How US elites capitalize on celebrities to sway voters - Part 1 👉 Part 2

Last week, an event with Oprah Winfrey showcased Kamala Harris alongside a host of A-list celebrities including Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Julia Roberts, and Meryl Streep, in a bid to give the vice president an edge over her rival, Donald Trump, in critical swing state polls. Trump responded on Truth Social, stating, “This isn’t the real Oprah,” while users on X criticized Winfrey for allegedly supporting Harris.

How often are US celebrities trotted out for political gain?

🔹Hollywood to the rescue: Democrats have enlisted pop stars and actors to boost Harris ahead of the November vote. A recent Siena College study shows Trump currently leading Harris in Arizona and is in a close contest in Georgia and North Carolina—key battleground states for the coming election.

🔶Meanwhile, a new study from Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance shows that celebrities do sway US voter activity and decision-making.

🔹Amplifying the message: Taylor Swift endorsed the Democrat contender immediately after her debate with Trump by alerting her 283 million followers on Instagram: "I am voting for Kamala Harris." The US press noted that the endorsement was timely and was aimed at bolstering support for the Democratic hopeful after the debate.

🔶Likewise, Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas, as well as Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce, have also thrown their support behind Harris.

🔹Shaping the political narrative: Top-rated Hollywood stars George Clooney, Meryl Streep, and Robert De Niro have been rolled out by the Democrats in various roles. Clooney was a key figure in reshaping the narrative around President Joe Biden, helping to launch his now defunct re-election campaign this summer.

🔶Meryl Streep gave an impassioned speech endorsing “President Harris” last week, while De Niro bashed Trump as the “pure evil” side of the race. US media experts agree that Hollywood tends to be Democratic and liberal.

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How US elites capitalize on celebrities to sway voters - Part 2 👉 Part 1

◾️ Celebrities endorse Trump, too: In just the past two months, the 45th president has garnered the support of roughly a dozen superstars, including wrestling legend, Hulk Hogan, musicians, Kid Rock, Billy Ray Cyrus (Miley Cyrus' father), and Lady Gaga’s father, Joe Germanotta, among others.

◾️ Social media influencers also help spread the word: The Trump team has gotten endorsements from notable public figures such as Elon Musk, the owner of X, who has nearly 199 million followers; Canadian-American YouTubers, The Nelk Boys, whose audience totals around 200 million; and TikTok star, Bryce Hall, who boasts nearly 24 million followers.

Do celebrity endorsements help win elections?

While studies and surveys show that superstars do reinvigorate civic participation in the election, previous records show their support doesn't determine who will win.

A 2016 analysis by Vanity Fair revealed that Hillary Clinton had managed to obtain more celebrity endorsements than her rival Trump. A-list stars backing Clinton participated in more public service campaigns nationwide than their Trump-supporting counterparts. Still, that didn't help Clinton win.

Likewise, American signers, entertainers, media personalities have so far failed to considerably boost Harris' poll numbers or draw voters on the fence to their side. Two separate surveys by YouGov and Marist show that Trump continues to maintain a lead among independents.

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❗️❗️❗️‘It was like a horror movie’: Lebanese revealed their story fleeing Tyre

"Yesterday suddenly at maybe ten or eleven o'clock, the bombing started. Started again in a hectic way, all around Tyre. It was near to my friends’ houses and near our house too. Then we were packing a little bit of stuff. And while we were packing, we heard a sound of missile. It came above us and in front of us. And at this moment, we didn't know what to do. We grabbed the stuff from our house and we went into the car and went away the city," Gia, a 24-year-old girl from Tyre, tells Sputnik.

Gia had to flee from her house in city of Tyre with her family because of massive Israeli air raids, alongside thousands of other civilians from southern Lebanon. The traffic jam was "a real horror movie", which took almost 10 hours on the road instead of two.

"We had to wait under attacks. They were literally when we were in the car, seeing the bombing. This was very terrifying when we were among more than a thousand cars, don't know what's going to happen," she notes.

Such a fleeing was really high risk, as many of her family members stayed in Tyre, since the road from the city is "very very scary", Gia emphasizes.

