing favorite films and iconic scenes, including the famous “Stuck In the Middle With You” sequence from Reservoir Dogs.
Madsen is survived by his sister, actress Virginia Madsen, his wife, DeAnna Morgan, and his six children, including actor Christian Madsen.
Our thoughts go out to his loved ones during this enormously difficult time.
Michael Madsen Cause of Death: ‘Kill Bill,’ ‘Reservoir Dogs’ Star … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
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It’s been just over 24 hours since Sean “Diddy” Combs was acquitted on sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
Not surprisingly, the verdict has sparked widespread controversy, as supporters celebrate and victims’ rights advocates slam the case as a miscarriage of justice.
Earlier today, NFL star Dez Bryant revealed himself to be firmly Team Diddy, and his comments on the trial have drawn major backlash.
As you may recall, Cassie Ventura filed a lawsuit against Diddy in 2023, and while the disgraced mogul promptly settled for $20 million, the suit opened the legal can of worms that eventually led to his arrest.
Ventura bravely testified in court while eight months pregnant, sharing shocking accounts of the abuse she allegedly suffered during her 11-year relationship with Combs.
Today, many observers, including ESPN reporter Ashley Nicole Moss are applauding her courage.
“My thoughts are with Cassie [Ventura] and her family,” Moss wrote on Twitter today:
“As a woman, as a person, her testimony was heartbreaking and I couldn’t imagine how she feels this morning. It’s the very unfortunate reality of women who experience sexual violence — the story is just never enough.”
The tweet received a surprising response from Bryant, who wrote:
“I respect your opinions heavy but Cassie wasn’t no victim.. not even close.”
As you might’ve expected, Bryant’s ignorant take on the situation was met with a tidal wave of backlash.
Moss began by pointing out that, regardless of one’s opinion about what was revealed in the courtroom, Ventura was undeniably a victim, as video of Combs brutally beating her was made public over a year ago.
“She wasn’t a victim? For starters, we saw her beaten on camera …” she replied to Bryant. Hundreds promptly echoed her statement.
“What about the assault on tape? She was definitely a victim my guy,” one X user wrote, according to Page Six.
“The beating was brutal bro,” a second added. “She wasn’t a victim of the domestic abuse we all witnessed on camera? Is THAT what she ‘wasn’t no victim’ of?” a third asked.
“We seen her try to leave & bro chased her down ..whooped her & drug her back to the room …come on Dez,” a fourth chimed in.
Another user reminded Bryant that he has a young daughter and would probably hate to see her end up with someone like Diddy.
“Jesus f–king Christ. This kind of misogyny is so dangerous. You have a DAUGHTER!” this person wrote, adding, “Heaven forbid she falls in love with a man who mentally/emotionally/physically abuses her or traffics her. You gonna tell your daughter she’s NOT a victim and make her feel more unsafe? Scum.”
Many pointed out that Bryant was arrested for assaulting his mother in 2012. Therefore, his opinion on these matters can be safely disregarded.
Maybe we need a new Dez Bryant rule to keep this guy from tweeting.
Dez Bryant Blasts Cassie Ventura Following Diddy Verdict: ‘She Wasn’t No … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
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Jennifer Affleck is a proud mother of three.
She’s also feeling the impact of such a blessed development at the moment.
On July 2, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives revealed via Instagram that she had welcomed her third child with husband Zac… a little girl named Penelope Phyliss.
“Baby Penelope is here & she is perfect,” Affleck wrote in her caption, prior to delving into some delivery details:
“Going unmedicated was truly the most painful but empowering experience of my life. I could not have done it without Zac and my supportive doula! I’m so grateful and so happy that Penny is earth side now.”
Jen and Zac are already parents to daughter Nora, 3, and son Luca, 23 months. The spouses celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary in February.
They were forced to push back not long ago against ongoing divorce rumors, however.
Toward the end of the first season of this Hulu reality series, the couple were actually separated and going through a very challenging patch in their romance.
At the start of Season 2, Jen took the pregnancy test, discovered it was positive — and had mixed feelings in response.
“I started feeling depressed and anxious because my life has been really rocky and all over the place. So I am stressed out of my mind with the thought of me being pregnant,” she admitted on air. “Because Zac and I aren’t on the best of terms. And I think the last thing we need is another baby.”
The Afflecks became the most polarizing personalities on the aforementioned Hulu program after co-star Jessi Ngatikaura gifted her fellow women with tickets to a strip club.
Zac went berserk over the plans to see men taking off their clothes on stage.
He said it made him feel as if his wife had cheated on him and he told Jennifer that he was “done” and “won’t be married to someone without values and morals.”
Zac even sent Jen a text that read as follows:
Start taking accountability for your actions and for the situations you put yourself in. You’re a grown woman. It doesn’t matter your intentions. You were there, and that’s the image you portray of yourself, your family, church etc.
What a loving and understanding individual, huh?
At this point, thankfully for their newborn and other young kids, the couple seems to have mended romantic fences.
