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Racial slur shouted during BAFTA awards by guest with Tourette’s

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Racial slur shouted during BAFTA awards by guest with Tourette’s


Britain’s film academy and the BBC apologized to viewers after an audience member with Tourette syndrome shouted a racial slur during the British Academy Film Awards.

The offensive word could be heard as “Sinners” stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting the award for best visual effects during Sunday’s ceremony.

Host Alan Cumming had earlier told the audience that a guest at the ceremony was John Davidson, a Scottish campaigner for people with Tourette’s who inspired the BAFTA-nominated film “I Swear.”

“I Swear” won two BAFTAs, including best actor for Robert Aramayo, who plays Davidson.

Tourette syndrome is a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary, repetitive movements and vocalizations, including the uttering of inappropriate words.

After the outburst, Cumming apologized to the audience at London’s Royal Festival Hall for the “strong and offensive language.”

“Tourette syndrome is a disability and the tics you have heard tonight are involuntary, which means the person who has Tourette syndrome has no control over their language,” Cumming said. “We apologize if you were offended.”

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts referred to Cumming’s statement when asked for comment on Monday.

Robert Aramayo accepts the award for leading actor for his role in “I Swear” during the BAFTA Film Awards 2026 at The Royal Festival Hall in London on Feb, 22, 2026,

Stuart Wilson/BAFTA


The epithet could be heard when the BBC broadcast the ceremony about two hours after the live event.

The broadcaster apologized, though the offensive word could still be heard on its streaming service on Monday morning. The program was later removed, and the BBC said the slur would be edited out.

“Some viewers may have heard strong and offensive language during the BAFTA Film Awards. This arose from involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette syndrome, and as explained during the ceremony it was not intentional,” the BBC said in a statement. “We apologize that this was not edited out prior to broadcast and it will now be removed from the version on BBC iPlayer.”

Ed Palmer, vice chairman of the charity Tourettes Action, said the BBC should have considered bleeping out the slur.

“This is really one of the most acute examples of where something that is a disability can cause quite understandably huge amounts of offense to someone,” he told Times Radio. “So, if it’s being prerecorded now, then bleeping it out, for example, might be a reasonable compromise.”



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Diddy fights against ‘unfair’ trial with twisted arguments

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Diddy fights against ‘unfair’ trial with twisted arguments


Sean Diddy Combs was convicted for two charges in trial after September 2024 arrest

Sean Diddy Combs filed a new appeal in the court for his immediate release with a new argument against his allegedly unfair trial.

The 56-year-old disgraced music mogul presented the argument through his legal team Alexandra Shapiro and Nicole Westmoreland in New York on Thursday, April 9.

They claimed that the Bad Boy Records founder ought to be freed under the First Amendment, according to the details obtained by Page Six.

Shapiro and Westmoreland argued that Diddy was wrongfully convicted under the Mann Act, while he was involved in the creation of independent adult tapes, which is legal under US laws for freedom of speech.

The Last Night rapper’s legal team claimed that the Judge Arun Subramanian who was in-charge of the case, used the wrong allegations against Combs to sentence him strongly.

“We made it abundantly clear. The District Court should not consider the acquitted conduct,” Shapiro said, adding that Combs’ sentence is the “highest sentence ever imposed on a Mann Act defendant under the same-based defence level.”

The attorneys demanded immediate acquittal and release of the music mogul or at least his freedom and resentencing to lesser time.

However, Assistant US Attorney Christy Slavik called the whole argument “meritless” marking the distinction between Diddy and adult filmmakers.

He also doubled down on Judge Subramanian’s “correctly applied” ruling given the “aggravated manner in which [Combs] committed his Mann Act offenses.”

Combs was was convicted of transportation for prostitution in July 2025 after his arrest in September 2024. 





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NASA drops Artemis II moon mission playlist. These are the astronauts’ wake-up songs.

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NASA drops Artemis II moon mission playlist. These are the astronauts’ wake-up songs.


As the Artemis II mission crew heads back toward Earth following a history-making trip around the moon this week, NASA dropped the astronauts‘ highly anticipated morning playlist.

