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Popular model sparks backlash for faking her death to bring awareness to cervical cancer
A popular Indian model and actress has sparked an online backlash after revealing this weekend she had faked her death in an Instagram post as part of a cervical cancer awareness campaign.
Poonam Pandey “bravely fought the disease” and died, according to a statement published on her social media Friday, but the fake announcement was soon met with online criticism that included accusations it was a “deceptive stunt.”
A flurry of obituaries from media outlets followed the original announcement and her Wikipedia page was also updated to reflect her apparent death, while Bollywood stars posted mournful tributes.
Abhijit Bhatlekar/Mint via Getty Images
But others had expressed skepticism after noticing that footage of Pandey aboard a boat in Goa, apparently in good health, had been posted to her account four days before the announcement.
“I hope this is not a publicity stunt disguised as creating awareness for cervical cancer, which would be unethical and irresponsible, especially when dealing with sensitive issues like health awareness,” one commenter wrote on Friday.
The 32-year-old later conceded to her 1.3 million followers in another video posted on Instagram that her death had been a hoax.
“Yes, I faked my demise, extreme I know. But suddenly we all are talking about cervical cancer, aren’t we?” Pandey said. “I am proud of what my death news has been able to achieve.”
However, many lambasted Pandey for what one commenter described as her “attention-seeking behavior.”
Another wrote: “Engaging in a deceptive stunt, like faking one’s death, under the guise of ‘raising awareness’… is not only unethical but also manipulative.
“Honestly shame on you for this stunt. Next time no one will take your real death seriously!” they said.
Pandey seemed unfazed by the criticism, and in a subsequent Instagram post, Pandey thanked the ad firm Schbang for working with her.
“We believe in this cause and stand by this campaign that we started working on 4 months ago with the right intentions,” she wrote.
Pandey began her modelling career in 2010 and has garnered a reputation for outlandish stunts and risque behavior.
She pledged to strip for the India cricket team if they won the 2011 Cricket World Cup at home, later posting a video online of her shedding her clothes at Wankhede Stadium where the tournament’s final was held.
Pandey parleyed her fame into several acting credits in Bollywood including the 2013 erotic thriller Nasha, in which she played a teacher who begins a sexual relationship with two high school students.
Mahesh Kumar A / AP
India accounts for nearly one-quarter of the world’s cervical cancer cases, according to the World Health Organization, with more than 200 women losing their lives every day to the disease.
Health campaigners have urged the government to roll out a national HPV vaccination campaign for young girls, which in other countries has drastically cut the incidence of cervical cancer.
January was Cervical Cancer Awareness Month to raise awareness about the fourth most common cancer in women.
Adults younger than 55 and 50 are being increasingly diagnosed with breast, colon and cervical cancer, according to a recent report from the American Cancer Society.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