“Filming can be incredibly mentally draining, and adding pregnancy along with all the challenges I faced this last season was a big challenge,” Jen told People Magazine in February “After dealing with the backlash from season 1 and stepping into season 2 with a lot of baggage, this pregnancy has been the toughest by far.”
Affleck, who has already been cast on Dancing with the Stars Season 34, added at the time:
“It can be daunting to think about raising three babies while pursuing my career, but I want to show women and mothers that they can achieve anything they set their minds to, no matter how unrealistic it may seem.”
Jennifer Affleck Welcomes 3rd Baby, Says Delivery was “Painful” AF was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
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It’s official.
And it’s officially too bad.
Late on Thursday, reps for Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom issued a joint statement that confirmed the celebrities had split up after over nine years as a couple.
We already knew this, of course.
But not because Perry or Bloom had addressed the break-up themselves. Until now.
“Due to the abundance of recent interest and conversation surrounding Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry’s relationship, representatives have confirmed that Orlando and Katy have been shifting their relationship over the past many months to focus on co-parenting,” the statement read.
“They will continue to be seen together as a family, as their shared priority is — and always will be — raising their daughter [Daisy Dove, 4½] with love, stability, and mutual respect.”
As cited previously, this marks the first time anyone associated with the singer and/or the actor has discussed the end of this romance.
However, over the last few days, Bloom has shared a number of interesting and cryptic posts.
First, he broached the topic of new beginnings.
Then, Bloom admitted he was lonely and sad.
To be clear, neither of these messages mentioned Perry by name or delved into any real specifics.
Back in late June, multiple celebrity gossip outlets reported that the relationship had come to an end.
“Katy and Orlando have split but are amicable,” a source told Us Weekly, for example. “It’s not contentious at the moment. Katy is of course upset but is relieved to not have to go through another divorce, as that was the worst time in her life.”
We can’t say for certain just what led to the split.
But Perry made an emotional return to the stage during her Lifetimes stop in Adelaide, Australia and was seemingly fighting back tears as she wrapped that leg of the tour not long after the above report came out.
“Thank you for always being there for me Australia. It means the world,” she told the crowd, before launching into her 2010 hit “Firework.”
Bloom and Perry met at a Golden Globes afterparty in 2016.
They went Instagram official and red carpet official a few months later when they attended the Cannes Film Festival as a romantic item.
After dating for a year, the stars broke up in 2017, although reversed course and got engaged in February 2019.
However, no wedding date was ever set and it never seemed as if they were close to walking down the aisle.
According to Us Weekly, Perry and Bloom’s split has been “a long time coming” as everything between them has “been tense for months.”
We wish each the best as they move forward.
Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom Issue First Statement Since Split was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
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Lily Allen is opening up about her history of abortions.
She left out one detail: the number that she has had.
Not because she wants to preserve that element of privacy — but because she isn’t sure of the exact figure.
The singer’s admission is helping others — including her co-host — speak up about their own histories.
During this week’s episode of their Miss Me? podcast, co-hosts Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver discussed contraception and abortion.
In addition to things like delving into a topical gel with low side effects that should help most men avoid causing unwanted pregnancies, they also touched upon unwanted pregnancies themselves and the abortions that resolved them.
“I’d get pregnant all the time, all the time,” Allen recalled during the Tuesday, July 1 episode.
“Abortions, I’ve had a few,” Allen reflected. “But then again, I can’t remember exactly how many.”
Turning to guesswork, the singer suggested: “I think maybe like, I want to say five? Four or five.”
Exact numbers are difficult to know due to stigma and personal safety concerns.
But, in America, about six in ten of those who have abortions are already pregnant. Additionally, about half of those in the US who come in for an abortion have had one before.
Co-host Miquita Oliver piped up after Lily Allen shared her history, revealing that she had undergone “about five, too.”
She added: “Lily, I’m so happy I can say that and you can say it and no one came to shoot us down, no judgment.”
Oliver pointed out: “We’ve had about the same amount of abortions.”
“I remember once getting pregnant and the man paying for my abortion,” Allen recalled. “And me thinking it was so romantic.”
She is now 40, and her ideas of romantic gestures have matured since then.
“I don’t think it’s generous or romantic,” she added. “How much is it, like, 500 quid? Kids are a lot more expensive.” She is right about that.
Allen furnished: “I have an IUD now. I think I’m on my third, maybe fourth. I just remember before that was a complete disaster area.”
It can be easy — especially in times like these, when every day brings new horrific political news — to despair that conversations like these will never be normalized.
Lily Allen is a wealthy celebrity in another country, her life far removed from what feels like America’s final years. But there’s also hope.
A couple of decades ago, this conversation would have been much more controversial. And a century ago, it would have been less — because abortion is, politically speaking, a manufactured wedge issue to drive bad votes for bad politicians.
Allen is helping things by discussing this topic. Having abortions should not be a source of shame or of pride, like just about any other medical procedure. It is part of her past, and her honest discussion can help others understand that they are not alone.
Also, if Allen can’t remember the exact number, doesn’t that highlight how simple the heavily stigmatized procedure often is?
Lily Allen Reveals She’s Unsure How Many Abortions She Had was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
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