Right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro is appalled that Lena Dunham is set to direct a Polly Pocket movie after the success of Greta Gerwig's Barbie, already calling the film "feminist garbage". In a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, titled "more feminist garbage coming to a theatre near you", the 39-year-old spent the latter part of the 10-minute video complaining about the newly announced movie, after he'd spent 40 minutes (plus another 40 in two more videos) criticising the Barbie movie which has gone on to make $500 million at the global box office in a week. It was announced this week that Lena Dunham was set to direct a 'Polly Pocket' movie starring Lily Collins. Not only was Polly Pocket announced but Mattel also said that Barney, Hot Wheels, American Girl Dolls, and more were also getting the movie star treatment. "Now we are getting the Polly Pocket movie that is going to be directed by Lena Dunham, who is a trash person," Shapiro exclaims as he discusses the announcement. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Not only does Shapiro seemingly not like Dunham as a person, but he also takes issue with Dunham, who he views as an "adult director", directing a children's film. "Lena Dunham is not a director of children's film, she became famous for the extraordinarily sexually graphic HBO show Girls." More Feminist Garbage Coming to a Theater Near You www.youtube.com "Mattel execs say that there's already a great script. I doubt that because they certainly did not have a great script for Barbie." Speaking of the other movies in the works from Mattel, Shapiro bizarrely accused them all of having an agenda to push progressive ideas such as feminism, LGBT+ rights, and climate change: "I assume that American Girl will actually be turned into a feminist icon who scorns America and believes that America was founded in 1619. "Thomas and Friends will be about a gay train or something. And Barney will be about a purple dinosaur railing against global climate change which is putting his friends and family in danger because people drive cars. I can only imagine this is where they're going with this." Since Shapiro's first rant about Barbie, Gerwig has responded to some of the right-wing criticism by saying: "Certainly, there’s a lot of passion. My hope for the movie is that it’s an invitation for everybody to be part of the party and let go of the things that aren’t necessarily serving us as either women or men." 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.

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Manchester City moved within three wins of the treble by thrashing Real Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final. Pep Guardiola’s side need one victory from their three remaining Premier League fixtures to secure the title, while they can also win the FA Cup and Champions League by beating Manchester United and Inter Milan respectively. City are seeking to emulate their local rivals United who achieved glory on the same three fronts under Sir Alex Ferguson in 1998-99. Here we compare the two sides. Premier League There are several parallels between this season’s title race and 1998-99. Neither City or United topped the table for a prolonged period until the second half of the campaign and both trailed Arsenal at various points during the run-in. Mikel Arteta’s Gunners were eight points clear of Guardiola’s side with nine games to go at the beginning of April, while Arsenal were three points ahead of Ferguson’s men with two matches remaining in 1999 – although both City and United had a game in hand. Just as United edged out Arsene Wenger’s team with a 20-match unbeaten run, City have gone 14 Premier League games without defeat to move within touching distance of claiming a fifth title in six years. Statistically, Guardiola’s treble-chasers have had the better season. They have amassed 85 points and scored 92 goals with three fixtures still to play, while United ended the campaign with 79 points and 80 goals scored. Dwight Yorke top-scored for Ferguson’s side with 18 goals, which is half as many as Erling Haaland has managed for City (36). That said, Andy Cole (17) and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (12) also reached double figures for United, while only Phil Foden (10) has done so for City. Defensively, Guardiola’s men have conceded 31 goals so far – the joint-fewest in the league alongside Newcastle. United shipped 37 goals in 1998-99, which was more than Arsenal (17), Chelsea (30) and Leeds (34). Champions League City topped their group ahead of Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla and Copenhagen, while United finished second behind Bayern Munich but ahead of Barcelona and Brondby. Guardiola’s side have since gone on to beat RB Leipzig, Bayern and Real Madrid over two legs, thanks mainly to crushing home wins in each tie. Ferguson’s men had fewer rounds to negotiate in 1999 – when the Champions League was contested by 24 teams rather than 32 – but they still had to get past Inter Milan and Juventus across two legs before facing Bayern in the final. United’s European campaign was considerably bumpier than City’s, who have scored 31 goals and conceded only five on their path to the final. The Red Devils – by contrast – lifted the trophy having scored 29 and conceded 16. While City are yet to concede more than once in a Champions League game this season, United were involved in several high-scoring thrillers including a pair of 3-3 draws against Barcelona in the group stage and a dramatic 3-2 comeback win against Juventus in the semi-final second leg. FA Cup As with the Champions League, City’s route to the final has been largely serene while United’s 1998-99 campaign was filled with trials and tribulations. Guardiola’s team have cruised past Chelsea, Arsenal, Bristol City, Burnley and Sheffield United without conceding a goal, becoming the first side to reach the final with a perfect defensive record since Everton in 1965-66. Meanwhile, as well as coming back from a goal down against Middlesbrough and Liverpool in rounds three and four, United needed replays to see off Chelsea in the quarter-finals and Arsenal in the semis. The latter victory was especially dramatic, with Peter Schmeichel saving a Dennis Bergkamp penalty to keep the game at 1-1 and Ryan Giggs scoring a wonder goal in extra time. Read More On this day 2016 – Liverpool lose to Sevilla in Europa League final Man City crush holders to book Champions League final return We had to swallow poison – Pep Guardiola delighted to get revenge on Real Madrid Why is BT Sport being rebranded to TNT Sports? West Ham boss David Moyes looking to conquer AZ Alkmaar again Eric Cantona to Joey Barton – the Premier League’s longest bans

