After Ed Sheeran dropped Macklemore from his tour over the singer’s support for Palestine, people flooded an online contest to open for Sheeran’s Mexico City show with fart videos, bouncing WWE butts, and troll posts from usernames like “EdSheeranSupportsAndFundsGenocide.” The posts appeared live on the contest page, where people can vote for submissions they want to see win, and went up seemingly without any moderation.

Guitar Center started promoting the “Open for Legends” contest on September 14, the same day Macklemore announced he had been removed from the last 10 shows of the U.S. leg of Sheeran’s tour. Macklemore had called for a “free Palestine” on stage at his previous shows and made statements in support of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, Rolling Stone reported. “YOU COULD OPEN FOR ED SHEERAN,” a poster for the contest says.

The contest by Guitar Center was clearly planned before Sheeran’s tour started falling apart. Still, the timing is unfortunate. For most of Wednesday, the submissions went unmoderated and appeared on the site as they were sent. 

Archived screenshots of the “Open for Legends” site from Wednesday show people posting things like a video of a Charles Manson interview and a meme of Gir from Invader Zim dancing with the caption “Welcome to the Cum Zone.” Screenshots posted on Bluesky show more memes with captions like “I”m in love with the gape of you” (a reference to one of Sheeran’s most popular songs) and “I dedicate this song to annoying starving children that block me from my luxury casino being build.” 

Entertainment Weekly documented more of the posts, reporting that one upload featured “a video of a man farting on his roommate’s doorknob titled ‘Me when im not complicit,’” and another from a user named EDSHRANCOMPLICIT was just “a video of a man demonstrating a multitude of ways to give the camera the middle finger” with the caption “FREE PALESTINE RELEASE THE FILES IT’S ALL GOTTA BURN.” Some of the submissions included links to relief efforts for Palestinians, including Gaza Soup Kitchen, UNRWA, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, and Doctors Without Borders.

As of Thursday morning, troll posts and political protest posts were all removed and the site is only sincere entries, mostly people singing in Sheeran’s soft-pop style about failed situationships or feelings about their siblings. 

Guitar Center did not immediately respond to 404 Media’s request for comment.

Macklemore wrote in a statement on Instagram that he was pressured to remove Macklemore by billionaire Gillette Stadium owner Rober Kraft. “Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues,” Macklemore wrote.   

All four of Sheeran’s supporting acts and his backing band for this tour have dropped out of the tour this week in support of Macklemore. 

Sheeran publicly addressed the fallout of Macklemore’s removal on Tuesday in an Instagram post. “I am appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The suffering and pain caused on both sides is a human tragedy. There are too many wars across the world causing immeasurable pain, none of which should be tolerated,” Sheeran wrote as part of a series of bullet points. “I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn't mean I don't have them, and it doesn't mean I don't care. Nor does it mean I don't support causes in my own, personal way,” Sheeran wrote.

After two years shunning the Brisbane portrait prize, several artists are entering again, with some First Nations painters counting on another AI – ‘ancestral integrity’ – to help them win

Poised above the lady in the red dress is a claw. Its metallic fingers grasp to pluck its prize from a jumble of other women while she looks dreamily upward, as if to say “Who, me?”

The woman in the red dress is Australian comedian Alice Fraser, as photographed on stage. The other women – generic superheroes and 1950s housewives – were created using the generative AI software Krea.

From soaring ballads to a song that belongs on every road-trip playlist, these are the tracks that underscore why ‘the Voice’ is a national treasure

In the lead-up to a sold-out tribute concert in celebration of the British-born Australian singer’s music, which is being broadcast at Hoyts cinemas around Australia, we rank the songs that sing to Farnsey’s fans in Australia and around the world.

The manosphere says this type of suffering is targeted neglect, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. But your suffering gives you the ability to make your part of the world better.

• Read more Leading questions

I’m approaching 30 and I’m still a kissless virgin.

I’ve suffered with depression and anxiety since childhood and my family isn’t the most functional or supportive. I don’t really have friends either, as I find it hard to connect with others due to being bullied and feeling that I’m not worthwhile or wanted. I was also homeschooled from 14 and moved to a different part of the country at 15 and a few more times since then, so I feel quite rootless and alienated.

Global heating contributes to record, with a warmer atmosphere able to hold more water, scientists say

The planet’s atmosphere held more water vapour in August than any other month on record, further increasing the risk of extreme heat and rainfall around the world, according to Europe’s climate change service.

Climate scientists said global heating was a contributor to the record because a warmer atmosphere can hold more water, and the historic El Niño in the Pacific Ocean was also likely pushing water vapour levels up.

From ‘there were three of us in this marriage’ to ‘recollections may vary’, a lot can be conveyed with a carefully worded phrase

As denials go, King Charles’s response to Earl Spencer’s allegations that Charles said after Diana’s death, “We’ll forget her soon enough”, was a masterclass in the diplomatic royal rebuke.

