VAN JONES

Prior to the return of election results on Tuesday night, CNN's Van Jones asserted that if Republican Glenn Youngkin triumphed in the Virginia gubernatorial race, it would represent the "Delta Variant" of Trumpism. Jones explained the analogy by saying Youngkin was a part of the "same disease" but that he would spread "a lot faster."

A prominent backer of Republican causes and candidates is notably absent from the conservative political groups backing efforts to ban in schools what they call critical race theory.

The world’s richest man wanted to say thanks to the people who made his brief trip into space Tuesday possible.

CNN's Van Jones disappointed by Chauvin's sentence: 'A punch in the gut'

“I think she’s one of the best advocates that we have,” Jones said. Van Jones has never made his fondness for Kim Kardashian a secret and during a recent interview with Ellen DeGeneres, he waxed poetic about what a great attorney he thinks she’ll be. When asked how Kardashian’s studies are going Jones replied, “She’s doing amazing.”

A nation following on television and other screens nervously awaited the verdict in case over the killing of George Floyd.

NEW YORK – ABC, CBS and NBC all cut away from President Donald Trump on Thursday as he spoke from the White House to make an unfounded accusation that the presidential election was being stolen from him. Trump was more subdued Thursday, yet offered a litany of complaints about “suppression” polls, mail-in voting and fraud that he never specified. Cordes said there is no indication of a substantive number of illegal votes cast, and said Trump's reference to votes arriving late was “another falsehood.”MSNBC cut away from Trump to anchor Brian Williams. “There are no illegal votes that we know of, there has been no Trump victory that we know of.”After ABC ended its coverage, the network’s White House correspondent, Jonathan Karl, also said there was no evidence of illegal votes. But especially in this election.”While CNN kept Trump on the air, a chyron displayed under him said, “Without any evidence, Trump says he's being cheated.”Anchor Jake Tapper looked weary when it was over.

NEW YORK – “Sesame Street" has always pressed for inclusion. Sesame Workshop — the nonprofit, educational organization behind “Sesame Street” — will later this month air the half-hour anti-racist special "The Power of We” and hopes families will watch together. The special defines racism for younger viewers and shows how it can be hurtful. “Sesame Street,” which last year celebrated its 50th anniversary, has a history of explaining the world to children, tackling everything from foster care to substance abuse. The latest special comes on the heels of “Sesame Street” contributing to “Coming Together: Standing Up To Racism,” a CNN town hall special in June hosted by Van Jones and Erica Hill.

Republicans decided the show must go on and, for the most part, television networks followed. The convention is taking place in the shadow of huge stories that are happening right now, CNN's Anderson Cooper said. Networks, after giving extensive coverage to the Democrats last week, are cognizant of being fair to the Republicans. The president has been showing up every night, the president could talk about it. But former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, also a CNN contributor, said Republicans were there to try and reelect President Trump and that has to continue to remain their focus.

LOS ANGELES The Democratic and Republican conventions will lack for crowds but not television coverage. The Democratic meeting will be virtual, with Biden planning to make his acceptance speech from Wilmington, Delaware. Broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC plan an hour of nightly coverage of the conventions at 10 p.m. EDT. CNN's commentators for the Democratic meeting include Van Jones, Jennifer Granholm, Andrew Yang, and Scott Jennings. Commentary for the Republican convention will be handled by Rick Santorum, David Urban, Amanda Carpenter and Granholm.

This image released by Lionsgate shows co-writer/directors Christopher Renz, left, and Gerard Bush on the set of "Antebellum." Filmmakers Bush and Renz planned to release their feature-length debut film, Antebellum, in the spring of 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic exploded internationally. In Antebellum, Mone gives moviegoers a modern Black heroine who takes charge of her own liberation without a male-dominated cavalry. Their path to feature-length films with a racial justice message has been a long time coming, Bush and Renz said. Even as they anticipate finding box office success with Antebellum, Bush and Renz are already at work on their second feature-length script, under a newly formed production company, Gloaming Pictures.

Clubhouse is the buzzy new social app of 2020, freshly valued at $100 million after a reported $12 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz. Clubhouse screenshotBilal Zuberi, a partner at venture firm Lux Capital, said Clubhouse is the only social audio app that's captured his interest. While cooking dinner on Monday night, he was one of about 100 people listening to the discussion on race that featured MC Hammer and other well-known voices. It could be MC Hammer, comedian Kevin Hart, actor Jared Leto (talking about washing fruit with soap) or hip-hop artist Fab 5 Freddy. An Andreessen Horowitz spokesperson declined to comment for this story, and Davison said he's not doing interviews yet.

A criminal justice reform group backed by celebrities and top business executives is giving 100,000 masks to prisons across the country as those incarcerated are impacted by the coronavirus. New York's Rikers Island jail will be seeing 50,000 masks from the Reform Alliance, an organization that has advocated for changes to the criminal justice system since 2019, the group announced Friday. Shaka Senghor, an author who wrote a memoir about his life that included 19 years in prison, partnered with Reform to help acquire the masks. Founding partners include New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Third Point CEO Dan Loeb and Robert Smith, CEO of Vista Equity Partners. "We partnered with Shaka Senghor, who was able to find us an anonymous donor who donated $100,000 to buy the masks," Jackson said.

The severity of Hasson’s sentence hinged on two starkly divergent explanations for the cache of weapons seized from his Maryland home and the disturbing material found on his computer at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington. “Any semblance of hate, bigotry or advocacy of violence has no place in our Coast Guard,” said Adm. Karl Schultz, the guard's commandant, in an emailed news release. They have called Hasson a domestic terrorist and self-described white nationalist, intent on carrying out mass killings. Defense lawyers dispute that their client has any “sincerely held” extremist, racist or white nationalist views. They described him as an avid firearms collector and disaster “prepper” who stockpiles survivalist gear for "doomsday-type scenarios.”Hasson worked at Coast Guard headquarters on a program to acquire advanced new cutters for the agency.