Connect with us

Published

on

Actor Jeremy Strong has said Donald Trump calling those involved with his new film The Apprentice “human scum” is “all the more reason” cinemagoers should go and see it.

Ahead of the UK release of the biopic which depicts the presidential candidate’s rise as a New York property developer back in the 1970s, Strong told Sky News: “We all knew we were playing with fire getting involved with [this], but it also felt just supremely important and meaningful to try and understand and tell the story about how Donald Trump became who he is now.”

While Marvel actor Sebastian Stan plays Mr Trump, the Succession star plays notorious lawyer Roy Cohn, a mentor of sorts to Mr Trump, whom it’s claimed taught him power plays like denying everything and to “attack, attack, attack”.

Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn
Image:
Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn

“As a film I think it stands on its own but there are also things in it that I think a lot of the American public certainly don’t know about and, because of the stakes right now, it would behove everyone to become informed about where this is all coming from and how we got here,” Strong insisted.

Co-written by Vanity Fair journalist Gabriel Sherman who has penned biographies on both Mr Trump and Mr Cohn, not only does the film show the former president having cosmetic surgery and popping diet pills – most controversially it depicts him raping his first wife Ivana.

An incident based on an assault that was detailed in her divorce deposition – a claim she recanted years later.

Mr Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Sebastian Stan as Trump
Image:
Sebastian Stan as Mr Trump

After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival at the start of this year, lawyers for Mr Trump unsuccessfully filed a cease and desist notice to the team behind the film.

This week, in a 1am rant on his Truth Social app on Monday, Mr Trump called the film “FAKE and CLASSLESS”.

Referring to those involved as “human scum”, he hit out at the timing of the movie’s release, calling the film a “cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job” aimed at thwarting his re-election attempts.

“I feel very proud of being part of this film,” Strong said.

Jeremy Strong (left) as Roy Cohn and Sebastian Stan (right) as Donald Trump in the new film
Image:
Jeremy Strong (left) as Roy Cohn and Sebastian Stan (right) as Donald Trump in the new film

“It’s also unsettling to be kind of, you know, at the sharp end of the spear and intersecting with history and politics in this moment… for Trump to call us ‘human scum’ is a heavy thing but also, to me, the fact that he felt compelled to do that is just all the more reason why I think it’s essential for people to see it.”

Read more from Sky News:
Man rescued after months at sea
Olivia Rodrigo falls in stage hole during show
Nine monkeys die in two days at zoo

Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Tap here

Strong claims Mr Trump’s early morning post is exactly what his character Mr Cohn would advise, “always attack, deny everything and never admit defeat”.

Strong explained: “The veracity of the film, that he’s attacking us, once you start to see the playbook and you realise what these tactics are, you see that it permeates literally everything that [Mr Trump] does.”

The Apprentice is released in the UK & Ireland on 18 October.

Continue Reading

US

US election 2024: The demographic divides that will decide whether Trump or Harris become president

Published

on

By

US election 2024: The demographic divides that will decide whether Trump or Harris become president

Let’s talk about the big poll numbers and why – right now at least – they’re sort of useless. But also sort of useful.

The Sky News poll tracker (always useful, whatever the current state of the race) is still showing a consistent lead for Harris. But because it’s well within the margin of error, it doesn’t tell us anything about who’s likely to win the election.

What if we slice it differently and look at the swing states themselves? This is the latest polling.

Same problem here. Nevada has a healthy lead for Harris – perhaps beyond the margin of error. But the other six states are again within the margin of error so they could go either way. Especially North Carolina, which is a dead heat right now.

And, because of the way the electoral college works, there’s a scenario where everything actually hinges on North Carolina – a state that doesn’t even show a lead for either candidate. It feels like we are flying blind.

But there’s another way of slicing things, with demographics. This is a bit different to the way we look at demographics in the UK – they’re the main point of interest in the exit polling, which doesn’t publish a predicted overall winner like in a general election.

And there’s good news for both candidates here, when you combine the different demographics with the swing states.

The demographic divides that favour Harris

One of the most significant dividing lines in American politics is race. Fewer than one in eight black voters backed Trump in 2020, compared with 87% who voted for Biden.

That split could be particularly important in the two battlegrounds in the south, Georgia and North Carolina, which have significantly higher black populations than the US average.

Hispanic and Latin American voters also tend to vote Democrat, although not quite as enthusiastically as black voters. They backed Biden over Trump by more than two to one in 2020, 65% to 32%.

