In Old Fangak, South Sudan, a Doctors Without Borders hospital was bombed, killing at least seven people and injuring 20 others. As fears of a return to civil war grow, MSF called the attack “a clear violation of international humanitarian law.”
Lady Gaga is once again the talk of the town following the release of her latest album, Mayhem. She’s also been hitting headlines due to her accompanying tour, which saw fans desperately scrambling for tickets. Her new tracks ‘Abracadabra,’ ‘Disease,’ and ‘Garden of Eden’ have been a hit with her fanbase, affectionately known as Little Monsters.
Her performance at Coachella was another highlight, despite technical difficulties with her microphone. The incident led to the festival being humorously dubbed ‘Gagachella’, as she dominated conversations. When her mic failed, she simply quipped: “At least you know I sing live.”
But despite everyone going gaga for Gaga recently – there’s some trivia people are only just learning about the star. They’ve been interested to learn how she got her stage name.
Born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, Lady Gaga shot to fame in 2008 with her debut album ‘The Fame,’ featuring hits like ‘Just Dance,’ ‘Poker Face,’ and ‘LoveGame. ‘ Her popularity has only grown since then.
She further cemented her status in pop culture with ‘Born This Way,’ an anthem for the LGBTQIA+ community, using its lyrics to foster inclusivity. But where did the stage name ‘Lady Gaga’ originate?
While there’s some debate over the exact story, it’s thought that the name was born out of an autocorrect mishap by her ex-partner and music producer, Rob Fusari. He reportedly began calling her ‘Gaga’ after she reminded him of the 1984 Queen song ‘Radio Gaga’.
Later, when he tried to text ‘Radio Gaga,’ autocorrect changed it to ‘Lady Gaga’. Since then, she’s adopted the name with pride, and in a 2010 tell-all, she revealed her desire to “reinvent” herself.
In that interview, she reportedly stated: “So I said, ‘What about Lady Gaga?’ because Gaga is sort of crazy and Lady has such connotations.”
So why not stick with her distinctive real name, Stefani Germanotta?
Speaking with Rolling Stone, Gaga expressed a deep connection to her stage persona, admitting her childhood wasn’t a walk in the park.
She confessed: “I’ve always been Gaga… I suppressed all those eccentricities about myself so I could fit in. Once I was free, I was able to be myself.”
It was at the tender age of four that Lady Gaga, displaying early signs of her musical genius, self-taught piano by ear and composed ‘Dollar Bills’ using “Mickey Mouse staff paper”.
In another heartfelt admission during an interview, she recounted: “I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn’t fit in, and I felt like a freak.”
Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are back for another cross-country road trip in a new season of their ‘Long Way’ series. Streaming May 9, Long Way Home sees the duo hit the road more than 20 years after the first instalment of their epic motorcycle adventure.
Across 10 episodes, the latest series will see the two best friends ride refurbished vintage motorbikes from McGregor’s home in Scotland to Boorman’s in England – but rather than take the shortest route, they go the long way. They head across the North Sea to Scandinavia, all the way up to the Arctic Circle and then down to the Baltics and through continental Europe, before eventually hopping back over the English Channel two months later.
The nine-week adventure takes them to 17 countries and along some of the greatest driving roads in the world. It marks the fourth iteration of the Emmy-nominated series, following Long Way Round, Long Way Down and Long Way Up.
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Long Way Home will launch exclusively on Apple TV+, which costs £8.99 per month after a seven-day-free trial. It joins the three previous seasons, all of which are available to stream on Apple TV+.
It comes as Disney+ launches a raft of its own docuseries, with National Geographic titles including Secrets of the Penguins, Tucci in Italy debuting May 19 and Limitless with Chris Hemsworth returning later this year. Throughout Long Way Home, McGregor rides a 1974 Moto Guzzi 850 El Dorado – previously used as a California police bike – while Boorman revives a 1972 BMW R75/5 once described as a ‘rust heap’.
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The bikes take them to countries including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, where they immerse themselves in each country’s culture, meet the locals and try their hand at unique and eclectic activities.
“For the last 20 years, my best friend Charley Boorman and I have travelled to some of the farthest corners of the world,” McGregor says in the series trailer. “Yet, we’ve never properly explored the countries on our own doorstep, so this time, Europe is our playground.”
Long Way Home is executive produced by McGregor and Boorman, alongside longtime collaborators David Alexanian and Russ Malkin, who also direct. Writing on X ahead of the series premiere, one Long Way fan said: “I’m soooo excited for this. Feels like just the other day we were watching the first one.”
Another said: “Looking forward to this. Put it in the calendar.”
A third said: “Sold. Great story and authentic people. I’ll take adventure stuff like this all day!
United States President Donald Trump on Thursday removed Mike Waltz as national security adviser (NSA), a key policy-shaping role, and tapped Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take over the role in the interim.
Trump announced that he was nominating Waltz to be the next US ambassador to the United Nations. “Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
“I’m deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation,” Waltz posted on X Thursday.
The senior official’s reassignment comes in the aftermath of the so-called “Signalgate” incident and his leaning towards aggressive military action against arch foe Iran.
