LOS ANGELES: Kendall and Kylie Jenner’s fashion label said Sunday it only sold two “vintage” T-shirts with late rapper’s Tupac Shakur image on them before pulling the items from the marketplace.
The Kendall + Kylie brand released a statement in response to a copyright infringement lawsuit filed Friday by a commercial photographer who shot the images on the shirts. The lawsuit by commercial photographer Michael Miller accused the Jenner sisters of using two images of Shakur without his permission.
The label’s statement said the shirts with Shakur’s image were obtained from a company that had a valid license to sell them. The Kylie + Kendall brand superimposed images of the Jenner sisters or other designs over photos of musicians, including Shakur, Notorious B.I.G. and Ozzy Osbourne. It called Miller’s lawsuit baseless.
“The allegations made are completely false and the lawsuit is baseless,” the statement said. “There has been no infringement or violation of anyone’s rights.”
The shirts sold for $125 apiece, but they were pulled from the marketplace after Osbourne’s wife, Sharon, and B.I.G’s mother complained and the label apologized.
Jenner sisters’ label sold only 2 Tupac Shakur T-shirts
Jenner sisters’ label sold only 2 Tupac Shakur T-shirts
California man wins $50m in lawsuit over burns from Starbucks tea
- He has suffered permanent and life-changing disfigurement, according to his attorneys
- Garcia’s negligence lawsuit blamed his injuries on Starbucks, saying that an employee didn’t wedge the scalding-hot tea firmly enough into a takeout tray
LOS ANGELES: A delivery driver has won $50 million in a lawsuit after being seriously burned when a Starbucks drink spilled in his lap at a California drive-through, court records show.
A Los Angeles County jury found Friday for Michael Garcia, who underwent skin grafts and other procedures on his genitals after a venti-sized tea drink spilled instants after he collected it on Feb. 8, 2020. He has suffered permanent and life-changing disfigurement, according to his attorneys.
Garcia’s negligence lawsuit blamed his injuries on Starbucks, saying that an employee didn’t wedge the scalding-hot tea firmly enough into a takeout tray.
“This jury verdict is a critical step in holding Starbucks accountable for flagrant disregard for customer safety and failure to accept responsibility,” one of Garcia’s attorneys, Nick Rowley, said in a statement.
Starbucks said it sympathized with Garcia but planned to appeal.
“We disagree with the jury’s decision that we were at fault for this incident and believe the damages awarded to be excessive,” the Seattle-based coffee giant said in a statement to media outlets, adding that it was “committed to the highest safety standards” in handling hot drinks.
US eateries have faced lawsuits before over customer burns.
In one famous 1990s case, a New Mexico jury awarded a woman nearly $3 million in damages for burns she suffered while trying to pry the lid off a cup of coffee at a McDonald’s drive-through. A judge later reduced the award, and the case ultimately was settled for an undisclosed sum under $600,000.
Juries have sided with restaurants at times, as in another 1990s case involving a child who tipped a cup of McDonald’s coffee onto himself in Iowa.
China deports Japanese tourists over Great Wall buttocks photos
- Incident at the World Heritage site near Beijing concerned a man who showed his bottom and a woman who took photos
- Exposing the lower half of the body in a public place is against the law in China, according to the reports
TOKYO: Two Japanese tourists in their 20s were detained for two weeks in China and then deported for taking photos showing one of the traveler’s exposed buttocks at the Great Wall, local media reported.
The incident at the World Heritage site near Beijing concerned a man who showed his bottom and a woman who took photos, NTV and other Japanese media outlets reported on Thursday.
The Embassy of Japan in China said Friday it “confirmed on January 3 that two Japanese nationals were detained by local authorities at the Great Wall.”
They “were released and returned to Japan during January,” it said in a statement.
The tourists were detained on the spot by security guards and held for around two weeks, the reports said, citing sources.
Exposing the lower half of the body in a public place is against the law in China, according to the reports.
The tourists reportedly told the Japanese embassy they did it as a prank.
“Out of protection for individual privacy,” the Japanese embassy declined to comment on specific details, including whether the tourists will be barred from traveling to China or face additional punishment such as fines or jail time.
The reports sparked outrage in China, where memories of atrocities committed during Japan’s colonial occupation of the country in the 1930s and 1940s still inspire strong feelings.
A hashtag translating to “Japanese man and woman detained for indecent behavior at the Great Wall” had been viewed over 60 million times on social media platform Weibo by Friday morning.
Many top-liked comments blasted the tourists for the act, with some using hateful language toward Japanese people.
Stargazers marvel at ‘Blood Moon’, rare total lunar eclipse
- Stargazers across a swathe of the world marvelled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of Friday morning
BELO HORIZONTE: Stargazers across a swathe of the world marvelled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of Friday morning.
The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa.
The phenomenon happens when the Sun, Earth and Moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite.
But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the Moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the Moon glowed a reddish color.
This is because the only sunlight that reaches the Moon is “bent and scattered” as it goes through Earth’s atmosphere, said Daniel Brown, an astronomer at Britain’s Nottingham Trent University.
