Latest news with #Ben Affleck
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jennifer Lopez's Birthday Surprise Interrupted by Wardrobe Malfunction on Stage
Jennifer Lopez faced a wardrobe malfunction that left her on stage in her underwear at a concert in Warsaw, Poland, on Friday night (July 25) — by shrugging it off with a smile. Emerging from backstage following a wardrobe change, she found herself surprised with a 'Happy Birthday' sing-along by her backup singers, dancers and the crowd at PGE Narodowy. But everyone in the room seemed surprised when the star's gold skirt fell to the floor. More from Billboard Jennifer Lopez Says She's 'Done' With Marriage After Ben Affleck Split: 'I've Tried That a Few Times' Pantera Cancel Tour Dates to Mourn Ozzy Osbourne Ed Sheeran Expands 2026 Australia and New Zealand Tour 'Oh!' she said. 'I'm out here in my underwear. That's gonna be everywhere.' When the garment couldn't easily be reattached, Lopez — who turned 56 earlier in the week, on July 24 — simply threw it into the crowd. 'I'm glad that they reinforced that costume,' she joked. 'And I'm glad I had underwear on. I don't usually wear underwear.' Whichever fan caught the skirt got to go home with a one-of-a-kind souvenir from J. Lo's Up All Night Tour: 'You can keep it,' Lopez called out. 'You can have it. I don't want it back.' 'You can have it, forever and ever,' she added with a laugh. A good sport, Lopez uploaded a video of the whole ordeal on her official YouTube channel. In the clip, she also told her fans and tour crew how appreciative she was of the everyone's support. 'I am so thankful to be here in beautiful Warsaw on my birthday,' the singer announced. 'I gotta tell you, surrounded by my incredible dancers, my band, my crew, everybody — I am so blessed. I don't usually give any advice to anybody because I feel like we're all on our own specific journey. … If I had one little piece of advice for you, it would be to do what you love, find what you love, do it, and do it with people that you love, and then you will have the most amazing life. I can say that firsthand.' She said, 'And I also want to say that I believe that the amount of happiness that you have in your heart is, is tied directly to how free you feel, and I wish you guys all the same happiness and freedom and the way you made me feel tonight. … I want you to be feel free to love, free to be who you are, free to just follow your dreams and do all the things that you want to do. I just want you to feel free.' See J. Lo's birthday surprise below. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Oil exploration in the Congo basin rainforest could be a disaster for nature and the climate
The 'worst place in the world' to explore for oil is open for business. Again. Swathes of the Congo basin rainforest, home to okapis, lowland gorillas, bonobos and other rare wildlife, are being auctioned off by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for the second time in three years. This round of licensing includes 52 blocks across 124m hectares (306m acres) of swamps and rainforest in some of the best-preserved tropical ecosystems left on Earth. Opening it up for fossil fuel extraction could be a disaster for nature and the climate. We have been here before. In July 2022, the DRC government announced an auction round that included Virunga national park and the Cuvette Centrale tropical peatlands in the north-west of the country, which store the equivalent of three years of global emissions from fossil fuels. It came just months after a $500m (£380m) deal at Cop26 in Glasgow to better protect the DRC's portion of the world's second-largest tropical rainforest. In the end, the auction petered out despite defiant claims from the country's then oil and gas minister that celebrity campaigners including Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Affleck would not stand in their way. The DRC government announced the end of the auction last October, citing lack of competition and irregular offers. But the world has changed in the proceeding months. In 2022, the US was a leading diplomatic voice behind the scenes, urging the DRC government to cancel the auction. Dozens of environmental NGOs spoke out to condemn the decision. One New York investment firm even tried to buy the oil blocks and turn them into an enormous carbon offsetting project. Today, in a world shaped by Donald Trump's White House and with the growing risks of speaking out about the environment, the reaction to the latest auction has been comparably meek. 'The world's worst place to prospect for oil is up for auction, again,' said Prof Simon Lewis from University College London, who led the team that first mapped the central Congo peatlands, speaking to my colleague Phoebe Weston last month. 'No credible company would bid for oil in the DRC's forests and peatlands, as there is probably not enough oil to be commercially viable, and it will be expensive oil in financial, social and environmental costs.' Those in favour of the oil exploration say the development does not need to come with a major environmental cost and could provide a huge economic boost for one of the poorest nations on Earth. They point to Gabon, also a Congo basin rainforest country, as an oil producer that maintains one of the highest levels of forest cover in the world. But there is confusion about priorities of the DRC government. Rich in critical minerals, the DRC has been the focus of intense diplomatic competition between China and the US in recent years, positioning itself as a 'solutions country' for the climate crisis and the energy transition. Earlier this year, it announced one of the world's largest conservation projects – the flagship Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor conservation initiative. But more than two-thirds of the corridor overlaps with the planned oil blocks. 