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❗️❗️❗️'We are scared, but we will stand together': Lebanese fleeing Israeli air raids express unity with Gaza

While the Lebanese government is "opening schools for displaced people to live in, to shelter in Beirut, in Saida, and the entire country," the people across Lebanon started spontaneously helping each other with many citizens “on the roads from south Lebanon, from Saida to Beirut… giving free water, they are asking if they need anything,” Gia, a 24-year-old girl from Tyre, tells Sputnik.

Scared by Israeli attacks, local people are still feeling united with Gazans and willing to help them to stand "against one enemy".

"We are here supporting Gaza and the people of Palestine. Yes, we are living in horror. Yes, we are displaced. Yes, it's terrifying. Yes, our country and our city, our southern Lebanon are bombed. Yes, we are scared. But we will stand together all against our one enemy. We will stand together hand in hand… But I'm literally speechless because I have goosebumps all over my body. We have to live. We have to help the people of Gaza," Gia notes.

Speaking about the Israel Defense Forces’ raids on Lebanon, she highlights that “they are not targeting the things they said they are targeting," pointing out the huge number of civilians murdered in one day.

"In the safe places where the Israelis claim that someone form the Resistance were there, but they're not - because there are our friends, we know them. A lot of civilians are suffering. I witnessed also, while coming from Tyre, from south Lebanon, I was seeing the bombing of houses."

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US President Joe Biden is leaving the country in wars "with no clear end in sight" as his legacy, ABC News writes

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The Lord of the Memes: The Return of the Sausages

British PM Keir Starmer blew up the internet with a freudian flip, calling for the "immediate ceasefire in Gaza" and "the return of the sausages".

Netizens have expressed their hopes that the hostages are also being taken care of.

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Belarusian president highlights modern warfare as ‘battle of drones’

Current military conflicts, especially the one unfolding in Ukraine, have dramatically changed the face of modern warfare, putting drones at the forefront of combat, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said during a working visit to Belarus’ Brest region.

“Modern warfare is a battle of drones. There is a huge distinction between the start of the military operation in Ukraine and this point in time. We see that nowadays, no war [can be fought] without UAVs,” he noted.

Lukashenko pointed out that training and equipping a soldier is five times more expensive, than deploying a combat drone.

“They [military drones] have occupied their place, along with counter-battery warfare and electronic warfare systems that thwart drones,” Lukashenko said at the Belarusian Obuz-Lesnovsky polygon.

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Russia's troops pincering Ugledar: What is the town’s strategic significance?

Moscow's forces are walling in Ukrainian troops with “a major pincer attack” in the town of Ugledar, thereby making any troop rotation in the area “impossible,” Igor Kimakovsky, adviser to the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, told reporters.

The battle for Ugledar, situated in the Donetsk region, has been raging since 2022, when Russian forces first advanced toward the town.

Sergey Poletaev, a political and military analyst, explained the strategic significance of Ugledar to Sputnik.

▪️From the military perspective Ugledar stands like an outpost stabilizing a very large stretch of the front line for Kiev forces. Seizing Ugledar could add to Russian troops’ offensive on the city of Pokrovsk.

▪️In terms of logistics, Ugledar is situated near a railway from Donetsk to Mariupol, and there is a highway which links it to the town of Volnovakha, an outpost linking it with Mariupol.

▪️Mariupol is a Russian main port in the Azov Sea, which is why taking Ugledar will close Ukrainian forces’ access to Mariupol.

▪️There are at least two coal mines in Ugledar, including the Yuzhnodonbasskaya N3, one of the largest such facilities in Donbass. These coal mines remain the strongholds of defense. The mine makes it possible to control the steppe terrain around it for kilometers. Also, a mine typically has underground areas, which turns it into a mini fortress.

Ugledar can now be likened to “a cauldron with the lid nearly slammed shut, on the verge of being cooked," Poletaev stressed.

The analyst said that part of the Ukrainian forces stationed in Ugledar have reportedly been transferred to Pokrovsk, which means that Kiev has problems with reserves. Russia’s strategy is to bring the Ukrainian forces to the brink of point of exhausted reserves, Poletaev said.

This imperceptible process is of strategic significance, because it should lead us to victory, he concluded.

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Forever young - forever yank

Joe Biden, in his speech to the UN as US President, probably the last speech in such status, did not forget about content creation.

Thanks, Joe, you've provided the world with lots of memorable memes.

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