Beyoncé has officially endorsed Kamala Harris for president, a strong show of support she made loud and clear at a rally in Houston on Friday. In front of an enthusiastic hometown audience, she joined Harris to defend reproductive rights, delivering a message that resonated on a deeply personal level.

“I’m not here as a star; I’m not here as a politician. I am here as a mother,” she shared with the enthusiastic crowd. “A mother who cares deeply about the world in which my children and all our children live, a world in which we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world in which we are not divided.” She urged: “Imagine our daughters growing up and seeing what is possible without ceilings and limitations. We need to vote and we need you.”

As if that wasn’t enough to bring the gang to their knees, Beyoncé was joined by best friend and Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland to cheer her on. With the energy only Bey could bring, she introduced Vice President Harris with a plea: “It’s time for America to sing a new song. Our voices sing a chorus of unity. They sing a song of dignity and possibility. Are you ready to add your voice to a new American song?” The crowd roared in response as she concluded, “Ladies and gentlemen, please give a big and loud welcome to Texas for the next president of the United States, Vice President Kamala Harris.”

This time there was no performance – leaving a rally for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Instead, the highlight was on the presence and words of Beyoncé, who fully supported Harris’ message. Since July, Harris’ campaign has featured Beyoncé’s powerful anthem “Freedom” from the album , a song rooted within the spirit of resistance and resilience, reflecting Southern Black spirituality. The rally highlighted Harris’ fight against Texas’ restrictive abortion laws, a central issue of her platform.

Harris addressed the gang, emphasizing the urgent need to defend freedom within the face of threat. “We know that freedom cannot be given. It should not be broadcast. This is our right and we are ready to fight for it,” she said. “We have to be loud. We have to organize ourselves. We have to mobilize. We need to get energized.”

Other big names graced the rally, including: legendary Texan Willie Nelson and former speaker Jessica Alba. But it was Beyoncé’s influential appearance and words as a mother, a Texan and a black woman that set the decisive tone in a race that’s shaping up to be a decisive 12 months in 2024.

The wife of a conservative British politician was sentenced to a yr in prison for inciting racial hatred on social media.

Lucy Connolly, a 41-year-old nanny from West Northhampshire, called for the burning of hotels housing asylum seekers and mass deportations in a July 29 post on X.

Connolly’s offensive statements were published on the identical day because the Southport stabbing attacks, when three young girls were killed and lots of others injured in a stabbing attack at a Taylor Swift-inspired dance and yoga event within the north-west town of Southport.

The perpetrator, a teenage boy whose parents were from Rwanda, was falsely identified as an illegal immigrant, prompting riots by far-right groups to break out across the country. In one incident, conservative protesters violently clashed with police near a Southport mosque, setting fire to vehicles, throwing bottles at authorities and injuring police dogs. CNN.

According to Connolly’s tweet comments in regards to the judgmentread: “Now mass deportations, burn down all the fucking hotels full of bastards for all I care, and while you’re at it, take the traitorous government and politicians with you. I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me a racist, so be it.”

The nanny’s tirade, which was viewed by 310,000 people, immediately put her on the authorities’ radar and ultimately proved to be her undoing, as presiding judge Melbourne Inman said “intended to incite serious violence” Her racist abuse wasn’t limited to one post.

Police found inflammatory comments on her social media each before and after the Southport stabbings.

Connolly, who has no previous convictions, reportedly commented on the sword attack on X, writing: “I bet it was one of those boat raiders in my house.” According to the BBC, she also referred to a video published by a far-right activist through which he says: “I think he’s Somali” and is accompanied by a vomiting emoji.

Before she was arrested on August 6, she deleted her X account and turned to WhatsApp, boasting that she would “play the mental health card” and deny responsibility if police arrested her. The day before her arrest, she joked: “…the angry tweet about burning down hotels bit me in the ass, lol.”

Connolly and her husband, Tory councilor Raymond Connolly, lost their son in a “terrible way,” her defense attorney said, adding that “it can only have a drastically damaging effect on someone,” news outlets report. Her husband Raymond he previously told the BBC his wife was “a good person and not a racist,” explaining that she posted a “stupid, spur-of-the-moment tweet out of frustration and quickly deleted it.”

“He has children from Somalia and Bangladesh that he takes care of and loves them as his own,” he added.

Despite threatening to use her “mental health card”, the court found no evidence of a mental disorder, and Connolly ultimately pleaded guilty to intent to incite racial hatred. When questioned by police, she admitted that she didn’t like immigrants and stated that children weren’t secure of their presence, investigator Frank Ferguson said via the web site BBC.

In the judge’s remarks, he placed Connolly squarely amongst those “who will seek an excuse for violence and disorder causing injury, damage, loss and fear to completely innocent members of society, and sentences for those that incite racial hatred and disharmony in our society are aimed toward purpose of each punishment and deterrence.

She was given a 31-month sentence, of which 40 percent might be spent in prison after which suspended. Her husband can also be facing backlash after calling for the resignation of Mike Reader, the Labor MP for Northampton South.

On Friday, Beyoncé told a packed stadium that it was time for America to elect Kamala Harris president, urging voters to “sing a new song,” before the vp delivered a message to battleground voters all the way in which from reliably Republican Texas – that Donald Trump was determined to limit women’s rights.

“On behalf of all the men and women in this room and all those watching across the country: we need you,” Beyoncé said.

