The Pulitzer Prize for fiction was awarded Monday to two class-conscious novels: “Demon Copperhead,” Barbara Kingsolver’s modern recasting of the Dickens classic “David Copperfield,” and Hernan Diaz’s “Trust,” an innovative narrative of wealth and deceit set in 1920s New York

A US-Russian dual national working for Radio Free Europe has been detained in Russia and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, the US-funded news organization reported Wednesday.

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Michael Strahan joined his Fox colleagues on the streets of Manhattan for his punditry gig on NFL

It’s a sad inevitability that the big names defending Russell Brand are some of the most influential in the world. Elon Musk and Andrew Tate – two of the most Googled people on the planet – have already publicly backed the 48-year-old comedian, as have those great champions of right-wing and conservative conspiracy theories: Alex Jones, Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson. And so it comes as no surprise that Pearl Davis, the woman who proudly owns the nickname “the female Andrew Tate”, is the latest red pill ideologist to throw her support behind Brand, who vehemently denies all the allegations made against him. In a YouTube video shared with her 1.8 million YouTube subscribers, Davis announced that “the Matrix is coming after him” and that he is the victim of a “mainstream media” witchhunt. And whilst many of us simply roll our eyes at such warcries from the internet’s self-styled “anti-establishment” fighters, Davis’s arguments in support of Brand should be a genuine cause of concern. She asks in her monologue: “Why would a man that is rich and famous need to rape anybody? [...] Why would a guy need to assault or rape anybody in order to get sex that's having it thrown at him 24/7?” Then, offering an analogy to hit home her point, she adds: “This is the equivalent of me being a billionaire and getting accused of robbing a bank.” Russell Brand Is Being Attacked... www.youtube.com Now, you may gape in horror and disbelief at such base and ignorant “reasoning”, this same logic is applied again and again, getting countless alledged predators off the hook. Indeed, Safe Horizon – the largest victim assistance charity in the US – addressed the issue in a poignant piece back in 2018 titled ‘Why Does the Myth That Attractive Men ‘Don't Have to Rape’ Persist?’ In the first-hand account, writer Jeena Sharma explains that her earliest memory of suffering sexual assault was at the hands of her piano teacher, who was “seemingly handsome, smart and kind, with a daughter of his own”. She said she never told her parents, “not because they wouldn’t care but because [she] felt ashamed and mostly confused”. After all, “how could this man [...] do something that I would only expect from a creepy stranger in an alley?” Sharma went on to cite the example of former NFL player Darren Sharper, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison and accused of drugging and raping as many as 16 women back in 2016. She pointed out that at the time, the judge sentencing Sharper expressed her disbelief at his crimes, saying she couldn’t understand how someone who was college-educated and had grown up “in one of the most loving households” could carry out such atrocities. Russell Brand has strongly denied the accusations against him. Rape Crisis offers support for those affected by rape and sexual abuse. You can call them on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, and 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland, or visit their website at www.rapecrisis.org.uk.If you are in the US, you can call Rainn on 800-656-HOPE (4673). Sign up for 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.

Taylor Swift fans have shared feelings of forgetfulness after seeing the pop-star performing on her highly anticipated Eras Tour. Speaking to Time, Jenna Tocatlian, 25, spoke about her experience seeing Swift at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts. Speaking about one of Swift’s nightly surprise songs At the concert that Tocatlian attended the song was 'Better Man', but she said: ‘If I didn’t have the 5-minute video that my friend kindly took of me jamming to it, I probably would have told every that it didn’t happen.’ She added that as she waited to leave the stadium, during an hour-long wait, she found it difficult to grasp the reality of a night she had waited so long to experience. ‘It’s hard to put together what you actually witness,’ she told Time. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter It seems Tocatlian isn’t the only one experiencing ‘post-concert amnesia’. Taking to social media, many users have shared their inability to recall the events of the show, from small details to even significant parts of the concert. Some described having feelings of guilt after waiting so long to attend the show and leaving without explicit memories. Ewan McNay, an associate professor in the psychology department at the State University of New York in Albany, told Time that the experience may be a result of too much excitement. He explained that ‘this is not a concert-specific phenomenon - it can happen any time you’re in a highly emotional state.’ This is because as a result of feelings of excitement, the body’s stress levels increase, which in turn causes neurons associated with memory to start firing indiscriminately. McNay shared that this makes forming new memories ‘really hard.’ The biological explanation for this occurrence is due to the body seeing excitement as a state of stress. The body then starts pumping out the brain’s favourite molecule for memory: glucose. Because the body thinks it’s stressed, it doesn’t want to waste energy on memory formation. Your vagal nerves, which regulate internal organ functions, also become stimulated as a result of the perceived stress. All this causes the part of your brain responsible for emotional processing - known as your amygdala - to release a neurotransmitter called norepinephrine. This helps to categorise memories as having high emotional content, increasing the likelihood that they’ll be stored vividly in your mind. However, McNay goes on to explain that too much of this chemical release can actually invest the process, especially if caffeine or alcohol are included. Which leads to your brain struggling to create and store new memories. For those who want to try and have a better memory of an important event, whether it’s seeing Taylor Swift, or getting married, McNay shared some helpful techniques. He says to try and achieve a ‘semi-meditative state’ and relaxing. He also adds that physical responses such as screaming at a concert tells the body that you must be scared. If you stand still in a more relaxed state, your brain will know not to get too excited, and aid the formation of new memories. 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.

'Vanderpump Rules' star Scheana Shay and her husband Brock Davies claim they had a hint about Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss' hook-up

Leonardo Dionicio and Anna Kurdys were in danger of being eliminated until Marco Donatelli and Hannah Wright won the challenge

Hayley Atwell admitted the varied stunt work on 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1' "blew [her] mind".

Ahead of summer movie season that kicks off Friday with the release of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol