BSUas Scott Yenor ran Action Idaho, which attacked the university, LGBTQ+ people and Republicans deemed not rightwing enough
Boise State University (BSU) professor and Claremont Institute scholar Scott Yenor was the hidden hand behind Action Idaho, a far-right online media platform that featured inflammatory rightwing commentary on politics in that state, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.
The documents, obtained through public records requests, also show that Yenor sought and received funding for the initiative from wealthy and influential donors like Claremont Institute board chair, Thomas D Klingenstein.
Continue reading...Civilians and military personnel killed and injured in strike targeting Hezbollah weapons depots, says Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
Today marks one year since WSJ journalist Evan Gershkovich was detained by Russia on 29 March 2023.
The 32-year-old American journalist has been held in the infamous Lefortovo prison on the outskirts of Moscow on the grounds of espionage charges that are entirely unsupported by evidence, Julian Borger reports.
Continue reading...Shasta countyas Kevin Crye fought off recall effort, but a far-right official who pushed election conspiracies lost the race for his seat
Shasta county voters returned a mixed verdict on the ultra-conservative politics the rural enclave in northern California has become known for, ousting one far-right local official and offering another a political lifeline.
County residents on 5 March resoundingly declined to re-elect Patrick Jones to the board of supervisors, the countyas governing body. Jones, a leader of the local far-right movement, had repeatedly, and baselessly, argued that county and US elections are being rigged. Jonesas opponent, Matt Plummer, won the race for the seat with nearly 60% of the vote.
Continue reading...Appeals court rules Mason, now 49, did not know she was ineligible when she voted in 2016 and throws out conviction
A Texas appeals court has thrown out a five-year prison sentence for Crystal Mason, a Texas woman who was sentenced for trying to cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election that was rejected.
Mason, now 49, attempted to vote in Fort Worth in the 2016 even though she was ineligible because she was still on supervised release a which is like probation a for a tax felony. She has always maintained she had no idea she was ineligible and only tried to cast a ballot because her mother urged her to.
Continue reading...Activists say plan to remove 200 felines near Old San Juan fortress within six months is not enough time and worry cats will be killed
A non-profit organization said Thursday that it sued the US National Park Service over a plan to remove Puerto Ricoas famous stray cats from a historic district in the US territory.
The lawsuit filed by Maryland-based Alley Cat Allies comes four months after the federal agency announced it would contract an animal welfare organization to remove an estimated 200 cats that live in an area surrounding a historic seaside fortress in Old San Juan.
Continue reading...Analysis finds majority of paraquat, banned in 60 countries, is used in counties where Latinos make up 75% of the population or higher
Low-income Latinos living in California are disproportionately threatened by paraquat, a highly toxic herbicide widely used on US cropland, a new analysis of state data finds.
The notorious weedkiller is banned in more than 60 countries and for some uses in the US, like golf courses, because it is so dangerous. But the US government still allows its use on crops, putting agricultural workers or those living in communities near where it is spread at risk.
Continue reading...Brazilas president has nixed commemorations of the 1964 coup, possibly to avoid irking the military as senior officers facing jail for allegedly conspiring to stop Lula taking power after 2022 election
Relatives of the victims of Brazilas brutal two-decade dictatorship have voiced anger and dismay over President Luiz InA!cio Lula da Silvaas reported decision to block official remembrance events marking the 60th anniversary of the 1964 military coup daA(c)tat.
Activists had hoped the leftistas government would mark the 31 March 2024 anniversary of that power-grab with a series of memorials honouring the thousands who were killed, disappeared or tortured by the 1964-85 regime.
Continue reading...Rights groups say Antonina Favorskaya is accused of links to Alexei Navalnyas aextremist organisationa and is one of six journalists held this month
A journalist who filmed the last video of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny before he died, Antonina Favorskaya, has been detained by authorities.
Favorskaya covered the trials of Navalny for several years and media freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders said on Thursday she was one of six journalists across the country held this month.
Continue reading...Online footage show jet on fire as Ukrainian security expert claims it was shot down
Ukraine claims to have shot down 84 aerial targets during the Russian drone and missile offensive.
The defence Ministry of Ukraine said it had shot down 58 Shahed UAVs, 17 Kh-101 cruise missiles, five Kh-59 guided air missiles and four Iskander-K cruise missiles.
Continue reading...Descendants of enslaved miners who dug up gold, silver and emeralds worth billions call on Colombia to halt plan to lift cargo
Indigenous communities in Bolivia have objected to Colombiaas plans to recover the remains of an 18th-century galleon believed to be carrying gold, silver and emeralds worth billions, calling on Spain and Unesco to step in and halt the project.
Colombia hopes to begin recovering artefacts from the wreck of the San JosA(c) in the coming months but the Caranga, Chicha and Killaka peoples in Bolivia argue that the excavation would rob them of their acommon and shareda heritage.
Continue reading...Poor harvests in extreme weather conditions have led to a tripling of cocoa prices a but farmers have seen no benefit
Around the world this holiday weekend, people will consume hundreds of millions of Easter eggs and bunnies, as part of an annual chocolate intake that can exceed 8kg (18lb) for every person in the UK, or 5kg in the US and Europe. But a global shortage of cacao a the seed from which chocolate is made a has brought warnings of a achocolate meltdowna that could see prices increase and bars shrink further.
This week, cocoa prices rose to all-time highs on commodity exchanges in London and New York, reaching more than $10,000 a tonne for the first time, after the third consecutive poor harvest in west Africa. Ghana and Ivory Coast, which together produce more than half of the global cacao crop, have been hit by extreme weather supercharged by the climate crisis and the El NiA+-o weather phenomenon. This has been exacerbated by disease and underinvestment in ageing plantations.
Continue reading...aUber of the skiesa Joby Aviation will build its fleet of aircraft at a $500m facility in Dayton and plans to employ 2,000 people
For a decade, Dayton in south-west Ohio has fought to shed its rust belt past. New apartment blocks, hotels and breweries have cut into a landscape dominated by derelict warehouses and general industrial decline. But today, that transformation is shifting gears and taking to the skies.
A town that 120 years ago produced the pioneers of human flight the Wright brothers is set to build hundreds of futuristic flying taxis each year.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Satellite analysis revealed to the Guardian shows farms devastated and nearly half of the territoryas trees razed. Alongside mounting air and water pollution, experts says Israelas onslaught on Gazaas ecosystems has made the area unlivable
In a dilapidated warehouse in Rafah, Soha Abu Diab is living with her three young daughters and more than 20 other family members. They have no running water, no fuel and are surrounded by running sewage and waste piling up.
Like the rest of Gazaas residents, they fear the air they breathe is heavy with pollutants and that the water carries disease. Beyond the city streets lie razed orchards and olive groves, and farmland destroyed by bombs and bulldozers.
Continue reading...A small but aggressive group of election deniers have been pressuring state officials on a weekly a sometimes daily a basis to investigate unfounded claims
In December, a Texas man named Kevin Moncla emailed Georgia election board members in response to their decision not to investigate the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, over bogus election fraud claims. Moncla made a vague threat that he was willing to take things outside the bounds of his increasingly frustrated emails.
The communication alarmed members of the state election board (SEB) enough to contact federal law enforcement.
Continue reading...The increased use of AI to replicate the voice and movements of actors has benefits but some are concerned over how and when it might be used and who might be left short-changed
When she discovered her voice had been uploaded to multiple websites without her consent, the actor Cissy Jones told them to take it down immediately. Some complied. aOthers who have more money in their banks basically sent me the email equivalent of a digital middle finger and said: donat care,a Jones recalls by phone.
aThat was the genesis for me to start talking to friends of mine about: listen, how do we do this the right way? How do we understand that the genie is out of the bottle and find a way to be a part of the conversation or we will get systematically annihilated? I know that sounds dramatic but, given how easy it is to steal a personas voice, itas not far off the mark.a
Continue reading...The US journalist was seized by officials and charged with espionage, and friends and family say he has kept his spirits up
Friday marks the grim first anniversary of the day when masked Russian officers grabbed Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist, at a steakhouse in Yekaterinburg where he was waiting to eat on a reporting trip.
Gershkovich, a 32-year-old reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has not seen a day of freedom since. He has been held in the infamous Lefortovo prison on the outskirts of Moscow, where the Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was once detained.
Continue reading...(Parkwood/Columbia)
Straying far beyond its original country concept, the musicianas eighth album straddles the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the blues a and Becky with the Good Hair via Dolly Partonas Jolene
American Requiem, the opening track of BeyoncA(c)as eighth studio album, is many things. It offers a touch of state-of-the-nation address a aCan we stand for something? Now is the time to face the winda a and a sprinkling of the kind of vague but apparently personal lyrics that send social media into a frenzy of decoding: what are her afatheras sinsa that BeyoncA(c) has apparently acleanseda herself of? Who are the afairweather friendsa for whom she claims to be planning aa funerala?