These voters will be particularly important in Arizona and Nevada, close to the Mexican border.

Harris’s standing in the polls among these groups is better than Biden’s was before he dropped out, but it may still not reach the same levels as her Democrat predecessors (including Biden) in recent past elections.

But a big percentage is only helpful if it’s out of a big number. The key for Harris will be persuading these voters to actually come out and cast their ballots.

Obama did this really well. Hillary Clinton didn’t. Biden did a bit better than her. Harris now has less than three weeks to build the enthusiasm behind her campaign.

The ones that favour Trump

One group that does tend to back Trump is rural voters. And the battleground states in general have more rural voters than the US average.

Trump will likely still win among this group, but some polls show Harris performing better than Biden was.

Pennsylvania might be best known for its big cities of industry, but it’s also powered by agriculture – only Texas and North Carolina are home to a higher overall number of rural voters.

You can easily spot the urban areas on this map of the 2020 results – Philadelphia in the far southwest, Pittsburgh in the east.

Winning in these crucial battleground states is never about winning across the entire state. It’s all about maximising your wins in the areas you’re likely to do best, while limiting your losses in the places your opponent is likely to win. No vote is worth any more than any other.

Back to the big poll number, then, and why it is sort of useful too.

If Harris adds to her national polling, that counts among black voters and women (two overlapping categories) within the rural voters within those swing states – which could be bad for Trump.

The rising tide of Harris’s national polling raises the demographics that are very important in those seven swing states.


The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

Continue Reading

US

Ozzy Osbourne’s former guitarist shot multiple times while walking his dog

Published

on

By

Ozzy Osbourne’s former guitarist shot multiple times while walking his dog

Ozzy Osbourne’s former guitarist has been shot multiple times as he walked his dog in Las Vegas.

Jake E Lee, who helped write the 1983 album Bark At The Moon, is conscious and “is expected to fully recover”.

Tim Heyne, manager for Lee’s rock band Red Dragon Cartel, told The Associated Press: “By the grace of God, no major organs were hit, he’s fully responsive, and expected to make a full recovery.”

Lee performs at the M3 Rock Fest in 2014. Pic: Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)
Image:
Lee performs at the M3 Rock Fest in 2014. Pic: Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)

A spokesperson for the musician said: “As the incident is under police investigation, no further comments will be forthcoming.”

Las Vegas police said the shooting happened at around 2.40am on Tuesday – in a neighbourhood around 10 miles from the Strip.

No arrests have been made, and the police department said its investigation was ongoing.

Lee, 67, played guitar in several bands in the glam metal scene of Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip in the 1980s, including an early version of Ratt.

He played for Ozzy Osbourne’s band from 1982 to 1987 and was later involved with Badlands.

Continue Reading

US

Children and staff share $13m payout after unannounced ‘shooter drill’ at psychiatric hospital

Published

on

By

Children and staff share m payout after unannounced 'shooter drill' at psychiatric hospital

Children and staff who were left traumatised after an unannounced “shooter drill” at a psychiatric hospital will share a $13m (£10m) settlement.

The incident happened in 2022 when a member of staff used a speaker system to warn that two armed men were inside the Hawthorn Centre in Detroit and that shots had been fired.

Lawyer Robin Wagner said it was just a drill – and staff and children had not been warned.

Police also did not know anything about the plan with dozens of officers turning up to the children’s psychiatric unit with full body armour and high-powered weapons.

“It was horrifying,” she told the Detroit Court of Claims.

“Everyone went into, ‘Oh my God. This is the worst day of my life’.

“People were hiding under their desks. They were barricading the doors, trying to figure out how to protect the children.”

More on Michigan

Fifty children at the hospital each will receive around $60,000 (£46,000).

And around 90 members of staff will receive an average of more than $50,000 (£38,000), depending on their score on a trauma test.

Read more from Sky News:
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faces extra sex assault allegations
Nine monkeys die in two days at zoo
World Conker Championships investigates cheating

Twenty-four others will get smaller amounts.

“The state recognised that this was really a bad decision and harmed a lot of people,” Ms Wagner added.

Following the final decision on Tuesday to agree the settlement, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health and Human Services said: “We regret that our patients, staff and community were negatively affected by the unfortunate incident in December 2022.”

Ms Wagner said the drill was organised by the Hawthorn Centre’s safety director, who still works for the state.

The hospital has since been closed for reasons unrelated to what happened.

Continue Reading

Trending