The music megastar, who was joined by her mother Tina Knowles and her former bandmate Kelly Rowland, told the cheering crowd that she didn’t attend the rally as a celebrity or politician.

“I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said, talking about how her children will see “the sacrifices made so that we can witness the strength of a woman… reimagining what leadership is.”

Harris got here out and cheered enthusiastically. She told the group that Trump erased half a century of dogged progress by appointing Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and created a health care crisis.

“For anyone watching from another state if they believe they are protected from Trump’s abortion bans because they live in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York, California or any state where voters or lawmakers protect reproductive freedom, please know: no one is protected,” she added. “Because Donald Trump’s nationwide ban will ban abortion in every state.”

“To say it all, elections matter,” she said.

Harris listed further impacts she sees from the assorted bans, such as “fewer opportunities for women, fewer medical students choosing to specialize in women’s health.”

Her campaign said it was her biggest rally yet; The crowd waited for hours, wearing flashing red, white and blue LED bracelets, while the words “women’s confidence” and “freedom” flashed on large screens between performances and speakers emphasized the medical effects of abortion restrictions.

She was joined on the rally by women who had nearly died from sepsis and other pregnancy complications because they may not obtain adequate medical care, including women who never intended to terminate their pregnancies.

Some of them had already campaigned for Harris, while others told their harrowing stories in campaign ads intended to show how the difficulty had blossomed into something way more essential than the fitting to end an unwanted pregnancy.

Because abortion was restricted in Texas, the state infant mortality increasedmore children died from birth defects and maternal mortality increased.

Amid the warmth of the presidential election, Harris is banking on abortion rights as a major driving force for voters — including Republican women, especially since Trump nominated three Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn the constitutional right.

Trump has been inconsistent in his message to voters about abortion and reproductive rights, although he has said he would veto a nationwide abortion ban. He has repeatedly modified his position and given vague, contradictory and sometimes nonsensical answers to questions on a difficulty that has change into a major weakness for Republicans on this 12 months’s election.

Thousands of excited people lined up waiting for the vp at her only campaign stop within the country’s fourth-largest city.

“Sometimes they forget about us because we’re a Republican state,” said Rhonda Johnson, who has lived in Houston for 19 years. – But I’m glad she’s here.

Reproductive rights, the economy and LGBTQ issues were the fundamental explanation why Yannick Djomatchoua decided to support Harris and wait in an hours-long line to meet her. “It’s a very personal matter,” he said, adding that he knows friends who’ve had to make difficult decisions due to state abortion restrictions.

Abortion rights were also a key issue for 27-year-old Rhyle Lobo, who believes the presence of Houston native Beyoncé would excite the vp.

More history

Her anthem was Beyoncé’s 2016 song “Freedom,” whose message suits in with the vp’s emphasis on reproductive freedom. On Friday, Harris was joined by actress Jessica Alba, and Willie Nelson sang a few of his biggest hits, including “On the Road Again.”

“Hey, how are you?” Nelson, 91, asked the group. “Are we ready to tell Mrs. President?”

These are the newest stars to surprise Harris, including Lizzo, James Taylor, Spike Lee, Tyler Perry, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Springsteen and Eminem. While in Texas, Harris also recorded a podcast with host Brené Brown.

Trump was also in Texas on Friday, where he predicted that if he won the election, he would break records for the number of individuals deported from the United States. He recorded a podcast with Joe Rogan.

There is some evidence to suggest that abortion rights could drive women to the polls, as they did within the 2022 midterm elections. Voters in seven states, including some conservative ones, either protected abortion rights or defeated attempts to restrict them in statewide ballots over the past two years.

Democrats warn that the sifting of rights and freedoms will only proceed if Trump is elected. Republican lawmakers across U.S. states, for example, are rejecting Democratic efforts to protect or expand access to contraception.

“Freedom is not given in America. It shouldn’t be broadcast. This is ours. Legally. And that features a woman’s basic freedom to make decisions about her own body and never have the federal government tell her what to do,” Harris will say, according to prepared remarks.

Democrats also hope Harris’ visit will strengthen the position of Republican Sen. Colin Allred, who is making a far-reaching attempt to unseat Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Allred will appear on the rally with Harris, and in excerpts he stated that if elected, he would help codify reproductive rights.

When Roe was first overturned, Democrats initially focused on new restrictions on access to abortion to end unwanted pregnancies. But the identical medical procedures used to treat abortion are used to treat miscarriages.

Increasingly, within the 14 states with strict abortion bans, women cannot obtain medical care until their condition is life-threatening. In some states, doctors who provide medical care may face criminal charges.

According to a July poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, about 6 in 10 Americans imagine their state should generally allow legal abortion if for any reason they are not looking for to get pregnant.

Texas captures the post-Roe landscape. The strict abortion ban prohibits doctors from performing abortions once heart activity is detected, which might occur as early as six weeks or earlier.

As a result, women, including those that didn’t intend to terminate their pregnancies, enjoy increasingly worse medical care. This is partly because doctors cannot intervene unless the lady has a life-threatening condition or to prevent “significant impairment of major bodily functions.”

The state has also change into a battleground for legal disputes. Just two weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a state ban.

Complaints from medically vulnerable pregnant women who were sent to emergency rooms in Texas and elsewhere have skyrocketed as hospitals grapple with whether standard care could violate strict state laws banning abortions.