It is similar to how the light can become pink or red during sunrises or sunsets on Earth, he added.
The more clouds and dust there are in Earth’s atmosphere, the redder the Moon appears.
Brown called the lunar eclipse, which will last around six hours, “an amazing way to see the solar system in action.”
The period when the Moon is completely in Earth’s shadow — called the totality — lasts just over an hour.
This event has been dubbed the “Blood Worm Moon,” after one of the names given to March full moons by some Native Americans.
In North America, the moon started to look like a bite was being taken out of it from 1:09 am Eastern Time (0509 GMT), with the totality from 2:26 am to 3:31 am, according to NASA.
In France, the totality is from 7:26 am to 8:31 am local time (0626-0731 GMT), according to the French Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation.
Only the most western parts of Europe, such as France’s Brittany region, will get any chance to see the totality before the Moon sets.
People in New Zealand have the opposite problem, with the eclipse only partially visible as the Moon rose.
Brown dislikes the term “Blood Moon,” saying it has a negative connotation and “originates from a misinformed theory of the end of the world.”
But not all societies took a negative view of these celestial shows.
Some people in Africa traditionally viewed a lunar eclipse as a conflict between the Sun and Moon that could be resolved by people “demonstrating on Earth how we work together” and laying old feuds aside, Brown said.
He called it “an amazing story that should inspire us all.”
It is the first total lunar eclipse since 2022, but there will be another one this September.
Thursday’s event is a “Micromoon,” meaning the Moon is the farthest away it gets from Earth, making it appear about seven percent smaller than normal, according to the website Earthsky.
This is the opposite of a “Supermoon,” as was seen during 2022’s lunar eclipse.
Some stargazers will be in for another treat later this month — a partial solar eclipse, which is when the Moon blocks out the Sun’s light on Earth.
This eclipse will be visible on March 29 in eastern Canada, parts of Europe, northern Russia and northwest Africa.
Viewing even a partial solar eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous, and people are advised to use special eclipse glasses or pinhole projectors.
Egyptian wrestler, who can pull a train by the strength of his teeth, sets 3 world records
- Mahrous this week received formal recognition by the Guinness World Records in three categories
- He says he pulled the two-ton locomotive in under 40 seconds
CAIRO: Pulling a train by the strength of your teeth is no easy task. But for Egyptian wrestler Ashraf Mahrous, also known by his nickname Kabonga, it’s just one of several things he can do to show off his astonishing strength.
Mahrous this week received formal recognition by the Guinness World Records in three categories, including the heaviest rail pull using only his teeth. His two other certificates are for the heaviest locomotive pull and for the fastest 100-meter road vehicle pull.
He says he pulled the two-ton locomotive in under 40 seconds.
On Thursday, crowds gathered at the Ramses train station in downtown Cairo to watch and cheer him on as he pulled a train — weighing 279 tons — with a rope held by his teeth for a distance of nearly 10 meters (33 feet).
He then repeated the feat, pulling the train with the strap around his shoulders to cheering spectators.
Mahrous, who is in his 40s and also is president of the Egyptian Federation for Professional Wrestlers, was previously recognized by the the international franchise for cracking and eating 11 raw eggs in 30 seconds in February 2024, and for pulling a 15,730-kilogram truck with his teeth in June 2021.
One of the organizers of Thursday’s spectacle in the Egyptian capital, Dawlet Elnakeb, who runs a sports company, said Mahrous trained — but not very consistently — for just 20 days before the event.
Mahrous simply has “abnormal strength,” Elnakeb said.
Woman trapped in crashed car survives on creek water for 6 days until rescue
BROOK, Indiana: An Indiana woman who was trapped in her car after a crash survived for nearly a week on water from a small creek before she was discovered and rescued, authorities said.
A man operating drainage equipment saw Brieonna Cassell’s car off a roadway Tuesday near the town of Brook, Indiana, Newton County Sheriff Shannon Cothran said in a post on social media.
The man who spotted her car told his supervisor, who is also a fire chief, and they found Cassell inside the car, conscious and able to speak, according to the sheriff. Multiple agencies responded and the 41-year-old woman, of Wheatfield, Indiana, was extricated and flown to a Chicago hospital, he said.
Cassell had been reported missing by family members days before she was found, the sheriff said. She had been trapped since Thursday night when she fell asleep at the wheel and veered off the road into a ditch, her father, Delmar Caldwell, told ABC News. Her vehicle wasn’t visible from the road.
Caldwell told the news outlet that Cassell had injuries to her legs and wrist and that her phone was found under the passenger seat.
“She was stuck in the car and could not get out, Caldwell said. “But she was able to reach the water from the car,” Caldwell said.
She was able to dip her hooded sweatshirt into the water and get it to her mouth that way, he said.
On Wednesday, Cassell was in stable condition at the hospital and was scheduled to have surgery “as there is some concern with the healing of her legs,” according to Cassell’s mother, who told Cothran he could share her status in a social media post.
“Her outlook for recovery is good but it will be a long road to recovery,” the post said.