Comedian turned commentator Russell Brand has weighed in on the ongoing wildfires in Maui, Hawaii, flouting conspiracy theories in his usual fast-paced, flamboyant style which are so outlandish, that he’s being compared to GB News anti-vaxxer Neil Oliver. Brand, who’s switched appearances on comedy films such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek for his Stay Free podcast in recent years, uploaded a video to his six million subscriber strong YouTube channel on Thursday with the title, “Something Doesn’t Seem Right”. As the baseless conspiracy theory that the devastating crisis on the US island was not aided by climate change but rather a ‘space laser’ continue to spread online, Brand jumped in and dismissed those rightly questioning such a nonsensical argument. “Now, some people would say, ‘Oh, that’s dangerous misinformation – that should be shut down.’ I think the opposite. “Discuss it, look at it, investigate it. Either it’s true or it’s not true, we can decide for ourselves, let’s not get excited,” he says. We have, Russell – that’s kind of what journalists do for a job… Towards the end of the almost 23-minute-long video, Brand turns to the conspiracy that the fires in Hawaii were “started deliberately to benefit rich elites” such as the investment management company and financial services provider BlackRock. He continues: “Now look at the Ukraine war. Ukraine have already done a deal with BlackRock to rebuild their nation using BlackRock investment. “If you apply that mentality to this situation, if BlackRock end up benefitting from the fires in Hawaii, then the conspiracy is almost a redundant detail. Did they start it? Didn’t they start it? “Is it inevitable that the suffering of ordinary people leads to the benefit of rich elites and massive organisations like BlackRock and billionaires across the globe and why is Bill Gates buying all this agricultural land when he’s not a farmer?” Yes, that’s one whole sentence. “Doesn’t it all feel like a kind of macro-conspiracy that’s so diffuse, institutional, oddly abstracted and bureaucratically opaque, that sometimes you just want to simplify it into ‘they started this fire! They started it with a laser from space!’ “And whether it’s true or not, it not only feels true, in terms of its results it is kind of true. There is a conspiracy to keep you poor and benefit rich elites,” he vented, adding that the “next time there’s a pandemic” the elite are “gonna control you more”. In other news, thesauruses are in short supply around the world. And it’s Brand’s ranting about a shadowy elite and government control during a pandemic which has likely led to social media users on Twitter/X branding Brand (ha) a “frappucino Neil Oliver”, the GB News host who has long peddled conspiracy theories about vaccines and an impending “one-world government”. Back in August 2021 he said he’d happily catch Covid – y’know, an actually deadly virus – “for the sake of freedom”, just so you know the kind of dangerous nonsense we’re dealing with here. Others, however, have pointed out to user Matthew Dimitri – who shared a clip of Brand on X – that Brand was actually making an argument about elites and organisations benefitting from natural disasters like the one in Hawaii, and that Dimitri has “misrepresented” Brand: Except instead of rejecting the laser conspiracy theory outright, remember, Brand said he ‘thinks the opposite’ and that instead we should “discuss it, look at it [and] investigate it”, which isn’t a complete dismissal of the idea. He doesn’t really give a definitive answer on whether the claim is true or not, but rather suggests that the result of the whole ‘is it or isn’t it’ debate is more important, as if it’s part of a broader conspiracy or distraction “to keep you poor and benefit rich elites”. Perhaps a far more compelling argument around all this is that Brand should learn to keep things succinct, for the benefit of everyone... Sign up to 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.

First minister will tell rally that Scotland could get "back on the right track" by re-joining the EU.

Protesters walked from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, before demonstrating at the Israeli prime minister's residence.