Itas also a loud statement of what you might call BeyoncA(c)as bona fides. She is, she avers, athe grandbaby of a moonshine man [from] Gadsden, Alabamaa who furthermore has roots in Louisiana. aThey used to say I spoke too country,a she protests, adding: aWhat could be more country than that?a
Continue reading...The Harry Potter and Bridget Jones star is a dazzlingly versatile performer, with a string of Michael Winterbottom films under her belt, as well as Star Wars, TVas Happy Valley and an Olivier award. She explains how she keeps on top of it all
It is easy to feel protective of Shirley Henderson on this gloomy winter afternoon. Is she warm enough? Does she want to put the heating on? aAye, Iam OK,a she says from her home in Fife, a few strands of chestnut hair falling over her glasses as she huddles close to the laptop. aItas a wee bit blowy out. But Iam at the age where you can get too warm, so Iam all right.a Her giggle is helium-high: the sort of sound you want to trap, like in one of those toy moo boxes, so that you can play it when youare down in the dumps. Hearing Henderson laugh, or say aSorry darlina?a when she hasnat quite heard your question makes you feel as if youave been cuddled.
Her allusion to the menopause, though, takes a moment to sink in. Though 58, she looks barely old enough to be online without parental controls. (No suspension of disbelief was required when she played a mother who dresses as her own adolescent daughter to sit an exam in May Contain Nuts.) Henderson came to prominence in the 1990s as one of the UKas most probing, unpredictable character actors. After being spattered with excrement in Trainspotting, she won pivotal roles in two masterpieces: she was a soprano pining for her son in Mike Leighas Gilbert-and-Sullivan extravaganza Topsy-Turvy, and a feisty hairdresser smacking her lips at London life in the rhapsodic Wonderland. That was the first and best of her six collaborations with the director Michael Winterbottom, as well as the one which got her hooked on improvising.
Continue reading...This charming period drama about a 1920s Russian aristocrat being kept in a hotel by the Bolsheviks sees McGregor on sparkling form. Heas an intoxicating, swaggering figure of delight
Some books are difficult to film, and TV is a fool to attempt them. Others, however, perch on the shelf poised and preened, all dressed up and ready for the small screen. Amor Towlesas 2016 novel A Gentleman in Moscow could have been designed as a handsome, charming period drama, of the kind that once slid smoothly on to BBC One or ITV1 on a Sunday evening. Itas actually on Paramount+, but is handsome and charming and Sunday-ish still.
It remains to be seen whether Paramount takes advantage of the fact that the novelas early chapters create a setup that could run on TV indefinitely, or whether it renders roughly the same amount of narrative as the book then bids us adieu. But that setup is this: in Moscow in 1921, four years after the revolution, the countryas disfranchised aristocracy face summary trials and executions. Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov (Ewan McGregor) a Sasha to his friends, aYour Excellencya to the dwindling minority of Russians who still recognise honorifics a seems to be next, but is saved from death by the surprising fact that he is the credited author of a seminal revolutionary poem.
A Gentleman in Moscow is on Paramount+ now
Continue reading...Tom Power led an alliance that brought about the pioneering health initiative which has since been adopted by more than 70 countries a and has saved countless lives
Exactly 20 years ago an Irish civil servant named Tom Power won a remarkable battle against the tobacco industry when Ireland enacted the worldas first ban on smoking in bars, restaurants and workplaces.
TV crews from Japan, the US and elsewhere flocked to Dublin to record the events of 29 March 2004. No one knew what would happen. Would smokers revolt? Would pubs flout the law? Would a bold experiment go up in smoke?
Continue reading...The Oscar-nominated actor and the boss of XL Recordings a now a synth-pop duo performing ghostly songs with lyrics rooted in childhood trauma a discuss the healing power of making art
Inside a rehearsal space scented with essential oils, a new, unlikely electro-art-pop duo are preparing for their live debut. Called Sam Morton, they are the collaborative pairing of the twice-Oscar-nominated actor, director and writer Samantha Morton and the celebrated producer, songwriter and boss of XL Recordings Richard Russell. Morton, wearing denim dungarees, is singing the fluty, jazzy, bassy, atmospheric Letas Walk in the Night while Russell, in jeans and a graffitied white T-shirt, hunches over production consoles, alongside a keyboard player and a guitarist.
We are in the Copper House, Russellas personal studio. It is characterised by an undeniable vibe: a lime-green artwork on a scarlet wall announces aRESIDENCE LA REVOLUTIONa; the phrase aFATE IS DECIDEDa, alongside descriptions of cloud formations, is chalked on black walls. The tiny bathroom is wallpapered in Buddhist texts and stocked with books, including The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Continue reading...Women say being fitted with IUDs without their consent left them with pain, shame and lasting reproductive difficulties
Hedvig Frederiksen had been at her new school in Paamiut, Greenland, for only a couple of days when she was summoned from her dorm to the local hospital by a Danish caretaker.
She was 14 and had no idea what was going on. aBut back then [1974], when a Danish person said something, their word was law, you had to listen to them,a said Frederiksen, speaking from her home in Nuuk, Greenlandas capital.
