Fox News' Maria Bartiromo served up a new conspiracy theory to the network's viewers, suggesting the US was "drumming up" news of internal strife in Russia to distract from Hunter Biden news. During Fox & Friends on Sunday, Bartiromo complained about a "double standard" she sees when it comes to Hunter Biden, and insisted that the biggest story of the weekend was not the dramatic break between the Wagner Group mercenaries and their Russian benefactors, but rather the president's son. “I know that the State Department and the White House would like everybody to move the Hunter Biden story off of the front page and start talking about all the drama in Russia over the weekend,” Bartiromo said. “We’re not going to do that on Sunday Morning Futures. The biggest story of the week was that WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden, and he is basically doing a shakedown that you would expect in a Francis Ford Coppola Godfather movie.” The "story of the week" Ms Bartiromo was referring to was a WhatsApp message in which Hunter Biden dropped his father's name to pressure a Chinese business associate to pay him. The message was reported after Hunter Biden accepted a plea deal from federal prosecutors over a misdemeanour tax charge and a felony gun charges. Bartiromo suggested the news out of Russia that the notorious Wagner Group, a mercenary organisation the carries out military operations for Russia, was revolting against its benefactors was a distraction handed to the media from Joe Biden. “The White House wanted to give the media something else to cover, and this is the MO. This is exactly the way they do things,” she said. She claims she predicted that the White House would try to cover up the WhatsApp message with a different story. "On Friday I said ‘Wow, what a blockbuster WhatsApp message. I’m sure there will be an enormous story over the weekend that the White House is gonna be pushing to take this story off the front page.’ And sure enough, we’ve got the State Department drumming up the drama that took place over the weekend in Russia," she said. "So I don’t know if it’s going to break through. The mainstream media has an excuse again not to cover it. They’re covering everything about Russia and the Wagner Group as if it really matters to the US right now." But even Bartiromo's network was covering the dramatic in-fighting in Russia, albeit with its own tinge of conspiracy theory. The day before, a Fox & Friends co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy claimed that the US might be pulling the strings behind the Wagner Group's short-lived uprising. Despite her insistence that the Wagner Group's actions would be of little import to Americans, she led her Sunday Morning Futures show with an interview featuring Congressman Michael McCaul about the mercenary outfit. Read More Fox News choose Jesse Watters to replace Tucker Carlson in primetime shakeup Trump hits out at Fox News’s Bret Baier after incriminating interview: ‘It was nasty, unfriendly, no smiling’ Trump fumes about ‘illegally leaked’ CNN tape of him boasting about classified documents The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

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Harry Styles shocked fans when he ditched his signature locks and shaved his head - but now rumours are flying that there is particular reason the popstar is sporting the buzzcut look. Upon photos of Styles at a U2 gig in Las Vegas looking rather different getting shared, the internet reacted with memes, a Taylor Swift conspiracy theory, and at one point the pop star's mum intervened questioning what all the fuss was about. The latest rumour that has garnered attention is the theory that Styles shaved his head because he's going to star in season three of The White Lotus. Jennifer Coolidge, Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, and Sydney Sweeney are just some of the A-list actors who have starred in the show, the first season aired in 2021, followed by season two in 2022. It has been confirmed the Emmy Award-winning series will return for a third season, but it may not be released until 2025 due to strikes, HBO and Max chairman/CEO Casey Bloys said, as per Variety. While the show's creator Mike White has said he hopes to start filming “at the beginning of the year.” Some of the new characters written for the upcoming series include "a patriarch, a corporate executive, an actress, a couple of mothers, a misfit and a yogi," according to Deadline, we also already know the season will focus on exploring “death in Eastern religion and spirituality," as White confirmed last year. These details have led Styles fans to believe that the singer and actor shaved his head in preparation to play one of these roles. Plus, this rumour was further fuelled when anonymous celebrity gossip account DeuxMoi claimed that an "A-list singer" was "circling a part" - with the singer tipped to play the reported "yogi". Australian radio star Leon Sjogren also speculated this theory that we'll see Styles in the new season. This wouldn't be the first acting role for Styles, as he has previously starred in Dunkirk (2017), Don't Worry Darling (2022), and My Policeman (2022) as well as a post-credits sequence in the Marvel film Eternals (2021). It's been quite the year for the As It Was singer too, after he won Album of the Year for Harry's House at the Grammy Awards, and completed his last leg of Love on Tour - so as he's not touring fans noted how he has some free time on his hands to pursue a role like the one that is rumoured. However, Styles has since responded to the rumours that he'll be joining the new season of The White Lotus, as HuffPost UK reported that his team confirmed that Styles won't be starring in the show. While fans will be disappointed, they'll no doubt be watching in anticipation to see what Styles does next. How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter 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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