'Imagine: 39 million Congolese people … and 64% of our forests could be directly affected by the awarding of these oil blocks,' said Pascal Mirindi, campaign coordinator for Notre Terre Sans Pétrole. 'And all this while the government is promoting the Kivu-Kinshasa ecological corridor. Where is the logic? Where is the coherence? We are reminding our leaders that the Congolese people are the primary sovereign. We will not remain silent while certain people organise themselves to sell off our future.' Often overshadowed by the Amazon and its Indonesian counterparts, the importance of the Congo basin rainforest is unknown by many around the world. But it is hard to overstate just how crucial it is for millions of people, helping to regulate rainfall as far away as Egypt. Its demise would be a disaster. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Read more: DRC to auction oil and gas permits in endangered gorilla habitat The rangers turning the DRC's 'triangle of death' back into a thriving wildlife reserve The secret life of the Congo rainforest – in pictures This is an edited version of Down to Earth, or climate crisis newsletter. To sign up to receive the full version in your inbox every Thursday, click here
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Oil exploration in the Congo basin rainforest could be a disaster for nature and the climate
The 'worst place in the world' to explore for oil is open for business. Again. Swathes of the Congo basin rainforest, home to okapis, lowland gorillas, bonobos and other rare wildlife, are being auctioned off by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for the second time in three years. This round of licensing includes 52 blocks across 124m hectares (306m acres) of swamps and rainforest in some of the best-preserved tropical ecosystems left on Earth. Opening it up for fossil fuel extraction could be a disaster for nature and the climate. We have been here before. In July 2022, the DRC government announced an auction round that included Virunga national park and the Cuvette Centrale tropical peatlands in the north-west of the country, which store the equivalent of three years of global emissions from fossil fuels. It came just months after a $500m (£380m) deal at Cop26 in Glasgow to better protect the DRC's portion of the world's second-largest tropical rainforest. In the end, the auction petered out despite defiant claims from the country's then oil and gas minister that celebrity campaigners including Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Affleck would not stand in their way. The DRC government announced the end of the auction last October, citing lack of competition and irregular offers. But the world has changed in the proceeding months. In 2022, the US was a leading diplomatic voice behind the scenes, urging the DRC government to cancel the auction. Dozens of environmental NGOs spoke out to condemn the decision. One New York investment firm even tried to buy the oil blocks and turn them into an enormous carbon offsetting project. Today, in a world shaped by Donald Trump's White House and with the growing risks of speaking out about the environment, the reaction to the latest auction has been comparably meek. 'The world's worst place to prospect for oil is up for auction, again,' said Prof Simon Lewis from University College London, who led the team that first mapped the central Congo peatlands, speaking to my colleague Phoebe Weston last month. 'No credible company would bid for oil in the DRC's forests and peatlands, as there is probably not enough oil to be commercially viable, and it will be expensive oil in financial, social and environmental costs.' Those in favour of the oil exploration say the development does not need to come with a major environmental cost and could provide a huge economic boost for one of the poorest nations on Earth. They point to Gabon, also a Congo basin rainforest country, as an oil producer that maintains one of the highest levels of forest cover in the world. But there is confusion about priorities of the DRC government. Rich in critical minerals, the DRC has been the focus of intense diplomatic competition between China and the US in recent years, positioning itself as a 'solutions country' for the climate crisis and the energy transition. Earlier this year, it announced one of the world's largest conservation projects – the flagship Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor conservation initiative. But more than two-thirds of the corridor overlaps with the planned oil blocks. 'Imagine: 39 million Congolese people … and 64% of our forests could be directly affected by the awarding of these oil blocks,' said Pascal Mirindi, campaign coordinator for Notre Terre Sans Pétrole. 'And all this while the government is promoting the Kivu-Kinshasa ecological corridor. Where is the logic? Where is the coherence? We are reminding our leaders that the Congolese people are the primary sovereign. We will not remain silent while certain people organise themselves to sell off our future.' Often overshadowed by the Amazon and its Indonesian counterparts, the importance of the Congo basin rainforest is unknown by many around the world. But it is hard to overstate just how crucial it is for millions of people, helping to regulate rainfall as far away as Egypt. Its demise would be a disaster. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Read more: DRC to auction oil and gas permits in endangered gorilla habitat The rangers turning the DRC's 'triangle of death' back into a thriving wildlife reserve The secret life of the Congo rainforest – in pictures This is an edited version of Down to Earth, or climate crisis newsletter. To sign up to receive the full version in your inbox every Thursday, click here
