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Simone Biles Leaves Nike for Athleta

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  • Olympic gymnast Simone Biles is leaving athletic wear giant Nike to partner with Athleta, a women-centric brand she says aligns closely with her values. 
  • “Using my voice has been very empowering for me and I am grateful to embark on this new journey with Athleta to inspire young girls and women to do the same,” she said in a statement. 
  • As part of her deal with Athleta, Biles will have her own line of performance wear and Athleta will support the post-Olympics gymnastics tour she plans on starting herself.
  • While Biles cited no ill-will towards Nike, the news follows years of criticism the brand has faced over its treatment of female athletes

Simone Biles Partners With Athleta

Olympic gold-medalist Simone Biles confirmed Friday that she is parting ways with Nike to partner with Athleta, a women-centric apparel brand she says aligns closely with her values. 

Nike is one of the biggest athletic brands in the world and signs some of the country’s top names in sports. Athleta is owned by GAP Inc., but is much smaller in comparison. Biles’ choice to move to a more compact brand in an effort to center her activism and platform is a notable one. 

“Using my voice has been very empowering for me and I am grateful to embark on this new journey with Athleta to inspire young girls and women to do the same,” the gymnast said in a statement. “The opportunity to encourage young girls to reach their full potential and be a force for change is incredibly powerful.”

“Together, I believe we can help girls to confidently and passionately take on the world in their athletic endeavors and beyond.”

As part of her collaboration with the store, Biles will have her own line of performance wear. Athleta will also support the post-Olympics gymnastics tour she plans on starting herself.

When asked by The Wall Street Journal if she felt like she did not have the flexibility to start her own line at Nike, Biles said, “Not necessarily, but I also feel like Athleta is committed to diversity and inclusion, of all women, backgrounds, ages, sizes, abilities and races.” 

Behind Biles’ Choice To Leave Nike

Biles also expressed no ill-will towards Nike and said it is a great place for women. Similarly, a Nike spokesperson gave a statement to The Wall Street Journal expressing support for the Olympian.

“Simone Biles is an incredible athlete and we wish her the very best,” the statement said. “We will continue to champion, celebrate and evolve to support our female athletes.”

By moving to Athleta, Biles now gets the chance to use her voice in conversations with women in the company’s community about what it means to be a female in the industry. She also gets to participate in the brand’s Power of She fund, which, according to its website, aims to “advance the lives of women and girls through sports and physical activity” and “enable all girls and women to reach their potential in sports and life.”

“Now that I’m older and kind of in the world a little bit more, I see and I know and I learn and I grow from things,” she told The Journal. “So to partner with Athleta, I think they stand for everything that I stand for…I just thought it was time for a change.”

“I feel like they also support me, not just as an athlete, but just as an individual outside of the gym and the change that I want to create, which is so refreshing,” she continued. 

Not the First Woman To Dump Nike for Athleta

While Biles has not participated in these conversations herself, her decision comes after long-running criticism Nike has faced for the way it treats female athletes. In 2019, Olympic runner Allyson Felix penned an op-ed in The New York Times claiming that contract negotiations with Nike became difficult after her choice to start a family. She added that for female athletes, pregnancy can often be treated as a kiss of death. 

She said that following her pregnancy, Nike wanted to pay her 70% less. 

“I asked Nike to contractually guarantee that I wouldn’t be punished if I didn’t perform at my best in the months surrounding childbirth,” she wrote. “I wanted to set a new standard. If I, one of Nike’s most widely marketed athletes, couldn’t secure these protections, who could? Nike declined.”

Nike ended up changing their maternity policy following backlash, but Felix added that her “disappointment is not just with Nike, but with how the sports apparel industry at large treats female athletes.”

Felix ended up moving to Athleta as well, which prides itself on empowering women. Now that it has nabbed two of the country’s top female Olympians, it can further that message. 

“Athleta has a long history of building community for women and girls, and we are going to work together to develop programming focused on supporting and lifting up young women and girls,” Jana Henning, Athleta’s Chief Product Officer said to Forbes. “Our mission is to unlock the limitless potential of women and girls.” 

See what others are saying: (Wall Street Journal) (Forbes) (ESPN)

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Max to Agrees to “Properly” Credit Writers and Directors After Facing Backlash For Lumping Them in As “Creators”

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The company said the credits were laid out incorrectly due to “an oversight in the technical transition from HBO Max to Max.”


After film and television writers slammed Max for crediting all writers, producers, and directors as general “creators” on its platform, the company said it will be adjusting its credits display.

“We agree that the talent behind the content on Max deserve their work to be properly recognized,” the streaming service said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. 

Max — the new rebrand of HBO Max that incorporates Discovery content — launched on Tuesday to much criticism. Amid glitches and app-switching confusion, the biggest backlash it faced was over the choice to lump creative roles into one credit section called “creators.” As one viral tweet noted, if a user were to select the film “Raging Bull,” the service’s display would not specifically credit Martin Scorsese as the director, rather, his name would be included at random with half a dozen other people, including writers and producers. 

The decision was condemned by many in the industry who argued it minimizes writers and directors by not properly giving them credit where it is due. Especially amid the ongoing writers’ strike, and with directors and actors starting negotiations with studios, some took it as a slap in the face. 

“The studios don’t want anyone to know our names,” writer Christina Strain tweeted. “It’s easier to pay us nothing if we’re faceless.”

“Another move from studios to diminish the role of writers, directors, actors and other craftspeople. Miss me wit this nonsense,” Jorge Rivera, the Vice-Chair of the Writers Guild’s Latinx Writers Committee, added. 

In a statement, Directors Guild President Lesli Linka Glatter said that Warner Bros. Discovery’s choice to “collapse” these roles into one credit “while we are in negotiations with them is a grave insult to our members and our union.”

“The DGA will not stand for it,” Glatter continued.

WGA West President Meredith Stiehm claimed the move was “a credits violation,” as well as an insult “to the artists that make the films and TV shows that make their corporation billions.”

On Wednesday, Max said it would rework its crediting. 

“We will correct the credits, which were altered due to an oversight in the technical transition from HBO Max to Max and we apologize for this mistake,” the platform said.

See what others are saying: (Gizmodo) (The Hollywood Reporter) (The Los Angeles Times)

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A Quarter of Young British Men Support Andrew Tate’s Thoughts on Women

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U.K. residents at large, however, do not view him favorably.


Even under house arrest in Romania, misogynist influencer Andrew Tate still holds substantial sway over young men. 

According to data from YouGov that was obtained by The Independent, 26% of U.K. men between 18 and 29 years old who know of Tate agree with his views on women. That figure was largely the same for men between 30 and 39, as 28% agreed with Tate’s opinions on the subject. 

Men in their 30s were slightly more likely to agree with Tate on his thoughts about masculinity. Three out of ten supported those views, compared to just a quarter of men 18 to 29.

Those statistics only include the thoughts of men who have heard of Tate, but per YouGov, most have. In the 18 to 29 group, 93% were familiar with him, and 86% of men in their 30s knew of him. 

The U.K. at large was less aware of Tate, with just 63% of British adults having heard of him. Of that group, only 6% held a positive view of him. 

Tate has faced substantial backlash for his sexist rhetoric over the years. In the past, he said that men should have “authority” over their wives or girlfriends, and that women should “bear some responsibility” for being raped. He was previously banned from Twitter over his extremist views on women but has since been allowed back on the platform. 

He is currently being investigated in Romania for organized crime and human trafficking. He was arrested and held in custody in December but was released to house arrest earlier this year. No formal charges have been filed against him yet and he has maintained his innocence. 

Tate currently boasts a Twitter following of 6.7 million. It has grown significantly since he was enveloped in legal controversy, and many of his supporters have demanded his release. 

See what others are saying: (The Independent) (Glamour U.K.)

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Involved in “Near Catastrophic” Paparazzi Chase

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“While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyone’s safety,” a spokesperson for the couple said.


“Aggressive” Paparazzi Chase Couple in New York

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were involved in a “near catastrophic” paparazzi car chase Tuesday night in New York City, according to a spokesperson for the couple.

In a statement, the spokesperson described the photographers as “highly aggressive.”

“While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyone’s safety,” the statement added.

“This relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours, resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers,” it continued. 

Details of the incident are still emerging, but BBC News reported that there are claims the chase involved roughly six cars driving recklessly by running red lights, driving on the sidewalk, carrying out blocking moves, going backward on a one-way road, and taking pictures while driving. 

The chase happened after Harry and Meghan were leaving the Women of Vision Awards with Meghan’s mother, Doria. They did not want photographers to learn where they were staying and attempted to avoid them in what turned into a 75-minute chase on a main road in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. They eventually ducked into a New York Police Department Precinct to hide out before getting into a different vehicle.

The NYPD released a statement confirming that they assisted in protecting the couple as “numerous photographers” hindered their transport. Officials said they made it to their destination and there were no collisions, injuries, or arrests. 

The couple’s spokesperson is asking the public to not share or post footage of the incident. 

“Dissemination of these images, given the ways in which they were obtained, encourages a highly intrusive practice that is dangerous to all in involved,” the spokesperson said. 

Memories of Princess Diana

The chase evokes the brutal press hounding Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, was subjected to throughout her life. The paparazzi’s obsession with her ultimately resulted in her death in 1997, when she was killed in a car crash after being chased by photographers in Paris. 

Since marrying Meghan and later bowing out of the Royal Family, Harry has made it explicitly clear that he fears those events could happen again. Meghan has been the subject of endless tabloid scrutiny, enduring racism and harassment from the press. Part of the reason they left the Royal Family was to keep their family protected from such attacks.

Mayor Eric Adams brought up Diana’s tragic passing while speaking about Tuesday night’s chase. 

“I don’t think there’s many of us who don’t recall how [Harry’s] mom died,” Adams said while speaking to reporters. “And it would be horrific to lose an innocent bystander during a chase like this and something to have happened to them as well…I think that was a bit reckless and irresponsible.” 

Adams also questioned whether or not he believes a chase could go on for two hours in a city as congested as New York, but noted that even a 10-minute chase would be dangerous. He said he will be briefed on the exact timeline and details later. 

See what others are saying: (BBC News) (Associated Press) (Yahoo News)

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