NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 31, 2023--

What happens when you put two of the world’s most outspoken commentators together? Two-and-a-half hours of self-congratulation, tedious repetition and outright lies, it transpires. Tucker Carlson jetted off to Romania to join Andrew Tate for a sit-down chat at his home on the outskirts of Bucharest, where the influencer remains under house arrest. Last month, the 36-year-old king of toxic masculinity was charged with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women. However, he offered Carlson and his loyal ‘Tucker on Twitter’ viewers a very different version of the allegations against him. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The former Fox News poster boy asked the self-styled “top G” to explain the accusations made against him. Tate responded by saying he’d been charged with “convincing” women to get TikTok. “I'm charged with being the head of an organised criminal group, which is in charge of recruiting girls to make TikTok videos, to steal the money from the TikTok views,” he told his sympathetic interviewer. He then elaborated: “The overall charge is that there's an organised criminal group [...], I'm the head of it. My brother is below me, and we use the loverboy method to convince women to do TikTok videos to make money so that we can steal the TikTok money.” What he means by the so-called “loverboy method” is when a man seduces young, vulnerable girls and boys over a period of time in order to sexually exploit them later on. "So, just to be clear, you are not accused of pandering, of pimping, of forcing women to have sex with anybody?" Carlson then asked. "No,” Tate replied. “Not forcing them to have sex, not for restraining their movement, not stopping them from living a full life, but the fact that we are somehow convincing them to have TikTok." We’d like to take this opportunity to “be clear” ourselves. Tate and his brother Tristan, 34, are charged with some of the most serious crimes imaginable. Last month, Tate was served with legal papers by lawyers representing four of his alleged victims who have accused him of rape and sexual assault. The four women, in their late 20s and early 30s, are pursuing civil proceedings against the former kickboxer over alleged offences occurring between 2013 and 2016 while he was still living in the UK, The Guardian reports. The legal letter sets out the four women’s accusations against him, including violent rapes, serious physical assaults, and controlling and coercive behaviour. One of the women claimed that after meeting Tate in 2014, he brutally assaulted her. She said: “While having sex, he began to choke me and choked me so hard that I lost consciousness. I thought I was going to die. When I woke up, he was continuing to rape me. It is difficult to say that because it is so upsetting, but that is what it was.” Meanwhile in Romania, prosecutors also confirmed last month that seven women had come forward with allegations against the Tate brothers, including some who say they were “misled” by “false claims of marriage and love”. The pair are accused of forming an organised crime group in early 2021 to commit human trafficking in Romania, the UK, the US and other countries. The alleged victims were later taken to buildings in Romania’s Ilfov county where they were intimidated, placed under constant surveillance and control and forced into debt, a statement from the prosecutors said. The two men then allegedly forced the women to engage in pornography which was later shared on social media. One of the alleged victims says she was raped twice in March 2022, according to the statement. Both Tate and Tristan vehemently deny the accusations against them and, in his interview with Carlson, the former went so far as to say they’d been fabricated by the media. He told the right-wing host: “The girls have come forward and said, ‘This is insane, you've just picked us because we're near Andrew and we're his friends’.” He continued: “But they (meaning the powers that be) are like, ‘Nope, you’re a victim, no matter what you say. We’re deciding you’re a victim.” He went on to accuse the “media machine” of offering thousands of pounds in bribes to anyone willing to badmouth the Tates. “The media machine, which works hands in hands with the justice machine [...] offered bribes effectively,” he told Carlson. “They'd call up and say, if you have anything bad to say about Andrew, we can pay you $50,000 for the story.” Suffice it to say, lawyers for four of the victims would categorically rubbish his outlandish claims. After serving the 36-year-old with the legal papers, one of the representatives for the women said: “Despite Tate’s outrageous claims that these women aren’t even real, on reading the papers, he should now recall how real they are. “Talk of the ‘Matrix’ and ‘false flags’ hold no weight in court. The survivors look forward to seeing him there.” 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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Sam Smith described feeling "heartbroken" after "vocal issues" caused them to stop their Manchester concert last night, just four songs into the set. The singer took to the stage at AO Arena on Wednesday (May 24) and earlier teased fans on social media that there would be a "special surprise" near the end of the gig - they earlier shared a brief clip to social media, hinting at a collaboration with Madonna. However, after performing their 2017 song 'Too Good at Goodbyes', the lights went out at the venue as the show suddenly stopped. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter At first confused fans at the show speculated there was a "power cut" after the lights went dark for approximately 20 minutes but were later informed the show was cancelled due to Smith having "vocal issues". But Smith posted a statement to Instagram to explain the reason their concert was abruptly cut short. "Dearest sailors, I don’t know what to say honestly. I fought off a virus a few weeks ago and since then we have travelled across Europe and had such incredible shows. "Today in soundcheck I felt fine and was so excited to give Manchester an amazing show tonight, with a special surprise at the end," they wrote. "During my third song, I noticed something wrong with my voice. I prayed it was just my voice waking up for the show but into the fourth song I could feel something was really wrong." They added: "I came off stage and have tried everything to get my voice back in gear but it won't. I am honestly heartbroken I couldn't finish the show tonight for you all. I love you all. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry." Since then fans have expressed their disappointment on Twitter, believing Smith should have cancelled their Manchester show earlier. While some described the "anxiety" in the crowd as it was the sixth anniversary of the terror attack at Manchester Arena just days before on May 22. While others wished Smith well, hoping that their voice was okay. Earlier this year, Smith achieved their third UK number one album, with Gloria. 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.

Award-winning Belgian film actor Bouli Lanners tenderly applies the final brushstrokes to a traditional wooden puppet he is working on in the cellar...