“You asked for it. Here it is,” NASA wrote Wednesday on social media, sharing the list via Spotify. “Each track was selected by the Moon crew, continuing a tradition that started more than 50 years ago. Stay tuned to find out which songs they’ll choose next.”

The list includes:

  • “Sleepyhead” by Young & Sick
  • “Green Light (feat. André 3000)” by John Legend and André 3000
  • “In a Daydream” by Freddy Jones Band
  • “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan
  • “Working Class Heroes (Work)” by CeeLo Green
  • “Good Morning” by Mandisa and TobyMac
  • “Tokyo Drifting” by Glass Animals and Denzel Curry
  • “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie
  • “Lonesome Drifter” by Charley Crockett

Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen were launched into space on April 1 for their 10-day moon mission. Earlier this week, they completed a lunar flyby, becoming the first astronauts to loop around the moon in more than half a century. The crew captured stunning photos of Earth, the far side of the moon and an eclipse in space.

Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window on April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon.

NASA


The astronauts are the first humans to have seen with their own eyes large swaths of the far side of the moon in daylight, and they traveled farther from Earth than any humans in history, reaching a maximum distance from Earth of 252,756 miles.

The crew has woken up to music each day — “Under Pressure” played Wednesday and “Lonesome Drifter” on Thursday — which is a tradition held over from previous Apollo missions.  

Why does NASA use music for wake-up calls?

In 2015, Colin Fries of the NASA History Division compiled a chronology of wake-up calls. 

“There have always been inquiries about flown items and mission events as we all know, and those about wakeup calls and music played in space encompassed a steady stream (no pun intended)!” he wrote.

In his chronology, Fries referenced a letter from Lynn W. Heninger, then NASA’s acting assistant administrator for congressional relations, to a lawmaker in 1990 in which Heninger wrote: “Use of music to awaken astronauts on space missions dates back at least to the Apollo Program, when astronauts returning from the Moon were serenaded by their colleagues in mission control with lyrics from popular songs that seemed appropriate to the occasion.”

“The common element of all these selections is that they promote a sense of camaraderie and esprit de corps among the astronauts and ground support personnel. That, in fact, is the sole reason for having wake-up music; and it is the reason that NASA management has neither attempted to dictate its content nor allowed outside interests to influence the process,” Heninger wrote to Illinois Rep. Robert H. Michel.

What are past crews’ wake-up songs?

The Apollo 10 mission crew’s wake-up songs in 1969 included “The Best Is Yet To Come” by Tony Bennett and “It’s Nice to Go Trav’ling” by Frank Sinatra, and “Come Fly With Me” when Apollo 10 woke up Mission Control. 

The Apollo 15 mission in 1971 had a sense of humor, selecting the theme song from “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

What song will the Artemis II crew wake up to on their final day in space?

NASA hasn’t said just yet, but in the past, several crews have woken up on their final day in space to Dean Martin’s popular song “Going Back to Houston.”

The Artemis II crew’s final day in space is Friday, when the Orion capsule is expected to splash down off the California coast near San Diego.



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Trump administration dismantling US Forest Service: Here’s what it means

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Trump administration dismantling US Forest Service: Here’s what it means


Trump administration dismantling US Forest Service: Here’s what it means 

The Trump administration has made a sweeping reorganisation of the U.S. Forest Service.

Critics referred to this as the most catastrophic attack on the 121-year-old agency in its history.

In a major dismantling, the headquarters are shifted to Utah, and all ten regional offices have been shut down.

The restructuring was announced on Tuesday, April 7, via a press release announcing that the Agency’s headquarters are shifting from Washington, DC, to Salt Lake City.

Ten regional centers will be shut down to make way for fifteen political appointees referred to as “state directors.”

Additionally, more than fifty scientific centers located in thirty-one different states will also be abolished. It is important to note that according to scientists, any attempt to relocate the decades’ worth of long-term ecological research will result in its death.

It is believed that there is a systematic effort to demolish. Already, the current government has reduced by over 25% of the number of staff members within the land management agencies. A reduction in the budget for the Forest Service by one-third has been proposed.





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