Continue reading...The Stanford neuroscientist is highly credentialed and endearingly earnest on his popular wellness podcast, but is now facing claims against his credibility
Iam going to divulge something rather embarrassing: earlier this year I got sucked deep into the aHuberspherea, the cult-like following of Andrew Huberman, the controversial neuroscientist and podcaster who is the subject of a viral New York Magazine article that came out this week. Huberman has racked up a massive (and lucrative) following with his data-driven aprotocolsa for a better life. These protocols involve things like taking enormous amounts of expensive supplements, ensuring you view early morning sunlight for 10-30 minutes after waking, carefully timing when you drink coffee and plunging yourself in ice baths.
Sounds like your run-of-the-mill scammy wellness influencer, right? Not quite. What makes Huberman different from others in the aGoop for brosa wellness space is that he is highly credentialed and endearingly earnest. The 48-year-old describes himself as a neuroscience professor at Stanford and a lab director at Stanford School of Medicine. He leans heavily on his affiliation with the Ivy League to bolster his credibility and frequently has other Stanford professors on his podcast, which was the third most popular in the world last year, according to Spotify.
Continue reading...There have been no changes since the ex-mogulas conviction as lawmakers fail to pass regulations to protect the public
There is a palpable feeling of relief in the cryptocurrency industry. Evangelists are preaching the good news that the industry has been purged of the Sam Bankman-Frieds, the Alex Mashinskys, the Do Kwons and the Changpeng Zhaos of the world. They proclaim that crypto can finally ascend from its purgatorial, awild westa days to become a respectable sector of the financial world blessed by regulators and speculators alike.
That exultant attitude has contributed to surging cryptocurrency prices, which surpassed previous all-time highs in the weeks leading up to Bankman-Friedas sentencing of 25 years in prison on Thursday.
Continue reading...After a Trump-backed purge of the RNC this month, promoting the 2020 stolen election lie has become a litmus test for loyalty
If youare seeking employment at the Republican National Committee (RNC), youare likely to be asked in your job interview if you believe the 2020 election was stolen. And if you say no, well, you might as well seek a job with George Santos.
After a Trump-backed purge of the RNC this month, agreeing to the false claim has become a kind of litmus test for gaining employment a no less than itas become a litmus test for running for public office as a Republican.
Continue reading...Donald Tusk is working hard and fast on a great transformation, but travel the country and itas clear what a difficult task that is
My formative journalistic years were spent reporting on the final freeze of the cold war a days of hard times and soft currencies. When I return to those countries now, I test myself on how well I guessed what would follow in the three decades since. On Poland in particular, I would have been hard pressed to predict the giddy zigzag of power still featuring a generation who marched to topple communism, but whose protagonists feud bitterly about how to govern the country in the 21st century.
We talk a lot about places that have recently bought a one-way ticket towards authoritarian politics a Russia and Turkey for the full-fat versions, and Hungaryas democratic backsliding and stifling of independent institutions.
Continue reading...The way musicians are compensated is highly unfair. A new bill in the US Congress could fix that a and itas about time
Many of the younger musicians I know a musicians in the full flush of their career a donat see a path forward toward making a living. These arenat artists failing to connect with a public; on the contrary, they are releasing widely reviewed albums, going on tours and communicating (constantly) with their fans via social media. But this work is not paying them enough to manage without second jobs or side hustles.
Thatas a broken system. Itas not just broken for individual artists, itas broken for our society as a whole. We all benefit from music. And I believe we as a society want that music to come from as wide and deep and rich and varied sources as exist. How could we not?
Continue reading...Too often cemeteries for enslaved people have been all but erased from history but how we remember matters
For archeologists, what defines people as human is how we bury our dead. Imagine, then, a society that relegates a whole community as legally inhuman, enslaved with no rights. In spite of slavery, African burial grounds are tangible reminders of the enslaved and free a defying oppressive circumstances by reclaiming peopleas humanity through acts of remembrance.
When I first visited the British overseas territory of St Helena in 2018 and saw the burial ground in Rupertas Valley, I was astounded by its size and significance. It unambiguously placed the island at the centre of the Middle Passage a tying the British empire to the institution of slavery in the US, the Caribbean, and globally.
Continue reading...A braid from a formerly enslaved African buried on the island was the catalyst for Annina van Neelas work to preserve and share these histories
At the end of January 2012, I arrived on St Helena after a six-day journey by ship from Cape Town. After being surrounded by water for nearly a week, the sight of land on the midnight-blue horizon was overwhelming. It was as though someone had forgotten their piece of land in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. 47 square miles of volcanic rock, 2,810 miles from the coast of Brazil and 1,610 miles from Angola a an oasis in a desert, an enigma.
I arrived on the island as part of the project team constructing St Helenaas first airport. Previously accessible only by sea, this incredible community, which had been defined by its isolation as an outpost and a place of exile for 500 years, would for the first time be easily reached by the rest of the world.
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