The army veteran came under heavy criticism after creating a group on the Signal messaging app with other top officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, to discuss military attack plans on Yemen.
The group’s chat became public after the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to the group mistakenly. After Goldberg published extracts from the chat, Waltz said he took “full responsibility” for the mistake.
The scandal cast a doubt on Trump’s national security team, with both Waltz and Hegseth coming under fire. Several Democrats called for their resignation in the immediate aftermath of the scandal.
While attending a cabinet meeting held by Trump last week, Waltz was also photographed using a modified and less secure version of Signal to text top officials.
According to The Washington Post, he also upset Trump after engaging in “intense coordination” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the possibility of launching military strikes on Iran.
As the Trump administration continues to pursue Omani-mediated talks with Tehran, Waltz reportedly frustrated the president by adopting an increasingly hawkish stance that favoured military aggression.
Netanyahu’s office, however, denied the daily’s report that claimed he had “intensive contact” with Waltz.
Moreover, he was reported to have built up tensions with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who increasingly felt he was not fit for the Trump team.
Along with Waltz, the president is kicking out his deputy, Alex Wong, according to US media reports, becoming the first senior White House officials to be fired from the second Trump presidency.
A number of inspectors general, federal workers, and senior military officials, including Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti and Commander of Air Force Special Operations Command General James Slife, have also been fired.
During his first term, Trump sacked a large number of senior officials, including FBI Director James Comey, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, and NSAs John Bolton and Michael Flynn.
Waltz has come under fire from some recognised figures in the Make America Great Again (MAGA) camp backing Trump, mainly for a perceived lack of loyalty to the president and a difference in policy approach.
Steve Bannon, a former chief White House strategist and influential figure, criticised Waltz for his hawkish foreign policy stance, particularly his support for military interventions.
Laura Loomer, a far-right activist, highlighted a 2016 video in which Waltz criticised Trump’s remarks about military service members as a sign of his disloyalty.
She also accused Waltz of appointing staffers with anti-Trump sentiments and targeted his deputy, Wong, for alleged ties to Chinese interests.
But JD Vance backed him, arguing that his reassignment was not a demotion but a strategic move that would allow Waltz to better serve the administration in a new diplomatic role.
Waltz will now have to secure confirmation from the Senate to become the new US envoy to the UN, in what is expected to be a challenging path.
Waltz is a former army green beret with deployments to Afghanistan that earned him a bronze star for valour. He has written extensively about military strategy and robustly supports national defence.
The Republican is also a former member of the US House of Representatives and used to work as a counterterrorism adviser in the Pentagon during the George W Bush administration.
But the Signalgate controversy, his reported unauthorised communications with Israeli leaders, and opposition by Democrats in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee could work against him.
For now, and without any specific time period announced, Rubio is taking over as NSA.
Rubio, himself one of the more hawkish figures in the White House, is assuming more responsibility in a move that could be aimed at consolidating foreign policy leadership and streamlining the decision-making process.
This is the first time since the 1970s that the secretary of state is also acting as NSA.
Trump has not confirmed any potential replacements for Waltz in the future, but Stephen Miller, Steve Witkoff and Ric Grenell are some of the top figures in his circle.
Miller is a senior policy and homeland security adviser known for his hardline immigration and foreign policy stances. Witkoff is serving as special envoy, leading the talks with Russia, Iran, and the Palestinian group Hamas. Grenell is the acting director of national intelligence and a former ambassador to Germany.
The ‘Living Nostradamus’ has made some worrying predictions for Prince Harry’s future. The clairvoyant has said the Duke of Sussex since moving to California has lived under “constant hurricane” of family tension, but beyond this is a “deeper energetic layer” that is going to bring an “unexpected” and “disturbing” future.
Athos Salomé has been dubbed as the ‘living Nostradamus’ thanks to his countless corrected predictions over the years, and has now spoken out about the future for the prince who seems “trapped” between his new life in America with Meghan Markle and his “ghosts of royalty”.
He claimed there would be “painful” truths that would emerge in six areas where change was going to take place, from becoming a royal target to achieving reconciliation with his father.
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Salomé claimed that “secret documents” emerging that show “negligence” on the part of the UK. Harry should postpone his engagements until September 2025 in order to prevent a “serious” security lapse while on a humanitarian mission. The prince was declared unharmed by the psychic, but that the situation would be severe enough to prompt a public review of his vulnerability.
The expert claimed a “silent reconciliation” will take place between father and son which will be “intimate” and “away from cameras” as it will be motivated by a sense of urgency – in the midst of King Charles’ health crisis. However Salomé said Prince William will remain “distant” and bound by “duty and resentment”.
According to the fortune teller: “A former employee of the Sussex family intends to reveal compromising recordings and documents in the second half of this year or next, negotiations are underway. This revelation will bring a new wave of empathy to the prince, but also an irreversible reputational loss for Meghan,” he told The Sun.
He claimed that the information will suggest that Meghan had a “strong influence” over his conflicts, which were frequently “conflict” with his values.
Salomé stated that the prince would work on a humanitarian project to improve veterans’ mental health. Harry’s “life mission,” he said, will receive the “informal support” of the monarchy, a nod to a subtle and strategic reunification, or “the beginning of redemption.”
The expert predicted Harry will relocate, and can see him settling in either South Africa or New Zealand and said: “The prince will leave California. Neither Hollywood nor Buckingham: his new home will be a third country. At 42, a number that symbolises Kabbalistic maturity, he will find a new purpose in life.”
“Harry is writing a new book – completely different from the controversial ‘Spare’. Due to be released in 2027, the book will be more introspective, philosophical and critical. It won’t be an attack on the monarchy, but a profound reflection on identity and mission. The book could be the turning point for him to regain global respect as an individual – not as a royal figure,” he insisted.
Salomé claimed that Harry’s future presents “intense trials” but also offers the chance for rebirth. Salomé claimed that the throne’s weight “still haunts him” despite the fact that he may have abdicated from the monarchy.
Do you have a tale to tell? Message niamh . kirk@reachplc.com
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Since taking office in January, United States President Donald Trump has undertaken policy after policy that has shocked Americans and the world. From launching an immigration crackdown and persecuting legal residents sympathetic to the Palestinian people to dismantling diversity and inclusion programmes and assaulting higher education and free speech, Trump has fully embraced far-right agendas. His critics at home and abroad have readily called him a fascist.
But fascism is not the ideology of choice for the US president. Fascist movements varied in their approaches to political and economic issues, but they have had several elements in common: The good of the nation is elevated above all, and the state plays an overarching role in society and the economy.
In other words, fascism was an attempt to reformulate the socialist ideal into a strong nationalistic framework. And as a historical reaction to communism and liberalism, it remains exiled in the 20th century, in “the age of extremes,” as the British historian Eric Hobsbawm famously called it.
Trump may be using the language of “America first” in his rhetoric, but he is not really pursuing the “good of the nation”. He is pursuing the good of the 1 percent.
Trump and his cheerleaders want to go beyond neoliberalism, which maintains that a minimal state is ideal for economic prosperity, and establish hypercapitalism by dissolving any controls the state has over the accumulation of wealth by the extremely rich.
They understand that we are living in times when extracting profit from society is not as easy, so they want to free capitalism from the hindrances of democracy and the demands of the people that their rights – political, social and human – be protected by the law and by the state.
The tech bros that Trump has surrounded himself with have wrapped this hypercapitalism in a technological cover, claiming that technology can solve all woes and unlimited growth – read unlimited profits for the rich – is the only way to progress.
This is clearly outlined in writings produced by the likes of Marc Andreessen, a Silicon Valley billionaire, who penned a Techno-Optimist Manifesto a year before US elections brought Trump to power for a second time. With an almost religious conception of technology and markets, he wrote: “Techno-Optimists believe that societies, like sharks, grow or die. … We believe in ambition, aggression, persistence, relentlessness – strength. … We believe in agency, in individualism. … We believe that there is no material problem – whether created by nature or by technology – that cannot be solved with more technology.”
This view combines unrestrained capitalism with transhumanism – the belief that humans should use technology to enhance their abilities – and an individualistic interpretation of Charles Darwin’s survival of the fittest. It is easy to see that this sharp individualistic vision is the opposite of historical fascism, which prioritises the nation and the community over the individual.
Some may point to Trump’s tariff policies as proof that he has statist tendencies. But if you scratch the surface, you would see that the trade war the US president is waging is really not about “bringing jobs back”, “defending national interests” or reversing globalisation.
Trump is using tariffs as a coercive tool to force various countries into negotiating with him. When he announced a 90-day pause on some tariffs, he himself bragged about 75 governments reaching out to his administration. It is far more likely that these bilateral talks will be used to extort concessions that will favour big capital closely associated with the Trump administration rather than to defend the rights of American workers and to create the conditions for the return of manufacturing jobs to the US.
It is true that Trump has attracted the support of postfascist politicians in Europe and uses fascist language and tools, but that is not enough to brand him a “fascist”. European postfascists, like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, have themselves veered away from fascist conceptions of state and economy. Meloni and others have readily embraced “free market” policies of cutting taxes for the rich and wiping out social security provision for the poor. Her economic policies differ little from Trump’s.
The US president has fully embraced xenophobic and racist language reminiscent of fascist rhetoric and launched a vicious campaign against immigrants. He does so not only to scare and win over marginalised parts of society but also to divert their growing discontent towards a racialised “other” rather than the wealthy class.
This strategy is working not only because of the growing resentment for liberal elites that the impoverished majority has accumulated but also because the left has failed to act.
Leftist and progressive politicians have condemned themselves to fruitlessly repeating the old right and left cliches, going on tirades about “Trump’s fascism” and debates about the Nazi or Roman salutes of his associates. Engaging in such rhetoric is futile and a waste of time and energy.
Instead, the left should focus on developing concrete strategies to counter Trump’s popularity and hypercapitalist drive. It should go back to the root of problems that ordinary people face in their lives: jobs, healthcare, education and the ever-deepening cynicism about politics. It needs to not only expose Trump for who he really is – a champion of big capital interests – but also to provide a solid, realistic alternative.