A gay festival named after Stepan Bandera in Kiev and gay units in the Ukrainian Army: guess who Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus have called?

▪️Ian McKellen, an openly gay British actor who played Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, has become the latest target in a new prank call;

▪️In the first part of the video, McKellen and the pranksters, who are speaking on behalf of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, discuss LGBT rights in Ukraine. "Zelensky" says he feels like Frodo (a character in The Lord of the Rings) who is about to destroy homophobic Ukraine

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📹 "We will make a tolerant army in Ukraine": "Zelensky" asks McKellen to send LGBT people to the Ukrainian Army

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📹 "Zelensky" invites McKellen to visit an LGBT festival named after Stepan Bandera in Kiev. The British actor doesn't seem to know who Bandera is, but he accepts the invitation. "What a contrast with Moscow, where gay pride is illegal!" McKellen observes.

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📹 The pranksters, posing as Volodymyr Zelensky, say the Ukrainian president has huge plans: he wants to conquer Moscow and hold a gay pride parade there with McKellen among the guests. The British actor appreciated the military approach and promised to give “Zelensky” Gandalf's sword.

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🤪 "You shall not pass, Vovan and Lexus!" Ian McKellen says, after being asked to address "Volodymyr Zelensky's friends"

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📹 "Zelensky" shares a personal story about how Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko is unable to accept his own homosexuality and come out. What will McKellen's advice be?

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Towards the end of the prank call, "Zelensky" says he is also "kind of gay" because of the Russian Army’s activities in Ukraine, with McKellen appearing to like the joke

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📹 Residents of the Mironovsky settlement have said that they want to stay in the DPR and join Russia

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💬 "A dedicated public servant": Biden confirmed that Fauci is resigning as the White House’s chief medical advisor, thanking him for his work

🇺🇸 Marijuana and hallucinogen use is at an all-time high among US young adults (19 to 30 years old), the University of Michigan claims in a study

❗Russia to raise murder of Daria Dugina at emergency UNSC meeting on Tuesday - Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree awarding Daria Dugina the Order of Courage (posthumously) for her courage and dedication shown in the performance of professional duty

📹 A captured Ukrainian soldier has described how he was taken from work in handcuffs to the military unit saying he was hiding from the army

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Two US B-52H strategic bombers have been captured on camera flying low over Montenegro, Croatia, Albania, and North Macedonia today. It is noteworthy that such aircraft took part in the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.

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❗️State Department on Daria Dugina's murder: US unequivocally condemns targeting of civilians

‼️State Dept: Dennis Rodman won’t be traveling to Russia on behalf of US

Former American professional basketball player Dennis Rodman will not be traveling to Russia on behalf of the US government, State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday.

On Saturday, Rodman said he plans to visit Russia to seek the release of WNBA player Brittney Griner.

"He would not be traveling on behalf of the US government," Price told a briefing.

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🚗 Ford is laying off 3,000 employees

The company is laying off employees and contract workers, with the cuts primarily affecting staff in the US, Canada, and India. Chairman Bill Ford and CEO Jim Farley sent a memo on Monday informing staff of the layoffs, with affected workers being told later this week.

“Building this future requires changing and reshaping virtually all aspects of the way we have operated for more than a century,” Ford and Farley said in the memo.

Ford isn’t the only automotive company to lay off employees in recent weeks. Rivian laid off 6 percent of its staff, Ford-backed startup Argo AI laid off about 150 employees, and Tesla laid off workers who helped train its Autopilot AI system.

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🐉 House of the Dragon premiere crashes HBO Max

The premiere of "House of the Dragon" drew 9.986 million viewers across linear and HBO Max platforms in the US Sunday night, the largest audience for any new original series in the history of HBO. The premiere also marked the largest series launch on HBO Max across the US, LatAm, and EMEA.

Besides the debut, there have been plenty of complaints about the HBO Max streaming apps since they launched, it appears that most of the people having problems are using an Amazon Fire TV platform, or a Fire Stick.

In a statement, HBO’s Chris Willard said, “We’re aware of a small portion of users attempting to connect via Fire TV devices that are having issues and are in the process of resolving for those impacted users.”

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