Yahoo
28-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ben Affleck Doesn't Want To React to Jennifer Lopez's New Songs, Says ‘Source'
Many fans have been speculating that 's new songs, 'Up All Night' and 'Wreckage Of You', talk about her breakup with now ex-husband, Ben Affleck. However, the 'Pearl Harbor' actor will reportedly not let the tracks affect him and make him feel 'hurt.' Per the Daily Mail, Affleck also does not wish to give any reaction to the songs. Ben Affleck is keeping quiet about Jennifer Lopez's new song, says 'source' Jennifer Lopez has debuted two new songs, including 'Wreckage Of You' and 'Up All Night', and many fans speculate that the lyrics are about her split from ex-husband, Ben Affleck. The song, 'Wreckage Of You', has lyrics like 'Thank you for the scars you left on my heart / For showing me that stars shine brighter in the dark.' It also includes lyrics such as 'Because of you, I am stronger, wiser / Better than I've ever been.' In the meantime, the track 'Up All Night' has lyrics such as 'I'm up all night, dancing on somebody, living my best life / I bet you wish that you were by my side.' It also includes lines like 'I got tired of you breaking me down / Look at me now.' As reported by the Daily Mail, a 'source' told them that Ben Affleck does not want to 'entertain' these songs. The person questioned, 'If this song or any others bash him, what can he do?' They continued, 'It's childish and not something he wants to entertain.' The 'insider' further said to the news outlet that Ben Affleck won't be 'hurt' by the songs. The person claimed, 'It is something he can't control, so he isn't going to let it hurt him.' 'He's definitely not going to give it life by reacting,' the 'source' added. The filing for Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck's divorce took place in August 2024. It was reportedly finalized in 2025. Originally reported by Nikita Nath on Reality Tea. The post Ben Affleck Doesn't Want To React to Jennifer Lopez's New Songs, Says 'Source' appeared first on Mandatory. Solve the daily Crossword
Daily Mail
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Jennifer Lopez thanks Ben Affleck for the 'scars you left on my heart' as she performs revenge song in Spain
shared some very private details about her love life when on stage in Spain on Tuesday. The 55-year-old diva from the Bronx said that she was suffering from insomnia when she wrote her new song that appears to be about her ex-husband Ben Affleck. Insomnia is a common sleep disorder characterized by persistent difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or both, and can significantly impact daily life. 'This is a song that is a new song that I want to sing for the first time tonight that came to me when I was up all night one night,' Jennifer told the crowd per footage shared to social media. 'Shall we sing this one for the people?' The crooner —who first sang the song at a private fan event July 2—said she's 'better' now. 'The love I want, the love I need, it starts in me,' she sang. Lopez then added, 'Now I found my way here I'm gonna stay there. Thank you for the scars you left on my heart, was showing me that stars shine brighter in the dark. I won't fall apart because of who we are, but your broken parts.' And she said the heartbreak made her 'wiser.' 'Because of you, I am stronger, wiser,' Lopez belted out. 'Better than I've ever been.' Then Jennifer made it very clear she would never reunite with Ben: 'I won't let you no longer, longer, ever say goodbye to me. It was perfect while you made me believe, really got only greater for me, and it made me stronger, stronger, bulletproof. Now watch me climb out of the wreckage of you.' She then thanked the unnamed ex for 'the pain that you caused.' In May Lopez told El Pais that the Affleck split was a 'difficult time' but she would be stronger for it. 'I'm proud of myself for that and I'm proud that I was able to navigate my children through difficult times, that they're stronger and better because of it.' The singer, 55, looked incredible in a silver sparkly bodysuit when at Parque de Tafisa in Pontevedra. Jennifer appeared in great spirits amid the sizzling show as she enjoyed her first tour in six years. On Thursday the perfume mogul was seen in a cheerful mood while wearing an orange-and-white bra top and matching skirt with high heels as she was on a tarmac and headed to an airplane. Lopez flashed her abs as she held onto a red crocodile structured purse and sported brown tinted sunglasses. She was flying off to her next concert destination in Cadiz. Jennifer and ben tied the knot in 2022 after rekindling their romance. But in August 2024, Lopez filed for divorce on their second wedding anniversary. A statement obtained by at the time read: 'Representatives for Live Nation announced today that the Jennifer Lopez US Summer 2024 Tour THIS IS is canceled. 'Jennifer is taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends,' it was added. Lopez herself also said she was 'heartsick and devastated' over the cancellation but added it was 'absolutely necessary.'