Rarely has Buckingham Palace responded to claims in countless books on royalty. But it was straight out of the block on this one.

National Park Service lays out concerns that planned 250ft arch could interfere with historic sites in US capital

Donald Trump’s desired triumphal arch in downtown Washington DC will likely contribute “to adverse effects to historic properties”, according to the National Park Service’s planning document, but the construction is still planned to go forward.

The president’s 250ft arch could interfere with some of the most well-known views in the nation’s capital, including the symbolic relationship between Arlington House, the Arlington National Cemetery, the Arlington Memorial Bridge and the Lincoln Memorial, which face each other to represent the reunification of the United States after the civil war.

Facebook told it was wrong in leaving up AI-generated videos of a Labour councillor and Muslim campaigner, amid calls to curb fakes

Meta’s “supreme court” has ordered the tech company to take down deepfake videos of a UK politician and a young Muslim woman from Facebook and do more to tackle AI-generated fake imagery.

A fake video showing a Labour party councillor in Scotland making inflammatory comments about refugees should not have been left up by Facebook, the board said. It also ruled that an AI-generated video of a Muslim campaign volunteer should have been removed after it falsely depicted her offering health advice while carrying out absurd exercises or eating junk food.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

DEN HAAG (ANP) - Christine Teunissen (PvdD) vindt dat premier Rob Jetten te weinig maatregelen neemt tegen Israël. Sinds de aanval van Hamas op Israël op 7 oktober 2023 doodde het Israëlische leger bijna 74.000 Palestijnen in Gaza. VN-experts concludeerden dat er sprake is van genocide.

Het kabinet ziet vooral heil in druk op Israël in Europees verband. Maar daar ging Teunissen niet mee akkoord. "Nederland heeft vanuit het genocideverdrag een nationale verplichting om alles te doen om genocide te voorkomen", aldus de PvdD-leider. "De heer Jetten heeft meegelopen in de Rode Lijn-demonstraties, we zien nu een vrijwel ongewijzigd kabinetsbeleid."

Zo opperde ze dat het kabinet kan stoppen met de aankoop van Israëlische wapens. De Rode Lijn-protesten hadden onder meer als inzet om elke vorm van militaire samenwerking met Israël te beëindigen. Volgens Jetten kan dit niet, omdat alleen Israël de materialen kan leveren.

Italy’s South Tyrol province, which borders Switzerland and Austria in the Alps and is home to some of Central Europe’s most dramatic mountains, lives up to its geographic position as a borderland. Italy annexed the region in 1919 following World War I, prior to which it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many people are German-speaking, and in many ways, their cultural traditions and ancestry lean traditionally toward Austria more than Italy.

During World War II, the Fascist Italian regime constructed a series of fortifications along the country’s northernmost border, which the military controlled until 1993. For Vincenzo Pagliuca, these purpose-built structures spurred an intrepid yet pensive body of work called Bunker, published in hardcover by Hartmann Books.

Many of the bunkers are freestanding concrete masses with distinctive domed shapes and thick walls. Others take advantage of the ancient pre-existing stone, sometimes carving directly into mountainsides and augmenting with extra barriers. Over the years, grasses have colonized the roofs, shrubs have grown close, and some of the exteriors, which were designed to camouflage against the slopes like exposed rock, have a surreal, almost Gaudí-esque character.

Pagliuca has long been fascinated by the architecture of northern Italy, such as in his project Mónos, which highlights the often quirky vernacular of diminutive Apennine homes. For Bunker, he was interested in the relationship of these specific structures to their rarefied and remote locations, their solidity and often hulking presence at odds with the surrounding Alpine meadows and soaring, snow-capped peaks.

These human interventions, depicted without the presence of people, are a permanent reminder of the drastic measures that political and military forces will go in the name of nationalism. “The bunkers represent a difficult legacy, recalling a dramatic historical period in Central Europe marked by nationalist ideology and the inability to resolve conflicts through peaceful means—an era we thought had long since passed,” says a statement from the publisher.

Grab a copy of your own from the publisher’s shop. See more on the artist’s Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article South Tyrol’s Bunkers Shoulder WWII History in Vincenzo Pagliuca’s Portraits appeared first on Colossal.

gnsk has added a photo to the pool:

Niet alle fatbikers maar wel vaak fatbikers! De benaliër op de foto hierboven peddelde op 20 juli met zijn mietenfiets door de poortjes van station Hoorn, kreeg het met zijn vieze vriendjes aan de stok met 'een jongen en een jonge vrouw' en ramde de vrouw met een brommerslot op haar kop. Ook de jongen raakte gewond. Deze hyperagressieve krullenkneus kreeg de kans zich te melden, maar deed dat niet en mag nu herkenbaar in beeld. Signalement: licht getinte huidskleur, 16-23 jaar oud, circa 1.70m, smerige krullen, grijskleurig trainingspak. MAURITS! MELDEN!

Wel handig dat de politie ook deze duidelijke foto deelt

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo: