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The last time that a Democratic presidential candidate won North Carolina, Anderson Clayton could not vote. But now, the 25-year-old chairwoman of the North Carolina Democratic Party has a task that would overwhelm operatives twice her age: flip North Carolina blue for the first time in 16 years. “Like, I know that we either win in 2024, and we do amazing things and we go forward as a state and as a nation, or we regress backwards,” she told The Independent in an interview. “It really is now or never for North Carolina, in my opinion.” Republicans, for their part, know that the state is important. Last weekend, former president Donald Trump, former vice president Mike Pence and Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, three of the top contenders for the Republican nomination for president, descended on Greensboro for the state GOP convention. North Carolina is not an early primary state like Iowa, New Hampshire, or even neighbouring South Carolina. But the three candidates visiting the state shows the importance of the state, Ms Clayton told The Independent. “They have to win North Carolina,” Ms Clayton said, noting how the last time a Republican won the presidency without winning the Tar Heel State was Dwight Eisenhower’ in the 1950s. “And what’s at stake is that you have three candidates like Trump and Pence and DeSantis, who are coming in who are all three examples, in my opinion, of right-wing extremism each in their own right.” Democratic voters in the state have plenty of reasons to turn out and vote. Despite the fact that the state has a Democratic governor in Roy Cooper, Republicans in the state legislature have enough votes to override his veto, which they did recently when they passed a 12-week abortion ban, cutting off abortion access throughout a majority of the South. Mr Cooper, who is term-limited, will also see the end of his term in 2024, which means Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein will compete for his seat against Mark Robinson, who has a history of making inflammatory remarks. Ms Clayton said she is not taking anything for granted, especially against an incredibly well-organised Republican Party. “I think that Democrats have to take the energy that we have right now and the anger that we have right now and motivate it forward and use people to say how do we turn anger into action,” she said. “Because right now, there’s not a whole lot of things that we can change at the state level, because you know, you do have racial gerrymandering that is now legal ... that is racial gerrymandering to me.” Democrats in North Carolina were not always starting from such a disadvantage. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first Democratic presidential nominee to win North Carolina since Jimmy Carter in 1976, while Kay Hagan won the state’s US Senate seat. Democrats also controlled the governorship and both houses of the North Carolina General Assembly even as other Southern states moved rightward since the 1960s. But since Mr Obama’s 2008 victory, Republicans have run the table in the state. In 2010, as the state reeled from the Great Recession, Republicans took both houses of the General Assembly for the first time since 1898 and in 2012, they won the governorship, giving them the first trifecta in ages. Since then, Republicans flipped the state’s other Senate seat when Thom Tillis won it in 2014 and held it in 2020 when a sex scandal felled Democrat Cal Cunningham, and Joe Biden narrowly lost the state even as Mr Cooper won re-election. Last year, even as Democrats beat back two Trump-endorsed congressional candidates, Republicans gained seats in the state legislature, cleaned up in the Supreme Court, and Republican Ted Budd beat Cheri Beasley in the Senate race thanks in part to Mr Trump’s endorsement and tons of money from Senate Mitch McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund political action committee. The weak performance led to Ms Clayton’s election. She said Democrats have made many mistakes in those intervening years, which caused them to fall so far, suggesting the party appears to have mostly abandoned rural voters. “The majority of North Carolina lives in a rural community, you’ve got the highest or the second highest population of rural folks besides Texas in our state,” she said. “And to cede any of that ground to see these populations that have historically black and brown communities. And then in these rural counties that we have not tapped into, it’s just doing a disservice to our party.” She said that means going to every county in the state. “So in our Democratic governor candidate showing up in Cherokee County in North Carolina, my God,” she said. “When was the last time that, you know, Murphy saw a Democrat, like, it’s been a minute, to be honest with you.” She also added that Democrats could learn from Mr Obama’s victory in 2008, when he sent organisers throughout the South. President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee have begun to make a play for the state and Mr Biden visited North Carolina last week. Ms Clayton added that, for the most part, Democrats nationally have avoided supporting state parties in the South. “Georgia had to win an election before the national party came in and invested in them,” she said. “There’s a real aspect here of, we have underfunded the South for generations in this party. And you’re underfunding an area that is predominantly Black and brown communities that are, I think, a sleeping giant of the Democratic Party in the South.” North Carolina has eluded Democrats, unlike other southern states. Virginia has voted for a Democrat for president every election since Mr Obama’s first victory, though it elected a Republican governor in 2021, while Georgia voted for a Democrat for the first time since 1992 when Mr Biden won it in 2020 and it now has two Democratic Senators. Ms Clayton’s youth may befuddle some, and she said she never imagined she’d be a state party chairwoman. “It’s allowed me to be able to say everything that I’ve ever wanted to do on behalf of a Democratic Party,” she said. “And I think that that’s a really empowering place to be. And it’s going to inspire, I hope, more young people to realise that this world that we’re living in is ours to change the reality of.” Since assuming the leadership post, Democrats received a gut punch when Tricia Cotham, a Democratic state legislator, switched parties, giving Republicans a veto-proof majority in the legislature. At the state’s GOP convention last weekend, she was feted as a hero and Mr Pence gave her a shout-out. That enabled them to pass a 12-week abortion ban and override Mr Cooper’s veto. In addition, during the convention, Mr Trump touted how he won the state twice and continued to repeat his lies about a stolen election. Ms Clayton said that she wants North Carolina to be a firewall against election lies. “And for me, the case that I'm making is that, we don't want to give election deniers a two-week window to make that case. We want to make sure this election is wrapped up on the November night,” she said. Still, she added that she is not being a defeatist. “I know it feels like that right now, I know that the defeatist nature of or the Republican extremism is hard to come out of right now,” she said. “But we have to, and we have to snap back as a population and, and being able to say we need to run somebody everywhere.” Read More GOP senator Thom Tillis is pushing back on Trump on guns. Why the North Carolina Republican think it’s time to act ‘It’s making them angrier’: North Carolina Republicans rally around Trump after indictment ‘Everybody needs to support Trump’: Ex-president’s indictment overshadows DeSantis in North Carolina Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

African leaders hoping to mediate in the Ukraine war met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg Saturday.

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OnlyFans model Elle Brooke who went viral for her interview with Piers Morgan has joked about making merch from the memorable quote from the exchange. The 25-year-old hit back at the broadcaster who asked her about the future and what her potential children would think about her career. Piers said: "How would you feel when you'd want to have kids yourself?" Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter To which Brooke who previously said she doesn't want kids right now promptly quipped back: "They can cry in a Ferrari." The clip posted by the show's Twitter account quickly racked up huge numbers and has been viewed more than 16.6 million times. Since then, Brooke has taken to Instagram to repost an edit of the clip and then asked her 764,000 followers in the caption: "Should I get 'Cry in a Ferrari' merch made up?" Some shared their excitement about possible merch being released. One person wrote: "I’m buying it! Does it come with hot pants too?" "Honestly that’s such a dope answer!" another person said. Someone else added: "Um yes make the shirt, I’m your first customer." "Hell yeah get the bag," a fourth person commented. Though not everyone loved the idea... " 'Cry in a Ferrari' whilst getting bullied every day for most of their childhood and even into adulthood," one person said. Another person wrote: "This is a terrible mentality to have." Brooke has previously shared that she makes around £360,000 per year from OnlyFans. "I earn a lot of money. I don't want to give a specific number, but I am 0.01 percent on OnlyFans, I'm as top as it gets. It means you are the best of the best," she said in the same interview when her earnings were mentioned. But Brooke has also said how she wants to be "careful not to completely glamorise SW [sex work] for the younger generation." In the tweet, she added: "Whilst I am very happy with my choice, it’s not always bells and roses, so it’s important that you educate yourself on the risks and long-term impacts before becoming a SWer [sex worker]. Here for advice always x." 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.

The MLB has received backlash for the way that some players and the commissioner Rob Manfred have accepted Pride Month. Mark Canha stands out from the rest.The MLB has found itself in the spotlight during the month of June, mainly surrounding its handling of Pride Month and how things will be ha...

Warning: This article does contain spoilers for The Flash (2023). If you are in any way interested in superheroes or movies in general you'll no doubt be aware that a new comic book film is being released this week concentrating on the DC character The Flash. It's the first time the scarlet speedster has ever been given a solo movie and despite the controversy surrounding the film's lead star, Ezra Miller, Warner Bros have invested a lot into making this a thrilling experience for fans. The premise of the film is a loose adaptation of the 2011 comic Flashpoint, where The Flash travels back in time to prevent the untimely death of his mother but inadvertently changes the future, as is often the case with time travel movies. As a result, Michael Keaton will be reprising his iconic performance as Batman, a character he hasn't played since 1992 with the likes of Michael Shannon also returning as General Zod and Sasha Calle also delivering a new take on Supergirl. However, people who have already seen the film have noted that several other iconic iterations of these famous characters also make appearances despite some of the actors having already passed away. Many of these are included in the film's climax and feature CGI incarnations of beloved actors like Christopher Reeve as Superman and Adam West as Batman. Other cameos include George Reeves as the Superman from the 1950s, Helen Slater from the 1984 Supergirl movie, Nicolas Cage playing Superman from the unreleased 1990s film and George Clooney reprising Batman from the much maligned 1997 Batman and Robin movie. While The Flash isn't the first movie to use this type of technology (numerous Star Wars titles have already recreated the likes of Carrie Fisher and a younger Mark Hamill for new stories) the use of Reeve's Superman has struck a particularly sour note due to both the messaging and the apparent ugly aesthetic. While Warner Bros is likey to have gotten permission from Reeve's estate to include his likeliness in the film many fans feel that it sets the wrong precedent given that the actor was left paralysed in 1995 before passing away in 2004. Fans of the Superman TV show Smallville have pointed to Reeve's cameo in the show in a 2003 episode which didn't hide his paralysis but respectfully recognised his contribution to the character's legacy and also allowed him to promote his paralysis charity. George Reeves inclusion has also sparked controversy given that the actor ultimately blamed playing Superman for the downfall of his career. His death in 1959 also remains with debates raging over whether he was murdered or took his own life. Given that Reeves is perhaps the least known of all the cameos, fans who have dug into his backstory were shocked that he was included. Ultimately, Warner Bros' owns the rights to Superman and essentially can do whatever they want to with the character but with the growing popularity of multiverses and an over reliance on nostalgia this type of thing will only become more and more common. One thing that we can hope for is that if the technology continues to be used then the tributes will be more tasteful and considered than this time around. 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.

The United States won't make special arrangements for Ukraine to join the NATO military alliance, President Joe Biden said Saturday...

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With the release of the Barbie movie coming up, Margot Robbie gave an inside look into the Mattel doll's Dreamhouse with Architectural Digest - and it's just as iconic as you would expect. Of course, the one particular colour that is synonymous with Barbie and fuchsia pink is everywhere on the set - tables, chairs, walls, cars you name it. While the aesthetic took inspiration from Palm Springs's midcentury modernism, with furniture from the 1950s and 1960s, back to when Barbie was first created in 1959 by Ruth Handler as well as products that would be included in Dreamhouse today. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spence worked with director Greta Gerwig to recreate the childhood nostalgia on-screen, and the set was first made in a miniature format before it was actually created for the set. “I wanted to capture what was so ridiculously fun about the Dreamhouses," Gerwig told Architectural Digest. In terms of scale, the proportions were adapted to be 23 per cent smaller than human size for the set, Gerwig described how this created an "odd effect of making the actors seem big in the space but small overall." Some of the fun elements of the design include a slide to replace the stairs that goes from the bedroom to the pool - "Not super practical but nothing is for Barbie," Robbie said. (Though the pool is fake as there is no actual water in Barbie Land). Despite there being no water, Barbie still showers - but nothing comes out. Nonetheless, Robbie pretends to shower and recalled how she would "look up the old Radox commercials and try to replicate that." In the kitchen, Robbie explained how there is "a mixture of things that a physically there but then also decal (a picture, design, or label made to be transferred (as to glass) from specially prepared paper)," such as the oven and cooker. This plays into the world of toys and "how it would look if it was a Mattel product" as Robbie opened the fridge to show that the back is intentionally 2D with groceries painted onto the decal while the fridge shelf had physical products stocked. "I want everyone to feel like they can reach into the screen and touch everything," Gerwig said, as she recalled standing in Toys 'R' Us looking at Barbie dolls with the plastic sheet over them and wanting to take and touch everything. This is what inspired Barbie's wardrobe with clear doors to the doll's neatly hung up outfits and accessories, with her outfit already magically set out in her wardrobe. When it comes to getting from her bedroom to her car, Barbie impossibly floats down as Robbie said: "Greta said no one actually walks their Barbie down the steps to get into the car." Here's what fans had to say about the Dreamhouse tour: The Barbie movie is set to be released next month on July 21. Elsewhere, the new Barbie movie has caused a worldwide shortage of pink and a new version of 'Barbie Girl' will feature on the movie’s soundtrack. 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.

Kourtney Kardashian stole the show at a Blink-182 concert Friday by announcing that she and husband Travis Barker are expecting their first child together.