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Eurovision, that famously camp song contest which has a strong pro-LGBTQ+ stance and has this year acknowledged Putin’s war in Ukraine as the reason for it being held in Liverpool on the country’s behalf, has blocked President Volodymyr Zelensky from making a video address - because it would breach the event’s “non-political nature”. Organisers behind the show, who on Thursday saw no issue with drag queens absolutely slaying on the M&S Bank Arena stage and preaching messages of love and acceptance, rejected the request ahead of the grand final on Saturday. In a statement, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) – whose previous decisions to ban Russia and Belarus from participating definitely weren’t political, obviously – said the request from Mr Zelensky to address the Eurovision audience “while made with laudable intentions, regrettably cannot be granted by the European Broadcasting Union management as it would be against the rules of the event”. Belarus was disqualified from the contest in 2021 over political messaging in their planned entry (their second attempt before the deadline), while Russia was kicked out of Eurovision a year later for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. And the rules state “all participating broadcasters” must ensure that “the ESC [Eurovision Song Contest] shall in no case be politicised and/or instrumentalized and/or otherwise brought into disrepute in any way”. That’s ‘instrumentalise’ in the sense of using Eurovision as a platform to spread a political message, before anyone makes a musical pun (we know you want to)… Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The EBU’s decision has since been criticised by Boris Johnson, the former prime minister who became a meme over how many times he’d meet with the Ukrainian president whenever he was experiencing a turbulent moment in his premiership. “It would have been right to hear from President Zelensky at tomorrow night’s Eurovision. There is only one reason the contest is not in Ukraine and that is because of Putin’s illegal war,” he tweeted. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman told reporters: “The prime minister believes it would be fitting for President Zelensky to address the event and we’re disappointed by the decision from the European Broadcasting Union. “The values and freedoms that President Zelensky and the people of Ukraine are fighting for are not political; they’re fundamental, and Eurovision themselves recognised that last year when they rightly suspended Russia’s participation from the competition.” No 10 added, however, that they are not planning to call on the EBU to change its mind. 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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Trisha Paytas says she feels “super disrespected” after it was revealed that Colleen Ballinger sent unsolicited nudes of Paytas to her fans. Paytas is the latest person to speak up amidst the ongoing allegations against the YouTuber also known as Miranda Sings. Ballinger has been embroiled in a wave of allegations in the past few weeks after previous fans have spoken up about their inappropriate relationship with Ballinger whilst they were minors. It was claimed that Ballinger made fun of YouTuber Trisha Paytas’ body to her fans and also sent minors nude photos of Paytas. On Monday Paytas uploaded a 21-minute YouTube video titled ‘colleen’ discussing her relationship with the fellow YouTuber. The pair had recently started a podcast together as two mums with young children titled Oversharing. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Paytas starts the video by saying: “These most recent things that are coming out, everyone knows that I have a very very very firm stance on talking to anyone underage, platonic or not, I’ve always been very very firm with this that I think it’s appropriate.” “When all this came out I was shocked, you know the group chats and stuff I was kind of shocked, and it’s such a difficult thing because Colleen is someone that I quickly, literally in the past month that we did this podcast, like I really really cared about and really related to.” Paytas, who has long been a controversial figure and often embroiled in scandals herself shared that prior to Ballinger’s now infamous apology video “we were staying in touch because again I know what it feels like to have the whole internet come down on you. Even if the whole internet is right.” “I don’t want anyone, guilty or not, to ever feel like they don’t have someone to talk to.” Speaking of the allegations made in regards to Ballinger sending Paytas’ nudes to her fans, some who were minors, Paytas said she was “waiting to see what would come out” because of the “serious” and “illegal” aspects of the allegations. “It’s a topic I don’t take lightly and I can’t take lightly,” she adds. colleen youtu.be Paytas is widely known as a sex worker as well as for her YouTube videos. Talking about the sharing of her nudes she said: “I do not condone, at all, sending unsolicited nudes to anyone of anybody, sex worker or not. I think using someone’s nudes as a way to hurt them, make fun of them, make light of them, be mean, is the lowest form of human, the lowest form of intelligence. I think that’s so inhumane, so disgusting for anyone.” Prior to Paytas’ video, Johnny Silvestri, a previous fan of Ballinger who had messaged and met Ballinger on multiple occasions, shared censored photos of Paytas that had been sent to him by Ballinger. “Last night the text messages were shown and it’s very clearly from Colleen to a fan, it has over half a million views on Twitter. I’m not embarrassed by [them], I’m embarrassed for her.” “And these weren’t a long time ago, this is someone well into their 30s who just gave birth sending nudes, and I, a month prior, I was in her house meeting her child, meeting her newborn, and doing a mukbang with her,” says Paytas, clearly hurt. “In these texts there’s also friends of hers, they showed the viewing parties that were talked about, to make fun of me, they did viewing parties of my adult content to make fun of me.” Paytas also revealed that before the text messages were posted online, she had privately asked Colleen if the accusations were true and that Ballinger “assured me that she had never sent photos of me, that this one fan who was underage at the time would send photos to her.” “She said everything is taken out of context, these are lies.” Paytas concludes the video by saying “I just had to make this video to say I don’t stand behind Colleen whatsoever. Her video was not an apology and it took away from the severity of her actions of talking to minors, bringing minors on stage at her show, these peoples are speaking up and they’re uncomfortable for a reason. Acknowledge it, change it, do better.” 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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